Even though I have been playing for many years I'm still interested in hearing how others think about playing jazz. Especially if they can really play. Nobody knows everything and everyone has something to offer. That's why I watch your videos. I sometimes hear people say such and such is not improvising which I take with a grain of salt. We are not all wired the same so people have to find the approach that works for them which usually means finding the teacher that is right for them. I think your students are lucky to have you as a teacher.
I found myself watching this all the way through, to my surprise. I'm a guitar player, and I usually watch guitar oriented videos,it was refreshing to watch a lesson not geared towards guitarists. Well done.
The best time to learn this was forty years ago. The second best time is today. Thank you, Dr Wally, for another transformative lesson. And PS, hope that voice doesn’t just deployed for Saxophone Academy, you really have something there.
Oh my lord, we had to do the Schenkerian analysis on over two dozen pieces for comp and arranging class 1 & 2 in college. I still wake up at night in a cold sweat sometimes. “Reduce it, reduce it!!!” Thanks for that flashback not unlike a bad leftover acid trip from the 60’s. Which was before I was born. 😂
doc, you have opened my ears to simplicity and discipline, something I never really developed. I’m one trying to learn so many jazz tunes in a hurry and you just showed me away better method and I’m digging and improved already by 10fold, thank you, thank you!
Double thumbs up, Dr. Wally!! I love how you emphasized deep learning and patience. That is something that I have struggled with and I love your approach to learning tunes. I'm excited to apply this!
I really like this approach! It's simple and practical. I'll definitely be incorporating this in my practice. You make what was challenging for me more accessible. Thanks Doc, keep 'em commin'!
None of the jazz channels on youtube cover the things you covered here. And you do it so quickly, not wasting anyones time with chitter chatter like all the other jazz channels. I wonder if you could cover how a rhythm section works. Youve mentioned many times they outline the chords. Ive often wondered what things the drummer and bassist are doing in a jazz trio.
Thank Dr. Wally, you have answered my fear of learning new songs so I can play on the stage with these great players. I’ve notice not to jump on stage half learned because it will show. I’ve learned to give each song time to set in.
I love that you start out and keep eyes (sorry) ears on getting deep into the big picture - it would seem obvious, but your step one 'Including learning the lyrics' is vital. Otherwise it's all too easy to jump to the analysis of the tech stuff aka 2-5s etc... Great approach, Thank You!!
Thank you. Being a self taught Saxophone player. I had a Saxophone teacher who hammered me on my timing playing the correct notes has never been an issue for me, I never understood what improvisation actually meant or how to improvise. Just looking a the "sheet" music with nothing on it meant diddly squat to me. (No notes) Did not appreciate the scales meant anything to do with playing the sheet music. I just passed them buy. Sure I know my scales another topic my Saxophone teacher hammered me on. This video has been an eye opener to jazz and music.
You are hilarious dr. Wallace!!! Seriously funny. When I'm practicing my alto and now tenor sax I like listening to ur theory classes and other jazz styles of playing song before I begin playing their songs
Dr. Wally: Awesome. One of your best videos. Great tips on how to approach learning and playing standards in terms of 4 bar phrases. I refer to this video often. Also, I enjoy the part where you sing! 👍
Really thanks for this genuine master class. Your 5 advices are real, and practical. The last messagge is the best, and comes maybe from all your experience: DO NOT RUN! Really learn deeply. THANKS.
What a great video thankyou. You make the complex simple and so many important invaluable learnings. The simplification of phrases which often repeat, provides a great structure. When all else fails we know the melody works, so use it. Learn pieces deeply to get maximum benefit and satisfaction from them, it does take time because it is challenging. If it were easy it would be quite disappointing as anyone could do it, and that is so not the case. There are so many learning points from this video, one of your best so many many thanks.
I always enjoy your videos. I’m a retire computer geek now 67 and started the sax last year. I have no need to be a professional and just want to have fun and fake my way through. I have the fingering down okay, my embouchure is more imbouchure. before I improvise, I should provise so I read the music solos and play vocal best I could. My friends liken my sax playing to Coltrain, unfortunately it’s sheriff Roscoe P Coltrain, from the Duke of Hazard. Any quick cheat ideas and suggestions to be a sax hack.
