Organize Chromatic Scale in Jazz Piano Solo 

Thanks - glad you can use the ideas :)

YES :) :)

Martín Morales I totally agree, this was intense :) After a moment they were just enjoying the detox and I forgot that it was a tutorial.

This is by far the most informative video I have ever seen. This is likely the most important thing I’ve run across on jazz soloing!

Oliver is the best in tutorials

I’ve been a guitar player for 40+ years,piano is much more satisfying musically,so much more than a fretboard to create music.

The Funky Notes are cool

You write perfect English :) It's probably better than mine ;)

Hi and thanks a lot :) I do not "think" any target note when playing this song - if I do, then it is subconscious. When I rehearse I often just fool around with a certain sequence or pattern discarding the things I don't like and keeping the things I like - making the pattern sound good. So in that way I develop a certain way of playing unaware what exactly does it. I hope you can use this answer :) Kind regards Oliver

Yes indeed you can do that!!! For example in this lesson (not in the start but later on in the lesson) we order the pentatonics in fifths to play all the Church Modes (Major Modes): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-61bI3dgdXMo.html Best regards from Oliver

Hi Johan. I really like your videos and guitar-play on RU-vid... wow!!! I have checked out Olivier Messiaen. Really exiting reading about his modes and transpositions. Messiaen's theory is based on scales/modes. From the modes he forms the interval groups and symmetry. The theory in this lesson2 is more based on the very handgrips on the piano which movements in straight sequences forms the music and sound-landscape, without thinking on any particularly mode or scale. Thanks for bringing up this French composer. I was not aware of him before now :)

Podia ter em português!!

Hi 😊 All subtitles and descriptions are open for translation... We hope somebody will help translating 😉

lol :) It's actually two keyboards. Bass and solo is recorded separately and then I glued the two recordings together :)

Thanks :) I do not know so much about gospel - though I love Gospel Music :) Anyway, the next lesson will be about improvising on a 12 bar blues - maybe it will be useful to you - a couple of weeks and I will be done :) Best regards Oliver

Thanks a lot :) I mixed some of the sounds from a Rhodes mk80 and a Korg X50. Two very old keyboards - I don't have them any more...

Thanks Jason :) I'm really glad that you like the unique and kind of odd sound landscape :)

Hi and thanks a lot :) I'm sorry but I don't give private lessons these days. I try to use all my efforts on the videos here on YT - so I hope you will stay tuned - more lessons will come (approximately every third week). Best regards Oliver

Hi :) Thanks for your input :) You can just turn off the captions in the video settings. I think you can also drag them to wherever you like... Best regards from Oliver

Hi and thanks a lot for all your comments and very nice words :) I will definitely not stop ;) But every video take some time to produce. Working on the next lesson right now about Mixolydian, the Mixo left hand chord and the so called "avoid" note that is not so dangerous after all... Glad you can use some of the extra material on the website ;) The best regards Oliver

Can you please elaborate on how you create your horizontal scale runs? Watching the video, you switch keys and scales very fast and smoothly. Even though I know these three scales, playing them out side by side on the keyboard doesnt seem to gel very well; it sounds like three disconnected pentatonic scales when I do it. Not sure what I am missing here.

Yes, you are so right. The techniques can be used not only in Jazz. Progressive Metal or Classic Composition - you name it :)

Thanks for input!!!

Well - This song is way beyond traditional Major/minor music!!! But anyway the bass actually plays in G minor. In the right hand solo we play both Major and minor. I think the technique shown in this lesson is mostly for playing modal and freestyle - we just go crazy without thinking too much about theory and tonalities... Best regards from Oliver

Yes! He's a really good inspiration!!! Cheers from Oliver

Great :) And good luck with your music :)

Thank you so much. But you don’t have to donate anything. A really nice comment like yours is all the support I need :) Warm regards from Oliver

Hahaha... sorry about my accent... cheers from Oliver

+J. Charles Hi Charles and thanks a lot :) And very good and interesting question about the 2-5-1. I will try to give my comment on that in the weekend in a few days. I hope that's ok :)

Sure, thx, looking forward to that!

