You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Tips for Improvising Over Quick Chord Movements

Episode Date: December 1, 2020

It's another live edition of You'll Hear It where Peter and Adam take your questions. Today, Peter and Adam take questions on how to learn a tune in all keys, using the melodic minor set, and tips for improvising over quick chord movements.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Tuesday's Open Studio Live Events:1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)3:00 PM - Piano Guided Practice Session with Adam on YouTube8:00 PM - Listening Sesh with Peter and Adam on YouTubeFor the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What's up? That was the intro. You forgot about the intro. Oh, man. I mean, we had a dopio intro, so it's all good. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. How's everybody doing today?

We are live on YouTube. This is a live recording of the You'll Hear It podcast. Thanks, everybody for joining us today. Good to see everybody. Good to see you, Peter. Good to be seen. It's looking good in here, man. It is.

I feel like you've, like. It's getting there. I don't know if the viewers can see, but there used to be. There used to be a whole pit of snakes over here. That was very. Now it's this one base made here. Asps, very dangerous. And now, yeah, now there's really nothing there.

So thanks for, man, thanks for making it look. It started to come together. It looks good in here. So if this is your first time here, where you been? You know what I'm saying? Come on. This is you'll hear it Monday. So we do this as a personal pick-me-up for each other.

But as just a gathering place to get the week out started right, you know, on a listening note, on a musical note. Because it's Monday. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Mondays don't have to be Mondays, though. Mondays can be happy. We're happy up in here. I'm very happy.

Someone says, happy post Thanksgiving. That's Joe. And I'm always happy a little post Thanksgiving. This is my favorite time of year right now. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You know what I mean? Just as a child,

just the anticipation, the build of the holidays. You see crazy relatives that you never used to see. Well, we're not saying really anybody now. No. But I love this time of year, man. December is my month.

It's a lovely time of the year. That's not how that goes. No. the most wonderful time of the year. Okay. All right. So let's talk real quick. As it were, we have our check-ins. But why don't we talk first about how was your Thanksgiving? We haven't seen each other since Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanksgiving was cool, man. You know, we did it really chill. We always host Thanksgiving. We always have about 25 people over at our place. And obviously we couldn't do that this year because we live in a tiny house. So like even on a

normal time you feel like, whoa, we might start some kind of pandemic in here because everybody's crammed in, right? So, yeah, this year we just did just the people that we have been living, just me and Heather and the kids. But Heather made dinner for my parents, her mother, and I ran them all around. And then we did a little Zoom thing afterwards, which was really, really nice. And then we watched some movies afterwards. And, you know, we just had a little lovely night.

It was killing. See any good movies? We should add a segment on movies sometimes. So during the shutdown, we've been doing, we should, we've been doing little Manus Family film festivals where we'll do a whole series. We've done Star Wars. We've done all of the Marvel Avengers movies. We've done, we just finished all the Harry Potter movies in a row, which was fun. If your kids are too young, we call that Scary Potter, you know.

Yeah, it gets really dark. And then just last night, we started what we're going to call the Manus Family Holiday Film Festival. We started with Home Alone. Oh, that's a classic. It's a classic. And we'll probably. Joe Pesci. Joe Pesci, great jazz singer.

You know that? I did. He made a record with Joey D. Exactly. A couple of Philly guys. I know, man. Amazing. And then, and then, yeah, so we'll do like a holiday film festival here on that.

Maybe some elf, maybe some. Maybe some. The world's greatest cup of coffee. Come on. That's right. Congratulations. So positive. It's a wonderful life.

If he has one fault, it's that he's too positive. That's his big. That's the movie. That's the movie. You just described the plot of the movie. Right, right, right. Cool. Cool.

All right. Well, since it was a holiday week a little bit, I'm a little almost afraid to do this, but a little fitness checking. Where are you at? Where are you out on your fitness checking? Man, so again, I am plant-based before 5 p.m. every day and then I'm fully plant-based on Mondays. That's been good stuff. And I'm really, you know what it is? I'm getting old.

