Sax Lesson 14: Diminished Melody

Lesson 14: Diminished Melody. Visit mattotto.org to download the PDF for this exercise.
Here is a simple melody that will help you hear diminished as diminished, not merely as a dominant 7(b9). This is fairly easy idea that is played through the keys around the circle of fourths starting in concert C. It's good to recognize that diminished (whole, half) is actually much harder to hear (and sing) than dominant 7th (b9) partially do to the lack of a stabilizing 5th above the root. As an exercise, try to sing a diminished scale over a pedal or drone starting with a half step (half, whole), because of the perfect 5th, the scale is much more stable and easier to sing and hear. Next try to sing the scale over a pedal or drone starting with a whole step... you'll see that as the scale moves from the #11 to the #5 (without the presence of the perfect 5th above the root), it's much harder to sing and get in tune, and thus much harder to hear accurately. In general scales without a perfect 5th are the hardest to sing over their appropriate root.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• diminished
• mattotto.org
• sax
• saxophone
• lesson
• lessons
• lesson 14
• jazz
• jazz improvisation
• jazz theory
• music theory
• patterns
• melody
• sequence

[nedmanxxx]

thankyou matt.! what make and model metronome is that with the 1 accented ? i need to get one.

[MattOttoJazz]

Thanks Nedman, that's a Dr. Beat (Boss) DB 88.

[claragary]

Thanks for your lessons and for sharing it, they are a must in order to be a jazz musician.

[AyeStun]

are these patterns something you could play over dominant chords?