Start Simple, Move Forward, Step by Step

Back to: Introduction to Scarpology

Our focus moves from simple to complex, delving into jazz. We separate and study elements of harmony and melody as well as rhythm, phrasing, and musical form. We will study the nature of basic music intervals and how they sound. We will study the common chords used in jazz (sometimes referred to as tetrads or four-note chords), how they create tension and relieve tension moving from one chord to the next. We learn how chords function and fit together in common chord progressions.

Our goal here is to learn to improvise and jazz is the quintessential style for improvisation. We will include jazz standards from the swing era, bebop, post-bebop, modal jazz where the harmony can be simple or quite complex. Although jazz harmony can become complex, it is hugely valuable and its elements are often found in other styles. What we learn can be applied to pop, rock, folk, country, and more. We also will find richness and diversity of culture through world music. And of course there is the style we dare not overlook, the blues from which jazz emerged and which is found in so many other genres.

In addition to learning to improvise, we also will learn to gain access to the entire range of our instruments and how to be able to shift or transpose from key to key, any key, with no fear of the number of sharps or flats. In fact, we oftentimes won’t need to worry about the key at all or even know what key we are in. While this is not the goal, it demonstrates how liberated we can become, breaking free of the fear and shame of not being able to transpose.

Of course to do this we will have to train our ears to hear this which brings us back to the very basic idea of hearing intervals, the nature of how they sound and we build our awareness moving step by step.

Disclaimer: While we touch on many elements of style, we can’t regard what we learn here as the definitive resource of any style. We simply will incorporate elements of style, mostly from jazz, and apply that to improvising and deepening our musical understanding.