HOW TO IMPROVISE OVER CHORDS

[Music] what's up everybody my name is Scott paddock and today we are going to unravel the mystery of how to improvise over top of cords when I first started teaching my students improvisation we usually start off with just doing the blue scale and we'll do that for three or four songs in two or three different keys while we do this they get comfortable playing solos and making things up as well as build a lot of confidence in their soloing after that confidence has developed then we usually dig a little bit deeper and talk about how chords and scales go together with improvisation before we go any further I would like to ask that if you find these videos helpful I would really appreciate it if you subscribe to my channel give me a thumbs up and share it with your friends if you're not already comfortable with blue scale improvisation or how to read chord symbols I would strongly recommend checking out two of my previous videos they cover a lot of the groundwork and this one is gonna build off on top of that the first video is how to improvise and it starts off with the blues scale and it just takes you step by step into playing your first improvised solo the second one is understanding chords and chord symbols and that one goes pretty in-depth into how chords are created how you change the scale to make each different kind of chord and I'm gonna cover that a little bit in this video but if you already have that groundwork from my previous videos it's really gonna make this video way easier to figure out so I'll put the links below in the description before we go any further I want to put a little disclaimer out there that this video is just the intro to improvising over chords so it's not gonna cover every chord it's not gonna cover every aspect of playing overtop of chords it's just gonna get you started and get you comfortable playing over top of the basic chords that you're gonna find then some of the first standards that you're gonna play solos overtop of okay so let's get started for our first example we are gonna use the chord g7 and we're going to apply four different steps to this chord that make you feel comfortable improvising over top of it now when I talk about g7 I'm talking about the key of the alto saxophone if you are a trumpet or a tenor player that is going to be C 7 and if you were a see instrument a piano player or guitar player dad's gonna be your B flat 7 we're going to start off with four measures of g7 and the chord symbol g7 the G is telling you that it's based on the G scale and the seven is telling you to flat your seventh degree so in your G scale you normally have a F sharp and we are going to lower that to F natural so our core tones which are one three five and seven and a g7 chord are going to be G B D and F when we're doing the chord outlines we're gonna play quarter notes so there'll be four quarter notes in each measure because we're in 4/4 time so we have four measures of g7 so we're going to play our g7 chord which is G B D F four times in a row [Music] now since we have the same cord several times in a row instead of just going up every time we're gonna make it interesting by going up for the first cord and down for the second so for the first g7 we're gonna play G B D F and for the second measure we're gonna go down gonna play G f DB so put that together going up and down for two measures now we have four majors so we're gonna go up and down two times and at the very end I'm just gonna play a G even though it's not part of this for measure it's just so that it sounds finished one two ready go now that you know how to play chord outlines over top of a chord we are gonna use those notes and begin our improvisation part of it so what the first thing we're going to do is we're gonna take our four notes in our g7 chord which are a G B D and F and we're just gonna switch up the rhythm a little bit so gonna play some notes longer some notes shorter it's kind of sound like this one two ready [Music] so you can start to hear an idea beginning to develop it's not the coolest idea ever but we're definitely taking our g7 chord and turn it into something does and turning it into something else so the next step with this is we're gonna do the exact same thing except this time we're gonna repeat some notes so we're gonna play two G's in a row or three FS in a row or two deep two DS or two B's in a row we're just gonna give it more movement by repeating some notes one two ready go [Music] you can definitely hear more emotion and more movement in there and that is the beginning of improv improvisation is this taking whatever notes or scale fit the chord and making up a cool rhythm that goes along with them with our chord outline solos that we're working on right now the next step is going to be play the four notes in the chord again which are G B D and F and this time you can jump around on them so you don't have to play them in order you can jump around on any G B D or F on your saxophone and you don't have to play them in order it'll sound like this one two there you go [Music] sounds way more like a solo right take another one one two yeah [Music] now we're improvising again it's just chord outline solos but that is definitely the beginning and once you figure this part out the next part is even easier okay so our first step was play a chord outline our second step was play a chord outline solo now we're gonna plug the scale into the chord so that we have more notes to choose from so for our g7 chord that again is telling us that we have a G scale we're gonna have a flat seven so the scale that fits that is the G mixolydian scale so if you watched my tutorial on modes or you already know your modes you'll know that that is based on the fifth degree of the major scale but all you really need to know is that a mixolydian scale is just a major scale with a flat seven so in the key of G you would play a G scale with the F natural instead of a F sharp that's your G seven scale or your G mixolydian scale just like what we did with the court outlines our first step was just playing over top of the chords so we're gonna do that with the scales also we're gonna play four measures of an ascending G mixolydian scale ascending meaning just going up and mixolydian meaning a major scale with a flat seven one two ready go that time you'll notice we were using eight notes so I was gone one and two and three and four and just going up the G mixolydian scale now we have the same chord back to back so this time we're gonna go up for one measure and down for the second measure so measure one up measure two down measure three up measure four down it'll sound like this one too yeah yeah so that is the scale that goes along with your g7 chord now let's take this scale and instead of just playing up and down we're gonna mix up the order a little bit so we're gonna go up a few notes then down a little bit then up some more notes then down a little bit like we're kind of winding our way through the scale we're not gonna jump around that much