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Well, we've covered the basics ofimprovisation vocabulary, chords andscales, grammar, the way harmony moves,content, the stories that we tell in ourimprovisation.Let's turn our attention now to the songsthat we play.these are important, we don't choose themlightly we choose them, because wepersonally like something about the song.And we want to show it to the listener.So, in much the same way, you know mightdo the same thing if you have a visitorcome to your house.To see your new house, and you would, forinstance, walk them over and show themthe view from the window of the garden.And then take them into the new kitchenand show them this fancy new refrigeratorthat you've got and so on.Well, we want to do the same thing withthe songs that we play.There are elements in the song, that the

composer used to create it.for instance we might want to show themin the first section of the song thereare guidelines that dominate the, themusic.And in the second section they'rechromatic genes, chord changes that aregoing on.we, we want to, that's the thing, thoseare the kinds of things we want to showto the listener.Just like we would in in showing somebodyaround out house.

We want to, you know, have, help themlearn what's going on in this compositioneven if they don't understand literallywhat a guideline is we want want them tohear it.And understand that that's an importantelement in the song.There is another element to songwriting.The composer is not only usingcompositional, you know, techniques.But there is also what you might say is amood or a character that every song has.And this is sort of like, compare this to

what an actor is, is handed when he takeson a new role in a play.Maybe in today's play, he plays a witty,sophisticated, funny character who's veryenergetic and full of laughs.And next week's play, he may play a sad,melancholy character who has a lot ofproblems.So the actor, you know tries to stay incharacter.

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During the performance of each play andmake sure that the, the mood and feel ofthat character comes across to theaudience.And we do the same thing with the song,every song has some kind of mood to itand some kind of personality.It may be a bright, you know, quick anddancing kind of piece or it may be a verypeaceful, beautiful piece, or it may be adark, sad, minor piece.every song you play will have acharacter, and you'll want to knowconsciously, what it is, and say, okay,my, my job is to show this song to thelistener.I'm going to show the listener thecompositional elements that are in itand, I also need to show them the moodthat the piece has.And what it's, what it's feeling is like.And, that's something that, you know, Ithink about trying to stay in character,just the way an actor tries to stay in

character when they're acting a part.I try to stay in character with that songnot only when I play the melody, chorus,but also when I improvise on it as well.So let's take a look at a song, this iswritten by a friend of mine, composerCarla [INAUDIBLE] It's called Ojos deGato.It means eyes of the cat.And we're going to walk through thissong.I'm going to play it on the piano andtalk about the different elements of the

song.So that by the time we're finished withit we'll have a lot of things at ourdisposal, things that we can feature.When we play this song to help sell it tothe listener, who listens to us play.[BLANK_AUDIO] I'm going to play Carla'ssong, Ojos de Gato, and the first timeI'll just play it all the way through.And we're going to, then, get a sense forwhat kind of song it is, what mood ithas, and so on.So, here goes.

[MUSIC][MUSIC][MUSIC].Okay, so we can draw some conclusions.it's a short piece, and it's got a verysimple melodic theme, [MUSIC] that keepsrepeating throughout the song.it's a slow, straight eight, kind ofbossa nova time feel.

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And in terms of mood it's kind ofmelancholy and sad.It's in minor for the first half of thesong, so I think that kind of is a usefuldescription of the song, so as we getready to play more on it.So, the next thing we want to do is takea look at the chord scales, make sure we,we know which scales we're supposed to beusing on these chords.And in fact, we have a bit of a questionright here on the first chord.[MUSIC] because normally on an A minorchord symbol, we would be, want to seewhat is happening with the sixth.Is it the natural sixth?[MUSIC] Or is it a lowered sixth?[MUSIC] And it turns out that both ofthem are there in the music.So we have to decide which one is moreimportant.So is it the F natural?[MUSIC] Or is it the F sharp?[MUSIC] Well, one piece of evidence is

that the F only lasts for one beat, butthe F sharp goes for the whole two bars.So, that tells me, anyway, that it'sgoing to be [MUSIC] the F sharp is goingto be the note we'll want.And that makes it the Dorian scale onthat A minor chord.Next we have an F major.And the question is, is it going to beLydian with a B natural or Ionian withthe B flat.Well, there's a B natural in this scale,before it.

