Jazz Guitar Today Lesson: "On Green Dolphin Street" - Part 2

[00:00:04]I remember my Hank Mackey, he showed me this 251 leg which I which I still love and I talk about this in all my books because this was really important for me. I was like, you know, wow, it's magical. And so the idea like if it's an F minor [music] kind of this stairway to heaven kind of thing and then on the B flat 7 very much like a you know melodic minor uh B flat super Lorian [music] which is B melodic minor you know over the B flat 7 chord because [music] it's very altered you know in the in the melody too right you have flat 9 and sharp nine in the actual [snorts] melody. So, [music] and I was excited. I would So, I would improvise on the A sections, noodle around in the key areas, try to hear melodies, express myself, whatever. And then I would just plug that in on the beat. [music] Then I could play E flat major. And then I could play the [music] Um, I may have even played the exact same lick up a minor third for the for the next part. And you know, I remember it was funny because I tell my students here I was improvising on the A section, but I felt like the part the B section where I would play those those licks, you know, that I it was more that I was playing jazz more, which is odd, right? Because I wasn't improvising.

[00:01:43]And so I think sometimes, you know, improvisation is definitely an element of jazz, but it's an element of other types of music, too. Um, and there's definitely like the language component is very important to uh for me anyway to feel like I'm actually playing playing jazz music. So, you know, and now after a million years of playing this song, I can improvise using the the jazz language stuff because I know so many of those little 251 licks. But I love this >> [music] >> So B flat 7 [music] starting on the major third but then going up sharp 11 sharp five back to major third sharp nine flat [music] 9 then uh what is that root flat 7 resolving to the major [music] third E flat so I can play my modal of [music] [music] [music] I'm trying to remember when I was 14.

[00:02:57][music] [music] I knew my scales real well.

[00:03:07]>> [music] [music] >> Then the second or the uh the last eight bars uh was really challenging. I don't know what I used to do. I think I just like faked it because the chords move really fast. And you could reduce it to like rather than have to think about all that uh the bass motion and the two fives, you could think like F minor, G7, [music] C minor, D7, 3, 6, 2, 5, 1. And then you don't have to go [music] [music] and it gives you a little more space. It actually reminds me a lot of the uh when I think about it that way, it reminds me of of Tristeay. The uh what do you call it? Like the second eight bars of Tre like we play Treay in B flat, [music] [singing] right? You could play.

[00:04:18][music] it just it goes major instead of uh minor at the end of that that sequence.

[00:04:25]So, one thing I was telling a student the other day is, you know, you're in you're in F minor for a while, right?

[00:04:31][music] And specifically, I would say F Dorian if we're going to talk about modes, which we are [music] because, you know, F minor 7 over E flat and then a D [music] minor 7 flat 5. Those are all like E flat major type uh sounds right in that key area.

[00:04:50]And then the G7 introduces, you know, a a B natural, which is not the leading tone is C minor. So, you know, and if you stay in F minor, if you were like noodling around, having a good time, you probably don't even have to uh worry about that G7.

[00:05:09][music] And then because when you're then when you're in C minor, if you're still playing E flat, you're pretty close, right? you might miss some of the subtleties of like C Dorian versus C aolon. But I think back in the day, I would just like kind of fake that part.

[00:05:28]But uh the student, the same student I was telling the other day a nice way to kind of nail the uh the G7 going to C minor, that leading tone. And this is something I I use a lot in a lot of songs. It's just like you could noodle [music] when you when the G7 happens, you noodle noodle around an F minor and then a first inversion dominant is really nice.

[00:05:53]So if you have a G7, I'm just going like B D [music] G F E flat.

[00:06:00]Then I'm in E flat. Then I do the same thing on a D7.

[00:06:07]>> [music] >> So that's like a, you know, in this book here, I call it a five eighth note resolution cell, but you know, it's just a fancy way of saying, um, yeah, five eighth notes, four of them on the dominant chord, and then the fifth is the resolution. So, [music] [music] so again, that last bit. [music] [music] So, I'm trying to really hit those uh leading tones, you know, the G the B natural going to C minor and the F sharp going to G minor, but [music] that's a good way to do it. You know, there's a million ways. [music] And I have so many of those little cells in my in my fingers that I can kind of mix and match. But even if, like I said, if you didn't play the uh any of that stuff, you could probably get away with.

[00:07:15][music] So that time I didn't play any of the leading leading [music] tones.

[00:07:29][music] >> [music] [music] >> back and stop.

[00:07:47][music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So, uh, yeah, that's Green Dolphin Street, y'all. And, uh, still a fun song to play, um, after all these years. So, I encourage you to check out and check out Miles, check out some of Majamal. I mean, there's a nice Bill Bill Evans plays it a few different times. Sunny Rollins has got, you know, everybody.

[00:08:45]Barney Kessle plays it. Um, so I'm going to play a few choruses with the track and hope you dig it. All right, take care.

[00:08:56][music] [music] Heat. Heat.

[00:09:10][music] [music] [music] Heat. Heat.

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