Willie!!! We met about 30 years ago in Orlando -- some jazz club where you were sitting in. You were generous enough to give me, an itinerant teacher you just met, about 3 hours of your time one night. I remember you living with some college students at the time. You even passed on a copy of a book you were writing with these ideas -- a chapter with On The Road, something I'll be turning things over to find this week. And a tape with you and Ryan Kisor playing Just Friends/Two Friends. He was just a 17 year old kid who'd just won the LAJazz Award. Man, oh, man. Great to see you. I'll be studying this video for sure...
Almost immediately after this comment, I found out that Willie passed this last February. I'm sure he's still playing, but I'm guessing he doesn't have internet access. I only knew him for a night, but what a generous guy.
Finally!! Someone who understands the method of diminished melodics! Thank you. I play jazz melodics on a guitar for old folk songs in my living room only; but, I could never find anybody who could play the diminished melodies I use on TH-cam until today (10 years). I had actually given up until now... Thanks again...
As my user name suggests, I play bass, and my main problem is that in my formative years of playing (I am a self-taught, mature beginer) I didn't allow enough time to learn the necessary basics for any instrument, let alone bass; arpegios, and how to use them. So, when it comes to this level of harmonic creativity, although I know what you're talking about, the diminished sound is difficult to hear. Love it though, and this is SUCH a great lesson. You explained it so well. Thanks.
Excellent information. Thank you. I understand diminished chords much better now. The ladder is a great idea. It shows the difference between the WHWH and HWHW scales. I'd wondered about that a long time. It seems from comments that some don't get the 'ladder'. Correct me if I'm wrong but there are only the three unique diminished scales. Your ladder idea illustrates where associated dominant chords intersect each of the three. The top line of the ladder is a unique diminished scale, so it can work with any chord listed below in the ladder. But the ladder doesn't go up in fourths whereas dominant chords often do. Playing C7 to F7 would mean you need to go from one ladder, i.e., unique diminished scale, to another, one half step down. Brilliant!
Jamey is a great guy! I go to his camp every year! I live in Louisville and he does his camp at the Louisville university campus. I've gained so much knowledge from him!
Playing Carnival of Venice by heart is easier comparing to learning complex mathematics of todays jazz , music of folks that started , developed and played on the streets that elevated us should not be that complex . We need more help from you teachers .Your efforts are greatly appreciated . Thank you very much .
Love your site and videos - I'm learning fusion guitar from Tom Quayle (amazing Jazz/Fusion guitarist) and found your videos whilst investigating diminished scale application. great insight and very useful - many thanks.
I'm really glad I found your channel and thanks for the great lesson and website. Really good playing, lots of feeling and sincerity. Thanks for your efforts.
Hi! thank you so much for this nice jazz. i love weather report a lot and I play an acoustic bass. Im deeply in love with it and I progress a lot recently and your vids help me a lot to get into developing my own jazzy style :)
I hear the piano playing major seven and our "boy" playing the dominant 7 so ... Me? I use dim to create tension against tonic. I like the content of this video. Flat 7th (aka Dominant 7) - So, if I'm in C - I should take the Bb diminished? 2-5-1 in Cm. Personally, in Cm, I go for B diminished which creates a nice tension to go back and forth. You are playing a lot of 2-5-1 to minor one - I didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing, but there are only three diminished things so, if you just PICK ONE you have a 33% chance of being good to go. If you MESS UP and pick the wrong one, you can chromatically move up or down to sound either hip or a country music lovers nightmare. Best wishes and your explanation(s) are complicated. Again, it's not a flat 7th. It's a dominant 7th in the real world? The diminished latter sounds excellent. I like the minor 6th with the flat 9 myself. Third step of the diminished latter? Tri-tone sub on a "plain" dominant 7th chord. It sounds like flat 5 land to me. Playing the tonic minor third on the four chord is (what?) - playing minor against a major like (flat seven) on a major seven chord. THAT is either hip or playing the wrong chord chart? lol. Playing a lick up a half step and things. Perhaps too little about too much? To simplify, a five chord back to any tonic (minor or major) works GREAT a half step down and a diminished. What learn diminished? Because there is only three of them and you can be 33% right or a half step away on any FIVE CHORD!!! - facebook.com/peeweediamond
For my two cents worth ... jazzy teach ... you are splitting hairs ... his point is to show ways of getting outside the sound of straight diatonic chords. Mr Willie Thomas ... I am from HK and love your site ... and thank you for your time efforts and passing on your deep understanding
I can't thank enough Thomas for this video and the others about chromatic drills and so on. I started at 39 with the alto sax...he will always be a young passionate musician from whom I will learn a lot from now......dislike button should be closed for these videos.
