I took a little break off, but I’ve kept playing my melodica. I discovered the melodica is the foundation of my musical mind and composition. This is because I consider the melodica the easiest to access the 12 tones. It is one hand (not two), I can carry it around with me, it has little harmony (“only” melody), the keys are smaller and mechanically far easier to play, and I don’t even have to sit down to play it. I train my mind on the “shapes” on the melodica first, then apply the shapes to the electric piano, or Hammond organ. It helps to have this preparatory step, so that when I have to worry about advanced application (two hands, two manuals, fingerings, technique, etc.) my mind is already trained.
On the melodica I am still practicing the three diminished 7th chords, via the circle of fifths, chromatically, and four inversions. My improvisations have become quite sophisticated simply by possessing the ability to effortlessly cycle through dims in all 12 keys. You really can convey much to the listener, and give them sounds they are not used to.
I am also still practicing on melodica the four augmented chords, also by fifths, chromatically, and three inversions. I do find these difficult. Much like the diminished study, the ability to effortlessly cycle through all augmented chords adds another sophistication and richness to my improvisations. I discovered much of contemporary classical (Alban Berg, Schoenberg, even Chopin [to my ear]) is based on augmented chords. I hear many motion picture scores when I play augs in 12 keys. I have about 6-8 augmented chords trained, the others are coming a little slower.
In my 12-key practice of dims and augs, I apply “random” improvisation patterns, based on an idea I got from Jerry Coker’s Patterns for Jazz. I will cycle through all 12 key dims or augs during which I “randomly” vary melodic patterns, meters and phrasing. I felt jubilation when I discovered that certain patterns of augmented appear in different genres of music. For example, simply play the “2 inner” notes of an aug and bounce to the “2 outer” notes and notice how it sounds like Indiana Jones, or Russian ballet music. My improvisations have grown in considerable maturity, because I can “randomize” (better said, explore) different shapes, phrasing and patterns in 12 keys, and take listeners to sounds they do not hear much in America or popular music.
I am still working much on the tritone. My latest advancement has been relating the tritone to the whole tone scales. This happened by accident. I first started harmonizing the whole tone scale in seconds. Then thirds. When I reached fourths, I discovered they were tritones. I started practicing harmonizing the two whole tone scales in fourths, which naturally takes me through the 6 tritones. That gave me a “roadmap” or “highway” to play whole tone passages whenever I encounter or choose a tritone. I see the whole tone scale as a tool of improvisational freedom to effortlessly move through any tritones I wish.
I also focus much on the minor second. In many ways, the minor second and tritone are the basis of much of my improvisations. I decided, by self-study, that 1 b2 #2 3 5 #5 is one of the most symmetrical, fundamental scales in music. There are some interesting properties here, which I can say more about later, but essentially, I am learning that one can invent their own intervalic scales (set of pitches) and then see what happens when they are simply modulated. I have been taking pitch sets like these (from the “family” of perhaps “Spanish phyrgian”), altering one note, and then studying what happens when they are modulated by the circle of fifths. Interestingly, sharps and flats appear in specific order and scale degrees, much like regular major scales. I see how “Tonal Gravity” (Russell) applies to arbitrary pitch sets, and I am practicing using this tonal gravity in these Spanish Phrygians. Final thing I’ll say about pitch sets, is that I enjoy playing random pitch sets through all 12 keys. It can be very hard, especially in a free improvisation. For example, one day I played D-D#-E-Db-F-C. It has a bizarre, beautiful, bird like sound. I challenged myself to improv that through all 12 keys. I am able to get through 7-8 keys, and have to study a few. Applying these random pitch sets to 12 keys is helping me tremendously navigate music.
Last thing I am doing on my melodica, is major 7ths all inversions. This will help me “break apart” the seventh chords between both hands that Hayden shows in his videos. Rather than going through R-3-5-7 in all 12 keys and inversions, I am changing it to go through 1-5 in 12 keys, then 3-7 in 12 keys.
I am reading “Harmony of Bill Evans” by Jack Reilly. I have made it through the Peri’s Scope analysis. It takes a lot of time – I read every note on the score and say which scale degree it is. It can take me an hour or two to analyze 8 bars of music. It is exposing a lot of concepts I am rusty on. I have been having long conversations with AI about secondary dominants and functional harmony. AI is an incredible tool, as long as I am sharp enough to call it out on its mistakes, which it sometimes makes, and then corrects. This type of score analysis is improving my musical mind. I am now able to much more quickly say that “A is the V of D” or “the vi of Db is Ab”. Analyzing scores with a good book will force the mind to be solid on these.
I just started watching Hayden’s novice videos again, mostly the modulations course. I may take a go at learning a jazz standard, but I’m not rushing it. I just enjoy watching his left hand alternate between 1-5 and 3-7 voicing, for example, or learning the chord progressions in these standards. I’ve decided not to hold up my video watching to actually learn each piece. I decided to loosen up, not force myself to play ANY standards, and let myself watch as many videos as I want. I plan to watch another seminar too, as that can help loosen up my study.
I decided not to go for a degree in jazz piano performance. During the audition, I realized I was spending all my time reading sheet music note-for-note. This didn’t feel like jazz to me. I feel jazz is an improviser’s music. I concluded that many jazz performance degrees are going to have players recite exact improvisations that were recorded or written down from improvisations in the past. I recognized that I have unlimited freedom creatively improvising on my own for the rest of my life, so why get a degree in it? If I was going to read sheet note-for-note, I’d want it to be classical, because while I can learn to improvise anything I want (unlimited potential), I certainly cannot sit down and perform a Debussy score on my own. I really started looking into getting a classical performance degree instead, but I realized I did not want to be so mechanically challenged (I’m 37 years old, I’m not young). I decided composition is probably right for me, because I’d rather compose my own music, and use composition as a tool for my improvisations.
I picked up manuscript paper and decided to start composing by hand while I wait for my composition program at the university. It’s hard – learning to draw treble clefs, rests, notes, stems, etc. But it’s a lot of fun. The Harmony of Bill Evans book makes the powerful claim (in the first sentence) that composition is the greatest achievement of all musicians. I found that an interesting idea. It may be correct. The book then goes on to “make a case” for Bill as a compositional master. Now, I must say, Bill is one of the true understated masters of music, but I have not totally bought that he is a “composer”. Or, more subtly, I wonder how much of Bill’s music, was a spontaneous outpouring of his musical mind? Yes, Bill could perform a string of 3 secondary dominants, along with a tritone substitution, with some gorgeous and unusual voicings, without any effort… but is that really a composition, or a momentary exercise of his abilities? I downloaded a picture of one of Evan’s scribbles – he did write his own lead sheets, or at least pieces of them. I am curious and mystified as to how musical composition (the act of writing) will “merge” or augment with my improvisations.
