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S 15.3 - The Gentle Breeze of
Love - Bridge
The 8 bar Bridge of The
Gentle Breeze of Love consists of two IIm7 - V7 - Imaj7
segments, one in the key of C major the other in the key of Bb
major (with a turnaround E7 chord in the last bar).
Play over this section your own
improvised melody.
This way you will contribute to
the composition of the song, which then becomes uniquely your
own.
| This idea is used in quite a few Jazz standards,
most famously in the 'Rhythm bridge' of Oleo (by Sonny Rollins), over
which players improvise their own
melody. |
Audio 15.8
To create a consistent and interesting melody use a similar (but
not necessarily identical) rhythm pattern for both 4 bar phrases.
Also start the melody of the second phrase on the comparable
note (here 1 tone down) in the new key, as in the example shown
below.
Audio 15.9
The Gentle Breeze of
Love play-a-Long track
first plays the whole 40 bar long melody once (A B A).
Then 24
bar long sections of A B are repeated four times.
The track
is concluded with a final complete 40 bar chorus of A B A.
It
looks like this :
A B A - A B
- A B - A B - A B - A B A
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S 15.4 - Phrasing : Starting
and Ending notes
The first and the last note
are by far the most important points of any musical phrase. Take
good care of both these notes and the rest of the phrase looks
after itself.
There are three important aspects to these two notes.
- At which point in the bar (upbeat, downbeat) do you
place these notes ?
- What pitch do you select for these notes ?
- How do you articulate these notes (legato, staccato,
also dynamics : how soft, loud) ?
In this Session we work on the note
pitch to start and end a phrase on.
By far the best notes to start and finish a phrase on are chord tones of the underlying chord
in the progression.
The most obvious one is the chord tonic
(1), but this is of course a rather predictable note.
Greater
interest is created by selecting one of the other chord tones :
the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th are
especially good. The 11th (or #11th) and 13th can also create
interest.
Below the chord tones for the IIm7 - V7 - Imaj7 chord progression
in F major (Concert pitch). The parent scale is shown in the bar
for the Fmaj7 chord.
Audio 15.10
Play-a-Long track jf15sf1 consists
entirely of a succession of 4 bar long progressions of
:
Gm7 (1 bar) - C7 (1 bar) -
Fmaj7 (2 bars)
- Each odd numbered 4 bar phrase : I play an improvised
line with starting note as shown in the Table below.
- Each following even numbered 4 bar phrase is left
empty for you to use.
Try to repeat the same phrase I
played in the previous 4 bars,
or
play a phrase of
your own, but using the starting and ending notes as
specified in the Table below.
Repeating phrases is no easy exercise, so do not get discouraged
if you can not do this at first.
A second Play-a-Long track jf15sf2 is the same as the first one, but
it echoes each phrase softly on the piano in the "empty" four
bars to help you along.
In the Table below the number indicate the chord tone (1 = root,
3 = 3rd, etc.) used as my starting and ending note for each
phrase.
The corresponding Concert key notes are shown in
black.
The corresponding Bb instruments notes
are shown in red.
The corresponding Eb instruments notes
are shown in blue.
| Phrase No. | Starting note (of Gm7) | | Ending note (of Fmaj7) |
|---|
| Phrase 1
| 1 = G -- A -- E |
| 5 = C -- D -- A |
| Phrase 3
| 1 = G -- A -- E |
| 3 = A -- B -- F# |
| Phrase 5
| 1 = G -- A -- E |
| 5 = C -- D -- A |
| Phrase 7
| 3 = Bb -- C -- G |
| 7 = E -- F# -- C# |
| Phrase 9
| 3 = Bb -- C -- G |
| 3 = A -- B -- F# |
| Phrase 11
| 3 = Bb -- C -- G |
| 5 = C -- D -- A |
| Phrase 13
| 3 = Bb -- C -- G |
| 3 = A -- B -- F# |
| Phrase 15
| 5 = D -- E -- B |
| 1 = F -- G -- D |
| Phrase 17
| 5 = D -- E -- B |
| 7 = E -- F# -- C# |
| Phrase 19
| 5 = D -- E -- B |
| 5 = C -- D -- A |
| Phrase 21
| 5 = D -- E -- B |
| 5 = C -- D -- A |
| Phrase 23
| 7 = F -- G -- D |
| 7 = E -- F# -- C# |
| Phrase 25
| 7 = F -- G -- D |
| 5 = C -- D -- A |
| Phrase 27
| 7 = F -- G -- D |
| 3 = A -- B -- F# |
| Phrase 29
| 9 = A -- B -- F# |
| 3 = A -- B -- F# |
| Phrase 31
| 9 = A -- B -- F# |
| 5 = C -- D -- A |
You can also use one 4 bar phrase from the track and take
it through all keys around the Circle of 5ths.
Writing down the
phrases on the track in proper music notation is a very good
exercise too.
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S 15.5 - Practice : IIm7 - V7
- I Phrases
Included is a page with IIm7-V7-Imaj7 Phrases in the key of C
major.
Take each phrase in turn and play it by ear through all
12 keys in Circle of
5ths order.
First practise without a play-a-long track
until you get the hang of it, then use the 2 x 4 bars and the 1 x
4 bars play-a-long tracks provided.
Here an example of the first phrase.
Audio 15.11
(The number indicate the chord tone for
each underlying chord.)
Also write down some very simple phrases
yourself to work on, especially if you find some of the phrases provided a bit too hard at
first.
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S 15.6 - Session
Materials
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© 2003 Michael Furstner
(Jazclass)
