Basics of Melodic Cells: Herbie and Chick 101

[00:00:00]Hi everybody, Jeremy Siskind here. I'm the author of Playing Solo Jazz Piano.

[00:00:04]I'm the author of Jazz Piano Fundamentals series books 1, 2, and 3, as well as the Solo Standards for Piano series, and a lot more stuff. Head on over to jeremysiskind.com.

[00:00:15]Buy yourself something, you deserve it.

[00:00:16]You have been working hard. I know. I'm watching you every step of the way.

[00:00:21]Okay, I want to talk about something I'm really excited about today. I think it's a kind of cool thing to talk about that I've never talked about before on the channel, and that is Well, naming is a little bit harder than than than describing, but one name that we have for this is melodic cells, c e l l s, if you want to pluralize it. And the general concept here is that instead of looking at a set of chord changes, looking at a scale, looking at an arpeggio, and saying, "Okay, this is what I have available to play."

[00:00:57]to start with a set of intervals.

[00:01:01]A small set, maybe three, four, five intervals, and then say, "I am going to apply this somehow to what the changes are."

[00:01:13]Now, this is a very very modern way of working. Modern in the sense of jazz, not like super recent, but you know, definitely associating this with Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea as kind of my two people I've been really thinking about using this kind of strategy.

[00:01:32]Um and manipulating melodic cells rather than using the correct chord scale.

[00:01:40]Okay, so once again, I want to go one step further. What we're talking about, and I'm going to give you examples, don't you worry, is taking a melodic is taking a small set of intervals, apply figuring out where you can fit it within the changes, and then kind of a expansion on that, or a result of that, is going to often be that you're going to be playing out.

[00:02:03]Because as we do this, maybe not 100% of the notes from the melodic cell are going to fit cleanly into the chord.

[00:02:16]So, maybe you just are trying to make a majority of the notes fit cleanly into the into the chord symbol. Um or maybe once you take that melodic cell, you can plane it. You can move that cell to some different uh places that are not necessarily part of that overall key signature, overall chord scale.

[00:02:38]And so, let's let's start out of context. Um and let's think about um let's think about a very simple melodic cell. Um let's take a sus chord.

[00:02:58]Okay, so the intervals would be like a perfect fourth.

[00:03:04]>> [music] >> Like see that F plus a major second.

[00:03:12]Okay.

[00:03:14]So, if we want to apply this, let's just take a a uh let's take C Lydian.

[00:03:20]Right, so that's going to be like a C major scale with an F sharp instead of an F.

[00:03:26]>> [music] >> Okay, so where can I apply this sus chord shape?

[00:03:32]Well, I could start on D.

[00:03:38]I could have D G A, and that's going to make a sus chord.

[00:03:44]I could start on E.

[00:03:51]I could use E A B. That's a [music] sauce chord that fits beautifully.

[00:03:57]I could start on G.

[00:04:01]And I could use that kind of a sauce chord, G C >> [music] >> D.

[00:04:07]G D G C D. I said it right.

[00:04:12]Never tell a moment. I could start on A.

[00:04:16]I could start on B.

[00:04:18]Right? Remember we're doing C Lydian, so that F sharp is good. So, I have all these places where I could put that melodic cell.

[00:04:29]Now, one place where it doesn't fit cleanly, but I think is quite interesting, is starting on F sharp.

[00:04:41]Okay. Certainly, uh that C sharp is dissonant. But, two out of the three notes are consonant. And so, you know, the cleanliness, depending on how you want to play, once you get into this melodic cell sort of thing, is somewhat debatable, somewhat negotiable, um all those things.

[00:05:08]So, if I'm improvising, now my mindset isn't, "Well, okay, I'm going to play C Lydian. Whatever comes out, comes out."

[00:05:14]Now, I'm thinking, "Ooh, I'm going to figure out where I can put >> [music] >> Right? Here, I'm selecting F sharp, G sharp, C sharp.

[00:05:34]Only one of those notes is part of that C Lydian mode.

[00:05:39]But, I don't think anybody's ear is actually that shocked. Maybe they're a little shocked, but we've been hearing this shape.

[00:05:53]>> [music] >> Right? And this is called planing. When we move a melodic shape exactly without regard for how it fits within the scale, this is called planing, right? It's different than sequencing cuz usually in a sequence we're going to stay within the scale or mode and we're going to adjust the melodic cell to fit.

[00:06:16]Now, what's kind of interesting that you might have observed me doing if you have an eagle eye or an eagle ear. Do eagles have good ears? Probably not. Is that it kind of feels natural as you're doing this to say, "Well, okay, perfect fourth plus major second." So, we can get shapes like D E A.

[00:06:35]But, we could also why not? It kind of makes sense. We could have a major second plus a perfect fourth.

[00:06:45]Oh, you know what? I already messed it up. I already did that. D G A.

[00:06:51]But, why not also D E A?

[00:06:59]>> [music] >> You know, one's a sus two, one's a sus four, but it's made up of the same set of intervals. And what the great improvisers with using cells do is that they'll manipulate these notes in other ways, too. And they'll say, "Well, look at these notes.

[00:07:16]If we take these same notes like A D G.

[00:07:23]Right? That's the same as D [music] G A.

[00:07:26]These form perfect fourths. This is another way to kind of respell the notes and manipulate the melodic cell.

[00:07:34]And this is exactly what Herbie Hancock does in his solo on Witch Hunt. Um I have transcribed this solo. I don't have it on my computer. So, thank you to David Ochoa. Don't know [laughter] you, but you're the real MVP here cuz I just downloaded your um your your transcription here.

[00:07:50]So, he's taking, you know, we're in C minor or some version of C Dorian-ish.

