Pentatonic scale and blues scale

Today, let's talk about the pentatonic scales.
A pentatonic scale is a 5 notes scale. There's a major pentatonic scale, and a minor one.

Major pentatonic scale

Major pentatonic scale containe the 5 first notes of the circle of fifths. If you start on a C :

C - G - D - A - E

Let's order those notes : 

C - D - E - G - A

You can play this scale on C major chord, CMaj7 or C7.

Fingering of this scale is : 1-2-3-1-2

Minor pentatonic scale 

Minor pentatonic scale is very different from major's one. We could think that it is the same scale but with an altered third, but it is not. Here it is in tonality of C:
C - Eb - F - G - Bb

Fingering I use for playing this scale is: 1-2-3-1-2

Blues scale

Blues scale is a minor pentatonic plus the "blue note", the augmented 4th. In C tonality, F# is added: C - Eb - F - F# - G - Bb

A fingering often used by pianists is: 1-2-3-4-1-2
Some pianists use another one, which I think is less fluent: 1-2-1-2-1-2
But if you are playing two times this scale, over 2 octaves, you can use a more fluent version: 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 (means the 2nd C is played with 3rd finger)

As the name suggests you can play this scale on a blues progression. For example, in a C blues, the C blues scale will work fine during the entire progression. That's why this scale is very useful !
I will soon write a complete post about blues changes because there's so much to say about that progression. It seems simple but it could be upgraded to be more complicated and jazzy.

In the same way, you can use this scale on minor7 or dominant 7 chords, it works just fine.
Do not use that too often on dominant 7 chords, because of this minor third which brings tension with the Major third of the chord. The 'jazzy' sound comes from such tensions, so you can play with them, and try to resolve them, but you shouldn't insist with the tension by making it last too long or by ending a phrase on it.

It's possible to use this scale on Major 7 chords, but it's trickier. Try it and trust you ear to use it at the good time. Listen to great pianists such as Nat King Cole, he is the best at it.

II-V-I progression

Like I already said this progression is widely used in jazz. Open your Real Book there are plenty of II-V-I in it !
You'll often see his non-resolved version too : II-V



We already talked about the II-V-I in C Major in my previous thread about left hand rootless voicings : Dm7 - G7 - CM7

To understand what represents the chords of this progression you'll have to consider the major scale (e.g in C here) and put a degree (starting on I) on each note of this scale :

On each degree of the scale you can build a chord by stacking 3rds.
You all know the 3 notes chords which are 3 thirds stacked, but in jazz the chords are built with more notes to obtain a more colored sound.Let's take the first degree as an example :

You obtain here the CMaj7 chords








You can build like this many chords based on each degree of the scale. If you take a closer look to chords obtained here you'll see that each chord is not build with the same intervals (some are minor thirds, some are major thirds).
Here are the chords and their naming:

We will talk about each degree later on when talking about major scale harmonization. For the moment let's have a look on I, II and V degrees : CMaj7, Dm7 and G7

Those 3 chords are representing our II-V-I progression, in their primary position.








It is possible to extend those chords by stacking other thirds above those 4 notes, it gives a jazzy sound to the chords :

If you are playing in band with a bassist (his role is to play the root most of the time - I simplify of course), you can then remove the root from you voicing. See my 1st thread on left hand rootless voicings on II-V-I

We saw that those chords Dm7 - G7 - CMaj7 are entirely built with notes coming from C major scale. That's why you can play all notes of the major scale corresponding to the 1st degree of the progression when improvising on this progression. It's your alphabet for improvising on this progression.
In our example, it means you can play all those notes : C - D - E - F - G - A - B.

Work :

Search and work the II-V-I progresson in all tonalities, on the circle of fifths.
When you feel comfortable, play the chords with your left hand and try to improvise with the right hand on the corresponding major scale.

Now that you know a part of the improvisation alphabet, learn to use it by building words and sentences with it, and one day you'll be able to build a story.
If you have learn classical music when you were young, you already know this alphabet by practicing a lot of scales and arpeggios, you just need now to how to use it in a jazz context.

Have fun looking for II-V-I or II-V in the Real Book.

Enjoy and have fun !

My Funny Valentine - Bill Evans, Jim Hall

Working the jazz piano requires to make transcriptions of great pianists. It's the best to understand what they play, to acquire their phrasing, and to learn new licks.

One of my favorite jazz pianist is Bill Evans.

The first solo I wanted to transcribe is a version I love of My Funny Valentine. You can listen to it on album Undercurrent where Bill Evans plays in duo with guitarist Jim Hall.

