The “Jazz Modal” Pattern

By Blake Angelos
Product Specialist
Product Support Group/ Technology Products
©Yamaha Corporation of America
Email: bangelos@yamaha.com

One musical style that is hard to find in the world of electronic musical instruments and software is decent modern jazz, so with that in mind, I offer you the first in a series of modern jazz patterns. This one called “JazzModal” was inspired by the modal jazz style made famous in the music by Miles Davis and John Coltrane from around 1958-1967 (among the most remarkable music ever created IMHO). It is based on a 32 measure song form (AABA) and broken into 8- and 16-measure Motif ES pattern sections. The key centers are d minor and eb minor. Can you Miles and Coltrane fans guess which song was the idea for this pattern?

The pattern itself is really only 4 tracks:

Track 4: Acoustic Bass (PRE3: 085 Ba: VeloGrowl)
Track 5: Piano (PRE1: 001 Ap: Full Grand)
Track 9: Drum 1 (PDR: 038 Dr: Jazz Kit)
Track 10: Drum 2 (PDR: 002 DryStandard)

I left the first 3 tracks open for all of you that have PLG slots already filled and might want to add your own stuff.

Tracks 6 and 7 have two tweaked Mix Voices. Track 6 is a variation on the “Jazzy Pick” jazz guitar sound. I added some “V-Distortion” to the sound with just a bit of overdrive and delay for a more modern jazz guitar sound. Track 7 is a variation of the “2ndPerc” Organ sound, and I added just a bit more drive to the AmpSimulator effect to but some “dirt” into the sound. Track 8 is the preset voice “SweetFlute” (PRE3: 124 Rp:SweetFlute).

Check the pattern chain out as well: This plays the entire form down and uses all of the 16 sections. Section M is a one bar intro, section N is and ending and sections O and P are two 16 measure drum solos. All of the other sections are either 8 or 16 measures of time. What I have included here are:

• The pattern file (two files as usual): (JAZZMODE.w7p, JAZZMODE.w8p)
• An MP3 that I created by converting a Pattern Chain to Song, then I played two solos, a trumpet and tenor saxophone solo, using the PLG150-VL card via the BC3 breath controller. This was recorded into Cubase SX 3.01 via an O1x and Motif ES, and then exported as an MP3.

Things to do:

1. Use the Transpose feature to move the keys around if you want to practice this in different keys
2. RESAMPLE small sections: Great way to create little jazz loops for other styles of music, especially if you use the turntable effect and resample at 22 kHz lofi.
3. Realtime LoopRemix the drum track to come up with new grooves.

Stay tuned for a blues pattern, rhythm changes pattern and brushes pattern!