Patterns are a sequence of notes that demonstrate a logical sound or concept. They can be played long, or they can be short, like a cell.
Also a pattern can take on a whole new character when it's transposed to a different interval. For every new pattern that you memorize and ingrain, consider it like a new color on your painter's palette, ready to be used in your improvisation.
Today, we will share with you several patterns that you can add to your palette and share some tips along the way. All these patterns come from our brand new resource titled 100 Patterns for Jazz Improvisation. In it, you will find 100 diverse patterns rooted in the jazz language, ranging from colorful cells to bebop motifs to in-V sequences, to modern patterns based on symmetrical scales, hexatonics, fourths, and fifths. All of the material is written in 12 keys for you.
And if you want to see how Nathan plays through the examples we cover today, make sure to check out our accompanying YouTube video, How to Practice Patterns in Jazz.
Now let’s get playing!
Contents
Whole tone pattern
Alright, so let's go ahead and get into the first pattern. This is a pattern that comes from the whole tone scale, found in the symmetrical chapter of the 100 Patterns for Jazz Improvisation resource. Let’s break it down.
So what's going on here? Essentially, we've got two different augmented triads a whole step apart. They're both being arpeggiated a little bit differently. For the first one, we play the D augmented triad’s root, then dip down to its third, walk up to its augmented or sharp fifth, and return to the root.
Now we switch to the C augmented triad here, starting on its root, C, and we’ll walk down to the G sharp (the augmented fifth), then E (the third), and we finally return to the root. From here, we go to the augmented triad a whole step below this one, which is the B flat augmented triad. And we repeat this pattern over and over.
So one tip for this pattern is, once you've learned one and are feeling pretty comfortable, try and see if you can disguise it within your improvisation. If you just copy and paste it, it's usually not going to sound organic. But if you play it then let it go at the right time and smoothly blend it into other material, then patterns are a really powerful tool.
Motivic pattern
So the second pattern of today's video comes from the melodic motifs chapter of the book. First, let's hear it, then we'll break it down.
So what's going on here? This is a common figure played in jazz solos. We start with a chromatic approach tone that targets the fifth of a minor seven chord, then walk up to the flat seventh, then we play a backwards 1-2-3-5 cell and to really cement it in our ears and fingers, we play it in all 12 keys by walking down half steps.
A tip for this pattern, or any pattern, is that the goal of learning the pattern doesn't always need to be for it to get into your improvisation. Sometimes, by not making that the goal, it creeps up into your improvisation even faster than if you were to make it the goal. If you take a pattern that's foreign to you, but you really like it, and you just practice it consistently for several weeks with no other intention other than just to master it, then by the end of that pursuit, you've just made your technique better. You’ve strengthened your memory, got faster ears, and your next transcription will come to you faster. You might even notice every time someone else plays that line in the wild.
ii-V pattern
Our next pattern is coming from the two five sequences chapter of the book. Let’s take a look.
So what's going on here? We're playing back to back ii-V-I chord progressions. This pattern is based on a concept called upper structures. An upper structure is a chord found inside of another chord that's based on any pitch other than the root. In this case, for the ii chord, we find the b3, Bb, and play the notes of Bbmaj7. This is our upper structure. We play this upper structure, Bbmaj7 starting on its major seventh, which is this Gm7 chord’s 9. And we go down the structure until we get to its 7 again, and then we come back up now for the V chord, C7, we're going to voice lead into another upper structure found on this chord’s b7, which will be the Bbmaj7b5. This structure is also called a Lydian grip, and it gets this name because a flat five is the same thing as a sharp 11. The sharp 11 is the quintessential note of the Lydian mode, and we call it a grip simply because these four notes would easily fit in one hand or “grip” if you were to play it on the piano. Finally, for the one chord, we play an upper structure minor seven chord from the third, Am7. These three upper structures voice lead really close to each other, and it sounds great on any instrument. After two measures of the Imaj7 chord, the chord turns into a minor seven chord, now functioning as the ii chord, and the pattern resets.
Another tip for longer patterns like these, is sometimes you can extract a smaller part of it that you really like and get a lot of mileage out of just that fragment by applying it to multiple different contexts. For example, let's say we really like that Lydian grip sound from the b7 of that dominant seven chord. Let's go ahead and just take that four note set of pitches and apply it on any dominant chord.
Now see about improvising different orders of those pitches within a static dominant seven chord.
Then try soloing using the Lydian grip over every dominant seven chord within a tune—the possibilities are endless.
Melodic cell pattern
The next pattern comes from the cells chapter of the resource. Let’s take a look.
So what's going on here? This is a descending 4-3-1-5 cell. It's really an inversion of its base form, the 1-3-4-5,. But for this cell, we play this instead and modulate it up and down in half steps.
An important tip, whenever you're working on patterns that rapidly modulate in half steps, always consider modulating them in other intervals as well. During your practice sessions, you'll find that this creates exciting and brand new colors. Try taking this cell in whole steps, minor thirds, major thirds, and more.
Not only is this really cool and fun to hear, but also the extra work that this takes for your brain to do it will cement it further into your memory in the long run.
Hexatonic pattern
So let's get into the final pattern of today's video. This is a hexatonic pattern found in the last chapter of the resource.
Each measure is a cell based on a pattern within a hexatonic scale. A hexatonic scale is any scale that's only six notes. In this case, we took a C major scale and removed the F. This scale does not have a widely recognized name, even though it's used somewhat often in a lot of new jazz coming out today. For convenience, we’ll just call it a major scale omit four. But again, this is not an official term.
It's an effective scale that has no avoid tones, and when you try patterns within it, you can unlock some really pretty sounds. In this case, we start on the seventh, B, and walk down two scale tones to the fifth, G, then skip down three scale tones to the root, C. Remember, the four is not included, then walk up one scale tone, then walk up six scale tones. From here, the pattern repeats.
It’s important to remember that no one is thinking of all this in the moment of improvisation. Which brings us to the last tip. Once you understand the logic of a line, all you have to do from there is just practice playing it and singing it over and over. After a few days, the ear will take over, and you will just instinctively know what note is supposed to come next. And if you don't, you’ll at least know whenever you make a mistake, and you'll quickly correct yourself and keep proceeding.
That’s all for today, but make sure to check out our resource 100 Patterns for Jazz Improvisation for more examples like this, and if you want to hear how Nathan plays through these patterns, check out our accompanying YouTube video, How to Practice Patterns in Jazz.
See you next time!
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