You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Modes in Jazz (Featuring Warren Wolf) - #27

Episode Date: February 5, 2019

The special guests continue with Warren Wolf popping in to help Peter and Adam answer a listener question about the use of different modes in jazz.Go to Warren's website for album info and tour dates: http://www.warrenwolfmusic.comListen to his most recent album, Convergence, here: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/album/convergence/1101504866?app=itunesWant to learn some improvisation tips from Warren? Check out his Open Studio course, Improvisation for All: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/project/ifa-overview/Be on the lookout for a new mini-course from Warren, coming soon to Open Studio!Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Pete. What mode are you in right now? I'm in a kind of modal, dark, mid-period, modal, period. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you. Coming at you today with a very special guest.

Yes. The Incredible. Mr. The amazing. Mr. Warren. Wolf. That's right.

Junior. What's up, Warren? What's up, man? Don't use a junior. Oh, really? Well, you're physically not sized the junior, but you are a junior. junior, right? I am. Yeah. Technically, he's a junior. That's right. Welcome. Warren. Warren is one of my my favorite people and favorite musicians, so it's really fun to have you here. He's one of our stars at

Open Studio and Star of Stage and Screen, and we're actually playing a bunch of music together this week, so that's a lot of fun. Warren is a Baltimore native and has played with, you know, everybody from Christian McBride to to... That's it? No, Sean Jones Tia Fuller the SF Jazz Collective you've been especially associated with them the last few years

both performing and writing and you teach at the Peabody Conservatory of Music Special note Warren just recorded a new Vives Voicing's course mini course yesterday that is killing

Yeah I was excited but I actually learned something I stole something that I used on the gig I don't know if you heard that Which is what There's something 251 I don't like Put that seventh in the bottom, put the seventh in the bottom. So how you doing, Warren? Everything is cool.

Good. Everything is good. Good. So we were hoping that we're going to kind of put you on the spot if that's cool with you, but we're hoping you could help us. We get listener questions. We also get beeping in the alley. You hear that?

Yeah. Sometimes beeping. Sometimes ambulance noises. That's right. Sometimes gunshots. Sometimes all in a row. This is St. Louis. This is St. Louis, but Warren's from Baltimore, so he's used to it.

So we get some listener questions. So could we listen to that? and then we could all kind of, you could help us answer it. Sure. Yeah, we have a question from John here. All right. Hi, Adam and Peter. My name is John.

I'm a beginning jazz pianist from California. And I just wanted to ask if you guys could discuss the role of modes in jazz. Are all of the modes of the major scale used in jazz or some used more than others? Some use over certain chords. You know, in terms of soloing are certain modes used at certain times. If you guys could talk about that, that'd be great. Thank you very much. Love the podcast. Keep it up. Thanks.

Yeah, I just use the blue scale. I don't know what you guys do. Yeah. What'd you think, Warren? So you can use modes over many different scales. One song that's really coming to mind right now is, I think Ray Noble, no, Ray Noble did not right there. So, Duke Ellington, Juan Teesle,

caravan. Yeah, yeah. So we taking, speaking for the original key, the C. Locrian scale, which is basically the I'm sorry, that's the wrong one.

No, that's right. That's right. It is. Seventh. Seventh scale. You have a D-flat major scale, which is seventh scale degree. That's a really good scale to use over that one. Also, you can kind of use, it's not necessarily the official major mode or something, but you can, if we're speaking in that key, you can actually take the notes, let's see, C, D-flat, E, F, G, A-flat, B, F, C. you know the loquering scale really a C D flat E flat F G flat but I'm you know trying to give it this

slight altered sound the F harmonic minor yeah yeah yeah yeah work starting on the C yeah these are how modes are fun and these are the rabbit hole that rabbit holes that modes can lead you down well I think you brought up a good point to Warren in that yeah there's all the the typical you know this the seven modes of the major scale but then it's like when you can find that one alter you know that really gives you that sound then then you're kind of on to something right yep of course yeah and then how do you do warren like you know we're always getting questions and we'll say like i use this scale or use this arpeggia over this chord but then people will be like well i used it but it

didn't sound like the way you guys sound when you do it like so if he were to use that kind of you know that that scale over that whole section on on caravan like what are the things that you would do to leave that? Like, why would you leave that scale and then to make it hip as opposed to just running up and down the scale? Well, some key things

