 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: mmatisoff
Date: 2016-06-25 23:00
Probably a dumb question, but how do practice chord progressions on clarinet?
Post Edited (2016-06-27 21:11)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Sean.Perrin
Date: 2016-06-28 09:14
Start by just playing basic arpeggios and chord scales. Try to get to know all the chords in the key from the root note.
Then try to practice common patters, like I V I, ii V I, I IV V I until they feel comfortable. All from memory and in root position at first.
After you can do this, you'll start to hear better and be thinking about the chord notes, then you can try some inversions.
Really just start playing and thinking about the chords and chord scales and it will be a huge help.
I would highly recommend taking some lessons with a jazz player. This helped me tremendously.
Founder and host of the Clarineat Podcast: http://www.clarineat.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-06-28 23:04
I don't know if that is how a single note instrument player thinks about changes though.
I was just a little blown away recently when a professor said, "Ok; look at the chords you have on the chart Cmin, Eb, F, Bb; you can just play a Bb major scale over that."
So I think "blowing changes" is just finding the common scale over a given group of chords.
.................Paul Aviles
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: brycon
Date: 2016-06-29 08:09
Quote:
I was just a little blown away recently when a professor said, "Ok; look at the chords you have on the chart Cmin, Eb, F, Bb; you can just play a Bb major scale over that."
So I think "blowing changes" is just finding the common scale over a given group of chords.
Yeah, it's good to know when a clump of chords are diatonically related to one another--like the ii, IV, V, I in your example (though the ii and IV should be switched, otherwise you'll hear the Eb as the mediant of c rather than the subdominant of Bb, and, of course, root motion by 5th is the most common in tonal music).
Saying "you can just play a Bb scale over all that", however, is a huuuugggeeee oversimplification. (You don't think Mozart's melodies are just plunked down scale tones, do you?) If you simply run a scale over a set of changes, you and your audience will not hear the chords--your playing will sound like mush. In our tonal system, pitches have specific tendencies, which we're all accustomed to hearing. Leading tones, for instance, want to go up; all chordal sevenths want to resolve down. If you play scales AND observe these and other voiceleading norms (which everyone should have learned in Theory I), you and your audience will hear the chords--your playing will sound less like mush, it'll be boring but not boring mush, at least.
OP, if you can clarify what exactly you need help with (for example: Do you struggle to hear changes? Or do you not have the technical facility to express the changes in your playing?), maybe I can offer some more focused advice.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2016-06-29 21:32
> Probably a dumb question, but how do practice chord progressions on clarinet?
>
I think it's a *smart* question!
I've found it useful to own a simple chart showing the scales and chords in all the keys. My 8-page chart dates back to 1960 (L. Köhler's "Scales and Chords in all the major and minor keys," published by The Willis Music Company) but I think any music store would stock such a chart. For each key, that Köhler chart shows a treble staff and a bass staff, with the key signatures, with the chords printed out at the ends of the lines. The titles above the lines tell which major scales and minor scales are relative to each other. The chart provides both the melodic and harmonic minors. The fingering suggestions on that chart are for pianists, but those fingering numbers are easy to ignore and I've used that chart for decades, to practice scales on other instruments. I use the chords by practicing them up and down one note at a time, as arpeggios. There's no down-side to knowing your changes.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Sean.Perrin
Date: 2016-07-07 06:56
Paul: If you know the changes, it's a heck of a lot easier to blow over them. :P
PS: The concept you're referring to, I think, is called the "chord scales" and you absolutely need an understanding of the chords in 3rds ALL THE WAY up the scale. This is because in Jazz you think of scale VERTICALLY as the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, etc. This is why a C maj add 9 chord has (what we would consider classically) an added second scale degree.
Another example. To improvise over a simple ii V7 I progression let's say (D minor, G Major, and C major) you have to know the chordal notes because they help define the scale that best fits the progression, and thus becomes the "key" of the tune. In this case you would play D dorian oven the minor ii chord, G Myxolydian over the Major chord, and C major. You could also play a C pentatonic scale and it will sound great because none of the "avoid" notes are really a problem.
In short. you need to understand the chord notes to make music well. I don't know why you wouldn't want to or wouldn't think it's necessary.
Edit: I haven't really touched on tendency tones here. With a good ear you'll do a lot of good stuff with these naturally. Paul is right, if you pick the right chord scale you can't exactly play "wrong" notes. Once you know the "right" notes though, you can start to hear and learn the directions they should go in for YOU and the music YOU are making. Don't study all the conventions about voice leading too too much or your music will sound texbook, boring, jazz in my opinion. Colour it up with chromaticism and a dash of the unexpected (even if it's your own ignorance showing through!) and it's something people will want to hear and be enticed by.
To some extent you should play more and read less about this stuff. Get the scales and chords in your fingers and your ears, not just your eyes and mind. I'll never forget what a professor once said: Jazz is ear music, classical is eye music.
Now... whether or not this has always been true or that it should be this way is another discussion. But that's, generally, how it is today.
Founder and host of the Clarineat Podcast: http://www.clarineat.com
Post Edited (2016-07-07 07:04)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-07-07 14:12
YES !!!!
Exactly what we need to hear Sean.
I just meant that when I hear the suggestion to "know," or to "practice" scales and chords, as a classical musician, that is what I do. I just practice chords and scales in and of themselves which is NOT helpful to playing jazz (other than being mechanically proficient of course). Context is EVERYTHING in jazz and you helped spell that out.
Thanks.
............Paul Aviles
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mirko996
Date: 2016-07-12 05:31
I did progression first with piano in every tonality, major and minor and it help me a lot because you can find the possibility to applicate the chords on the clarinet
For example if I do II - V - I of C major I know this
D F A C (D min 7)
D F G B ( G7)
C E G B ( C Maj 7)
Or C min
D F Ab C (D min b5 or semidimished)
D F G B (G7)
C Eb G B (C min Maj 7)
I usually use the ear to know if I correctly did the chords or if I did a mistake, it's help a lot in the future.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Wes
Date: 2016-07-12 23:00
Playing from the chord changes is my preference as I hear so many players who seem to ignore them. You can start a solo by playing long tones on the thirds and sevenths, if you wish, as they are so important. I also love to use the flatted ninths as passing notes against seventh chords and they always sound good.
The "scale tone sevenths" are good to practice in all keys to get them in the fingers and develop technical facility. Technical facility is so important to play jazz. Good luck!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
