Why is Giant Steps so hard?

Why is Giant Steps so hard?

What makes “Giant Steps” difficult? The two main things are that it is usually played very fast (Coltrane’s original recording was north of 300 beats per minute) and that the chord progression constantly jumps from one key center to another, making it an obstacle course for the improviser.

Is Giant Steps hard on piano?

It’s tough for two reasons: The chord progressions are played fast, and they’re in three keys. “Giant Steps” is so challenging that Tommy Flanagan, the pianist on the original recording, could barely get through his solo before Coltrane took over.

What is John Coltrane’s most famous song?

1. “Crescent” from Crescent. Here we find Coltrane at the height of his powers, playing with perhaps the greatest ensemble in jazz history. In 1964, Trane stood betwixt and between the tonal music that had made him well-known, and the experimental, free-form jazz that would define his latter career.

What kind of jazz is Giant Steps?

Giant Steps (composition)

What grade is Giant Steps?

grades K-8

Day School. The Elementary Education Program at Giant Steps provides individualized programming for students diagnosed with autism in grades K-8.

Does Giant Steps have a key?

There are three of them in “Giant Steps”: B major, G major, and E-flat major. All the notes and chords in the tune come from these three keys. Plenty of jazz tunes use multiple keys.

What scales to play over Giant Steps?

GIANT STEPS CHANGES
As Mark Levine has pointed out (in The Jazz Piano Book and The Jazz Theory Book), this means that it’s possible to play the tune using just three pentatonic scales – F#, Bb and D major pentatonics, which fit all the chords from the II-V-Is in B, Eb and G respectively.

What kind of Sax did Coltrane play?

John Coltrane initially played a Selmer Super Balanced Action tenor, before switching to a Selmer Mark VI, with which he recorded his masterpiece, A Love Supreme.

What is Coltrane’s sheets of sound?

Sheets of sound was a term coined in 1958 by Down Beat magazine jazz critic Ira Gitler to describe the new, unique improvisational style of John Coltrane. Gitler first used the term on the liner notes for Soultrane (1958).

Is Giant Steps tonal?

To conclude: Giant Steps has three tonal centers, functional harmonic motion, and a melody that favors certain pitches over others. Therefore, it is not a 12-tone composition.

Why is Giant Steps special?

Plenty of jazz tunes use multiple keys. But “Giant Steps” is unusual because its three keys are as harmonically distant from each other as possible, and because the tune jumps between them constantly, never settling on any one for more than a bar or two.

How do you practice the giant steps?

How I practice GIANT STEPS – YouTube

Did John Coltrane have perfect pitch?

charlie parker, bill evans, john coltrane, and miles davis didn’t have it, as far as i know. and you certainly can’t get any better than those guys.

What kind of mouthpiece did Coltrane use?

Coltrane used a metal Otto Link mouthpiece.

What was different about Coltrane’s technique?

Coltrane tried to squeeze every possible harmonic implication into his solo – play every possible chord and every possible scale for each chord. This is still a vertical approach because we have chosen our scales and arpeggios based on the chord.

How does giant steps work?

The “Giant Steps” cycle is the culmination of Coltrane’s theories applied to a completely new chord progression. Coltrane uses the cycle in descending major third tonal transpositions in the opening bars and then ascending ii–V–I progressions separated by a major third in the second section of “Giant Steps”.

What scales to use over Giant Steps?

Did Louis Armstrong have perfect pitch?

He had perfect pitch and perfect rhythm. His improvised melodies and singing could be as lofty as a moon flight or as low-down as the blood drops of a street thug dying in the gutter. Like most of the great innovators in jazz, he was a small man.

Does Yo Yo Ma have perfect pitch?

This is a list of notable people with absolute pitch, or “perfect pitch”.
…
List.

What mouthpiece did Phil Woods use?

For much of his career Phil Woods played an un-modified New York Meyer 5M given to him by a friend in the 1950’s. The Drake Phil Woods model mouthpiece is an exact reproduction of this treasured piece of history.

What mouthpiece did Paul Desmond use?

Desmond played a M.C. Gregory hard rubber mouthpiece.

Why is Giant Steps so popular?

Recorded in 1959 and released in 1960, “Giant Steps” is iconic in part because it contains the first-issued recording of one of Coltrane’s most important compositions, also titled “Giant Steps.” It is also significant because it was Coltrane’s first LP to be released that was comprised solely of his own compositions.

How do you solo on giant steps?

How to Solo on “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane – YouTube

What made Louis Armstrong’s voice so raspy?

According to the biography Pops by Terry Teachout, Armstrong’s voice first became gravelly due to a prolonged cold playing jazz on a steamboat ca 1921. In 1936 and 1937, he had surgeries to try to repair his vocal cords, which had the opposite effect.

Did Charlie Parker have perfect pitch?

I get all kind of friction from people because they say, “I don’t have perfect pitch. How can I do that?” and I say, “You don’t have to have perfect pitch to do that.” Charlie Parker didn’t have perfect pitch, Von Freeman didn’t have perfect pitch, I don’t have perfect pitch.