Herbie Hancock - This is What Modal Jazz Really is
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2024
- When You think about Modal Jazz then usually you think about playing on one chord or vamp using the same sound all the time. That is not how Herbie Hancock approaches it in this solo on the Wayne Shorter song Witchhunt off the Speak No Evil album. This Herbie Hancock Lesson breaks down a lot of great surprising rhythms and melodies, moving in and out of the tonality, and adding some Atonal Chromatic ideas as well.
To me, this is one of the greatest Herbie Solos I know, and also a fantastic example of how to play medium swing and play some fantastic rhythmical ideas.
0:00 Intro
0:09 The Ultimate Modal Solo
0:40 Speak No Evil - 1964
1:14 Four & More + My Funny Valentine
1:20 Example #1
1:32 Shifting Sus4 motifs
2:02 Breaking Down the melodies
2:12 Quartal Arpeggios and Modal Jazz
3:19 Example #1 Slow
3:33 Build up of the phrases
3:56 Witchhunt Analysis - a Minor Blues
4:36 Example #2
4:42 Slow Progressions - Modal
5:22 Super-imposed Altered dom7th
6:23 Example #2 Slow
6:30 Example #3
6:37 Chromatic Melodies - Leading notes
7:10 Chromatic Melodies - Atonal ideas
8:21 Example #3 Slow
8:43 Example #4
8:50 Back to Jazz! Tonal Minor
9:12 Medium Swing? The most difficult tempo in Jazz?
10:14 Example #4 Slow
10:25 Like The Video? Check out My Patreon Page!
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What is your favorite Modal solo and why?
Content:
0:00 Intro
0:09 The Ultimate Modal Solo
0:40 Speak No Evil - 1964
1:14 Four & More + My Funny Valentine
1:20 Example #1
1:32 Shifting Sus4 motifs
2:02 Breaking Down the melodies
2:12 Quartal Arpeggios and Modal Jazz
3:19 Example #1 Slow
3:33 Build up of the phrases
3:56 Witchhunt Analysis - a Minor Blues
4:36 Example #2
4:42 Slow Progressions - Modal
5:22 Super-imposed Altered dom7th
6:23 Example #2 Slow
6:30 Example #3
6:37 Chromatic Melodies - Leading notes
7:10 Chromatic Melodies - Atonal ideas
8:21 Example #3 Slow
8:43 Example #4
8:50 Back to Jazz! Tonal Minor
9:12 Medium Swing? The most difficult tempo in Jazz?
10:14 Example #4 Slow
10:25 Like The Video? Check out My Patreon Page!
Miles' parts in Flamenco Sketches. Bit of a cliche example but definitely a classic.
And then Cannonball's solo over Flamenco Sketches, but it's so diatonic and "sweet" sounding it's almost hard to say it's modal
Maiden Voyage!!
Maybe Herbie's solo on "Dance Cadaverous", also from Speak No Evil. There is a section where he weaves a repetitive motif with fascinating variations in a truly mesmerizing way. Incredible!
"Tell Me A Bedtime Story"- still trying to figure it out. In his biography, he talks about Miles early on telling him not to play the "butter notes". Miles never really explained that so Herbie took it to mean 3rd and 7ths and it drastically altered his playing forever. Really nice analysis on this one!
Was expecting some small trick to sound "jazzy", got a whole class on how to "think modal". Thanks a lot for sharing all this knowledge!
Glad you like it Luis 🙂
This is a really awesome lesson. I’ve always thought this solo sounded like Herbie was just practicing since there are so many patterns being moved around and repeated, and therefore it never captured my attention. But it makes for a really instructive study piece, and you did an awesome job of extracting the concepts and making them very easy to digest. Thanks!
You're very welcome! I am glad you like it! 🙂
"Four and More' was one of the very first jazz records I bought and it was literally mind-blowing. Tony Williams pushes that band with amazing energy and, of course, it really was a super group in every sense of the term.
Over my head but I'll get something out of this! Thanks for sharing.
Whoa, talk about a strange case of synchronicity! Yesterday, I listened to this album and decided to work on Witch Hunt. Now I have some good ideas on how to improvise on it. Thanks, Jens!
