Friday, March 18, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Get some blues in ya 2, 5, Ones!

Here is a 'normal' kind of ii V I
...incorporating blue notes/passing notes on the 'downbeat'.
The downbeat can be considered the moment where the chord lands.
Which might in fact be an off beat,
but - if the chords are implying a polyrhythm, then it's a down beat in that rhythm.
In the D-7 chord the Eb and the F# sound fine - because it's a definite jazz lick in C.
So straight away the ear hears the blues and the key of C -- and the chord being a ii chord.
Note on the turn around chord A7 the last note is Ab in the phrase.
Here is a classic example of making the chords fit the melody.
I just wanted to play Ab at the end. And then realised that that's fine; of course the A7 could be Eb7 and to me a seven chord with 4th in the melody is very bluesy.
PS. This is easy to get your head around in C. But if you do it in E and A, B, F#, Db etc -- then you will really be properly mastering you ii V ones. You have to learn how to play bluesy on ii V ones in all keys.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Seven chord
Learn 13, 9, #11 Chords in 12 keys
(but DON'T play them like that when comping for singers or Dale Barlow!) (Elliott Dalgleish - ok)
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
What is a jazzy chord?
What Makes a Jazz Chord Jazzy.
Cmaj w a B is very jazzy
it is c maj seven
if you add some black notes the chord thus becomes even more jazzy.
A little bit like a C seven chord.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tom Vincent Trio in Brazil November 2010
Concert in Brazil 12th Nov 2010
Tom Vincent - piano
Edu Ribeiro - drums
Alex Queiroz - double bass
Friday, September 3, 2010
The diminished scale is so CUTE!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Minor Scales
Here are some scales I made up. Sure, they probably already exist somewhere else. But actually - discovered them from some seven-note chords I had stumbled across and scribbled down. For me these are new parent scales.
Except for the Egyptian scale. Got that from Miles's autobiography.
Experiment with using them with seven chords - like you might use a Gmin or Dbmin scale for C7 .. ... ....
blue print is IONIC scale
- means flat [b]
+ means sharp [#]
PS Tasmanian scale is -2, -3
Except for the Egyptian scale. Got that from Miles's autobiography.
Experiment with using them with seven chords - like you might use a Gmin or Dbmin scale for C7 .. ... ....
blue print is IONIC scale
- means flat [b]
+ means sharp [#]
PS Tasmanian scale is -2, -3
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Cool scale for a Seven chord
Hi everyone! all of my three followers!!! And you if you are new.
Block chords are great.
use a major scaled w an added flat six
slight variation i came up w recently is - instead of having that natural six, make it a 7. for Seven chords
so
in C: [descending] C B Bb Ab G F E D C
great way to use the humble 7 chord voicing. (do drop two or whatever, can spread all sorts of ways)
NOW --- this above mentioned scale, for G7.
nice
was telling Fred from CSIRO yesterday about it when we caught up in the street as you SO do in Hobart.
It's all cute and majory and all seven sus ish up top ...and then down around the 9ths is all dark with flat and sharp nines Ab, Bb.
Thanks for reading
love you. Tom.
Block chords are great.
use a major scaled w an added flat six
slight variation i came up w recently is - instead of having that natural six, make it a 7. for Seven chords
so
in C: [descending] C B Bb Ab G F E D C
great way to use the humble 7 chord voicing. (do drop two or whatever, can spread all sorts of ways)
NOW --- this above mentioned scale, for G7.
nice
was telling Fred from CSIRO yesterday about it when we caught up in the street as you SO do in Hobart.
It's all cute and majory and all seven sus ish up top ...and then down around the 9ths is all dark with flat and sharp nines Ab, Bb.
Thanks for reading
love you. Tom.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
2 things: a beautiful bitter sweet drop-2 voicing, and playing in the cracks.
