John Coltrane was a great jazz musician, musical innovator, teacher and student (interestingly, in Philadelphia he studied with jazz guitarist Dennis Sandole). Giant Steps is one of his best known compositions and solos. It encapsulated everything he had learned up to that point in his career and included many of his enduring jazz innovations. It has been recorded by many great jazz musicians (particularly guitarists, for example, Mike Stern's solo and Pat Metheny's solo). It has been studied intensely (see a few references below) and the entire piece has been transcribed and is available (in the video above by Dan Cohen) as "animated sheet music" where the solo is linked directly to the sheet music. Finally, Coltrane's solo makes extensive use of arpeggios, the topic of my last few posts (here, here and here).
Studying Giant Steps is typically not a topic for introductory students. To even scratch the surface of Coltrane's composition, we would need to first cover the cycle of fifths, the major thirds cycle, the Coltrane Changes, modulation, block chords, Be-bop scales, modal jazz scales, chord substitutions, figured bass, II-V-I progressions and lots of jazz theory. All these topics will be covered in future posts, but that's too long to wait to introduce Giant Steps.
There are a number of approaches to soloing over the changes (see the references below), but Coltrane favored arpeggios. I will look at the John Coltrane solo on Giant Steps where the arpeggios and rhythmic variations are particularly easy to recognize and for which we have his basic solo written out for study (contact me if you would like the solo for personal study--many transcriptions on the Internet do not use the correct chord changes, see below).
What would be useful at this point is to listen carefully for the use of arpeggios in the video above and follow the animated sheet music, reading the notes as you go. I would argue that Coltrane uses arpeggios for a specific purpose in the solo, that is, to add dynamic interest (more on that in future posts). While you are reading the music, you will probably be distracted by the weird chord progressions. The sheet music is written in the key of C yet there are actually very few chords native to that key. Also, the lead sheet is written in one set of chord changes and Coltrane solos over a different set of changes. What's going on? If you find this distracting or interesting or both, read the technical note below. Otherwise, concentrate on what you are hearing and listen for the arpeggios.
What I would particularly like you to listen for are (1) the different patterns being used, for example 1-3-5-7, 5-3-1-7 etc., (2) what they sound like to your ear and (3) where do the arpeggios seem to start galloping along, propelling the solo forward. In the pdf file below I have written out the first eight measures of the solo (mouse over the image to see the floating palette and download the file--you can also find the pdf file and the MuseScore msc file here--opening the msc file in MuseScore will allow you to hear the Coltrane solo at reduced speed or listening now to the solo) and annotated the arpeggio and scale patterns being used to get you started (here).
Next, I would like you to play (or listen to here or if you download the msc file and play it in MuseScore here) the Mehegan-style (from John Mehegan's Jazz Improvisation book) arpeggio exercises written over the Giant Step solo changes (here).
It's really hard for me to imagine starting with the Mehegan-style exercise and ending up with the Coltrane solo. If you keep listening to both the Coltrane solo and the arpeggio exercise, you can start to imagine Coltrane playing this over-and-over-again until it becomes a hallucinatory or religious experience (maybe the same as repeated listening to a Bach Chorale). John Mehegan would probably argue that the point of the arpeggio exercise is to come up with "your" Giant Steps solo, not Coltrane's. But, this still begs the question of whether arpeggio exercises are the way to get there.
TECHNICAL NOTE
Giant Steps is essentially a collection of V-I and II-V-I progressions modulating through three key changes (B-G-Eb). The solo can be looked at in two ways. First, the key of Eb is changed to Eb-minor and the cycle repeats or, second, the modulation is dropped a whole step and the cycle repeats (A-F-Db)--the reasons are discussed more fully in the references.
In figured bass notation with key signatures in parentheses, the cycle is:
(B) ||: I (G) V | I (Eb) V | I |
(G) II V | I
(Eb) V | I (B) V | I |
(Eb) II V | I | (G) II V | I | (B) II V | I | (Eb) II V | I | (B) II V :||
I have divided the notation in parts (after the third Eb) because at this point, the II-V-I progression is very clear. Matt Warnock teaches the second part of Giant Steps first because the progression is clearer (see his references below).
To understand the first seven measures, we have to understand the Coltrane Changes. John Coltrane's early career was spent with the blues-bassed Eddie Vinson Band. In figured bass, the standard twelve-bar blues progression is
||: I | IV | I | I | IV | IV| I | I |
II | V | I | I :||
Going back to an earlier theme of mine, Coltrane became bored with the last four measures and began innovating and experimenting.
II | II | V | I ||
II (bVI) V | I (III) V | I (I) V | I ||
I (bVI) V | I (III) V | I (I) V | I ||
m3 P4 m3 P4 m3 p4
The innovation in the third line (the Coltrane Changes) forms the first part of Giant Steps.
For the solo, the key changes are simply replaced with (A-F-Db)--this isn't always correctly annotated in Giant Step transcriptions but is correct in the video above and in the Wikifonia transcription (here).
Coltrane studied the cycle of fifths, the major thirds cycle, modulation and II-V-I progressions intensely. Giant Steps, in my view, is what he learned and passed on to us as the product of that intense study. In doing this, he also pushed arpeggios and chord changes to the limit of their usefulness, after which he moved on into modal jazz scales, enclosures, outside playing (playing out of the arpeggio or scale notes) and avant-garde jazz. Through studying Giant Steps and other Coltrane pieces we benefit from his intense study.
REFERENCES
Matt Warnock
Giant Steps Subs
6 Essential Giant Steps Licks For Jazz Guitar
11 Essential Coltrane Licks
Simplifying the Coltrane Matrix: Part I
Simplifying the Coltrane Matrix: Part 2 Comping and Chord Melody
3 - 9 arpeggios
Soloing over Major II-V-I chord progressions
Jazz Guitar Chords - Coltrane II-V-I Substitutions
Dr. Ronald S. Lemos Shredding Coltrane Changes with the Basic Pentatonic Scale
Jeff Brent's Lessons Giant Steps Analysis
Giant Steps Composition (Wikipedia Page)
Dan Adler The 'Giant Steps' Progression and Cycle Diagrams
Jeff Bair Cyclic Patterns in John Coltrane's Melodic Vocabulary
BACKING TRACKS
Eric Watson plays Giant Steps with a backing track (uses octaves for the melody statement)
Chris Bieniek plays Giant Steps with a Backing Track (uses chords to build excitement in the solo)
Giant Steps (Medium Bossa)
Giant Steps Funk Backing Track
Giant Steps (In Small Steps) B. T.'s by Randy Martin Guitar (uses modal jazz scales)
Giant Steps Guitar Solo (over Absersold) by Ben Rick
Giant Steps (Coltrane) Julio Chumbinho HERRLEIN GUITAR
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