The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I am right now working on improvising over Yardbird Suite by Charlie Parker. I still do not get what scale is the best for each measure.

    The places im not sure about is
    -the 2nd bar when the bar consists of f min then Bb7
    - soloing over the chord changes C7, Bb7, A7 (3-4th bar)
    - chords A7, D7, G7 (4th-6th bar)

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Why scales, if you dont mind me asking?

  4. #3
    I CAN technically just play everything like I want to by just playing the whole A section in C maj but it doesnt sound... good. I need to understand how the piece is built, to fully play.

  5. #4

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    Fm Bb7 = F Dorian Bebop & Bb Mixolydian Bebop
    All other Dominant 7th chords you mentioned get their corresponding Mixolydian Bebop

  6. #5
    so the Fmin and Bb7 is a ii V in Eb major.

    And is the A7 D7 G7 a 251 in g major, or a 625 in c major

  7. #6

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    Why do you need to think in scales here? And for each chord, it's insane! It's an early bebop tune, very clear ii v i turnarounds, not some modal or fusion stuff. Where did you get this idea?

  8. #7

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    Here's one view:

    For each chord, you start with chord tones. For most of them you can extend the chord tones to the 13th chord.

    So, when you get to Fm7, you can think about Fm13, which means you play the chord tones, F Ab C Eb and then extend them with 9, 11, 13, which are G Bb and D. That's the same thing as F Dorian.

    When you extend to Bb13, you get Bb D F Ab and extend with 9 11 and 13, C Eb and G, which is Bb mixo.

    Or you can just think about Eb major, which is the same pool of notes.

    This idea is to think about the chord and the underlying tonal center. Chord tones are the furthest "inside" meaning vanilla sounding. Other notes within the tonal center are still consonant sounding but give more options. The rest of the notes are going to sound spicier, but for most of this post, I'm focusing on the vanilla flavor.

    When you get to C7 Bb7 and A7, you can think of that as "C major except where chord tones conflict". So, for C7, you lower the B to Bb. For Bb7 you lower the B and A by a half step each. For A7 you raise the C to C#.

    Same approach for remainder of A section.

    Now, that just gets you to a pretty vanilla set of notes to use. To go further, one strategy is to find some different chords that work and solo on those. For example, you could decide that you want an E note on the top of C7 Bb7 A7. So, for that the second chord becomes Bb7#11 and you solo accordingly. Or you could shorten A7 to 2 beats and add Ab7 -- and play on both. Like that

  9. #8

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    Bebop tunes such as Yardbird Suite lend themselves more to a chord by chord approach rather than trying to fit a scale across a set of chords. This is because the entire chromatic spectrum can be applied to each chord, depending on the chord’s character, whether by arpeggios, various chromatic approaches to the chord tones, etc. There are many great jazz method books that cover this.

  10. #9

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    You can go after every change...keep in mind, Yardbird is usually played faster, so you can blur changes too...

    You might start by mapping out what sounds like points of rest to your ears...play THROUGH the changes, not just "on" them, so to speak.

  11. #10

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    Now I'm joking here, but I got many good ideas from this;


  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ryo17
    I am right now working on improvising over Yardbird Suite by Charlie Parker. I still do not get what scale is the best for each measure.

    The places im not sure about is
    -the 2nd bar when the bar consists of f min then Bb7
    - soloing over the chord changes C7, Bb7, A7 (3-4th bar)
    - chords A7, D7, G7 (4th-6th bar)
    Can you play the chord tones of the progression yet?

    You can use scales for bebop improvisation, but you have to know what you are doing, so I'm not going to answer here.

    Man, I find it so difficult to answer posts like this. It's so easy to write a book lol... So many things to suggest, but that will just overwhelm.

    From the POV of theory: Yardbird suite in common with most jazz standards contains chromatic chords in the context of the central key - C major. These include secondary dominants and borrowed minor chords.

  13. #12

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    Barry Harris desending scales exercise.

  14. #13

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    Tell a novice if I'm showing my tin ear but I kinda hear that Bb7 as a substitution for E7, making the Bb-A effectively a II7-V7?

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by Average Joe
    Tell a novice if I'm showing my tin ear but I kinda hear that Bb7 as a substitution for E7, making the Bb-A effectively a II7-V7?
    Sure.

    This might seem a bit odd, but it can also be thought a sub for Em7b5