Always love the sound of jazz, but find I just don't know the formula for jazz, like blues if you know that 12 bars, then its easy, but if you don't its not so easy, like wise I find the same with trying to follow jazz. I just can't need to learn how. Thanks for posting me this.
To Jazzyteach65 ....." point taken" .... I agree ... that it is quite possible to sound good with anything you use that fits the moment and sounds good .... which includes an almost unlimited potential for note or scale selection, .... so .... accept my humble apology in overstating my penchant for the diminished vocabulary, which I'm sure you'll agree has a prominent place in that realm of possibilities! Good call!
I appreciate your effort, but didn´t understand the concept, I think It´s too complex for a lesson, could you try to explain it for everyone to get it? thanx a lot!
Hi Willie, At 3:50 in your video, what are those last three notes (E-flat, D and C)? Those are not part of the G diminished scale right? The diminished scale runs from the A-flat to the F right?
Cool Video - Your playing reminds me of Chet Baker. I've watched this video 3 times and I don't know what you are talking about when you say step 1 or step 2 or step 3 of the ladder? Do you mean chord intervals? As in D diminished step one on ladder is D step 2 is F step 3 is Ab??
We can be seduced into looking at this music intellectually, as if it is a type of geometry, this is music, and you need your heart and ears along with your mathematical brain - when all else fails, follow the chords and sing internally, make music.
Also, if you want to dig in a little deeper than these TH-cam videos will allow... I wanted to offer you a 10 day free trial on my website. Just go to jazzeveryone(dot)com/10day - and anyone else reading this can do that too!
I appreciate you sharing these videos with us. I can tell you know what you're doing, but I couldn't follow you. I would really love to learn this, but for me your soloing (while beautiful) was much too complex to illustrate your points. Also the language you're using "step 3 of the diminished ladder" etc, didn't seem fully clarified from the beginning. So I couldn't follow your steps of explanation. Just some feedback from a learner. Feeling discouraged :(
I’ll take a shot at it. Every step on diminished ladder is up a minor third from the last If you’re in a regular two five i progression like gminor to c7 to fmajor you would go to the diminished ladder step one. So play a bflat whole half diminished scale on the dominant v chord and you will get some great altered sound. As Willie explained step ii on the ladder would work on a minor ii V I so if your first chord is g half diminished doing some dflat while half diminished over the dom chord c7flat9 will sound great. 2nd step on ladder is two minor thirds up from g. Third step on ladder means you work your way up to E natural. An e natural whole half dim sounds great over Fsharp dominant 7. That’s the tritone of the c7 so gives you that tritone sub sound. Fourth step of ladder is g and you can start some symmetric patterns and move them up and down minor thirds the ladder. Remember G dim scale = bflat = dflat = e. All the same notes. Willie was a genius player and teacher. You got to get out your instrument and play along with him by ear to really git it.
looks like some special kinda tube ye got there, old man,you make it look as easy as blow'n bubbles ,for christs sake at ...81 fair play t ya , keep 'er lit ,don't really like Jazz , it doesn't make sense to me but , i'm gett'n interested
While well intentioned, this tutorial lost me very quickly out of the gate. The illustrations need to be annotated so students can see what it is being discussed.
He's wrong.....the three Dim scales are the whole half step scales of C, C# and D. All of the Dim scales are derived from this. Pick whatever mode and root you want from these three scales...Also, whole tone scales? Only two... C and C#.
But a whole/half is just a half/whole starting on a different note in the same scale, same as a half/whole being a whole/half on a different note in the same scale. Take this into consideration and there really are only 3 types. The only thing that really changes in each is that different color notes and shapes come out depending on which interval choice you use.
For example, take a G half/whole dimished scale and start in on A flat ... bam you have A flat whole/half now. They are both the same scale starting on different points, labeling them as two different types doesnt really make sense. We are essentially talking about modes of a dimished scale.
Never liked his videos. He uses terminology not many people understand. He puts licks up and plays, nothing to do with the lick on screen, your left scratching you head. I'm still trying to understand his pentatonic pairs. Maybe someone with a better grasp of the English languish could explain. He could play less and explain more, it seem he likes listening to himself play. He's good but not much good to us strugglers.
