11 Essential Coltrane Jazz Licks on Giant Steps

Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps - 11 Essential ...

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MATT WARNOCK GUITAR 11 Essential Coltrane Jazz Licks on Giant Steps Giant Steps on guitar is a tough tune for any player to really get down, which is fairly obvious to anyone who’s tackled the tune in their practice room over the years. One of the things that makes the tune so difficult, is that guitarists  try and navigate the entire tune all at once when they first sit down to get the changes under their fingers, which can lead to frustration and wasted hours in the woodshed. A few years ago I taught a workshop at Pro Music in Belo Horizonte, Brazil that was an intro to Giant Steps, analyzing Coltrane’s classic solo, and provided an introductory look at the harmony and melodic devices that can be found in Trane’s, and other players’, solos over this hard, yet fun to play tune. Since the class loved the ideas we talked about during our time studying the tune, I thought I would write up the class material for others to check out as well. The following 11 licks are ones that I’ve taken from Trane and other players over the years, and ones that I find translate well to the guitar fingerboard. This is not the be all and end all of learning to improvise over Giant Steps, but it is a good start and will help you get off on the right foot with a tough chart, and one that a lot of cats use as a water mark for younger or up and coming players. If you want to go deeper into Giant Steps, both for comping and soloing over the tune, check out these two articles that I posted a while back over at Jazzguitar.be: Simplifying the Coltrane Matrix: Part 1 Single Lines Simplifying the Coltrane Matrix: Part 2 Comping and Chord Melody

As a bonus, here is a jam track to practice with over Giant Steps.

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Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – Second 8 Bars When teaching Giant Steps for people who haven’t tackled the tune before, I like to start with the second half of the tune, in particular the four ii-V-I’s that occur in this section of the chart. The first half of the song contains some very quick-moving changes, ones that can be very hard to navigate at first, so starting with the second half of Giant Steps can help get the sound of the Coltrane Matrix into your ears and get some solid patterns under your fingers before moving on to the tougher changes found in the beginning of the tune. To make things easier, I moved the ii-V-I’s so that they line up within the context of two complete bars, instead of being over the barline as Coltrane wrote them in the chart. Once you have these licks under your fingers, try looping the second half of the tune, applying these ideas to the harmonic rhythm of the tune, which can also be tricky to get down. If you are looking for ways to practice these melodic phrases, check out Jamey Aebersold’s “Countdown to Giant Steps,” it features each section of the tune broken down and looped with a rhythm section so that you can practice along with the

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For those of you who are completely new to Giant Steps, the tune uses what is referred to as the Coltrane Matrix. This is a series of chords that outlines three tonal centers, each found a major third apart from each other, in this case B-Eb(D#)-G(Fx). These three chords outline an augmented triad, and are the three maj7 chords that occur throughout the tune. In the first half of the tune, Coltrane tonicizes each maj7 chord with a dominant 7 chord placed right before it, while in the second half he uses ii-V’s to accomplish the same harmonic goal. Since these three maj7 chords are essential to hearing and soloing over Giant Steps, take some time to run through them if this is the first time you’re digging into studying the tune. Try soloing over each maj7 chord separately, then in a row. Sometimes having these three tonal centers firmly embedded in your ears can make the difference between hours of frustration and “getting it” when it comes to Giant Steps. So, let’s take a look at the first series of melodic patterns that you can use to outline the chord changes in the second half of Giant Steps.

Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – Honeysuckle This is one of my favorite licks, not just for Giant Steps but for any tune I play. It’s a variation on the melody to the classic tune Honeysuckle Rose, with an added Bebop note in the first half and an extra note at the end. Not only does it outline the short ii-V’s used in the second half of Giant Steps, but it also has a familiarity to it that can help make an extra connection with your audience.

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Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – 1235 The next phrase is one of Coltrane’s favorite ideas, on any tune, and one that he used a lot during his solo on Giant Steps. This idea uses the Root, second, third and fifth note of each chord, which is basically a triad with the ninth added in, or the second in this case since it’s in the lower octave. Using 1235 is not only a great idea during the second half of Giant Steps, but also for those tricky, rapidly moving chords in the first half of the tune. So, take some time to really nail this sound, it will come up time and again when you solo over this, or any other difficult, tune.

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Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – Chromatics The next melodic idea is very similar to the last, except that an extra chromatic note has been added between the 5 of the first chord and the tonic of the second chord, and the same between the second and third chords as well. The rhythm used is two eighth notes followed by a triplet, but for a little variation and to get more mileage out of this lick, you can play each five-note phrase as a triplet first, followed by two eighth notes. Sometimes doing something as simple as altering up the rhythm for any lick you know can allow you to stretch out it’s usage over the course of a chorus or entire solo. Allowing it to sound fresh without changing the notes, just the rhythm.

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Now that you have both the Honeysuckle and 1235 licks under your fingers, you can put them together to add another level of interest to your Giant Steps soloing. To make the transition smoother between the first and second bars, I’ve adding in a little chromatic connector between the fifth of the V7 chord and the tonic of the Imaj7 chord. Connecting these short ideas to form longer phrases is something that Coltrane was a master at, and one that you will need to get under your fingers in order to fully outline the changes of Giant Steps, without just running patterns and exercises over the entire tune. Because of this, take time to work on connecting these, and any patterns you know, over these changes. It will take some time to sound smooth, but will be worth any hours spent in the practice room once you get it down.

