◀️ Clicking on the image to the left will take you to a low resolution JPG file (1st page only). If you’d like to purchase complete sheet music (higher resolution PDF) for “Oleleko,” please visit the Funnelljazz catalogue page.
A recording of “Oleleko” has been released on Tao (2019). Enjoy the audio/videos below! 🔽
📣 Students and musicians: check out this post if you feel like delving deeper into the music: deriving tetratonic scales from the “new notes” on Oleleko.
◀️ Clicking on the image to the left will take you to a low resolution JPG file (1st page only). If you’d like to purchase complete sheet music (higher resolution PDF) for “Echoes of Cyan,” please visit the Funnelljazz catalogue page.
Enjoy the homemade videos below! 🔽
◀️ Clicking on the image to the left will take you to a low resolution JPG file (1st page only). If you’d like to purchase complete sheet music (higher resolution PDF) for “Asteroid B612,” please visit the Funnelljazz catalogue page.
A recording of “Asteroid B612” has been released on Word Out (2009). Enjoy the audio/videos below! 🔽
Let’s have a look at the chord grid for the solo section on Oleleko (the electric piano improvisation happens from 2’02 to 3’35 on the recording):
The following table lists all chord symbols, the parent scales they derive from, and their “new notes,” which is a concept introduced by contemporary jazz pianist and composer Laszlo Gardony (for each chord, we list the notes in the parent scale that were not present in the scale corresponding to the previous chord – this helps to give a sense of forward motion to the music and emphasize the shifts in harmony as we go through the grid):
| Bar | Chord Symbol |
Mode (Parent Scale) |
New Note(s)? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 121 | C7 | C mixolydian (F major) |
C D E A |
| 136 | D7(#11) | D lydian dominant (A melodic minor) |
F# G# B |
| 137 | Eb6 | Eb ionian (Eb major) |
Eb F G Bb |
| 139 | Eb7sus | Eb mixolydian (Ab major) |
Db |
| 141 | Eb6 | Eb ionian (Eb major) |
D |
| 143 | Eb7sus | Eb mixolydian (Ab major) |
Db |
| 144 | E7(#11) | E lydian dominant (B melodic minor) |
E F# B D |
| 145 | F#6 | F# ionian (F# major) |
D# E# |
| 147 | F#7sus | F# mixolydian (B major) |
E |
| 149 | F#6 | F# ionian (F# major) |
E# |
| 150 | Db7(#11) | Db lydian dominant (Ab melodic minor) |
G |
Now let’s find possible tetratonic scales based on those “new notes” (using four-note scales will enable us to limit our melodic choices and create wider, more angular intervals, while including as many of the “new notes” as possible in order to retain the characteristic harmonic shifts in the music):
| Bar | Chord Symbol |
Tetratonic Scale(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 121 | C7 | A minor (= A C D E) |
| 136 | D7(#11) | E major (= E F# G# B) |
| 137 | Eb6 | Eb major |
| 139 | Eb7sus | Db major, Bb minor |
| 141 | Eb6 | Bb major, G minor |
| 143 | Eb7sus | Db major, Bb minor |
| 144 | E7(#11) | B minor |
| 145 | F#6 | C# major, A# minor |
| 147 | F#7sus | E major, C# minor |
| 149 | F#6 | C# major, A# minor |
| 150 | Db7(#11) | Eb major |
When there are two tetratonic choices, I simply go with the one I like best (in bold in the table above). By all means, feel free to experiment with both options and chose whichever sounds most satisfying to your ear!
Finally, and for the purpose of practicing, we can further break down these tetratonic sounds into triads: once you feel comfortable improvising using the triads exclusively, it’s easier to play the full tetratonic scales (adding a major second to major triads and a perfect fourth to minor triads to get the corresponding tetratonics).
| Bar | Chord Symbol |
Tetratonic Scale(s) |
Triads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 121 | C7 | A minor | A- |
| 136 | D7(#11) | E major | E |
| 137 | Eb6 | Eb major | Eb |
| 139 | Eb7sus | Bb minor | Bb- |
| 141 | Eb6 | G minor | G- |
| 143 | Eb7sus | Bb minor | Bb- |
| 144 | E7(#11) | B minor | B- |
| 145 | F#6 | C# major | C# |
| 147 | F#7sus | C# minor | C#- |
| 149 | F#6 | C# major | C# |
| 150 | Db7(#11) | Eb major | Eb |
Complete sheet music for “Oleleko” (from the album Tao, 2019) is available. Please visit the Funnelljazz catalogue for more information.
Visit http://funnelljazz.eu/lessons/ for detailed information about lessons or click on the image below to book your lesson today:
It’s Independence Day in America, and I thought it opportune to post a special workout for pianists focusing on… hand independence, with a global twist!
The song we’ll use as the basis for this exercise is an Ainu canon (the Ainu are a people from Northern Japan and the Russian Far East), which involves call and response between a lead singer and a group of singers.
Although it may seem simple on the surface level, we’ll see that the mental and muscular processes involved in order to produce an acceptable rendition of it on the piano are in fact rather intricate…
To achieve this, I suggest we break down the practice into the five following steps:
As you will see when you try this at home, although the result sounds simple and the melody is made up of only 3 notes ﹣ a tritonic scale roughly comprised of E, F#, and B (the tuning is not exact) ﹣ it does require some patient practice to really internalize this canon and play it accurately on the piano. For instance, particular attention should be given to the proper feel and articulation (when playing the legato and staccato notes in particular).
Have fun working on your hand independence with this song! It’s a great warm-up before tackling a Bach Invention or Sinfonia for example…
Sheet music (PDF) available here:
Visit http://funnelljazz.eu/lessons/ for detailed information about lessons or click on the image below to book your lesson today: