What's your approach on giant steps?

[Jake Hanlon]

The Difficult part of the tune is the beginning section with the quick cycling through the keys. After that the tune calms down and it gets actually fairly simple.

There are lots of chromatic pentatonic scales that work over the first section of the tune that make going through it quite a lot easier.

Augmented scales, any of the key center augmented scales create interesting tensions.

Work on the arpeggios and the tritone subs

If you want a real challenge, start working on 26-2 or Count down, way harder then Giant STeps

[JohnW400]

I have a cd with Bruce Foreman shredding on Countdown. It's humbling. I read an interview with Larry Coryell where he mentions that he first learned Giant Steps as a slow 6/8 tune and then brought it up to speed

[mike walker]

Improvising on giant steps melodically is the tough part. The digitalpatterns arps etc should be a means to that end. Ditto for countdown or any tough sequence.

[jseaberry]

I have been more successful with Giant Steps by mostly sticking to the chord forms and playing diads or triads from the chord shapes. It is so easy to get lost trying to play single line solos, and it's so easy to fall into the standard 8th-note patterns, plus it helps you learn new chord locations.

[gratefuldeath]

Keep this in mind:

In the Giant Steps changes the beauty is mostly in the harmony and not necessarily in the melody. Coltrane was pretty much just sticking to arpeggios in his solo so that he could re-enforce the harmony. I think that this is probably the same reason why countdown worked so well, because he was implying a complex and beautiful harmony without a chordal instrument to back him up until at the end of the track, the rhythm section drives the harmony home to finish off the song properly.

Sure, it was played fast, but it wasn't that difficult to do, after all it was just arpeggios. This is why Giant Steps isn't really a showoff piece at all, I mean, it would just show off the harmony anyway.

If you want to be able to play it slower and more melodically I think you'd get the best results by just slowing the tempo down, but at that point I think the attention would be taken away from the harmony and the song would lose it's interest completely.

This is the reason why people like John Coltrane and Miles Davis eventually evolved into Modal Jazz. The soloist gets bored when it's faced with just playing arpeggios all the time, which is inevitable when you try and play quick bebop and post-bop standards like Giant Steps.

[matt sullivan]

Write down your cycle of 4ths/5ths on a clock face and then draw a triangle in the middle a Maj3rd appart. It will join up to your original key. Each of these keys represent you new tonic key centre. In the case of Giant Steps G, B and Eb. Now pen the roman numeral above the chord on the chart you will notice the v, i's and ii, v, i's appear in front of you. Sure you have to be on the ball to change that fast. I've also worked out that out of all the 3 keys the 2nd of each key is the only note that dosn't appear in any of the other keys so you could mess about with those notes. I'm all talk as I have no one brave enoph to try it out with me yet. It might sound awful. Ha ha.

[cosmic gumbo]

Tell him it's a song you don't approach until you're ready to do it on your own, otherwise it wastes too much time.

[Dookychase]

In the November issue of Just Jazz Guitar, in the review section, Wolf Marshall has either a book or dvd(can't remember) dedicated to Giant Steps.

[Bailz]

a good thing to do is play the melody until you 'hear it' strongly. then add in another note so you're playing the melody note and say the third, 5th or 7th respectively. then substitute the melody note for another note and play it round a few times. rewriting the head using other chord tones is also helpful. i use to just blast over it with patterns and scales but its a bit of an unmusical way of doing it really. I live and learn though!

im currently getting inner urge, dolphin dance and very early prepared for a Masters performance and find that playing the melodies over and over really helps. targetting the chord tones is also very useful. this is all only supporting work to aid in being musical while playing the tune.

maybe try playing giant steps as a bossa a la metheny. i do it like that in a duo. doesn't smash casual listeners ears in as much and leaves more room for phrasing and articulation. for me anyway!