Introduction
In the previous lessons in this module, we learned a number of improvisation techniques. But I have not yet covered how to put these techniques into practice in an actual song. So this lesson is about exactly that – what to do when you first start learning to improvise over a new song. Because, contrary to the name, improvisation takes quite a lot of planning, preparation and practice.
Every time I begin learning a new song I do the following steps:
- Learn the chords & melody of the song
- Play the chord progression as a series of arpeggios (broken chords)
- Chord Mapping
- Find Common Scales
- Find more Exotic Scales (see Jazz Scales module)
- Apply Jazz Improvisation Techniques (see previous lessons in this module)
- Apply Jazzier Chord Voicings (see Jazz Chord Voicings module)
Chord Mapping
Chord Mapping is just a fancy word for analysing the chord progression of a particular song. For every single new song I learn, I map out the following:
- The chords
- The key each chord is in
- Each chord’s Guide Tones
- Each chord’s Avoid Notes
So that I get a table that looks as follows. I have used Section A of the Jazz Standard Satin Doll as my example of Chord Mapping.
(Aside: Some people believe the 6th in the Dorian mode is an avoid note over a m7 chord because it is a tritone (another dissonant interval) above the 3rd of the chord. I disagree (avoid notes are a little subjective) but have put the note in brackets above nevertheless.)
Having learned the chords & melody (Step 1 above), practiced playing arpeggios over the chord progression (Step 2 above), and completed my chord mapping, I then go through the following steps:
- Play the Guide Tones
- First playing each individually
- Then playing them together (like Shell Chords)
- Avoid the Avoid Notes
- Play the relevant diatonic scales
- First just up and down – like scale runs or finger exercises
- Then targeting Guide Tone with simple melodies & avoiding Avoid Notes
- Then I find Common Scales
Common Scales
A common scale is a scale which you can use over all or most of the chord progression, regardless of the key changes.
For this, Pentatonic (or Blues) Scales are great because they only have 5 (or 6) notes and so can fit into many diatonic scales. However, keep in mind that they can be harmonically weak because they sometimes skip the Guide Tones of a chord; but they make up for it by being simple and consonant.
To find a common scale, write out all keys and related scales in the chord progression and look for common notes:
- C Major = C D E F G A B
- D Major = D E F# G A B C#
- G Major = G A B C D E F#
- G♭ Major = G♭ A♭ B♭ C♭ D♭ E♭ F
Below are 3 common scales that can fit over Satin Doll.
- G Major Pentatonic (G, A, B, D, E) = E Blues
- C, D & G Major all contain the notes from G Major Pentatonic
- So G Major Pentatonic fits over the entire chord progression except Bar 6, which is in G♭ Major.
- Now, you could change scales for 1 bar, but that’ll just complicate things. Instead because it’s only 1 bar (so is quite quick) you can just continue playing G Major Pentatonic over Bar 6 and just create some tension as the scale clashes with the chords before slipping back to that CMaj7 and resolving the tension.
- Note: G Major Pentatonic (+B♭ passing note) = E Blues Scale
- C Major Pentatnoic (C, D, E, G, A) = A Blues
- C, D & G Major all contain most of the notes from C Major Pentatonic
- Same as above for Bar 6 (just play through it)
- C Major Pentatonic (+E♭ passing note) = A Blues Scale
- G Blues (G, B♭ , C, C#, D, F)
- At first glance, the G Blues scale doesn’t seem like it fits the keys very well.
- But while it doesn’t fit well over the keys it does actually fit rather well over the particular chords used in Satin Doll. This is because the G Blues Scale contains most of the Guide Tones from most of the chords in the song (see below).
- G Blues, however, does NOT fit over CMaj7. This is because G Blues does not have either the 3rd or the 7th of CMaj7 (E and B) in it – so we should change scales for this one chord or just target a Guide Tone.
Chords in Satin Doll
- Dm7 = D F A C
- G7 = G B D F
- Em7 = E G B D
- A7 = A C# E G
- Am7 = A C E G
- D7 = D F# A C
- CMaj7 = C E G B – G Blues doesn’t fit over the CMaj7 chord.
Playing over this entire chord progression (Section A of Satin Doll) using either E Blues, A Blues or G Blues will sound good, because these particular scales fit the keys and the chords rather well. And so we have found 3 simple common scales which fit over the entire chord progression. So even though this chord progression changes key a few times, you almost don’t have to worry about that, and you can just keep on playing your common scale. Finally, you can also mix all three common scales however you like to create a more interesting and complex sounding improvisation that is conceptually very simple.
Base Scale
You can use any one of these scales as your ‘base scale’. By this, I mean that you can use say, G Major Pentatonic as your ‘inside’ scale. You can pivot back and forth between improvisation techniques and that ‘base scale’. So every time you want to resolve tension, you can return back to the G Major Pentatonic scale. For example, you could:
- Start playing the G Pentatonic Scale;
- Throw in some Cycled Patterns (thus building tension);
- Return to the G Pentatonic Scale (resolving the tension);
- Play some Symmetrical Scales and some chromatic notes (thus building tension);
- Return to the G Pentatonic Scale (resolving the tension);
- Play some dissonant intervals (thus building tension);
- Return to the G Pentatonic Scale (resolving the tension);
- and so on;
This is an easy way to resolve tension and gives you thinking time before your next phrase. As I said in the previous lesson: After exploring, always return back to base.
Adding Complexity
Having done some Chord Mapping and found some Common Scales, you can now already create a relatively complex sounding (but conceptually simple) improvisation. And you use this as your foundation upon which you build even further complexity by (as I listed at the beginning of this lesson):
- Finding more Exotic Jazz Scales, such as
- The Wholetone or H/W diminished over V7 chords
- Applying Jazz Improvisation Techniques, such as
- Passing notes
- Cycled patterns
- Chromatic scales
- Applying Jazz Chord Voicings
And Jazz Chord Voicings are the topic of our next module.
