Original subtitles

[Music]

hi everybody my name is Jen's Larsson

you are probably already working or

improvising or giant steps because giant

steps is really like the most difficult

progression that you have to master if

you want to consider yourself a real

jazz guitarist and that might not be

entirely true at the same time when you

have changes that move like that when

you're changing key or at least changing

scale very often then you're working on

skills that you also need if you're

playing other difficult pieces and as

I've also talked about in other videos

then the giant step cycle is really

close to just the turnaround with all

the dominance so in that way if you're

working on giant steps you're actually

also working on progressions like rhythm

changes and all the other progressions

where you can use turnarounds with also

dominance if you want to learn more

about jazz guitar about improvising over

chord changes checking out some

interesting pictures and chord voicings

then subscribe to my channel if you want

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next to the subscribe button the first

approach is just improvising with the

basic pictures I think we're all aware

that that's possible and I also think

that most of us skate over that a little

bit fast in a way that's really a pity I

find that the more I return to this the

more I learned because it's a really

nice way to just really dig into the

harmony and actually you can also make

some really good lines that you wouldn't

think that you could make because you're

just thinking oh I'm just gonna play up

and down the app hit you but if you

really know what you're doing when

you're working with this then even with

these four basic notes you can make some

really cool lines so if we just try to

cover this position here so we have the

B major and that's the aperture then in

the seventh first and then we need 147

that could be this one if we shift up a

fret and then in the same position G

major 7 and then a B flat 7

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you flat now kind of covered this entire

area of the Nick and we have material

that we could work with if you want to

improvise there are of course many ways

you can work on I think when you're

working on John steps you probably want

to just sit down and see if you can in

rubato or come up with some lines and an

example of a line could be something

like so here I'm really just starting

with the route even on the first chord

and then just down the arpeggio notice

that I'm not not when you just start

with with the basic up a tree shape or

the starting on the room I'm going up

I'm also going to be using inversions

and also that one then starting on the

third for the next chord I have to

remember when I play because I'm not

sure if it is but I think I played just

this G major triad and I think I played

this shape on the B flat seven or

solving to the e-flat so in that way

really just using three notes per record

here G major triad on the seventh down

to the fifth and then resolving to the

third of the E flat major seven I'm

gonna write this out so you can see

what's going on I hope I remember what a

place but you get the idea of it anyway

and you can make pretty convincing lines

just doing this that's kind of clear the

way you want to practice this of course

you want to just sit down and see if you

can come up with lines using the

material so

[Music]