Is it like a vampire thing at 5 o'clock? Is it dark at 5 o'clock now? Is that a carnivorous side of you comes out at 5? Or is it? The wolf thing comes out. I've got to eat some chicken heads. No, it's just because I don't want to trouble Heather with making, you know, Heather likes to make dinner every night.

So I don't want to trouble her with, you know, going plant base, just because I'm going. I try to be sensitive to that kind of stuff. You know how it is. And then, man, I don't know about you. You run, see, but you are such a good runner. That's not exaggerate. Okay. I've switched over from, like, on my exercise routine.

Anything that's too strenuous, I'm like, I'm out. I can't do it. And maybe it's because I'm 41. But, like, I'm just, I can't. I'm not going to lift weights. I'm not going to run. I've just been walking and doing yoga. I feel amazing.

Man, yoga is, yoga will, there's nothing, there's nothing not scary about doing yoga. I've gone from just everything being like, just, hammering everything in my fitness routine and everything's like this or whatever. Yeah.

To just being nice and like open and loose. It feels great, man. Good. Yeah, yeah. Good stuff, good stuff. Cool. Well, you know what? We got a bunch of questions.

So why don't we jump in a little bit prematurely? Not prematurely. That's what we're here. We are here to serve. and to answer some questions. And it looks like we may have some new members too. So Open Studio, we've had the, did you know that we had the largest influx of new members over the past week than we've ever had since the inception of this endeavor? So it's a very exciting time around here.

Yeah, I've heard rumors. That's really, really cool, man. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so we like to thank you guys and welcome any, we do have any new folks on here to the Open Studio family, as it were. and the most exciting thing I think about this journey has been the podcast, the courses, the community of artists.

You know, we've got, let's see if we can see here, we have Christian McBride and Sean Jones. We're being socially distanced, but we're bringing them into the studio with us nonetheless. But also our new members from around the, over 130 countries, I couldn't believe it when I saw that list because I was like, I couldn't name 130 countries.

I don't think I could name 30 countries. You'd have to press me to do that. But we have members in over 130 countries and a really fun and cool and supportive community now. So we're here to help each other. But today we are here to answer some questions if you haven't. So do you see something that you like? I see a bunch of things.

I just want to reiterate what you said in that it's been really fun building this with you and Dan and everybody and Brian and Rachel and Sam and the whole team here. And just so proud of everything. And I think what's really exciting is, you know, with each year that we do this, we grow the community. we get to know the community better. Yeah. Through YouTube now, through, you know, all the things that we do on our site. So here's to more of that, man.

Here's to do a 2021 full of connection and music. You know what I'm saying? So we got a lot of stuff here. Quentin says right at the top, watched your video on playing on in all 12 keys last night, cool stuff. One thing I was wondering about was how you would approach learning ahead in all 12 keys. Maybe another way to ask my question is,

would you do anything special like learn the melody first, just the chords, just sections, just the licks. So nothing special for learning tunes in multiple keys or all 12 keys. I mean, I think the most special thing is the intention to do that. You know, that's really all you need to do is set that intention and then do it. Yeah. You know? Yeah, absolutely.

And we've preached before about learning tunes like this. Like, you also don't need to get clinging about like, I've got to learn this in all 12 keys before I move on. You know what I mean? You can learn it in three or four. I like that clingy. Totally. Don't be a cling on. Don't be a cling on.

And here's the thing about practicing things in weird keys is sometimes you're going to go back to that a year or two later. And it's not like you have, you know, just because you practiced half, you met Miss Jones for a day in G-flat means that you can do that. The idea is that you're just constantly working in these weird keys and that it gets easier and easier and easier. So it's always something to go back to. Yeah. Don't worry if you don't have it is what I'm saying. Exactly. And then this is very much a process-driven activity for ear training for,

expanding your, you know, pallet of available keys to play in and just the way that you hear intervals and the relationship between root movements and melodies and improvisation, so many wonderful things you can learn. But like, wait, was that half? Oh, yeah, have you. I was like, did I play a different tune? Okay, that was have you. So when you, yeah, the goal is to be able to play it all 12 keys eventually, but in terms of approach, I like to think about it. Get it in the original key or whatever key you're going to learn it at first at a very intuitive base level. So that might be just, you know, if you're at the piano, just the melody in the root. You know I love a melody in a root, right?