Wow! Fantastic lesson. And it prompts a question--what do you think of using harmony as a tool for improvisation? (I'm a beginner who struggles with coming up with fresh ideas.)
good evening dr Wally, thank you for your knowledge sharing. today i printed the daily warmup exercises and i approached the overtones etc .... i'm an intermediate saxophonist and i haven't played for 12 years, but thanks to his channel i found the desire to play again.
Thank you so much for what the outstanding pieces of advice. So much content in such a short video. Superb stuff once again & the lighthearted approach makes the journey of “having fun” front & centre. Cheers 🍻 Brian 👏👏
Very good method for learning the music. Just a question, why are the 5th and the 9th degrees of the Bbmib9and E7b9 chords considered to be flatted when there is no F# to begin with in the key of C. the tune is in the key of C , which has no flats or sharps to begin with? In other words, I’m having trouble with chord theory here, and could it have anything to do with secondary dominant theory? Really confusing to me. Any help would be appreciated.
Good explanation mostly. I don't like the idea of playing scale exercises over the changes, since I think this leads to trying to improvise that way. I would say that you need to learn enough vocabulary from playing along with good recordings of the tunes you are working on, so you can then apply that to your own playing over the changes. You might sound as though you are copying another player for awhile, but that is at least more musical than just playing straight scale or arpeggio patterns (which you do of course need to practice separately).
Time is so scarce and time management so hard to do. I’m still trying to get Bye, Bye Blackbird and All of Me more deeply understood. It’s been about a year. Between developing high school civics and psychology curriculum, Side jobs, parenting and my own almost monthly lessons, I still have a ways to go…especially with my gap in their knowledge. I had to really pause the video pretty long to work out how it was A minor. I wanna run when I’m really at a walking pace. It might be beneficial to get a staff book and slow my brain down by writing some of this out along with lyrics and seminal recording lists. Thanks, as always, for the content and supplemental reflections based on lessons I’m already being taught and learning.
Amazing video dr. Wally. I'm planning on getting a new sax from my old yamaha 26. I was wondering if you were going to make a video updating us on the jean paul as 860
Where should I send my lunch money? I use Schenkarian Analysis ALL THE TIME in my teaching and in my musical study. I love the theory and the approach to music. It was my favorite class in Grad School. Had a great teacher for the class at Northern Illinois University. Great video by the way. Thank you. I enjoyed it.
In many tutorials, they say that you must learn the chord changes by heart. I find it very hard. In what key should you learn it. If I play many instruments I must learn it in different keys. And if the jamsession plays in another key further more. In different books, there are different chords. Wich is right? How does the pro do. Do they really remember the chords by heart? I find it hard to believe. Are they aware all time of what chord is running?
DR. WALLY, you have some of the best content on the internet pertaining to Saxophone. I have a question. I have one of those Giardinelli student mouth pieces that were laying around. I play an Otto Link Super Tone Master 7* with a 2/1/2 Legre syntenic reed. I have been playing this for about 20 years and have been happy with this. I recently put the Giardinelli on the horn and tried to play it. I had to lay way off of it to make a sound with it. But after playing with it for a while I was able to get a decent sound out of it. When playing scales and such I found it a lot easier to get through practice sessions with this Giardinelli. But will this hurt me in the long run When I have to play a gig using my Link?
Thanks for the great video! Quick question- can't you also just use the A natural minor instead of harmonic minor over that Bmi7 (b5)? The notes would work with the chord tones and the key centre would remain constant with the starting point of Cmaj7, rather than intoducing the G# in the harmonic scale.
You could. I prefer the harmonic minor (for many reasons), but that wouldn't be a problem. At the end of the day, chords don't actually have corresponding scales. We have incredible freedom.
Merci, Monsieur! So, loaded spit ball straw aimed at your face… Which 12 jazz standards would be the best to learn over the next 12 months? The ones that appeal to me probably would not appeal to larger audiences. My playing trends more towards soul/funk and ballads. But what would be a quasi-complete, versatile, all-around Jazz Standard Setlist you would recommend?
Hi Carol, it's my signature mouthpiece, designed with Windy City Woodwinds: The 56 Select! I love it, but full disclosure, I have a financial interest in it (obviously). Happy practicing!
