Giant Steps – Melodic Chord Phrases
Take the tune off the treadmill and hear what the harmony is doing.
$14.99
Giant Steps is usually played at speed, as an obstacle course. Tim slows it right down and treats the progression as a study in unfamiliar harmonic movement, building chord phrases over the changes rather than racing through them. Along the way it turns up as a bossa nova and as a ballad.
Why you'll love it...
Slow enough to actually hear
At speed the tune is a test of reflexes. Slowed down, the harmonic movement becomes audible and you can start making decisions rather than surviving the changes.
Chords, not just single notes
The approach is chordal improvisation over the progression, which is far more useful for solo and duo playing than another run at the same eighth-note lines.
A forty-year-old precedent
Tim links the movement to the bridge of Have You Met Miss Jones, written roughly forty years earlier, which makes the harmony feel a lot less alien.
What's inside
- One video, roughly 13 minutes
- The harmonic structure of Giant Steps, taken slowly
- A detailed breakdown of the tune's harmonic movement
- Comparison with the bridge of Have You Met Miss Jones
- Chordal improvisation techniques over the changes
- The tune treated as a medium bossa nova
- The tune treated as a ballad
- Room to practice single-note improvising over the same changes
Is this for you?
Yes, if…
- You have tried Giant Steps and bounced off the tempo
- You want to understand the movement, not just survive it
- You play solo or duo and want chordal options over changes
- You are comfortable with seventh chords in several positions
Maybe not, if…
- You want a transcription of the Coltrane solo
- You are chasing speed rather than understanding
- You have not played through a jazz standard before
A tempered approach to Giant Steps...
Giant Steps has a reputation, and most of it is about tempo. It gets played fast, it gets used as a test, and it becomes an obstacle course for melodic improvisation. Tim is clear that this is fine if that is what you want from it.
This lesson wants something else. Slow the tune down, and the progression turns into a study in what to do when harmonic movement is not what you are used to.
Less alien than it looks
There is a typical movement going on underneath, just arranged unusually. Tim points to the bridge of Have You Met Miss Jones, written about forty years before Coltrane’s tune, which travels in a very similar way. Hearing the older example first makes the newer one considerably less forbidding.
Two other ways to play it
Once the changes are slow enough to think in, Tim tries the tune as a medium tempo bossa nova, and then as a ballad, with the melody sitting on top. Both work, and both are a long way from the sprint the tune is usually reduced to.
The emphasis throughout is chordal: building phrases where the harmony and the line move together, which is where the real value sits for solo and duo players. The changes are still there afterwards if you want to take them at speed. You will simply know what they are doing.
Questions, answered
Do I need to play fast to get anything from this?
No, and that is rather the point. The whole lesson is built on slowing the tune down. Speed is treated as one option among several rather than as the goal you are working toward.
Is this a transcription of a famous solo?
No. It is Tim's own approach to improvising over the changes, with the emphasis on chord phrases rather than single-note lines. You are learning a way to move through the tune, not a fixed solo.
How advanced do I need to be?
You should be comfortable with seventh chords in more than one position and have played through a jazz standard before. The harmony moves quickly even when the tempo does not, so some fluency helps.
Is this included in the membership?
Yes. It sits in the Workshop library, so members already have it along with everything else. Buying it here is for players who want this one lesson outright rather than taking on a membership.
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