Thinking Outside the Box

John Stowell teaches how to play outside the tonality on the page — introducing dissonance and implied harmony in a controlled, musical way. Covering inside and outside chord substitutions, improvising with triads, and harmonic and melodic minor colors, John shows how to take an existing set of changes and alter them, pointing to outside players like John Coltrane and David Liebman as listening references. This master class was broadcast live from the Cadenza Academy in Portland, OR.

What's covered

• Outside playing over modal tunes (think So What or Impressions) where the harmony sits on one minor chord for bars at a time
• The implied V chord — superimposing an A7 sound over D minor to create tension and release, even when it isn't on the page
• Four keys of melodic minor to use over a dominant chord (half step above, whole step below, a 4th and a 5th above), each with its own level of tension
• Practice exercises alternating between the inside and outside sounds, starting from simple arpeggios
• Improvising with triads and using harmonic minor for additional colors
• New chord voicings, including voicings that use open strings

For intermediate players ready to step beyond the written changes without losing the thread of the tune.

Other lessons in this series

• Thinking Outside the Box part II
• Thinking Outside the Box part III