A metric modulation is, in my very own words, a “gear shift” in time in the context of a song that is in tempo. In fact, it is a tempo change (and sometimes simultaneous time signature change) in which a relationship/ratio exist between the initial tempo and “target” tempo. (An example : “Let’s modulate from 4/4 to 3/4 with half-notes becoming dotted quarter notes!”)

We can find countless recorded examples of metric modulations in jazz from recent years. It seems to be (more…)

I recently received a PDF by email from a colleague and friend (bassist Clinton Ryder) that discussed different implications of the tritone resolutions. The article was inspired by the teachings of master Gary Peacock (it’s chapter 25 in an unknown book on jazz and improvisation… I don’t know the author or the title and I’m just glad this information “came my way”). Here’s what it’s about :

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As you may know, the tritone has a strong pull to resolve by a half step. For starters: In C major, the tritone is made of the two notes F and B. The resolution is : F goes down to E and B goes up to say. This can be seen as the cadence “G7 to C” and/or the cadence “Db7 to C”.

G7 and Db7 resolving to C

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In the “New Pathways Home” article though, Gary Peacock explores different tonal possibilities of (more…)

It’s been a long while (more than a week) since I posted anything here. I must apologize to my regular readers and subscribers. On the bright side: It is NOT some kind of discouragement or lack of interest in practicing. I’m spending more time than ever with my instrument these days, here’s why…

I had to give myself a break: some kind of “reset” where I would not feel obliged to (more…)

My traditional “report” on my musical situation, career and development :

In the past week or two, I realized many small but important things. It’s funny how it happened while I (more…)

This week, two days were almost “twins” : I practiced the same things, was teaching at night… and even played badminton on both days!

Practice session (for both days):

• Some scale patterns in major scale(s)
  • Over 2-3 octaves
  • Thinking about creating a page on JazzGuitarLessons.net about that…
• Slonimsky interpolations (hard stuff)
  • 2-3-4 notes
• Triad Coupling (F and G)
  • a few exercises in triplets and in sixteenths
  • all over the fretboard
• Polyrhythms : 9 over 2
  • trying to hear from and to quarter notes, eight notes, etc.
  • with metronome
  • VERY hard to hear and feel right now!
• Practicing two Benny Golson tunes :
  • Along Came Betty (new!)
  • Stablemates

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So now for the difference between both days : on Tuesday, I played a session with the great saxophonist Frank Lozano. Beforehand, I was visualizing the session as going “yeah!” all the way through… it, of course, didn’t happen this way. Frank has at least the same amount of experience as the rest of the band combined (guitar/bass/drums)!

After the first tune (Stablemates), it became more of a workshop/masterclass for us. What a humbling experience! I expected to walk in and be “one of them” and I simply ended up having a free lesson… that’s bitter & sweet at the same time. For me, that’s also the time when I learn the most.

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On the very practical level, the aspect that struck me the most (and probably the topic on which Frank Lozano insisted the most) was playing “of the half note” or playing “of the whole note”.

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That is :

If the bass/drums are playing an up-tempo swing kind of feel, improvise by emphasizing the half-note. It makes you play lines as if you are implying the actual half-time (but the form of the song is still passing by as is).

The end result is improvisation rhythmically anchored in beats 1 and 3 of each bar of 4/4. (The half notes!) … and it grooves very hard!

If it’s very fast, it’s even possible to imply the whole note of each bar (it’s like “quarter-time”).

In short : less work, more groove. (By work, I mean struggling on long streams of 8th notes instead of relaxing with quarters, half and whole notes…)

[On a personal note : I guess the opposite is also possible and common. Playing faster value on slower tunes, like ballads for example.]

What a great session/lesson it was!

Practice is not “long sessions of focused musical training” these days…and, believe or not, I think it’s ok. I’ve always been hard on myself and I’m now reconsidering the multiple factors of my professional musical life. I also have a little cold, which greatly reduce my will and desire to play music in general…

These last two days, I practiced/played scales, triad pair, on a few tunes, part of transcriptions and compositions etc. It’s not very organized (yet focused and highly rewarding) and I really go with the flow of “what I feel” I should be playing/practicing.

Also, I think I’m in a phase where I “ask more questions” :  What should I do? How should this-that sound? What should I practice? How’s my future looking ? etc. I’m reading different books and pondering my musical identity.

And that’s all happening in the gigs/rehearsals/sessions/teaching lifestyle I’ve been living for a while now. I guess it might be the spring time (birds singing!) that make me re-adjust my aim. And, to add to that, I know for a fact that I’ll stop playing 2 of my regular gigs for the summer (back in september…)

That makes a little jazz guy THINK ya know…

Anyways…

On the bright side : I’ve been composing new fresh tunes and playing sessions here and there. It’s great.

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And, now for the most exciting part :

I’m reading The Pat Metheny Interviews book and I got to do something I think I’ve never done before in my life ; Honestly and Truthfully answer this question:

“What do you want to do?”
(which stems from “What do you love?”)

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I’m figuring that if I find the part of music that really, really “knocks me down” as Metheny says, motivation and productivity won’t even matter anymore! If I can find that little “gem” inside me, I won’t have to obsess over my practice routines (and decisions) and time spent playing and gigs, etc. Just go with the heart…

Meanwhile, I discovered that being organized (with great practice regiments for example) and staying true to yourself are very different aspects that should’nt be confused for one another.

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So here are my answers …

1- Lead my band (compose/record/concerts and tours)

2- Maintain and Update JazzGuitarLessons.net

It could have been only the first answer, but I wanted to include my “teaching reality” into the frame; it really does matter to me, especially these days.