Enjoying this video whilst simultaneously working on the scale exercise from last time, but for this vid, my theory weakness is showing (tho taking a class in it now!). When you say 'fill in the arpeggios' to create a scale, if we fill in the E7(b9) can I get a hint as to why are we flatting the F, and the C?
Nice presentation but I have a problem with using the A minor scale to derive a B-minor7 Flat 5 in measure 3, given A B C D E F G# A (harmonic) then ignore the 7th and build a simple 1-3-5 triad starting on "B" we have B D F But what if we then flat the 5 which is the chord as given? Then we have B D E A having lowered the 5 a half step - so you have to ignore the flat 5 to arrive at the correct notes. I may be wrong but I think that the correct and sure fire way is to just take note of the root of the chord in this case B (minor) so we first build a B minor scale: B C# D E F# G A Produces B D F# A (B minor 7) B C# D E F G A Produces B D F A (B minor 7 Flat 5)
You don't need to lower the 5th again - playing the 2-4-6 - 8 of the harmonic minor scale gives you the half-dim 7th chord. We don't build it, THEN alter it to match the chord symbol. The chord symbol matches what is already built.
@@drwallysax I can see what you are doing taking the 2-4-6-8 of the A minor harmonic scale but how would your students know to do this when there is no methodology to follow? It works for you because you have the experience to know what works. Please reconsider to follow the traditional method where the root of the chord is the root of the scale from which the chord is built. So for measure 4 the E7 (dominant) tells us lo lower the 7th one half step: E F# G# A B C# D# (D) giving E-G#-B-D) 1 3 5 7
@@squiggy1954 the minor ii is not built off a different scale. When in the key of C major, the minor ii is built from the second scale degree of C MAJOR: thus making a d-minor chord. These ii/Vs operate in the HOME KEY. Trying to consider each chord built off a different, disparate scale is not correct or "traditional." My students are having great success in understanding and IMPROVISING with this method because they are not thinking of each chord in isolation, but it's function in a key area. In this case the b-7b5 and E7b9 function in the key of A minor. Your example of the E7 dominant above is INCORRECT (full stop). It's not built of the E major scale. It's built from the fifth scale degree of A MINOR. Having a doctorate in music, I assure you I'm quite familiar with traditional music theory.
I really like the way you outlined this more profound way of tackling a song than I would normally do. I've fairly basic knowledge of improv (like major scales and pentatonic scales), how do I know what scale to play depending on the chord in a given key? Do you have a video about that? Thanks a bunch Dr. Wally!
@@drwallysax C'mon Wally how does A melodic minor with F# play over B-7b5 and E7b9? I know the tune is in Eb. I've only played it 10,000 times and alto was my first ax 52 yrs ago.
Ooops! The angle was an accident, was putting away my horn, stopped, and shot the "talking head" portion of the video (with it partially twisted). I don't actually play that way!
@@drwallysax I can't tell you how many times I've started to play and had to turn my mouthpiece one way or the other because I didn't have it on quite right. Pretty sure everyone has done this.
Even though I have been playing for many years I'm still interested in hearing how others think about playing jazz. Especially if they can really play. Nobody knows everything and everyone has something to offer. That's why I watch your videos. I sometimes hear people say such and such is not improvising which I take with a grain of salt. We are not all wired the same so people have to find the approach that works for them which usually means finding the teacher that is right for them. I think your students are lucky to have you as a teacher.
I found myself watching this all the way through, to my surprise.
I'm a guitar player, and I usually watch guitar oriented videos,it was refreshing to watch a lesson not geared towards guitarists.
Well done.
Thanks my six string friend, happy practicing!
You get a big “Amen, Brother“ from me, Dr. Wally. I’m a believer.
One of your best to date Doctor. And your humor always makes the medicine go down!
Thanks bob! This video was a labor of love, so glad it's helpful. Have a great weekend my friend!
You are always so fabulous. Tanks a lot for this B A BA how to start improvising :-)
The best time to learn this was forty years ago. The second best time is today. Thank you, Dr Wally, for another transformative lesson. And PS, hope that voice doesn’t just deployed for Saxophone Academy, you really have something there.
"The Steamer" by Stan Getz - excellent example and many more things to take from this record! One of my favourites - Thank you, Dr. Wally!
