Introduction to Jazz Guitar Soloing Chapters 4, 5 and 6

[onetruevibe]

Hey guys! I just wanted to check in and let you know that I'm still alive and planning on finishing this study. Looks like the groups been busy - and it's cool to see new people joining still. At the moment, I am in the process of moving into a new house; renovation projects and the countless number of unpacked boxes have my world reeling (how do we ever manage to accumulate so much stuff? First world problem, for sure). Hopefully I'll still have enough room for a dedicated practice space...stay tuned.

Other than a few loose blues gigs, I've done nothing of consequence on guitar for most of July and all of August. I'm anxious to get back to shedding.

Be well.

Brian

[Frank67]

Hi Brian,

Welcome back and good luck with your new home (hopefully with a nice music room!).

Cheers,
Frank

[AlsoRan]

Hi AlsoRan,

when I first read Mark's question I was also frantically searching through the book. I think if you look at page 23 (chapter 7) there are the substitution rules for the minor key families. There you have the IVmi7 substitution for the IImi7b5 chord and the diminished substitution for the V7 chord. But Elliot never asked us to seriously practice the dimished arpeggios and apparently is more fond of the loc#2 as spicing up the IImi7b5 chord. It is true that the IVmi7 over the IImi7b5 chord is not a substitution that creates a lot of tension (at least to my ears). But I really like the sound of the diminished arpeggios (there are only two fingerings because of its symmetry).

Enjoy practicing!

I had a little time away from the guitar to work this thought out. (I have to write this stuff down and cannot do it in my head like I can a lot of other things. Kind of sad...).

In this case, we were looking at G7 being a Secondary Dominant and, therefore, a good candidate to substitute for the E7. I now see that G# dim7 acts as a G7b9 chord without the "G" root.

Notes in G7 are G B D F
Notes in Gdim7 are G# B D F

So, playing a VII dim7 is pretty close to a bVII7 chord. To my ears, when I substitute that 7b9, is just sounds a little brighter in the ii-V-1 chord progression than the V7 does. Kind of nice actually.

Thanks again, but I won't be working this one if for a few months at least. Good to have available, however.

[Liarspoker]

I received the book this morning and have started on page 17, Chapter 5.

- Situation #1 in Pattern I major
- Situation #2 in Pattern I major
- Situation #3 in Pattern II minor
- Situation #4 in Pattern II minor

I am fairly comfortable with the major arps but want to spend more time with the minor ones ( esp. V7 ) so I will give myself a week to get proficient with the above.

[onetruevibe]

Ok - used the weekend to put Maj Pattern I and Min Pattern II back under my fingertips. By the end I was running through the patterns with even 8ths @ 100bpms. I also spent some time on Situations 1-4.

I plan to move on - being reviewing subs.

Brian

[ogabor]

Hello Everybody!

Am I the only one starting this book a couple of months later than the first team? I' m finishing chapter 6, starting chapter 7...

Anybody joining me?

Gábor

[Dana]

I'm still working through it from time to time. I'm currently studying with a teacher who gives a lot of work so most of my focus is on that.

Great book though. Please keep us posted on your progress.

Dana

[ogabor]

Thanks Dana for the encouragement. Here' s my method:

- I only move to the next chapter when I can play the actual exercises at 100 bmp at least. It is really easy to build muscle memory with very sloooow playing so I always start at 50 bmp altough I could play faster. (No mistakes, effective learning. I' m a full time swimming instructor of kindergarten kids so I know it's practical.)
- I' m practicing with IRealB on my Android phone. It is good companion acoustically and I can plug my phone to my effects processor for electric practicing with headphones.

I' m thinking about spicing up the exercises with chromatic neighbor tones or even enclosures. I tried it yesterday night and it sounds better: playing seven 8th notes of the actual arpeggio then a lower chromatic neighbor tone for the next arpeggio then moving on to the next one.
I was just experimenting with situation 1 in pattern 1 (C shape who knows CAGED). I' ll keep this NCT and enclosure idea as a daily 5 minute side project and if it' s working then I' ll incorporate it to all the ideas presented in the book.

What do you think?

ogabor

[Frank67]

Dear ogabor,

sounds like a great plan! I hope you're getting a lot out of the book and have fun working through it. I definitely have, even if it slowed down a bit recently for various reasonsß but I'm planning to be back with a few more tune before moving on to later chapters.

For the chromatics and enclosure - they sure sound great! But you're running slightly aheqd of yourself because this is material that will be studied in later chapters. Well, from my perspective I'll quote Woody Allen with "whatever works". Just thought i'd mention.

enjoy the study!
All the best,
Frank

[ogabor]

You' re right Frank! I just realized enclosures will be detailed in a later chapter. Maybe I' ll practice these in my 'not-so-serious' practice time. (That' s when the kids having a bath and I noodling with my guitar while watching over them.)

[Agate]

I just started reading this thread and don't have the resources for another jazz guitar book (or shelf space for that matter!) Will someone please explain the rules of the connecting game from chapter 5? I'm pretty solid on diatonic arpeggios over the 5 patterns referenced (at least the major patterns) but this sounds like a fun way to drill them.

