Most Helpful Exercises For Jazz

[Chris Templeton]

What do you consider jazz? The C6 neck?
In Buddy's C6th course this picking excercise was my favorite:
Thumb- Middle finger (some people favor the first) T-T-M-M-T-T-M-M-T-T- etc.

[Dale Rottacker]

What do you consider jazz? The C6 neck?
In Buddy's C6th course this picking excercise was my favorite:
Thumb- Middle finger (some people favor the first) T-T-M-M-T-T-M-M-T-T- etc.

I play a LOT of Jazz, not because I understand it, but because I hit a lot of notes I didn't intend on hitting.

I prefer T M too, but when I watch video of me playing I used my index finger more than I realize.

Something else I never developed, is the TT as a successive fingering thing ... I have no trouble with hitting more than one string with my thumb if I'm playing 4 note chords, but successive notes with my thumb as part of a lick I apparently have not worked on enough as I find it really difficult, especially if there's any speed involved and anything over 60bpm is what I consider speed picking

[Fred Treece]

I could be mistaken, Dale, but I think that TTMM exercise is just that - meant to get you used to using those two digits and building up the muscle control. Watching videos of Buddy play, I don’t see him doing consecutive hits with thumb or middle when doing fast single 8th or 16th notes - it’s always TM alternating, unless it’s a rake. When playing slower melodies, I often see him use thumb-only single note strikes.

[Tim Toberer]

What do you consider jazz? The C6 neck?

Jazz is as much an approach as a style of music I guess. Anything can be played as a jazz tune. Like from Time Changes Everything "rearrange it and make it swing". I am really just looking to expand my application of theory, expand my repertoire into the standards and get some more density in my playing. I suppose with exercises I am trying to improve my dexterity and muscle memory around more complex chord movements.

In Buddy's C6th course this picking excercise was my favorite:
Thumb- Middle finger (some people favor the first) T-T-M-M-T-T-M-M-T-T- etc.

Thanks for this exercise! I have comparatively odd approach to picking because I don't usually wear picks and I use T-I-M-R fingers, the same way I do on guitar. I know of at least a few other steel players who have done this. As of now I am mostly just a chord melody player, and I play a lot of 3 and 4 note chords. I want to learn more scales and learn how to do single note solos. An exercise like this will certainly help with single note playing.

[Tim Toberer]

Watching videos of Buddy play, I don’t see him doing consecutive hits with thumb or middle when doing fast single 8th or 16th notes - it’s always TM alternating, unless it’s a rake. When playing slower melodies, I often see him use thumb-only single note strikes.

How is he blocking in between these faster runs? Is he just palm muting? I probably am developing tons of bad habits in the picking area.

[Dale Rottacker]

Watching videos of Buddy play, I don’t see him doing consecutive hits with thumb or middle when doing fast single 8th or 16th notes - it’s always TM alternating, unless it’s a rake. When playing slower melodies, I often see him use thumb-only single note strikes.

How is he blocking in between these faster runs? Is he just palm muting? I probably am developing tons of bad habits in the picking area.

Seems to me I read that Buddy once said when talking about blocking, that he uses whatever is readily available. Picks, palm, thumb, thumb by the bar, pulling bar back ... I've seen Buddy even pick the bar up at times, which I was always told was a no no when I was starting. Someone forgot to tell Buddy.

[J D Sauser]

Here is another exercise using the circle of fifths I am working on. This exercise is pretty much instant piano blues! It is a piano exercise but the right hand is just part of the harmonized Mixolydian scale and it works out pretty well on my tuning at least. I worked out a couple patterns on different string sets and now I just have to move them around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-alpCPrsUA8

Rockabilly:
I liked Johnny Burnette (Paul Burlison on guitar) and Eddie Cochran (Setzer's idol) a lot, but was also very much a Sun Records fan... Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee being my preferred way over Elvis. Many of these cats were unique and impacted music and race relations in a way which is often being overlooked.

Circle of "5ths"...
I don't understand why so many "teachers" insist on "backward" movements. We count from 1 to invite not the other way around. Western music (and again, by "Western" I don't mean exclusively Country & "Western", but West of the Middle East) tends to move in fourths. Yes, one can call it "going down" a 5th (it's the same notes, but it's contrary to what functional harmony teaches us about the tendency to resolve UP a Fourth). I feel that when it comes to "teaching" using logical directions helps against confusion.

