Introduction
We have already encountered Guide Tones many times in previous lessons. So it’s time we formally define them.
Guide Tones
The Guide Tones are the 3rd and 7th of a chord. They are the most harmonically important notes of the chord. This is because they determine the quality of the chord – whether it’s Major, minor, minor-Major or Dominant.
| Chord | Root | 3rd | 5th | 7th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMaj7 | C | E | G | B |
| C7 | C | E | G | B♭ |
| Cm7 | C | E♭ | G | B♭ |
| CmMaj7 | C | E♭ | G | B |
Notice that all of these chords have the same root and 5th, and for that reason these notes are not harmonically important. Whereas the 3rd and 7th of the chord are integral to its quality and therefore considered harmonically strong.
Guide Tones are an important concept in Jazz. They are the notes that produce the strongest possible consonance over a given chord. For this reason they are very important when writing melodies and improvising ‘inside’ (which is effectively the same thing). Targeting Guide Tones in your solo creates a strong, pleasant and professional sounding solo.
A very widely used and very smooth sounding chord progression in Jazz is the Circle Progression (which we will learn in a future lesson). The reason this chord progression sounds so pleasant is because each subsequent chord keeps one guide tone in common with the previous chord and changes the other by one step. That is, this chord progression creates a smooth ‘guide tone line‘.
In Practice
When improvising ‘inside’ (i.e. resolving tension), try targeting the guide tones of each chord. It’ll sound great. And when learning a new song, it’s worth playing the guide tones of each chord through the entire progression (like playing Shell Chords). This will help you memorise where the harmonically important notes are and tell you where to target and finish your solos. We will discuss this further in the lesson on Chord Mapping.
Have a Listen to
Have a listen to the melodies and chord progressions of the following songs:
- Autumn Leaves ~ Joseph Kosma
- Fly Me to the Moon ~ Bart Howard
- All the Things You are ~ Jerome Kern