[fep]

Connecting game:

All consecutive eighth notes running up and down arpeggios, no rests, no cheating.

Only the notes of the arpeggios, when the chord changes you change to the nearest chord tone of the next arpeggio.

[kofblz]

And you learn all your arpeggios in the same 3 or 4 fret position on the neck.

[AlsoRan]

Even though the book states that you should keep your arpeggio patterns inside the original scale pattern, I have not been able to do that and often end up with notes outside of the pattern.

I don't like leaving out any note.

[User1983]

Hello to everyone who is studying from this great book!

I'm on Chapter 5 and I just wanted to ask the community if there is an acceptable tempo considered to play these initial arpeggio changes fluently before moving on to chapter 6?

Or should one keep playing them until they get into faster tempos and then move on?


Thanks!

Chris

[Liarspoker]

Hi Chris,

I have recently restarted this book and have also gone back to chapter 5.

Situations 1 & 2 are ok for me so I am now working on situations 3 & 4.

What I mean with situations 1 & 2 being ok for me is this:

I can play the changes at a relatively easy tempo without pausing plus I can visualise playing over the changes when I am away from the guitar.

We are to practise each situation for five minutes per day so the earlier situations will get covered more often than the later situations.

If you feel comfortable playing situations 1 - 4 (without makming any mistakes at a lower tempo) then feel free to move on to chapter 6.

Perhaps share a recording of you playing situations 1 - 4 with us. That will let you know if you are ready to move on.

[User1983]

Hi Chris,

I have recently restarted this book and have also gone back to chapter 5.

Situations 1 & 2 are ok for me so I am now working on situations 3 & 4.

What I mean with situations 1 & 2 being ok for me is this:

I can play the changes at a relatively easy tempo without pausing plus I can visualise playing over the changes when I am away from the guitar.

We are to practise each situation for five minutes per day so the earlier situations will get covered more often than the later situations.

If you feel comfortable playing situations 1 - 4 (without makming any mistakes at a lower tempo) then feel free to move on to chapter 6.

Perhaps share a recording of you playing situations 1 - 4 with us. That will let you know if you are ready to move on.

That's perfect I'll post a recording tomorrow and thanks for the great advice.

[chicksen22]

This isn't always possible when you are adhering strictly to certain patterns, since you're forced to switch strings when you don't necessarily want to, and vice versa.

[Liarspoker]

Ok, so it's time to put a little more work into the book.

Here is a clip of me playing 2 X 2-5-1 in E and D based on the patterns on page 15:

I am now working on combining the minor patterns on page 17 with the major patterns on page 15 in order to over most of Blue Bossa which has:

A minor 2-5-1 in Cm

A major 2-5-1 in Dflat

and a minor 2-5-1 in Cm

I will post the recording once I have it down.

[Liarspoker]

Hi Chris,

Those takes sound good to me, intro notes and all.

You are definitely ready to move on to the next chapter.

Nice work.

Perhaps a further challenge on the first major/minor patterns is to play them over the Blue Bossa changes as I have detailed above.

Well done.

[MarkRhodes]

I enjoyed the videos, guys. I've been back working with this book. It's funny to play these vids and and catch myself thinking, "Wait, I know this tune....O yeah, it's what I play every day...."

I'm working on "Autumn Leaves" in G / Em and sometimes I play the ii / V / I pattern in that key and add the ii-minor-b-5 / V / i to go along with it. This way, the two exercises become the bulk of "Autumn Leaves" and I have play-alongs for that, so it's more like improvising over a tune than doing an exercise. (The exercise is vital, I know. I do that with just a metronome, making sure I know the shapes and can move from one to the next.)

[rlyacht]

I'm just getting started in the book and I have a question about the connecting game. What's the rule if the note you are on is in both the current chord and the next one?

For example, supposed it's a ii-V-I in Eb, so Fm7-C7-Ebmaj7. When doing the V (C7), we end up on Bb on the high E string, 8th fret. Bb is also the 5th of Eb, so which of these should I do?

1. play the Bb *again* since it is the closest Eb chord tone to what I just played (so close it's the same!)
2. play A (E string, 7th fret), which is the closest *different* chord tone

[matt.guitarteacher]

I always changed notes , but I don't know that there's a rule. I think the idea is that, generally, you're going up to or down to the next note . There are different kinds of "rules" you can come up with for variety. For example, resolving them by contrary motion is great, because it makes an enclosure for the "change note".

Anyway, your V7 chord would be Bb7 instead of C7?

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[rlyacht]

I always changed notes , but I don't know that there's a rule. I think the idea is that, generally, you're going up to or down to the next note . There are different kinds of "rules" you can come up with for variety. For example, resolving them by contrary motion is great, because it makes an enclosure for the "change note".

Anyway, your V7 chord would be Bb7 instead of C7?

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Thanks Matt. And of course it's Bb, thanks

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[ogabor]

I think you shouldn' t play the same note twice, just move on!