One way to solo through those difficult jazz changes:
First, a couple of things to keep in mind: This is one of
many techniques for soloing through those changes that may be too difficult
for you to get through at the present time in your studies. It is not a substitute
for much study and many thousands of hours of listening.
This approach generates a sound that'll probably be very familiar
to you. Artists as diverse as David Sanborn, Tom Scott, George Benson, Eric
Clapton, Rickie Lee Jones, Count Basie, and many others use this sound very
frequently.
You'll start by finding out what key the piece is written
in; the key signature will indicate this. If you're not sure, you'll have to
ask someone.
You'll also need to memorize the chord progression of the
tune that you want to work on, preferably in 2-bar or 4-bar chunks.
So far, you haven't had to do anything too demanding; the
next step is a little more involved. You need to be able to recognize where
the RESTING CHORDS are. Resting chords are either MAJOR (maj 7, maj 9, major
13(#11), etc.) or MINOR (min 7, min 6, min 11, etc.) and usually exist immediately
after a DOMINANT chord (7, 9, 7b9, 13, 9b13, etc.).
Next, you'll need to know the proper major and minor scales
for each of the resting chords in the tune.
Finally, you'll need to know the blues scale for the key that
the tune is in.
Just to summarize, you'll need to know:
-
The key
-
The chord progression
-
Where the resting chords are
-
The proper major/minor scales for those resting chords
-
The blues scale for the overall key that the tune is written in
To put all of this together, solo throught the tune according
to this scheme:
During the resting chords, solo using the appropriate scales
for each of those resting chords. During the chords that are NOT resting, solo
using the BLUES SCALE OF THE ORIGINAL KEY. It makes little difference what the
actual "non-resting" chords actually are, just solo using the BLUES
SCALE OF THE ORIGINAL KEY during those chords that are not resting. Do NOT try
to use this blues scale over the resting chords; your ear will verify that this
can be a dangerous approach.
Here is where you can view a brief example
showing a chord progression with resting chords, active chords and the application
of this technique
Hopefully, you'll find this concept helpful. If so (or even
if not), I'd appreciate a comment or two. Thanks.