The concept of soloing outside the chord entails nothing more than playing notes that aren’t part of the chord.
If you encounter a C major chord, any note that isn’t C, E or G is technically an outside tone.
There’s a difference between playing an A against a C major chod and playing an Ab, which you will learn next.
Playing non-chord tones
Here is where you combin your knowledge of chords with your knowledge of scales.
Any note of the scale that isn’t part of the chod is a non-chord tone.
It’s simple subtraction — take the notes of the scale, subtract the notes of the chord, and you have an assortment of non-chord tones to choose from.
You employ scale-based non-chord tones for 2 reasons:
1. You can use non-chord tones to connect chord tones — to get you from here to there, acting as passing tones.
2. you can use non-chord tones to add tension to a solo line.
Let’s look at the last concept more closely.
When you play a chord tone, you are playing a note that the listener expects to hear.
If the chod is a C major chord, listener expects to hear C E or G.
But if you play a non-chord tone like an A, that’s unexpected.
When you play unexpected notes, it adds tension to your solo line.
The more tension, the more you set up the release – in the forum of a chord tone.
So laying a run of non-chord tones (based on the underlying scale) sets up the tension in your solo, which you resolve by ending on a big chord tone.
Using non-chord tones from the underlying scale (circled) to add tension to a solo.
C F
D . C D . C / E – C – / B . A B . A / C – A – /
You don’t even have to use a lot of non-chord tones.
Hitting a single non-chord tone on top of an importnt chord creates a lot of tension.
For eg. hitting that A on a Cmaj chord is really striking.
When you resolve down tothe expected G, the effect is extremely satisfying.
Applying Chromaticism
If you limit your playing to scale tones, you are not getting too far ‘outside’.
To ge really outside, you need to abandon the basic scale completely, and play notes that are truly unexpected.
For eg. If the song is in C Major, the listen expects to hear the notes of the C major scale: C D E F G A B.
If instead, you play a Gb, you really get their attention.
In fact, the more non-scale notes you play, the more outside you get.
And if you get far enough outside, your solo no longer implies a specific chord or key.
THe manner of improvising without implying a particular chord or key utilizes what are called ‘chromatic notes’, that is notes of the chormatic scale.
Simply put, th chormatic scale is allt he nots — all of them, the naturals, and the flats and the sharps within an octave.
Every note is a 1/2 step away from the next.
The scale can start or stop on any degree.
Chromatic scale:
C, C#, D, D#, E, F F#, G , G# , A , A# , B C
Inserting chromatic notes into your solo doesn’t mean that you have to throw all tonality to the wind.
You can use chromatic notes as grace notes or approach notes like this:
C F C G7
E . D# E G / A . G# A – / G . F# G . F# / F
As you can use, using chrmoatic notes in this fashion doens’t get you too far outside the chord.
another approach is to develop short patterns of motifs based on chromatic intervals, ie. intervals that do not naturally occu r in the underlying scale. Or you can develop a short motif and repeat it ascending or descending chromatically.
For eg. here is a solo based on ascending major seconds: C – D, Db – Eb, D – E, etc.
Dm7
C D Db E b / D E Eb F / E Gb F G / Gb Ab G A /
G7
Ab Bb A B / Bb C B Db / C D Db Eb / B
—————————————
Probably the most jarring use of chromatic notes, however is when you play a chromatic note where the listener is expcecting a key scale or chord note.
For eg. if you are coming off a big V7 chord, the listener expects to hear the settling tones of the I chord (C E G).
If instead, you play an Ab, you rally upset the apple cart.
Be warned, however, employing this kind of unexpeted chromaticism risks turning off the listener, so use it sparingly.
Dm G7 C
D – E – / F – G – / Ab. G A – / G. F# G – /
—————–
Working with chromatic scale lets you ignore the key you are supposed to be playing in .
There are other ways to do this, short of employing a free form avant garde style.
The best approach is to repeat a pattern, or repeat an interval — which lets you in essece reates your own scale.
When you play a series of notes all a perfect 4th above the next, you will quickly go from playign ‘inside’ the chord/scale/key t playing ‘outside’ the basic tonality.
If you start on C, the new scale tones circle outside and then back again:
C – F – Bb – Eb – Ab – Db – Gb – B – E – A – D – G – C
This approach works for many different intervals.
You can try repeated minor 3rds.
C – Eb – Gb – A – C
–> this is not outside but it sounds different