On C6th, once we understand the system of roots, and how we can move in 4ths from root to root, we should discover that we can play all 12 keys ANYWHERE on the neck within 3 frets, Mayor, minor, Dominant, minor b5 and diminished. Basically one can move that around ALL OVER the neck and play thru all 12 keys, in single notes without even using the pedals or levers.
Since we are on the subject of "EXERCISE", I would call it a "Discipline" to play every lick, "sentence", cliché or line off the 9th string, 8th string, 7th string and 6th string root tethered pockets, so that one can play them modulated up a 4th thru all 12 keys within 3 frets. Once you got that, as far as fretboard mastery, you are likely ahead of many who even play on stage.

I am writing from Barranquilla Colombia, where I just had very successful eye surgery... my first day trying to handle emails, reading and writing... It's still a bit blurry so my orthography today may be a bit worse than usual.

... J-D.

... J-D.

[Fred Treece]

Is anyone here old enough to remember the jazzercise/aerobics craze of the early 80’s? This thread…yikes what a weird association.

Regarding circle of 5ths/4ths, if I may add my ounce of muck - The circle of 5ths is a music theory learning tool that arranges all keys in perfect 5th intervals. The cycle of 4ths is a diatonic chord cycle of mostly perfect 4ths, except for that oddball between IV and vii. It’s only a circle of 5ths if you consider each successive chord change as a V7-I, which it often feels like in linear jazz, pop, and in blues turnarounds where major and minor chords tend to go off the beaten diatonic path.

Also, some say, in ancient times when the mathematicians were making up the rules for music, a perfect 5th interval was considered a more fundamental and more “perfect” harmony than the 4th. These were people with plenty of time on their hands, for sure.

Now, I’m gonna grab a headband and get back to my workout.

[Tim Toberer]

I liked Johnny Burnette (Paul Burlison on guitar) and Eddie Cochran (Setzer's idol) a lot, but was also very much a Sun Records fan...




... J-D.

Two of my favorites as well! Found this a few months ago with a mystery steel player Chuck Foreman. Eddie Cochrane is 15 years old in these recordings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P80mOQ3 ... UWQa-X-Ix-

The circle of fifths is one of those things that is almost never explained well. Still trying to fully grasp it, give me another 50 years. I think it is important to understand it as a conceptual tool and a practical tool. The circle can be a 4th or a 5th in either direction. In one direction, it proceeds as ascending 4ths or descending 5ths, in the other it proceeds as ascending 5ths or descending 4ths. I like that it contains patterns and these patterns can be used to transpose through all the tonal centers. By thinking of each key as a V or a I, you can move through the whole cycle. Also Knowing the other relationships you can get around the circle in surprising ways by jumping across with the help of the diminished chords especially. Which is the theory behind the tuning I use. It is all just patterns.

[J D Sauser]

Most every book on music, be it Country, Jazz, Guitar or even Pedal Steel, has some short reference to the "smart" advice:
- learn your 2.5.1's
- learn the circle of 5ths

It took me YEARS to discover WHAT that means and WHY to learn it. The essence -which is missing in most of these suggestions- should be:

1- 2.5.1's:
ii V I and ii V i sequences are movements in fourths (which will necessitate learning the circle of 5ths counter clock wise) thru different chord qualities which tend to follow each other in functional harmony. The fact that the are calle ii V or I does not forcibly mean that it IS their position against the Key of a tune.

2- Circle of 5th:
Western music tends to move in fourths. Clockwise the circle of fifths moves in 5ths. COUNTER-clockwise it moves in FOURTHS (which again is Western music's natural tendency to move).
Thus, learn the circle of 5th COUNTER clockwise!
Use C as the tonal center and start at B: B, E, A, D, G, C, F in numbers that is: 7, 3, 6, 2, 5, 1, 4 or vii, iii, vi, ii, V, I, IV
One should memorize these succession of degrees in numbers like every musician's "phone number": 736-2514 (just don't add an area code! ).
Understand that within the Diatonic system, this is the longest string of movements in Fourths one can go without braking out into sharps and flats (OUTside of the Diatonic system). All those other degrees can be learned as flats of the first round: Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb... and evidently "Cb" would be B again and the circle repeats.
This concept needs to be edged in stone in one's brain. Once it is, one is able to harmonically analyze the vast majority of Jazz Standards and simplify a chord sheet with a salad bowl full of chords in a hand full of "SEQUENCES" of movements of 4ths.


Others may have other approaches to these connected concepts, but to me, that't the useful essence of it.

