When you are improvising thru a series of chord changes, it is imp to make your solo sound like an uninterrupted melodic line, not like a series of disjointed phrases based on individual chords.
What you don’t want to do is introduce unnatural jumps into yoru solo line just cuz there is a chord change.
How NOt to deal with a chord change
You are changing from C chord to F chord.
If playing a simple arp based solo — you might be tempted to go from C E G C to F A C F pattern.
There is not a great transition, there is no rhyme or reason for that first pattern to move to the 2nd, other than the chord change. In fact, this type of approach overly emphasizes the chord change by not creating a natural bridge between the changes. Avoid this type of approach.
A chord based solo line that doesn’t flow naturally across the chord change — wrong!
a Using Common Tones
A better approach — identify those notes that are the same from one chord to another — common tones. By emphasizing common tones between chords, you can better connect the notes you play for one chord to those notes you play for the next.
Think of common tones as connecting tones for your chord based solos.
A common tone is a note that is contained in both of 2 adjacent chords.
There are several different ways to use common tones to bridge a chord change:
- repeat the common tone at the end of one chord and the beginning of the next
- hold the common tone from the end of one chord to the beginning of the next
- play a pattern centering on the common tone over the first chord, and then repeat that or a similar pattern over the 2nd chord
- create a melodic line over the first chord that is leading to the common tone, and then start the melodic line over the next chord with this common tone.
For eg
C F
C E G C – | C . A C – |
b Using leading tones
To get from one chord to another is to use the leading tones in the first chord to lead into the key tones of the next chord.
Just about any time you move from one chord to another, there ae one or more tones that lead from that first chord to the next. You can use those leading tones to create a melodic flow across a chord change.
I – IV (C to F ) progression.
Between tehse 2 chords, the leading tone is the 3rd of the chord I — E — which leads up a half step to the root of the IV chord, F. You can use the E-F movement ot create a melodic line that moves across the chord change.
C F
C E G G . E | F. A F – |
Building a melody across a chord change using the leading note int he first chord.
c. Playing a natural melodic line
These are not the only ways to bridge chord changes.
There’s no musical law that says you absolutely, positively have to play a common tone or a leading tone when you’re moving from one chord to another.
It’s okay to move from the 5th of a C chord to the 3rd of an F chord (which are neither common or leading tones), as long as the transition sounds natural. The key is to make your solo line flow from one chord to the next in a melodic way without any unexpected and unnatural jumps
.
Tags: chord progression