Tenor
Saxophone (B Flat)
Donna by Starlight
In this lesson I am demonstrating how to take a 251 phrase and manipuate it to
t another entire chord progression.
The phrase could be one you have transcribed, or in this case it's the 1st phrase
of Charlie Parker's Donna Lee.
The chord progression I will t it into here is Stella By Starlight.
There are many ways of doing it, and the real fun & creative part is nding your
own way, clearly inspired by the source material.
1. Source material
"Donna Lee" 1st phrase
G7
C7
B (9)
You should practice this phrase in all 12 keys before carrying on!
© Dave O’Higgins 2019
Tenor Saxophone (B Flat)
2. Manipulated material
Major 251
Dm7 G7 (9) C
Minor 251
5 D G7 (9) Cm6
Dominant 7th
9 C7
Minor 7th
10 Cm7
In the following etude you'll see sometimes I use these manipulated materials verbatim.
Other times I have made "musical" changes, such as:
i) miss out the rst eigth or quarter note (bars 5, 9, 13)
ii) change the rhythm (bars 8, 14-15, 23)
iii) add descending diatonic scale (bars 9, 18, 21, 23) or chromatic scale (bar 13)
iv) used octave displacement to keep the line in a more manageable range, or to add interest
(bars 3, 26, 28, 30)
v) the last two bars I cracked and put in a different Parker lick for variety!
The idea is to get the maximum mileage out of this phrase whilst still exercising a modicum
of taste...... hope you like it and it gives you some ideas.
Tenor Saxophone (B Flat)
3. Donna by Starlight
F B7 Dm7
(9) G7
Gm7 C7 F6 B 7
5
9 C6 B7(9) Em6 F7
13 G6 Am7 B E7 (9)
17 A7(9) Dm7
21 Fm7 B 7 C6
E
F B7 (9) A7 (9)
25
Dm7(9) G7(9) C6
29