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Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – Bebop Scale Descending Now that we’ve looked at outlining each chord in the phrase, we can check out an idea that will allow you to use one scale for each key in the progression, the Bebop Scale. You can see the corresponding Bebop Scale for each key below, as well as one fingering for each, but make sure to learn the Bebop Scale in each key in multiple areas of the neck so you are never forced to leap to the next key during your solos. If this scale is new to you, check out my article on “Bebop Scale Fingerings for Jazz Guitar,” for more fingerings and information. As well, if you are looking to spice up your Bebop Scale lines over Giant Steps, or any tune, check out my article, “21 Bebop Scale Patterns for Jazz Guitar.”

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To finish up our look at the second half of Giant Steps we’ll combine the descending Bebop Scale with the 1235 lick from the earlier example. This lick has a lot of notes in it, each bar is filled with eighth notes, so make sure to go slow when first getting this idea down in the practice room. In order to make it sound less like an exercise when you’re ready to bring it to your solos, you can try altering the rhythms, leaving out notes, mixing it up with the Honeysuckle idea, or anything you can think of to take this idea from the realm of an exercise and use it to create interesting and fun to play lines in your solos.

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Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – First 8 Bars The first eight bars of Giant Steps is a lot harder than the second half, which is why I started the class working the tune backwards, second half then the first half.

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sound of the three different tonalities, B-Eb-G, you’re ready to move on to studying the rapidly moving chords that occur in the first eight bars of the tune. In order to get these ideas down solidly, make sure to practice slow, as slow as you need to, in order to allow each chord to sink into your ears and each lick to work it’s way into your fingers. There is no tempo that is too slow in the practice room, so if you need to work on it at 8th note equals 30, then go for it. The important thing is that you get these ideas down firmly into your vocabulary, not how fast you can play them, at least at this point in the game. So, let’s dig into the first eight bars of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps!

Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – 1235 with Bebop Scale When studying the first half of Giant Steps, since the chords move faster and it’s much harder to navigate than the second half, in the class we stuck to using one idea on each of the different dominant chords in the progression. In this case we looked at the lick 8-7-b7-8, for each 7th chord in the progression. In this first example, that melodic phrase is paired up with 1235 over each maj7 chord in the first 8 bars. For space considerations, I’ve only written out these ideas over the first four bars of the tune, make sure to practice them over the second four bars as well to gain the most out of each exercise and pattern in this section of the article.

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Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – Triad 1 with Bebop Scale One of the easiest, yet most effective, patterns you can use over Giant Steps is the plain ole’ triad. In this case, you are going to run up the triad and back down before moving on to the Bebop Scale pattern over each 7th chord, producing a 1353 triad pattern for each maj7 chord in the progression. Since the triad is going to be the basis for the next three licks, make sure to take the time to get comfortable with it before moving to the next example. Also, if you are unfamiliar with triads in a melodic sense, you can refresh your knowledge with my article, “Triad Fingerings for Jazz Guitar.”

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Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – Triad 2 with Bebop Scale This second triad pattern starts on the third of each maj7 chord, and uses the intervals 3-1-3-5, before moving on to the Bebop Scale idea over each dominant chord. This is a simple way, altering the intervals slightly, to change up any triad or arpeggio, but it can go a long way in allowing you to develop a solo that has a sense of familiarity to it, while at the same time not getting old or stale because you’re returning to the same melodic devices with each chorus.

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Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – Triad 3 with Bebop Scale Since we started the last lick on the third, you can probably guess what’s coming next. That’s it, starting the triad on the fifth and then returning back to that starting note through the third of the chord. Since the last note of the Bebop Scale idea is the same note as the next starting triad, I’ve added a tie at the end of the first and second bars to avoid a repeated note. You can use the repeated note if you like as well, but some people find it awkward to play and tricky to get the rhythm tight in this case, so you have the option of the tie between those two notes as well.

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Coltrane Jazz Lines on Giant Steps – Descending Scale The last lick uses a simple, yet highly effective, technique, a descending major scale for the first, second and fourth scale in the progression. To avoid any awkward shifts, you can use the 1353 triad pattern to connect the D7 and Bb7, as well as over the Ebmaj7 at the end of the first line. Sometimes the simplest things are the ones that sound the best, and this is a case where going simple can not only help you navigate these tricky changes, but can make your solos sound solid, with each chord in the progression properly outlined at the same time.

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Getting these licks under your fingers and into your ears isn’t going to make you a master of Giant Steps overnight, but it will get you on the right road to nailing the changes and creating your own melodies over one of the most famous tunes in jazz history. Take some time to explore these ideas in your practice room. As I told my class, not a lot of people will call Giant Steps on a gig, but being able to navigate these changes will allow you to inject them into your solos on other tunes. As well, all of these melodic phrases can be used on any tune that has a lot of fast-moving changes such as Jordu, Confirmation, Rhythm Changes and others,

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level with many different tunes, not just Giant Steps.

Do you have a favorite Giant Steps lick? Share it in the comments section below.

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