Archives for June 26, 2008

I know the question that has been burning within you: what has Bob been practicing lately? No use trying to keep it from me. Your curiosity is eating at you.\r\n\r\nSo, generous soul that I am, I”m going to give you an exercise I”ve been toying with. No great secret, just a fun little chops-builder that I like because of its ready applicability to improvisation. It”s a simple, three-tone interval study. Picture a measure in 2/4 time with four eighth notes barred together as follows: root, major third, lowered third, root (i.e. C, E, Eb, C; Db, F, E*, Db; D, F#, F, D…and so forth).\r\n\r\nTake this little four-note cell up and down the chromatic scale. Then, as I”ve been doing lately, take it up by whole steps, starting, for instance, on Db, then, Eb, F, G…all the way up through the range of your horn, then back down in reverse order.\r\n\r\nWork the cell through the intervals of a fully diminished seventh chord and you”ll gain a nice tool to use in dominant seventh flat nine situations. This approach incorporates all the notes in the diminished scale.\r\n\r\nMove the cell roots by major thirds and you”ll have an exotic approach that sounds cool in a number of applications, though you”ll want to handle certain non-harmonic tones with care. That”s because you”re outlining the augmented scale, which is a man without a country, harmonically speaking. So you want to be careful to recognize the tension inherent in certain notes in respect to the chord you”re using it with. For instance, here is the pattern starting on C: C, E, Eb, C; E, G#, G, E; Ab(G#), C, B, Ab…all the way up, then all the way back down. You can use this with a C7b9 quite nicely–but watch the B. It”s a raised seventh, which is fine as an upper neighbor or a passing tone, but don”t stress it unless you intend to clash with the lowered seventh of the dominant chord.\r\n\r\nObviously, you can move this cell through other root movements as well. You can also expand it. Instead of going up a major third from the root and then dropping a half-step, go up a fourth and drop a half step (i.e. C, F, E, C), or go up a diminished fifth (C, F#, F, C).\r\n\r\nThis exercise becomes fun when you allow yourself to get into “the zone” of repetition, repetition, repetition. Play it over and over and over. Drive the neighbors crazy. That”s how it”s done. Make sure to focus on smoothing out awkward fingerings.\r\n\r\nHave fun…and keep practicing.\r\n______________________________\r\n* For you theoreticians: I”m choosing commonly recognized note names over theoretical correctness and consistency. There are pros and cons to either approach; in this case, I”m choosing simple, easy note identification. It”s easier to think of dropping down from F to E than from F to Fb, and in terms of fingering and technique, the result is the same.