So, that's going to carry over into the Fmajor chord and make it Lydian, [MUSIC].When we get to the B flat chord over A,again its Lydian the raise four is rightthere in the melody.[INAUDIBLE],[MUSIC].Right?And now we come to another unusualsituation.look at the harmony first.It's a D minor with a natural 7 in it.So, it's one of those scales that doesn't

occur too often, it's the melodic minor.[MUSIC].[MUSIC] It's not as common as the tencommon scales that we covered in thesecond week, but it does come upoccasionally.So, that's the chord, but meanwhile she'sdone something in the melody.[MUSIC] She's managed to work in a majorthird on a minor chord in that melody.

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Now, we accept that, it sounds harsh butwe've none the less accepted it's not thewrong note because we've gotten used tothis pattern in the melody.[MUSIC] [MUSIC] See, because we've gottenused to it, even when it comes in kind ofon the harsh side, we say, oh yeah,we're, we've heard this before.We know this is what's supposed to happenhere.So, that's the chord scale's, it'sgoing to be the D minor [MUSIC] melodicminor.Now, we switch now to [MUSIC] C7 flat 9over B flat.What does it sound like to you?It sounds like a diminished chord, veryobviously, and if you look at the notesin the scale, in the chord, and the notesin the preceding.you can see that we're going to wantsymmetrical diminished [MUSIC] becausethere's a A natural here that'scontinues, wants to continue on into the

next one.So, this is going to be C7 flat 9 over Bflat with [MUSIC] with symmetricaldiminish scale.[MUSIC] Next, we come over to B over Bflat.Well, very quickly we see that the Fnatural [MUSIC] is the raised 4.So, that makes it Lydian.Same is true of this one.[MUSIC] Again, we have the Lydian.[MUSIC] Raise, raise four in the, rightin the melody, and even on the last

measure of B-flat major.[MUSIC] Again it's Lydian.So, those are all the chord scales forthe song.Now we want to determine how the songbreaks down.what are the sections, does it Break downinto four bar, or eight bar phrases justwhat is going on compositionally?So, I'm going to play it all the waythrough, and you try to determine, howlong is the first section, or a secondsection, and so on.

How does it break down?Here we go.[MUSIC] .[MUSIC][MUSIC]So, what do you think?How long is the first section of thesong?for me the answer is eight bars.usually the sections represent a chord

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progression that runs its course andcomes to rest, and then it feels likewe're starting something new.Well, that section can be a 2-bar phrase,a 4-bar phrase, an 8-bar phrase, they'realmost always even numbers of bars.Occasionally, you'll find a 3 bar phraseor a 5 bar phrase.But most of the time, they're evennumbers of bars.2, 4, or 8.In this case, the 8 bars kind of gotogether.And let's look at what's, going on there.first of all, there's a pedal.[MUSIC].[MUSIC] So that's one thing that wenotice compositionally.There's an A pedal to that whole eightbars.Also let's look at how the scale, chordscales change from one chord to the next.The first one, [MUSIC], the A minorDorian.

When it goes to the F Lydian, there'sonly one note changes.[MUSIC] That F sharp becomes F natural,and then when we go to B flat Lydian,again, only one note changes, the Bnatural goes to B flat.[MUSIC] [SOUND] And then, [SOUND], we getthis rich melodic minor to kind ofconclude this progression.So, that's what's going on, those arethings we can feature during the first 8bars of the song.In the next section, it's also 8 bars.

We have, also, a pedal [SOUND].[MUSIC]Alright.So so once again, we have a pedal that'sjust featured.And we have now major sounding chords,instead of minor [MUSIC].[MUSIC] Sounding, we instead have thisrich sound then we have a B major.So, it's a brighter more major soundingsection that leads us back to the top.[SOUND] To go back to the minor again.So, that gives us a lot to work with in

this song when we get in front of a bandand we're going to solo on it.there's lots of compositional things thatwe can feature and we also of course wantto feature the overall mood and style ofthe piece.We're going to play simple melodies thatare lyrical and, leave lots of spacebetween phrases, just the way Carla didwith the melody, when she wrote the song.

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