Over the years of playing & teaching I’ve developed a few different approaches to playing jazz standards and functional harmony.
I’ve been teaching a lot during this lockdown and made some notes for students summarising some of the topics that have come up. These are in no particular study order and vary in level, but I find them useful references & springboards to develop other ideas.
Download pdf lessons below, which I will update, hopefully, at regular intervals (referring to time, not pitch here!)
Introducing 'Pocket Practice Ideas'. Videos made in partnership with Wind & Brass World and Vandoren UK These are ideas you can dip into wherever you are, when you have a few minutes to practice! This series will aim to develop your technique and make the most of the time you have to work on your playing. I like to change up the routine I use to practice, and often find it highly productive and engaging to take a simple idea and run with it.
Series 2
Welcome back to season two of 'Pocket Practice Ideas', created in collaboration with @daveohig and Vandoren UK. These are ideas you can dip into wherever you are, when you have a few minutes to practice. Dave returns in season two with a deep dive into Sonny Stitt's eight-bar, double-time lick from 'On the Sunny Side of the Street'. This season will focus on how to learn the most possible from one such line.
A deep dive into Sonny Stitt's eight-bar, double-time lick from 'On the Sunny Side of the Street'. This season will focus on how to learn the most possible from one such line.
Downloadable materials:
Here, I’m breaking down the Sonny Stitt lick we learned in week one, adapting it to the cycle of fifths and applying it to a 12-bar blues. This lesson continues the deep dive into Sonny Stitt's eight-bar, double-time lick from 'On the Sunny Side of the Street'.
Taking a deeper dive into the Sonny Stitt eight-bar, double-time lick from 'On the Sunny Side of the Street' we've been looking at, playing it through the keys and applying it to 'Rhythm Changes'.
Having a look at how Sonny Stitt articulates on the track, 'On the Sunny Side of the Street'
Double length major ii-V-I (slow)
My approach to learning a song – both the melody and the chord progression. This series aims to develop your technique and make the most of the time you have to work on your playing. I like to change up the routine I uses to practice and often find it highly productive and engaging to take a simple idea and then run with it. Happy Practicing!
The first of two parts in 'Learning a Chord Progression'. This series aims to develop your technique and make the most of the time you have to work on your playing.
Continuing what we learned in week 7, playing a chord scale exercise over our study piece “On the Sunny Side of the Street”. This series aims to develop your technique and make the most of the time you have to work on your playing.
Series 1
Let's start by taking the first two bars of the Miles Davis 1956 composition, The Serpent’s Tooth, and see what we can do with it!
Download the accompanying PDF here
I’m going to take you through the relationship between the 2 & 5 Chords of a major cadence. I think of them as Batman and Robin - 'inseparable, and yet you only really have to think about the main man'.
Download the accompanying PDF here
In this video, I'm addressing Swing Feel', practising Oliver Nelson's 'Butch & Butch' to a metronome. This Pocket Practice Idea aims to improve your facility, airflow, speed and in time, your articulation.
Download the accompanying PDF here
In this video, I'm addressing 'The Three Big Scales' - looking at the major, melodic minor & harmonic minor and exploring some interesting built in chords...
Download the accompanying PDF here
This is a "pattern buster" template that'll keep you off the streets for ages...!
Download the accompanying PDF here
Here are approach patterns for major & minor triads.
Download the accompanying PDF here
Articulation Basics
Download the accompanying PDF here
Tetratonics & Articulation
Download the accompanying PDF here
Here are some practice ideas using the arpeggios of a minor 251 to create a melodic line. This is an alternative approach to trying to conjure melodies from scales & by definition defines the harmony clearly.
Download PDFs (Bb), (Concert) and Audio Track
Developing a line over a dominant 7th chord using 3 upper structure chords.
Download PDFs Bb Concert Pitch
I got a very positive reaction to the last educational video on creating dominant 7th lines from 7th chord upper structures, so here’s the follow-up: the first of 3 (yes, 3!) videos on dominant 7ths in a minor key….. Hope you like it.
Download PDFs Bb Concert Pitch
In the context of a minor 2-5-1 we find 2 dominant chords with which to fill our boots! One is disguised as a minor7b5, and the other can just as well be thought of as a diminished 7th. This is my way of utilising Barry Harris' masterful concepts...
