Jazz improv outlines - CBA fingering worksheet

[Johnny]

As I learn CBA, I've been trying to work in ideas and exercises from Bert Ligon's excellent book, Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony (1996). One of Ligon's recommendations is to practice three common jazz ii-V-I outlines in all keys.

I made a little worksheet with row-based CBA fingering (C-system) to help me internalize these outlines and practice moving each one through all 12 major keys.

A couple of notes:

• Each outline can be extended from two bars to four (eg, quarter notes instead of eighth notes: | ii7 / / / | V7 / / / | Imaj7 / / / | / / / / |)
• Practice with metronome click on beats 2 & 4
• Fingering indications are often personal choices and/or developed together with teachers. Feel free to change!

The worksheet is attached as a PNG and PDF file. I hope this might be helpful to other CBA beginners!

 

[bluesette]

Thank you for the outline. (I also play CBA C-sys).

On CBA, you can easely insert some dim7 chord on RH (or better on LH if free bass), as passing chords between (I) and (ii7).
eg. on Mac the Knife in C (I-ii7-V7-I) :
| C / / / | Dm7 / / / | G7 / / / | C / / / |
then
| C / / C#dim7 | Dm7 / / / | G7 / / / | C / / / |
or
| C / C6 C#dim7 | Dm7 / / / | G7 / / / | C / / / |

The 1625 (I - vi7 - ii7 - V7 ) is also a nice one to start with since you can remain on the same key scale during the whole chord progression.

 

[Johnny]

You're welcome, Bluesette. And thanks for sharing those passing chords - very nice! Gonna give them a go some time.

Even during these early stages of learning CBA, I'm trying to reap some of the benefits of its isomorphic layout. Lots more to learn, of course, but it's fun!

 

[bluesette]

Hi Johnny,
Do you play std. (Stradella) bass or free bass ?

After playing std. bass CBA (C-sys) during about 50 years,, I did purchase a Roland V-Acc (FR1x-b) some 10 years ago.
My objective was to investigate in the various RH and foremost LH keyboard free bass layouts.
The quint free bass converter became a nice way to extend the std. bass but the C-sys parallel/mirror (minor third) LH converter is now my favorite.
One of the reason is the much easier way to finger major AND minor LH scales AND chords, including the dim7 passing chords mentioned above.

Below some more stuff maybe of interest :
pdf LH std. bass chord combining by Hans Palm
pdf RH CBA C-sys maj. and min. scales
png Common major chord progressions
png Common minor chord progressions

 

[Johnny]

Do you play std. (Stradella) bass or free bass ?

I play Stradella bass with my C-system. Someday I'd really like to try an accordion with a quint system or other free bass. Who knows, maybe I'll get bitten by the bug. Very interesting to hear about your path from standard bass the C-sys parallel/mirror (minor third) LH layout.

Thanks for sharing these resources, Bluesette, especially the Stradella chord extensions. I'm reminded of a helpful video by accordionist/recording engineer David Lange:



(The PDF is based on Lange's "Stretching Stradella" chart from the end of the YouTube tutorial).

 

[bluesette]

Thank you Johnny for the pdf, Link and youtube video.

I really like David Lange Tutorials and his Pearl Django combo music :


PS: also thank you Charlie Chaplin

 

[bluesette]

Hi Johnny,
Because of the usual trolls who polluted my last thread "The appearance of the bandoneon in tango music" with several off-topic comments,
I've decided not to answer or share anything else on this forum anymore.

You can give me an email address if you want to receive some more information on CBA.

 

[JeffJetton]

As I learn CBA, I've been trying to work in ideas and exercises from Bert Ligon's excellent book, Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony (1996). One of Ligon's recommendations is to practice three common jazz ii-V-I outlines in all keys.

Nice! I've got that Ligon book too, and it really made an impact on my playing. The patterns, sure, but also the concept behind them--landing on those chord tones like that, etc. Good stuff!

 

[Johnny]

That’s good to hear, Jeff! Very encouraging. I’ve also read good things about Ligon’s other books (especially Comprehensive Technique for Jazz Musicians) — but I’m finding there is *plenty* for me to work on with just this one text.