Exercises

Well one of the exercises you can do clearly is to look at hot licks.

Maybe you might be able to arrange to do them in some other keys as well. Like the most important keys after C are F, B flat, E flat, A flat, … But really what we have really been looking at in this session is the Clock of Keys and seeing how it applies to this important standard “All The Things You Are”. I’d like you to look at “All The Things You Are”. I given you voicings in one position. Perhaps you might consider the other voicings - the other position.

Perhaps you could look at playing it with the hands separated and then playing the tune in the middle of the piano and working out which notes have to be sacrificed in the left hand in order to do that. Then when it comes to improvising the thing I’ve been trying to emphasise in this session is playing the notes of the scales which are available to you - the 5 scales which are available to you - in the first instance.

So I’d like you to get as many of the notes of the scales in and try and persuade yourself that it works, at least works in the sense that we think of this not as a set of chords and the scales that go with it, but as a chord sequence, so that it has a movement, a logic, a flow of its own that take you to the various tonal centres.

If you feel up to it then you can look at the enhanced version that I say is closer to what I use. You can also have a look at improvising properly on “All The Things You Are”, that is to say, now you know the notes that are available to you, you can think in terms of phrases. And you can use hot licks as an example of some of the phrases you might try out. Or you can choose elements of the tune. Then there’s harmonic (chordal) improvisation, but really it’s the motivic improvisation that, if you have time, I’d like you to concentrate on. Good luck.