Digging Deeper #2 - "Scales Suck & Green Dolphin Street"
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
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Welcome to our 4th Jazz Video Series!
FOR ALL INSTRUMENTS - Welcome to DIGGING DEEPER. In this, video #2, we look at a way to improve your improvisations by a LOT, taking an "anti-scale" approach. Yes, this is jazz heresy!! We'll build this idea beginning here in Video #2, and follow through in the next video, #3. This is a fantastic approach to improvisation, using a melodic approach to tension and release.
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Hi Jeff. Thanks for your advice. You have somehow simplify improvisation for me ..I am an 'old' - 52 years - beginner on alto sax. Gonna try this idea on jazz tunes. Thumbs up.
Fantastic! Jazz and improvisation really doesn't have to be as hard and confusing as it seems. If you want to get a bit deeper with this all, please check out www.JazzWire.net. I'd love to work with you there. Cheers!
I love scales. They have helped me getting from not playing saxophone at all, to improvise over chord changing tunes (most jazz), in no time. But, for me since the beggining, i have clear i dont want them to be some unconscious finger movement. For me i work on them a lot static (over one chord) and over tunes, with the mindset of imagining the notes i want to hear, in which note to land, different architectures i can move around the notes... for me its great! When i just use triads for example i use it as an exercise to force myself to imagine melodies with just these three notes. But i cant use triads to freely improvise because melodies that come to my head usually contain another notes.
Good video
Thanks for the note. So happy to have you here, and I love your perspective. OF COURSE scales have their place, and glad they work for you. Chord Tones truly are the next step for you, and it seems that maybe you aren't sure of where to go with them. Two bits of advice. 1) look at any Charlie Parker solo (or ANY solo), and notice that you are looking at +/- 75% chord tones. Hard to ignore that! #2) Enclosures are where to go with the chord tones.
Hey, if you haven't already, please jump in to a Free 30 Day Limited access to JazzWire. I would love to work together with you in a more meaningful (and not too expensive) way. With the Free 30 Day Trial, you’ll see what we're doing behind the wall! You'll be inside in about 20 seconds, no credit card required. www.jazzwire.net/free-trial/. These videos are great, but they are a SHADOW compared to the real work and we can do together!
2:47 great analogy.
Thanks for listening. If there is one thing I dig, it is a good analogy!! Please work through some of the other Digging Deeper videos, and definitely subscribe. I release a next one every Friday, and have for the past 400 Fridays! Lots of good content, but most importantly, lots of good conversations. Please keep in touch.
such a true and valuable principle in this lesson. it's so good to hear it said out loud in public, scales are like a fridge they may have lots of good ingredients in them but you cant just throw a fridge on the table and yell dinner is served. scalitis is a terrible condition where not only the player suffers but everyone that hears them suffers more.
Haha! I love the analogy. I guess that explains why I can't cook (I married well, however!). So glad you enjoyed the video.
Scalitis 🤣
Clifford Brown used the 1/2 step below technique quite effectively on his (famous) solo on Joy Spring
My old sax teacher frank chase who was a legend, he taught paul desmond. He used to say jazz died when they introduced the seventh into chord arpeggio practice. :)
Oh, that is funny! Frank must have been TERRIBLY disappointed in his student Paul Desmond. I'm afraid Paul used dominant arpeggios two times, maybe even three, in his career!! 😂
@@JeffAntoniukEducator yes he was a little old school! Forget this improv bs, he used to say it's called taking a chorus. Still he said paul flew down from SF to take lessons with him in LA.
F A N T A S T I C ! Thank you very very very much Jeff, really open mind teaching. I'm an italian guitarist and your lessons are gold, to proceed towards the 'next' step in improvisation. Sorry for my bad english and thank you again.
Hi Jeff. I have only recently discovered you and your UA-cam channel, and I have to say that I think your instructions are the most sensible and useful things I have ever heard from anybody about playing jazz. I have been playing saxophone for quite a lot of years, and I have gradually come to the same conclusions as you. I only wish that I had had the benefit of your wisdom a long time ago. Melody and space and rhythm are much more important than lightning scales, or, worse still, meaningless noodling, or trying to fill all the spaces with notes that the chord symbols "allow" you to play. Thank you for spreading the message.
