Connecting Chord Tones

[JazzyTaz]

Hey guys. I`ve been listening to John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Parker, and Gillespie lately and I have a good feel for BeBop, but things just aren`t coming together in my lines. I`m a fluent reader, I understand chord/scale relationships, and I understand the modes of major, melodic minor, and harmonic minor scales. I`m actually a proficient improvisor when it comes to more modal music such as Davis' Kind of Blue or So What. However, when I take a look at Giant Steps, I`m left in the dust. Even the easier tunes are giving me trouble. I know I can just use chord tones, but there is only so much you can do with them. I need some creative ideas and examples for constructing lines. I try to stay away from learning "licks", as I tend to think more in terms of shapes on the fretboard than intervals in relation to the chord. For starters, lets say for example I run into a II-V-I in G:

|A-7|D7|GMaj7|

If you use only chord tones the entire progression, then your solos must really, really suck; there`s more to it than arpeggiating chords. Using voice-leading and corresponding modes, how would you construct your lines?

[WillGraefe]

I think that the next step is chromatic approach notes. Use neighbor tones to "walk" up to the roots, 3rds, 7ths, and any extensions. All of the bebop guys relied heavily on chromaticism.

[jfoster]

Indeed the half step approach note is great. You can also wrap the chord tones by half steps below and a scale tone above. For example:

C Major 7th : C E G B

For C play: D B C
For E play: F Eb E
For G play: A F# G
For B play: C Bb B

[arp]

: yeah sure.. try this arp idea as a basis for your melodic lines :

nomal arp eg Major is : 1, 3, 5, #7

so try this : 3, #4, #7, 9

minor: b3, #4, b7, 9

apply this idea to dominant also.

[arp]

arp said:

: yeah sure.. try this arp idea as a basis for your melodic lines :

nomal arp eg Major is : 1, 3, 5, #7

so try this : 3, #4, #7, 9

minor: b3, #4, b7, 9

apply this idea to dominant also.

You can also ude this arp idea for your comping.
eg: Major7 I 3 5 #7
C E G B

try this chord: 3 #4 #7 9
E F# B D

[Professor1]

I understand your dilema. It's not a new one. When I improvise, I do it on the fly. No "canned" solos. What does that mean? Well, you play what you want to play; you're interpretation of it. Is it always chord tones or passing tones? It better not be....but therein lies another problem. You run the risk of having it sound bad. Sure! Some solos turn out better than others, some are genuinely BAD ! But once in a while...one will turn out just like magic. There's nothing like that feeling you get when you know it was particularly good. Unfortunately, it always happens when the recorder is turned off or busted.

[jazzalta]

I think most of us have our favorite "licks" we pull out. Even the great Joe Pass repeated himself occasionally. I think the goal is to try to play what we hear. If we can hum a line we should be able to play it. But like others I rely perhaps too much on previous material when I improvise. And sometimes, I too have those magic moments when there's never a tape recorder in sight.

[morjaz]

Thera are some good ideas here for connecting chord tones...I've just been playing thru them...and in fact will learn them thoroughly and take them on board.Does anyone have further ideas?

[Professor]

I have found that the best method to learn improvisation is to improvise. I've been fortunate in that I play with a bunch of friends who let me take solos. Like I said before, most aren't "keepers", but the practice and experience of improvising on the fly is invaluable. Sometimes I don't even get told that it's my solo until half a bar into it already. So, it's think on your feet time. Because of this, I feel comfortable to take a solo in a much more complex content...the jazz big band. Just today, I got an email from the pianist about how good my solos were on the concert 2 weeks ago. So, if you want to improvise, the best practice is to jam often, and take solos whenever you get a chance.

[namaste]

Yeah, the Prof's right. When I practice, it always leans to the pragmatic or functional, i.e., where can I use it (scale, lick, improv line, etc.) in a song I know.

[morjaz]

Good to be told your improv. makes for good listening,Prof.It sounds like your situation makes you work quite hard,with listening and concentration ...and the work is paying off.
My chord work is where I'm improving mostly.my lead lines or connecting lines can be a bit ordinary and safe.I'm still inclined to stay "safe' but learn a few more "safe" jazz lines before getting adventurous.As I go along I try to understand why some things work and others dont.Voice leading in chord changes also.