Once one can play minor and Major ii V I's, I to IV in Major and minor, and developed some "language" (lines etc) over all these movements from and to different chord qualities, one is equipped to play over pretty any well analyzed Jazz Standard.




... J-D.

[Bill McCloskey]

Western music tends to move in fourths. Clockwise the circle of fifths moves in 5ths. COUNTER-clockwise it moves in FOURTHS (which again is Western music's natural tendency to move).

It actually drops a 5th going counter clockwise. G drops to C (a 5th). C drops to F (a fifth) and ii V 1 is a really series of descending 5ths on the wheel. Pick any spot on the wheel and move counter clockwise and you have your ii V, 1: F Bb Eb. Fm ii Bb V Eb I. At least that is the way I think of it, not rising 4ths going counter clockwise.

Hence the name The Circle of 5ths. Clockwise you go up by 5ths, counter clockwise you go DOWN by 5ths. The circle of 5ths.

[Fred Treece]

Hence the name The Circle of 5ths. Clockwise you go up by 5ths, counter clockwise you go DOWN by 5ths. The circle of 5ths.

Right, Bill. The circle helps demonstrate key signature logic, too. Going clockwise from C (at noon), you ascend a 5th and add a sharp at every note until you get to F# (6 o’clock). Going counterclockwise, you descend a 5th and add a flat until Gb at 6. Not sure if it’s supposed to be AM or PM.

[J D Sauser]

I have debated over supper -or is it "dinner"?- to enter further into the “clockwise vs. counter-clockwise” discussion, but decided I would like to offer a concise perspective — not to prolong the argument, but to clarify a few conceptual points.

The circle of fifths originates from Pythagoras’ exploration of acoustic relationships. By stacking pure fifths (the most prominent overtone not already a simple multiple of the fundamental), he arrived at the twelve distinct pitch classes that form the basis of the Western tonal system. In that sense, the circle of fifths reflects a physical and mathematical discovery rather than a theoretical invention.

As tonal practice evolved, it became evident that intervals of a fifth and a fourth are inversely related: ascending by a fourth is equivalent to descending by a fifth. This inversion symmetry is familiar to many instrumentalists — for instance, E9th pedal steel guitarists experience it directly when alternating between pedal-up and pedal-down positions. The same happens on C6th between 9th and 7th string rooted Major pockets on the same fret.

From a functional and pedagogical standpoint, however, Western tonal harmony tends to move upward in fourths. Common progressions such as ii–V–I or iii–vi–ii–V–I can certainly be described as descending fifths, but the musical sensation and practical understanding are often more intuitive when viewed as ascending fourths. When we progress from I to IV, we are conceptually moving “up a fourth,” not “down a fifth,” regardless of theoretical equivalence.

There is, of course, analytical value in viewing the ii as the v- of the dominant, and so forth. Yet for purposes of learning, composition, and improvisation, thinking in terms of ascending fourths provides a more immediate and comprehensible model of harmonic motion. The downward-fifth interpretation, while valid, often complicates rather than clarifies the practical understanding of tonal direction.

That is the perspective I find most coherent and pedagogically useful. I offer it simply as an observation, not as a point of contention.... J-D.

[Fred Treece]

Looks like now we’re discussing the Coriolis effect on the Circle of Fifths.

I think we’re conflating two different theoretical concepts. There is nothing diatonic about the Circle of 5ths. It’s just exactly what it says it is - 12 note names laid out on a circular shaped pattern that represent pitches that are a perfect 5th distant from each other, going clockwise.

The Diatonic Cycle of 4ths is related to the 5ths, of course. but so is every other harmonic mechanism in the Church Of 12 Tones. But it is specifically a chord progression concept, not an all-encompassing Universe. Plus, there is that one imperfect 4th interval that frees you from having to go through 12 chord changes just to resolve to the 1. Can I get a hallelujah!

Maybe it would be a good exercise, to go through all 12 chords in perfect 4ths. I do this when warming up on the guitar, cycling through chord shapes from the so-called CAGED system, all up and down the neck. I guarantee you it does not sound like jazz, or any kind of music, for that matter.

PS- Sorry for not offering anything related to jazz exercise, but a few other posts pretty much covered that. I’ll shut up now.

[Bill McCloskey]

Of course to confuse things further, going from C to G can be thought of as a 5th OR a 4th. You could consider going clockwise as going Down a 4th. A G is a 4th below C and also a 5th ABOVE C. both are correct.

Interesting article on the subject: https://www.jazzadvice.com/lessons/musi ... of-fifths/