Starting and Ending Phrases

Large intervallic leaps and interesting rhythms can make phrases more compelling.  The most effective place to use both devices is at the beginnings and endings of phrases.  Intensifying one's focus on how one starts and concludes improvised musical phrases has added benefits as well.

Some ways I like to practice this vary from very general to quite specific.  Here are some examples:

Start every phrase with a large leap (P5 or larger).
Start every phrase with a large leap, continue with a line in the opposite direction.
Start every phrase with a large leap from one chord tone to another.
Start every phrase with a large leap from a chord tone to a tension, resolving to another chord tone.
Start every phrase with a leap of a [3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, Octave]
Start every phrase with a leap of [m3, M3, P4, A4, P5, m6, M6, m7 M7]
Start every phrase with an ascending leap.
Start every phrase with a descending leap.
Alternate starting phrases with ascending and descending leaps.


All of the above can be applied to ending phrases as well.  I find it helpful to focus on one or the other at first, then investigate ways of combining them:


Start every phrase with an ascending leap, end with a descending leap.
Start and end every phrase with a leap of a P5 (or any specific interval).
Start every phrase with a P5 (or any specific interval), end with a M7 (or any different specific interval).

Etc., etc. . . . there are practically infinite variations you could some up with.

You can do something similar by picking a specific rhythm (usually involving a syncopation) or a few rhythms to work on starting and ending phrases in rhythmically interesting ways.  You can make this more challenging by displacing the rhythm in various ways (e.g., 8th-quarter-quarter, start on 1, 2, 3, or 4, or start on any of the offbeats). 

Working on these ideas overlaps somewhat with the notion of soloing using rhythmic and melodic motives, and will make your improvisations more cohesive.

An additional idea: try to start each phrase with the same note that you ended the last phrase with.  This is a subtle trait in a lot of music, once you start analyzing music with it in mind, it's all over the place.  I think it comes from the fact that when singing a new phrase, it's much easier if it starts on or near the last note you sang.
This idea can be used as a standalone exercise, or a way of building on another exercise (you could use it as an additional parameter in any of the above suggestions).

Wayne Shorter: El Gaucho

Just thought I'd share a transcription I did a while ago.  I think it's pretty accurate, but there may be some some mistakes or typos (since I do these primarily for my own use, I'm generally not too obsessive about being ultra-precise with the notation as long as I can play them along with the record correctly). 
It's a great solo by Wayne Shorter on his tune "El Gaucho" from the recording "Adam's Apple".  Check out how he uses the melody as a basis for his improvisational ideas.  Also note that they add an extra two bars at one point.

el gaucho pdf

"Zhivago" lick, Part 2

In the previous post, I put up a transcription of a signature line from Kurt Rosenwinkel's solo on "Zhivago" from The Next Step. The line is basically planing a particular arpeggio diatonically, but modifying it to match the underlying chord progression.

To get a better grasp on the device, I took it out of the context of the chord progression and planed the arpeggio diatonically through the major scale. This would also work on any mode of the major scale (dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, locrian), since they all have the same chords.
This could work well in a modal tune like "Milestones", which is a long dorian vamp followed by an aeolian bridge.

The arpeggio is 1-5-7-10-13-14 (10-13-14 being 3-6-7, but up an octave). Rosenwinkel plays them alternating between the ascending and descending version. This works out two ways, depending on whether you start ascending or descending.

Since this is an arpeggio, there are many ways to modify it and come up with different results.  Here are two obvious ones: omitting the root of each arpeggio (which gives you a five-note pattern, creating rhythmically interesting results), and omitting both the root and fifth of each arpeggio (which creates a quartal sound with an interesting ambiguity).

All of these can be played with different rhythmic permutations.

The 5-note pattern is creates interesting cross-rhythms when played as 8th notes or triplets.

The 4-note pattern is more interesting as triplets.

Any triplet pattern can be played with accents on the 8th-note triplet or on the quarter note triplet.  Especially on the original 6-note pattern, I like to mix up the two kinds of triplet accents.

Kurt Rosenwinkel: Zhivago

Here transcription of "the lick" from Zhivago. I've deconstructed it and will post some of what I came up with in the next post.

Note that he's using his weird tuning so there are some unreachable low notes for a standard guitar.

More Augmented Scale

Here's a continuation of the previous Augmented scale study, using three maj7 chords.

Since the augmented scale can be related to three augmented tonics, it makes sense to me to relate it to the harmonic major (major b6) scale on each of those tonics.

Triads in the Augmented Scale

Here's an an older one from my workbooks. I've spent a lot of time exploring the possibilities for using various triads in improvisation. They create such strong lines and have a compelling internal logic an musicality.

These examples are pretty bare-bones, but there's a lot to work with.
The Augmented (aka symmetrical augmented) scale is made up of two augmented triads a half-step apart.
It works well over Maj7#5 chords built off the higher of the two triads (it implies a Maj7#5#9 chord). It also works over a dominant 7th chord built off the lower of the two triads (implies 13#5b9).

Triads in the Diminished scale

I haven't posted anything to the blog in a while (obviously), but not because I haven't had anything to post! I'm just a bit of a perfectionist and it's been hard to find the time to put stuff into a form that will make sense to other people. I've decided to post stuff a little more haphazardly for now, just so it's more regular.

Here's something from my pile of things I'm working on. The diminished scale has a wide variety of sounds within it, including three different kinds of triads (diminished, minor, and major). This is just a basic presentation of the possible diatonic triads. Interestingly, if you start with a diminished triad and proceed diatonically you get all diminished triads, but if you start with a major or minor triad and proceed diatonically, you get alternating major and minor triads.