Sonny Rollins F Minor Lick from Strode Rode

I have posted a line Sonny played on this tune before, (off of Saxophone Colossus), it was a very juicy lick from the bridge of Strode Rode, and here is another equally juicy lick from the beginning of his solo.

The band drops out and it is just bass and Sonny playing over the chords, and it is basically just F minor, but not natural minor, (with an Eb) but melodic minor, with an E natural.

Here is the lick as Sonny plays it


And here it is written out, first at a slower tempo and then at a faster more Sonny-like tempo.

Slow Speed

bass lick tempo 100 4/4 |Fmin r8 e8 f ab g f e g |f e f c ab f b ab |bb ab g f e f g e |f2 r2

Insanely Fast

bass lick tempo 220 4/4 |Fmin r8 e8 f ab g f e g |f e f c ab f b ab |bb ab g f e f g e |f2 r2

There are a ton of things to learn from this lick:

1. What chord tones does he use? (hint - all of them)
   
2. How does he make those chord tones fall on strong beats?
   
3. Why does the lick sound so strong and resolve so well?
   
4. What non-chord tones does he use, and where do those get placed?
   

And this is just two measures of his solo, he goes on and on like this for two full choruses. Gonna post more licks as I decipher them.
Check out how awesome his entire solo is here via YouTube:

8 Ways To Play Triads ... in C Melodic Minor This Time

The major version of the triad exercises were such a hit, here are the same 8 exercises except this time in C melodic minor, which has a couple of curve balls in it.

Just a reminder that melodic minor has only one flatted note, the third, Eb. The rest of the notes are the same as C Major. The notes in the scale are:

C D Eb F G A B C

This combination of notes makes for some unique chords like the augmented triad (the one with the plus sign) and more than one diminished chord. That means this scale has a lot of possibilities so work these out and transpose them to other keys or play them in different orders and make up some new combinations of your own. Clicking on each image below will open a larger version for you to download or print.