Thanks for the very kind words Graham. I'm so happy that the content and style is resonating with you. I too wish I would have had this information years ago for myself. I was lucky enough to put it all together for myself over the years (as we all do), so I'm just thrilled to be able to share it. Please feel free to pass this info on, and please stay in touch!
Thanks so much for sharing your incredible wisdom 👍
I'm so happy that you enjoyed this! Please check out the other Digging Deeper videos, and I hope that we'll be able to TRULY work together at www.JazzWire.net
I heard several teachers online speak about learning vocabulary because we know Jazz is a language and we need to learn it!!!! Scales will not make you sound like you are playing Jazz. thanks for the video series
You bet! Scales are VERY important to practice, but as for a tool for improvising, they are a bit like the alphabet is for a language . . . not super helpful. Email me if you want any of the pdf's for the videos.
i have been wasting my time with fuckin scales!!! you're great...!!!! amazing. and its for free...!!! thanks so much.!!!
Thanks for listening, Miguel. Man, there are SOOOOO many ways to play and practice inefficiently. Hey, if you haven't already, please jump in to a Free One Week limited access to JazzWire. I would love to work together with you in a more meaningful (and not too expensive) way. With the Free One Week Trial, you’ll see what we're doing behind the wall! You'll be inside in about 20 seconds, no credit card required. app.jazzwire.net/free-trial. These videos are great, but they are a SHADOW compared to the real work and we can do together!
@@JeffAntoniukEducator wooow it would be a pleasure. i will try in a few weeks because now i dont have enough time to practice in a good way. Thanks again you are great.!!!
@@mike2121qw please do give that Free Trial a try. I think you will love it. Man, we can get you moving ahead in your playing fast, I promise. Make it a plan!!
Hi Jeff, great instruction to get musicians hearing melodically FIRST. I believe in a melodic sounding solo whether scales or triads. I have heard musicians coming out the chute playing jazz solos at a 100 miles a minute and it sounds like a bunch of notes: no space, no melody, no jazz to me. It sounds like a chops competition. Even John Coltrane and Parker had melody. Oh well to each his own. I think we jazz musicians need to get back to melodic playing first. And your instruction is a great place to start. Thanks for the info.
So glad this resonated with you, Lindlee. There is absolutely a time for chops and all, but Trane and Bird, as you pointed out, also knew that there was a time for simplicity and melody too. You got it!!
Just like to add my thanks here. Been working on chord tone soloing for a long time (I'm using Hal Crook's books), but this feels like a breakthrough for me. Dropping the 7ths from the mix really brings out the underlying harmony to my relatively untrained ear. I can hear where I want to go next much better. Doing this on "All of Me" in 8-bar sections. Thank you.
Wow! When something feels like a "breakthrough", that is pretty big stuff. I'm so glad that I was a part of that for you. Very cool! And yes, dropping the 7ths really helps, doesn't it?
As an example of what a relative beginner can make of these exercises, I thought I'd share this (played on my EWI). soundcloud.com/bigmartin/shuffle-time-blues.
Really helpful, so simple. Thank you. I learn the scales then try and improvise and seem to have mental blocks.
.
Cheers Jeff
This is a MUCH better way to go. I'm so happy that you enjoyed this. Please join me at www.JazzWire.net, so that we can work TOGETHER. Easy, and affordable. You'll have a blast! Let me know if you have any questions.
Grateful for you for all the videos
Thanks for tuning in Noel. I hope we'll be able to do some music together one way or the other one day soon!
Jeff Antoniuk - Educator that would be great! I’m only 3yrs in training the Alto, I have quite to learn about music and this amazing instrument. What a journey
Wow, congrats Noel. Man, we could get a LOT done together at www.JazzWire.net. I hope to see you there soon!
Jeff! I could do this ALL DAY! I am so in love! Thank you!
Fantastic! I know what you mean It's a great exercise, and get's us sounding SO GOOD. Tune in to the Digging Deeper video #3. We'll be expanding this idea into some great new directions. Thanks for watching and writing. Please email me and let me know where you live.
Great channel and very enthusiastic explication! I really agree with you to focus on 135 only. I started improvising with scales years ago, then I "discovered'' the chord tones. Then I find that the 7th was not stable as the 135, the 7th needs to walk to somewhere, so the best is to improvise with only 135 as the foundation. Greetings from Spain!
Thanks for the kind note Rodolfo, and for tuning in here. Please subscribe to the channel if you haven't yet. Much more good stuff to come.
