Bebop Passing Tones - Peter Martin | 2 Minute Jazz

Peter Martin shows you how to add passing tones to your lines to get a more authentic bebop sound.
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(piano music) - What's going on everybody? Peter Martin here for Two Minute Jazz. Got a quick tip for you today on bebop passing tones. So many different ways to get into an authentic and really satisfying bebop sound, but one of them that I love that really kinda comes from a harmonic concept that can inform your melodic bebop playing is passing tones, and I'm gonna just talk about two today.
E flat major.
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You know, if we improvise over E flat major.
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And we just stick to the E flat major scale,
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it's fine, but it gets interesting when we put in those passing tones. So if we look at the minor third,
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that's the first one.
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And you know, there's three basic ways of thinking about this. Start your line on the passing tone.
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And normally we're looking at resolving that minor third up to the third or down to the ninth or the second. So you can start your line there or you can go to it immediately at the beginning of your line.
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From the third, or you can do it from the second, I don't like that one as much.
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Or the third way is to play it somewhere in the middle of your line.
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And when you're running up a scale, this is a great time to do it, because I mean, it works aight, but it's kinda
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if I just play the major scale, but if I do
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and put that minor third resolving up to the major third in the middle of it, and then I mean, you know you can get (piano music) some rhythmic offsets, some syncopation, that's where it gets really nice.
So the other one I like a lot is a minor sixth. Same thing, you can start your line there,
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you can go right to it.
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Or you can catch it in the scale.
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Okay?
So these are just two over the major scale, but they're fun to practice by isolating them. Each scale has its own, we'll get into those on other episodes, but for now, happy practicing.
(soft music)
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[@freshpansen6313]

Damn if was Peter Martin I'd be playin piano all day long

[@hahabass]

Totally!

[@donaldstapleson5497]

Peter must've done that for a number of years in order to play the way he does.

[@gbebici]

the only option you have to be Peter Martin is playing all day long hahah

[@baileyayyy5085]

if you played piano all day long youd be like Peter Martin lol

[@vsezonov]

Tons of practice is obviously important but let’s not minimize the talent factor. Not everyone can be a Peter Martin.

[@terrykosowick594]

Peter, I love your 2-minute videos; I think I've watched them all, some of them several times. Usually, it looks easy when you do it - much harder when I try to do it myself. Thanks so much for these videos

[@YaBoiSebas]

Wow, this just instantly helped me create lines with that bebop sound I've been looking for. Thanks a lot Peter.

[@elianmusic7452]

God damn it this advice is so god damn straight forward and helpful within days im already sounding different because of you guys!! Thank you peter. Ya'll have been talking at me for a week straight now and i couldn't be happier about it cheers

[@bodhilee7750]

What a g I love this tip and ur swag is undeniable

[@benschlosser1461]

Tolle Tipps, wie immer. Als gelernter Klavierbauer bricht es mir fast das Herz zu hören, wie ein so guter Pianist auf einem so schlecht gestimmten Klavier spielen kann.

[@aldebaran.carrasco.martinez]

Muchas gracias. Tienes un precioso sonido bebop. Saludos desde México.

[@jonathanfurtado7611]

1:53 for bebop tongue

[@evanhunter213]

Wow, this was really insightful, please feel free to make a longer video of these concepts!

[@tecladistasbrasileiros]

Thanks Peter

[@jenparsnip2158]

Gorgeous playing, as always. Superb time feel. I could listen to this all day.

[@garethharrison5797]

Brilliant!

[@judsonclinton3790]

Describing the passing tones in terms of their respective intervals was helpful. Can you please call out some of the left hand chords as well. I am comfortable with melodic improv but seem to always look for better ways to comp with the left. You have other videos that cover this, but just a quick chordname is helpful!

[@ellingtoncarthan3561]

The Tune he's playing over is Four by Miles Davis in Eb. If you have a real book/Ireal pro all of the changes he plays are in there but he also alternates between rootless voicing and shell voicings (roots and 7th's).

[@markbra]

FOUR !

[@walkingbassline]

Always enjoy these. Keep up the great work Peter!

[@giampierogirolamo7134]

Sei una grande Maestro!

[@DojoOfCool]

Dam some great insight in that video. Thank you Mr. Martin.

[@RikMaxSpeed]

Awesome tips - i’ll go try them out now 😄

[@trumpetman]

The idea with all composition that a lot of folks miss because it’s not explicitly taught is that you’re trying to get the chord tones ON THE BEATS or as close to them as tastefully possible. It’s RHYTHMIC before it’s harmonic. Your lines have to line up rhythmically with your harmony. Took me years and wasted thousands of dollars in music school to figure this out.

[@JustinMasayda]

I've heard this idea that chord tones should be played on the beats and non-chord tones on off beats, but if you listen to great soloists you'll notice that there are so many exceptions to that over-generalization as to make it predominantly useless advice. While that rule may be a helpful place to start thinking about improvising from, some of the hippest sounding lines sound so great because of the way they emphasize extensions (non-chord tones) ON the beats. Improvising is much more nuanced and context dependent to distill into that rule and expect it to apply all the time. As a matter of fact, it's also entirely possible to play chord tones on every beat and STILL not sound very good. That said, rhythm is extremely important, but improvising has more to do with tension and release patterns than specifically which notes fall on which beats.

[@trumpetman]

@@JustinMasayda yes, true. Matter of taste too. There are no “rules” in music but this one is one that is hardly ever talked about. A lot of students could get it together with this one a lot faster and I’ve seen it in application. Nothing useless about it. You can Aebersold chord/scale all day long. If you don’t know where and how to put half steps, leaps, and chord tones, it’s going to sound trash.

[@cisumgre]

I live you guys. 🙏🏾❤️🎹

[@gil-evens]

Great video as always Peter !

[@mitchelledels9762]

Look at that technique GREAT------- PETER you need to slow down when your teaching people. You can do one line slow and one line fast that might help

[@don4476]

If you can get your piano to Nashville I'll tune it for you. ;-)

[@marcusrosendahlvonspreckel5172]

Really helpful

[@ReileyWilliams]

I understand the passing tone concept, but how do I get that jumpy sound in my lines? Is there a specific interval to just to? I know it's octave displacement, but you do it soooo well a lesson on that maybe?

[@noone-jw4gm]

Jumpy, you mean funky?

[@pedroalvesguitar]

Jens larsen has lessons about this

[@simonaks9774]

a big part of that is accenting your offbeats in interesting places, you’d be surprised at how much of a difference that makes

[@thisjustin77]

loved this

[@tomazvital1986]

Peter! Make a video about those 2 5 progressions you make.

[@markbra]

high groovin !

[@VasaMusic438]

GREAT !!!

[@maxlustgarten5614]

so killin

[@marioalarc6968]

Si algún día tocó así ...subo vídeo genio martin

[@blackgoldband7427]

Great as always! What’s the tune at the end please?!

[@johncyrus25]

I feel like there are videos I need to watch so that I can understand how to create such patterns while playing my scales. Any leads?

[@jerryli821]

C is the minor sixth in the key of Eflat?

[@louialigon6747]

This must be insane, I'm just a beginner

[@orangeblue3531]

that didn't help at all

[@Bruce.-Wayne]

Lol....yeah, its so much info to gulp here