So today, let's work on some smooth jazz techniques. We wrote a short solo over a
simple chord progression that fits the style. Let's listen
to it and then we'll go through the different techniques that we've used,
to create this kind of sound. And be sure to stick around until the end of the video,
where I'll tell you how to get the PDF and the backing track to play along with...
We also made a list of all of the techniques, to be on the lookout for, in the solo,
and by the way, we've used a single motive to drive the entire solo, which makes it way
easier to develop the solo consistently. So, like it says in point one of the arrangement:
we're going to take this original C lydian motive in the first measure here,
and just sort of iterate it by modalizing it to different chords using different chord scales,
using rhythmic displacement, and adding pickup notes and, all sorts of techniques. So here's
our first motive, right here, this is what we're going to be using to write the entire thing...
All right. Now the next time we see that, it's just a couple measures later, over here, and we're
now we're modalizing the riff like we said, to D Ionian, and we've also displaced it rhythmically,
um, I guess later in this measure, as it relates to where it was in the first
measure. And at the end, you'll see there's an inversion of the motive with a tail...
over here, in measure seven, we see our motive again, displaced even later. So,
we had it on the end of two, and then in the second iteration was on the end of three,
now we have it on the end of four, and it has a slightly different angle to it as well...
So here, at the end of our progression,
where we recap back to the top again, we have a copy of our original motive once again...
and that main motive is then sort of answered, again, by our next variation in measure 11.
Still using the same C Lydian chord scale, slightly different angle, check it out...
our next development of the motive is built off of F Lydian,
for this Fmaj7. It starts a little earlier and also, has a tail at the end of it,
so it's a little longer than our last playing of this motive...
in this new section ,and like (uh like) the last one, has a little bit of a head to it,
a couple extra notes in the beginning, it makes it a little bit longer...
here we have our motive yet again, on Bbmaj7. So, we're going to be using a Bb Ionian scale here,
and remember, the whole idea here is: you can use this motive whenever you want. So
like that's (that's) what you see us doing here. Just take note of how we're ending this
motive to match the chord that we're going to, with this Gb and this Db here take a listen...
So, our next technique here, has to do with the use of upper structure pentatonic. So, over here,
what we're basically going to be doing is (uh) using a iii minor pentatonic on top of (or a vi
minor pentatonic) on top of these (some of these) chords, to improvise. First example is here,
in measure six ,on the Fmaj7, we're using the 3rd of F (A minor pentatonic) to create this line...
our next use of this technique is over here, in the next phrase,
and we actually use it back to back here. So we have a iii minor on top of this Cmaj7. So,
that's E minor. And then right after that, we have an F# minor (a 3 minor of D major)...
here's another use of our iii minor pentatonic on top of Bbmaj7,
so here we have a D minor pentatonic...
and here on top of this Ebmaj7, again, the iii minor (G minor pentatonic), and here, in measure
30, is our last use of the iii minor pentatonic, this Eb minor pentatonic, on top of Cbmaj7...
and if we circle back to measure 22, we can see (uh) the only use,
that we have here in this arrangement, of the vi minor pentatonic. So,
it's in measure 22 where this Ebmaj7 chord is vi minor over maj7 seven
our next technique (technique 3) is pretty straightforward. We're basically going to
be using minor pentatonics on the root, or Dorian on the roots of the chords.
So the first example of that, we have here is in measure 19, take a listen...
and then again, right after, on this Am7, and then again, right after, that on this Dm7...
so those first few examples were all pentatonic. These last couple are Dorian. So here we have
Cm7 there, it's where we're going to put our C Dorian... in our last example here, measure 28,
this Abm7 we're going to do Ab Dorian... so, our next technique is actually (uh) really cool,
we only use it in this one measure here it's the use of upper structures so here we have
an upper structure Triad on the beginning of the measure and then a use of an upper
structure chordal towards the end so on minor seven chords we can use a five Minor triad so
on this F sharp minor seven the fifth that being C sharp means we can use a C sharp minor Triad
to do stuff with and later on in the measure you see the use of a b47 perfect chordal and
that's because you can also use quartals on top of minor seven chords but these you have
to build on the fourth degree of your minor seven Accords that's why you see it being a
b47 so here we have in measure five the use of upper structures upper structure Triads
and upper structure chordals and like I said before these are really really useful ways to
get these outside sounds and these really cool textures and colors to your chords so
important that we have entire courses dedicated to them so check those out seasons one and two
of upper structures but let's take a listen to our use of this technique here in measure five
our next technique has to do with the grid rhythmic grid of a song so if you haven't
noticed already our song Here is heavily reliant on a triplet grid so we're going
to embellish that at times and we're also going to break away from it we're going to
use like 16th note grids with similar runs our first example of that well
is right off the bat you hear the triplet Motif that we talked about earlier [Music]
yeah so there in our first use of the motif and our first iteration
of it really heavy uh embellishment of the of the
triplet grid but right after that we're going to switch the grid to 16th notes
and then right back to the triplet grid after that and that constant changing to and from
these different grids is a really cool technique that I uh not only do we use here but I recommend
you try messing around with on your own our next technique pretty common so we're going
to be using uh Grace notes at the bottoms of our voicings these voicings need to be
in Triads or dyads three note or two note chords here's our first example of it over here [Music]
and you see another use of that technique over here in measure 12.
our next technique has to do with breaking up these lines and using accents to create really
cool syncopation poly rhythms and hemulas and our first use of that is here in measure seven
so you can kind of see by way of using these accents as a as a scaffolding we have like a
polyrhythm right we have a two plus five at first glance it might be easy to see these accents as
the Genesis of this polyrhythm that's two plus five but where this actually came from was us
breaking the lineup and changing the direction of the motif and again over here measure 18 we
have what appears to be just a straight triplet Rhythm right but by breaking up a line and you can
see with some of the accents here there should have probably also be an accent on this second
D here of that measure which you'll hear when we play We're creating like a two two uh four
two sort of polyrhythm with the breaking of the lines and the use of these accents
this next one is really cool because it is it is nothing but groupings of three using
triplets which seems pretty straightforward but because we started it early we've anticipated the
three the three doesn't line up with the beat now I probably should have mentioned right after that
we have a hemiola effect with these triplets being paired up into groups of two so let's
listen to both of those uses of line breaking accents and himail was back to back [Music]
and our last point a has to do with harmonizing using force a lot of what we're implementing here
has to do with Pentatonix check out our course on Pentatonix it's really fascinating it exposes
a whole world of things that you can do with this really common and ubiquitous scale and
we're doing some of that here when we harmonize with the fourth because we're getting that from
the perspective of the pentatonic and you can continue to see those fourths again in formed
by the pentatonic scale strewn throughout these next two measures of the arrangement here [Music]
all of our members will receive a PDF with today's topic if you're not a member yet you can become
one by clicking on the join button or in the link provided down below and remember you can access
all of our previous exclusive access content by getting our music theory journal on mdx.com and
the backing track to practice this solo with is at the end of this video right now enjoy
[Music]
thank you [Music]
foreign
[Music]
as always thanks again for joining us don't forget to like And subscribe please
share this with your friends it really helps us out a lot leave a comment down
below and YouTube seems to think you're gonna like one of these two videos here
so stick around and check one of those out we'll catch you next time [Music]