Coltrane wrote that song because he didn't have to play the harmony... he played the easy part. /s
John Coltrane's Tone Circle
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Re: John Coltrane's Tone Circle
#12> Thelonious Monk once said “All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians“.
I haven’t heard that one. I think I prefer this one, attributed to Leibniz:
“Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.”
Re: John Coltrane's Tone Circle
#13A few months ago, I was studying Giant Steps and I came across the “Giant Steps is actually very simple (yes, really)” video by Dave Pollack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd75Mwo4JNo
Pollack argues that the main reason that Giant Steps is such a high mountain is because it is traditionally played at such a ferocious tempo. Slow it down, and the Coltrane Changes become fairly ordinary ii-V-I substitution progressions.
I’m persuaded. I love Coltrane, and I’ve listened to the Giant Steps album countless times. The Coltrane Changes are very nice, but in the line of other jazz theory such as tritone substitution, the deceptive cadence, and so on.
The main thing with Giant Steps is that to play it like Coltrane does you have to practice it to death, accumulate a vocabulary of riffs, and gain facility at improvising over sophisticated changes moving at a speed that other tunes won’t have prepared you for.
EDIT: I originally posted the wrong link, to Giant Steps slowed down 30%. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilbrDJy9-98
Re: John Coltrane's Tone Circle
#14A few months ago, I was studying Giant Steps and I came across the “Giant Steps is actually very simple (yes, really)” video by Dave Pollack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd75Mwo4JNo Pollack argues that the main reason that Giant Steps is such a high mountain is because it is traditionally played at such a ferocious tempo. Slow it down, and the Coltrane Changes become fairly ordinary ii-V-I substitution progressio…
Absolutely. And Central Park West is a good example of the same concept but slowed down.
Re: John Coltrane's Tone Circle
#15Fascinating, well-written piece. Thanks for sharing! I plan to revisit it more closely when I free up (probably while listening to A Love Supreme -- arguably the greatest jazz album of all time).
Just finished listening to it yesterday! My first time with it, excellent stuff, but not topping Mingus Ah Um! I've been on a Jazz kick since listening to an episode of Kirk Hamilton's Strong Songs podcast about John Williams[1]—which was an excellent listen and I learned tons—that touched on Jazz and Mingus in particular.
1: https://strongsongspodcast.com/blogs/episodes/s05e05-john-wi...
Re: John Coltrane's Tone Circle
#16Fascinating, well-written piece. Thanks for sharing! I plan to revisit it more closely when I free up (probably while listening to A Love Supreme -- arguably the greatest jazz album of all time).
This is pretty solid, I try to use this method all the time. In my opinion the underrated "Get Your Greasy Head Off The Sham" by Breastfed Yak is jazz at it's finest.
Without more prominent melody or harmony I could not find what is finer about it than conventional approaches to jazz. Could you please elaborate on what its quality is?
Re: John Coltrane's Tone Circle
#17A few months ago, I was studying Giant Steps and I came across the “Giant Steps is actually very simple (yes, really)” video by Dave Pollack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd75Mwo4JNo Pollack argues that the main reason that Giant Steps is such a high mountain is because it is traditionally played at such a ferocious tempo. Slow it down, and the Coltrane Changes become fairly ordinary ii-V-I substitution progressio…
Not only does it cycle through a ton of keys, but wind instruments like the sax require unique fingerings and embouchure changes in each key. It’s not nearly as hard on a guitar.
Re: John Coltrane's Tone Circle
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is pretty solid, I try to use this method all the time. In my opinion the underrated "Get Your Greasy Head Off The Sham" by Breastfed Yak is jazz at it's finest.
Without more prominent melody or harmony I could not find what is finer about it than conventional approaches to jazz. Could you please elaborate on what its quality is?
To be honest, I am not a jazz musician or even a jazz fan. When I do record music I have better progress when holding myself to a standard or a set of limitations to work within. It gets the brain going to find new solutions to fit within a self-imposed framework.
Re: John Coltrane's Tone Circle
#19> Thelonious Monk once said “All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians“. I haven’t heard that one. I think I prefer this one, attributed to Leibniz: “Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.”
"Music is math for people that don't like numbers"
-- some movie I don't recall
Re: John Coltrane's Tone Circle
#20Nothing upper-middle class people love more than worshiping dead black Americans, while treating their descendants like dangerous parasites. They were so cool, such genius! I can't wait to be the authority on them, and make more on redefining them than they ever saw in their lives, or to buy the new product that no black American makes a dime from.
One day, every black American will be gone, and all that will be left of them are statues that everybody holds in very high regard.