Tim Miller Substitution Idea

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Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Hello IG, In this tutorial we’ll be dealing with a substitution idea that should breathe new life into your playing over a certain chord vamp. I ran across this device upon transcribing Tim Miller’s solo on Janek Gwizdala’s song “Mana” off the “Live at 55 Bar” record. What Tim did was play an F# major triad against...

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Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Okay, time to get playing! This first example is really dry and not overly creative, but it is just the right thing to get the sound of this substitution into your ears. It also shows you a simple but effective way to resolve the F# triad back to the Cm7 tonality. 

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Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Example 2 is a little bit more interestingly sequenced. Look at how the lick steps out of Cm into F#maj in bar 2, and is back “inside” on beat 1 of bar 3.

Media Length: 0:45

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Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here’s a little twist I added myself. My initial idea was to add more notes to the F# triad without compromising too much of its distinct sound (like a scale would do), so I expanded the triad with the notes D#/Eb and G#/Ab giving us a F#maj or Ebmin pentatonic. So for creating your own licks remember the following formula: From a min7 go up a minor 3...

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Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: And to round things off, here’s a nice little example combining the concepts discussed in this tutorial and my last tutorial, Eric Johnson Style Triads. As always, be sure to ask anything that’s on your mind regarding this material. See you next time!

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Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Now it's time to practice these licks to the backing track. Have fun!

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