Here's the kickoff packet: Let's GO!
What a week! In addition to Jazz Colony starting up we also had our first gig with the Edmonds Honor Band and our first ever Everett Jazz Walk. Thanks for all the support.
Sorry for the delay on this blog update. Read it and then practice today.
Here's the skinny from Don Tran's Milestones group:
Milestones - John Lewis (1947), Miles Davis (1958)
More tunes:
Honeysuckle Rose - Fats Waller
Invitation - Bronisลaw Kaper
The Night has a Thousand Eyes - Jerry Brainin
Bewitched - Richars Rodgers
Perdido - Juan Tizol
I know you know - Esperanza Spalding
No More Blues - Antonios Carlos Jobim
Blues Scales in Concert Bb:
Major Blues Scale in Bb
Bb - C - Db - D - F - G - Bb
Minor Blues Scale in Bb
Bb - Db - Eb - E(Fb) - F - Ab - Bb
Bebop Scale in Bb
Bb - C - D - Eb - F - Gb - G - A - Bb
Mixolydian Scale in Bb Eb and F
Bb - C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb
Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb - C - Db - Eb
F - G - A - Bb - C - D - Eb - F
More tunes:
Honeysuckle Rose - Fats Waller
Invitation - Bronisลaw Kaper
The Night has a Thousand Eyes - Jerry Brainin
Bewitched - Richars Rodgers
Perdido - Juan Tizol
I know you know - Esperanza Spalding
No More Blues - Antonios Carlos Jobim
Blues Scales in Concert Bb:
Major Blues Scale in Bb
Bb - C - Db - D - F - G - Bb
Minor Blues Scale in Bb
Bb - Db - Eb - E(Fb) - F - Ab - Bb
Bebop Scale in Bb
Bb - C - D - Eb - F - Gb - G - A - Bb
Mixolydian Scale in Bb Eb and F
Bb - C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb
Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb - C - Db - Eb
F - G - A - Bb - C - D - Eb - F
Non-harmonic approaches/enclosures:
In Concert Bb
Triad:
Bb
D
F
Approach From Below:
B > Bb
Db > D
E > F
From Above (Diatonic):
C > Bb
Eb > D
G > F
Enclosure:
B < Bb > C
Db < D > Eb
E < F > G
TIPS:
Connect your ideas,
and don’t be so quick to abandon them.
Deploy intellectual rudiments but play spiritually, from the heart.
Route 66 Combo
Here is Max Bartron's blog for first session! Kind of a lengthy one.
As it concerns learning these various scales, it isn't enough to play them up or down from root to root. Instead, we must devise exercises for ourselves to approach these notes in as many ways as possible, thus providing us with the greatest flexibility when soloing. Doing this also helps develop our ears around the tonal center, and through varied exercises, we start to develop a mind/ear/finger relationship between and across notes. For example, playing these scales up and down in thirds (1 3, 2 4, 3 5, etc.), triads (1 3 5, 2 4 6, etc.), or in scalar patterns ( 1 2 3, 2 3 4, etc.).
Once we have a firm, fundamental understanding of these various (chord) scales, it's time to start applying them! And so we turn to the blues. In its most basic form, all the chords of the blues are the same dominant 7th chords. If I know that the 5th mode of a given major scale is similarly dominant, I can quickly find the right chord scale to produce a dominant 7th chord. For example, the first chord of a Bb blues, Bb7, belongs to the Eb major scale (while the first chord of a blues is often classified as a I7 chord, for the sake of developing our ability to move across modes starting from the Ionian, we will for the time being assume the first chord of the blues is a V7 chord). We quickly realize, however, that simply playing the Bb7 arpeggio over the first bar of the blues, while enjoyable, is limiting. Here comes the meta-application of our newly earned methodology. What if I play the “2nd” mode of a dominant 7th chord as a form of tension, with the release being a return to the Bb7 arpeggio? For example, over a Bb7 chord, I’m looking at the notes of C-, with each chord tone resolving down to its Bb7 counterpart. So C (1) to Bb (1), Eb (3) to D (3), G (5) to F (5). Now, usually, in a given tonality like Bb7, we wouldn't think of C- as being composed of 1, 3, and 5 in the key of C-, but rather as 2, 4, and 6 in the key of Bb7. There are countless blues heads, solos, etc., where the melody/line leans heavily on the 2, 4, and 6 in relation to the 1, 3, and 5.