Oh my lord, we had to do the Schenkerian analysis on over two dozen pieces for comp and arranging class 1 & 2 in college. I still wake up at night in a cold sweat sometimes. “Reduce it, reduce it!!!”
Thanks for that flashback not unlike a bad leftover acid trip from the 60’s. Which was before I was born. 😂
doc, you have opened my ears to simplicity and discipline, something I never really developed. I’m one trying to learn so many jazz tunes in a hurry and you just showed me away better method and I’m digging and improved already by 10fold, thank you, thank you!
Double thumbs up, Dr. Wally!! I love how you emphasized deep learning and patience. That is something that I have struggled with and I love your approach to learning tunes. I'm excited to apply this!
Thanks so much, I do hope you find this approach helpful! Happy practicing Papa Joe!
The last two minutes is such a good piece of advice that I can almost forgive all previous daddy jokes 😆 Keep up the good work Doc!
This video is one that I will need to go over and over many times!
Great to see you back Dr Wally. I missed your sessions.
I really like this approach! It's simple and practical. I'll definitely be incorporating this in my practice. You make what was challenging for me more accessible. Thanks Doc, keep 'em commin'!
So glad it's helpful, Spencer! I'll keep em coming if you keep watching!
None of the jazz channels on youtube cover the things you covered here. And you do it so quickly, not wasting anyones time with chitter chatter like all the other jazz channels. I wonder if you could cover how a rhythm section works. Youve mentioned many times they outline the chords. Ive often wondered what things the drummer and bassist are doing in a jazz trio.
Thank Dr. Wally, you have answered my fear of learning new songs so I can play on the stage with these great players. I’ve notice not to jump on stage half learned because it will show. I’ve learned to give each song time to set in.
This is it. A short quick guide amazingly well produced. Have been sending my students to your videos for a while now. Thanks!
I love that you start out and keep eyes (sorry) ears on getting deep into the big picture - it would seem obvious, but your step one 'Including learning the lyrics' is vital. Otherwise it's all too easy to jump to the analysis of the tech stuff aka 2-5s etc... Great approach, Thank You!!
Thank you. Being a self taught Saxophone player.
I had a Saxophone teacher who hammered me on my timing playing the correct notes has never been an issue for me,
I never understood what improvisation actually meant or how to improvise.
Just looking a the "sheet" music with nothing on it meant diddly squat to me. (No notes)
Did not appreciate the scales meant anything to do with playing the sheet music. I just passed them buy.
Sure I know my scales another topic my Saxophone teacher hammered me on.
This video has been an eye opener to jazz and music.
One of your best yet! Big thumbs up. :)
I was having a bad day until I watched you vocalize root movement as seriously as you did. Problem solved!
This video is amazing!
Thanks my friend, made my morning :)
Love this method
Good stuff. Thanks.
You are hilarious dr. Wallace!!! Seriously funny. When I'm practicing my alto and now tenor sax I like listening to ur theory classes and other jazz styles of playing song before I begin playing their songs
Why can I only like this once??? Excellent lesson as always
This is a great lesson, thank you for this.
that was so inspiring I learnt a heap from that .what a great way to break it down and build it up ,truely awesome.
Dr. Wally: Awesome. One of your best videos. Great tips on how to approach learning and playing standards in terms of 4 bar phrases. I refer to this video often. Also, I enjoy the part where you sing! 👍
Thanks my friend :)
Your videos are very informative! I’ve been teaching myself sax for about a month now and I can hear my progress‼️
fantastic Ramon - keep up the good work my friend!
I love the disciplined approach!
Hi Dr Wally, another fantastic video - thank you so much for sharing your knowledge in such an accessible way!
Excellent advice and method. Brilliant episode and hilarious to boot. Thanks.
Thank you kindly! Hope you have a great weekend, David.
All your lessons are outstanding. In this video I really liked the background horns duet style playing.
Really thanks for this genuine master class. Your 5 advices are real, and practical. The last messagge is the best, and comes maybe from all your experience: DO NOT RUN! Really learn deeply. THANKS.
I hope this is helpful, happy practicing this weekend Matias!
