HOW TO SOLO ON A JAZZ BLUES – PART 3
(Guide tones, Approach Tones and Enclosures)
By Travis Jenkins, JMI lecturer
(Guitar, Jazz Materials, Ensemble, Jazz Composition)
In Part 1 of How to Solo on a Jazz Blues, we discussed how you can use the melody and different variations of the blues scale to solo over the basic blues chord progression. We expanded on this in Part 2 of How to Solo on a Jazz Blues, where we looked at how we can use our understanding of chord tones to create weaving arpeggios through blues progressions.
For Part 3, we’re going to look at Guide Tones, Approach Tones and Enclosures…
To break up the diatonicism of chord tones and create a sense of melodic tension and release, we need passing notes between our target notes. This will create a much stronger sense of propulsion to our melodic playing and offer some intervallic variety. In order to do this we need to have a basic understanding of the chord-scale relationships for each chord to know which notes are diatonic to the chords, and which are not.
Most of the dominant chords are built from the mixolydian scale which has Tonic, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, flat 7th. So the natural diatonic passing notes of the scale would be the 2nd, 4th, and 6th degrees.
C Mixolydian
F Mixolydian
G Mixolydian
The Dmi7 chord comes from the D Dorian scale, which shares the same pitches as G mixolydian (both coming from the key of C major), though has different chord tones: D E F G A B C as opposed to G A B C D E F. Dorian has Tonic, 2nd, minor 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, flat 7th
The E half-diminished chord is from an E Locrian scale: E F G A Bb C D and has Tonic, flat 2, minor 3rd, 4th, flat 5th, flat 6th, flat 7th
The A7b9 chord can have a few options but we’ll go with the Phrygian Dominant scale for now which is the 5th mode of the Harmonic Minor scale: A Bb C# D E F G. It has Tonic, flat 2, 3rd, 4th, 5th, flat 6th, flat 7th
And a bonus chord scale relationship is the Diminished Scale over the F# diminished chord. This is both an octatonic scale (8 pitches) and a symmetrical scale (it follows a repeated intervallic pattern of tone – semitone): F# G# A B C D Eb F. Tonic, 2nd, minor 3rd, 4th, flat 5th, flat 6th, double flat 7th, flat 15th! (enharmonically equivalent to a major 7th)
Now that we have an idea of what the diatonic passing notes between each chord tone are we can start to connect the chord tones together more linearly. A good starting point is to try to place the chord tones on downbeats with the passing notes on upbeats.
Another strong melodic device that also promotes strong voice leading is “guide tones”.
Guide Tones
Guide tones are the 3rds and 7ths of each chord. These are considered the most harmonically important notes to the chord as they outline the fundamental chord quality. If we write these out for each chord we get a smooth connected melodic line with minimal melodic movement:
Notice how the 7th of one chord often falls only one semitone to the 3rd of the next, or in some instances, the 3rd of one chord becomes the 7th of the next. Targeting these pitches in your melodic ideas (especially the 3rds), will help to highlight the underlying quality of the chord changes while creating a strong sense of voice leading throughout your lines.
To highlight these targeted pitches we can use another device that is used extensively in bebop playing:
Approaches and Enclosures
These can be either diatonic, or chromatic:
Diatonic Approach up to the 3rd of C7
Diatonic Approach down to the 3rd of C7
Chromatic Approach up to the 3rd of C7
Diatonic Enclosure of the 3rd of C7
Chromatic Enclosure of the 3rd of C7
One above, two below…
Two above, one below…
Two above, two below…
Now to put this all together, let’s take some random chord tones over a C blues, making sure to target some 3rds at the start of some of the new chords:
Adding in some passing notes,(diatonic/chromatic approaches and enclosures), our written solo has a much stronger sense of tension and release and forward momentum:
Practice writing your own solos over a blues to play around with these ideas and find sounds that work. Practicing this fundamental idea of using diatonic and chromatic passing notes to target important pitches on downbeats is one of the core elements to bebop soloing and can have many other extended applications…