Music Lesson: Warm-Up and Introduction to Jazz

Warm-Up

Well, let's go ahead and warm up. This is going to be a warm-up with just my two fingers here.

• I'm going to play the third fret all the way across the bass.
• I'm going to do groups of three:
  • One, two, three.
  • One, two, three.
  • One, two, three.
  • One, one, two, three.
  • One, two, three.
  • One, two, three.
  • One, two, three.
  • One, two, three.

Just let things loosen up. I'm barring with one finger and playing one, two, three. Those are actually triplets.

We'll talk about what triplets are in a second. We're going to discuss shuffle style, swing style, and will look at two different styles of grooves and playing.

Intro to Jazz

We're going to take our first look at jazz tunes, including:

• Some jazz solo licks.
• A jazz blues.
• A shuffle old-time Chicago blues.

Both of these styles are pretty important.

Swing and Shuffle Feel

Let's go ahead and start with swing time feel.

• Swing time and shuffle time are related.
• The cornerstone of these feels is the 12/8 rhythm.

Simply put, 12/8 is 12 beats per bar, and the eighth note gets a beat. However, we don't play it like this:

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

Instead, we look at a quarter note, and in between we're going to play triplets, three even notes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

Sometimes you can say: "Triplet, Triplet, Triplet..."

Transition to Swing Rhythm

Now, let's change those into a swing rhythm or a shuffle rhythm.

1. I'll move up here to the open A string to demonstrate.
2. I'll do 12/8 and count you in:
   • 1, 2, 3, 4, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short.

This will sound the same whether it is two eighth notes tied together or a quarter and eighth rhythm.

If there's a little "3" under it (the triplet), it will be:

• Long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short.

Now, that is a 12/8 rhythm. Often, they won't even write a 12/8 rhythm with a swing or jazz feel, they'll just write regular eighth notes.

So it will look like: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.

But if you see a note that says eighth note = quarter and eighth with a triplet under it or 2 eighth notes = dotted eighth, sixteenth (which is kind of an old-school way of writing it), you'll play it as a shuffle or swing feel.

Even though it looks like: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, you will play it: long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short.

Chicago Style Blues

Okay, let's look at shuffling along our first tune.

• This is a conventional Chicago style blues.
• We'll tackle a new key for the 12-bar blues: Key of A.
  • My I chord is the A (fifth fret of the E string).
  • My IV chord is the fifth fret of the D string.
  • My V chord is the seventh fret of the D string.

Now, let's take a look at the core licks and patterns of this.

Blues Patterns

There are two parts to this blues progression:

1. The Blues Box Pattern.
2. A chromatic move we have to do.

The blues box pattern takes notes out of the dominant seventh chord.

Dominant Seventh Chord Review

We covered that in the last session. If I'm in A, the dominant seventh is rooted as follows:

• Third: C sharp,
• Fifth: E,
• Seventh: G,
• Octave: A.

Remember: You don't have to use all the notes out of the chord to suggest it.

The first part of this rock and roll box or blues box pattern is...

Now, if we swing it, it gives you this feel: 1, 2, 3, and 4. (There's that long and short.)

That's the first line of the tune. We don't have to use the third to create the sound of the chord. There are tons of songs that use just the root, octave, seven, five.

Continued Progression

Now, let's look at the second measure.

• The second measure of the pattern starts on the third and ends on the fifth.
• What's going on in between? We're playing what are called passing notes.

Here's the third, and here's the fifth. The other two notes in between create tension, pulling you toward the chord tone.

I'm going to tap two notes out of the chord and you can hear this is the A7:

• Here's the third.
• That sounds okay, that's the third.
• The four really wants to move somewhere.
• Here's that sharp four, and there's the five.

Notice how the five feels way more comfortable than the sharp four.

• Root, three, four, sharp four, five.

This is a cool sound and an easy pattern to get under your fingers.

Fingering

What I tend to do with this one is start with my second finger on the root, then go to the octave with my fourth, then use my second for the seventh, and then hit the five with my first finger.

Let's just look at the core lick, then we're going to move it around. We'll play this about four times at a tempo of 60.

Okay, the IV chord, there's really no surprise. I'll take that pattern and move it over to the D.

V Chord and Transition

Here's the pattern on the D: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now we're going to do something interesting with the V chord. We'll start with what is called a two minor seven chord.

What on earth is that?

• You know what a two in the scale is?
• In the key of A, two is B.
• A two minor seven is a B minor seven.

From there, we'll go to the V7, the E7.

This is called a 2-5 progression. We'll see a lot more of that when we study jazz styles.

Turnaround

The last four bars of the blues are typically called the turnaround because it brings you back to the top of the progression.

• At the end of the progression, I'll be pedaling on the root of the V chord (which is E), and then I'll do a little lick on that.

But first, let's talk about how to use passing tones to get through those two chords, B minor 7 and E7.

Walking Blues Line

If you look at the line:

1. Root,
2. Passing tone,
3. The actual third of the chord (D).

Remember, it's a minor chord. The D sharp should sound like a toothache over a minor chord, right?

But if I resolve that to the dominant seventh chord, it sounds better.

Here's that B minor 7, here's the D sharp.

This is a case where it can sound like a mistake if you play it and just leave it.

But if you play it and resolve it, it sounds cool.

The lick on the B minor: B, C sharp, D, D sharp.

The E will be conventional because I'll walk down the line.

Practicing the Blues

Now, let's play very slowly on this tune, Shuffling Along.

We'll be playing it with a band in a second. For now, just practice with me, following along on the screen.

I'll count you in: 1, 2, 3, 4.

When you play with the band, we'll play it three times. But you can practice this on your own.

Once again, think about this in terms of just two bars of phrasing.