Do you know what....that video has given me a lot of release. No pun intended. Just thank you.
Ha! That is great. There is SO MUCH attention paid to scales in jazz, it would be easy to think there is nothing else, or no other way. Glad I could help.
Great stuff! Limiting yourself to just a few chord notes is really helpful
These lessons are OUTSTANDING!! THANK YOU!!
Thanks Frank!! So happy to have you here with us.
OK Jeff... day one of assignment complete..... Today I limited myself to doing this away from my bass, and just did it in my head, and singing it. Tomorrow I will bring in the bass, and try not to go blank as usual. LOL ...cheers - Rod.
Nice!! This works REALLY well, I promise. I was doing it on bass myself yesterday. The exercise, the concept, works well with how the bass is laid out. You'll dig it!
Great perspective. Will try.
Such a great lesson. Will recommend this (and all your videos) to my improv students!
Thanks for the kind note Will. And yes please spread the word. The more, the merrier. Write me at DiggingDeeperJazz @ gmail.com if you want any of the pdf's, or if you want to chat. I'd love to hear about where you are located, and the work you are doing. Cheers!
Couldn't agree more in re "scales". I generally teach students that it's good to know modes to impress people at cocktail parties, but, the concepts and theory are much more important than knowing when to paste a Dorian scale into your improv. Use your ear, know theory concepts, develop your own. Don't worry about the label - does it sound good or not? That's the question. Great videos! Thanks.
Thanks for taking the time to write, brother!!
This is a very good and useful, thought provoking tutorial! Perspective is a heck of a thing, eh? ;-)
Well put, Alex. So glad we are working together inside www.JazzWire.net. We will get MORE perspective there. The important thing is the back and forth conversation, and we'll be doing plenty of that.
Hi Jeff. So when you do a gig, what is your warmup technique?
Great question. First off, it's "Tone". Begin sure the instrument is speaking the way I want it to. Then, "having my head in the game," musically. Playing some tunes, improvising, and getting the juices flowing. And then "Fingers" is important, just being fluid to the best of my abilities. Those three are a great start.
Hey, if you haven't already, please jump in to a Free 30 Day Limited access to JazzWire. I would love to work together with you in a more meaningful (and not too expensive) way. With the Free 30 Day Trial, you’ll see what we're doing behind the wall! You'll be inside in about 20 seconds, no credit card required. app.jazzwire.net/free-trial. These videos are great, but they are a SHADOW compared to the real work and we can do together!
This is harder than it looks. I need a backing track that I can loop. Oh wait ! Ireal pro to the rescue.
Loved your comment about playing melodically and listenable. Fairly new to jazz, but it seems to me that some jazz musicians play for themselves without a great deal of consideration for their listeners. Nice to give yourself pleasure but even better to please others?
It's a balance, for sure. When a player is truly an "artist," in a sense their job is to CHALLENGE the listener, to show the listener their vision of the world. So in that sense, a high-level jazz players job is to ignore the audiences desires and tastes. However, most of us are not high-end audiences. If you are trying to get a gig, or keep a gig (!), or get the audience to come back next week, or to not run out the door in the first place (!!), some consideration is VERY much called for. Great observation! Thanks for tuning in.
A passionate teacher 👍 great vid thanks. ❤🎷😎
Thanks for taking the time to watch and to write. I hope you check out the other 140+ Digging Deeper videos!!
I will Jeff, you can bet on that, greetings from Germany, btw there's a whole bunch of VW buses here 😁
@@espr7564 Germany!! I'm coming to Bavaria, Worms/Stuttgart, and Friedrichshafen in August and September 20202. I hope you'll be able to join me at one of the workshops. Drop me a line at diggingdeeperjazz @ gmail.com and let's be in contact!
Juicy good technique!.........thumbs up!
Man, these are awesome - thanks so much :)
Thanks brother. Hey, email me at DiggingDeeperJazz@gmail.com if you want any of the pdf's or other materials that go with the videos. Great to have you along for the ride!
I love this. I’m going to give it a try.
It's pretty great - you are going to love this "no scale" approach. I hope we'll have the chance to work together much closer at www.JazzWire.net. I hope to see you there.
Indeed words of wisdom. Cheers Jeff :)
The Guitar Factory School thanks for watching!! Glad this resonated for you. Where are you and the school located?
