Soloing On Giant Steps Made Easy! Coltrane Changes Demystified

In this episode I will show you how to make soloing over John Coltrane's Giant Steps Easy!
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[@JensLarsen]

Coltrane probably did this exercise and ended up with Satelite :) Always good to dig in and look at the harmony and how it moves! 👍

[@PANDORAZTOYBOKZ]

Sounds a lot like Moment's Notice to me, which checks out to me since it's changes so closely resembles an inverted Trane substitution

[@ES175jazz]

sounds like cramming the night before a Giant Steps final in a Jazz Improv class.

[@future62]

Professor: "This is brilliant! Way to capture the essence of continuity through these phrases" Rest of class: 🙄🙄🙄🙄

[@funkyjohnmusic]

Actually it’s the morning of 😳

[@Quinceps]

So that’s what we caught you doing? 😂

[@markjohnson9485]

😂😂😂😂

[@wyatty4742]

When giant steps and easy are in the same sentence, you have to listen

[@TheIndogamer]

**jazz music stops** **starts listening**

[@MauroDoninibrotherjake]

@@TheIndogamer unless easy means "easy to get lost"

[@anirbanraha8952]

Then listen: Giant steps is not easy at all!

[@ShapochkinKirill]

And be disappointed... 'cos this guy can't play well enough to teach the subject.

[@shayne881]

And that's where it could get complicated.

[@gonzalezzz23]

Hi Rick, watching your videos every day makes me feel like I´m studying private KZbin music academy. I can´t thank you enough!

[@murrayrowley2900]

I love the breezy feel you get by letting the simplified melody ride over the complex background chord changes. A nice alternative to the busy soloing often associated with this piece.

[@GuitaristGuyJames]

I spent an entire semester working on this tune back in 2019. Refused to play it since then and now it feels like I'm starting all over again trying memorize the progression, solo strategies etc... This tune is truly a right of passage. I actually think its a beautiful tune since it's all based around major 7 chords but man... It's just mind twisting to keep track of where you are in the progression.

[@muziekjoep]

This is a great one note samba tutorial.

[@ivyssauro123]

YES! thank god someone noticed

[@pete5668]

HA! I thought the exact same thing :)

[@BrotherDevious]

One note... it truly is a "solo"

[@mdmsr2000]

Brazil 66?

[@tehrobotjesus]

@@mdmsr2000 Jobim.

[@petercallaway3420]

Informative tutorial. Giant Steps is the apex of jazz compositions in most jazz musicians opinion. With that said, it is to be performed tempo wise about 286 bpm. A musician especially a guitarist would have to have the speed and melodic dexterity to properly play it at the John Coltrane tempo. Practice Practice and practice! If you blink you will miss one or more of the II -V's. On the hand, a piano friend who mastered Giant Steps at the recorded tempo in high school told me don't try to play through all the II-V progressions. Leave space and or sustain common tones until you mastered each section/progression like the Instructor of this tutorial said. I'm working on 1st and 2nd section mastering those then adding each II-V progression slowly and deliberately. Again, the changes go by at the blink of an eye. Mastery is attained by practicing this composition with focus and concentration every day. I'm mainly talking to & motivating myself by writing this. I haven't mastered this tune yet.

[@toneseeker87]

Peter Callaway it is 290bpm actually.

[@petercallaway3420]

@@toneseeker87it very well maybe. That's why I said, "tempo wise it's about 286bpm. Someone else wrote it was 286bpm I never really clocked it. I'll take your word for it though. Thanks!

[@petercallaway3420]

@@toneseeker87 Cuban jazz Pianist Gonzalo Rubacalba, Drummer Jack DeJohnette, and bassist John Pattituci have a version that's 300bpm or above and it still sounds musical. Amazing!

[@Jplent1]

You'd get closer to "mastering" this if you took less time pontificating.

[@petercallaway3420]

@@Jplent1 You obviously spent 60 seconds to read my comment so you need to take your own advice Pete . Ya think?

[@bongosock]

I love this idea of approaching a piece by paring back the harmony to the simplest melody that works with the chords, then branching out from there. Thanks!

