Remember the Mixolydian Mode? Well, it's BACK! Here is the chord progression for a Bb blues. Take a look at it. The most basic blues progession, in the key of Bb, is:
There it is! So now for a few questions. How many chords are there? Only three. In this case, in Bb, it's Bb7 (I7), Eb7 (IV7) and F7 (V7). These are dominant seventh chords. You learned a little bit about a dominant 7th chord in the ii-V-I section. What kind of scale (or mode) do you use for a dominant 7th chord? That's right!!!! That would be the mixolydian mode. There are several ways of spelling a mixolydian mode. As you know, it is the mode built on the 5th degree of a major scale. But here is a very simple way of finding it. The mixolydian mode varies from the major scale that would be built on the same step by only one note. If a major scale is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, the mixolydian mode on that same root would be spelled 1 2 3 4 5 6 -7 8, the only difference being the 7th being lowered a half step. Easy if you know your major scales, Isn't it? Yet another reason to learn those major scales! They are your reference point for everything.
So lets start playing the blues, but let's start very simply. Let's start by playing roots of the chords. Thats always the best way to start. Hearing roots is very important. You will be able to hear progressions much more clearly by focusing on what the bass player is doing than listening to the piano or guitar player. So let's play roots to a blues in Bb (our favorite key so far).
Now you can take that concept and expand on it, playing the first 2 notes of each chord, the first 3, first 5... the possibilities are endless. And you can use that for any chord progression. We'll get to that, and to playing patterns later. But if you want to know more about that concept, check out Aebersold's Jazz Handbook and the book Patterns For Jazz. Both have links at my resources page.
But we are going to now arpeggiate the chords. First we will just play triads, and ignore the 7th completely. It goes something like this:
Now, use just the notes of the triads to improvise. Remember, just triad notes. Here is an example, play it, and then improvise on your own.
One more exercise, and this is where you really start getting the flavor of the chord structure. We are going to arpeggiate 7th chords, 1,3,5,b7, up and down. This will give you all your major, minor and dominant sounds. It this case, it's all dominant 7th chords. This is a very important exercise, and you should do it with every tune that you want to learn thoroughly. Once again, reference the book Patterns for Jazz for much more information on this concept.
We are going to review one more method of making the changes, and that's using the guide tones
We have started with the one of the simplist forms of the blues, one that uses only three 7th chords. As the blues progressed, musicians would add chords, creating more complex chord progressions. But the essence of the blues are those three dominant chords. But you will run into these changes very commonly, and we approach them later. I have used roman numerals instead of letter names.
Just a few changes in the one below, basically the same
I6 / / / | / / / / | / / / / | I7 / / / |
IV7 / / / | / / / / | I7 / / / | / / / / |
V7 / / / | IV / / / | I7 / / / | V7 / / / ||
In the version of the blues below, a IV chord is added in the 2nd bar, along with a I-vi-ii-V turnaround on the last 2 bars. We will talk about this progression later. This verson of the blues is very common
I7 / / / | IV7 / / / | I7 / / / | / / / / |
IV7 / / / | / / / / | I7 / / / | / / / / |
ii-7 / / / | V7 / / / | I7 / iv-7 / | ii-7 / V7 / ||
This is probably the most common way of playing a jazz blues, with a ii-V-I progression in the 9th and 10th bars, instead of the V-IV. The #iv diminished chord is sometimes used, sometimes not. All of this is at the discretion of the musicians playing, and can vary a lot. This also includes the turnaround at the end
I7 / / / | IV7 / / / | I7 / / / | / / / / |
IV7 / / / | #ivdim7/ / / | I7 / / / | / / VI7/ |
ii-7 / / / | V7 / / / | I7 / iv-7 / | ii-7 / V7 / ||
There are many other versions of the blues, but we will keep it to these for right now, because we have other fish to fry. Remember when I said you must learn your major scales? All 12 of them? Well, in the immortal words of Charlie Parker, now's the time!
Well that's it! That's the end of your ten lessons on beginning improvisation. This will give you a good handle on what you can do, but to review, here is what you need to know to improvise effectively.
1. Know your major scales. All of them. Don't leave out the ones you think you'll never play in. Trust me, the first time you get thrown into the mix on a tune like Cherokee (not an uncommon occurance in the jazz world), you will be glad you have this knowledge.
2. Remember that you can play the same scale for many different types of chords, just starting on a different note. For instance, in the key of Bb, you can play a Bb major scale for chords such as C, C6 and CMaj7. You can play this same scale for a Dmin7 chord, just starting on the second degree (this scale is called a Dorian Mode). You can also use a C major scale starting on the 5th degree to play on a G7 chord (this scale is called a G Mixolydian Mode). Using this knowledge, you can play the same scale for a progression that looks like this:
Dmin7 / / / | G7 / / / | CMaj7 / / / | / / / / ||
What is the name of this chord progression. Quick, for a free weekend in Pittsburg, the answer is:
Come on, you know this, it's a two-five-one progression.
3. To play the blues, you can use a shortcut scale called the blues scale. This scale contains notes that are considered "blue". This gives the feeling of the blues. But don't stop here, you still have to be able to make the changes also!
In our next series of lessons, you'll learn about "Rhythm Changes", more advanced song forms, some other modes, melodic minor harmony, diminished scales and using all of this knowledge to sound even hipper and cooler... and better.
So stay tuned for PART 2
In the meantime have fun and learn those scales!
And please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have by using the guestbook.
David Hoffman