Wow ! ok , I run a small business that does private guitar teaching in Sydney, Australia. www.guitarfactoryschool.com We teach all styles and levels to kids and adults. As you said - it's all out there anyway - how do you put a different spin on the same information 10 million other guys are peddling online ? I love the idea of a physical community that plays and learns music on all instruments ( jazz in particular). There's a woeful lack of that in Sydney. I know they'd have to be a demand for it - it's such a great way to educate and connect
So cool! Send me an email at DiggingDeeperJazz@gmail.com and let's talk a bit. I agree that this kind of thing would be FANTASTIC in Sydney. I'm spreading the idea around the USA and Canada, and training great jazz pros to do the teaching in their own cities - to start their own business around this idea of assembling adult jazz players and teaching them in a group setting. It is fantastic work, and a CRAZY underserved market. Drop me a line!
Thanks jeff、 you must be the 🥇
I don't that saxophone or mouthpiece you're using but I like your philosophical conceptual approach to learning music.
Thanks for tuning in, and for the kind words. What is it about the sax and the mouthpiece that you don't like? Tone? Overall shiny-ness? They could both use a cleaning . . .
Imao, It's the tune quality, sounds like a cheap Sax. However the tune in the video's theme did sound ok.
Interesting! All the same equipment. Could be the $5000 microphone on the recording, and the iPhone on the video! Come out to a live gig of mine here in Washington DC. I imagine you'll like the tone just fine in person.
yeah that's possible. I moved from east coast to west coast potato state but will visit events whenever I'm in that area. How can I get the infor you're teaching printed notes ect in its entirety ?
Send me an email to the address on the videos, (my name @ gmail.com) and I'll send it all off to you.
Very interesting. Thanks!
Great video Jeff, really appreciate your sharing such great information. Also, any chance you can share the looping background track too?
Thanks so much for tuning in. I'm happy that you dig the video and the premise. It works REALLY well, doesn't it?! As for the backing track, it's just from the iRealPro app. That said, we are launching the new web site (www.JazzWire.com) this week, and those sorts of resources will be there for all the subscribers, with every weekly assignment. I hope you'll join us at Jazz Wire!
I have an Aebersold version of On Green Dolphin St that looks completely different. The first 4 bars are a 251 in Eb and the 2nd 4 is a another 251 in Gb with a turn around in the last bar. I understand it's in a different key but I don't see the 251's in the example being discussed. Where am I going wrong? What am I not seeing?
Really helpful! I struggle with improvisation.
Would love pdf if possible, I'm fairly new on trumpet? samuel.evans86@gmail.com
So glad you found us! Please subscribe, and we'll get you fixed up. 100% guarantee!
Jeff Antoniuk - Educator subbed.
thnx jeff..
:) Thanks Jeff I will practice. If I have any further questions I shall email you.
You'll love this exercise, I promise! Please be in touch, and check out the other Digging Deeper Jazz videos. Lots of good stuff here, Jason.
Thanks much Jeff :) would it be possible to send me the pdf to this video my email is centrelifesavers@gmail.com
You bet Jason. We'll get it off to you.
Great
Jeff - great to meet you at the Saxophone Symposium! Very much enjoyed your improv session and looking forward to working with your video series and continuing to learn and grow ... and then when the time is right, to working with you “in person”... thanks for your encouragement... Mark Olson
Mark - great to meet you too! Please drop me a line at the email address above (and in the videos), and I'll put you on the weekly list to receive each new video and pdf. And yes, I'd love to work with you in person. "Maryland Summer Jazz 2018" (July 25 - 28) would be a fantastic way for us to get going together, and for you to meet a bunch of other adult players like yourself, and to get seriously inspired. I hope it might work for you. More info to follow. www.MarylandSummerJazz.com
Hi Jeff, this is great. I'm trying to elaborate a quick "ready to solo kit" for myself especially for tunes I don't know deeply in jam sessions or so..this requires a way to smart thinking the chart ..this will be my next achievement.!, in the video diatonic note F releasing on E should be thought within the scale the tune is written in? Or within the chord scale? Thank you anyway for those useful hints.