Today i would like to talk about two things:
1)
i was playing Sweet Georgia Brown the other day in G. Using drop-2 voicing variations which ROCK!!! ..and this is so cute i love it: [the sixth note+chord of the 2nd group of 4 bars, it's "A7" right?] - but first, coming up to that note; voicing the melody in classic Eminor style drop-2 voicings {for A7} E, F#, G, E | B (with, from top down, F#, D#, G underneath) === THEN:
G [is the melody note, top voice of a] root position C major triad over F# {all around middle C on the piano} *
next chord; from top down: C#, F, D, G#. (let the chord hang while the melody moved to B) ...etc..
* this voicing sounds sweetest in this key, this position i reckon.
---
2)
The other thing i wanted to mention was: The beauty of how you can play any 'wrong' note in the cracks ..if it's in the melody you want to play. You don't even have to juggle the harmony around it or get too adventurous with quasi reharmonising, but just don't play the chord at that moment that the note happens. i just noticed the other day i do this all the time; just hadn't been so conscious of it before. And the thing i really noticed was how brief a moment in time it can be. Grinds are cool too and all. But this is really tasty. Consonant but can be kooky. Sure; usually the melody you improvise will inspire all sorts of variations of movements and changes in bass lines, chords and/or counter melodies/moving inner voices. (solo piano)
thank you very much for listening and caring.
1)
i was playing Sweet Georgia Brown the other day in G. Using drop-2 voicing variations which ROCK!!! ..and this is so cute i love it: [the sixth note+chord of the 2nd group of 4 bars, it's "A7" right?] - but first, coming up to that note; voicing the melody in classic Eminor style drop-2 voicings {for A7} E, F#, G, E | B (with, from top down, F#, D#, G underneath) === THEN:
G [is the melody note, top voice of a] root position C major triad over F# {all around middle C on the piano} *
next chord; from top down: C#, F, D, G#. (let the chord hang while the melody moved to B) ...etc..
* this voicing sounds sweetest in this key, this position i reckon.
---
2)
The other thing i wanted to mention was: The beauty of how you can play any 'wrong' note in the cracks ..if it's in the melody you want to play. You don't even have to juggle the harmony around it or get too adventurous with quasi reharmonising, but just don't play the chord at that moment that the note happens. i just noticed the other day i do this all the time; just hadn't been so conscious of it before. And the thing i really noticed was how brief a moment in time it can be. Grinds are cool too and all. But this is really tasty. Consonant but can be kooky. Sure; usually the melody you improvise will inspire all sorts of variations of movements and changes in bass lines, chords and/or counter melodies/moving inner voices. (solo piano)
thank you very much for listening and caring.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
spread clusters - learning the language in all keys
Tim Jones told me Why don't you just keep a diary of musical things you come across and/or practice.
I have been working on the non jazz keys so to speak. That many fumble on. A, E, B and F#
Play a jazz blues in these keys for hours
been lovin it!
1) 13 #9 w natural 9 above ("16") -- pretty consonant;
Last night i was getting into this cluster spread; a little more crunchy, still nice and very practical:
2) root, sharp 4, 3rd ("10") ..7 and 11 up higher
So in C: C, F#, E, Bb, F.
= C7
so this morning i thought ok let's move between these functional consonant clusters as an exercise in all keys.
in C;
F# moving down in quavers, to F, to E - against top note moving in quaver triplets: F, to E, to Eb, to D - while the middle note moves in crotchets: E to Eb.
I have been working on the non jazz keys so to speak. That many fumble on. A, E, B and F#
Play a jazz blues in these keys for hours
been lovin it!
1) 13 #9 w natural 9 above ("16") -- pretty consonant;
Last night i was getting into this cluster spread; a little more crunchy, still nice and very practical:
2) root, sharp 4, 3rd ("10") ..7 and 11 up higher
So in C: C, F#, E, Bb, F.
