Pentatonic Fluidity-- using Pentatonics on Giant Steps with video!

[vivacuica]

Hey guys, I've got a new post up on my site today which includes a video on how to get more fluid with your Pentatonic playing.

 

Inspired by a YouTube video of Kurt Rosenwinkel demonstrating his Pentatonic approach, I pick apart his example and then show you how to apply it over even difficult tunes like Giant Steps. Hope you guys dig it! Let me know what you think.

 

http://somuchsound.blogspot.com/2009/11/pentatonic-fluidity.html

[jeremy_green]

Bro that was awesome! You really are a great player and having you contribute here is really cool. Those kind of drills with pentatonics really helped drill them in for me. An excellent lesson

 

1000+

 

Cheers

[Virgman]

Thanks!

 

Nice vid.

 

It's a good lesson.

[mosiddiqi]

Great playing and a cool lesson! ..thanks for posting.

[Duke Spinner]

 

Hey guys, I've got a new post up on my site today which includes a video on how to get more fluid with your Pentatonic playing. Inspired by a YouTube video of Kurt Rosenwinkel demonstrating his Pentatonic approach, I pick apart his example and then show you how to apply it over even difficult tunes like Giant Steps. Hope you guys dig it! Let me know what you think. http://somuchsound.blogspot.com/2009/11/pentatonic-fluidity.html

 

 

great playing ..!!

 

hey ..

 

next time ..

 

get dressed, afore's ya go to work, ok ..??

[Crosscut Saw]

Great stuff! Are the backing tracks available so I can have a go?

[Mark Wein]

Very cool!

[jonfinn]

 

Hey guys, I've got a new post up on my site today which includes a video on how to get more fluid with your Pentatonic playing. Inspired by a YouTube video of Kurt Rosenwinkel demonstrating his Pentatonic approach, I pick apart his example and then show you how to apply it over even difficult tunes like Giant Steps. Hope you guys dig it! Let me know what you think. http://somuchsound.blogspot.com/2009/11/pentatonic-fluidity.html

 

 

Burning! If I was your student and you demonstrated that to me in a lesson, I'd want to know a LOT more about how you approach phrasing. Your strongest suit is in the way you connect the keys!

 

Really nice man!

[Santuzzo]

Wow ! Fantastic !

 

Thanks for posting this.

 

Your playing sounds great !

[vivacuica]

 

Bro that was awesome! You really are a great player and having you contribute here is really cool. Those kind of drills with pentatonics really helped drill them in for me. An excellent lesson 1000+ Cheers

 

 

So nice of you to say and really glad you liked it. I still have more work to do on it. That's when you know you've hit on something good, it keeps suggesting more possibilities. I didn't even explore the chordal possibilities...

[lollygag]

loved the pentatonic post, then I couldn't stop myself from reading the other posts too... Added the site to the links on my own blog. thanks for the great writing, looking forward to more.

[pixelchemist]

great stuff... any chance you do private lessons in the city?

[deeohgee]

Thanks for the vid, sounds great.

I've printed it off and now I know what I'm practising today.

[vivacuica]

 

Burning! If I was your student and you demonstrated that to me in a lesson, I'd want to know a LOT more about how you approach phrasing. Your strongest suit is in the way you connect the keys! Really nice man!

 

 

Considering how formidable of a player you are Jon, I take that as the highest compliment. Thanks for the kind words man, very nice of you.

 

As far as the phrasing, that's really a few lessons unto itself don't you think? "How to make music out of all those scales you learned"... man, that's a wide topic.

[[Animals2]]

wow that was great:thu:.... thanks for that post

[vivacuica]

 

great stuff... any chance you do private lessons in the city?

 

 

I do. I'll shoot you a message with contact info.

[[Animals2]]

Quick question... In your blog you say this:

 

Over a minor7 chord, play the Pentatonic with the same root. So, over Aminor7, play A minor Pentatonic.

 

Over a dominant7 chord, play the Pentatonic a major 6th up/minor 3rd down from the root. So, over D7 play B minor Pentatonic.

 

Over a major7 chord, play the Pentatonic a major 6th up/minor third down from the root. So, over Gmajor7 play E minor Pentatonic.