[@roge69charger]

I'm a baby boomer, Grew up playing alot of guitar as a teen, Then gave it up awhile cause of my obligations. But, Playing again. You make these lessons so clear. Exc. Keep up the great work. PS, I studied with Sal Salvador for awhile, He taught me a lot of harmony, it's coming back watching your vids. TY.

[@cimmyjarter]

The complex becomes (more) simple, when analyzed like this. Takes a good teacher to do it.

[@eric_james_music]

The whiteboard is the most superior interface for teaching. There's just something so intuitive to watching another human's brain work through their writing

[@yltcraxe]

This is helpful and all to someone who doesn't already think that way, and makes for good practicing, but a person isn't likely to play more than a chorus or so with this strategy. It will buy you time or make for an interesting 8 bars, but there's still a lot more to build to from this point. This just helps you hear some of the inner voices to navigate within. Eventually you'd have to build melodies around these voice leading and common tones, which requires a bit of an obstacle course of sorts.

[@gregcarter8656]

To put it bluntly, the "approach" or "strategy" shown in the video, i.e., figuring out in advance the fewest possible notes one could play, is not useful for jazz improvisation. In the first place, it is not improvisation, by definition, to "compose" one's solo in advance. And as you pointed out, it cannot be maintained without being boring. Coltrane's melody is nothing like that, and neither is his soloing on this song. New title: How to Wimp Out on Giant Steps.

[@chowturtlezpabus]

Maybe I'm a noob here, but this is like an entire method on how to practice improvisation, thanks!

[@tisoccerfan3623]

I appreciate this. This made it easier to understand. Idk why I was complicating things

[@charlesmartel7502]

Rising line of half-steps and whole steps (with two pair of repeated tones), change by change: B-C-D-D-Eb-E-F#-G-Ab-Bb-A#-C-D-E

[@NicolasAiziczon]

Rick, I dont know how to say thanks. I took my today's music challenge studing Giant steps. I've seen like 5 tutorials on youtube, and... you're the best. thank you so much

[@myguitar1]

i have seen a lot of video and comments about Giant Steps, and i never read the apporach i prefer: using the ear! Using the ear can make this piece of music nice. In fact Coltrain said that that song was an exercise. So if this piece is so hard to practice, using ONLY the harmonic bond is not useful to me. The cool thing is that you can take a breath thanks to this.

[@francacereu]

I would totally call Rick the night before a big gig to cram all this info into muy head, this is wonderful

[@ralphnunn3]

HOLY CRAP! I wish I had seen (or thought about this) back when I was in college, and listening to Giant Steps. I always viewed this tune as untouchable. Thinking about it this way makes it very accessible.

[@brauliocruz2884]

Man every video you post has so much info to figure out and that has propelled my music journey (I'm still a newbie) to the point that I had to buy a notebook (the ones with pages and everything), so I can slowly work everything out. Thank you Rick, you are an outstanding teacher. All the blessings to you.

[@gunnar7902]

"F! F! F!" exactly what i say too when im improving on giant steps lol

[@jubes888]

RICK you are a Gifted Teacher and Musician..Thank you for yout Generous Sharing.

[@hothempire]

This is fantastic, Rick. Thank you. I am relatively new to jazz and deciphering the harmony and melody like this is exactly what I'm looking for. Keep it up!

[@ericwinter4513]

Jobim meets Coltrane lol... I kid, but awesome video. Thanks for posting.

[@huntervowell2778]

What's really cool to me is you can take multiple common tone melodies and put them together to make a chord solo with some nice counterpoint.

[@dkwvt13]

A very compelling lesson. This covers a lot of ground well past Giant Steps into soloing in general and building chord melody/harmony as well. Way cool, thank you...!

[@reff9289]

Easy... about as easy as driving an F1 car. It's a tune to challenge anyone at any level for their entire life. A cool tidbit from the maestro Ted Greene... He theorized that Coltrane thought of a 'Giant Step' as a major third which equals 2 two whole steps or... A Giant Step. The tune is based around a cycle of key centers descending by major 3rds with a deviation at the end. This is again from private lessons with Ted, it blew it wide open for me. The test is, as he would ask... 'so...can you play it in another key?'

[@zeroblackstar]

Ted Greene knows his stuff, got some of his books!

[@megalaconic]

Thank you for your devotion to music, and your generous gift of knowledge and talent!

