Beginning Improvisation 1 & 2
A modal approach to improvisation
David Beecroft

(also available in German)

The Beginning Improvisation 1 & 2 Books + CD's provide relief to beginning improvisers who feel that the chords that make up a piece of music change too quickly to grasp. It does this by providing play-along tracks for almost any chord you may encounter in a piece of music.

The books (and play-along CD's) provide a simple approach to understanding with the intellect and the ears the basic sounds found in jazz music. The idea is simple, provide an opportunity for beginning players to find their own melodies on the sounds that go into creating a jazz piece by providing a “play-along” track for each chord found in a song. The idea goes a bit further by providing a simple preparation exercise that gets the chord sound in your ear. You may then forget about the chord tones and scale degrees and concentrate upon melodic ideas. The books also contain a section on technique for improvisation, more specifically, a section on creating technique exercises that are to be played without reading. It goes without saying that the exercises you come up with can be played along with the tracks on the CD's

Book & CD 1 deals with three modes; Ionian, Dorian and Mixolydian.
The chords that correspond to these three modes are:

Major chords (Cmaj7, Cmaj9, C69) for the Ionian mode

Minor chords (Cm7, Cm9, Cm11, Cm6) for the Dorian mode

Dominant chords (C7, C9, C7sus, C13) for the Mixolydian mode

Book & CD 2 deals with the Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor scales as they apply to the IIm7b5, V7b9 and V7altered chords.

V7b9b13 (V7 in minor),
Harmonic Minor scale from the 5th degree (Phrygian mode with a raised 3rd degree)

V7altered (tritone substitute)
Melodic Minor scale (Dorian with a raised 7th degree)
ie G7alt - phrases derived from Ab Melodic Minor scale
Melodic Minor scale from its 3rd degree (Lydian mode with a raised 5 degree)
ie: G7alt - play B Lydian Raised 5 (Ab Melodic Minor from the 3rd scale degree)

Dim chords & V7b913
Diminished scale

 

Flash Demonstration:

 

NEW!
Available August 05
(English or German version)

Beginning Improvisation 3
A chordal approach to improvisation
David Beecroft

This book is about giving yourself the tools required to imagine and connect to chords in an improvising situation. In Beginning Improvisation 1 & 2 the player learns that scale + triad = mode. To fully appreciate a modal sound means that the player must have a root feeling and a feeling of tension and release (where the triad is release). Chords can be thought of as the skeleton of a mode. The melody and the modes or scales that the melody expresses can be thought of as the soft tissue that covers the bones of a song. By learning to move triads around through common sequences and transpositions the player gains the mental and physical facility required to internalize the underlying harmony or skeleton of a piece of music.

This third book begins with nine tracks that take the player chromatically up and down through all major and minor triads. The chords change only once per bar and are relatively slow in tempo. This gives the beginner the opportunity to learn to use their imagination to prepare themselves for what they will play as well as to keep track of where they are and what chords are coming next. A more advanced player may find these tracks somewhat tedious and is invited to skip them if this is so. If you work out and memorize a fixed sequence of tones for each track you will not benefit from the exercises. Remember “As Ye Practice, So Shall Ye Play...”, practice “improvising” the exercises and you will be practicing a very important aspect of improvisation.