Copyright 2024 - Alex Danson, Palm Springs, California

Jazz Level 2

 

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HARMONIC STRUCTURES

  1. Close voicings, rootless structures, Type 1 and Type 2
    1. 3-notes
    2. 4-notes
    3. 4-notes (Evans)
    4. the 60 chord system, ONE choice chart, for piano
    5. the 60 chords system, ONE choice, for guitar
  2. Open voicings, Type 1 and Type 2
    1. 5-part 9th chords
    2. LH - rootless, RH - root and 5th
    3. Quartal voicings (tonal)
    4. Hybrid or Slash chord voicings
    5. Polychord voicings

PLAYING THE LEAD

  1. Playing the Tune
    1. melody + 2
    2. block chords (Shearing)
    3. block chords - alternating the main chord with transitional diminished chords
    4. "fake" block chords
    5. octaves, double-octaves, etc
  2. Improvising
    1. more scales
      • the 7 modes of the major scale
      • the 7 modes of the minor melodic scale
      • the 2 modes of the diminished scale
      • the whole-note scale
      • Bebop scales
      • pentatonic scales
      • exotic scales
      • modes of limited transposition
    2. 3rd-based vs. 4th-based improvisation
    3. motive's development - analyze Miles Davis solo on Blues by Five
    4. improvising "outside"
    5. other improvisation ideas:
      • unison solo several octaves apart
      • free (rhythmical) improvisation
    6. planning the improvisation

ACCOMPANYING

  1. Left Hand styles
    1. LH arpeggiato 1-5-10
    2. Stride (swing piano)
    3. walking bass
    4. Fixed patterns (ex.: boogie-woogie)
  2. Two-hands accompaniment styles
    1. open voicing chords (see "Harmonic Structures")
    2. applying a rhythm to the chords
    3. (ballroom) dancing patterns
      • European dance patterns
      • Latin dance patterns

MODAL JAZZ

  1. a different type of harmonic progression
  2. Triadic voicings
    1. non-tonal chord progressions
  3. Quartal voicings

PREPARING FOR PERFORMANCE

  1. Re-harmonizing a tune
    1. diatonic substitutions (secondary chords)
    2. chromatic substitutions (Lendvai's axis system)
    3. turn arounds and transition chords
  2. re-harmonizing with a purpose:
    1. cleaning up the original chart
    2. making it improvisation-friendly
    3. chord beautification with added extensions
    4. changing the harmonic style of a piece
  3. Re-arranging a tune
    1. changing the Time, Meter and/or Style of the original piece
    2. adding Intros, Interludes, Bridges, Special choruses and Endings

 

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