Have you ever tried to play an improvised solo “over the changes” (you know, all those chord symbols like “Abmaj7″ or “Bdim” or “G7b9#5″) and thought, “those notes I hear coming out of the horn just ain’t right!

I mean, what MAKES them right? Or let’s say it another way: What makes some notes more desirable than others over those chords?

Well, I’ll tell you straight up The Big Secret to all jazz improvisation. This is the one that every good players knows, even if he doesn’t KNOW he knows it. In fact, even though I studied these things for quite some time, it took a while before I realized that almost everything you need to know about jazz improvisation could be summed up in one little formula. Here it is:

Chord Symbols = Scales

There. That’s it. Just get that down and all your improvisation will contain “right” notes from now on.

If you want to know more, this is what I mean…

When you see a chord symbol, it tells you which scale contains all the “desirable” notes for that slice of the tune. Chord symbols simply indicate the scale which contains all the nice-sounding notes that sound good in that measure or phrase. The trick is–and here’s where all the hours of study and practice come in–learning to intuitively and instantly play correct scale notes over each chord change.

For example, if you’re playing a passage with a C7 chord over it, this means that as long as C7 is “hanging over” the passage, the most-desirable, best-sounding notes will be in the SCALE of F major (that is, the major scale with B flat in the key signature).

But what if the key signature of the piece has FOUR flats? Or SIX sharps? Or Whatever? It DOES NOT MATTER! FORGET the key signature at the beginning of the tune. For the part of the tune that’s covered by the C7 chord, play in the key of F Major!

“But why?” you ask! Why is the scale of F major right to play over a C7 chord? How do you know that? What makes that sound right?

For now, I’ll only say, “Trust me!” The full explanation appears in other pages.

Those of us who have been educated in the “regular” school of music, intuitively KNOW that this is “wrong.” As the band teacher said, always stick with the key signature indicated at the beginning of the piece, and play those notes until (1) the key signature changes or (2) the notes have accidentals to which change the notes for the space of one measure.

For example, if the key signature has two flats, traditional music tells you that, by golly, you’d better play every B and E as FLATS until the composer tells you different! (But nobody ever writes chord symbols over traditional music, do they? If they did, we’d all learn the relationship between scales and chords from Day One, instead of having to RE-learn it as jazz students. It’s there alright; we just aren’t taught to recognize it!)

To play jazz improvisation, it is imperative that we FORGET the idea of sticking with the key signature.

The ONE and ONLY thing that tells us the best-sounding notes for any portion of the tune is the CHORD SYMBOL. And this may mean a different scale is correct ever couple of beats! (Not always, but sometimes…)

So, if the key signature is Bb, but the chord symbol is C7, then you’ll find all the Ebs you play to sound like undesirable notes. Why, because C7 “belongs” to the key of F, not the key of Bb. (I’ll explain this in another page…)

Take a look at almost any jazz-style “Fake” book or lead sheet. You’ll generally see a key signature at the top of the page, just like any other kind of music. BUT, there will be NO key signatures on the rest of the lines–UNLIKE all “regular” music. That’s because, in jazz, the key signature merely tell us the tonal center of the piece. But here’s the rub: the “key” you’re playing may CHANGE with each and every chord symbol.

Fortunately, a lot of chords are in the same “tonal family.” There are several chords that all use the same scale, so when you learn to recognize these chordal relationships, the desirable notes are more obvious. The most common tonal family is jazz is the “ii V7 I” relationship. In fact, without complete mastery of this relationship, it will be impossible to really be an accomplished jazz improviser. We have to get to where our fingers automatically play the proper scale tones for every chord symbol.

THAT is where every jazz player spends most of his practice time, especially in the early YEARS of study.

I’ll write more about these Tonal Families and how to practice them later, but that’s the Big Secret. Just learn to instantly play and execute all the right scales to go with the chord symbols and the foundation for good-sounding solos is yours.

Simple!

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Ciao,
Dave