Miles Davis - Milestones

Here is a transcription of Miles doing his thing on the tune 'Milestones'. Not to be confused with the modal piece he wrote under the same title.

No analysis for this one. I used up all my energy tabbing it out ;) Enjoy.

And what do you know, I forgot to add the chords. I'll get to that.
Also, feel free to point out any mistakes. I'm only human :) But I'm getting better!

Milestones - Audio
Guitar Pro File

The II - V - I

ii- Vb9 - II - V Analysis

This line comes from the final phrase of Stan Getz solo on 'I'll Remember April' with Chet Baker.

It is a great example of using chromaticism's and I hope to illustrate for you some key points worth observing.

Firstly. Beat 1 and 3 being the strongest, they are the ideal places to land your stronger chord tones (these are typically your (3rd 5th and 7th, the Root is also strong but I find 3 5 & 7 to be stronger). This way the listener will not get lost within all your chromatic passages and the underlying chords are still distinguishable, at a glance anyway.

Just so you know what I mean. Look at the first 3 bars above. Bar 1 ascends to 'D' (this is the 4th degree of Am7b5 and we have already broken our rule) fortunately it still works and as the line descend's to an A (the 5th of D7) in bar 2 our ears get a clearer picture of what is happening. On the 3rd beat we land on F# (the 3rd of D7) and the decent continues into Bar 3 ending this phrase on D (the 3rd of Bm7b5).

The rules aren't perfect and there are always exceptions but the more you listen to players who use these kinds of chromatic passages, you will notice how important it is to clearly outline chord tones on the strong beats.

The rest of the passage I will leave for you to analyse.

Quick tip. These minor ii-v's work just fine over Major II - V's. Practice them in different keys and in new positions.

The second image is an illustration of how I visualize the line. Most of the time I do not think in terms of scales, but chords and the notes that surround them. Here are the voicings of each chord that I see when playing this line.

The final 2 bars are a plain old D blues scale. You will find the final phrase in this line was derived from this scale.

I should point out, before I go. The first Tab indicates Gmaj7 even though the notes are outlining a D7 chord. This is simply because my chart for this tune calls for Gmaj7 in the final 2 bars. If you listen to the recording though, the bass player is in fact playing a pedal on D while the pianist comps Bm7-E7-Am7-D7(or some variation of the turnaround) so it makes for an interesting texture... I may fix the chord symbol on that tab when I have a chance.

Anyway. I hope you can take something away from this little lesson/rant/analysis :)

ii- Vb9 - II - V

Slow Version

Joshua Redman - Jazz Crimes

I transcribed the head to this tune not long ago and still haven't given myself time to analyse and see what I can learn from it. It's simply wild though, possibly one of my favourite tunes at present. All of the solos are played over an F#7 vamp aside from an extra verse in the second half of Joshua's solo. I might come back and post more about this one when I get my head around it a bit more. At the very least its a great technical exercise.

Ill Remember April - Chet Baker

Ill Remember April - Chet Baker (slow version)

This chart contains errors.. will fix soon.

This is a very typical sounding Chet Baker solo right here. Much of the solo is built with simple 8 bar motifs all of which logically conclude in readiness for the following phrase. There is not much to be said about the use of scales or chord substitutions. The vast majority of the solo is very 'inside' aside from some chromaticism's during the climax at bar 38. The only other thing I found particularly noteworthy in this was his use of the double II-V in bars 27-28. He has clearly surrounded the F# midway through bar 27, implying Am7-D7 rather than simply outlining an Am7 chord. A very typical device used among the Bebopers... Why play 1 chord when you can play 2 ?? Right? :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one.