Charlie Parker Transcription - Little Willie Leaps

Just finished another Charlie Parker transcription.  This one is of Charlie Parker playing Tenor Saxophone on Little Willie Leaps, a tune based on All God's Chillun' Got Rhythm.  I was interested to find that Parker, while a great improvisor, still used many of the same phrases over repeated progressions on the tune.  It just goes to show that even the best improvisors don't mind working some stuff out beforehand.

Here is the transcription:

Lesson #27: Lennie Tristano Inspired ii-V-i

In this week's lesson we are taking a look at Lennie Tristano, one of my favorite jazz pianists.  Although he has somewhat of a cult status amongst jazz fans, Tristano's music has been making a resurgence over the past couple of years.  This hilarious video mocks this recent resurgence and idol like worship from many young jazz students.

Idol worship aside, Tristano's music really did push the boundaries of what was possible for improvisation.  He also holds a long list of "firsts." These list includes the first use of tape looping (long before the Beatles), first Jazz musician to experiment heavily with polyrhythm/polytonality, first person to codify a method to teach improvisation, and first person to record and perform live a "free" improvisation piece.  It's easy to see why young explorative players have become so infatuated with his methods and music.  Count me down as one of them.

The line I wrote out for this week's lesson is inspired by Lennie's recording of G Minor Complex (You'd be so Nice to Come Home To) and C Minor Complex (Pennies from Heaven in a minor key).  Check them out here:  G Minor Complex and C Minor Complex.

How to practice this line:
1) Work out fingerings if needed.  If you struggle with technique, it will be almost impossible to learn these lines adequately.
2)  Play the line without singing slowly with the metronome.
3)  Play and sing.
4)  "Ghost" the right hand and sing while playing a simple voicing or the written bass line.
5)  Sing the melody away from the instrument
6)  Repeat in all 12 keys!

YouTube Lesson:  Lesson #27 Lennie Tristano Inspired ii-V-i
Scribd PDF:  Lesson #27 .pdf
-  to print and download click the "purchase" button to the right of the PDF
SoundColoud Play-Along:
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Lesson #26: Lydian Interval Exercise

In this week's lesson we explore one of my favorite scales for improvisation, the Lydian Dominant scale.  The Lydian Dominant scale is based on the Mixolydian scale, also known as the fifth mode of the major scale.  In Lesson #24 we learned the how and why of using the Lydian scale to improvise over Major chords.  In case you missed out, here's a brief explanation of what we learned.

Early on, maybe in a private lesson or high school band class, we learn that the Ionian (first mode of the major scale) is the best choice for improvising on Major seventh chords.  Six out of the seven notes of the scale sound perfectly consonant over a standard Major seventh chord. That makes it an easy choice for beginning improvisors.  Also, there is the added benefit that most students who have been playing for a couple years can easily recognize and play at least a couple major scales.

One problem that improvisors can run in to however is the tension created between the third of a Major seventh voicing and the fourth note of the Ionian scale.  Play a simple Cmaj7 voicing in your left hand (say C-E-B).  Now play the note "F" in your right hand.  Doesn't sound very good does it?  That is because the interval created by these two notes is a minor 9th.  We learn in composition and some improvisation classes that the minor 9th is quite a tricky interval to deal with.  In most jazz books it is referred to as an "avoid" note.

The good news is that there is a simple solution to the problem.  Simply raise the fourth interval of the Major scale to make the interval a more consonant sounding Major ninth.  Raising the fourth of the Ionian scale essential turns it in to a Lydian scale (fourth mode of the major scale).  This means that you can play a Lydian scale by taking any basic Major scale and raising the fourth note.  The more correct and more complicated way of thinking about it is thinking down a perfect fourth to the relative Major scale.  For example, a C Lydian scale is a G Major scale starting on C.  A F Lydian scale is a C Major scale starting on F.

The same minor 9th interval is also created when improvising on Dominant chords using the Mixolydian scale.  We can deal with the tension in the same way we dealt with Major 7th harmony.  Simply raise the fourth of the Mixolydian scale to eliminate the minor 9th.  This new scale is what jazz educators have dubbed the Lydian Dominant scale.

I hope you have fun improvising over your favorite tunes this week using the Lydian Dominant scale!

YouTube Lesson:  Lesson #26 Video on YouTube

Scribd:  Lesson #26 .pdf in all 12 Keys

Free play-along recording @ 80bpm.

Lesson #25: Charlie Parker Inspired Line

In this week's lesson we'll be taking a look a melody I wrote out inspired by a Charlie Parker transcription I've been working on.  I've always enjoyed listening and working on Parker's music.  When I was first starting out, one of my teachers recommended that I purchase the Charlie Parker "Omnibook" sold by Jamey Aebersold.  I followed his suggestion and promptly "learned" (i.e. forgot the instant I stopped working on them) many of the transcriptions from the book.  Since then, I've gradually started moving away from written transcriptions.  Most recently, have tried to implement a more aural approach based on the teachings of Lennie Tristano.

I hope you enjoy this week's lesson!  Feel free to leave a comment or send me a message with any questions you might have.

View the .pdf (purchase to download and print):  View the PDF on Scribd.com
- note voicings in video were improvised and may not be the same as the .pdf
View the Video:  YouTube




Analysis:

Progression:  Em7-A7b9 |  Dm7-G7b9  | FMaj7

We can think of this progression in two ways.  The simpler of the two would be simply a iii-VI-ii-V-I.  However, since Parker uses the harmonic minor scale over the first bar, the implication of the Em7-A7b9 would actually be Ehalfdim7-A7b9.  This means this first bar is not actually the iii-VI (in the key of F).  It is instead the ii-V in the key of D minor.

The Melody:

The first bar contains a descending melody based on the Harmonic Minor scale.  The D Harmonic Minor scale is used since the first two chords can be used to imply a ii-V in the key of D Minor.  The second bar contains mostly arpeggiations of each chord.  On beats one and two of the first measure Charlie plays the 3rd-5th-7th-9th of the Dm7.  On beat three we have another descending diatonic scale resolving perfectly to a quick arpeggiation of the 3rd-5th-7th-b9 of the G7 chord.  The b9 of the G7 resolves chromatically down a half step to the 5th of the CMaj7 chord in the next bar.  In the final bar, the descending arpeggio is of the 5th-3rd-7th-6th of the CMaj7.

Practice:

1)  Play through each key.  Work out fingering as needed.
2)  Play and sing.
3)  Play LH voicings while singing RH melody and "ghosting" with the RH.
4)  Play LH voicings while singing RH.
5)  Sing the melody away from your instrument.