 

 

On the Giant Steps chart you wrote which pentatonics you were using and seems like you often didnt do any of the three suggestion you mentioned above (unless im missing something which is definetly possibel/likely.)

 

for example the first chord. you suggest Eb pent over the B. How does that fit in the scheme of things. Its a major third up right?

 

Same with the G in the fifth bar. your playing the B pent which is again a major third up.

 

Can you explain the idea behind playing the pentatonic a major 3rd up?

 

Thanks,

Mac

[vivacuica]

 

Quick question... In your blog you say this: Over a minor7 chord, play the Pentatonic with the same root. So, over Aminor7, play A minor Pentatonic. Over a dominant7 chord, play the Pentatonic a major 6th up/minor 3rd down from the root. So, over D7 play B minor Pentatonic. Over a major7 chord, play the Pentatonic a major 6th up/minor third down from the root. So, over Gmajor7 play E minor Pentatonic. On the Giant Steps chart you wrote which pentatonics you were using and seems like you often didnt do any of the three suggestion you mentioned above (unless im missing something which is definetly possibel/likely.) for example the first chord. you suggest Eb pent over the B. How does that fit in the scheme of things. Its a major third up right? Same with the G in the fifth bar. your playing the B pent which is again a major third up. Can you explain the idea behind playing the pentatonic a major 3rd up? Thanks, Mac

 

 

No, you're not missing anything, you're right, and nice catch! That's what I get for copying and pasting and not rechecking my notes.

 

When I originally wrote out the possibilities, my intention was to play the above stated Pentatonics as I wrote them. What I wrote is harmonically correct and is a good sound (over a major7 chord, play the minor Pentatonic a major 6th up/minor 3rd down). However, when I got into the playing part, I realized it would be easier for someone just starting this exercise to play the Pentatonics the way I wrote them on the chart as it would involve less shifting around on the neck.

 

If you look at the chart you can see the reason for my decision more clearly-- look at bars 2-3 for example. Over the Bb7 chord I'm playing G minor Pent. The next chord coming at you is Eb major. The easiest thing to do in that circumstance is to keep playing that G minor Pent. However, if I had followed the rules I had written out before hand, you'd have had to switch to C minor Pent. Not that that's terribly difficult but this chart already had so many switches I was trying to keep things as simple as possible. So, in an effort to keep things simple, I gummed up the works. I'll fix the post and thank you for catching that.

 

And to explain the theory while I'm at it...

 

A Gmajor7 chord is made up of the notes G B D F#. A Bminor Pentatonic scale has the notes B D E F# A. So it contains 3 chord tones from Bmajor7 (B D F#) and two extensions: E, which is the 6th and A which is the 9th -- both nice note choices. This is the same reason it works over D7. A D7 chord has the notes D F# A C. So a B minor Pent scale again has 3 chord tones (D F# A) and two extensions: B which is the 6th and E which is the 9th. Magic.

 

If I had done what I said in the blog post, I'd have had this sound: over Gmajor7 (G B D F#) play E minor Pentatonic (E G A B D). In that case you again have 3 chord tones (G B D) and two extensions (E and A, again, the 6th and the 9th). What's the difference? You've exchanged the F# in the B minor Pent scale for the G in the E minor Pent scale. Only a one note difference between the two scales.

 

Both Pent choices work equally well with only a minor difference in sound, but keeping that same Pent going while improvising saved me (and you) a shift to a new scale in an already hairy exercise. I should have gone back and corrected my post but I spaced.

 

The examples that I wrote in the post are really only the beginning of the possibilities. However I wanted to keep the exercise as simple as possible and then demonstrate it over a complex tune to show the value of practicing it. There's many different directions you could take this and I'm probably going to do another video showing more extended harmonic possibilities but there's plenty of work here for anyone with just this example.

 

Again, thanks for the catch! You've been immortalized on my blog now.

[meganutt7]

Yeah, guys... Sean knows what he's talking about... There are a few commonly known "Pentatonic Substitutions" that are imminiently usable....

 

For minor 7th chords it is common to play the minor pentatonic scale from:

 

The Root (over Am7, use a Minor Pent)

The 5th (Over Am7, use E Minor Pent)

The 9th (Over Am7, use B Minor Pent)

 

The third option (B minor Pent) yields the Dorian sound as it has an F# in it.