Elisabeth Beny, glad you liked the information. Much more to come! And as for that F to E, probably within the "key of the moment" or the individual scale would work best. Good luck!!
where can I find digging deep #3?? cannot search it out
Thanks for tuning in, Sean, and for taking the time to write! Many of the Digging Deeper videos have been moved inside www.JazzWire.net. For these DDJ videos to *really* be of value, I need to be truly interacting with you. I need to hear you play a bit, and we need to talk back and forth. Of course, that isn’t how You Tube works! So, for the folks that want to dig into these ideas with me (and really get something done in their playing) those DDJ videos, hundreds of weekly lessons, song studies and everything else is inside Jazz Wire. I hope to work with you there! Let me know if you have any questions about it. I’d love to set up a tour for you if you are interested.
@@JeffAntoniukEducator Thanks for reply Jeff That makes sense Im out of work right now so will have to hold off a bit but definitely will get there take care
Så skulle du lige forklare hvordan man skal læse ( D7 eller Cmi7 og Cmaj7 ) osv. Omsætte det til den skala. "1 2 3 5 6 8" :-)
Hi Jeff I have problems with English so I ask if there are teachers who speak Spanish in the community
If you mean at www.JazzWire.net, we don't have Spanish speaking teachers, but we do have students from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Singapore and all over the world. We interact a lot every day, but it is mostly posting (sort of like Face Book), and with videos and audio files. Our many students who don't speak English as their first language seem to do very well and have a great time. I hope we may see you at Jazz Wire!
This is the video I NEED!! :) thank you very much. but I need PDF and backing track. any chance you can send me those?
Thanks for the note, and I'm so happy that you liked the video. There is a lot more great information waiting for you at www.JazzWire.net, if you want to really dig in and make some serious progress. As for the backing track, it's from the iRealPro app. It's cheap and easy. look it up - you'll love it.
Hi Jeff, thanks for the reply. Yes I do have that app already, as a matter of fact right after I commented on your video I thought to go and check iReal pro,and I managed to do that triads exercise. very good.
I will check the JazzWire website for sure. Thanks.
Skeu74 great! Glad you got it sorted out. I’ll look for you at www.JazzWire.net - we’ll be able to really work together there and have a lot of fun.
@@JeffAntoniukEducator Hi Jeff. Thanks for this lovely lesson. Can I ask which "jazz style" in Ireal Pro is the backing track? There's about 20 to choose from. It sounds like you've picked on with some Latin feel to it, but I might be wrong. Thanks!
Hi Jeff, Thank you for the video. Do you have any one in the Central Florida Orlando area building communities?
We can close with a good player to do just that, but he ended up moving away. Tell me, do you know any good pros who might be a good fit for this kind of thing?
@@JeffAntoniukEducator There are some great pro's but not sure if they are too busy or how much they charge.
@@isaacpagan2110 I've been training pros around the USA on setting up programs like I have here in the DC area. We have almost 10 folks who have done this. I'd LOVE to find someone in your area. Since I have students all over the world now, I developed an amazing online Community for adult amateurs and semi-pros, www.JazzWire.net. I would love to work with you there, and introduce you to the 200+ enthusiastic adult musicians who are on Jazz Wire from all over the world. Check it out, and let me know if you have any questions.
Hey Jeff, could you please put this backing track for us?
It's just from the iReal Pro app. Easy and cheap. If you'd like to dig in further and do some deeper work with me (and have access to a bunch of backing tracks), please join us at www.JazzWire.net. I'd love to see you there.
What are you using for your backing track loops?
who do you have in Metro Detroit?????
Nothing yet, but I am DYING to find a great jazz pro in Detroit who would like to do this work. You are not the only guy in town asking. At this point (March 2018) we are in Baltimore/DC, Bethesda MD, Philly, and New York. Next month we begin in Sarasota FL, Dallas, Portland OR and Spokane WA. Please email and that way we can stay in touch when Detroit comes online.
I agree ..arppeggios...extentions + phrasing are what's up
My man!! I think you might be a genius (for agreeing with me)!! :)
Unfortunate thing, I’m in China.
Nate, we are working with people from 25 different countries at our subscription web site www.jazzwire.net. I hope we will be able to work with you there. We won't let this China thing stand in the way!
Hey Jeff thanks for the reply… I started today with this practice example and I’ve been playing for two hours now just playing the 3 notes. it’s amazing how it works and you give me so many ideas. I’ll definitely check the community. thank you
WOW, you are killing it!! Good for you. Way to "Dig Deeper holes." Keep doing what you are doing, and I'll look forward to working with you more, Nate.