What a great video thankyou. You make the complex simple and so many important invaluable learnings. The simplification of phrases which often repeat, provides a great structure. When all else fails we know the melody works, so use it. Learn pieces deeply to get maximum benefit and satisfaction from them, it does take time because it is challenging. If it were easy it would be quite disappointing as anyone could do it, and that is so not the case. There are so many learning points from this video, one of your best so many many thanks.
Oh and one thing I forgot, how were we to know that our learned doctor is a great soul singer!!
As always A+ material Dr Wally Wallace. Is that a Selmer Alto your playing?
wonderful video Dr. Wally Wallace. Thank you :)
You are a hoot! Thanks for wonderfully entertaining and effective lessons. Peace
You are a great teacher . Bravo! Great job . 😊👍
Excellent Dr Wally...Excellent. Thanks...
I always enjoy your videos. I’m a retire computer geek now 67 and started the sax last year. I have no need to be a professional and just want to have fun and fake my way through. I have the fingering down okay, my embouchure is more imbouchure. before I improvise, I should provise so I read the music solos and play vocal best I could. My friends liken my sax playing to Coltrain, unfortunately it’s sheriff Roscoe P Coltrain, from the Duke of Hazard. Any quick cheat ideas and suggestions to be a sax hack.
Dr Wally, you're fantastic.
Awwww, thanks Pat!
Well now. Thanks for this.
Recently, I’ve just played random notes and guessed where the right ones lay haha, thanks for this it helps big time!
Wow! Fantastic lesson. And it prompts a question--what do you think of using harmony as a tool for improvisation? (I'm a beginner who struggles with coming up with fresh ideas.)
Come for the saxophone lesson stay for the rock vocals
Ha! If that doesn't scare you away, you are committed to learning!
This goes directly to my favorites list. Excellent and useful, thanks!!
You're very welcome!
man, you are the flipping legend
Thanks
Great advice. Thanks.
Should be a pop singer mate!! HEHEH GREAT VIDEO!
I love this thank you so much!
Pomocny film! Dziękuję.
:) awesome doc; once more you made my day
Nice, just started learning that standard this week.
Excellent, happy practicing!
Hi Please I need to learn more from you about the swing just please please I need your help
Brilliant and useful content. Can't believe it's free.
That's kind, thanks Adam! Wait, free? Did you not receive the invoice? ;)
@@drwallysax I paid....attention.
good evening dr Wally, thank you for your knowledge sharing. today i printed the daily warmup exercises and i approached the overtones etc .... i'm an intermediate saxophonist and i haven't played for 12 years, but thanks to his channel i found the desire to play again.
This makes me VERY happy to hear! Keep it up my friend!
@@drwallysax moommmmomommmmmmmmmmmmommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmommmmmommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmommmmmmmmommmmmmmmm
@@drwallysax mmomm9m9m9m9mom9m9mmmmo
@@drwallysax 🙂
It's all here. The Doctor's best video lesson yet.
Thank you so much for what the outstanding pieces of advice. So much content in such a short video. Superb stuff once again & the lighthearted approach makes the journey of “having fun” front & centre. Cheers 🍻 Brian 👏👏
Thanks, Brian! Happy practicing my friend - and have fun indeed!
Very good method for learning the music. Just a question, why are the 5th and the 9th degrees of the Bbmib9and E7b9 chords considered to be flatted when there is no F# to begin with in the key of C. the tune is in the key of C , which has no flats or sharps to begin with? In other words, I’m having trouble with chord theory here, and could it have anything to do with secondary dominant theory? Really confusing to me. Any help would be appreciated.
Pure gold, Doc.
Well thanks Andy! Have a great weekend (and go practice)!
Good explanation mostly. I don't like the idea of playing scale exercises over the changes, since I think this leads to trying to improvise that way. I would say that you need to learn enough vocabulary from playing along with good recordings of the tunes you are working on, so you can then apply that to your own playing over the changes. You might sound as though you are copying another player for awhile, but that is at least more musical than just playing straight scale or arpeggio patterns (which you do of course need to practice separately).
Time is so scarce and time management so hard to do. I’m still trying to get Bye, Bye Blackbird and All of Me more deeply understood. It’s been about a year.
