Tag: harmonisation

Piano day (1h 20m)

  • Harmonising Ionian scale with block 7th chords
  • Harmonising Aeolian scale with block 7th chords
  • Same with 7-3-5 voicings

Observations

Yikes! I found the way to apply my  jazz voicings studies to the scale harmonisation, just like I recently found a way to blend Phil Mann’s Chord Tones course with Scott’s Jazz Survival Guide in my bass days. Shell voicings! I can play them more or less quickly, plus I can harmonise major modes, and now how about harmonising them in 7-3-5 or 3-7-9?! JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU GOT GOOD— Lol. It’s so fun actually. I love the endless possibilities to improve that jazz offers you.

Piano day (1h 30m)

  • Jazz voicings (Dan Haerle)
    • Major ii — V — I, format 2 (skill 41 both pages) — 80bpm (30m)
    • Major ii — V — I, format 1 (recap) — 80bpm (30m)
  • Modes (40m)
    • Harmonising Mixolydian scale with 7th chords (all keys through the cycle of 4ths, starting on C)
    • Harmonising Lydian scale with 7th chords (all keys through the cycle of 4ths, starting on C)
  • Improvisation (20m)
    • Shell voicings over walking bass line (Shine by Dabney-Mack-Brown)

Piano day (1h 20m)

  • Harmonising Lydian scale with 7th chords — 30m
    • All keys starting on C around the cycle of 4ths
  • ii — V — I’s in major keys in shell voicings through the full cycle of 4th  (Dan Haerle, skill 40, both pages at 80bpm) — 30m
  • Minor to dominant cycle progressions (two skills recap from Dan Haerle book) — 20m

Piano day (1h 30m)

  • Harmonising Lydian scale with 7th chords — 40m
    • All keys starting on F around the circle of 5ths (pattern: I▵7 — II7, I▵7 — iii7, I▵7 — #ivº7, etc.) at 70bpm
    • All keys starting on C around the cycle of 4ths (same pattern, same speed)
  • ii — V — I’s in major keys in shell voicings through the full cycle of 4th  (Dan Haerle, skills 40 both pages) — 30m
  • Shell voicings recap (3-6-9 major, 3-6-9 minor, 3-7-9 major and minor) at 100bpm without stopping around the cycle (skills 7-9 from Haerle book)

Observations

That’s pretty cool! I didn’t realise that I’ve actually got better at playing rootless chords in the right hand. When I first started Dan Haerle’s “Jazz Piano Voicing Skills”, it was really uncomfortable to play voicings like 7-3-5 or 3-6-9 or 4-6-9 because I was so used to block chords, but after intentionally switching to some heavy stuff (like polychordal progressions and ii — V — I’s in different keys) from the same book where author kind of assumed that you’re already familiar with voicings, I sort of internalised them along the way, although it felt really tough. Bottom line: playing hard stuff that assumes that you’ve already got the basics actually helps to solidify them basics 😄).

Piano day (1h 30m)

  • Harmonising the C major scale with modes & studying the MATH behind the modes
    • All major modes for the key of C harmonised with 7th chords (Ionian thru Locrian): LH plays 7th chord, RH plays intervals: 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, octave and back
    • All major modes for the key of D
    • Same for E, F and G — and then I ran out of time :)

Observations

That’s such a cool exercise! Along the way I also found some cool maths that help recall the number of b’s or #’s for each key in each mode more quickly. For example, if you pick a major scale, take a flat 6 of it and run a scale from that b6 in reverse parallel to your major scale (starting on the same note), you will get all the references for your modes. E. g. for the key of D:

D E F# G A B (flat 6: Bb) C#

Bb scale running in reverse starting on D against the mode order (derived from C Major scale) starting on Ionian:

D (Ionian) — D

D (Dorian) — C: C major has no accidentals, so has D Dorian

D (Phrygian) — Bb: Bb major has bb, so has D Phryigan

D (Lydian) — A: A major has ###, so has D Lydian

D (Mixo) — G — G major has #, so has D Mixolydian

D (Aeol) — F — you got the idea

D (Locrian) — Eb

Of course it’s better to just use the mode formula, like, Dorian has b3 and b7 and therefore D Dorian is… er… Right, no accidentals at all, lol. But sometimes this way feels a bit quicker for me, but then again I’m just terrible at math!