Bichordal Triad Pitch Collection Etudes ~ Book 4
~ w/ Sound Files for Practicing
Check this link for music and sound examples:
http://byrnejazz.com/product.php?id=4
These innovative Bichordal Triad Pitch Collection
Etudes, LJI Book 4 take improvisation to a higher,
super-melodic level, exploring 12 hexachords, 9 pentachords,
and 3 tetrachords, for a total of 24 pitch collections of
new vocabulary in sing-able melodic etudes. Learn by singing
and playing along with the Free Sound Files, and they will
supply you with endless new improvisation ideas.
Pitch Collection technique is a means of acquiring
vocabulary which will find its way into your playing
naturally as it is internalized, and these pcs will serve as
color and added expression to these most important linear
elements of the composition–but without your being limited
to the chord accompaniment sounding below.
In their conjunctness, step-wise 7-note scales tend to
be less melodic, while Pitch Collections which leave a gap
or more are more melodic. 7-note scales are merely an
expedience of Chord Scale Theorists because all 7 possible
pitch classes are represented. Unfortunately, this encourages
the inexperienced to habitually use all 7; and 7-note scales
tend to foster conjunct lines which do not breathe.
Systematically omitting a note or more from a common scale
or mode makes the collection profoundly different.
Try, for example, improvising on a mode omitting its 2nd
degree; it will result in a very different effect than using
the entire seven-note scale. To some, many of these pcs will
appear like modes or other common scales, only missing
notes; but the consistent absence of specific pitch classes
creates something different, similar to the difference
between the Major and Pentatonic scales.
While these collections can be assigned to specific
chord situations in a progression, we’ll leave that up to
you, since we do not base improvisations on chord scale theory.
The book systematically combines every combination of Major
and Minor Triads into close position pcs: Major with Major,
Minor with Minor, and Minor with Major. In the process, some
very unusual pcs of tetrachords (4-note collections),
pentachords (5), and hexachords (6) are achieved.
All of these pcs can be played in any mode (inversion),
and any pitch class can be considered the priority note, or
there can be no priority note. These yields 24 pcs, of which
12 are Hexachords, 9 are Pentachords, and there are 3
Tetrachords.
I was first immersed in the bichords themselves for a
year or more, practicing them in the form of real triads
first. I started singing them in this new manner in an
inspiration: One intuitively evolved organically out of the
other. The pcs, however, better lend themselves to the
reation of interesting lines that are easier to play than
the actual triads. Pitch collection improvising involves a
kind of oral composition, involving notes, rhythms,
articulations, inflections, vibratos and gestures, with a
rhythmic style in mind.
They work as vocabulary over any chords. When it comes
to lines, I am rather unconcerned with orthodoxy–only
color-enhancement of the melody. An example of its usage
over a specific chord, however, is the pc for C/Db, in which
I combine the two triads for the following composite scale:
C, Db, E, F, G, Ab, C, which is on the list of the
24. This particular pc will work over: C7, DbMA7,
Cm7, Fm7 and many other chords.
Bichordal Pitch Collection Etudes captures the
interesting intervallic chromatic juxtapositions of the same
pitch classes in a nutshell. The rhythms have been held
mostly to 8th notes in order to:
1. Concentrate purely on the lines themselves.
2. Internalize each line and then improvise rhythms and
articulations.
3. Avoid allowing rhythms to influence (interfere with)
pitch choices.
4. Avoid confusion of a vocabulary-learning vehicle with
rhythm reading proficiency.
While, for expedience, these pcs are mostly limited to
a 2-octave range in the book, you should practice them
throughout your entire range. All of these etudes have a
priority note, which of course need not be in practice; but
without harmonic reference they could have lapsed into
meaningless successions of notes, rather than lines.
First listen to them at qn = 150 to get a sense of the
lines, but they will have to be practiced at a slower tempo
at first. They should be practiced in all 12 keys throughout
the entire range of your instrument. Then improvise on them.
They will add a great deal to your musical vocabulary for
jazz improvisation.
Check this link for music and sound examples:
http://byrnejazz.com/product.php?id=4
LJI Polytonal Triad Etudes ~ Book 5
~ w/ Sound Files for Practicing
Check this link for music and sound examples:
http://byrnejazz.com/product.php?id=23
This book offers enough advanced modern vocabulary to
keep you occupied for at least a year! It begins with an
8-bar pantonal line based on triads, and then develops it in
a variety of mind-blowing ways. Learn to sing and play it ~
along with its sound files.
You will find many developments of an angular 8-measure
line comprised of major (Part 1) or minor (Part 2) triads,
both of which are transposed pantonally. Several methods of
motive development are also employed here, including various
forms of transposition, non-functional chord succession,
retrograde, retrograde inversion, mirror, fragmentation,
sequencing, and mixing and matching. This book comes with
Free Sound Files to practice along with.
Learn to play lines in which you transpose Major and
Minor triads over ostinatos and pedal points. Those two
forms of triad possess the most sonority. The initial
8-measure line upon which the entire book is based, is
comprised of fairly distant transpositions of the M triads:
+4, MA3, +4, ˝ step, m3, MA3, +4; MA3, m3, m3, m3, MA2, MA3,
m3, MA3, many of which create tension against the strong
Bb ostinato bass. This invites one to continue the process
of pantonal improvisation of various Major triad
transpositions, along with its melodic rhythms.
My approach does not follow strict rules, however, and
it includes various forms of retrograde. I compose in this
style by singing a root progression melody on a chord
succession, and then creating a line employing any inversion
or melodic contour through that triad succession; but I use
this technique mostly for outgoing playing.
Then I develop the resultant line in a variety of ways,
using retrograde and retrograde inversion. I also employ
rhythmic development of the melodic rhythms, and I mix that
with the line itself. One example of this is the playing of
various motives extracted from the overall line, and then
played a beat or half-beat earlier or later, or recycled
without rests.
The more interesting use of these rapid modulations to
distant keys (at the major 3rd in this case) is even more
useful when applied to independent lines over vamps or other
forms of harmonic stasis.
For music and sound examples of Polytonal Triad Etudes:
http://byrnejazz.com/product.php?id=23
Since the initial line employs vocabulary which is
relatively unfamiliar, I first learn to sing it before
practicing it with the playback (slowed down at first). This
singing process requires a great deal of repetitious
practicing, often involving making short vamps (with Finale
repeats) out of motives of each etude, before putting it all
together. It is an organic evolutionary process of
internalization which requires hard work and dogged
determination.
After singing it all, go back each day and take one
phrase a day, and blow on it all night. You must invite it
into your rap, by doing pseudo-improvisations on it, and
then just blowing freely, allowing it to mix with what you
already do.
Check this link for music and sound examples:
http://byrnejazz.com/product.php?id=23
To get a better idea of LJI and how it works, there
are a great many both music and sound examples of the 15
different LJI books to be found in the More Information
sections for each book in the ByrneJazz Online Bookstore
(just click on each book):
http://byrnejazz.com/store.php
In tomorrow’s essay I discuss Easier Ways to Derive
Scales(than those of Chord Scale Theory).
Best,
Ed
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JazzTalk with Ed Byrne 