All posts by Søren Ballegaard

Søren Ballegaard, Denmark 1975. Saxophone player (tenor- and soprano -saxophone), arranger, composer and teacher. Søren Ballegaard started at the age of 5 studying the piano, and till the age of 18 he played classical piano and gave various concerts. At the age of 19 Søren caught interest for the saxophone and the world of jazz. After three years intense study of the saxophone he got admitted to the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he finished his bachelor degree, only to continue with his master’s degree, performing artist, which he finished in 2005 at the Rotterdam Conservatory. During his study he have been studying with many excelent teachers and have been involved in many projects and master classes with many very highly skilled muscians and performers, among others: John Roucco (sax), Benjamin Herman (sax), Kenny Werner (pia), Ben Van Den Dungen (sax), Rick Margitza (sax), Bennie Maupin (sax), Played on North Sea Jazz festival with Bobby Sanabrio Latin/Cuban big band, Kenny Werner big band and Peter Herbolzheimer big band. At the moment Søren Ballegaard is involved in many different styles of music: Træben is a jazz quartet which performs the music of the muscians in the band in Holland but also in the international scene. Træben came out with their first cd ”Nordic Project” in 2009 and their second cd ”Push” was released in january 2012. Jazz trio Jazzsupply which mostly performs at private parties and receptions have been playing on many different locations and many different people. To name a few; more times for Former Dutch Premier, Balkenende, Queen Beatrix of the netherlands by the opening of the new Europol building in The Hague, further they have played for Shell international on more occations, GelreDome, Arnhem, Vip program for Andre Rieu and the netherlands embassy in Tunis. Jazz trio Jazzsupply plays around 100 till 150 performances pr year. Søren Ballegaard´s involvement in jazz education shows in the project Jazz4kids, where he is co-writer of much of the music and also plays the saxophone. Søren Ballegaard als works as saxophone teacher at the VAK in Delft, the musicschool in Delft where he have 50 students. In the pop music scene Søren Ballegaard runs the SB Showband, which is a band of proffessional pop and funk musicians accompanying singing artists. SB Showband played before a 2500 people public in 2009 in congres center in The hague with the artists, JMT and again in 2011. Further they played for a 5000 people audience at the Leiden Pleinfestival also in 2011 with the artists, Roselle, Mike Pieterson and Glenn Bell. Søren Ballegaard is also a sideman in various pop- and jazz -music projects, works occasionally with local big bands and also writes and arranges music for many kinds of different projects.
Chords, Diatonic approach, II-V-I, Intermediate, Music theory, Patreon Tier 5, Scales

Diatonic Approach 1 – Diatonic Approach Notes

Aside

This lesson describes a way to get diatonic approach notes into your playing by guiding you through certain exercises and progressions. It also gives you some prefabricated licks you can use directly in you soloing.

Diatonic notes are the notes belonging only to key which you are playing in. Fx. if you are playing in C major the diatonic notes would be the notes of the C-major scale.

Using a diatonic approach to improvising you will achieve a very clear sound in your lines without outside the key notes of course. I play for tenor saxophone in the scale of C-major.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_C maj7 scale
The approach notes works as follows: they are the surrounding notes of a target note.

In this example my target note is G and my surrounding notes are A and F which are also the approach notes
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_approach G

when i use the approach notes on a II-V-I it could fx sound like this:
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_II-V-I no1
Here you see i approach the F of the Dm7 first with the E and the G, my second group of approach notes are in the G7 bar where i play the target note C and uses approach notes B and D, and the third approach group to the end note, A where the approach notes are G and B.

Another example of the clear sound you achieve with only using diatonic notes.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_II-V-I no2
The first diatonic approach group is to the G on the G7 with the approach notes F and A. The second group of approach notes are to the D on the G7 with the approach notes E and C.

An exercise in getting the approach notes in your fingers could be.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_c maj scale approach notes w rest
This exercise spells all notes out of the scale with their surrounding notes/approach notes in front.

Try to play around with the exercise and approach different notes in this way.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_approach notes
Approach of the G, the A, the C, the E, the high G and the high A.

If you alter the rhythm of the approach note exercise you can play it more continuously.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_c maj scale approach notes
In this way you approach all the notes in the C-major scale all the way to the high D – the 9th of the scale.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_C maj scale to 9

If you play the approach note exercise moving down you will need to repeat the target note and use this as the first approach note.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_approach to cmaj scale down

now we have worked a bit on the whole scale you can get down to the approach notes of the chords of the II-V-I in C. Dm7 – G7 – Cmaj7.
We start with the Cmaj7 chord – the target notes are C E G B D.
start with this exercise but try as soon as its in your fingers to alter the exercise and randomize the target notes to get flexible in the execution.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_Cmaj7 approach notes

The target notes of the Dm7 chord are D F A C E
the same rules apply, learn the basic approach notes and order, then start to experiment.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_Dm approach notes

The G7 chord – target notes: G B D F A
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_G7 approach notes

To get some more functionality with the approach notes its important to use the method over basic chord changes.
These following II-V-I lines will show some ways to use the approach notes.
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_ex 1
First on the Dm7 chord i run down 5321 pattern to make a jump to the G of an Am7 chord on the Dm approaching F of the G7 with E and G of the Am7 chord.
I then play a 1235 of F on the G7 going up to a high E running down the G7 scale to G on the Cmaj7 playing 5321 ending on B and G as approach notes to A.

The next line of II-V-I:
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_ex 2
Starting with a run up a Am7 chord using the approach notes E and G to land on the F, going down the Dm scale skipping down to an A and making a double approach, A-C-A, to B on the G7 chord. Going down the G7 scale to approach the F on G7 with the G and the E. Going up the G7 scale to the Am7 chord on the Cmaj. Running up the Am7 chord to the 11th (D) using the B and the last mentioned D to approach the C on the C chord, ending on a B – over the barline to bar 4.

The third and last II-V-I example:
Diatonic approach notes - II-V-I Cmaj_ex 3
Beginning with an upbeat approach B and G going to the A on the Dm7 chord. Playing down the wellknown Coltrane/pentatonic run 5-3-2-1 of Dm7 approaching the F via the approach notes G and E. Going up the scale to the G7. Starting the G7 playing a subdominant Am arpeggio using C and E to get to the D. The D and B is the approach notes to the following C leading to the D. Going down the scale from the B ending on the G of the Cmaj7. Coltrane pattern 5-3-2-1 on Cmaj ending on B and G surrounding the A, jumping to D, playing in the last bar an Em pentatonic/blues fragment – B-A-G-E.

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