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things in common. You can make some really great lines by mixing things
from Blues and Jazz.In this lesson I am going to look at 5 licks that do that
and talk a bit about how they are constructed and how you can make lines
like that.
All the examples are in the key of Bb, so they are thought from the Bb7
chord. Bb is a very common key for a Jazz Blues, there are numerous
famous jazz blues themes in Bb, think Tenor Madness or Blue Monk.
Since we are using the basic Bb7 chord then the arpeggio of that is also
useful:
But since we are playing blues the Bb minor pentatonic is also a useful
place to look for melodies.
In this lesson I am assuming that you know what a BB7 is and how to play
over it and is somewhat familiar with arpeggios, chord tones and a minor
pentatonic scale.
In the first example I am walking up the arpeggio from the 5th to the root
and from there we get a typical blues cliche that is using an Eb/Bb like
suspension with double stops. From there the line continues with a jazz
line that starts on the 5th(F) and skips up to the 9th(C) from where it
descends adding a chromatic passing note and finally comes to ret on the
5th.
Leading notes are a part of the Blues language aswell as jazz, even though
it is used a bit differently. The 2nd example starts out with leading notes
to the 3rd(D) and uses that before it resolves to the root. From there it
continues with a melody taken from the Bb blues scale, which is the minor
pentatonic scale with an added b5(E). The minor pentatonic line is finally
resolved to a 3rd and from there we get a small line ending the melody on
the b7(Ab)
The third example is a line derived from the good old Chuck Berry Boogie
Woogie pattern, but not used as a melody an octave higher. It then
continues down the arpeggio in bar 2 and ends with an encircling of the
3rd and a 6th skip up to the root.
The melodies that skips a 6th up or down are very common to the blues.
Usually the melody will skip between chord notes. If a melody skips like
this in Jazz it is much more likely to be resolved in stepwise motion in the
other direction. This is somewhat a type of melody that is much more
common or even specific to Blues.
Patterns of 3 notes are common in both styles, but the repeating 3 note
pattern idea is much more common in Blues (think Chuck Berry again). In
the 4th line I start out with a 3 note motief that is played twice befor the
line continues down the minor pentatonic scale to the root. From there it
goes on with a leading note line connectinfg the 9th to the 3rd and the the
first 3 note motief that now resolves to the 5th of Bb.
In the last example I am starting of with a line that is basically a jazz line
that is played with blues phrasing. First half of bar 1 is a D dim triad and
from there the line continues with a part of an F minor pentatonic scale.
The 2nd haf of the line is again using double stops and using the cliche
chromatic movement of a minor 3rd interval from the 3rd and 5th to the b7
and 5th.
I hope you can use my examples to get started making your own Jazz
Blues lines and explore that way of playing in your own improvisations!
The best way to work on the material I went over here is to take the
examples and trying to make them into my own lines. One way is to start
with a part of one of the examples and make a different ending. Another
approach would be to take a part of a line and compose 10 new lines that
use that part.
5 Jazz Blues Licks in F
Mixing Blues phrasing and melodies with Jazz chromaticism and harmony
can give you some really great dom7th lines. In this lesson I am going to
go over 5 examples and some exercises to help you get started exploring
this.
To be able to mix Jazz and Blues we of course need to have the material to
play both Jazz and Blues in this position. For that we need an overview of
the essential scales and arpeggios. Since we are mixing two genres we
need to get the tools to play each of them.
In the Licks I can then easier explain where we are pulling the different
parts from.
On the Jazz side of things we need is a scale for the F7 chord. Since F7 is
the dominant of Bb major that would be a Bb major scale:
And then it is also important to know the chord tones of the F7 chord, in
other words: The Arpeggio:
For the blues we can get away with one simple scale, namely the minor
pentatonic scale:
This position for the pentatonic scale is not the most common, but still has
some great blues options!
In the first example the opening phrase, and in fact the entire first bar, is
minor pentatonic scale with an added blue note (B). The second bar is
coming more from the mixolydian sound but then using slides to keep the
bluesy feel.
What is often the case with these more bluesy sounding lines is that they
tend to make less use of extensions and rely more on resting or resolving
to the notes of the basic triad.
Is it blues or passing notes?
The second example is direcly going in to the mix and we don’t get a part
that is clearly on thing or the other. The first part of the lick also uses the
Blue note, but now as a more jazzy row of chormatic passing notes. It then
continues with somthing that in this context sounds like F7 arpeggio
material.
In the second bar we get a descending scale run from D to A with a lower
passing note added before the A. The phrase concludes with a diatonic 6h
skip up to the root. A melody that is very common to Blues and Country.