Great! Go for it 🙂
Wow, such great timing! I was working on Cantaloupe Island for a gig I'm having next month and I felt like I was running short of ideas. Thanks as always for this high quality material!
Thank Jens
The George Benson on take five live version is one of my favorite.
Great lesson again !
Thanks so much Jens. Your videos are always very concise. Although I was familiar with different approaches to soloing in modal contexts the way you lay it out and explain it really helps to back up, reinforce and confirm those concepts. And that instills and validates such concepts even further. Great topic... so thanks again. Wishing you all the best.
Thanks for another brilliant lesson, if nothing else you have opened my ears to Wayne Shorter.
Wow, this lesson covers a lot of devices with really strong tonality. I always appreciate videos that really dive into the “moving parts” of a concept. Thanks
Glad you liked it!
wow - extremely well done Jens. You are a real pro and it's a pleasure listening to you.
it is great material with solos ,audio and methodology ,thank you
Great stuff, as usual! The guitar is a great instrument to play modal lines, because it is so easy to shift things around on the fretboard! I think the more you know your way home, the further away you can stray without getting lost!
Your videos are so inspiring. I’ve always listened to jazz but only recently shifted from rock to jazz guitar. Your videos help me make the link between the music I’ve long known to being able to understand it as a (novice) player.
This is a great analysis, interpretation and lesson! Thanks Jens!
Great lesson on some complex and misunderstood material. I started listening to this album (among other similar musicians) around 1972, it is still fresh and compelling. The transcriptions are very helpful, as usual, I hear these things and you give me a road map. Thank You...! 😎
Thanks Jens, for yet another gem of a lesson!
Modal Jazz is really complicated and strong in the genre indeed! I hope to see other prominent Modal Jazzists in the future like Miles Davis, who really brought it into the mainstream! Great work my man!
Thanks! I probably will get to him along the way as well :)
@@JensLarsen Thank ye my man! His legacy on Modal Jazz is very prominent!
@@RC32Smiths01 Actually, it was the "George Russell Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization" which led the "modal" movement in jazz or was at least in the forefront of that change.
@@skineyemin4276 Ahh I see. I love George Russel's work as well; it's just more or so, a lot credit Miles Davis for such a feat.
@@RC32Smiths01 Look up "A discussion George Russell had with Miles Davis": "Play all the changes" was Miles' response to a question George posed to him.
Great lesson, love these ideas! Thanks, Jens
Thanks Anthony! :) Glad you like it!
Well done Jens, informative with excellent examples. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Jens, awesome. Thank you, sir!
I always try to focus on one thing--remember one thing, haha--this time it has to be this idea of slowing the progression down so that you lose the harmonic meaning. Fascinating way to put things.
I find that idea really fascinating too 🙂
That was absolutely beautiful
Thank you very much! Glad (and a little surprised) that you like it 🙂
Great material!
Nice analysis. Helps to go easy for the beginner.
It's ever my kinda play but now I understand why I love Herbie
nice, one of my favorite all time albums and solos!
Me too 👍🙂
Great Video
Love it
Really great video, thank you.
Thank you J VED I am glad you found it useful! 👍
im loving this one thanks!
Glad to hear it!
Thanks so much Jens, very appreciated
You're very welcome! I am glad you like it! 🙂
Great stuff. I had to share this one on my Facebook page.
Thanks Willy! Glad you like the video, and really grateful that you shared it!
Playing through this with the bass, an eye opener, cheers!
Glad to hear it :)
@@JensLarsen Recorded an idea last night, so that's good..;-))
If you like the shifting motifs ascending and descending, maybe you know "Speak like a child" from '68. Love that album.
That is indeed also a great album! :)
"... an island of sound for each of the chord" That's it! Thank you Jens. :0)
that s a great lesson_ like it very much _ I was playing yesterday gig - On green Dolphin street from him_
Thanks for ur helps!!!
YOu're very welcome!
Wow....nice Job .....Jens
Thank you, Ron 🙂
nothing like coming home to a jens larsen notification :)
Thank you! Makes my day to hear that!
i never listening Herbie hancok like that , great exemples .thanks
Great explanation! I met Herbie through a mutual friend. I had to chant to meet him.
