[Richie]

Thanks for sharing Chris! I would have liked to hear you play it though, but you are using the approaches correctly which is the most important thing.

Hopefully we’ll get to hear you play one (and improvise one) in the future. Keep up the good work!

[Richie]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the course and especially the fact that you have been taking advantage of the Rhythm Templates. You can never write too many of these! Unfortunately this along with the ear training are the 2 most neglected aspects of this course by many…too bad for them…good for you!

To answer your question regarding the practicality of writing “too many etudes”, I want to address 2 factors:

1- You must play them repeatedly to get the full benefit of them. I had a period in my life when I was directed by my mentor to continually write these and play each one almost daily for a period of 3 to 6 months, even to the point of memorization from playing them so much. An interesting thing happens down the road as a result. You start improvising over the same chord progression and of course same fingerings used in the etudes you practiced, and several ideas from them naturally come to mind from the different varieties. Now keep in mind that it may or may not be the specific idea that you liked so much from say, your 5th variation, but the ideas will now have a melodic sense of direction. You will use different approach resources targeting the current arpeggio and above all voice lead smoothly at the point of chord change. At least, much better than 6 months earlier, before you started programming these new ideas.

So what I recommend is that you begin your practice sessions playing as many of them as possible for several months. Play the ones you like and know are correct. After doing this for at least 2 months, always take a few minutes at the end to freely improvise over the same progression. See what comes to mind as a result of what you have written. It usually is rough at first but as you keep doing this over another couple of months, more and more will start surfacing and you will start hearing different ways of creating melodies through the changes.

2- The templates have to be written correctly or you risk the danger of practicing and thus programming into your brain the wrong use of approaches and resolutions. You wouldn’t believe how many players taking the course start taking lessons with me and when I ask them to see what they wrote I find all sorts of errors and misconceptions. Among them, approach notes over values larger than an 8th note, lack of resolution, bad voice leading at the point of chord change, wrong use of upper extensions and more. If you are a more advanced player with a solid understanding of the theory, you don’t have to worry. However, I always try to encourage everyone, even if they aren’t taking “one on one” lessons with me, to post some of their rhythm templates here for review. With hundreds of players taking this course at any given time, I sometimes wonder why no takes more advantage of this resource.
All I can say to everyone is…Don’t be afraid of exposing any mistakes as you are here to learn! It is normal to suck in the process. I did and you most likely will. 🙂

[Richie]

Thanks Mark. You can always use your phone to record these days. I-Phones and Androids both produce pretty decent video.

[Richie]

Thanks Mark! I have just uploaded new PDFs with corrections. At this pace you’re going to become a jazz theory scholar 🙂 At least I am happy to know you are understanding the concepts! So, will I get to hear you play sometime?

[Richie]

Thanks Havir for pointing that out! I will make sure it is corrected and have a new copy uploaded by the end of the day.

[Richie]

Hi Ervin,

SA stands for Scale Approach which means it should be diatonic to the current scale versus “chromatic”. On the other hand you are right, the short explanation I included didn’t make it into the currently published version and there is no reason you could have guessed. It will appear in the next version upgrade to be released soon. Thanks for pointing it out…

[Richie]

Jack,

First of all, I think you are getting your theory mixed up when you say 3-11-b5-5. You cannot have an 11 on any scale that has a maj 3. Nor a b5 and a 5 in the same scale. A proper analysis would be either 3-4-ch-5 or the DCH perspective which is 3-ch-ch-5.

In your fragment the 5 is being approached from below using a double chromatic approach. Yes, the 4 happens to be diatonic. However, in the context of DCH for the sake of simplicity in our thinking both when applying it and analyzing it on paper, we view it as 2 consecutive half steps starting a whole step below the target chord tone.

As far as the name “double chromatic” goes, it is usually going to consist of a diatonic and non diatonic half step. So in this context it is using the term “chromatic” not strictly in the sense that it is non-diatonic, but in the sense that it resolves “chromatically” by 2 consecutive half steps. The need for this perspective will become clearer when you get into 3 and 4 note enclosures.

