Modal Improvisation

Music Lesson: Improvisation and Chord Progressions

So, all the chords in "Open Up" are from the scale of F. This means that if you wish, when you improvise in the right hand, you could just use notes from that scale. They'll fit all those chords.

Basic Improvisation Tips

An easy way to improvise, presuming you're playing chords in the left hand (which is what I did the second time around), is:

• The first time was two-handed voicing.
• The second time was just the left hand.

You could use any of the notes from the scale of F, but it would be useful to practice some patterns. Here are a few patterns to try:

• Use a triad shape.
• Choose an inverted triad shape.

You could play the same rhythm as the tune, if you wish, and you could arpeggiate them to make it sound more melodic, maybe in swing quavers or triplets. In fact, you can use all four notes of the four-note chords; the seventh chords could be a scale pattern as well.

Here's a great exercise that goes through all seventh chords in the key, alternately up and down. Just check out the fingering. Basically, we're doing this:

• Single Notes: Notice I'm not jumping with the thumb. The natural way to play that might be like this, but if you're moving the thumb on two consecutive notes, that's a really bad habit to get into.

So, you'll notice I crossed over. It's a fantastic exercise! Try that in other keys as well.

Following the Chords

If you want to follow the chords a little more closely, you might think about playing different modes of the scale.

• Over the F section (the first four bars):
  • It does 1, 2, 3 in F.
  • Play the five-finger position up and down in the right hand.
  • In the left hand, alternate F and G minor.

The push on the second bar is really important. You see how that comes with the B flat? That means that you're not playing all the left-hand chords on the beat, making it sound much more jazzy.

Adding A Minor 7

Let's try the same thing and include the A minor 7, three chords: 1, 2, 3. I'll play that pattern with the metronome now at 100 beats per minute, swing quaver.

If you wish, you could play the whole scale using a scale loop like we did in part one of the course. This time, I'll go up to the three chord as well: the A minor.

Coordination Exercises

• Goal: Aim to improvise with the right feel; you don't want to be playing all the chords on the beat. That's not a very jazzy way to use the left hand.

That deals with the first four bars.

Exploring the C7 Section

For the second part of the tune, the key center is more based on C7, so we'll use the scale of F starting on C. This is called a Mixolydian mode.

You can refer to part one of the course if you're still a bit uncertain about the names of these modes. This is like a C major scale with a flattened seventh, and it fits a C7 chord, but we're still basically using notes of the F scale.

Practicing Chords

Here it is with the left-hand chords and the metronome in five-finger position, 3, 4. Notice all the chords are short except for the C incubated one, the D minor, which is held for longer.

Now I'll do the same thing, performing the whole scale in a scale loop. I've looped it so that it's the same in every bar, every two bars.

In the left hand, I'm going to go not just C7 to D minor but also up to E half diminished. This deals with the second line of the piece, the C7 section, bars five to eight. Then, that's going to come back again eight bars later.

The B Flat Tonality Section

For the third section, we're going to have to play more around a B flat tonality.

• The chords are:
  • B flat major down to A minor and back.
  • Eventually down to G minor and back.

So, we're using the scale of F starting on B flat. It's not a B flat scale because we've got an E natural in it, this is called a Lydian scale.

Scale Application

You can practice with:

• Two, three, four with the chords.

If I want to do the whole scale, I'll probably want to start with a second finger. This helps with regular scale fingering, avoiding the thumb on a black note.

Notice the articulation is a bit different with the chords. In this third section of the tune, you might remember it was a bit more legato.

• I've made the first chord long.
• Check out the PDF, as the chords have been simplified.

The rhythm is exactly what I'm playing in the left hand, second time round on the track for the F bars and then the C bars. That pattern is repeated but going to the third chord, with the C going up to E half diminished.

Final Section and Putting It All Together

So far, everything has the same rhythm. But the last section, the Lydian section in B flat, goes more like this:

• Notice the pushes on the third chord.
• Keep that syncopation going in the left hand even when you're improvising in the right hand.

Now you need to put all that together. Go back to the track; you can switch between performance mode and the backing track just by toggling.

In the backing track mode, you won't hear any piano. You'll just hear the bass and drums. You can play the tune as written with the two-handed voicings, or you can just play the chords in the left hand like I do the second time.

This is when you'll want to put all these scales into practice. Start by practicing those routines, the five-finger positions, or the scale loops. But eventually, your aim is to keep those rhythms going in the left hand and improvise more freely in the right hand.

Good luck!