guide tones

[liponguitas]

Hey m78w,

Excellent material! I familiar with the guide tone aproach but I usually use just the trird's and seven´s of the chord. You have taken this to a different level! Thanks for sharing!I definitively will have to practice that.

Sorry for the bad English.

[docbop]

Another thing I like to practice is since the 3-7's are on two adjacent strings is limit solo/fills to the two strings. Makes you be more creative with rhythm and think notes and not finger patterns.

[Reg]

Guide tones are what the name says... tones that guide one through the changes.
They imply what chords are harmonically with very little melodic movement. The example was cool... try and stay away from P5ths. There like comping... but usually very straight... From a soloing standpoint, good starting point for getting through changes, can become a little boring and great way to put small children asleep...
sorry... As a player you should hear guide tones as soon as your able to hear root motion. There like basic ear training, may feel difficult at first, but to start just try and hear the three basic 7th chords, Maj7, Min7 and Dom7s, those will cover most tunes. Eventually you'll hear guide tones as well as the entire harmonic content of implied chords automatically when playing through or looking at tunes. Once you get to the point of hearing them you can begin to use them melodically... like background horn lines in ensembles. And your solos can use them as pedals or reference points for re-harmonizations of existing changes while improvising...Best Reg