stuff like this and then just try and

work through it and think ahead see if

you can look at what's going on have a

good overview of your picture and anyway

exercise like this is gonna help you in

any key on any progression you cannot

know this well enough it doesn't really

matter if you're working on this and

down steps it's gonna help you playing a

blues and F just the same that doesn't

really matter

a great exercise to work on getting this

overview of your pictures is to try and

play them as the never-ending well I

know that's a never-ending scale

exercise but you would also in this case

I guess call it the never ending up hate

your exercise so that means that we're

just gonna play the B major arpeggio for

for four notes and then shift to the

closest note in the D seven and then

play that for announced and then in that

way move through the form keeping the

direction going also and that's really

gonna help you just thinking ahead and

having a good overview of all these

different pitches that you need so that

sounds like this if I take it a little

bit further you get the idea it's a

difficult thing to to actually have in

one position and to work with like this

but it's really good if you want to have

a really strong overview of what is

going on and when you start working with

this it's really also going to open up

your ability to make melodies with these

of hitters another way to get to create

some interesting lines over the giant

steps chord changes is to rethink the

progression or reinterpret to be other

course so one way that I think even

Coltrane justice and some of his later

rushed into the song or at least he has

this base movement going on and that is

that we have a B major seven and then it

multiplies down to a G major 7 and then

in between we have a d7 - g7 we can also

add after the d7 we can have an A -

and then downstream 87 and then that can

continue so we have F minus 7 down to e

for medicine so that way we have this

sort of stepwise movement going down

through the changes and that's really

useful to check out because that's gonna

make the melodies that we make when

we're using this way of thinking you

can't only do that properly because at

least not if you're being too obvious

about it but it's just nice to also have

these lines available and have that way

of coming up with some lines to fit

really well with this progression so

probably the way you want to check out

this is just to do it really in a basic

way first so we're just doing the basic

of pages don't be afraid to move around

the neck and when you're doing this

because the point is really that you

want to have something that's really

playable of course you can also start

working with lines that are using this

IDE here but then our may be a little

less obvious it's starting with a really

basic key major but already the a minor

is sort of moved in a different way to

this one than more basic G major and

then again another piece for the if if

minor within this position so I'm being

more free about how I'm playing the

melodies a little bit less systematic

but the fact that I can just think this

movement is just gonna give me the

ability to come up with some other other

types of lines the third approach is

also reinterpreting the harmony but now

we're gonna use the fact that we can

shift one of the chords so that we don't

have to think so many different types of

course so because in the previous one I

was still thinking a major 7th and a

minor 7 I'm 87 but you can also

reinterpret it so that everything's was

going to become one type of call and

that's the idea here I'm gonna keep the

tonic so we're going to reinterpret

everything into major seven calls and

that means that we have a major 7 and

then instead of the d7

so similar to using the a - Evan we can

cause you to see major seven and then

key and then instead of the p5 seven

we're gonna use an a five major seven

and then the idea here is that the

melodies I'm going to make are going to

be shifting up a half-step moving from B

major to C major or from G to A flat so

you get lines like this so here I'm

really using just the basic pattern and

then doing some moving a triad on the G

chord and then ups the a flat and then

resolving that to e 787 so it's just

another way of thinking and yet another

way coming up with other types of lines

creating another movement because when

we're reinterpreting the course like

this then we're going to come up with

other melodies and that's the point of

this approach as well on guitar we often

use sort of visual references and we

think about how a pictures and how

course look and that's also something

that we can actually use when we're

trying to make lines on a progression

like giant steps so if I just played the

first few bars using three node voicings

then that could be something like this

[Music]

so fairly basic voicings of course you

can find ways of doing this anywhere on

the neck and use that and you can also

turn that into lines and or at least use

that as a blueprint for a way of making

lines and use the basic shapes that you

just played

so in this case

I can make some completely different

melodies just thinking like this of

course if you start working with it a

little bit more you can also find sort

of ways of playing these melodies that I

might maybe a little bit easier right

now I'm really trying to work with

having all the interesting intervals in

there and that is making the line a

little bit more difficult to play but at

the same time you do get completely

different sounds and it still makes

sense because you know the sound of them

when you're playing them as opposed and

I think that's a really interesting

thing to also try and work with that

aspect of playing guitar and using the

visual thing in a direct creative way

when we're working with lines like this

and of course something that's also very

often connected to giant steps and

Coltrane changes its pentatonic scales

mainly because Coltrane is using the the

Coltrane patterns which are at least the

way I learned them really just passive

time scales and you can do that as well

in this case I'm just gonna use really

two different pentatonic scales and then

move them through the changes and this

is also something that can be reused one

and again it's something that's also

gonna work well with any kind of

difficult chord progression whether it's

very early or giant steps or a moment's

notice it's always useful to just look

at well can i maybe make some sort of

other movement with pentatonic scales

and is that going to give me the ability

to play certain melodies in this case

it's also just using the fact that the

natori scale is something that we just

know so well on guitar that we want to

use that and it has a specific sound so

it's also going to give us a different

sound some different sounding material

that we can add to our vocabulary when

we're improvising on a song like giant

steps because it is difficult to not get

caught and just sounding the same on us

all the time so you do need to check out

different approaches when you're working

on a progression like that so what I'm

doing is I'm just going to use for the

medium cause I'm going to use the minor

pentatonic scale from the third so in

for the B major lesson

yeah D sharp minor I'm gonna use the

pentascale from the 5th of the dominance

so that's an a minor for the d7

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and then we have the G major so the

third of G major is B so that's the B

minor

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the b-47 so v is f so that means that we

have F minor pentatonic and then for the

ether major 7 we have a G minor oh sorry

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and if you make lines for this then that

sounds off like this

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so really the idea here is I'm just

playing a pattern on the from the D

sharp or E flat minor pentatonic moving

up to the closest note into a which is

actually just hitting a place we're

gonna play the exact same pattern B

minor which is in this case being a B

mind you - 7 arpeggio and then moving to

the F minor and then down to the G on

the euphemism and again the idea is that

when you're using pentatonic scales you

get a different type of melody you get a

different sound and you want to have

different sounds available to create

solos that don't sound the same all the

time so that's an important part of

really knowing how to improvise or

coaching changes any way or any kind of

difficult progression and I think this

is also an approach that I use really

often with any kind of aggression so

pentatonic scales are really becoming a

huge part of the modern jazz sound and

using them like this is definitely

something you want to check out if you

have a way that you're improvising over

giant steps that I didn't solve on this

video then leave a comment anybody who's

watching this video is of course

interested in how you can improvise over

giant steps and I know that I am for

sure as well so leave a comment and

share what you have and then we can all

learn something in fact there's often

some really useful information being

shared in the comments to my video so

that's worthwhile checking out another

approach to working with giant steps is

something that I covered in another

video where I'm improvising or giant

steps on just one string now this is

something that of course is gonna really

help you improvise somebody on steps but

it's also just a great way to explore

the fretboard and really have a good

understanding of

where the notes are where the different

of hitches are placed of hitches homes

are placed on that one string so that's

also worthwhile checking out I'll link

to that in the card in this video if you

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