“There are 2048 scales in music, no more, no less. 12 of them are intervals (scales with only two notes), and 344 of the other 2036 scales are source scales” A complete encyclopedia of scales has always been on every musician’s wish-list. There are many reasons why having a collection containing all scales in music... Continue Reading →
One of the best ear training exercises you can do to learn jazz standards and improvisation is Target Notes. Imagine this melodic line over the progression: We could use our classification method to classify each note against their respective chord. But this would be a futile effort, since this line’s main purpose is to land on the b7 of the G7... Continue Reading →
If you want to adapt popular music to jazz, the best approach is to think of the harmonic functions (rather than just the chords) and then use techniques of tonal harmony. In the following video we show how to turn a very basic piano version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" into a jazz... Continue Reading →
There are many ways to expand and develop a chord-voicings vocabulary. A standard approach is to stack simple structures (triads, quartals, dyads) on top of other simple ones, thus creating a richer color palette for your voicings. These structures are usually called Upper Structures. In the Upper Structures over complete Jazz Standards Progressions book collection... Continue Reading →
Starting on version 7.8.8, Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro macOS now offers two incredible and unprecedented add-ons: Upper Structures & Target Notes These are two powerful features to study and practice tonal harmony. View Mapping Tonal Harmony’s webpage The new add-ones are also available in Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro for iOS (iPhone & iPad) View it... Continue Reading →
For a piano player, knowing how to voice chords is an essential skill, not only for comping (accompanying or laying the chord progression for others player to improvise over), but also to use those voicings as an improvisational aid. All piano players get many melodic ideas or lines from their voicings. Other instrumentalists also take... Continue Reading →
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