I do know you love it, which is, that's very telling all you people out there. So you've got that. And then the next place you go, there's many different ways to think about it, but why not go to the easiest place for you? So what would that be for you, Adam? Like if you were going to go to your first key leaving F in this case for having you met with Jones, where would you go? You know, I'm a circle of fourth kind of guy. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because that's, I mean, but something pattern-based, right? I would, yeah, yeah. I would take it there. Or chromatic. You've gotten me more on the chromatic idea. Yeah. I think chromatic's more of an advanced kind of approach, though, a little bit. Because, like, if you really know this in F, probably, as you say, the B-flat, or maybe circle a fifth.

Yeah. Can you go down to C or up to C? Yeah. Those are going to be the closest in terms of key, so you're going from one flat. to two flats or one flat to no flats. So, I mean, it kind of depends on how your mind works. It's possible for some people chromatic. But usually, sometimes even like going from one flat to one sharp.

That can be interesting. So you go to... So you take it up in... That's actually not that easy. Sorry. That's going to say. That's kind of hard. So you go from one flat to one sharp.

Yeah, that's hard. And then two flats. So you basically are working your way out. That's crazy. Yeah. Wait, no. Yeah. That's cool.

I like that one flat one sharp two flat two sharp yeah that's cool so that would probably be a more challenging way but yeah I would say circle of force or circle a fifth which is really just going up a fourth or going up a fifth take your time with it and then really try to make some connections and some pattern recognition as you're going through this so you also want to think about like so have you met miss jones for instance you want to get your major scale diatonically where you are because this is a lot of standards are so diatonically based it's not until you get there that you're leaving that So you go to B flat, you want to really get your B flat going, right? And then, and it's the same with the root movement, all diatonic. So you want to really get your major scale, know what you're doing wherever you're starting.

Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. So, yeah, just like that, Quinn. D.K. says, I've noticed that melodic minor set works with fourth step in the base. I guess the fourth in the base. Example of G melodic minor set and the C is the lowest voice. How do you use it? Is it an additional dominant set?

So, DK, yeah. So this is typically the Lydian dominant. Right? If you have a C and you're using a G melodic minor, right, this is what you would use over a C-7, a C-dominant 7-sharp 11, the scale. Now, I like that you're thinking about it like this because I often think of like a Lydian dominant in the terms of the melodic minor. We've talked about this. It's a little bit of a difference in how you can think about it. Because then you can do all these broken seventh chords.

If you know your broken seventh chords, thirds, arpeggios, all that stuff. And that's all over C7, sharp 11. Oh, look at this, chordies up. Yep. And really with the melodic minor together, there's so many great shapes. We just went over this in the daily out of practice session.

Like, if you start our melodic minor here, so we'll keep on C7 sharp 11, right? If you start here, let's start at C. and you make triads, right? It's so cool because you have major triad, C major, major, major triad, D major. D major, diminished, diminished, diminished, diminished, diminished, diminished, diminished triad, F sharp, minor, minor, and then what we call the interlude chord, the augmented.

So it's like major, major, diminished, diminished, minor, minor, and then one augmented, and you're back to the C. And I just want to make, this is such a great thing to use. I want to make sure everybody, because you went through it quickly, just to reiterate, make sure everybody understands this. These are the triads that are layered on top. You're moving up diatonically on the G minor melodic ascending minor scale, but I like to think about this is a Lydian dominant, right? Right.

And so we're just moving up. And so we're not making up these triads. These are what are existing within that scale. That's right. Like breaking them up. In the Lidion dominant scale or that G melodic minor scale starting on C. Because this concept, and you can take this to any scale, I mean, you can even do it over different diminished scales, although those are going to be all be diminished triads. But breaking up triads like this can unlock such a foundation for great improvisation. Because a lot of this sounds like it's just improvised lines, but these are actually triads and different inversions. Oh, it's like it's like a hipness in a box. Yeah. When you kind of get into this, you know. Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, what happens is sometimes people learn it first and they're like, and they're like, sounds corny. Don't worry about it. Just start to get it in your fingers, get the sound in your ears, and then you can start to get to some of the more advanced inversions later on. Hey, if you're liking this, this little YouTube broadcast. Say what, what, no. Don't say, don't say, wow, what, no, give us a little like there.