[@bottleforty1]

Thanks Rick. I'm glad I found you. Thanks for your instruction.

[@martin8uq]

For every musical problem I have... There's a Rick Beato Video. Day'um.

[@georgefillingham1255]

Awesome talk and very much what I needed

[@lincolnadams83]

What the crap!!! Thanks so much much! Just seeing this helps see how Coltrane can stay inside or go outside of the structure. THANKS!!!!!!

[@crazyb3fan]

This is a terrific lesson Rick! Thank you so much for your time and your knowledge. Truly a gift to all!

[@lundsweden]

Easy for Rick!

[@xisotopex]

its funny how I understand this all completely on an intellectual level but not on a musical level

[@donaldbarnat]

There's a lesson in that.

[@BeN-bn5yb]

Same

[@PANDORAZTOYBOKZ]

As a guitar player, I've found the easiest way to work through new changes (for me) is to try to play the chords as rootless shell voicings with a static drone note (usually the Sol or Do of the key, but for my purposes it could be Ra for all I care) on top. In my mind it really highlights the linearity between chords, because it forces you to move in the most closely related motion possible.

[@vhollund]

Totally works in theory Work to a smaller extend in practice ;) Face it, that's a lot of work be able to play very few notes It can't stand alone but it is still amomg valid approaches to knowing the chords Here's another one : Think of all the M7 chords as Dominant frygian or Alt

[@antonlevysckopp5632]

Rick thank you for this helpful video. I am trying to get my improvisations better, but always just played. Your lesson helped me being more aware of what Iam doing. Writing everything out on paper, while you we're explaining also changed the game. Keep on ! Greetings

[@AlamoCityCello]

Rick, you’re great teacher!

[@tylersmith6908]

I tried this and got kicked off the bandstand for playing F# as my entire solo. Jokes aside, this was really helpful. Thanks, Rick!

[@marklondon2008]

This is gold. Great tutorial.

[@JXter_]

What's interesting to me is that "Giant Steps" very much feels like a modal tune with bebop flair when you really get into it. There's a video of Barry Harris talking about playing over this tune and he goes on to say the way to improvise over it is to play a MELODY, not arpeggiate the changes which is what many beginners do when approaching this tune. In one way, we can see this as the same approach Miles Davis was trying to get in "So What" and what Coltrane would later write a contrafact of in "Impressions" - in those tunes, the whole premise is to reduce the harmonic motion down to one chord per section (D-11 and Eb-11 respectively) so the player is forced to play melodically. In contrast, "Giant Steps" has so much harmonic motion that it forces the player to play melodically, but our modes are now a major third apart every few bars instead of the half-step apart between A's and B's.

[@ivyssauro123]

Very peaceful and melancholic melodies with this strategy, pretty nice. Sound like some Bossa Nova vocals or something.

[@spunkybrewster1972]

this is giving me first year jazz program anxiety all over again.

[@davidrusso675]

Outstanding lesson. Helped me a lot!!

[@gremlin2022]

I should have known that I want to start learning jazz and this song specifically, then when I look I find Rick 😂

[@climbtibet]

Love giant steps and your approach to soloing now time to apply the concept to help demystify soloing on other jazz tunes and Coltrane pieces

[@jcdenton616]

Whenever Rick breaks out the whiteboard, I know that I am clueless for what's about to come!

[@NicholasStein]

I have always had trouble soloing over the bridge of Have You Met Miss Jones, the predecessor to Giant Steps. It always sounded jerky melodically speaking. I will use this technique to smooth it out. Thanks for the tip.

[@thesphericalguy9018]

Try the first 4 bars of Humpty Dumpty out.. Took me months to get some kind of music out of it

[@petercallaway3420]

@@thesphericalguy9018 Yep...another ultra straight ahead tune with multiple changes and in my opinion a more complex melody. Colrrane's Countdown and Hancock's One Finger Snap are quite challenging as well.

[@petercallaway3420]

You should listen to jazz guitarist Johnny Smith 's version. His speed and dexteriy is jaw dropping!.

[@taopagan]

Thanks for this! This was very helpful for me as I begin to approach these changes. From reading the comments, I see there are very many improvisational strategies available! Focusing on common tone analysis seems like a good place for me to start - an entryway to the infinite multiplicity of possibility. I'm inspired to try using common tones, especially on open strings, as pedal tones to pick against on guitar.

