Monthly Archives: August 2014

Intervallic improvising

When making analyses of great solos, jazz teachers like to look at the scales and arpeggios used and try to relate them to the underlying chord sequence. The operation consists of extracting all the notes in a passage and stringing them out … Continue reading

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Ethiopian groove

Anyone interested in exotic scales should definitely listen to the Ethiopiques record collection, copiously shared on youTube. They were re-mastered from recordings rediscovered after being buried in the vaults during the 18 years of Ethiopia’s repressive Mengistu regime, which tried to … Continue reading

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Playing Without Expectations

Once in a while I consult the I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes. In fact this book was my original reason for deciding to learn Chinese way back when. Yesterday I drew the 25th hexagram, Wu Wang (无妄), a … Continue reading

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