The broader point is this: improvising is all about opinion; it's about expressing our particular opinion on how best to play a melodic phrase over a given chord or across a harmonic section. If exploring scales from different angles of exercise affords us an appreciation for how each note relates and wants to interact with every other (according to our ear), exploring related chord-scales within a given chord is a furthering of that exercise, whereby we start to hear not just a given note's relationship to the next but how a whole triad or tonality of notes might interact with the chord. In other words, tension and release. Saxophonist Coleman Hawkins once told the great pianist Barry Harris, “I don’t play chords, I play movements”. This dense and enigmatic statement informs us that the goal is not simply to outline one chord unto another, implying that these chords are otherwise independent events, but to develop the ability to hear the subtle ways one chord can move to the next, how, lest we forget, these chords are occurring in time and space within a song, and so on. This subtle shift in frame brings a whole new set of questions before us. And it is our job, as hearers and seekers of these hidden movements, to coax out these possibilities, and to hone our own unique taste for how best to express them.
The homework for week 2 was to bring two song suggestions for the band to play. Happy practicing! - Joel Steinke
-
We all introduced ourselves by saying our names, a tune we are working on, and our goals for jazz colony this summer.
We went over the melody for Centerpiece and learned it by ear, then played it and had everyone solo. Then we covered some different ways to solo over the blues, we each played solos using just the notes of the minor and major blues scales. Then, we played backgrounds while each other solo.
Bisrat asked what are the most efficient ways to transcribe a solo, there are 3 key steps!
- Choose a solo you love! It won’t help if you’re doing a tune you don’t enjoy. First, listen and internalize the solo. Listen enough to where you can sing the solo without messing up, when you REALLY know it.
- Apply it and play it on your instrument, don’t write anything down yet. Try to catch as many inflections and musical choices that the soloist is doing, try to really blend with the sound on the recording.
- After you have the solo on your instrument, write it down. It will make the writing process much easier if you have completely internalized the solo and can play it without messing it up.
- (Extra advice) You can do these in a different order, but I believe that this method is the most useful for retaining the most amount of information. Remember, this is a long process, stick with it and it will only get easier.
We listened to some tunes and brainstormed some things that we wanted to work on.
Homework for the week!
- Listen to Route 66
- Listen and learn the melody to Stompin’ at the Savoy in Db (Clifford Brown, Red Garland)
- Review blues scales and 7ths
- Learn the intro to Stompin’ (extra credit)
Some drum technique notes!
- Make sure your left hand is always up and ready to play, no lazy resting hands.
- Play in the center of the cymbal, we need as much clarity as we can get.
- Feathering was originally used to blend with the bass to ground the groove and have more low end. It’s not necessarily used always, but many drummers use it differently, it’s most common in big band playing and early small group recordings.
NIGHT TRAIN Combo
Jazz Colony Blog Summary 7/7/26:
Given that we were missing our drummer, I decided for us to cover some methodological approaches to functional harmony, followed by application of said methodology over a blues. We began with an overview of the modes of the major (Ionian) scale. I have always stressed the importance of high school as the time to learn all 12 major scales! And what’s more, for playing jazz, we should really be getting together our minor (Dorian) scales and dominant (Mixolydian) scales. This is where a firm understanding of the modes of the major (Ionian) scale serves us. For if we know that any dorian or mixolydian scale is simply the 2nd or 5th mode of a given major scale, we can quickly work backward to find the right notes. For example, if I am given D-7 on a chord sheet and understand my modes, I can quickly see that the chord's notes are identical to C major, but that the scale starts on the root D.
Given that we were missing our drummer, I decided for us to cover some methodological approaches to functional harmony, followed by application of said methodology over a blues. We began with an overview of the modes of the major (Ionian) scale. I have always stressed the importance of high school as the time to learn all 12 major scales! And what’s more, for playing jazz, we should really be getting together our minor (Dorian) scales and dominant (Mixolydian) scales. This is where a firm understanding of the modes of the major (Ionian) scale serves us. For if we know that any dorian or mixolydian scale is simply the 2nd or 5th mode of a given major scale, we can quickly work backward to find the right notes. For example, if I am given D-7 on a chord sheet and understand my modes, I can quickly see that the chord's notes are identical to C major, but that the scale starts on the root D.
