Wide Leaps: How to Expect the Unexpected

One of the ideas I've been working a lot on lately is widening the intervals in my playing. I've always been fascinated by players who use unexpected leaps in their playing. Some of my favorites include trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianists McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock, and guitarists Jimmy Raney, Nathan Page, and Rodney Jones. (As a quick aside, I studied with Rodney for three years in the mid 1990's. He completely overhauled my playing and made me understand the guitar and music on a much deeper level. Check that link out above!!)

This exercise consists of moving through the diatonic major scale (in G) using a parallel arpeggio. The arpeggio itself is built with two ascending P5th leaps followed by a descending m3rd. In other words it goes Root, 5, 9, (down to) 7 throughout.

In the first line below, you'll play the arpeggio through each step of the scale in order (2nds). After that, the subsequent lines you can break the scale up in 3rds, then 4ths in the next line, 5ths in the next, and so on. 

I took into consideration a particular range on the guitar. For non-guitarists, you should also think about the range in which you'll play these exercises. I'm quite sure you will have to modify the lowest and highest notes depending on your instrument. But the idea can remain the same. 

For the guitarists here, I've intentionally left out fingerings simply because there are several ways to play these exercises. But I will say that I personally like to think of the guitar horizontally first, because it's the most linear and logical way in which I see the fretboard. In doing the exercises below, I generally play horizontally across the fretboard for as long as possible, switching to different string sets when needed.

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As with all of the exercises I give, they're meant to be a starting point, internalized on a mechanical level first. My hope is that this will give you a technical means to expand your vision of the instrument and train your ear to hear in new directions. So don't just take these at face value. Do something else with them as you unfold with practice.  After a while, you'll be able to create some very interesting and unexpected leaps in your playing with relative ease.

If you have other ideas about this concept, let me know about it! Connect with me below and share your ideas!
 
Happy practicing!!