Category Archives: Uncategorized

Harmonic Moss, Part 4: the ‘A’ form voicing of the minor ii-V-i progression

The previous posts in the ‘Harmonic Moss’ series dealt with various voicings, scale outlines and various melodic patterns for the major ii-V-I progression. Although I have another post, ‘What Is This Scale Called?’, which deals with scale choices over the … Continue reading

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Harmonic Moss, Part 3: Route 37, a voicing-based melodic line

This melody line  combines patterns from the posts on one-bar ii-V progressions (‘Give it up for the root (position pattern)s‘ and ‘Midnight Donna and Reets in Paris‘)  and with those introduced in the posts on longer ii-V-I patterns (Harmonic Moss … Continue reading

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Simple Paris Dancers: a bop-style rhythm changes

‘Simple Paris Dancers’ is a melody line in the bebop style on the ‘Rhythm Changes’ progression.  I encourage you to check out the charts below along with a recent recording of the tune by my quartet Birdcode.  It is through-composed, … Continue reading

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Everybody’s Inside Blues: ‘making the changes’ in a blues line

‘Everybody’s Inside Blues’ is a through-composed melody line on the twelve-bar ‘jazz blues’ progression.  Here’s a  live recording  of it (in the key of F) from a gig I played a few years ago with guitarist Steve Blair and bassist … Continue reading

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You Are Here: a melodic study on ‘All The Things You Are’

 You Are Here is a tune I composed based on the chord changes of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein tune ‘All The Things You Are’.  (Click the link to hear a recording of the tune by my band Birdcode.)  ‘All The … Continue reading

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Harmonic Moss, Part 2: The ‘B form’ voicing of the major ii-V-I (including a scale outline and various melodic patterns)

The ‘B form’ voicing of the major ii-V-I prominently features the 9th degree of the minor 7th chord which functions as the ii.  I find it a useful exercise to apply this voicing to tunes which both use major ii-V-I … Continue reading

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Harmonic Moss, Part 1: The ‘A form’ voicing of the major ii-V-I (including a scale outline and related melodic patterns)

This series of blog posts is titled ‘Harmonic Moss’ as it deals with rootless chord voicings, and moss is sometimes referred to as a rootless plant.  This is not the first time I’ve come across moss in reference to music; … Continue reading

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‘Now What?’: a modal melody collage (and a history of the ‘So What’ progression)

My improvisation class begins by studying tunes and chord progressions that were common in the swing and bebop eras, including the blues (in the form of the Charlie Parker tune ‘Billie’s Bounce’), ‘Stompin at the Savoy’ and rhythm changes (i.e. … Continue reading

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Root systems, part 5 / Elijah’s Bounce

To conclude this series of posts on root position voicings of the major ii-V-I progression, here’s a tune I composed called ‘Elijah’s Bounce‘.  I borrowed the chord progression from the Charlie Parker tune ‘My Little Suede Shoes.’  At the risk … Continue reading

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Pairings, part three – Hand-some conversation: Two-handed melodic conversations by J.S. Bach and Oscar Peterson

This is the third post in the ‘pairings’ series. The two previous posts, on left hand walking bass with right hand melodic lines and left hand walking bass with right hand comping, each examine a particular technical challenge by comparing … Continue reading

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