[My first video upload, enjoy!] One of the most notorious jazz compositions ever written, "Giant Steps" (from the album of the same name released in 1960), is a textbook example of the Coltrane cycle. That is, modulating in a cycle of descending major thirds, which is very unusual compared to more common ones such as the cycle of fourths. The hardest part of this tune is the first eight bars, which (at about 300 bpm) modulates between B, G, and Eb major within two bars (about 1.5 seconds!). It gets a bit easier from there, slowing down to one key per two bars, but don't get me wrong, it's still bloody hard! The melodic language of his solo is actually very simple, and demonstrates a few great ways to practice improvising over chord changes. He uses arpeggios and digital patterns (eg 1235, 5321) over the chords, as well as many standard bebop patterns (eg the bebop scale and the 3-b9 movement over dominant chords). That being said, it sounds very modern due to the Coltrane cycle, and using the cycle over standard ii-VI's can be a great way to play outside (video lesson coming soonish, maybe?). Check out this video of me having a go at the first few choruses of his solo at speed, and definitely have a listen to the original recording!
Tags: jazz, guitar, john, coltrane, giant, steps, bebop, chord, melody, solo, transcription, analysis, lesson, eastman, t185mx, luke, liang
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