Bluesey triplets
Triplets and triplet phrasing are part of shuffle and blues phrasing. Much
more so than most bop language. In the 3rd Lick I am starting with a
triplet phrase that is using the leading note to the 3rd and then continuing
with a melody outlining an A dim triad. From there it descends down an F7
arpeggio with an added passing note between the root and the 7th. This is
a bebop cliché that some people have even made scales out of.
In the second bar we have a variation of the 6th interval, this time from the
b7 to the 5th and from there the scale moves down the triad to end on the
root.
Double stops
The second bar is a phrase constructed from a repeated double stop idea.
Double stops are an integral part of blues repertoire(Think Chuck Berry).
This phrase is somewhat reminiscent of a Wes Montgomery phrase from
Smokin’ at the Half note.
The phrase above starts with an arpeggio run that ends on and emphasizes
the 7th of the chord. In the second bar it continues with another double
stop and a descending pentatonic scale run. This is resolved to the major
3rd and then skips up to the root, a very typical blues phrase.
Very often in Jazz Blues phrasing you will find that the blues phrases are
resolved. Since Ab and Bb both are notes with some tension over an F7 it
often works better in a jazz context to resolve them (mostly to the 3rd(A))
Bb Jazz Blues – The Basics
When playing over a progression like the Bb jazz blues you need to be aware of certain
things and be able to play different things so that you have the material you need to
really improvise following the harmony of the blues: The Chords, the Scales and the
Arpeggios. I have also added a transcription of a chorus of me soloing over the blues as
an example of using the material covered.
In this lesson I have made 4 choruses of exercises: The chords, the scales
that go with the chords. The arpeggios that are the melodic version of the
chords and finally a solo chorus which demonstrates how you might use
the other exercises when playing over the Bb blues.
To keep it simple I have kept all exercises in one position so that if you go
through the exercises you should begin to have a tool set to improvise over
the Bb blues in that position.
The Scales
In the 2nd example I added a scale to each chord. The way I am playing
the scales is that I start on the root and run up to the 7th, this gives you a
bit of time to switch to the next chord. This way of applying scales to a
progression is the same as you’ll find in Barry Harris exercises. It is a nice
way to add the scale in a musical way so that you hear how they spell out
the harmony.
The Bb7,Eb7,Cm7 and F7 are easily understood in terms of where they sit
in the key, since it is all mixolydian or dorian.
The E dim scale is in fact an F harmonic minor from E to E. You can see
how I arrive by this by looking at it from the Bb7 scale:
Bb C D Eb F G Ab Bb
For the G7(b9) you need to look at it as a dominant resolving to Cm, which
tells us that we should use a Cm scale for it. In this context the (actually
in most contexts) that means using the C harmonic minor scale. You can
use this approach to determine what scale you should use for any auxiliary
dominant.
The Arpeggios
When playing over changing harmony the best way to really follow the
chords is of course to use the notes of the chords in your solo. Therefore it
is very important to be able to play the chords of the progression as
arpeggios. In example 3 I have written out the arpeggios in this position.
You should practice the arpeggios like I’ve written them out, but you would
get a lot from also improvising over the progression just using the
arpeggios.
When you solo over the progression the target notes you choose to make
lines that clearly reflects the harmony.
The solo
As an example of how you can use the material I have written out a short
improvised solo on a Bb blues.
I hope you can use the exercises and the materials to get started
improvising over a Jazz Blues progression. You can check out some of my
other lessons on Blues, arpeggios and target notes for more ideas.
Jazz Blues Soloing
In this lesson I will try to go through how you make lines on a Bb jazz blues
using the arpeggios of the chord. First I’ll go through the arpeggios and
give some suggestions on how to practice them, and then discuss how you
make lines with them.
I got a request for this lesson after having done this lesson on developing
your comping ideas: Jazz Blues Comping. The idea is to give a set of
materials that is easy to learn and still give you the ability to play the
blues so that you can really hear the changes, which is a necessary skill if
you want to be able to play jazz as a style.
I guess I better point out that I’ve simplified the chords a bit, so that there are one bar
II V’s, mainly because you don’t always have to play both chords when you are soloing
and it makes it a bit easier in terms of how much time you have to spell out each chord.
The arpeggios
I’ve chosen to show the arpeggios from the 5th to the first string because
that makes them 1 bar long and therefore easier to play over the chord
progression. If you wish to expand them to the full position then that
should not be too difficult. I chose this position because it is close to a
place where you can play the chords and associating the chords and the
arpeggios with each other is a very good idea.
As I mention in the video it is very useful to practice the arpeggios not onyl up and
down but also in sequences of 3 or skipping one note or what ever you can think of. The
more you can do the more freedom you’ll have when you start improvising.