Give us a little like, let everybody else know. We're still going to be on here for another 43 minutes. Now, if we don't get 30 likes right now, we're not. No, let's keep the goal. Let's get some people in here. here. The likes help out with getting a bigger room. And don't forget to leave your question here in the chat. Lots of great questions so far. So keep them coming. Yep, yep, yep, yep. It's sunny 52 degrees in Las Vegas. What's up, Rich? Nice, 52. It's note here at St. Louis this morning.

Did you know that? I know, man. If you were up early, you saw you. It was so beautiful. So beautiful. Love it. Love it. Iggy Ziggy says. Iggy Ziggy, I don't you know. Got a question. Okay. Just started watching Adam's Bill Evans guide of practice session. This was my guide of practice session right here on YouTube Friday. Was wondering if you have any tips on improvising over turnarounds playing over

quick chord movements because we were doing Bill Evans playing on Israel and we were doing a very quick like at the end, right? Yeah. Like a really fast 1, flat 3 2, 5 kind of situation. And so that, I mean, that could really work with anything at the end of anything if you have a

how do you approach it? How do you approach it? How do you approach playing over quick turnarounds like that? Are you thinking each individual chord? Are you thinking just like key wise? Is it kind of a mix of all that? Yeah, actually I kind of try to use that same thing with the root movement to kind of pull things together.

So is this for any particular turnaround or just anyone? Anything where it moves fast. Yeah. So it's like trying to find some kind of pattern that you can turn into a melodic thing because what you don't want to say if it's moving fast because the tempo's fast, or because you're like moving every two beats.

So if we did that, let me see if we get core. What? So C major, 6-9, E-flat 7, A-flat major, right? Like, how do you make that sound, how do you make it not sound like you're moving that quickly? One thing is don't segment the chords with what you're playing with your melody or your improvisation. So you're going to be segmented in terms of,

the actual movement of the chords, although you can have a little bit of elasticity with that too. But with your solo line is really your opportunity to open things up. So it might be... Oops, that wasn't good. So you're looking at one line the same way as if you were improvising over C major. So you still want that direction. A lot of times people end up going like...

They segment things and make it symmetrical like they are a robot playing a turnarm. round, right? So, also, you can delay things. So, like, if you're going, I'm going to just double it up and repeat it a few times. Yeah. So it sounded like I was getting lost.

I wasn't. I was delaying things. I was delaying the inevitable. What's the tune? Like, something like that. It's got a really long turnaround. So you got four bars. So that was kind of jankyty.

But you have some time there. But you still don't want to, like, have it come out right. on each core because you've got to have some confidence that you're feeling where it is. So if it's like, you know, come out on two or something or end of one or something and set up your melody to like where you're not starting right on the beat.

So you don't want it to be, you know, everything is like, ah. Because that's like, that's hip for like, what's the headbanger music? Yeah, yeah, duh. Some thrash metal. Thrasch metal. But not for this so much.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I like the idea too if you wanted to get a little bit, if you wanted to go slow with this, like if you're really having a hard time, even understanding, you know, how to make these lines. You can think about the ideal of scale running, really slow it down. So if we do the same C major 7, E flat, major, seven. Were you doing all major chords?

Yeah. Well, I was doing dominant sauce there. And then major, major. No, like what you play, dominant. Got it. So major, dominant, major. Yeah, it could certainly be major too. C major seven, E flat dominant, A flat,

Major 7, D flat, dominant. So if you wanted to do some scale running on this, you could literally do as simple as this. And you could still do the things he was talking about, like delaying things. Yeah. Where you're switching your scale with the change. This is a great way to establish like,

okay, what are my note options over this? And also to start getting out of the box of like, you know, that thing that he was talking about of the, right? You can start to connect it a little easier. You could also like limit your real estate. So maybe I want to do all of this within a fourth. you know what I mean to where you're just like oh can I do all that within a third or a fourth or whatever that is yeah that's that's tough but it's really really good for you it's great a little melodic

restricted practicing that's right as it works exactly