![[UNCUT] “บอสณวัฒน์” ลากไส้!! ใครหนุนหลัง "แม่ตั๊ก ป๋าเบียร์" I คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ I 30 ก.ย. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QlD7mU2KKRk/mqdefault.jpg)
Willie!!! We met about 30 years ago in Orlando -- some jazz club where you were sitting in. You were generous enough to give me, an itinerant teacher you just met, about 3 hours of your time one night. I remember you living with some college students at the time. You even passed on a copy of a book you were writing with these ideas -- a chapter with On The Road, something I'll be turning things over to find this week. And a tape with you and Ryan Kisor playing Just Friends/Two Friends. He was just a 17 year old kid who'd just won the LAJazz Award. Man, oh, man. Great to see you. I'll be studying this video for sure...
Almost immediately after this comment, I found out that Willie passed this last February. I'm sure he's still playing, but I'm guessing he doesn't have internet access. I only knew him for a night, but what a generous guy.
Finally!! Someone who understands the method of diminished melodics! Thank you. I play jazz melodics on a guitar for old folk songs in my living room only; but, I could never find anybody who could play the diminished melodies I use on TH-cam until today (10 years).
I had actually given up until now...
Thanks again...
Words can't describe how useful this video was to my growth as a musician. You have the best instructional videos on TH-cam.
RIP master!!! Thanks for sharing your wisdom in music!
Willie Thomas is the coolest cat on youtube, his videos are the best I have found for learning jazz tonality
Rest in Peace Willie...
This just proves that playing music can keep you young. So cool. Keep giving it up.
Thanks!!
FINALLY !! i have found an instructional video here at youtube with no dislikes !!! AWESOME !!!
this dude rocks. i just sold all of my guitars and amps!!
Purchase the course, it's brilliant. Willy starts off with pentatonic pairs from Blues scales in a 11, V 1 and then builds from there, magic.
I'm totally in Jazz love with this guy!
As my user name suggests, I play bass, and my main problem is that in my formative years of playing (I am a self-taught, mature beginer) I didn't allow enough time to learn the necessary basics for any instrument, let alone bass; arpegios, and how to use them. So, when it comes to this level of harmonic creativity, although I know what you're talking about, the diminished sound is difficult to hear. Love it though, and this is SUCH a great lesson. You explained it so well. Thanks.
Excellent information. Thank you. I understand diminished chords much better now. The ladder is a great idea. It shows the difference between the WHWH and HWHW scales. I'd wondered about that a long time. It seems from comments that some don't get the 'ladder'. Correct me if I'm wrong but there are only the three unique diminished scales. Your ladder idea illustrates where associated dominant chords intersect each of the three. The top line of the ladder is a unique diminished scale, so it can work with any chord listed below in the ladder. But the ladder doesn't go up in fourths whereas dominant chords often do. Playing C7 to F7 would mean you need to go from one ladder, i.e., unique diminished scale, to another, one half step down. Brilliant!
Hey cool, glad you're grooving on them!
Jamey is a great guy! I go to his camp every year! I live in Louisville and he does his camp at the Louisville university campus. I've gained so much knowledge from him!
Playing Carnival of Venice by heart is easier comparing to learning complex mathematics of todays jazz , music of folks that started , developed and played on the streets that elevated us should not be that complex . We need more help from you teachers .Your efforts are greatly appreciated . Thank you very much .
this is NOT today's jazz. These are the scales and chords that music theory has been since music began.
Love your site and videos - I'm learning fusion guitar from Tom Quayle (amazing Jazz/Fusion guitarist) and found your videos whilst investigating diminished scale application. great insight and very useful - many thanks.
I'm really glad I found your channel and thanks for the great lesson and website. Really good playing, lots of feeling and sincerity. Thanks for your efforts.
this guys fantastic, much cooler than the average teenager today!! absolutely brilliant !
Your efforts are highly appreciated. Thank you for sharing this information.
Big respect and Thanks Mr Thomas I'm wood shedding
I realy like the diminished scale, i think that working with target notes and diminished scales its possible to get a real great vocabulary
Hi! thank you so much for this nice jazz. i love weather report a lot and I play an acoustic bass. Im deeply in love with it and I progress a lot recently and your vids help me a lot to get into developing my own jazzy style :)
Thank you so much Mr. Thomas. Very well done and great explanations.