Great! That must have been very interesting!
One way of explaining my odd concepts, because I play, outside of the box, is the fact, I start, do stuff in the middle, and come to a resolution, had the benefit of growing up around great musicians, believe me they tried to get me to communicate within the norm, stuff happens, enjoy your videos.
Sometimes, truth, is like a horn player, I play a Les Paul, But I really like the sadness, of hearing an instrument played well to make you cry, point is, to get your true emotions across.
I suggest a lesson on Pasquale Grasso. Pure bebop, straight from Bud Powell.
this is good
Thank you!
As a painter, Goldsmith, historian, threw my own research, feel accomplished but only wired different than others, your way is better though, and is what I would recommend to others, Thanks and keep up the good work.
Herbie is a BEAST. Or, shall we say, a real headhunter.
Seems accurate :)
@@JensLarsen Know what else is accurate? Your videos. You're the Justinguitar of jazz (and I mean that in the best way). Jens Larsen is a BEAST.
Thank you 🙂 That's great to hear
Great Jens, hugs from me.. Emanuel
Thanks Emanuel! Hope you are well :)
Hi Jens,
Im been following your videos for a while... you are probably best educator online for jazz guitar...
Congrats!!!
PD. is the blue thing on the neck of your guitar for hush the strings? is that works on solid bodies?
Thank you :) It's hairband that I use as a mute for open strings, but it does not really do anything when it is behind the nut- I sometimes use it while recording or practicing legato.
nice guitar
Another great lesson, thanks. I couldn't make the coffee house gig last time I was in Holland :(. Do you ever play shows when you come back to Denmark?
Maybe next time 🙂 I am playing there again next week. I rarely play in Denmark, but have done a few tours with my band
Good stuff man...like your style...keep up the work!
Thank you! 🙂
Sometimes, I can't tell if you are saying "chordal" or "quartal" when you are talking about harmonies and arpeggios.
Well that's easy, I never say chordal 🙂
@@JensLarsen That clears things up nicely. Thank you.
The section with all the interval-based phrases is really cool! Was it built as a sequence or more as an intervallic exercise? Gotta sit down with it and study it...
It's hard to say, he plays it as if it is an exercise in the beginning and then still changes it around at the end 🙂
wow this is the magic of internet, just in home learning.
You're very welcome! I am glad you like it! 🙂
Herbie Hancock's melodic lines sound so nice on the guitar, whereas they sound clangy on the piano.
I love Herbie's playing and the explanations were great--buttah! I'd love for you to talk from the other perspective--the macro key (not typing keyboards) perspective. Witchhunt is in C minor. I know that everyone doesn't stick to Cminor, but when you are playing out--it's always great to have the home key in mind. Everything out of the key could be thought of as an alteration to the key to create movement and interest. That Db in measure three, that goes to a Gb to an E natural... that's a b9 going to a b5th passing to a major 3rd. I'd talk more about this, but the jazz police of youtube might try and catch me and book me in Jazz Jail for the night. Trying to think of a whole tune in one key is actually quite hard, I'm talking hearing it in one key--not thinking--if you can hear a tune in it's home key all the way through--the inner workings of how everything--melody AND harmony--are all connected by your ear. You can even do this type of thing with Standards harmony. I think of this as C is the landscape, and the Ab and E natual--they are like the weather that changes over the landscape. There in, the key stays the same--but notes are introduced to give the home key a different flavor for a bit--a sunny day, a rain storm, hail. Food for thought. Jazz police commence. By the way, this idea comes from Charlie Banacos--the jazz police should look him up.
Isn't trying to think a single key just tonal or functional analysis? I think most songs don't really modulate. This one doesn't either it is just an embellished blues in C minor.
@@JensLarsen A respected jazz educator, finally said it: most songs don't modulate--THANK YOU! I agree whole heartedly. Tonicization might happen in jazz, but I think modulation only happens in longer form music such as classical pieces.
I once argued that Giant Steps was centered in B major and that all the changes could be re-evaluated as tensions on B major--a way to create movement through the key... a lot of people didn't like that.
