Hello. In this lesson we will learn how to play a
thrilling Jazz solo over the 2-5-1 progression in C Major using some very simple but awesome
pentatonic techniques. Let me demonstrate the sound we can make when
we have learned these techniques. In the right hand I use a very simple pentatonic
technique. We will learn that technique in this lesson. When performing a solo I like when we can
make something thrilling but with simple means and simple tools. The stuff we are playing may actually be quite
complicated, but we should not think complicated when performing. It’s all about finding the simple tools
that unfolds the music. In that way we can concentrate our mental
energy on the feelings and the music itself. So in this lesson we will find some simple
tools for the 2-5-1 chord progression. By the way, this is a NewJazz lesson and my
name is Oliver Prehn. Ok, above the keyboard we have the 2-5-1 chords
in C Major. Dm7 to G7 to Cmaj7. The 2-5-1 chord progression is the most used
chord progression when playing Jazz standards. So learning techniques on how to improvise
over this chord progression is almost inevitable. Before moving on to the right hand improvisation
we will quickly learn the left hand walking bass. This walking bass is simple and it is nice
to be able to make some easy grounding when trying out improvisation stuff in the right
hand, ok? So we just have to check out this walking
bass. On every chord we play the keynote and the
fifth and on the last beat of the chord we play a leading note to the next chord, that’s
it. So we play the bass like this: key, fifth, key, leading... This is a very easy walking bass that can
be used in many cases when playing a jazz standard. Maybe some will call it a cheating bass, but
it sounds great, I think, and we just need a simple steady bass line to make the grounding
for our right hand improvisation. I recommend that you practice this walking
bass a lot. It has to run all by itself. It may not be distracted by anything. So if you for example talk nonsense like I
do right now, the left hand must keep on the steady walk, right? So practice this walk bass a lot and you will
be ready to make improvisation stuff in the right hand also. Ok, now it’s time to move on to the really
exciting stuff. We will learn how to make thrilling improvisation
in the right hand using some simple tools. Here we got the D minor pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is very handy, because
it contains 5 notes like the number of the fingers on the hand. So we have a note for each finger: 1, 2, 3,
4, 5. So, we can have the entire pentatonic scale
inside our hand. This grip on the pentatonic scale we entitle
the pentatonic hand grip. It is with this pentatonic hand grip that
we are going to make some thrilling improvisation. The pentatonic hand grip can be placed anywhere
on the keyboard. For example here, or here, or here. When placing the pentatonic hand grip we use
our thumb as a pointer. So this is a pentatonic hand grip on “d”,
because the thumb is on the note “d”. And this is a pentatonic hand grip on “a”. And here we have the hand grip on “e”. Now it’s all about finding the correct positions
for the thumb. So let’s place a green marker on the note
“d”... “a”... and “e”... So what are these green markers for? Do you already know? The green markers simply tell us where to
place the thumb of the pentatonic hand grip! Ahhh, so we can place our hand grip with the
thumb on this key. And we can place the hand grip here. And here. Let’s try to improvise when using the pentatonic
hand grip with the thumb on the green markers. Now we are just fooling around using the pentatonic
hand grip at the different green positions. All 3 positions can be used no matter what
chord we play. So this is a very easy way to perform
a 2-5-1 solo, right? And this works great. But we are not done yet. We can add a lot of stuff to this technique. I will show you later in this lesson. Ok, notice that the green markers are all
related and spaced with a perfect fifth. Perfect fifth. And perfect fifth. The keynote of the first chord in the 2-5-1
progression makes the starting point of this fifth row of pentatonic hand grips. So if we play 2-5-1 in C, then the first chord
is Dm, and then we let the row start from the “d“ note. This is a very easy way to locate the positions
of the pentatonic hand grip, right? We just take the keynote from the step 2 chord
and start the row of pentatonic hand grips from there. We don’t have to play the row of pentatonic
hand grips in order like this. We can mix around the positions. For example we can also play the “e” position
here. So the row of pentatonic hand grips is mostly
a mnemonic rule to locate the positions. Ok, here is the big question. What are we actually playing. What are the scales in use. Let’s try to find out. So we try to gather all the notes when playing
the row of pentatonic hand grips. Now look. We actually play all the white keys, right? Let’s gather the white keys. So what scale is this? Well, when we have “d” in the bass we
play the D Dorian scale. When we have “g” in the bass we play the
G Mixolydian. And when we have “c” in the bass we play
the C Ionian. In another lesson from NewJazz we learn a
lot more about these church modes. I will paste a link to that lesson in the
description below, if you need to dig deeper into that subject. The Dorian, Mixo and Ionian scale are often
used when improvising over the 2-5-1 in Major. The advantages of playing these scales with
the pentatonic hand grip are that we avoid just playing the scales stepwise up and down. Instead we break up the scales in well defined
pentatonic patterns. And I just like the sound when we do that. It’s a method to gain the control of the
scales. Well, there are still a lot of things we can
do to make our improvisation even more interesting and thrilling, so stay tuned. If we play the pentatonic hand grip on “d”