[Richie]

Ricardo,
Feel free to practice the chord studies and modules simultaneously.

[Richie]

Thanks for pointing that out. Apparently the wrong graphic is being displayed. What I am singing is correct though. I will see that it is edited.

[Richie]

Actually, when I wrote that etude I thought about that and hoped somebody would someday ask that question. So being the first one, you are the proud winner of an all paid vacation to Wala Wala (wherever that may be).

The 1-9-1 over a triplet is technically a 1-2-1 but since it takes place immediately after an official “9”, in this case the ear has already identified it as an upper extension. In addition for reading the intervallic script it would add confusion to immediately call it a “2” after just playing it as a “9”. So, it’s more of a convenience decision or call it exception.

[Richie]

Correct, the dorian doesn’t use the 13 when it forms part of a II-V cadence because of the tritone it forms with the 3rd. The problem is that when you play the “13” over the Dorian over the IIminor, you are playing the same note that shortly will sound as the “3” in the V7. So, the dorian looses its character and starts sounding like the dominant which defeats its purpose.

However, please note that the 13 is with the dorian when it is not used over a IImin chord. Usually it is in the context of modal tunes such as “So What” and “Impressions”. Here you will hear the 13 used because it is not followed by a dominant. As a matter of fact Miles used to love to sit on it when playing modal…

[Richie]

I looked at measure 7 in Blues Etude Opus 3, and yes the first note is a 5. However we are on a I7 chord and not on a V7 chord like you state. We have just transitioned here from the IV7 back to the I7.

I did purposely deviate from going to a a primary guide tone (3 or 7) here just for the sake of variety and change of direction. Transitioning to 3rds and 7s is something I drill and reinforce very hard in the first stage of the course. This is because these are the 2 guide tones that identify the main essence of a chord (unlike the 1 and 5 which are hybrids). So, I am trying to get you into this “habit”.

However, this does not mean that we can’t occasionally transition to a 5, especially if it is soon after followed by a 3 or 7. To that effect, as the course progresses I will also introduce upper extensions as alternate guide tones.

The bottom line is that a line must infer the actual changes of the progression you are improvising over without the need of any accompaniment. That is the ultimate test! So to conclude, if for the most part we keep 3rds and 7ths as our initial chord tones at the point of chord change, we should infer the changes fairly well through our lines.

[Richie]

Thanks Mark…I will have to feature you in the credits for this book, when it’s finally out since I don’t think Obama Care is going to come through with the benefits 🙂

Yes, measures 7 and 8 had the wrong pattern description…and yes the Ebmaj7 had b7 in the script. Fortunately it took under 5 minutes to correct. I just re-uploaded the corrected PDF for Lesson/Module 6b.

Richie

[Richie]

Davide,
What you are asking needs to be narrowed down to a more manageable question. First of all the calisthenics are exercises not designed to directly apply them in a standard. Second, there are so many of them. What you are asking is too broad and general.

If we were doing the online “one on one” lessons, I would be able to demonstrate how the elements that make up the Calisthenics, once mastered are used to improvise. This is not something I can do without you hearing me play and explain (please consider upgrading to Platinum). I would have to notate an entire solo showing various examples from the Calisthenics which is beyond the scope of what I can do here. That’s why I provide the etudes and rhythm templates after assigning the Calisthenics. The etudes show examples of the concepts being used in the context of a progression. On the other hand, the rhythm templates show you how to structure them into a solo. Once you understand all of this you should be able to use it when improvising over a standard.

If you want ideas on how to incorporate the Calisthenics into a standard please check out Appendix 2, p.114 in the Workbook. It is called “Further Adventures with the Bebop Calisthenics” and is at the end of the book. It will guide you step by step.

[Richie]

You are correct. There is a missing arrow in bar 9 1-6-b7-5. Everything else is correct. I will make sure it is added on the next update. Good observation…thanks!

[Author]

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