Thou shalt buy the album "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis, and yea, thou shalt listen to it over and over, and thou shalt transcribe every solo that every instrument performs on every song, yea even twice maybe, and thou shalt study them, figuring out what key and what mode they are all in. And thou shalt not forget the bassline to every song, for a good bassline maketh a pleasing sound unto mine ears.
Then thou shalt begin to practice them, until thou hast learned them all, note for note, and even until they permeate thy soul, and thy groove, and thy neighbor's soul, and thy neighbor's groove, until he say unto thee, "Lo! There goeth a man who doth both groove and solo with proficiency!" an he shall be edified in thee, and thee in he.
For behold, even the simple-sounding "All Blues" is a lesson unto itself, sounding like a straightahead blues, but instead of employing a IV chord, uses a minor I chord and the Dorian mode, if memory doth serve me correctly. And it is totally sweet, yea, because the bass line stayeth the same between the dominant I chord, which is in Mixolydian mode, and the minor I chord, which is in Dorian mode. And yea, instead of a V-IV-I as thou wouldst hear in a normal blues, it uses an altered dominant V, maybe a D7#5#9 or something, then an altered dominant bVI, also a Eb7#5 or something, then back to the same altered dominant V before returning to the I. Verily, it doth leave thee wondering if it is written in G major or G minor, but mostly doth leave thee with a sense of awe at how good Miles Davis was, and also Paul Chambers and John Coltrane and Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderly and that drummer whose name doth always escape me, for lo! verily they did that whole album with one or two takes per song, and nobody but Miles had seen the music ere coming to the studio that day, which thing doth astound and amaze.
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