[@james.randorff]

This is excellent! I wonder who the two folks are who disliked this fantastic content and, more importantly, WHY did they give it the thumbs down?!?

[@irishmuso7129]

Perhaps they couldn't understand it, or they could understand it and didn't agree with the idea that soloing over Giant Steps could be made 'easy'. Maybe one thought the former and one the latter. What's your view on the matter?

[@alessandrovisco1859]

2:29 ahahahaha the theme

[@stephenfunk690]

The dude can't stop singing the song.

[@Atezian]

hahahahaha

[@k.padraigokane1472]

I just noticed that your falsetto sounds like Dylan's speaking voice!

[@taopagan]

At first, I thought you meant Bob Dylan...and were somewhat puzzled!

[@tc3348]

Man. This is great content! Thanks Rick!

[@manny75586]

It's best to just play a constant C pedal and convince people that the harmony is completely non-functional haha. Seriously, great video as always, Rick!

[@TheTwicked]

Absolutely great content. Thank you very much for this lesson!

[@laser-ix7bq]

song's called giant steps, but we look for the smallest steps possible XD

[@SimpleManGuitars1973]

Baby Steps. LOL!

[@hansvandermeulen5515]

Baby steps for one person, giant steps for music.

[@Akbarable]

does he even have another color shirt

[@marklondon2008]

Black is 'slimming'. Haha- just kidding.

[@arthurbrands6935]

He's a professional musician, he only has one shirt.

[@VivaToddVegas]

The dark side's calling, now nothing is real. She'll never know just how I feel.

[@ethanlocke3604]

Tony Brophy 😂

[@donmilland7606]

You have to practice with the goal of getting the direction of the changes in your head then it becomes intuitive.

[@sherbetdab1200]

Visualization of the scale that works over each chord is what I would suggest and not get too hung up on common tones while striving for melodic linearity.

[@docchoc]

Ok, let’s here this!

[@monsieurbrochant7528]

I never noticed that F7 chords' notes read "FACE", that's mildly funny

[@ChuloDavidcito]

True! And when I'm in a bar, sometimes the FACED chord comes up.

[@davyt5183]

Funnier is that for F Dominant 7 it's FACE FLAT because of the E flat haha

[@pleximanic]

F "major" 7 does that

[@Theworkingbassplayer76]

F7 is F/ A/ C and E flat! Fmajor 7 is indeed FACE.. just a friendly observation brother

[@cobyup10]

Evidently not a sight reader then I take it lol

[@robertstatum7523]

Awesome!!!!!

[@dissolutevoid]

Love you beato this was everything i needed

[@GernotFaschinger]

A lesson to find the 5 tones that fit over the whole song... I have a different expectation of "improvisation".

[@JackChessa]

Probably not enough to solo over several choruses, but this idea helps you anchor your ear as well as gives you a bit of a safety net. Also helps link more melodic ideas over these changes which tend to give rather jumpy lines.

[@gregcarter8656]

@@JackChessa . . . . . "Probably" ????? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Hexenhammer]

Rick, you are amazing, man.

[@tonymccake3057]

This is great information even for a bass player :-) Appreciated

[@elementallobsterx]

YES!

[@stuartweissman7306]

the content here is excellent but anyone also take notice of the woody tone that Rick gets out of that solid body? killin' me.

[@albertobarbatotoledo3155]

it's funny that now when I listening too the chords I'm kind listening this melodys within then

[@markhill5786]

Another great lesson Rick thanks! Was wondering if you could do a video on your gear? I love the look of your Les Paul Junior and would like to find out more about it as well as what kind of gear you need to be able to work full time in the music industry like you do, with regards to recording and gigging.

[@albertobarbatotoledo3155]

I agree that the concept is similar too one note samba but i think it actually sounds a bit closer to Chet Baker

[@mrinmoydasmusic]

Please re-produce this video! It's amazing..

[@fritzpageot8991]

Thanks Rick

[@apparentlybrian]

Nice! Question about your 2-5-1 chord changes: The 4th bar is the 2-5 leading to the Gmaj7 in bar 5. So it should be Am7-D7, but you have it as A7-D7. Similarly in the 9th bar, where the chords are a 2-5 setting up the Ebmaj9 in bar 10, it's Fm7-Bb7, but you used F7-Bb7 instead. I'm curious why you didn't use the minors on the 2s of those 2-5-1 changes like what is normally transcribed. Thanks Rick.