[JerseyJazz]

I'd stay away from hard and fast rules like using only chord tones over the chord progression.

I think you can use them as a reference, but from there, what about the remaining scale tones? ( to use your example from above, if you are playing over a ii, V, I in key of G - G, A, B, C, D, E, F#,G)

And from there what about building a line focusing on chord tones from any of the chords derived from the key of G? (Gmaj7, Am7, Bm7, CMaj7, D7, Emin7, F#m7b5)

After that, what about building lines from more complex chords altering one or 2 of the chord tones. Am7b9, D13b9, etc....

Try using those forms as reference points, to build from, not hard and fast rules like "Here's a Dm7 chord, I better play something based around D,F,A,C or I better play a line based on the Dorian Mode, etc....

Those are great reference points so you don't get lost, but if you were say, painting a picture, you wouldn't paint red on top of red and blue on top of blue as general rule. You'd come up with different color combinations that were pleasing to your eye or to the eyes of your audience. Improvising is kind of like that to me. You are going to come up with some things that don't sound good to you and you will avoid doing those things in the future when you play. Conversely, you will come up with some sounds that really sound great against the Chord progression that is being played and you will add those note combinations to your bag of tricks and find ways to expand upon those ideas as you get more and more comfortable with the sound of that phrase over those chords.

Improvising is kind of like organized chaos. You have to have some clue as to what is being played underneath what you are playing, but after that, I think you have a lot more freedom in terms of what to play over top of various progressions than most people or teachers would tell you. For every rule that some bookor expert puts out there, you can find an example of great musical lines or phrases that completely contradict that rule.

[namaste]

Good post Jersey. I'm finding that it's been quite a journey this improv business. After I got tired of playing licks, scales, etc. I began to employ and hear a technique that Jimmy Bruno uses, i.e. hearing two tonal or key centers at once, polytonal if you will. The challenge is to connect the two tonalities and have them sound as one. I don't have it down completely yet, but I'll post examples later.

[JerseyJazz]

Jimmy Bruno's website would actually be pretty helpful to someone who wants some instructional material that pertains to learning how to improvise. Unfortunately, I believe his Hotlicks instructional videos are no longer available for sale. They are both very good for anyone who hasn't seen them. I'm sure that there are copies of them floating around on ebay or one of those online auctions sites. They are definitely worth a look and he has a very different view of how to go about learning to play and improvise.

I actually took lessons with him for about a year. ( I wasn't exactly Jimmy's best guitar student, but I took very detailed notes while I studied with him with the hope that one day when I had more time I would sit down and really woodshed the material I learned from him during that year.)

I'm a guitar hacker that has been hacking around on the guitar for a good 15-20 years (played without any real formal training on guitar). I only recently started to really study to learn how to read music for guitar and to really study the things I learned while taking lessons with Jimmy and it is starting to pay off. Unfortunately, I have a non-music related job and I don't get to put in the same kind of time practicing I used to have when I was much younger.

Actually, in order to improve my music reading ability for guitar (I played trumpet for years and I know how to read music from that, but as many of you probably know, the guitar is a very different animal) I recently went back to the basics and started from scratch with the Mel Bay guitar instruction series of books. I highly recommend them as well (there are a total of 7 books) I have been practicing that in conjunction with the stuff I learned from Jimmy and I am starting to really see how it all fits together. This will be my project for the next few years. Anyhow, I would highly recommend Jimmy's videos to anyone who is looking for a different approach to improvising and if you have an opportunity to study with him, I would recommend that as well.

[dkaplowitz]

jerseyjazz said:

Unfortunately, I believe his Hotlicks instructional videos are no longer available for sale.

Actually I know for sure Hotlicks has just re-release a lot of their VHS line in DVD format. And I rented Bruno's "No Nonsense Jazz Guitar" on DVD from Netflix a couple weeks back. It's a good video, though kinda' basic. I've not gone through all of it, but I don't think he gets into the polytonal theory very much. If he does, it's not very in depth.