You 're my father of the jazz ..god bless
I hear the piano playing major seven and our "boy" playing the dominant 7 so ... Me? I use dim to create tension against tonic. I like the content of this video. Flat 7th (aka Dominant 7) - So, if I'm in C - I should take the Bb diminished? 2-5-1 in Cm. Personally, in Cm, I go for B diminished which creates a nice tension to go back and forth. You are playing a lot of 2-5-1 to minor one - I didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing, but there are only three diminished things so, if you just PICK ONE you have a 33% chance of being good to go. If you MESS UP and pick the wrong one, you can chromatically move up or down to sound either hip or a country music lovers nightmare. Best wishes and your explanation(s) are complicated. Again, it's not a flat 7th. It's a dominant 7th in the real world? The diminished latter sounds excellent. I like the minor 6th with the flat 9 myself. Third step of the diminished latter? Tri-tone sub on a "plain" dominant 7th chord. It sounds like flat 5 land to me. Playing the tonic minor third on the four chord is (what?) - playing minor against a major like (flat seven) on a major seven chord. THAT is either hip or playing the wrong chord chart? lol. Playing a lick up a half step and things. Perhaps too little about too much? To simplify, a five chord back to any tonic (minor or major) works GREAT a half step down and a diminished. What learn diminished? Because there is only three of them and you can be 33% right or a half step away on any FIVE CHORD!!! - facebook.com/peeweediamond
This was a great help I gotta check the lessons..Love your style by the way
Perfectly illustrated and explained..!!!
Thank you so much. You are also a source of inspiration!!!!!!
Thanks for the adding! Im going to learn so much with your videos!
Very nice Willie! Keep bringing the good music!
muchas gracias por las lecciones!!! excellente!! saludos desde Perú!!
This is priceless information
For my two cents worth ... jazzy teach ... you are splitting hairs ... his point is to show ways of getting outside the sound of straight diatonic chords. Mr Willie Thomas ... I am from HK and love your site ... and thank you for your time efforts and passing on your deep understanding
I can't thank enough Thomas for this video and the others about chromatic drills and so on. I started at 39 with the alto sax...he will always be a young passionate musician from whom I will learn a lot from now......dislike button should be closed for these videos.
Thank you very much, just what I was looking for
Cool sounds and great info here. Thanks for the post!
Very cool, I'm gonna have fun with this.
I like this guy.
Very nice lesson! Thank you!
What a cool dude
excellent! thank you.
Always love the sound of jazz, but find I just don't know the formula for jazz, like blues if you know that 12 bars, then its easy, but if you don't its not so easy, like wise I find the same with trying to follow jazz. I just can't need to learn how. Thanks for posting me this.
YES! thanks a million
Hey, thanks Alfredo!
thanks, really nice explaination! just as I needed..
To Jazzyteach65 ....." point taken" .... I agree ... that it is quite possible to sound good with anything you use that fits the moment and sounds good .... which includes an almost unlimited potential for note or scale selection, .... so .... accept my humble apology in overstating my penchant for the diminished vocabulary, which I'm sure you'll agree has a prominent place in that realm of possibilities! Good call!
wonderful video !!!
I appreciate your effort, but didn´t understand the concept, I think It´s too complex for a lesson, could you try to explain it for everyone to get it? thanx a lot!
Much interesting, somehow Aebersold. Good sound trumpet.
Fantastic! Thanks!
Oi bom dia ! Muito bom mestre! Sempre estudo Jazz.
cool lesson
Bravo!!!
Roberto.
Nice Hot House reference at the beginning!
Can I get a private lesson please?
This is the Bob Ross of the Trumpet!
thanks for the lesson! and like that hat!
very beautyful music my friend:)
Cool trumpet!
RIP legend
very good classes, could put ema lengenda (translation) in Portuguese for Brazilians appreciate your lessons.
Hi Willie,
At 3:50 in your video, what are those last three notes (E-flat, D and C)? Those are not part of the G diminished scale right? The diminished scale runs from the A-flat to the F right?
@MagicRain505 What? Please explain, for a non-experienced improviser, what you mean by that?
