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Autumn Leaves Improvising Chart


Dio666

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Posted

My classic rock cover band has disbanded so I've decided to start studying improvisation beyond the pentatonics more in depth. I've started working through the book "Chord Tone Soloing" by Barrett Tagliarino, am a little ways into it, and decided to start working on Autumn Leaves as many others seem to start there.

 

Attached is practice sheet I created for myself and have decided to share. I'm open to any discussion on my chart or the Chord Tone Soloing book.

 

The fundamental idea seems to be playing using the scale of the key-of-the-moment while targeting chord tones on chord changes. In my chart I list the 3rds and 7ths of each chord and once I have those down, I'll work on targeting roots and 5ths.

 

It looks like this is going to be a good book, with years of material to work through.

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Ah, a fellow hard rock / jazz person. :thu:

 

One cool aspect I've found over the past several years is how useful the jazz knowledge is when applied to rock. My improvised solos, even if I'm covering an old Rainbow song, are so much more musical now because I can break out of that "modes of a single scale" mentality and truly solo over changes.

 

If you're interested, I do a live web broadcast, usually every Friday, where I play/sing everything from old Nat King Cole to Metallica.

 

The Eclectic Electric Jukebox

 

 

And yes, there is a significant amount of Dio in my song list. :D

 

From your post, it seems like my show might be your kind of thing. :wave:

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This thread of mine is sort of related to your post:

 

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?2830943-Simple-jazz-comping-for-guitar...

 

 

While the arrangement uses triads, not dyads, it does focus on including at least the 3rd and 6th/7th of each chord, so one COULD use the arrangement as a starting point for chord tone soloing over the progression, building out from those simple shapes.

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Posted

My classic rock cover band has disbanded so I've decided to start studying improvisation beyond the pentatonics more in depth. I've started working through the book "Chord Tone Soloing" by Barrett Tagliarino, am a little ways into it, and decided to start working on Autumn Leaves as many others seem to start there.


Attached is practice sheet I created for myself and have decided to share. I'm open to any discussion on my chart or the Chord Tone Soloing book.


The fundamental idea seems to be playing using the scale of the key-of-the-moment while targeting chord tones on chord changes. In my chart I list the 3rds and 7ths of each chord and once I have those down, I'll work on targeting roots and 5ths.


It looks like this is going to be a good book, with years of material to work through.

That's a nice piece of work! Just a couple of comments/corrections:

 

1. You seem to have E harmonic minor labelled across bars 5-8. It will only fit bars 5-6. Em7 has a D natural, so E natural minor (G major) is the most likely scale there.

 

2. Provided you're thinking in chord tones (which it seems you are ;)), you needn't view the scales modally. So Em7-A7 is D major scale, and Dm7-G7 is C major. (Mode names may describe the fleeting sound of the scale on the chord, but don't affect how you choose notes.)

 

3. If you play the tune (btw, make sure you learn the melody before improvising!), you'll notice that in bar 6 it uses E melodic minor. IOW, with C# and D# in the scale. So (a) B7b9 is not the right chord there - at least not in the head - and (b) that's a hint you could try E melodic minor when soloing - just on that bar anyway.

E melodic minor could also be carried over to the first bar of the Em chord (bar 7), and maybe both bars at the end of the 2nd A section (bars 15-16), and the very last two bars of the sequence (31-32). That's because it's ending on the tonic chord, and melodic minor is the classic jazz tonic minor scale. You would of course need to have an Em chord with no b7 - and either a maj7, 6 or 9 as extensions.

Em7, however, is a better chord when turning back to the beginning (Am7), because it then becomes the vi chord in G major.

 

4. Having criticized use of mode terms - :rolleyes: - I suggest you write out each chord scale in 3rds from the root. This will help your exploration of chord tones, and use of extensions. IOW, start with the chord root, and write the scale out as 1-3-5-7-9-11-13 (make that the heading for your chart).

So your scale for the Am7 chord will be A C E G B D F#. (Call it "dorian" if you like, but keep thinking of it as G major, because that's where it's headed.)

Of course, you start working through chord tones using the root-3rd-5th-7th (in that order), but 9ths at least can make for interesting lines.

 

5. When targetting 3rds and 7ths, work alternately: 3rd on one chord, 7th on the next (and then vice versa). This will expose their crucial function as voice-leading "guide tones". (And will also help you find the closest chord shapes.)

Do the same with roots and 5ths (and try flatting the 5ths on the way to the next root - very useful game).

Once you're reasonably comfortable with that, 9ths can sometimes be alternated in the same way with 13ths; but they can also rise to 7ths or fall to 5ths. (11ths are a lot trickier: perfect 11ths are best avoided on major or dom7 chords, at least in this kind of exercise. Having said that, they make very nice sounds on min or m7b5 chords, usually being the root of the following chord.)

 

6. While E harmonic minor fits both a ii and a V in a minor key, there are more popular jazz choices. The plain locrian (G major scale in this case) can be used on a m7b5, and there's a few choices for a minor key V7 chord.

The "7b9" chord symbol generally hints at the HW dim scale, while "7#9" indicates the altered scale.

BUT - while it's good to know this, keep on working with chord tones as you're planning to do. Explore various altered dom7 shapes and voicings - as well as transitions between chords and possible substitutes - before you start thinking about a scale that would fit (usually you only need the chord tones).

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Posted

Thanks for the help, JonR! Just the kind of feedback I was hoping for. One of the first things the Chord Tone Soloing book had me do was work with the 3rds and 7ths of a standard blues progression which was eye opening. I'll definitely be exploring guide tones more. I also need to start learning my 4-note arpeggios which seems daunting, but I'll just take it slow and start with the ones I need for this song around the 12th fret.

 

And thanks for your replies too, EightString. I'll be trying out your Dream A Little Dream arrangement this weekend!

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