Pitfalls of Patterns

[d115]

Working on this. Playing he 3rd and 7th of each chord. Interesting how 3 and 7 flip flop through the changes. Its slow going....for now.

[GuyBoden]

Working on this. Playing he 3rd and 7th of each chord. Interesting how 3 and 7 flip flop through the changes. Its slow going....for now.

Scales are only "Chord Tones" with additional linking notes added.

[pamosmusic]

Working on this. Playing he 3rd and 7th of each chord. Interesting how 3 and 7 flip flop through the changes. Its slow going....for now.

also root/5 and 9/13 … which is kind of fun.

3 and 7 are the money though. Especially 3.

Fly Me to the Moon
Autumn Leaves
All the Things

lots of melodies built just on the 3

[Mick-7]

The melodies of some tunes are almost entirely chord tones, Bill Evans did that a lot, makes you think he came up with the chord changes first and then derived the melody from them.

[pamosmusic]

The melodies of some tunes are almost entirely chord tones, Bill Evans did that a lot, makes you think he came up with the chord changes first and then derived the melody from them.

The melodies of some tunes are almost entirely thirds.

Like All the Things You Are.

[GuyBoden]

If you use a lot of Chromatics in your improv lines (I over overindulge), I think you need to play the Chord Tones on down beats 1+3 or the overindulged Chromatics can obscure the harmony.

[princeplanet]

If you use a lot of Chromatics in your improv lines (I over overindulge), I think you need to play the Chord Tones on down beats 1+3 or the overindulged Chromatics can obscure the harmony.

I overindulge too, but landing chord tones on 1 and 3, while good when starting out, gets old real quick. there are other down beats in the bar, and some of the upbeats are cool too! Sometimes an appoggiatura keeps things interesting when it's simply a delayed chromatic resolution.

I mean transcribe the greats, there's no one size fits all formula, there as many ways to get from one chord tone to another as there are players. The fun bit for us is to find our own way. No point spending decades only to sound like a second or 3rd rate version of your favourite player(s). Your favourite players may have emulated their heroes for a short time, but quickly realised they should be writing their own rules. The satisfaction i get from developing my own voice on this tricky instrument makes every hour of practice worthwhile, regardless of whether anyone else likes it, or even hears it!

[GuyBoden]

I overindulge too, but landing chord tones on 1 and 3, while good when starting out, gets old real quick. there are other down beats in the bar, and some of the upbeats are cool too! Sometimes an appoggiatura keeps things interesting when it's simply a delayed chromatic resolution.

I mean transcribe the greats, there's no one size fits all formula, there as many ways to get from one chord tone to another as there are players. The fun bit for us is to find our own way. No point spending decades only to sound like a second or 3rd rate version of your favourite player(s). Your favourite players may have emulated their heroes for a short time, but quickly realised they should be writing their own rules. The satisfaction i get from developing my own voice on this tricky instrument makes every hour of practice worthwhile, regardless of whether anyone else likes it, or even hears it!

Good stuff, but I still find that using too many chromatic notes obscures the harmony for my limited ability (even when listening to the greats), so I usually compensate by outlining the harmony simplistically.

Yes, there are no strict rules and it's only my hobby.

Edit: The simple notated example below shows how I'm (trying) using chromatics, whilst outlining the Harmony with simplistic chord tones on beats 1 and 3.

This is a good line to my ears.