So What (with annotations)

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This is a jazz piano tutorial of the Miles Davis tune "So What" from Kind of Blue.

Thanks again YouTube for featuring me!
...

Some cool things to do:
1) Over D minor I think mostly D dorian in the left hand. In the right hand however, I think D, Db, and Eb Dorian. Using half step chromatically "out" scales is the easiest way to add and resolve tension. You may also want to try the tritone which is Ab Dorian. You can and should take the LH out too occasionally as well.
2) When the bass player is pedaling the I or V you have ANY option of diatonic scales to play since he is implying no scale with his walking. These include (but are not limited to) D harmonic minor, D mel. minor, D dim, D altered, D major, D lydian, and many more! You can also play with half step chromaticism while doing this!
3) It's easy to want to over play in a modal tune where you know the basic scale very well. A way to break up the monotony of single note lines is block chords. I use 4th voicings in the LH w/ octaves, single notes, clusters, and thirds in the RH. It's a hip and updated way to play the George Shearing style over modern tunes.
4) Cluster Vocings: Practice just dropping letting your hand randomly fall on the piano. Remember, for it to sound best all the notes you "fall" in to should relate to the scale you're improvising with. Clare Fischer used to do this, but he often didn't worry about scale relationships until AFTER the fact.
5) If you don't own "Kind of Blue" go buy it! Now...

Read Mark Levine's section on "So What" chords in his "Jazz Piano Book." He talks extensively about how to alter standard So What chords.

Playing contrunpuntaly with quartal vocings is a great thing. It's used extensively by pianists Hal Galper and Enrico Pieranunzi. If you haven't heard of Enrico check out "Live in Paris." It's one of the most impressive trio albums I've ever heard. Check him out here:

http://www.myspace.com/enricopieranunzi

Thanks to Lot2Learn for helping me with this one.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Miles
• Davis
• Bill
• Evans
• So
• What
• Quartal
• Jazz
• Modal
• Roland
• fp
• fp-4
• piano
• kind
• of
• blue
• enrico
• pieranunzi
• outer
• space
• lesso

[Lot2learn]

Just re-visited this. Really great explanations and playing. You take your solo so many different places with great build-ups and releases. Terrific self-expression and ideas.

[tjjazzpiano]

Thanks!

[theshawz]

This is one of the first videos I've seen where the annotations actually are very helpful. I just bought Mark Levines book on jazz and I am beginning to learn the fundamentals of Jazz Theory.

As a musician this commentary is incrediblly helpful, and I appreciate the effort you put into showing the technical side of this performance (Which I'm still having a lot of trouble following but at least I know where to start). Fantastic job, I am subscribing and hope to see more of these!

[tjjazzpiano]

Thanks! Mark Levine's book is an excellent resource of knowledge for jazz pianists. You may also want to check out "Metaphors for the Musician" by Randy Halberstadt.

[Smoothjazzchops]

Good playing, and good annotations aswell, except that I'm pretty sure your wrong in saying that your using D7b5, it just sound and looks more like a bit of blues scale. But nice playiing anway, keep it up!

[tjjazzpiano]

Good comment. You're absolutely right. I meant to type Dm7b5. It has been fixed.

[56adrennesrawsonm78]

wów_sùcht_mãl_ñAch:_geldeasy_Á­ûf_gÖÖglÊ

[protoolspianomaster]

I'm a huge fan. You are definitely one of the best pianists on YouTube. Congrats on a great performance of this plateau modal tune. These kind of tunes tend to get a little monotonous after a while, and it can be quite hard to keep the attention of the listener when soloing on this kind of a tune. I was attentively interested the whole way through! I keep watching it over and over. Lots to learn here. Everybody, take out your pencil and paper.... class is in session. LOL

[JoelT23]

great playing, where did you get the backing track? or did you make it?

[lemmystop]

Dude! Great playing!

[brucereid1098]

the album is called KIND OF BLUE miles davis the album was voted the jazz album of the last century

[brucereid1098]

the album is called KIND OF BLUE miles davis the album was voted the jazz album of the last century

[mojosaur]

Great playing......thanks for sharing this.

[bartie55]

is that an roland fp-4 ? i have the same one.....

is that bass and drum coming out of the piano?

[slyme1711]

outstanding

[al3xb777]

ok that was freaking awesome...