Phil Robson

In this lesson Phil Begins by playing a piece of improvised music based entirely on the notes from the C major scale alone. After a short welcoming introduction and synopsis of what is to come, he then explains the thinking behind the piece of music as an exercise, bringing forward themes which remain central throughout the video. These include bringing to our attention that the scale in itself contains tension & release, strong & neutral notes, etc. and that developing the ability to manipulate cadences is crucial to the exercises to come & to playing music generally as an improviser. Robson proceeds to go over some basic information regarding the 3 scales which are the basis of the lesson, these being the major, harmonic minor & melodic minor scales, in order to firmly focus on the sound & different qualities of the 3. Offering some general advice on how to practice the scales, he quickly moves on to generating chord types from them. This is done by offering some practice arpeggio pattern ideas over 3 & 2 octaves before moving on to the main focus of harmonizing the scale in chords which is dealt with in depth. Beginning with chords constructed in 3rds & later moving onto ones constructed in 4ths, Phil offers many great examples of voicing variations including inversions whilst taking time to discuss modal music, comping & concepts of jazz harmony generally as he goes along. Being a firm believer that the student will benefit the most by really understanding the processes being used & then applying them to find more examples themselves, Robson therefore offers the conceptual understanding for the student to take these ideas as far as they wish to, without attempting to give every possible permutation himself. This way the student can then go on to finding many more voicings, patterns, sounds etc. At this point he reaches the crucial equation! This is explained clearly & in depth in the film but to summarize briefly, it is a system of finding modal scale alternatives to use with the various chord types generated by harmonizing these 3 scales in both 3rds & 4ths by treating the chords as degrees of the scale. This offers a fantastic new range of sounds and colors for improvising on chord types which are very familiar already such as minor 7th, half diminished etc. These scale alternatives can be applied to both chordal & single note improvisation & Robson plays many examples in his unique way, in order to inspire the student to look further into possibilities for all the chord types generated from these 3 scales alone. Whilst acknowledging that there are other types of scales not covered here, this detailed analysis of these 3 certainly covers a huge spectrum of the kind of sounds we find in contemporary jazz & music. In short, this lesson gives a solid tool set which could enable guitarists or any musicians to find a great deal of harmonic variation & a vastly expanded palette. The film ends with Phil improvising over the form of ‘So what’/’Impressions’ whilst including many of the sounds discussed earlier in the video. Running time: 94 minutes 3 pages of exercise in standard notation and TAB

In this masterclass, Phil tackles the subject of harmonic rhythm. After a brief musical introduction based on the chord sequence of the classic standard Autumn Leaves, he goes on to explain that harmonic rhythm, in a jazz context, simply means where the chords change from one to another, within the structure/form of the tune or song being used as the foundation. Phil has chosen to use simple turnarounds and a standard 2 5 1 type framework for his examples, although he clarifies that all the concepts given can be translated to more contemporary material. This is because the central theme of this class is the manipulation of cadences, and this is in some ways a continuation and expansion from his first video for Mike’s Master Classes ‘The Diatonic Equation’. Both classes, however, contain very different approaches & information. Phil was keen not to take a ‘learning licks’ approach to this subject and rather prefers to explain the concepts being used in depth, in order for the student to apply and explore this further. However, Phil will be supplying additional complimentary written material with the video. This will contain clear examples of the concepts being used in the class, which can be learned initially, in order for the student to fully grasp the principles being used. As the video progresses, Robson looks at various ways that small cells such as two bar and four bar phrases can be divided & broken up etc. and goes into fine detail regarding the harmonic & rhythmic changes necessary to achieve various effects of anticipation and delay. This is demonstrated over both major key & minor key turn-arounds. Another key topic within the video is on displacing basic and more complex phrases rhythmically within the bar. Phil gives clear examples of the effect that moving a phrase by one quarter note or one 8th note can have, especially within the context of repetition. Motivic ideas are also explored here, with ideas on how to develop phrases which are transposed in such a way that the melodic/rhythmic ideas are expanded upon, rather than simply duplicated. The latter section of the class explores playing 3/4 dotted rhythms & motivic phrases within in a 4/4 context. This encourages the player to begin to hear syncopated patterns which break up the two bar and four bar frameworks in a way which helps the student understand the concept of playing ‘thru the barlines’ in a way which is in keeping with the great jazz tradition. Ragtime, second line, Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane and more are referred to here. Finally, Phil explains that we have begun the journey into the exploration of harmonic rhythm with metric possibilities etc. being the subject of further studies and, who knows, maybe a further video from Phil in the future, although he adds that there are many sources available on this topic on the internet & indeed Mike’s Master Classes. Phil wishes everyone good luck and the video ends with a brief up tempo blues example from Robson. 6 pages of written material in TAB and Standard Notation Running time: 89 minutes "Phil Robson is one of New York's most brilliant Jazz Guitarists! You will learn a lot by checking out this class" - Vic Juris