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FunJazz Piano Lessons

deriving tetratonic scales from the “new notes” on Oleleko

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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:
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FunJazz Piano Lessons

hand independence exercise based on Ainu canon

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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:

  1. learning the melody in the right hand;
  2. learning the (same) melody in the left hand (the song being a canon, the hands are indeed essentially playing the same melody, two beats apart);
  3. adding an accompanying foot pattern on the upbeats to the right and left hand melodies (optional);
  4. putting it all together with the right hand playing the role of the lead singer (call) and the left hand responding [letter A in the sheet music below];
  5. doing the same exercise again, but this time, reversing the hands: the left hand is now playing the lead part (call) and the right the chorus’ part (response) [letter B].

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:
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