[00:07:56]>> [music] >> And he's taking this sus shape starting it in different places that fit within the mode.

[00:08:09]>> [music] >> And then what he does just so brilliantly is that he planes the shape. He's going up by minor thirds.

[00:08:25]>> [music] >> And then again >> [music] >> So, he's using this melodic shell melodic cell, excuse me, not shell, cell. He's moving it towards in different places on the scale. And then once he's established that sound, he says, "Okay, you guys trust me, right?

[00:08:50]You hear this this sound really clearly." And he's moving it uh he's planing it to spots where it doesn't actually fit with the scale.

[00:09:00]Now, um David Ochoa's not really the MVP for the way that he wrote this. Spacing could be better here.

[00:09:14]Here we could look at it at least one of two ways. One way is that these are all that cell.

[00:09:26]Right? Do you see how these >> [music] >> these three-note groups are making up that sus chord shape?

[00:09:34]Or we could say he's selecting a new a new kind of melodic cell. It's a two-note melodic cell and it's a fourth.

[00:09:46]He's obviously, you know, getting obsessed with using fourths here.

[00:09:52]Um and he he does this more and more later. Look, ba da dum.

[00:09:59]He's using these these fourth intervals, but manipulating that interval going down, going up.

[00:10:07]Okay.

[00:10:09]Now, I want to show you something here, which is kind of cool, which is that he's using a slightly different melodic cell.

[00:10:18]And it gets a little dizzying. There's a lot of different ways that you can analyze this. So, if you have a slightly different analysis than me, um just keep in mind that I'm right and you're No, you're wrong. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding.

[00:10:30]But now what we're getting is a lot of fourth plus half step.

[00:10:42]And like I said, there's a lot of different ways that we could analyze this.

[00:10:46]But here, if we do take each beat, we see that we have a perfect fourth here plus a half step.

[00:10:55]Here we see we have a perfect fourth and a half step.

[00:10:59]Here we have a perfect fourth and a half step between the A and the A flat. So, uh sometimes that half step's above one of the notes, sometimes it's below or on the inside. So, the the the qualities of the intervals change, but that basic concept of the cell is staying the same.

[00:11:20]>> [music] >> A fourth plus a half step. And you know, he really plays it with just about no >> [laughter] >> um no relationship to the changes, right?

[00:11:32]Here again, perfect fourth, half step.

[00:11:35]Here again, perfect fourth between A and E, half step between B flat and A.

[00:11:40]Here again, perfect fourth between E flat and A flat if you look at the key signature, half step between the E flat and the D.

[00:11:48]All right, this is not coincidence.

[00:11:50]There's no way you say, "Ah, Siskin's just finding what he wants to find."

[00:11:54]It's happening way too much. Perfect fourth, D flat to G, G to G flat is a half step.

[00:12:00]Right? Here again, perfect fourth, C to F, C to B is that half step.

[00:12:06]Um and that last beat, same exact thing, E flat to B flat, perfect fourth, E to E flat, half step.

[00:12:18]So, he's changed his um his melodic cell. At the beginning, we had this sus chord, a perfect fourth plus a whole step. And as the solo progresses, it gets more dissonant um because now we've changed the melodic cell that we're featuring from a perfect fourth to uh oh, sorry, from a perfect fourth and a major second to a perfect fourth and a minor second.

[00:12:42]Um I'm going to do my best to play this for you. I'm not going to play it perfectly.

[00:12:46]Uh it's a very difficult solo and I have not practiced it, but I want I want you to hear what the sound of using melodic cells, focusing on melodic cells just degrees. Before I do, uh I want to mention something that's I think is really important to give a a really complete view of this, which is that So, if you know this tune, Witch Hunt, >> [music] >> it has this melody that is organized completely in fourths. Bo F to B flat, bo do ba ba to E flat.

[00:13:24]Hopefully, most of you are just immediately seeing this. These three notes make that sus melodic shape, right? If we reorganize them to B flat, E flat, F, that's our fourth plus a whole step.

[00:13:38]So, I would theorize that Herbie's not coming across this first uh melodic shape by accident. I think he's taking it from the melody and expanding upon the melody.

[00:13:54]So, here we go. I'm going to do my best to play this for you, and I want you to listen for the way these melodic shells are are being used.

[00:14:05]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Uh sorry, I need a break for the page turn.

[00:15:01]>> [snorts] [music] >> All right, I'm going to leave it there.

[00:15:16]You heard the important part. So, you can hear it might sound like random notes, but what he's thinking, I'm somewhat confident, is about these melodic cells.

[00:15:26]So, last thing before I I sign off here, is you might say, "Well, Herbie Hancock, you're a genius. What does that have to do with me?" And I would experiment with this different mindset while playing. A mindset of instead of starting with, "Okay, here's the chords, here's the licks I know." Think about, "Here's this three-note melodic shape." You could even start with a two-note interval. You could say, "Fifth. I'm going to put in a fifth everywhere I can over these changes." So, that if I'm playing Autumn Leaves, >> [music] [music] [music] >> you know, I'm giving myself this assignment of focusing on this interval.

[00:16:23]Or try this sus shape.

[00:16:29]>> [music] [music] [music] >> And see what you can create focusing on that melodic cell.

[00:16:55]All right, everybody. Well, thank you so much for watching. By the way, if you like this and you're interested in learning more, um you'll learn a lot about Herbie Hancock's style in Jazz Piano Funda- Fundamentals book three.

[00:17:09]Um Good. If you watched all the way to the end, um why don't you say something about jail? Cuz we were talking about cells, So, I'm I'm thinking about jail cells. All right, thanks for watching everyone.