Below is a live version of Us3′s arrangement of Herbie Hancock’s tune, Cantaloup Island.
Cantaloop refers mainly to the first half of the original, oscillating between Fm7 and Db7. The trumpet/sax horn section integrates a new riff into its structure.
How to improvise
Most musicians improvise. They respond to the moment and react to what the other musicians play. Some musicians feature their improvising skills by inventing melodic lines that respond to a tune’s chord progression, for example.
In Cantaloop, the turntablists improvise sounds rhythmically while the trumpet player improvises melodically over top of the chord changes Fm7 and Db7.
How do you improvise over a Fm7 and Db7?
Arpeggios & Scales: the improvisor’s palette
The key to improvising is through imitating the players you love as you strive to express your original voice through improvisations of your own.
Easy
At 2:50 the trumpet takes a solo. The chords he solos over are Fm7 & Db7, 4 bars each.
Fm7 = F Ab C Eb | Db7 = Db F Ab Cb
play the arpeggio of each chord in whole notes in your lowest octave, listen to how each chord tone blends with the music
do as above in your next octave, listen to how each chord tone blends with the music
do the same in your third octave, if you have it
in all octaves play the passing/color tones of each chord in whole notes: Fm7 (G Bb D) and Db7 (Eb Gb Bb), because there are only 3 notes choose a chord tone for the 4th bar
Advanced
Trumpet solo uses:
F dorian mode = F G Ab Bb C D Eb | Db mixolydian = Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb Cb
Learn the trumpet solo through imitation, and use the chord progression to help you find the notes.
Start with a single note: find it.
Then try a small phrase: find it (spend the time you need to find the notes and rhythms)
Groovy is an outdated term that comes from jazz slang meaning in the groove, or to be performing well (without showing off). Teenagers in the 1940s used it to mean wonderful and by the 1960s it meant excellent, cool, hip, etc. By the 1980s the word all but disappeared, though some people continue to use it but usually sarcastically.
However, musicians today who appreciate jazz will use it to describe the “feel” or overall rhythm of a tune. Cantaloupe Island, for example, has a nice groove. And a big part of what makes the song work is getting the right groove.
Groove
The “feel” of a tune comes from the rhythm of its composite parts.
Try This
In the video below listen to the piano’s introduction. That’s the feel of the tune, or it’s groove. Notice that he subdivides the beat into sixteenth notes. The drums supports that groove with sixteenth notes first in the high hat, and then on the cymbal. Notice how the bass also integrates sixteenth notes into his line. But, when the guitar comes in he uses a simpler version of the overall feel: eighth notes, which is closer to the original version of the song.
The groove encourages the improvisors to play off of the sixteenth note feel, either melodically or harmonically. Listen to how the piano and guitar soloists play off of the sixteenth note feel. The effect is bright and exciting.
Now, try this
As you listen try to keep the 16-bar form of the song.
To play an instrument well it helps to step away from regular practice and infuse yourself with different musical (and non-musical) perspectives. To be a good musician begins with listening. Knowing how to listen, for playing within an ensemble, or getting a feel for a musical style, or expanding your understanding of music, will improve your musicianship and make you a better player.
Listen
There’s music we prefer to listen to (recordings we buy), music we learn to accept (store music), music that’s been around for centuries (classical music), music we are unaware of (film soundtracks) and music thought of as noise (traffic). We are surrounded.
To take your playing to the next level you have to learn to open your ears.
What to listen to
As a starting point, listen to a piece of music and consider
the instruments being played (strings, winds, brass, percussion)
the role of each player (carrying the tune, accompaniment, soloist)
the form (introduction, verse, refrain, etc.)
time signature (common time, odd time, changing meters, rubato)
Shams Ensemble
Here’s a beautiful piece performed by the Persian (Iran) Shams Ensemble
Toronto Library features Courage, an hour long doc about the increasing wealth gap between the 1% and everyone else and the struggle to survive of the working poor.
Music
I scored the film for kacapi (20-string zither), guitars, violin, double bass, drums, vibraphone, percussion, flutes, and voice.
If you’re in the Toronto area please check out this remarkable film.
The title of this fun piece by Duke Ellington is misleading because in the attached video the key is actually Db. So, I refer to this version as Db Jam Blues.
Word Rhythm
I use words or syllables to help me get a a feel for a rhythm. In this instrumental song I use the words “D flat”.
TRY THIS
Listen to the video and say the words “D flat” in time with the piano until the solos start.
When the solos start count bars until the band stops and the next soloists starts.
How many bars in between solos? (For the answer, see charts below.)
Open the chart below and learn to play the notes first, then play the notes as you say the words.
Play along with the video to get a feel for the rhythm of the tune. (Non-guitarists there are two different notes: Ab up to Db.)
Learn to play the arpeggios (notes of a chord played in succession) from bars 17 – 28.
Video
12 Bar Blues
The form of this song is a twelve-bar blues. There are three basic chords: Db6 Gb6 Ab7. In the attached chart you’ll learn how to play an arpeggio of each chord that creates a walking bass line: a stream of quarter notes that flows throughout the song.
Finding watchable shows on TV is not an easy task. Who wants to pay for hundreds of cable stations when there are so few worth watching and they are inundated with commercials? The whole structure of mainstream television is designed to send you online looking for commercial-free alternatives that you want to watch.
TVO
One alternative is TVOntario, which is free for those in Ontario with a digital antennae. The Agenda (Steve Paiken), Allan Gregg In Conversation, The View From Here (Ian Brown) and the countless other shows featured on the station make TVO a top choice.
I am also drawn to the documentaries they program. Last night, for instance I caught part of The Secret Life of Chaos, a film about chaos theory and the origins of life. I went to TVO’s website and watched the whole thing online.
The Secret Life of Chaos
Chaos theory has a bad name, conjuring up images of unpredictable weather, economic crashes and science gone wrong. But there is a fascinating and hidden side to Chaos, one that scientists are only now beginning to understand. It turns out that chaos theory answers a question that mankind has asked for millennia – how did we get here? In this documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to uncover one of the great mysteries of science – how does a universe that starts off as dust end up with intelligent life? How does order emerge from disorder?
An interesting and prolific artist, DJ Spooky approached Evergreen Club to do a collaboration in January 2010. At that time we were not able to coordinate ourselves and the project slipped away. Hopefully we can get together in the future.
Samuel Beckett best known for his play Waiting for Godot received the Nobel prize for Literature. He is one of the finest writers of the twentieth century with a mysteriously unique voice. His work comes alive when they are performed. It’s the sound, something about the sound, the silence and the use of language. Like the internal voices of our multiple selves. Each line offers a clue into the what and where of it all.