Some of you may think “woah, that’s just too obvious”. Yes, every musician would naturally want to start a band and make it happen, I know. But on the other hand, I had never quite realized that I want to have my own band and write tunes, and tour and whatever comes with it.

My musical endeavors were pretty  much always  “zoomed in” my practicing that I was almost avoiding this big picture. You know, the music is out there, not in how many ways and fingerings you can apply the diminished scale (or what about that Coltrane solo, etc.) I never thought of it this ways; my thinking was usually “Practice more, get better, we’ll see later”.

I think for me the first step is to acknowledge that this is REALLY where I want to be in X number of years. It feels good to know that THIS is the big picture for me. Starting from there, I realized that the part that is lacking (the most) for my first goal to be achieved is composing. I need a huge repertoire of original tunes.

Hence my intense will to write new music.

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I hope that keeping that big picture in mind will feed my desire to write and practice daily. (Because I really need a reason to compose… what a pain!)

Let’s forget about chords, scales, jazz and songs for a moment and reflect upon this :

Music is all about perception: A single-note or a simple rhythm can be perceived as many different things. So, a shift in your perception can change your playing drastically, right?

How can we do that then?

Technically speaking, you could rationalize everything you hear and attach numerous significations to the sounds (x chord, x note, x rhythm, etc.) That’s very useful in schools and various learning situations.

But on the “human being” level…

Becoming a “better person” will impact your perception of the world in general, that’s for sure. That includes music/aural perception. Thus, adopting newer, better ways of life *will* make you into a better jazzman.

Go on and create meaningful relationships, manage your moods and mindset, get rid of addictions, sleep and eat well, exercise (etc.) and your music will greatly improve.

Practice well,

Marc-A Seguin

[On a personal note : I've been changing my lifestyle(s) for a while now. My music/playing/composing is now greatly enhanced by my nutrition, scheduling, exercising and improved mindset.]

For those who wish to grow as a person, I suggest this website : StevePavlina.com I’ve been reading Steve for at least 5 years! He has great things to say (and suggest) about a lot of different matters.]

I don’t think I’ve ever written this anywhere on my website or blog, so now’s the time : In the fall of 2009, I had the pleasure of speaking (on the phone) with bassist Gary Peacock for 30 minutes. I got his contact through Clinton Ryder (my friend and favorite montreal-based bass player).

Clinton has been studying with Mr. Peacock for 2-3 years now and I felt like I wanted to do the same. By the way, Peacock is part of the Keith Jarret Trio and has played with Miles Davis and Bill Evans, just to name a few… so I called him!

It was a great conversation; basically, he gave me a lesson on the phone. They were two mains aspects 1-Hearing/listening/aural perspective on music  2-Acknowledge the HARD stuff.

On the hearing level, Gary is basically saying : “sing, always”. If you can’t sing it, you can’t hear it… then don’t try to play it! Seems obvious enough, but it gave the impression that I had to work on my ears for another 20 years(at the very least).

The second thing, assessing what is the hardest for you, is the reason why I’m writing these lines right now. Mr. Peacock told me to “write down the things you find really hard… that’s where the juice is!” And he also specified : “don’t try to get them better. Just write them down.”

I never wrote my “hard stuff” down…now’s the time!

What’s hard for me (as of December 22nd 2009)

• Being harmonically clear in improvisation
  • on minor ii-V’s at 2 beats each
  • in iii-VI then ii-V situations (2 beats each)
  • at fast tempos in general

• Hearing Octave displacement in melodic lines

• Fast passages from transcriptions
  • recently : Tom Harrell’s lines

• Laying back on the beat and control over inflections, nuance and phrasing
  • I don’t naturally tend to play triplets.

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I’m sure the “hard stuff” keeps changing, like our life and goals. I feel relieved simply because I wrote them down. Thank you Mr. Peacock.

“Practice in every key. You would have to be able to play in all 12 keys if you only played there three standard jazz tunes : All the Things You Are, Cherokee and Body and Soul.”

-Bert Ligon from Connecting Chord with Linear Harmony, p.82

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Analyze the three tunes. You will find the 12 key centers at least once. He’s right!

In the midst of re-discovering what jazz improvisation is really all about (by reading and working through Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony) I came across a very obvious answer…

It’s funny because I wasn’t even looking for the answer anymore! It jumped right in my face while I was doing something unrelated. Here we go :

How to use octave displacement in jazz improvisation ?

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For a while, I was really working hard on arpeggios and scales that were applicable to soloing. Every now and then I stumbled on a nice line or lick that contained some displacement at the octave (down or up). Most of my favorite recorded solos contains quite a lot of octave displacement.

So…

I worked at it, sparsely, I finally decided that octave displacement is for horns and that it’s not really “guitaristic”.

Much too hard to incorporate in my improv. I tried many ways, didn’t work.

Cased closed. (Until today)

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And all of a sudden : “Wait a minute! Transposition is very easy on the guitar because it’s linear, it works in half-steps. BUT… transposing something up or down an octave is much harder!“

I realized that a serious “mind shift” was required for a guitar player to finish a line (or part of a line) up or down an octave. On piano, it’s easy : you hit the same keys! On guitar, you have to re-consider fingerings and it’s almost impossible to execute “linearly”, without jumps.

So I gave up : An octave displacement is just what it is (that’s in my head). It’s not simply “same notes an octave down” in my perception… and that solves the problem!

You can think I’m crazy. I forgive you. I probably am.

In fact, I’m a serious nutcase.

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For example, take a line like this :

And play that instead :

It works particularly well for ascending arpeggios (that a horn would normally “run out of  high notes”) or descending scales (“run out of low notes”…). Another Example :

And one last one, for the road (now with 100% more scalar displacement!)

Practice Well.

Marc-A