= C7
so this morning i thought ok let's move between these functional consonant clusters as an exercise in all keys.
in C;
F# moving down in quavers, to F, to E - against top note moving in quaver triplets: F, to E, to Eb, to D - while the middle note moves in crotchets: E to Eb.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
mellow and beautiful
"To get it all happening you have to have the sweet, mellow and beautiful and then you have to have the opposite, the madness. But you always have to have the blues,also the speed and the chops have to be there when you want to use them, where do you think the modern contemporary pentatonic of McCoy and the others came from... Africa. all jazz evolved from the blues from Africa. If I hear a player who doesn't state the blues at some stage in his solo. then I know he's nothing!" Serge Ermoll
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Jazz Harmony - Pentatonics and Minor 6 shapes of 7 chords
email to a student/mate of mine from couple of days ago:
Hi
Been thinking about this stuff
It’s great!
First Pentatonics
So – Eb = C7 blues etc
Also for C7
You can have Bb pent
And F pent [C7sus]
..and C of course. Nice to have really inside sound for contrast
And...
G pent = turn it into a maj 7 — why not! You’re allowed! It’s cool
....so while you’re at it – can also use D pent {still turning the C7 into a Cmaj7}
A pent and you’re gone into fairy land
Same with E, B and F# pents
- but you can weave a maze of logic to make them work ..forget that for the time being.
(Smooth and Sweet for now)
Ab pent – and It’s now either C7alt or a dark c minor
And last one: Db pentatonic scale: basically could be one of three:
even darker c minor
C7sus b13, b9 ...with a passing #9? ..could be something like that
and; you could just be crazy man and just be going up a semitone and out, wild, wow!!!
---
Now to minor 6 shapes
Let’s move away from our C centricity for a moment
We’ll focus it all on F7 {F, Eb, A}
C minor six shape (C, Eb, G, A) -- cute!
D ,, ,, ,, ...extra cute!
F ,, ,, ,, bluesy, cool
Ab ,, ,, ,, extra bluesy man! - really cool cause can be just blues scale like; altered scale; or same as one below[next]:
B ,, ,, ,, out! But NOT out. Fantastic (= F7 13 #11 b9 #9) = diminished scale also
F# ,, ,, ,, beautiful. Altered.
So the first four a pretty much inside
Then last two get weird but very groovy
And there are two more sneaky ones do you want to know about them?
Ok
They both make our friend F7 into F7 sus — one w a flat nine, the other with a flat 13
...but you really do not have to be all intellectually aware of these finer details. Just learn them. Just mix them up.
Eb minor six shape
Bb ,, ,, ,,
Love and peace
Tom x
Hi
Been thinking about this stuff
It’s great!
First Pentatonics
So – Eb = C7 blues etc
Also for C7
You can have Bb pent
And F pent [C7sus]
..and C of course. Nice to have really inside sound for contrast
And...
G pent = turn it into a maj 7 — why not! You’re allowed! It’s cool
....so while you’re at it – can also use D pent {still turning the C7 into a Cmaj7}
A pent and you’re gone into fairy land
Same with E, B and F# pents
- but you can weave a maze of logic to make them work ..forget that for the time being.
(Smooth and Sweet for now)
Ab pent – and It’s now either C7alt or a dark c minor
And last one: Db pentatonic scale: basically could be one of three:
even darker c minor
C7sus b13, b9 ...with a passing #9? ..could be something like that
and; you could just be crazy man and just be going up a semitone and out, wild, wow!!!
---
Now to minor 6 shapes
Let’s move away from our C centricity for a moment
We’ll focus it all on F7 {F, Eb, A}
C minor six shape (C, Eb, G, A) -- cute!
D ,, ,, ,, ...extra cute!
F ,, ,, ,, bluesy, cool
Ab ,, ,, ,, extra bluesy man! - really cool cause can be just blues scale like; altered scale; or same as one below[next]:
B ,, ,, ,, out! But NOT out. Fantastic (= F7 13 #11 b9 #9) = diminished scale also
F# ,, ,, ,, beautiful. Altered.
So the first four a pretty much inside
Then last two get weird but very groovy
And there are two more sneaky ones do you want to know about them?
Ok
They both make our friend F7 into F7 sus — one w a flat nine, the other with a flat 13
...but you really do not have to be all intellectually aware of these finer details. Just learn them. Just mix them up.
Eb minor six shape
Bb ,, ,, ,,
Love and peace
Tom x
Sunday, June 28, 2009
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