I am in the process of moving and have not been updating the blog as often as I’d like, but I figured I’d write a short post about some ideas I worked on this morning during my practice of “The Night has a Thousand Eyes,” inspired by the classic recording by Coltrane on “Coltrane’s Sound.”

• Working on time feel at 200 bpm
• Playing diatonic over the dominant pedal for the A sections
• Triad pairs for the dominant pedal (Cmaj and Dmaj)
• Shifting between inside and outside playing
• Bridge with Trane changes: Cmin7 – F7 – Dmaj F7 – Bbmaj (same down a whole-step – comping and soloing)
• 4-note diatonic 4ths voicings over D pedal

I’ve recently begun working on strengthening my sense of pulse on the bridge to the classic Victor Feldman tune “Joshua” (Miles Davis – Seven Steps to Heaven). The sudden shift from 3/4 to 4/4 repeated three times has always made me feel off-balance and stifled my improvising on this tune. Here are some of the ideas I have been working on to strengthen my internal sense of the pulse for these shifting meters. I like to practice comping with the rhythms below, but you can try and apply them by clapping or on your horn.

1) Practicing with the metronome on whole notes. The half-note hemiola will repeat every two bars for the 3/4 section, while falling evenly on beats 2 and 4 for the 4/4 section. This will hopefully help you feel a bigger “3″ on the first part of the bridge and give you the familiar hi-hat on 2 and 4 for the last two bars. I mapped out a diagram of where the metronome clicks should fall against the chord progression below:

2) Playing simple rhythms that clearly outline the barlines. I think of this as rhythmic training wheels. For the 3/4 bars, play dotted quarters and play half-notes for the 4/4 bars. After practicing this for a while, I (along with my bass player Emilio Terranova) discovered that I had a natural tendency to turn the last bar of the bridge into a 3/4 bar. Perhaps it was in anticipation of the top of the bridge? Either way, practicing these simple rhythms have helped me fight the tendency to rush through the 4/4 section and start internalizing the shifting meters. You can also try playing quarter notes (3 or 4 per bar, depending on the section).

3) Practice playing more “musical” rhythms. Come up with one or two bars rhythmic ideas for both the 3/4 and 4/4 sections, playing them repeatedly until you can comfortably hear the parts of the bridge as a larger section. Below is a sample idea:

4) Improvise freely. Do your best to hear feel the shifting meters against the half-notes from the metronome, always periodically checking to where the metronome’s half-notes are falling with the chord progression to ensure you are not adding or losing a beat. You’ll probably discover a rhythmic idea or section of the bridge that keeps tripping you up; stop improvising, try to slowly work out the idea you are hearing and practice it with step 3.

Soloist: Peter Bernstein
Tune: “Little Green Men” (C Minor Blues with modified last four bars)
Album: Peter Bernstein – Heart’s Content
Excerpt from: Two bar solo break (0:39)

All the notes in this line are found in the C Altered Scale (Db melodic minor). I’ve had trouble placing the harmonic function of this line as the first chord after the solo break is a Cminor and C Altered almost always pulls to F. Regardless, the line is ear catching and demonstrates one of Peter Bernstein’s signature characteristics: balancing angular intervals found in ‘modern’ jazz with the traditional, blues lick that is used to cap-off this solo break.