The entire song is very long to transcribe so I advise to transcribe Bill solo at 3'20.

But if you feel comfortable with transcription, the entire song is good and you can learn many things : 

- Bill's phrasing is beautiful. And it's rare to hear this standard ballad played medium swing. Believe me: when  gigging I can't no more play it in ballad swing, and other musicians are often surprised when I ask to play it medium swing. 

- If you want to train yourself to left hand walking bass transcribe Bill's left hand when he accompanies Jim Hall at 1'40. I learned a lot from this walking bass !

You can listen to this record on Grooveshark here:
http://grooveshark.com/s/My+Funny+Valentine+alt+Take/438biY?src=5

Good luck and good transcription ! It's very long when you're a beginner but believe me it pays !

Circle of fifths

When I work a new voicing, a new chords progression or a new lick I try to work it in all tonalities. For this I use the circle of 5ths (or circle of 4ths, depends on the direction you play it)

It presents many advantages:

- It's more melodious and more interesting than playing all tonalities half-ton by half-ton. And it helps your ear not getting bored too quickly.

- It's very utilized in jazz. You can hear this progression in lots of standard. And in lots of style : pop, rock, blues, jazz, country... If you work like that your finger will find easier their way when you play a standard. you can notice that II-V-I is itself a fifth progression ! Plus the order of sharps and flats is base on the circle of 5ths.

Take a look at the Wikipedia article of the circle of 5ths which is very complete.

Use it when training you will see benefits very quickly.

Left hand rootless voicings on II-V-I

The very first things I want to share with you are the left hand rootless voicing. I began my piano jazz work with those voicings. I trained many days to master those voicings and they're still my most used voicings today.



Why "voicing" ?
Because there are lots of ways to play chords. If you see a Dm7 in a sheet it is not mandatory to play strictly D-F-A-C: you have other notes to play on a Dm7 to enhance it and give it a "jazzy" color.

Why "left hand" ?
Becauser those voicings will be used to make hear the changes while your right hand plays the melody or improvise.
Why "rootless" ?
Because when playing in a jazz band the pianist doesn't need necessarily to make ear the root of the chords: it's the bassist job ! It makes him free to color his voicings with others jazzy notes.

Those voicings are declined in 2 versions: one beginning from the 3rd and one beginning from the 7th. You'll have to make the choice between both according to the tessitura where you are.

On a minor chord with minor 7th:

beginning on the 3rd: 3rd - 5th - 7th - 9th
or beginning on the 7th: 7th - 9th - 3rd - 5th

E.g on a Dm7: 

On a dominant 7th chord:

beginning on the 3rd: 3rd - 6th - 7th - 9th
or beginning on the 7th: 7th - 9th - 3rd - 6th

E.g on a G7: 

You can see that in this voicing you don't play the 5th but the 6th. Actually the 5th of a dominant 7th chord is not the most beautiful note to play. It's more interesting and colorful to make ring the 6th.

On a major 7th chord:

beginning on the 3rd: 3rd - 5th - 6th - 9th
or : 3rd - 5th - 7th - 9th
or beginning on the 7th: 7th - 9th - 3rd - 5th

E.g on a CMaj7 : 

On the voicing beginning on the 3rd it's possible to play the 6th or the 7th. Try both: the color is very different and you'll have to adapt according to your taste.
I use the 6th when I want an "old jazz" sound (old big band like Glenn Miller's used this type of voicings). The 7th color is more modern.

Work on II-V-I :

The best way to learn this voicings is to train on the most used progression in jazz: the II-V-I (see my thread regarding II-V-I )

Let's take a II-V-I example in C tonality: Dm7 - G7 - CMaj

For the Dm7 chord let's take a voicing beginning on the 3rd : F - A - C - E
For the G7 chords let's take a voicing beginning on the 7th : F - A - B - E
You can see that with this choice you only have to move one finger !
For the CMaj7 let's take the voicing beginning on the 3rd because it's the closest to the previous G7 voicing: E - G - A - D

Variant:

The other possibility is to use the voicing beginning on the 7rd for Dm7 voicing and you get this :

Work:

I advise to work this voicing II-V-I progession on all tonalities and following the circle of 5ths (ascending and descending). If you can work with a bassist it's the best way to work without being bored and to have fun.

Good luck and good work !

Welcome

Welcome to Learn Jazz Piano.

This blog is dedicated to :
- beginners in jazz piano
- advanced jazz pianists who want to discover new technics, new voicings or to review what they already know