Phrase for practising minor cadences
Lesson time: (1min 17sec)
Ollie Weston shares a simple V7-to-i jazz lick built from the harmonic minor and Aeolian scales to practise soloing over minor cadences.
Course preview
This lesson is part of the course Exploring Jazz Saxophone: Part 2 - Soloing on Songs and Chord Sequences
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
Practicing Over Minor Cadences
So when you're happy with your scales, I'm just going to show you a phrase that you can use to practice over minor cadences.
Listen and Build Vocabulary
- Again, listen to the great players and hear how they play over minor tunes.
- Try to build up your vocabulary of melodic lines to play over these cadences.
Simple V7 to One Minor Lick
Here's a simple V7 to one minor lick that will get you started:
Count:
1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.
So there's a simple jazz-sounding phrase that uses the harmonic minor scale over chord 5 and the Aeolian over chord 1.
Important Note
As always, that's by no means a definitive line, but it's just something to get you started, to help you build your fluency and access that sound quickly.
About the instructor
Since graduating from the Leeds College of Music (BA Hons) and the Guildhall School of Music (Post Graduate Diploma in Performance), Ollie has built a busy and varied career in music. As a saxophonist he has performed in live and studio settings with artists as diverse as Amy Winehouse, Tim Minchin, Bonobo, Frank Turner, the London Jazz Orchestra, the Hackney Colliery Band, the Ambient Jazz Ensemble and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. He is also the co-leader of the jazz quartet 'Time Is Of The Essence', and composes and arranges material for this and other ensembles. Ollie is active in music education, currently as course leader for the jazz department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (junior school), where he runs jazz ensembles, big band and theory classes. He has written a series of 'Exploring Jazz' books for Schott Music that are published worldwide and feature on exam syllabuses in the UK. Ollie has also run workshops for Oxford University, Pro Corda Strings and BABSWE, as well as the Guildhall School of Music summer schools. In his Exploring Jazz Saxophone courses, Ollie takes you from getting started right through to soloing confidently over songs and chord sequences, building the improvising skills that put a real jazz player's vocabulary at your fingertips. read more