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Jazz Improvisation With Andrea Fascetti: Master Your Fingerboard Part V
Hi my friends!
It’s great to be here at Bass Musician Magazine.
Last lesson we created some exercises using Major, Minor, and Dominant 7th chords, so it’s time to progress with a new chord. If you remember, earlier on, I spoke about 11 types of chords. I strongly recommend you to take a look at my first lesson in the December 2008 issue.
In this lesson we’ll work with the Half Diminished chord. I found that many of my students make a mistake as far as the use this chord. They confuse it’s use with a minor 7th chord due to the fact that this chord is often used in a II – V minor cadence–for example D-7b5(or D half diminished)– G7 b9 – Cm.
So it’s time to clarify this chord, which is made up of the root, minor third, “diminished fifth”, and the minor 7th, as opposed to the minor 7th chord—root, minor third, perfect fifth, and minor 7th. Here’s the assignment:
Ex 1: Takes a C-7 b5 two octave arpeggio up and down. (You can use the pdf attached to check the notes) (C Eb Gb Bb C Eb Gb Bb Gb Eb C Bb Gb Eb C) Force yourself to play it slowly, and without a metronome. Say the names of the notes while practicing. REMEMBER—no groove—nothing—only you and the notes! Now start to practice all the notes using only one string (when possible), then two strings, then three strings, and finally four strings. Practice with this approach over and over, until the fingerboard becomes your best friend. Then you can increase speed, making sure to keep it clean. This is a great way to better familiarize yourself with the fingerboard, and learn different ways to approach arpeggios and scales.
Ex 2: Play it in all 12 keys.
Remember: These exercises will increase your music skills, irrelevant of what genre you reside in.
This lesson is dedicated to my friend and mentor, Charlie Banacos, who passed away December 8th. Charlie taught me everything I know about music, and changed my life forever.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Andrea