A Practical Method of Playing Changes PDF
Preview A Practical Method of Playing Changes
A Practical Method of Playing Changes by Wayne Escoffery Wayne Escoffery is a Rico Artist and endorses RS Berkeley Saxophones www.escofferymusic.com [email protected] © 2012 ESCOFFERYMUSIC Table of Contents About the author & Introduction How to use this book Scale exercises and patterns for daily warm-up Phrases to be transposed in ALL 12 KEYS Basic Bebop Scale Introduction and Practice Advanced Bebop Scale Techniques Playing over a Diminished Chord using its four related Dominant Chords Pivoting Combining Pivoting with the Advanced Bebop Scale Techniques Pivoting with other scales About the author Since moving to New York City in 2000, Grammy Award winning tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery has become one of the Jazz world’s most talented rising stars and in-demand sidemen. He has recorded eight studio dates as a leader and been on numerous recordings as a sideman. He began his professional career touring and recording with The Eric Reed Septet. Since then he has been a member of many groups including The Mingus Big Band, Orchestra and Dynasty, Ron Carter’s Great Bigband, Ben Riley’s Monk Legacy Septet, Abdullah Ibrahim’s Akaya and Jazz At Lincoln Center’s “Music of the Masters” consisting of two groups of musicians hand picked by Wynton Marsalis to perform the music of Jazz legends Dexter Gordon and Miles Davis. In 2006 Wayne Escoffery secured one of the most coveted gigs in jazz: a frontline position in Tom Harrell’s working quintet. He is currently a member of the quintet and to date has recorded five CDs with the group and co- produced four of Harrell’s releases: Prana Dance, Roman Nights, Time of the Sun and No. 5. In addition to being a part of some of the last true “apprenticeship” opportunities of our era, Wayne leads his own quintet featuring five year Miles Davis band veteran Adam Holzman, as well as a collaborative group with Steely Dan vocalist Carolyn Leonhart. The vast array of contributions Wayne has made to the Jazz world in such a short time leads seasoned industry professionals like Niel Tesser to write "Pay special attention to tenor man Wayne Escoffery, whose rapid development - from album to album (and seemingly solo to solo) - has given us a jazz hero for the coming decade.” Introduction The inspiration for writing this book came to me a few years ago after doing a masterclass for some saxophone students while touring in Portugal with bassist Rufus Reid. Before the masterclass, I wrote down several patterns and exercises for developing technical fluency on the horn and for playing over chord changes. Since then I have made a point of documenting exercises and ideas that I think will both help students, and make my lessons run more efficiently. The long-term goal has always been to incorporate these documents into a book for my students or anyone needing clear and practical instruction on how to play through chord changes. I hope this book provides the beginning and intermediate student with a practical method for improvising over common chords and chord progressions, as well as a path to gaining fluency in all keys. While I believe this book will help the beginning and intermediate student a great deal, I have found that there are many devices discussed here that even some of the most advanced players are not aware of. Most of these ideas were introduced to me by the masters of this music we call Jazz like Jackie McLean, Barry Harris, George Coleman, Jimmy Heath, Clark Terry, Benny Golson and many others whom I encountered as a student at the Hartt School and The Thelonious Monk Institute. What they taught me has proven very useful both as a player and a teacher. Please be aware that there are many different ways to approach playing over chord changes, and the methods discussed here are by no means the only way to do so. I’m presenting these methods because I believe they are not overly technical and thus very accessible, practical and relatively easy to implement. With a reasonable amount of dedicated practice, these methods can be mastered and playing over commonly used chords and chord progressions will fast become second nature to the aspiring Jazz artist. How to use this book For the first two sections of this book (Scale exercises and patterns for daily warm-up, and Phrases to be transposed in ALL 12 KEYS) I suggest practicing one or two exercises from each section. The individual’s comfort level in transposing each idea into all 12 keys will determine how many of these ideas he or she explores daily. Another method is to take one pattern or phrase from these sections and transpose them to just a few keys each day. Whichever approach you choose, remember that everything MUST be put into 12 keys in order for it to be a useful tool. For the Sonny Stitt solo transcription (included in the hardcopy of this book only) it would be best to play through the entire solo as slowly as needed. The idea is to play everything correctly, regardless of how slow you need to take it at first. Then gradually increase the tempo with the ultimate goal of playing along with the original recording. You may need to work on the 16th note passages of the transcription at an even slower tempo than the rest of the solo, and that is fine. Simply isolate different sections of theses 16th note passages and work on each one separately until it’s up to speed. Then incorporate them back into the solo later. For the Advanced Bebop Scale Techniques section, it is necessary to have reached a reasonable comfort level with the basic Bebop Scale first. It is highly recommended that you spend ample time working in the Basic Bebop Scale Introduction and Practice section of this book before moving on to the Advanced Bebop Scale Techniques section, as well as the Playing over a Diminished Chord using its four related Dominant Chords section. The same is true of the Combining Pivoting with the Advanced Bebop Scale Techniques and the Pivoting with other scales sections in that, it is necessary to have reached a reasonable comfort level with Pivoting before combining it with other techniques. Be strict with yourself but also be patient. When 12 keying an idea, do not move on to the next key until you have played it satisfactorily in the current key. I generally play things three times correctly in one key before moving on. It is also a good idea to practice the phrases and patters that you learn in this book along with a “band in the box” type of play along CD or mp3. There are several play-a-longs on the market that provide common tunes, isolated chord progressions and single chord vamps. They are a perfect tool to use for hearing what these new ideas sound like in context, and also great for practicing the application of the Bebop Scale and Pivoting techniques discussed in this book. Good luck and have fun! Scale exercises and patterns for daily warm-up, to be done in all 12 Keys. Upper and Lower Neighbor Upper and Lower Neighbor: The process surrounding a note by playing either the chromatic or diatonic note above and below a note, before actually playing the targeted note. The most common use of the Upper and Lower Neighbor is to target a Chord Tone, but this technique can also be used to target both non- chord tones and altered notes of a given chord. Practice the following exercise first thinking of each target note (in this case each quarter note) as the root, then try it thinking of each target note (each quarter note) as other notes in a chord. For example, you can think of the F as the root of F Major, then the 3rd of Db Major, then the 5th of Bb7, then the b7th of G7, or even the #9th of D7#9. Upper and Lower Neighbor Exercise C Major Scale Ascending and descending Seventh Chord Mode exercise beginning on each scale degree of the C Major Scale. Ascending and descending C Major Scale exercise arpeggiating each Seventh Chord Mode, connected by diatonic scale degrees. Alternating ascending and descending diatonic 3rds exercise for C Major C Melodic Minor Scale (Play the scale the same descending as ascending) Ascending and descending Seventh Chord Mode exercise beginning on each scale degree of the C Melodic Minor Scale. Ascending and descending C Melodic Minor Scale exercise arpeggiating each Seventh Chord Mode, connected by diatonic scale degrees.
The list of books you might like
