Introduction The harmonic minor is one of the three main source scales in music. This is a seven note minor scale with a b3, a b6 and a natural 7th. The related modes group from this scale offer quite a few interesting textures, sometimes overlooked by many jazz beginners. Here's a taste of what this group... Continue Reading →
Introduction The Circle of Fifths is one of the most powerful tools we half to represent our 12-tone system. By stacking perfect fifths you get all the notes in western music. Using the circle of fifths to show scales allows us to find very interesting properties of that scale, from determining key signatures, to finding... Continue Reading →
Wouldn't it be nice to just sit at the piano and play for hours on end improvising beautiful music in different styles and moods? Here's a list of 20 piano tricks that will change the way you play piano for ever. These piano tricks are much more than just a recipe of what to play.... Continue Reading →
“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 →
Here's a song by Billy Strayhorn that I've always loved and never fully analyzed until writing The Jazz Standards Progressions Book. I've been fascinated by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn compositions since the first time I heard an Ellington album, about thirty years ago. Since then I greatly enjoyed their rich harmonies, rhythmic vocabulary and... Continue Reading →
Here's a musical concept nobody taught me at school. While analyzing 1000+ jazz tunes for The Jazz Standards Progressions Book, I noticed a great number of songs in major keys tonicize the IV degree at the beginning of the bridge. It's usually preceded by the V/IV, landing on the IV at the beginning of the... Continue Reading →
In the process of writing The Jazz Standards Progressions Book Series I realized the need to express a very common harmonic event with a new symbol. So far we had solid and dotted arrows and brackets to express II-V relationships and their resolutions. However there isn't any symbol to show a Major 7th chord that... Continue Reading →
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