Reminds me of several players (trumpet) I know. (All accomplished by the way)
Cool Video - Your playing reminds me of Chet Baker. I've watched this video 3 times and I don't know what you are talking about when you say step 1 or step 2 or step 3 of the ladder? Do you mean chord intervals? As in D diminished step one on ladder is D step 2 is F step 3 is Ab??
Huh, he passed?
He was an unknown treasure.
Hey there, I don't understand what you mean by ladders? Dominant 7 arpeggios?
Great
We can be seduced into looking at this music intellectually, as if it is a type of geometry, this is music, and you need your heart and ears along with your mathematical brain - when all else fails, follow the chords and sing internally, make music.
tio eres la ostia!!!! / you're the bomb!! i suscribed to you!!
Also, if you want to dig in a little deeper than these TH-cam videos will allow... I wanted to offer you a 10 day free trial on my website. Just go to jazzeveryone(dot)com/10day - and anyone else reading this can do that too!
To understand theory i close my eyes and listen to it so im only using my hears but whenever i do that i hear Mr. DNA from Jurrasic Park
I appreciate you sharing these videos with us. I can tell you know what you're doing, but I couldn't follow you. I would really love to learn this, but for me your soloing (while beautiful) was much too complex to illustrate your points. Also the language you're using "step 3 of the diminished ladder" etc, didn't seem fully clarified from the beginning. So I couldn't follow your steps of explanation. Just some feedback from a learner. Feeling discouraged :(
I’ll take a shot at it. Every step on diminished ladder is up a minor third from the last If you’re in a regular two five i progression like gminor to c7 to fmajor you would go to the diminished ladder step one. So play a bflat whole half diminished scale on the dominant v chord and you will get some great altered sound. As Willie explained step ii on the ladder would work on a minor ii V I so if your first chord is g half diminished doing some dflat while half diminished over the dom chord c7flat9 will sound great. 2nd step on ladder is two minor thirds up from g. Third step on ladder means you work your way up to E natural. An e natural whole half dim sounds great over Fsharp dominant 7. That’s the tritone of the c7 so gives you that tritone sub sound. Fourth step of ladder is g and you can start some symmetric patterns and move them up and down minor thirds the ladder. Remember G dim scale = bflat = dflat = e. All the same notes. Willie was a genius player and teacher. You got to get out your instrument and play along with him by ear to really git it.
Ciekawy utwór... pozdrawiam:-)
Fantastic! This is real shit right here.
Great job! But I didn't understand nothing. Could you explain that all in Ukrainian, please?
👍
what is this thing called love?? lol i thought he was playing Hot House! lolol
This ladder chat is losing me! argh.
AHAHAHHAHAHAHA this is extremeley funnee
YO!!
:))))
hot
looks like some special kinda tube ye got there, old man,you make it look as easy as blow'n bubbles ,for christs sake at ...81 fair play t ya , keep 'er lit ,don't really like Jazz ,
it doesn't make sense to me but , i'm gett'n interested
While well intentioned, this tutorial lost me very quickly out of the gate. The illustrations need to be annotated so students can see what it is being discussed.
haha dont worry dude, i did get the joke
:D
hahahaa XDD :)
I have no idea what he's talking about...
PLAY METALLICA
He's wrong.....the three Dim scales are the whole half step scales of C, C# and D. All of the Dim scales are derived from this. Pick whatever mode and root you want from these three scales...Also, whole tone scales? Only two... C and C#.
dim scales can either be whole/half or half/whole depending on their application..educate yourself
But a whole/half is just a half/whole starting on a different note in the same scale, same as a half/whole being a whole/half on a different note in the same scale. Take this into consideration and there really are only 3 types. The only thing that really changes in each is that different color notes and shapes come out depending on which interval choice you use.
For example, take a G half/whole dimished scale and start in on A flat ... bam you have A flat whole/half now. They are both the same scale starting on different points, labeling them as two different types doesnt really make sense. We are essentially talking about modes of a dimished scale.
Nah, the facts are the facts
He's 86,right or wrong it doesnt matter, I think he deserves a lot of respect.
Haha listen to Ahmad Jamal, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and tell me diminished jazz vocab is not essential to the sound of bebop.
Never liked his videos. He uses terminology not many people understand. He puts licks up and plays, nothing to do with the lick on screen, your left scratching you head. I'm still trying to understand his pentatonic pairs. Maybe someone with a better grasp of the English languish could explain.
He could play less and explain more, it seem he likes listening to himself play. He's good but not much good to us strugglers.