Jamming with the Band

Now, let's head over to the club and do some jamming on the blues.

There's nothing to cure a bad case of the blues quite like a good feeling shuffle.

Let's try it with Shuffling Along.

Wa Sa oh, boys, that felt nice. Now it's your turn. See how you can make the band feel.

What we're going to do here is speed up the shuffle rhythm a little more.

You'll notice you don't quite dig in as much, it kind of glides a little bit. This will be a good preparation for the next tune.

So a little lighter touch, a little less accent on the triplets.

Sa alright, now it's your turn to try that one. Have fun.

Transition to Jazz Soloing

How was it playing the blues with the band?

Man, that's a good band. They definitely groove. I enjoy playing with those guys. I hope you did too.

Now we're going to kick it up a notch, examining jazz soloing. This can be a little intimidating, but think of it as speaking a foreign language.

• When you're learning a foreign language, you learn key phrases, then string them together to make a sentence.
• You start to read exchanges and paragraphs, maybe even a book in that language.

When you look at jazz and jazz solo licks, think of it the same way.

If I'm going to play a solo idea, I want to have key phrases that I can use when I can't think of anything else.

It would be the equivalent of trying to have a conversation and having to make up every word from scratch.

Key Phrases in Jazz

That's why it's important to have these key phrases.

The eventual tune we'll get to is a jazz blues, but first I want to go through some of the licks I'll be using in the melody line.

F Seventh Chord

All of these will be based around an F seventh chord.

Here's one down here:

• F, A, C, E flat, F.

Here's one in the middle of the neck:

• F, A, C, E flat, F.

Remember, that's a dominant seventh shape.

First Jazz Lick

Now, any of these licks you can move around.

This is the first lick:

It sounds like a bass line. Let's see what's going on here.

• Starting on the root,
• Then going to G sharp (half step below the third, A),
• And then the fifth (C).

So far, we've played a root, an approach tone, a third, and a fifth.

The next two notes are the sixth and then back down to the five.

Let's play that lick in time: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Transposing the Lick

You can move that around anywhere you want.

All you have to do is remember the chord construction: root, third, fifth, sixth.

Additional Licks

Now, let's look at the second lick on the page.

This is kind of up in the middle of the neck:

• F, F octave, E flat, D, C, and A.

The chord tones are F, octave, seven, five, and three.

Adding one note (D) gives it a passing note between the seven and five.

Here's that second jazz lick. I'll count you in: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now, I'm using mostly stationary shapes, moving them around.

Simple Patterns

The next lick is very simple, playing the approach tone to the third (G sharp to G) then to F.

Let's try that with a click: 1, 2, 3, 4.

This one is kind of a springboard for the next pattern.

Next Pattern

The next pattern adds the approach tone to the three, the upper octave, staying within the chord notes.

• G sharp, A, G sharp, A, C, F.

Let's try this one slow: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Higher F7 Chord

Next, we'll go back to the higher F7 chord.

This pattern goes:

• Root, the seven, the five, the three, and the root.

Playing a downbeat here and making it swing using the shuffle rhythm: 1, 2, 3, 4.

You can move it around anywhere!

Last Simple Pattern

This is a pretty simple pattern.

• This is a half step or B natural below the fifth as an approach tone.

You can either finger that or slide it: B, C, B, C, D, F.

Just straight eights in time: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Melody and Walking Line

Now let's put together the melody and the walking line for Don't Be Bopped.

I'll play it very slowly at quarter note equals 40.

We'll increase the tempo to 60 and then play with the band.

Follow along with me on the music in the fingerboard visible on the screen.

This will be very slow. I'll count you in: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Did you catch some of the licks we worked on?

I think that's the first lick in our lick vocabulary.

Walking Blues Line

The middle contains the walking blues line.

This is not the same walking line we've done so far, it has different note choices, but still roots, threes, fives, and sevens with little passing notes.

If I go through this, it will go from F, passing tone (G), leading to the third.

Final Walking Line

Now I'm moving to the C7 chord:

• Root, 7, passing tone, 5.

Then I'll use the open string to shift from the fifth position to the first position.

You can see the passing notes I've used.

Practice the Tune

Now let's play through the walking line at a slow tempo. I'll count you in: 1, 2, 3, 4.

I'm going to speed the tempo up a bit to 60 beats per minute, and let's play the whole chart: 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

This may take time to gel, so don't be surprised if this takes longer than the other material.

You might want to revisit this as your skill level improves and see how you can play it more smoothly each time.

Tempo and Feel

I'll leave you with a couple of ideas.

To do this, I'm going to turn the tempo up a bit to 80 beats per minute.

Let's show how jazz musicians practice their time feel.

The click will be at 40, but that's going to be 2 and 4. This is going to be the backbeat: 1, 2, a 1, 2, 3, 4.

You'll find that you have more lift to your walking lines, and the solo line will feel lighter: 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Playing with the Drummer

When playing with a jazz groove, remember:

• You don't listen to the bass drum.
• You listen from the top of the drum set down.

If you think about your walking line, it's played in quarter notes. If you listen to the drums, you'll notice the quarter notes being played by the ride cymbal.

I'll do the walking line now: Quarter note equals 120. Work up to this: 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Let's play it one more time with the drum program at this tempo: 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Conclusion

Let's go to the club and sit in with the band.

This will take work to get together, but if you do, you'll have something to be proud of. You're now in the intermediate section of this course. Have fun and let's go to the club.

Now it's your turn to try it.

Remember to think ahead as this is a bit more complicated than what we've done before.

Good luck with your practice, and congratulations on getting this far in the course! You should feel really proud of yourself for pushing through this lesson. We're ready for some really cool stuff in the next session. See you then!