Anatomy of a Standard - "Giant Steps"

Jamie Taylor takes the fear out of John Coltrane's Giant Steps with a focused 30-minute class built around two purpose-built etudes. Nearly sixty years on, this tune remains a rite of passage for improvisers — and while there's no way to simplify it, there are ways to unlock it. Think of this class as 'first steps' to Giant Steps.

In the full 30m33s class

• Two bespoke etudes demonstrated at different tempos, then broken down into specific line constructions
• Using triads as the primary visual and aural basis for lines — Jamie's paint-roller-to-fine-brush analogy for scales, arpeggios, and triads
• Harmonized scales as a means of improving fretboard knowledge, and how to connect triads with passing notes, sevenths, and chromaticism
• Practical pointers for memorizing the progression and melody — ascending minor thirds, descending half steps, and the two major-seventh arpeggios hidden in the melody
• The five melodic devices behind the second etude: seventh-chord arpeggios, chromaticism, enclosures, scalic movement, and tetrachords
• The note-counting practice technique, plus thoughts on phrasing and using silence
• Everything fully notated and tabbed in the accompanying 11-page PDF, with synchronized on-screen captions and synchronized Soundslice notation that follows the video performance

Musicians have played this tune in all keys and every kind of feel — some, like Kenny Garrett, intensifying it further; others, like Bill Frisell, transforming it into something more contemplative. It's probably not the first tune to tackle, but if you can play "Have You Met Miss Jones?", you're ready to have a go. The class is aimed mostly at the intermediate player who knows a few tunes and feels ready for the next challenge.

Read Editor Az Samad's detailed review