Download PDFs Bb Concert Pitch
This is the final exciting denouement of the "Dominant 7 Line in a Minor Key" trilogy! There are three 2-5-1 lines here derived from the previous Dom 7 workouts, unashamedly inspired by my great mentor, Barry Harris. Accompanying PDFs in concert and Bb can be downloaded from my website:
Download PDFs Bb Concert Pitch
Sjoerd Dijkhuisen is perhaps not a household name because no-one can pronounce his name who’s not Dutch! He can certainly play the hell out of the saxophone. This transcription is taken off a fantastic series of live YouTube videos from a 2-tenor roar-up with the equally amazing Ferdinand Povel co-starring. SD demonstrates total assimilation of the tradition, & definitely sounds up for it in this thrilling version of “Billie’s Bounce”. There’s a ton of great vocab in here. On a solo like this, I like to learn a chorus at a time, then put it through all the keys. That’s a killer workout, and usually something sticks and comes out when you least expect it! If that’s too daunting to begin, just take half a phrase at a time - like the beginning to the first note of bar 4, for instance.
Download transcription as PDF: Here
Lesson - Minor key diatonic scales
I think that minor keys are often quite misunderstood. Jazz education is also stuck in a chord = scale rut, and whilst being helpful to an extent, it tells us some of the truth but not the whole truth. The attached pdf demonstates my take on what I would consider, based on a lot of transcription, to be basic diatonic material for a minor 251. I hope it gives you a fresh insight into why the greats were great without playing “altered” or “dorian” scales in the context of a minor cadence….! Of course those things are an option, but not a primary one.
Download PDF: Here
Eric Alexander - Blues For Mo
I’ve been intending to transcribe some stuff from this great album “Second Impression” by Eric Alexander for a while. A blues is always a good place to start to get insight into how a player thinks. I know Eric & his methodologies well - and this is a great example of the effortless & melodic liberty-taking he and other great players have as their trademarks. I asked Eric once to what extent he waited to hear what the rhythm section was playing before committing to what he would play, to which he replied “I just slam my shit all over it”. That is not as glib a reply as it might seem. In this transcription I put a general harmonic indication for the head & the first chorus, but as all great musicians do on a blues, they all approach it with a lot of flexibility.
Eric has a penchant for superimposing minor 7th chords ascending in minor 3rds - e.g. bars 29-31, 56-59, or the reverse bars 132-133. There are also “Giant Steps” systems in place bars 48-50 (descending major 3rd key centres) & bars 121-123. It sounds effortless and unforced because 1) the time is so good 2) everything resolves 3) the rhythms are so varied and well executed (that’s why Bird sounded so great, too!). These harmonic & rhythmic strategies are not a fluke - they have been carefully conceived, practised & perfected. They are the result of thorough assimilation first hand of the work of George Coleman, Harold Mabern & many other greats.
I like to steal my favourite phrases & put them through the keys. Take, for instance, the first four bars or both the first & second choruses. Then maybe use bars 37-38 as a 2-5-1 lick to play on the bridge of “Cherokee”….. Through the keys, obviously!
It probably takes me half a day with the aid of “Transcribe!” software & Dorico to write it out (I sing it slowly & write it), then I can spend anything up to a month practising all my cherry-picked highlights. I also like to try to imitate the articulation where I can pick it up. Eric is a proponent of “dooden tonguing”. There are articles on the internet about it - the best ones are by Johnny Lippiett & Jake Dester.
Download the transcription: HERE
Lesson 1 - I’m starting with a ii-V-i ‘primer’ kit - download HERE
Lesson 2 - Here’s a lesson containing some arpeggio & scale ideas to try on the standard, ‘Stella By Starlight’ - download HERE
Lesson 3 - This lesson demonstrates how I might practice (plunder, even!?) a well known phrase and steal it to my own ends. The phrase in question is the opening line of ‘Donna Lee’ and the vehicle, since I’ve already examined it in a previous lesson, ‘Stella By Starlight’ - download HERE
Lesson 4 - (Rhythm Changes) - Download HERE
Lesson 5 - (Pattern Busters) - Download HERE