Coltrane's Giant Steps Patterns

This transcription analysis decodes John Coltrane’s solo over “Giant Steps” to identify the most common patterns he uses to outline the changes as well as to to determine other insights from his improvised solo.
Mastering John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” is a rite of passage for jazz improvisers, featuring a fast tempo, fast harmonic rhythm (the rate at which chords change), and a structure which rotates around three main key centers.  I have read that the key to improvising over the tune is to outline each individual chord using arpeggios and simple patterns, such as 1235, 3135, etc.  This is a sensible approach, given that the underlying harmony (called “Coltrane Changes,” which I will describe in a future post) is the main feature of the tune, so playing mostly chord tones or simple scalar lines best showcases the underlying harmony.  
I thought it would be a good exercise to decode Coltrane’s solo over “Giant Steps” and determine every pattern he uses to outline the chords.  Having these patterns at my disposal, and understanding how John Coltrane connects the patterns, I start to think about myself attempting to improvise over “Giant Steps” (over a very slow backing track).
I did not bother transcribing the solo myself because I’m sure it’s been done million times, and given my skill level it would take a tremendous amount of time.  Additionally, that was not the purpose of the current exercise. I’m sure it would be useful one day to lock myself in my room one future weekend and transcribe it by ear.  For this analysis, I assigned each line a number based on the scale degree of the parent chord he plays over.  This way one can compare the patterns by chord quality no matter the what key center.  Most lines span half a bar, but some major 7th chords last an entire bar (the ones which proceed a ii-V in the form).
Here are my findings.  Perhaps Coltrane worked all this stuff out beforehand.  Or maybe he intuitively understood how the changes worked.  Hopefully by checking out some of the numbers below you can understand it intuitively as well and begin making music. 
Leave a comment if you would like the raw data emailed to you.
Minor 7 chords:
  • The most common patterns are 1-b3-5-b7; 4-3-b3-2; and 9-8-7-6.
    • The 4-3-b3-2 pattern works great over a ii-V progression since it utilizes the bebop scale and has good voice leading (if you continue down the scale you hit the 5 of the V).
  • He uses arpeggios about a fifth of the time, and plays lines of exclusively chord tones about a third of the time.
  • He plays eighth notes across the entire chord about a third of the time, and plays some sort of scalar or chromatic line nearly half of the time.
  • He starts a line on the root, 9th, or 5th nearly two thirds of the time.
Dominant 7 chords
  • The most common patterns are 1-2-3-5; 3-5-7-9; and 9-7-6-5.
  • He plays arpeggios 22% of the time and plays lines of exclusively chord tones a third of the time.
  • He plays eighth notes across the entire chord a third of the time, and plays scalar or chromatic lines half of the time.
  • He starts a line on the root or third nearly half of the time.
Major 7 chords:
  • The most common patterns are 1-2-3-5; 8-5-3-1; and (eighth rest)-5-8-(upper octave)3
  • He plays arpeggios over half the time and plays lines of exclusively chord tones over half the time.
  • He plays eighth notes across the entire chord nearly two thirds of the time and plays scalar or chromatic lines 41% of the time.
  • He starts a line on the root about half of the time.  He only starts lines on a chord tone.
  • There are also major 7 chords that span the whole bar.  The most common patterns are 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-9 and 5-4-3-2-1-2-3-5.  
Rhythm
  • Coltrane starts on beat 1 nearly 90% of the time when playing over chords held for half a bar.  When he doesn’t, he usually plays an arpeggio with the root starting on the and of 1, then plays 357 as a triplet.
  • On chords held for a full bar, Coltrane starts on beat one 100% of the time.
Conclusions:
  • There is nothing fancy here: no altered dominants, no playing upper extensions. Just simple arpeggios and scalar ideas.  
  • There is a lot of repetition of phrases in the solo.  For example, the second and third bars of the second and third choruses are identical (Gmaj7-Bb7-Emaj7).  Additionally, the second bars of the second and fifth choruses are identical.  And the sixth bars of the first and second choruses….
  • Even if some phrases aren’t strictly identical, many are close.  There are many lines that have just one rhythmic or note difference. For example, while Coltrane plays 5-4-3-2-1-2-3-5 over a full bar major 7th chord, he plays 5-4-3-2-1-2-(eighth rest)-5 over a different major 7th chord.  Or he will insert a triplet while playing over an arpeggio rather than playing eighth notes.
  • The moral of the story is you don’t need to know a million patterns, just start by learning Coltrane’s most used patterns and then change them up slightly.  Create your own patterns that sound good to give your own voice to the improvisation.
Improvising over these changes is a useful skill to practice, not just so you can show off to your friends by soloing over “Giant Steps.”  One can play Coltrane Changes over other Coltrane tunes as well as superimpose the changes over the first four bars of a blues, or a 6-2-5-1 progression (”All the Things You Are,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” list goes on), or a turnaround, or when you have a I chord held for several measures.  This works because the harmony of Coltrane Changes cycles around the circle of 5ths until you end up back where you started- so you can use this anytime you want to get an “outside” and then resolve smoothly.  
One of my favorite examples of this is a version of “Jingle Bells” over Coltrane Changes…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGGo4cNNTL4


Comments

Post a Comment