Another exercise that is very useful in terms of getting an overview of the arpeggios
and practicing to connect them already is to play one arpeggio and when the chord
changes then start the next arpeggio on the closest note. I’ve also made a lesson on
doing this with scales: Practicing Scales through changes. As I do in this example.
This exercise is quite demanding, but at the same time will really get you good at
connecting lines across different chords, which is very useful for staying melodic.
Target notes
As I demonstrate in the video the thinking behing making harmony clear in
a solo line is to target certain notes of the strong beats (in this case the
1). The idea is that a strong and logical sounding line will be a line that has
the direction towards a clear target note.
In the video I demonstrate how I use this principle while practicing rubato
and on the whole blues. The target notes I chose for the chords are in most
cases 3rds and 7ths since they are determining the sound of the chord. I
am sure you have heard about this before.
I hope you can use the arpeggios and these ideas to get a firmer grip on
jazz blues improvising. The material is fundamental, but so worthwhile that
is is something that I find myself returning to again and again without
exhausting the possibilities. The approach is also really good for other
progressions.
You want to learn how to play Jazz Chords. An important part of playing
Jazz is to be able to interpret and play the rich chord language of the
genre. This list of lessons is an ordered way to work your way through this
from getting to know a basic vocabulary to having more freedom in
comping with different types of chord voicings.
I have also collected the videos in a Playlist on Youtube if you prefer that:
There are two main topics you should add first: Triads as Jazz chord
voicings and Drop2 voicings. These two are the foundation for most other
voicings and you can build on this knowledge to really build an extensive
chord vocabulary.
Chord Solos
One way of getting good at comping is to get good at playing chord solos.
Being able to improvise solos with chords really helps develop your
freedom and ability to play solid comping behind others.
For that reason I have included a few of the lessons I have on chord
soloing that you can dig into if you want to take this approach.
Best exercise for jazz guitar chord solos! The way to develop a chord
solo vocabulary
Bb Jazz Blues Chord Solo
Jazz Blues Chord Solo
Let’s first have a look at how shell voicings are constructed. A shell
voicing is the bare necessities version of a jazz chord, so the chord is
reduced to three notes. The most defining notes of a chord would be:
You might notice that especially the sets with the root on the 6th string
tend to become drop3 voicings when you add extensions. And if you watch
the video you’ll see several applications of these kinds of chords in
different styles.
I already talked about Shell Voicings used for comping in an earlier lesson:
Jazz Chord Essentials: Shell Voicings
The main thing is of course that it is a voicing containing the root, 3rd and
7th of the chord. When using it for soloing the nice thing is of course the
fact that it as a melody contains a 3rd interval and a 5th interval so it will
open up the melodies a bit.
There’s a famous Pat Metheny line that uses this type of voicing, but it’s so
Pat Metheny that nobody else can really use it (yet anyway..) so I’ll be
taking a different approach.
All the examples in this lesson are in the key of Eb, so let’s first look at
two exercises to get more used to using this sort of arpeggios.
For the B minor you probably want to check some arpeggiations too of
course.
Don’t forget that picking patterns like this with arpeggios that have one
note per string are really good exercises for alternate picking and right
hand precision in general.
Putting it to use
When looking for “shell arpeggios” to use over a chord the best bet is to
take one that is in a distance of a 3rd or a 5th away from the root of the
chord you are improvising on. They work well because they share many
notes with the chord that is being played under your solo. For the Fm7, you
might try AbMaj7 and Cm7 shell voicings.
When it comes to the Bb7alt it is a bit more free because there are quite a
lot of alterations and since we’ve already established the sound on the
Fm7 chord, you can be more free. That said it is still better to stay fairly
close to the root to avoid making a line that sounds like another chord
than what you intend.
In the first example I start out with an AbMaj7 shell voicing on the Fm7.
The G is then resolved chromatically to f which in turn is part of a
chromatic enclosure leading to D the 3rd of Bb7alt.
On the Bb7alt I play a Dmaj7 shell voicing. In the scale it would actually be
a Dmaj7#5 chord, but since a shell voicing does not have a 5th it seemed
weird to call it that. After that I descend down a BmMaj7 arpeggio that
resolves to the 5th of Eb(Bb)
The 2nd example opens with an arpeggiation of an Fm7 shell voicing. For
me this arpeggiation pattern for 3 note/3 string arpeggios is very useful.
Probably because it emphasizes the highes note in the arpeggio. The line
continues with an Fm triad that continues stepwise up to the 7th
of Bb. On the Bb7alt I then play an BmMaj7 shell which is resolved
stepwise down to the 9th of Ebmaj7 via the D.