you can always do is try to start on a certain scale degree of that scale. You can always, say, start on the third scale degree. Say, if you just want to, speaking with that same song,

you could play some type of rhythms over just using E, F, G, and A flat. If you're doing a triple it, 16th notes, just eighth notes or whatever, mix it up and then take it up you know

pick the next note use the F, use the G you know use that as your starting point and just build around that many different ways you can go about it yeah I like that too

because a lot of times people like we sort of take it for granted but people think okay if I learn a new mode or if I learn a new scale I always have to start on the route I always have to start on the one

I'm so against starting on the route in general yeah you're anti-route I'm anti-route I mean you got the bass player handling all the route down there And then certain piano players, they'd like to, you know,

and the left hand like to have the root in the fifth going on down there. So it's like why I have another instrument playing the route. So, you know, work with, you can split the scale up. Use the upper part of the scale. Use the lower half of the scale. Use the middle part of the scale. Right. You can always sometimes, again, speaking about Caravan,

you can always vamp out on one note. So if that first chord is, that's to say, for easy terms, see Dominant 7 with a flat 9, you can always just vamp out when the G. You know, just kind of hold a G on whatever your axis and just work around that. What about vamping out on the C? You're not down what that are.

You're not going to say he's not going to do that. I think. Warren is so anti-root. We took a walk one time. He started, like, every time we saw the roots of a tree, he started kicking at it and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Cat's anti-roof.

Yeah, we should say, too, for a beginner, I don't think, like, modes is something that you need to jump into, like, seriously right away. That's right. To be able to learn to play or to kind of get any enjoyment out of it. I mean, it is something that gives you options.

Yeah. As you get better and better, you know, as you learn more and more. But, you know, I wouldn't like commit to like, I have to know all the modes of every single scale that I know.

You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, it's good to do. It's good to have that goal. But if you're a beginning jazz pianist, right? Like,

it's more about hearing it, I think, than anything first. Is that why we call this podcast you'll hear? It might be. But it does. It can give you different sounds, John.

So like I'm thinking of like a basic thing like a three six two five right. So you know a three typically you would use maybe like a fridgen sound right which is like a C major scale. I wouldn't. And that had the root in it. It does have the root in it. I don't like that, man. But if you wanted to kind of have a more airy sound, you could do like a Dorian thing. Yeah.

Nothing's like wrong. Yeah. I mean, although some people will be very dogmatic about it. But it's like it's all about whatever sound you want. That's the important part of modes is kind of giving yourself these options, having these things to pull out. What do you guys think if we were to give somebody like John or anybody that was trying to get familiar with the modes, if you were going to just take your time, and this kind of assuming that you know, say, your major scales, what would you recommend as the next scale or mode to learn? Well, outside of the blue scale, you mean? Yeah, well, no, we should probably say that.

Well, definitely the blue scale. Right, for sure. That's the scale for me that you can use in all types of music. If you take away jazz, you know, it can be rock music. You know, when you listen to these groups, like, for instance, a couple weeks ago, I went to go see the Dave Matthews band play. Whenever they gave anybody a solo, all of that stuff is just blues bass. Right.

It's not swing, but, you know, it was no Locrian going on. Yeah, no Phrygian in that way. Yeah, well, it just feel good down-home blues. So the blue scale is definitely a way you can go about it. You learn it from the major blues scale to the minor blues scale. Right. And then after that, you know, go ahead, go to the mold. you can pick a simple song again like well I'll go simpler than caravan you can pick

so what or impressions you know start there and uh you know that be Dorian yeah yeah that's what I was thinking too like for me but I know everybody looks at a different like after major blue scale maybe dominant scale too that's yeah yeah the mix of Lidian and then the Lidian yeah but I mean to me the Dorian this kind of clicked you know I remember when I was like I said like this is what a mode is yeah and I didn't even know what a mode actually I mean I knew those words, but I didn't know that's what it was. I was like, oh, this is a dominant scale with a minor third is the way I thought about it. Right, right.

It's so funny how everybody thinks about these things differently, especially at first, like when you're starting out. Yeah. You know, you have like this thing. Is it funny or is it just odd? It's neither, actually. It's clever. It makes perfect sense, really.

