Paul Hirsh
jazz panpipe pioneer and designerRecent Comments
Tag Archives: John Coltrane
The Philosophy of Fingering
Many moons have passed since I was last on speaking terms with film composers, so I was unable to ask John Williams if he was aware that his Imperial March for the latest Star Wars movie uses one of those … Continue reading
Weightlessness
Jazz education generally does its best to keep up with the latest trends in music, with thousands of teachers worldwide analysing classic performances and attempting to reverse-engineer them into exercises that you can try at home. Working always on the … Continue reading
Why Saxophonists are so Annoying
Last week a friend, who remembered me from back in the day when I used to play saxophone, invited me to come on a gig with him in Paris. I wondered how come he didn’t know any sax players in … Continue reading
Posted in Moves notation, Musicianship
Tagged chromatic exercises, chromatic patterns, Coltrane Licks, John Coltrane, Slonimsky
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Playing like singing in the shower
In my ongoing research into finding the best instrument for learning to “play like singing in the shower”, and in the process helping you, the gentle reader, to do the same, one instrument I have placed near the top of … Continue reading
The Science of Licks
Continuing from my recent post on the philosophy of licks, one of the measures of a good lick is how it messes with the listener’s cognition and fries his brain. It arrives too fast for you to take it all … Continue reading
Posted in Music Theory, Musicality
Tagged chromatic patterns, Coltrane Licks, exotic scales, hot licks, John Coltrane
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The least practiced interval and why you should practice it
If I were to ask you the commonest melodic interval in today’s commercial music what would you guess? Well, with just listening to the radio for 10 minutes, I declare the clear winner to be: nothing. Or in MOVES notation: =0. The word “unison” is the … Continue reading
How to work a lick
So you can’t get that lick or turnaround out of your head. You wonder how anyone can just come up with something that cool – just like that! – in the middle of a solo. You realize it’s time to … Continue reading
Posted in Interval Training, Moves notation
Tagged giant steps, improvisation method, intervallic improvising, intuitive improvising, jazz viola, jazz violin, John Coltrane, learning improv, licks, melodic improvising., turnarounds, tweetable, viola exercise, viola practice, violin exercise, violin practice
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Making it intentional
If there is one constant theme in everything I try to do in music, it is the idea of intentionality. I once read both John Cage’s books in praise of chance operations and ambient sounds, and found them highly entertaining, … Continue reading
Posted in Musicianship
Tagged improvising, Intentional improvising, John Cage, John Coltrane, Michael Brecker
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Intervallic Awareness for Improvisers 