This lesson features several etudes I’ve written over standard chord changes. Back in the 80’swhile doing an undergraduate degree at Indiana University, David Baker would make us write out solos over tunes we were learning. I still use this method to work on a new tune and for private teaching. Recently I wrote a few of these solo “etudes” out for both students and myself and thought they might be interesting to share. The first one is based on the chord changes to But Beautiful (Jimmy Van Heusen), the second is over Falling Grace (Steve Swallow) and the Last one is a linear (step wise motion only) etude over Punjab by Joe Henderson. The first two etudes use a lot of odd rhythmic groupings similar to those you might find in some of Lennie Tristano’s writing. You can practice singing the material as well using the midi mp3s below.
~Enjoy!
This is an mp3 of the But Beautiful Etude:
This is an mp3 of the Falling Grace Etude (midi)
Here’s a short bootleg of me playing over Falling Grace with Steve Cotter, Dave Hocker and Jeff DeAngelo.
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This is an mp3 of the Punjab Linear Etude (stepwise melody)
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Here’s a short solo of me improvising over Punjab:
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Here’s a video of us playing Punjab in Kansas City.
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When writing etudes like this, are you focusing on applying transcribed material primarily? Or is all the language generated “from scratch?”
Chris, I think both writing ideas from scratch or taking ideas directly from traditional material can be very beneficial and enjoyable. My etudes are primarily from my mind but I can’t help but include melodies from traditional vocabulary that I hear.