That's right. Yeah, yeah. Cool. So, all right, well, I think we hit some good stuff. Thank you for the question, John. Thank you guys for the answers. And Warren, you got any exciting projects and gigs you want to let folks know about it? I mean, we're worldwide.

Just let you know, just like you, our listeners, they're all over the place. Yeah, so there's a couple things I'm doing. So there's a venue in Baltimore, which is where I'm living, called Andi Music. And is run by a guy named Henry Wong. And I'm pretty much trying to always bring musicians to the area at least once per month. So when we're looking at the tourist circuit, at least for the East Coast, you know, let's just say we're starting in Boston. A lot of musicians start, well, jazz musicians start in Boston, down to Connecticut, of course, New York, some places in Jersey, Philadelphia, D.C.

So a lot of people always skip over Baltimore. So I'm always trying to bring musicians down just so we can get that, quote-unquote, New York feel in Baltimore. So in December, I've had the pleasure of bringing in Miguel Zinan, Tia Fuller, and a young viper performance named Sasha Berliner. I couldn't do it in January. I was too busy. I was on the road. I was on the road working. But starting next weekend, we're bringing Jeremy Pelt,

vocalist Charine Wade, Davie Sanchez, Christian McBride, and wonderful vocalist named Lauren Talese. She was one of the Saravon competition just recently. Oh, yeah, yeah. So that's happening. And is this like an ongoing thing? You're going to have this for a while? It's all depending on, you know, on my life.

schedule but yeah for the most part i mean i'm always just trying to just just give back to my city yeah so i'm always just bringing bringing folks in um let's see my group wolf pack will be at the let's see coming i can't remember everything we'll be at the cleft club in philadelphia uh at some point in march uh now i have different versions of wolfpack i have the straight-ahead jazz version i got the i got the i got the smooth jazz version that's my jazz i was gonna say i love i love smooth wolf pack I got the shades of Roy Ayer's. That's right. I got the funk fusion side of Wopak.

You know, if you look at a Welfack, you know, you never know who's going to be in the pack. So we got that happening. Actually, I can kind of tell by the Wulf Pack, by based on how you guys are dressed. That's right. That's how I can tell. Like the smooth jazz one has a look. Yeah, it's a little bit. It might be some silk shirts.

You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, right now the Keph, Keplew, my series of Ande Music. And I'll be at Clayton State, Spavi Hall, at, on March 30th, which is a Saturday. Atlanta area. Yeah. And then after that, you know, I have a bunch of days with the SF Jazz left coming up. Yeah.

Yeah, you guys are going to be all over, I think, April, May kind of stuff. So you can check out Warren Wolf Music. Warnwolfmusic.com. Yeah. And check out Warren has some fantastic records on the Mac Avenue label. The latest is Convergence. Yeah, so check in on that. He also has a bit of a course here on Open Studio.

He has a wonderful course. And what the cool thing is, a lot of people get confused because They see Warren with the mallets on the, they're like, oh, that, that's a xylophone or marimba chorus or something, which it is. But it's actually the name of it is improvisation for all. And so there's some really great stuff. There's some great playalongs. I did a little playing along. I did a little shit.

I'm not going to lie. I use them too. Yeah, yeah. I use them. Because you get to play along with three Warrens. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. Warren's playing piano, bass, and drums all and through the wonders of technology, we have them all combined.

And it sounds good, though. I mean, it doesn't sound like robotic. sounds good. So don't play along with those other things. And then look out, be on the lookout for the new vibraphone voicings course that we just recorded yesterday. Really, really great stuff over, mostly over like two flies and stuff. Yeah, yeah. But really cool. Just trying to give some basic pointers to people who are trying to get their chords together, certain inversions about chords and things like that. Yeah. And, you know, it's called the vibe, vibraphone voicings, but there's some good stuff for pianists in there too. It can be used to,

for pianists. Also, some of the examples I was given is pretty good for a bass player to play behind because I'm eliminating the root. We talked about earlier. Anti-route. Hashtag anti-route. Cool. Well, thank you so much, Warren, for joining us here as one of our honored guests. And until tomorrow.

Thank you. You'll hear it.