All they have to do is stay the same, but wear masks like famous actors like Jack Nicholson (Johnny) from the Shining Movie. They can all choose whatever
I am never going to play a major 7th chord c e g b again after viewing this! Am I right that if one plays the notes of the C 6th (c e g a) in alternate steps with the notes of the diminished chord (d f flat 6 b) (divergent and convergent) a whole new array of voicings will suddenly be born?! If so, am off to try this right now. Please forgive my convoluted summary of your lesson.
Everyone in this group has such an incredible voice on their instrument. I've been following John since I shot a video like this for him back in 2018 and he never disappoints!!!
thank you so much for this!! this is so well (and relaxed) explained, it gives me a lot! Finally I seem to begin to understand a bit of Bill Evans way of voicings. I always disliked the major7 when I play and included the 7, but this concept of major and dimished at the same time played in opposite manner makes the difference. Really, thank you!
I’m a crummy guitar player with a lightweight understanding of music theory…but those diminished harmony passages towards the end of the video were CRUNCHY and very cool. Thanks man. This is neat stuff.
I need to watch this again as I must have missed the bit where we are shown how to play Autumn Leaves using these concepts? I was expecting to see how you actually apply this to Autumn leaves, under the actual melody. As in "How to play Autumn Leaves". Did you do at least one run through under the melody and the concept distracts the ear so much that I missed it? Sorry if I am being a bit thick here, as I really wanted to see you apply your concepts to Autumn leaves in practice, as I believed it could sound really cool. Maybe you could do a follow up video where you actually play Autumn leaves and show us exactly how it all fits under the melody and the inversions and chord voicings that you end up using please
Hmm… as an experienced classical player, I'm very suspicious about the idea of keeping the fingering the same through all 12 keys in both directions and both positions of each pattern. I'm the beginner with jazz improv, but man, some of these keys really don't fit under my hands very well. I assume your reason for doing so is that you don't have to think about fingering while in the middle of a solo. Still, this is very weird and non-intuitive for me.
Actually when I first started playing this pattern I had 2 different fingerings for going up, depending on the key. So for the D minor pattern E-C#-D-F-Bb-G-A-C I would use 4-3-1-2-4-3-1-2. But if I would use that fingering pattern on C# minor it would be extremely awkward so I used the fingering I used in the video. Eventually I found it easier (both mentally and physically) to use the one fingering. I keep my fingers pretty deep into the keyboard (past the tips of the black keys) so I don’t have to change my wrist angle when I put my thumb on a black key. That said, everyone’s hand is different and sometimes it takes some experimentation to find the best fingering for you. For improv it definitely helps to have 1 fingering for every key, something I can’t do when playing scales straight up and down. Anyway, thanks for the comment, it’s an important point!
Thanks @@JohnColonnaMusic for your thoughtful reply and for the encouragement! I've never talked to jazz teachers about this, but I texted my friend, who's an experienced jazz session player with a deep classical background, and he agrees with you. He says that he isn't consistent about fingering when improvising, but when practicing he finds it useful to keep fingerings consistent when practicing patterns in all 12 keys.