As it concerns learning these various scales, it isn't enough to play them up or down from root to root. Instead, we must devise exercises for ourselves to approach these notes in as many ways as possible, thus providing us with the greatest flexibility when soloing. Doing this also helps develop our ears around the tonal center, and through varied exercises, we start to develop a mind/ear/finger relationship between and across notes. For example, playing these scales up and down in thirds (1 3, 2 4, 3 5, etc.), triads (1 3 5, 2 4 6, etc.), or in scalar patterns ( 1 2 3, 2 3 4, etc.).
Once we have a firm, fundamental understanding of these various (chord) scales, it's time to start applying them! And so we turn to the blues. In its most basic form, all the chords of the blues are the same dominant 7th chords. If I know that the 5th mode of a given major scale is similarly dominant, I can quickly find the right chord scale to produce a dominant 7th chord. For example, the first chord of a Bb blues, Bb7, belongs to the Eb major scale (while the first chord of a blues is often classified as a I7 chord, for the sake of developing our ability to move across modes starting from the Ionian, we will for the time being assume the first chord of the blues is a V7 chord). We quickly realize, however, that simply playing the Bb7 arpeggio over the first bar of the blues, while enjoyable, is limiting. Here comes the meta-application of our newly earned methodology. What if I play the “2nd” mode of a dominant 7th chord as a form of tension, with the release being a return to the Bb7 arpeggio? For example, over a Bb7 chord, I’m looking at the notes of C-, with each chord tone resolving down to its Bb7 counterpart. So C (1) to Bb (1), Eb (3) to D (3), G (5) to F (5). Now, usually, in a given tonality like Bb7, we wouldn't think of C- as being composed of 1, 3, and 5 in the key of C-, but rather as 2, 4, and 6 in the key of Bb7. There are countless blues heads, solos, etc., where the melody/line leans heavily on the 2, 4, and 6 in relation to the 1, 3, and 5.
The broader point is this: improvising is all about opinion; it's about expressing our particular opinion on how best to play a melodic phrase over a given chord or across a harmonic section. If exploring scales from different angles of exercise affords us an appreciation for how each note relates and wants to interact with every other (according to our ear), exploring related chord-scales within a given chord is a furthering of that exercise, whereby we start to hear not just a given note's relationship to the next but how a whole triad or tonality of notes might interact with the chord. In other words, tension and release. Saxophonist Coleman Hawkins once told the great pianist Barry Harris, “I don’t play chords, I play movements”. This dense and enigmatic statement informs us that the goal is not simply to outline one chord unto another, implying that these chords are otherwise independent events, but to develop the ability to hear the subtle ways one chord can move to the next, how, lest we forget, these chords are occurring in time and space within a song, and so on. This subtle shift in frame brings a whole new set of questions before us. And it is our job, as hearers and seekers of these hidden movements, to coax out these possibilities, and to hone our own unique taste for how best to express them.
The homework for week 2 was to bring two song suggestions for the band to play. Happy practicing! - Joel Steinke
Observations from Listening (“Devilette” – Dexter Gordon)
Harmony & Notes (Practice Concepts)
Bebop Principle
Get inspired about jazz, or any type of music. Music is most fun when you have skill on your instrument, then you can express yourself as much as possible. The better you are at something, the more fun and enjoyment you can have. You all should focus on playing with soul, heart
, and passion on your instruments. Strive to be better, seek out songs that feature your instruments of any genre, and play along with them and learn to sound like the players on the original song. 
Balance in life is very important Joel Steinke. Society values people who go all or nothing for one thing, but Joel believes balance is important. Joel seemed to support not going all in for just one thing, but instead living a balanced life
You can treat every two-five chord progression just like a five. So instead of worrying about G minor 7 and C7 just worry about C7. This will simplify your solo work. Another example is if you have a 2 -5 chord progression like F-7 to Bb 7, just improvise over Bb7.
Pay attention to the form of the songs!!