Between developing high school civics and psychology curriculum, Side jobs, parenting and my own almost monthly lessons, I still have a ways to go…especially with my gap in their knowledge. I had to really pause the video pretty long to work out how it was A minor. I wanna run when I’m really at a walking pace.
It might be beneficial to get a staff book and slow my brain down by writing some of this out along with lyrics and seminal recording lists.
Thanks, as always, for the content and supplemental reflections based on lessons I’m already being taught and learning.
You're certainly not alone. Enjoy the journey - the practice is the point, not a means to an end. Have a great weekend!
This was really interesting and helpful - great perspective 👍
Thanks Chip, have a great weekend and happy practicing!
Amazing video dr. Wally. I'm planning on getting a new sax from my old yamaha 26. I was wondering if you were going to make a video updating us on the jean paul as 860
What mouthpiece you using on this one? Sounds great.
Great lesson, thank you 🙏
My pleasure!
Where should I send my lunch money? I use Schenkarian Analysis ALL THE TIME in my teaching and in my musical study. I love the theory and the approach to music. It was my favorite class in Grad School. Had a great teacher for the class at Northern Illinois University. Great video by the way. Thank you. I enjoyed it.
heinrich had some good ideas.
@@drwallysax Yes. He did.
After encountering a Bbm with a flat 5 we can just go back to playing the Pink Panther theme --- hilarious!
In many tutorials, they say that you must learn the chord changes by heart. I find it very hard. In what key should you learn it. If I play many instruments I must learn it in different keys.
And if the jamsession plays in another key further more. In different books, there are different chords. Wich is right? How does the pro do. Do they really remember the chords by heart?
I find it hard to believe. Are they aware all time of what chord is running?
Q? At 9:55 you talk of ‘Perpetual motion bebop exercises’. I’m very interested in this. How do you craft these exercises?
Gracias Dr, ha sido una ayuda tremenda en mi aprendizaje.
Gracias amigo, me alegro mucho de que te sea útil.
DR. WALLY, you have some of the best content on the internet pertaining to Saxophone.
I have a question. I have one of those Giardinelli student mouth pieces that were laying around. I play an Otto Link Super Tone Master 7* with a 2/1/2 Legre syntenic reed. I have been playing this for about 20 years and have been happy with this. I recently put the Giardinelli on the horn and tried to play it. I had to lay way off of it to make a sound with it. But after playing with it for a while I was able to get a decent sound out of it.
When playing scales and such I found it a lot easier to get through practice sessions with this Giardinelli. But will this hurt me in the long run When I have to play a gig using my Link?
Thanks for the great video! Quick question- can't you also just use the A natural minor instead of harmonic minor over that Bmi7 (b5)? The notes would work with the chord tones and the key centre would remain constant with the starting point of Cmaj7, rather than intoducing the G# in the harmonic scale.
You could. I prefer the harmonic minor (for many reasons), but that wouldn't be a problem. At the end of the day, chords don't actually have corresponding scales. We have incredible freedom.
@@drwallysax Thank you Dr. Wally!
Merci, Monsieur!
So, loaded spit ball straw aimed at your face… Which 12 jazz standards would be the best to learn over the next 12 months? The ones that appeal to me probably would not appeal to larger audiences. My playing trends more towards soul/funk and ballads. But what would be a quasi-complete, versatile, all-around Jazz Standard Setlist you would recommend?
Hey there Dr. Wally, im sure im not the first to ask: what mouthpiece are u using in the video? - .... and thanks for the gread vid!!! Learned a lot!
Hi Carol, it's my signature mouthpiece, designed with Windy City Woodwinds: The 56 Select!
I love it, but full disclosure, I have a financial interest in it (obviously). Happy practicing!
"Cha-mon, Lee!"
Lyrics, yes.
Putz! Realmente, você é o melhor. Translate this!
Putz? That doesn't translate, but thanks for the other part not calling me a putz!
@@drwallysax Hahahaha! Putz is something like Gosh! You really are the best. Thanks for your Putz is something like Gosh! You really are the best.
Hi Dr Wally. At 75 I have prospered
Enjoying this video whilst simultaneously working on the scale exercise from last time, but for this vid, my theory weakness is showing (tho taking a class in it now!). When you say 'fill in the arpeggios' to create a scale, if we fill in the E7(b9) can I get a hint as to why are we flatting the F, and the C?