What I was talking about was a way to sing through the changes by ear. You sing the changes, but you relate everything back to C minor. For instance, if you superimposed an A7 over Cminor. Those notes are A C# E G, but in Cminor, they relate as 6, b9 (or #1) major 3rd and 5th. When you play the notes, they are the same, but if you sing them over a key center--C minor, in this case--they function in the key. Tonal analysis, yes, but beyond signifying chords with roman numerals because everything links back to the key center--even harmonies that are "not part of the key" such as A7 is to Cm. Thus, your ear clarifies that chords don't occur in a vacuum--they occur as progressions in a key.
If you can find a way to take theory and digest it so that it works in your ear as well as your mind--I think that's the secret sauce.
I hope I'm making sense. People knock this way of thinking until they try it. I feel like if you made a video on it, people would be more open to it.
In all fairness, you did relate the song to Cm and an elongated minor blues. This is one more step beyond what you said.
I apologize for the long comment, but you actually take the time to read what I post on your videos--a lot of people don't. Thank you in advanced.
@@pickinstone No worries, I actually have several videos on analyzing songs and music theory that all use functional harmony as a foundation.
I don't think that way of thinking is that uncommon.
Hallo Jens, i think that " Devil take the hindmost" from Allan Holdsworth, is a modal solo, in Gminor ?
Great Video. What you said about slowing down the chord progressions to create a modal sound ,can that approach be applied to standard tunes ?
Thank you! Yes that approach can be applied to standards. Just listen to how they played My Funny Valentine or Stella By Startlight in 1964 with Herbie, Miles and George Coleman etc
@@JensLarsen what can I do to incorporate this into my solos . Sometimes I feel clueless….
@@isaacrobinson8065 play standards really slow? I am not sure I follow 🙂
@@JensLarsen I think I misunderstood you. You where talking a out how Herbie and Wayne Shorter created Modal compositions.
@@isaacrobinson8065 You asked: "can that approach be applied to standard tunes ?" and my answer was yes, check the album I mentioned
damn model jazz is great. I love Weather Report as well are they Modal Jazz?
What software/hardware did you use to broadcast your video and with clear sound?
Adobe Premiere, GuitarPro7 and Reaper 🙂
Would you happene to be a friend of Sid Jacobs? The lesson reminds me of him for some reason.
Thank you! I don't know him, but he is a great guitarist 🙂
Hey Jens - what do you mean by "across the barline" at 6:10? I thought it was more of a rhythmic concept than a harmonic concept
If you play a chord over the barline into the next then it is also about harmony 🙂
Ooh, quick reply! So basically "over the barline" is basically the same as "superimposing?"
No, because you are taking a chord and extending it by changing how long it is. Super-imposing can be any chord on top of what is there
@@JensLarsen Ok I think I get it. Thanks!
Is there a name for what he does at 8:47-8:50? is it a polyrhythm? Where one of the figures doesn't begin on beat 1 of the measure
Last part of example 4? That is 8th note triplets in groups of 4. I think I mention that as well :)
ok, i will read arpejos and changes ,
Not sure what you mean? :)
So, tonal music is always resolved to major, playing outside maybe only for dominant chords, while in modal music you can play anything and shifting in minor/major 3rd/6th, shifting half step, or maybe tritone away?
No, that is not it. It is a bit much to outline in a comment sorry.
@@JensLarsen No problem. But what I mean is, in tonal music, chords have funtion related to the tonic, and the tonic is always major (the minor is substitution of the major, example Am and Em for C major tonality).
While playing outside maybe achieved when in dominant function chord, or with secondary cadence so it will have chords outside of the main tonality.
Is there such a thing like C dorian tonality, if there is, which chords function as sub dom and dom?
While in modal music, chord movement is just changing chord without thinking it's function, it can be move anywhere as long as it have no movement like tonal music (otherwise it become tonal music)?
Sorry for too much asking 🙏🏻
one question , ok you show the history epistomology (fundamental) ,but there are others facts ,objects and subjects abstracts and personal experiments in this practice
I am not sure what you are asking?
6:23 In the second bar here you wrote a quarter note rest followed by a quarter note triplet which only plays a B. Does that mean that that measure is a bar of 5/4?
