Blog 4: DiJAZZtrous Week (Week 3)

Progress Update
As the title indicates, this week has been pretty bad for me. Beyond the fact that the music theory is extremely complex and hard to understand, this Friday was my second Jazz Competition. It was also my first improvised solo and basically, it went terribly. The solo section was extremely complex and complicated. It was something that could only be played through chord changes as the melody and the chords didn't match up. Because of this, I had no choice but to attempt improvising over the chord changes. However, my lack of understanding of the chord changes, along with the difficulty of the chords really screwed me over.

Someone playing this would have been better than me

Moving on to my progress this week, it was slightly better than my performance this Friday. One of the things I figured out is that the 3rd and 7ths of the chord are responsible for making the changes. When moving from chord to chord, it is usually best to link the 3rds and 7ths of the chord together. It is best if these notes are half notes apart. You can also move chromatically to connect the notes.

I have also started watching a a series made by Ed Barker(Barker Parker no wonder he's a good player), the saxophone soloist for George Micheal, about Charlie Parker's solos, and what he did (Visit His Channel Here). It analyzes each notes he played on each chord. It looks at the notes he played in relation to the chords.

Ed Barker takes some of Charlie Parker's famous licks and breaks them apart from a chord perspective. The first thing that we learn is that this is a 251 progression. This is a common harmonic progression where the notes are related to the root or the 1 chord. In this case the root is the C Major chord. As shown by the image below, the D is the 2nd note of the scale, and the G is the 5th note of the scale. This then creates the chord progression DGC shown above.

Although Charlie Parker's solo was very complicated and fast, in actuality it was tied to the basic chords. The first 4 notes after the 1st measure actually perfectly outline the chords of D minor. We also see the repeated use of the 9ths of the chord that are used to create tension, that he later resolves with a more normal part of the chord such as the 3rd.

The purpose of this is not only to gain a better understanding of how to improvise from one of the best, but to take some of these "licks" and use them myself. Because improvisation is not just about playing the right notes in the chord, but to have interesting melodic phrasing. In order to get ideas for my own solos, it is only natural to learn from Charlie Parker.

This Weeks Plan
This week I plan on putting what I learned into practice. Not only do I need to play it musically correct in relation to the chord, but it is important to play interesting ideas along with it. I already began this practice today. During my practice with a couple of my friends forming a band (CHECK OUT OUR FACEBOOK HERE SHAMELESS PROMOTION), we played many songs and improvised over a variety of chords. Here's an audio clip of what we did (CLICK HERE).

Since the chords were easier than the songs I played on Friday, I had a much better time improvising over them and was able to restore some of my confidence. This week I will try to emulate this practice by using backing tracks from the internet. I will start off by outlining the chords in my solos and then moving on to embellishing the basic chords. Wish me good luck.