The b9 is "F natural" and the C is natural because it functions in the key of A minor!
Does anybody know the names of the musical excerpts on the title slides for each chapter of the video? Specifically the one at about 10:30?
It's called "Devilish" - recorded by my band the Sononauts (original composition by Chris Peebles)
Nice presentation but I have a problem with using the A minor scale to derive a B-minor7 Flat 5
in measure 3, given A B C D E F G# A (harmonic) then ignore the 7th and build a simple
1-3-5 triad starting on "B" we have B D F But what if we then flat the 5 which is the chord as given?
Then we have B D E A having lowered the 5 a half step - so you have to ignore the flat 5 to arrive
at the correct notes.
I may be wrong but I think that the correct and sure fire way is to just take note of the root
of the chord in this case B (minor) so we first build a B minor scale:
B C# D E F# G A Produces B D F# A (B minor 7)
B C# D E F G A Produces B D F A (B minor 7 Flat 5)
You don't need to lower the 5th again - playing the 2-4-6 - 8 of the harmonic minor scale gives you the half-dim 7th chord. We don't build it, THEN alter it to match the chord symbol. The chord symbol matches what is already built.
@@drwallysax I can see what you are doing taking the 2-4-6-8 of the
A minor harmonic scale but how would your students know to do this when there
is no methodology to follow? It works for you because you have the experience
to know what works. Please reconsider to follow the traditional method where
the root of the chord is the root of the scale from which the chord is built.
So for measure 4 the E7 (dominant) tells us lo lower the 7th one half step:
E F# G# A B C# D# (D) giving E-G#-B-D)
1 3 5 7
@@squiggy1954 the minor ii is not built off a different scale. When in the key of C major, the minor ii is built from the second scale degree of C MAJOR: thus making a d-minor chord. These ii/Vs operate in the HOME KEY. Trying to consider each chord built off a different, disparate scale is not correct or "traditional."
My students are having great success in understanding and IMPROVISING with this method because they are not thinking of each chord in isolation, but it's function in a key area. In this case the b-7b5 and E7b9 function in the key of A minor.
Your example of the E7 dominant above is INCORRECT (full stop). It's not built of the E major scale. It's built from the fifth scale degree of A MINOR.
Having a doctorate in music, I assure you I'm quite familiar with traditional music theory.
I really like the way you outlined this more profound way of tackling a song than I would normally do. I've fairly basic knowledge of improv (like major scales and pentatonic scales), how do I know what scale to play depending on the chord in a given key? Do you have a video about that? Thanks a bunch Dr. Wally!
I don't have a video on that - but I honestly think: Major key areas - major scales, minor key areas - harmonic minor scales.
@@drwallysax Thank you! That simplifies it for me.
@@drwallysax why harmonic minor and not dorian or natural?
What do you mean at 5:00-5:26? How exactly does it translate to a minor? 🤔 I just don’t understand
This is the song commonly referred to as the lonely shepherds’ song, right?
This is like Drew Carey suddenly becoming a saxophone virtuoso
Why would you play a f# when the flat 5 and flat 9 of the B- and E7 is F natural?
You're gonna need to be more specific. Where?
@@drwallysax C'mon Wally how does A melodic minor with F# play over B-7b5 and E7b9? I know the tune is in Eb. I've only played it 10,000 times and alto was my first ax 52 yrs ago.
@@andyokus5735 it depends on the context. I have no idea which F# you’re referring to?
Had to learn Schenkarian analysis in grad school. I still don't understand the purpose.
Bradford
thanks for the video real helpful but u did the bass players dirty😂😂😂😂
Wally even brought out the vi
It's my new baby, very much in love with it!
Dr Wally side note why do you have your mouth piece on an angle is that your personal pref or is it something to do with tone .
Ooops! The angle was an accident, was putting away my horn, stopped, and shot the "talking head" portion of the video (with it partially twisted). I don't actually play that way!
@@drwallysax I can't tell you how many times I've started to play and had to turn my mouthpiece one way or the other because I didn't have it on quite right. Pretty sure everyone has done this.
I play jazz etudes and The pink panther quite often... Boy, I'm doomed...🤦