we have this note “f” in our second finger. This note goes fine when playing the Dm chord. And it goes fine in the G7 chord. But then we come to the Cmaj7 chord. And the note may seem wrong. Can you hear, it is a little harsh. It’s because the “f” note makes a clash
against the Major third “e” note from the C chord. So what to do? Well this “f” note is in some music theory
books called an "avoid" note. And we can of course just "avoid" playing the
pentatonic hand grip on “d” when playing the Cmaj7 chord, then we are sure not to
play the “f” note, and we have no problems, right? But if we suddenly forget and we accidentally
hit the “f” note anyway. No harm is done, we just resolve that “f”
note to the “e” note like this. So when we are at the C Major chord it is
not necessarily so dangerous to hit the “f” note. Don’t be afraid. If we do so we can just resolve that note
like it was all on purpose. I actually think this sounds great, both the
tension. And the resolution. Don’t you agree? We can also do something completely different. We can just move the entire row of pentatonic
hand grips up with a fifth. So let’s add some new blue markers. “a”... "e"... and "b"... So here we have another row of pentatonic
hand grips, still the grips are spaced with a perfect fifth. If we play the pentatonic hand grip at the
blue markers we play the C Lydian scale, listen. Wow, what a bright tonic sound, right? The Lydian scale goes great together with
the tonic Cmaj7 chord. And the “f” note is now augmented to the
“f sharp” note. This “f sharp” note does not have this
harsh clashing sound. So this is simple. When playing the C Major chord we can just
avoid the pentatonic hand grip on “d” and instead add the hand grip on the note
“b”. Let’s hear how this goes. Notice, it’s only when playing the Cmaj7 chord
that we play the blue row. When we perform the solo we do not have to
think about the scales in use. We just follow the markers on the keys and
play the pentatonic hand grip on these markers, that’s it. When not performing we can talk scale theory
and make reflections and make things complicated, that’s totally alright - but now, when performing,
we try to make things simple in our mind. So we just follow the markers and enjoy our
music... Ok, playing arpeggio on the chords is a very
common thing to do when improvising Jazz. The thing is that we can easily do that by
using our pentatonic hand grip. If we just leave out the third finger. We can actually play arpeggio all the way
up the chords to the very last 13th extension. And this sounds really cool. So, on the Dm chord we can play arpeggio
on this huge and nice Dm13 chord using the hand grip on the green markers... Look, we play the Dm13 chord in steps
of thirds all the way up. Again we do not think Dm13 when playing. We just think at the hand grip, the green
markers and that we have to leave out the third finger. And then this huge 13 chord appears all by
itself. On the next chord we play arpeggio on the
huge and nice G13 chord. And when we hit the Cmaj7 chord we can play arpeggio
on the blue row, and this is my favorite: The Lydian Cmaj7 13 (#11) chord. And again these chords may seem complicated. But when performing, we should not think about
these advanced chords. Instead we only think about the pentatonic
hand grip and the markers, and the chord appears automatically. That’s very smart. So music theory about the scales and the chord
expansions is for reflection. The hand grip is for performance, ok? Advanced theory is reflection. Simple tools as the hand grips are performance. Well, now we are ready to go wild. We will pep up the improvisation further,
so that will be fun. Now I will show you a super cool trick we
can use when playing the G7 chord. We simply lift the green pentatonic row up
a tritone interval. So let’s put some silver markers on the
lifted positions: “a flat”... “e flat”... and “b flat”... So how does this sound? Well we got a lot of tension now on the G7
chord, right? And when we hit the Cmaj7 chord we have a lot
of consonant stable sound. I think it is totally ok sometimes to smash
up the dominant chord totally to increase the tension. Then the resolution will be so much better
when hitting the tonic Cmaj7 chord. This suspense and resolve technique also gives
us a feeling of playing outside and inside the main tonality. A technique often used when improvising Jazz. Ok, actually what we just did was that we
played the Mixolydian scale on the substitute dominant chord. Let me show you. Here we have the G7 chord if we transpose
this chord with a tritone up or down, that’s the same, we got the Db7 chord. The substitute dominant chord. Now, what we simply do, is that we move the
green row also with a tritone interval, and we got the silver row, right? So now we have moved both the chord and the
markers a tritone interval, so the green row is the G Mixo. The silver row is the substitute dominant
D flat Mixo. If we want to, we can keep the “g” note
in the bass. The bass player really doesn’t care that the improvisation is going far out
to the substitute, she stays on the “g” note. Let’s start the improvisation and hear the
sound again. Notice that we use the same hand grip and
we place the fingers in the same way no matter on which marker we play the pentatonic hand
grip. This makes the improvisation really easy for
us. We just have to learn and master this single
pentatonic hand grip. Then we are ready to make great improvisation
in all tonalities. In another lesson from NewJazz we make a lot
of exercises with this pentatonic hand grip and we dig deeper into the row of pentatonic
hand grips and the church modes. I will paste a link to that lesson in the
description below. Ok, I hope you have enjoyed this lesson. You are of course always welcome to write
questions in the comments below. I will try to answer as soon as possible. Ok, thanks for now and many warm regards from
your music teacher Oliver Prehn.
