Out Of Nowhere

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Typically you look at melodies first to further spell out harmony, then go to function and eventually fill in with what ever you can do. Like I mentioned before you usually don't play one set of notes over jazz tunes... but you can, if that's what you hear... I don't think the improvisation police will bust you...Best Reg

It's just that the melody is almost non-existent in measures 3 and 4, over the Eb chord: three F naturals (the link I gave mistakenly makes the first one a F#) and then a Eb. Not much melody to go on!

[JohnRoss]

It's just that the melody is almost non-existent in measures 3 and 4, over the Eb chord: three F naturals (the link I gave mistakenly makes the first one a F#) and then a Eb. Not much melody to go on!

No, but you can deduce other "melody" notes - the G natural, for example, is not contradicted by the melody and is there in the harmony, so you have to keep that, and the A in the first bar is not contradicted by the harmony of the Eb chord, so I'd keep that as well. Add the Bb and Db from the chord, and the only scale note that isn't perfectly clear is C. You're going to solo on a G major scale initially, so you will have stated it as a C natural, so you'll keep that as well.

[Reg]

It's just that the melody is almost non-existent in measures 3 and 4, over the Eb chord: three F naturals (the link I gave mistakenly makes the first one a F#) and then a Eb. Not much melody to go on!

Check out last 4 bars of 1st ending...A natural, over Bb-6 and Eb7. You could always play it straight and it would sound OK for most ears... Like I said earlier jazz player don't stay long in one harmonic area very long, example being 1st time through might play what's written, 2nd time Gmaj7 A-7 / B-7 C13B-7 / Bb-7 Bb line cliche to Eb9#11 etc... It's pretty common practice to fill, add or re-harmonize on weak side of rhythm patterns, both comping and soloing. Best Reg