+J. Charles Here is my comments to the 2-5-1 question. And thanks for your patience :) Lets look at the straight sequence Gm-Bm-Ebm pentatonic. The result from this sequence is the chromatic scale: all 12 notes are represented. It is clear that this sequence does not fit into any traditional harmonic structure or movement like the 2-5-1 in jazz standards. But you may benefit from the sequence anyway inside the 2-5-1 movement and use the sequence as a method of playing IN & OUT. If the 2-5-1 movement is Gm7-C7-Fmaj7 then the Gm-pentatonic from the sequence fits nicely all the way through the 2-5-1 movement. But if you dare, and you move your fingers to the Bm and Ebm pentatonic you are fare away from the harmonic material - you are playing OUT. When you have been there too long and everybody is holding there ears, you can then go back to the safe Gm-pentatonic. The advantage of playing OUT using an ordered sequence is that you are not just playing OUT to mess up - actually you are making another layer of structure (not harmonic) and with a little luck, the solo player can add some depth and originality to the sound-landscape. When the solo player is playing OUT the listener will here something well defined and autonomic (the ordered sequence) breaking free from the traditional harmonic 2-5-1 sound. Well this is only talk - it also have to work in practice :) But I think your question is very interesting! Cheers from Oliver Prehn

+James Robinson Hi James :) The sequence of the pentatonic tonalities (Gm-Bm-Ebm and Cm-Em-Abm) is suppose to give the music structure and logic - alone. Well, I don't know if I manage that - haha :) But that is the idea. So I'm not thinking of 'target notes' when playing this example. Actually I sometime circulate around the most dissonant notes derived from the pentatonic sequence - maybe because I'm trying to distance away from the traditional harmonic music. Cheers Oliver Prehn

NewJazz Thank you for your response! I'm a guitar player & I'm always looking for fresh ideas. I get the concept of playing a minor pentatonic a major 3rd up from the root of each pentatonic scale. I'm just trying to walk before I run. It's a great tutorial & a really cool way to play outside. You've definitely mastered it!

Thanks :) And great that you will try the technique on the guitar too :) Remember there is many other types of sequences in this world. For instance, try MINOR 3rd up from the root, this will give a completely other kind of sound - and so on. As you express it: "always looking for new ideas (or sounds)". Good luck with everything :) Cheers Oliver

NewJazz I'm going to try this with m7b5 arpeggios as the b5 is the only difference from a m7 arpeggio & the m7 arpeggio is basically a minor pentatonic without the perfect 4th.

+James Robinson YES, try that! I think I will try that too ;) No one says that it has to be pentatonic handgrips. The idea is to make a sequence using some notes - it could be the m7b5 notes, the pentatonic notes or any other notes. So you make a structure/system to play inside avoiding the traditional diatonic scales. There are millions of sound-landscapes to explore. Have fun :)

Thx Jake, DrDee and Chat Bass. I'm really glad you can find this nerdy lesson useful!!!

LOL!!!

I was using the sounds from an old Korg Keyboard, and that keyboard died last year, so we cant recreate the sounds from this video - sorry. The second group of pentatonic scales are by the way Cm-Em-Abm. The same as the first group Bm-Ebm-Gm, just transposed. The idea is that each pentatonic scale is spaced with a Major third. Regards Oliver

Hi and thanks :) I make a structure: from Gmi penta I go up a Major third to Bmi penta and a Major third to Ebmi penta and then a Major third up to Gmi penta and we start all over again. This well ordered structure makes our sound - rather than a certain tonality as we are used to in traditional tonal music.

Many times I just play the minor pentatonic scale or the blues scale in the bass. By the way, in this lesson we learn to play a simple walking bass over the 2-5-1 progression: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cvfN8tG1RwU.html Best regards Oliver

Thx. A new video is coming soon playing in and out A-dorian on the old Korg Organ :)