“Why is a dominant 7th chord like a cheeseburger? Jazz improvisation made fun and comprehensible.”

Those in attendance on Wednesday at 1:30 pm in the Pepsico Recital Hall for Toronto-based trumpeter Chase Sanborn’s clinic “Why is a Dominant Seventh Chord Like a Cheeseburger?” were treated to a mix of wonderful jazz improvising and demonstrations together with the wit and wisdom of Sanborn’s teachings. His theme was to take jazz improvisation and make it fun and comprehensible to the attendees. Players of all levels took something useful home with them.

Chase opened the clinic with the jazz standard Look for the Silver Lining, ably accompanied by a trio consisting of Joey Carter, piano; Aden Bubeck, bass; and Dave Karnes, drums, who Chase stated were his ‘new best friends.” Chase played the relaxed medium swing tempo with ease, crafting long phrases that were reminiscent of a young Chet Baker.

Sanborn put everyone at ease with some mouthpiece humor, stating that when picking out a new jazz mouthpiece one should “play as high as you can and point directly at the mouthpiece maker.”

Chase prefaced his talk by saying that scales, chords, patterns, etc… are just tools to help one express themselves. They are part and parcel of a common language that all jazz musicians use to communicate with one another. As he so aptly pointed out, “you should not be interested in what I play, but in what I feel.”

In a very telling demonstration, Sanborn showed how a jazz musician must react and interact with every other musician on the stage. He played with each of the rhythm section instruments separately underlining the necessity of exhibiting rhythmic punctuation, time and space with the drummer, harmonic connection and time with the bassist, and being in charge of all these items on top of the unpredictable rhythmic comp of the pianist. His goal in demonstrating was to show that, when one pays attention to these details, the whole becomes better that the sum of its parts.

Sanborn is right on the mark when he expounded that jazz improvisation should be melodically driven, especially for the beginner. He suggested learning all kinds of melodies, by ear, studying each for the vital information it contains for improvising on the song. He demonstrated using the melody to the jazz standard “There Will Never Be Another You,” which is diatonic (within the key of the piece) except for one note. This note he labels a “pivotal tone,” which is essential for defining the movement of a progression to neighboring key centers. He remarked that we must train our ear to be “drawn” to choose these important melodic pitches by first avoiding them entirely! Sanborn played a solo on the song using only notes of the diatonic major scale and asked, “was that as good as the melody?” By initially deleting these notes from your improvising trials, it draws one to want to play them even more.

The meat of Chase’s clinic (pun intended!) came when he explained the answer to his clinic’s begging question, “Why is a dominant seventh chord like a cheeseburger?” As he explains, the cheeseburger, like a dominant seventh chord (or any seventh chord for that matter), is comprised of four parts – meat, cheese, top bun, bottom bun. What is the most defining element of that cheeseburger? The meat, of course! That symbolizes the third of the chord. What’s the second most important item? The cheese! Which represents the chord’s seventh degree. These tones define the characteristic sound of most chords and one must strive to hear, seek out and use these all-important notes as connectors and guide tones in our solos.

He further explained that a scale is merely a pool of notes to choose from and played a synthetic scale comprised of half step approach tones to the notes of a C dominant chord (CEGBb). This led his talk smoothly into the essential world of chromatic approach tones to given target pitches. He displayed how a B-natural played over that chord could go from being a “wrong” note to a brilliant chromatic approach to the pitch C. These tones create tension and resolution, which are essential ingredients to creating a good improvised solo. Sanborn appropriately demonstrated Clifford Brown’s extended use of this device by employing three different chromatic approaches to the fifth, third and root of a descending 54321 scale pattern, turning the simplistic scale into a sculpted bebop line! In summary, Chase stated that his attention is always fully devoted to four things – knowing a song’s key, its melody, any pivotal tones within the melody and a solid grounding in how to apply chromatic approach tones to the simple diatonic notes. He demonstrated this over a couple of choruses of “Another You,” clearly showing how these four elements will take a player a long way into becoming a competent improviser.

Chase wound down the clinic by challenging the teachers in the audience to simplify their approach to jazz. Using the tune Joy Spring he showcased the importance of the “less is more” approach, eliciting responses from the rhythm section as he left more and more unfilled space. This led to his final point pertaining to listening. Jazz players must listen to everything! His comment, “I never learned anything when I was talking,” really drove the point home! Chase closed the clinic with a swinging, eighth-note driven version of The Best Things in Life are Free.

As the session broke for questions, I turned to Drew Thompson, a sophomore at Webb City High School in Missouri, and asked him what he took away from the jam-packed clinic. He said, “I’m going to play a lot more thirds and sevenths in my solos!” You know, Chase, you’re right – a dominant seventh chord is just like a cheeseburger!