[@FelterOfficial]

He is! The "-" next to the chord denotes minor quality. He also uses the minor third in his chord spellings above (A C E G is the spelling of Am7, a C# would be the third of a dominant chord). Hope this helps!

[@apparentlybrian]

@@FelterOfficial Yes that did help. I don't use the "-" notation so it went right by me, as did the ACEG spelling. Brain fart? Or just a Brian fart? LOL Thx Collin!

[@macneilwhalen5711]

May I suggest a different approach where you take the "giant steps" between each chord tone and voice lead like that?

[@flogggifloggger3070]

Thanks for that lesson, im really struggling to play this tune in 200 bpm and keep improvising over all that different changes. Though i think you showed me the key

[@aristamanu]

Incredible work, Rick. Thanks a lot for the effort in creating this material. I heard you mention that you studied with George Russell. Have you thought about doing a video -or a series- about his Lydian Chromatic Concept?

[@HABLA_GUIRRRI]

great vid. is there an AB comparison vid where you and/or the kids do the same thing --- but by ear .. no paper and pen? don't let me give you ideas though ..

[@AstroAF]

Thanks Rick, cool way to break this down and simplify. Would you think about that F#, for instance, over changes (e.g. Bmaj) as an F#Maj with b7? Or, is that complicating what you are showing us here? I'm asking as I'm working on chord/scale harmonizing and learning the notes in each chord with the goal of playing over changes and getting out of scale boxes.

[@DaveSalvator]

Thanks for this.

[@criticman123]

thank you! will there be a part for the 2nd half of giant steps?

[@tinkiwinkixeraser]

Muchas gracias!

[@tangobayus]

Consider the possibility of soloing without chords as in Indian music.

[@futurebeats898]

hi rick! would you cover the different music era and what make them unique ? baroque,classical,romantic etc...) thanks :)

[@RickBeato]

I will once I figure out how to get a license to play music for more that 6 seconds. I really need to play recordings to teach that. I really want to get into it but can't get around it. Suggestions welcome.

[@futurebeats898]

+Rick Beato Midi files can probably get downloaded for free and than played in pro tools.

[@futurebeats898]

+c medeiros copyrights on very old composition turn obsolete i think im not sure. so the midi would be perfect

[@MichaOssowski]

There are lots of public domain classical music recordings on IMSLP. Even orchestral music.

[@FernieCanto]

The KZbin content ID *very* often wrongly identifies copyrighted recordings, even when it comes to fully original renditions. Using a public domain recording is no guarantee that you won't have your video flagged for copyright infringement.

[@mananshah8]

So If we were to take all the common chord tones as target notes,would you suggest connecting these notes using chromatics?

[@b1ch0f30]

wow

[@draeke8080]

Rick, common tones wow, you are amazing, are you a music teacher?

[@lefujyou]

their are common chords as well the song is three keys B,G,Eb.............

[@landodiazmusic]

hi, Rick! this is unrelated, but I've enjoyed your What Makes This Song Great series. Ever consider doing one for one of the songs on Thriller by Michael Jackson? A guitar or synth lesson would super great too. Thanks!

[@JamesAGuitar]

This is great tip!

[@fritzpageot8991]

COOL

[@avgjoegat8126]

Did Rick do an analysis of what Coltrane played over these changes?

[@gregcarter8656]

That would be far more interesting, and far more useful, than this video on "How to Avoid Soloing on Giant Steps".

[@dylanjones3497]

Anybody else heard 2:29 like he was singing Giant Steps?

[@awol2602]

this was v edifying

[@rockstarjazzcat]

cool

[@frankschlegel9126]

It's funny how "demystification" can look a lot like over thinking it. I'm of the opinion that taking a solo over Giant Steps has much more to do with groove than with particular notes, though there are notes that will be within the keys, etc. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't understand the underlying theory, I just think Coltrane was trying to communicate something more than just which tones are played.

[@riffrobin474]

Yeah, piece of cake

[@blueeyedsoulman]

Just curious about the guage of strings used? Nice round tone.