Hot Licks 2 on a major seventh

I hope you feel that you can do some improvising on “All The Things You Are”, as I say, one of the more complicated standards that people play. When you are playing it then there are quite a number of places where you have a major seventh to improvise over. For example, the first 4 bars takes you to A flat major7, the next four bars takes you to C major7, the next 4 bars takes you to E flat major7, the next 4 bars to G major7. What we are going to look at here is hot licks on a major seventh. For simplicity I’ve chosen C major7, but it would be good if you could do it in other keys.

So maybe you can use your Audacity or Transcribe, or whatever, to try doing this exercise in different keys - the principle keys, or if you are that enthusiastic all 12 keys. It’s good development for your ear.

Remember the procedure: I’ve built myself a playalong out of iRealB, it’s sort of medium paced, just one chord Cmajor7. I’ll play C6/9 first of all and play more in the middle of the piano. Then after a bit I’ll play the second inversion of C major7 and play a bit higher up the piano. I’ll play a phrase, you echo the phrase, I’ll echo it as well and you should be able to detect if there is a discrepancy - that’s assuming I play the phrase exactly the same again. Let’s have a go.