Improvising with the five-finger position

Improvisation with Five Finger Positions

Now that you've had a go at improvising using five finger positions in threesome over chords in the left hand, let's look a bit more closely at how that works.

Basic Five Finger Exercise

The basic five finger exercise should be practiced on all the chords you need:

• V chord
• IV chord

Get used to moving between those hand positions.

Pitfalls to Avoid

When it comes to actual playing, there are some pitfalls you might want to avoid. For instance, if you put the fourth of the five finger position in the key of C, that's F. If you play that with the chord, it sounds pretty awful because we hear E and F together, which is about the most discordant interval known to mankind.

• Interval Analysis:
  • This combination creates an octave and a semitone or a flattened ninth.

Thus, that's a sound you might want to avoid unless you are particularly after massive dissonance. It doesn't mean you can't play the F; it just means you shouldn't come to rest on it or stress it too much.

Example

For instance, you could play those same four notes like this:

"I'm still playing the F, but I'm following it with an E, which is a better note to end on."

Enhancing Your Improvisation

Some other tips to make your five finger improvisations more effective include putting in the blue third:

• The blue third is the same as a minor third or a flattened third.
• In C, that's an E flat, and you put that in front of the E.

Example in Melody

You'll notice I did that in the melody of threesome.

• It was on G, where I used the blue third on G (which is a B flat) as a grace note in front of the B.
• Here it is in C: you can use that in the middle of your improvisation as well.

It doesn't always have to be a grace note, but you should aim to put the E flat in front of the E.

• On F, it'll be an Ab.
• On G, use the third finger to slide off the B flat, the blue third.

You can use a third finger for both the blue third and the major third, or you can use the second finger sometimes.

Understanding Blue Notes

The blue third is sometimes called a blue note. There are other blue notes, but the blue third is the main one. Using blue notes makes your improvisation sound:

• Less bland
• More colourful
• More jazzy
• More bluesy

All those things at once!

Analyzing the Solo Sequence

Looking at the solo sequence of threesome, I've given you the five finger position in boxes here on the PDF note. Additionally, for every chord, the fourth note is indicated not only as a black note but also in brackets.

• Some people might call that an avoid note.
  • It doesn't really mean you have to avoid it; it's just that of all the five notes, it's probably the least effective choice to come to rest on.

Practical Application

As demonstrated earlier, you can play it in passing quite successfully.

• Just look at the penultimate bar of the solo where the chord goes from C to F.
  • There's no problem playing the F in that particular bar, since you have an F chord in the left hand.

"Okay, that's not going to be a problem, but I wouldn't do that if the chord was C. You can hear the difference."