Tunes

(8 posts)

  1. mrzzajjazz
    Member

    Hello everyone!

    Let me just say that I think this forum is great! There's so much great topics here, and a lot to learn. I'm about to get started on the tune "Inner Urge", and since Kurt has done so many great takes on this tune, I'd figure this was the right place to go for advice: How do you guys aproach these changes? I know there's a lot of pentatonics and melodic-minor stuff, but if somebody have played this tune a lot and will be more spesific about it, it would be great. I'm also planning to transcribe one of the youtube-versions of Kurt's take on this one, and of course I'll put it out here on this forum once I'm done(if I ever will be..)

    It is truly inspiring to read all the topics at this forum, and hopefully, under this thread we can discuss different approaches to different tunes!

    • Posted 2 years ago
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  2. Paul
    Member

    definitely transcribing is a good way to get started..

    i've played on this tune a little bit, and i try to approach it chord-by chord. i just take the first chord and figure out what notes you can play, maybe i'll loop it in band in a box . for four bars of f#m7b5 i think A melodic minor works best (or f# locrian#2). and just do that for each chord, practice the scales for each one up and down, and maybe figure out ways to connect them. and don't forget to listen and play what you can hear over them. the hardest part of those bars is where the chords move two per measure, just gotta shed that. four note patterns, etc.

    • Posted 2 years ago
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  3. Sandemose
    Member

    mrzzajjazz: I havent played this tune so much I must admit. I love Joe Hendersons playing and tunes ofcourse, and you can really see the influence the songwriting must have made on Kurt as well. Man, the head is not easy to play by the way.

    When I work with tunes that have unorthodox changes (like this one) I always 1. work with each chords individual sound (with every thinkable devices, scales, scalefragments, pentatonics etc, chordtones, different structures) and 2. the DESCRIPTION of the changes for each chord. So, I take chord 1 > 2 (and shed that), 2 > 3, 3 > 4 (etc), much like Paul described above. When I feel uninspired I play with band in a box just to keep it fun. When I practice I always play with only a metronome (on 2 and 4) because I tend to rely to much on BiB for timekeeping and melodic chord descriptions if I do that to much. I wanna hear were I am, for good or worse (mosty worse, haha).

    Good luck, and look forward following your progression :)

    Best, Sandemose

    • Posted 2 years ago
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  4. denjz
    Member

    You can play Lydian mode for all the chords except the 1st F#m7b5 (you can play F# Locrian or, as Paul said,A melodic minor over it) ,and the last two ones : for Bb13 you can use F melodic minor and for the last Gmaj7 you can play Lydian or Ionian - both work well.
    The hardest part is definitely the last 8 bars where the chords move so fast and in such a symmetrical way.It's very hard to hear these changes cause the chords are not related to each other in a way most of us are used to ( like there's no II-V-I so you have to treat each chord like a new tonic).
    Here's one solution I came up with for the last 8 bars : you can play minor pentatonics,starting from C# minor pentatonic and then descending half step each bar so that C#minor pent. falls over Emaj7 chord, C minor pent. - over C#maj7, B minor pent. - over Cmaj7 ,Bb minor pent. over Bmaj7 and so on untill you reach F#minor pent. over the Gmaj7 chord.
    It's very easy to think this way: C#-C-B-Bb-A-Ab-G-F# and you don't really have to think about the changes,but after a while you start to hear them.Then you can come up with some more interesting ideas.

    • Posted 2 years ago
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  5. mrzzajjazz
    Member

    Thanks a lot both of you!
    This is sort of how I've approched it, but I don't think my improvising sound organic on it yet.. It's a hard tune, so I'll just got to keep working on it I guess! I'll definately use your tip with just using the metronome Sandemose, I tend to use Aebersold a lot, and my chord knowlege(voicings etc) seems to suffer a bit from that. Well, for a while now I have been using Mick Goodricks voiceleading books which are truly great, but man, there's alot to learn...:)

    • Posted 2 years ago
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  6. mrzzajjazz
    Member

    Hey denjz!
    That's great stuff! I'll going to try that tomorrow for sure! Thanks a lot! :)

    • Posted 2 years ago
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  7. Sandemose
    Member

    denjz: thats some hip shit you got there. Im really into pentatonics, and using them that way. Its good for getting started, and from there advance towards more complex solutions. Great post!

    Sandemose

    • Posted 2 years ago
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  8. Colonel Trane
    Member

    Those pentatonic ideas are cool, I don't really use them enough. The only thing I use on this tune that hasn't been mentioned is on all the #11 chords I'll sometimes use Lydian #9 (6th mode of harmonic minor). I think I've heard Kurt use it in one of the youtube videos of this tune. Also a half whole thing over the Bb thing sometimes

    • Posted 2 years ago
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