In the 3rd example I start out with a Cm7 shell. In this line it works really
well as a sort of suspension of the 3rd of F (Ab). After that I play an Fm7
arpeggio that is then lead into an arpeggiation of a Dmaj7 shell and an E
triad before resolving to the 5th of Eb.
I hope you can use these examples as a way to get an idea about how I
use voicings like these, and then make it part of your own playing.
I guess for now the list is more of a reference, but what this means is that
when you see one of the chords above you can substitute it with one of the
other ones if you want to.
With practice you’ll be able to do this without thinking because you get
used to thinking of several voicings as part of the same sound.
GMaj7 E7 Am7 D7, I’ll play it a few times with different voicings. The voicings are all
Drop2 voicings, I also recorded a simple two beat bassline to make the chords a bit
clearer.
It could be that some of these voicings does not come across to you as
drop 2 voicings, but they can be derived from them as I well demonstrate
in this series. The secondary goal in this is also that you start to think of
new ways to get voicings from the ones you already know, by using some
of the principles I use here.
A few basic exercises
In general I won’t really spent too much time on the music theory involved,
just mention it and you are free to ask or look it up elsewhere if you want
to know more. You probably already noticed that I don’t play the root in the
bass on all chords. This is because I’d suggest using these type of chords
in a context where there is a bass player so leave him to play the bass
notes and you can focus on the chord and how that sounds.
Let’s first cover some basic chords on the top 4 strings in drop 2 voicings. In a major
scale you have 4 types of diatonic chords: m7, dom7. Maj7 and m7(b5). Here are each of
these from the key of G:
I only show this for the 4 top strings since that is what you probably need
the most, but you can play these voicings on the middle and bottom sets of
4 strings too. Here’s an overview of those fingerings: Overview of Drop 2
voicings on guitar You can probably leave it for later and just start with the
top 4 string sets. The method is the same for all sets of strings…
You need to know these quite wel as they will be the base of everything
else you need to do. Try to play them through a scale so that you practice
your knowledge of diatonic chords too, that will soon be something you
need to know and understand.
em in a basic II V I cadence.
And here’s how to take it through the 1st 16 bars of Autumn Leaves, which is a handy
tune because it has most of the chords in the key:
I’d recommend that you try this out with several jazz standards to become
familiar with finding the right chords and get used to the fingerings and
the sounds. That will make it much easier to go to the subject of the next
lesson where we’ll start adding more extensions, look at how one voicing
can be used over another chord and add some alterations to the
dominants.
As you can probably hear I am not only using the chords in their basic
form, but I am using different versions of the same type of chord to make
simple melodies that then make up the solo. In order to expand the drop2
voicings from the last lesson and build other skills to play something like
this we need to work on a few things:
So far we’ve been concerned with the basic chords so Am7 was simply
root, third, fifth and seventh, but as I explained in the first lesson you can
use Am9 or Am11 instead of Am7. Instead of making 5 or more note
voicings we can use these rules to exapand the sounds:
This means that if we want to make an Am9 voicing you take the Am7
voicing and change A to B. You might notice that this means that you’ll be
playing the notes B C E G which is a Cmaj7, so you can use Maj7 voicings
to play minor 9 voicings. If you use the same approach to D7, you have D F#
A C and that becomes E F# A C which is F#m7(b5). On Gmajor7 you have G
B D F# and get A B D F# which is Bm7.
You’ll notice that I prefer just using the “category” Chord symbols Am7 even though I
am playing the 9th. Think of it as part of the process of not having a one to one
combination from chord symbol to voicing, something you probably already had to
abandon with several ways to play a C or a G chord.
Altered Dominants
One way to vary the sound of cadences is to use an altered dominant. This
almost only works when the dominant is in fact resolving to a I chord, but
that is for another lesson on theory.
One observation that is handy is that if you play a D7(b9,b13) having substituted the
root with b9 and the fifth with the b13 you have these notes: Eb F# Bb C which are
exactly the same notes as Cm7(b5) (or Ebm6) . So that gives us this set of II V I
Cadences:
Of course these are just examples on how you can change the voicings to
get other extensions.
As you can see there are a few notes in the G major scale that are tricky
to harmonize, and there are several options on how to deal with them. The
note C is never going to sound like a Gmaj7 chord so I chose to play an
Am7 there. I could have substituted it with a C# and used a Gmaj7(#11).
Let’s make a similar exercise using a turnaround: Am7 D7alt Gmaj7 E7alt.
With this exercise I am just forcing myself to move up the neck in small
steps, not really any system, even if it’s almost chromatic. I guess for all of
these “melodic” voicing exercises the goal is to be able to make your own
more than actually play mine!
I hope you like the lesson. Feel free to connect with me on Facebook,
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