No, I wrote a quater-note triplet rest :)
And otherwise it would have ben a 4 + 1/8 triplet bar
Does that help?
Yes I realised my mistake. Apologies
@@benjaminrosenbohm8910 No worries!
6:55 - David Lee Roth?
cool Herbie could go from this to ONE chord with a drum machine
Yes, that is actually pretty cool!
Herbie could make use of the spaces in the rhythm to go outside and come back.
What is Hancock doing with his left hand while playing those notes that are outside of C Minor? Is he playing a C Minor chord with his left hand or altering his chords to match his melody line? And what about the bass? You mention one note the bass plays that deviates from a C minor tonality, but no more.
Why don't you just write it out? Or at least listen to whether he plays something? 🙂
@@JensLarsen , from what I can hear, when he is playing the outside notes in the melody line of the solo, he is either altering his comping to go with that or playing the outside notes in the spaces between the comping. That is fine if you are doing your own comping, which you can do with a piano, but what if you are soloing with someone else doing the comping and you have not previously agreed on alterations of the harmony with them? It might not work out so well, depending upon the harmonies and the outside notes involved.
@@davideichler5105 So maybe you should listen to to some examples where that happens or experiment with how that feels?
@@JensLarsen , I have. What I am trying to say, perhaps badly or circuitously, is that playing notes outside the harmony or reharmonizing on the fly in a solo doesn't always work if the accompaniment isn't sufficiently sensitive or capable enough to go along with what you are doing. If you are playing piano and providing your own accompaniment, without another harmony instrument playing with you, that is less of a problem. Of course some might like to create a really jarring effect with a strong tonal clash, but that is a different matter.
@@davideichler5105 Like everything else, that will be a matter of taste. There are many examples where even back to Parker, the soloist steps out of the harmony and creates tension that doesn't fit with the comping. As long as the tension resolves then it doesn't have to sound bad. With stuff like this, tempo is also very important, so I would not get too caught up in theory or how it sounds when you play it very slowly and listen more to what it sounds like at tempo.
that's a weird looking keytar where did you get it?
In Leiden, The Netherlands
What tune is this solo on?
Witchhunt off Speak No Evil 🙂
Jens ____ Maybe I'm, 'Old, and not that mentally advanced. I miss the, 'Straight away, 'Jazz Ballads' of the '40's, where there were meaningful melodies... all this, 'Modern Modal Improvisation and, Rock Fusion, leaves me wanting recognizable Melody... maybe even understandable Lyrics. Jazz of today, may have become too, 'Intellectual Snobbish' for me.
I love Herbie on this, I don't think there is anything snobbish about it. It's just good music
yP Yp yap
Just curious why you are somewhat against modes, as stated in other lesson videos
I am not against modes, but I am against using modes to explain or teach something that is clearly not modal (mostly because it really sucks for that).
@@JensLarsen i chose the wrong words i suppose. i cant remember the specific video, but i remember you mentioning something like "dont use modes to learn jazz". Although it sounded a bit odd to me, i cannot play jazz very well so who am i to weigh in haha. Also i watch your videos all the time & have learned so much, thank you!!
@@maxwellholmes594 Well, that is true. Don't use modes to learn jazz because most jazz is not modal. Learn harmony instead, using modes will just make it more difficult and slow you down. Why would you want to do that?
@@JensLarsen you are the messiah of jazz, bless you Jens!!
Thanks, for pardon the expression " dumbing things down for me", my expression, not yours. Mean no disrespect to others, fact is , play by ear fella, truly understand your concepts, though, just expressed differently. Would have been way easier to communicate with fellow musicians had I decided to learn how to read music, too stubborn to take proper instruction, back then, Player with OCD, had to follow my path of personal discovery, very hard road. Thank you for your contributions Sir.
What does this have to do with 'modal'? Completely nothing. Now, these are tons more people confused about what modal music is.
the interesting part, is that his song sucks. and resembles more of an exercise than a piece of music. i bet you he would agree
Thanks for another brilliant lesson, if nothing else you have opened my ears to Wayne Shorter.
That's great! You need to know Speak No Evil, Adam's Apple and Juju 🤘