 

For Major 7th chords, play the monior pentatonic from:

 

The major Sixth (over Cmaj7, play Am pent)

The Major Third (Over Cmaj7, play Em Pent)

The Major Seventh (Over Cmaj7, play Bm Pent)

 

The third option (Bm pent over Cmaj7) yields the Lydian sound, as it has a #11 in it (F#)

 

Over Dominant Chords there are MANY options (if we consider both altered and unaltered ones):

 

From the major sixth (over C7, play Am pent)

From The perfect fifth (over C7, play Gm pent)

From the minor third (over C7, play Ebm pent) this yields all the altered notes (b5,#5,b9,#9)

etc. etc. etc.

 

Experiment with the pentatonics over dominant chords...

 

This pallette of options will make it easier for you to string DIFFERENT pentatonics together over a repetitive progression to maximize your options.

 

Try it out.

 

Feel free to ask me any questions!!

 

Also, if you care to check out my new tune, it actually (Ironically) has a TON of these pentatonics in it over an interesting chord progression..

 

The tune is on my myspace page and is called: "Melmel The Magnificent".

 

the song form is AABA and the progressions are:

 

A Section:

 

/: Em /C7#11 /E/G# /G13 /F#13#11 /F9#11 /

/F#/G /F/Gb :/

 

B Section:

 

/Bm7 /E7 /AmMaj7 /Abmaj7 /Gmaj7 / B7#11 /Cmaj7#11 /B7#5 /

 

Enjoy figuring out the licks.. alot are VERY EASY "Eric Johnson" type lines, they just sound more complex because I shift into different harmonies....

 

Enjoy...

[[Animals2]]

 

No, you're not missing anything, you're right, and nice catch! That's what I get for copying and pasting and not rechecking my notes. When I originally wrote out the possibilities, my intention was to play the above stated Pentatonics as I wrote them. What I wrote is harmonically correct and is a good sound (over a major7 chord, play the minor Pentatonic a major 6th up/minor 3rd down). However, when I got into the playing part, I realized it would be easier for someone just starting this exercise to play the Pentatonics the way I wrote them on the chart as it would involve less shifting around on the neck. If you look at the chart you can see the reason for my decision more clearly-- look at bars 2-3 for example. Over the Bb7 chord I'm playing G minor Pent. The next chord coming at you is Eb major. The easiest thing to do in that circumstance is to keep playing that G minor Pent . However, if I had followed the rules I had written out before hand, you'd have had to switch to C minor Pent. Not that that's terribly difficult but this chart already had so many switches I was trying to keep things as simple as possible. So, in an effort to keep things simple, I gummed up the works. I'll fix the post and thank you for catching that. And to explain the theory while I'm at it... A Gmajor7 chord is made up of the notes G B D F#. A Bminor Pentatonic scale has the notes B D E F# A. So it contains 3 chord tones from Bmajor7 (B D F#) and two extensions: E, which is the 6th and A which is the 9th -- both nice note choices. This is the same reason it works over D7. A D7 chord has the notes D F# A C. So a B minor Pent scale again has 3 chord tones (D F# A) and two extensions: B which is the 6th and E which is the 9th. Magic. If I had done what I said in the blog post, I'd have had this sound: over Gmajor7 (G B D F#) play E minor Pentatonic (E G A B D). In that case you again have 3 chord tones (G B D) and two extensions (E and A, again, the 6th and the 9th). What's the difference? You've exchanged the F# in the B minor Pent scale for the G in the E minor Pent scale. Only a one note difference between the two scales. Both Pent choices work equally well with only a minor difference in sound, but keeping that same Pent going while improvising saved me (and you) a shift to a new scale in an already hairy exercise. I should have gone back and corrected my post but I spaced. The examples that I wrote in the post are really only the beginning of the possibilities. However I wanted to keep the exercise as simple as possible and then demonstrate it over a complex tune to show the value of practicing it. There's many different directions you could take this and I'm probably going to do another video showing more extended harmonic possibilities but there's plenty of work here for anyone with just this example. Again, thanks for the catch! You've been immortalized on my blog now.

 

 

Holy Wow!! Thanks for the explanation.

[bigboy_78]

I'll have to check this out when I get home. Big praise from some of the "Big Guys" on the forum.