PITCHING IT RIGHT - CONTEMPORARY

Up to the late 50s, jazz musicians tended to base their improvisations on playing "changes" and then along came Miles Davies with his breathtaking album Kind of Blue where he had his musicians improvise on scales rather than chord change. Unlike be-bop, which had chord changes happening quickly; in Kind of Blue the scales lasted for longer and gave the music a reflective quality.

Although the Blues and Rhythm Changes examples which you have played so far have had scales as a guide for improvisation, the pieces have been based on a set of well-worn chord changes. The next set of examples has a contemporary feel and are based on scales or modes. Actually, modes are nothing new - the earliest examples of music used modes thousands of years ago!

The modes used in the last set of tunes are all derived from the major scale starting at different points on the scale.

NB. Viewing the electronic scores requires the "Scorch" plug-in. More information is available here.