in the beginning but were just kind of gonna we're just gonna kind of wind our way through the scale it'll sound like this one too very up so that was still pretty much a g7 scale except it wasn't just straight up and down I was kind of curving around a little bit going up and down throughout the scale okay now that you can play up and down the scale when you little more creative and this time we're going to jump around and this scale a little bit so instead of just going scale wise motion every now and then we're going to jump a note so something like that where you're still standing like you're kind of playing a scale but you're jumping from note to note instead of only doing scale wise motion take a listen to it one two there you go and that's it that's how you use a scale to improvise so now let's put the chord approach where we jump around playing chord outline solos with the scale approach where we play a scale but just kind of mix up the order a little bit and put those two together that make everything sound a little more interesting it'll sound something like this so if you notice I'm playing my scale and then every now and then I'll jump to a chord tune so I'll be playing my scale and then I'll jump to a G or a B or a D or an F those are usually your strongest notes so those are the notes that you want to jump to take a listen again and that's it those are your improvise lines overtop of chords so now that we can improvise over the chord g7 you just apply exactly what we did to any other chord that you're going to play so let's do it over a c7 so for a c7 we're based in the key of C and the seven is telling you that our seventh which is normally a B natural is lowered to b-flat so our first step is just playing a chord outline so in the key of C we have one which is C 3 which is e 5 which is G and your flat 7 which is B flat we're gonna play up and down and a chord outline then the next thing is we are gonna take that cord outline and do a cord outline solo with it now we have our c7 scale which is a C major scale with a flat seven seven YZ we're gonna play a C scale with a B flat and our first step with that is we're gonna just mix up the scale a little bit now we're gonna put the C seven chord outline solo along with the C mixolydian scale it's that simple you just take your scale and your chord and you make up cool rhythms now what do we do when the chord changes so so far we've had four measures of g7 and four measures of c7 what happens if we have two measures of g7 and then two measures of c7 what we do is this follow the exact same rules when we see the g7 we're going to play our g7 chord which would be G B D F and our G mixolydian scale which would be at G major scale with F natural and then when we hit the c7 we're going to play C e G B flat and our C major scale with a flat seven which is C scale with the B flat so the chord outline would sound like this [Music] did you hear that chord change when I went for the g7 to the c7 you could definitely hear the chords change take a listen again [Music] now we're gonna chord outline solo using those two chords so for two measures we're going to chord outline solo and the key of G seven and then two measures we're gonna chord outline solo and the key of C seven it's that simple you just follow the chords whatever the chord is on you those are the notes that you use now we're gonna do with our G mixolydian scale and our C mixolydian scale one two [Music] again two now there is a second way of thinking about improv like this you can take your g7 chord or your g7 mixolydian scale which we know is all natural and your C mixolydian scale which we notice has B flat and for your first two measures when you're in g7 you can think all naturals and then you just keep going and then you switch to one flat to B flat so that way you're thinking about your improvisation and a key signature kind of way it would sound like this one two so if you notice I wasn't court outlining quite as hard I was kind of playing the same idea and then when I got to that c7 I switched to a b-flat instead of it be natural now when you're soloing over chords like that you definitely have different chord tones in your g7 then your c7 and your g7 G B D and F are your main notes your core tones and in c7 c e G and B flat or your main notes or your chord tones so those are the ones you want to jump to those are the ones that you want to accent but when you're playing a line as long as you just change the the key signature to fit the chord you're gonna be in good shape and your soul is in and your lines are gonna sound really good and really connected that's definitely a bit more advanced because you have to be able to know what's in the chord right away and be able to check them out and see it as you're going along but the better you get at reading chord symbols and improvising over chord symbols the easier that becomes alright so now that you know how to improvise over a dominant seventh chord we've done g7 and c7 you can apply that to any other dominant seventh chord so d7 b seven eight flat seven anything that's seven you just change to that scale with the flat seven and you use the chord outline ideas and the scale solo out the and the scale solo line ideas so what happens when we go to minor like what happens if we had a minor seven what do we do we just change to that chord we know that a tells you that you're in the key of a and a minus sign tells you that you have a flat third and the seven tells you that you have a flat seven so our main notes would be or our chord tones would be a c e and g so this is what a chord outline would sound like in a minor seven so you're no sir AC e and g now we're gonna do a chord outline solo using those same notes again we're just soloing using the notes that are in the chord which is AC e and g now we're going to plug that into a scale when you think about a flat 3rd and a flat 7th that belongs to the Dorian mood which is built on the second degree of the major scale and all that means is that it's a major scale with a flat 3rd and a flat 7th when we had mixolydian it was just a flat 7th now in Dorian or dorian minor is flat 3rd and a flat 7th so in this example with a minor 7 we're talking about a scale with a c natural and a g natural so the only key signature the only sharp and the key signature would be F sharp so we sound like this now there are some more minor scales that we could choose from but to keep it simple as we're getting started we're gonna use the dorian minor as that's the most common when we're playing jazz solos so now we're going to take our a dorian minor scale which only has F sharp in it because it has a flat 3rd and a flat 7th and we are going to do scale line solo that's it that's empathizing that's improvising over chords now we're going to take the chord outline solo and the scale line solo and put them together you can apply this technique to just about any chord and that is how you improvise over chords now obviously we didn't cover diminished chords or augmented chords for those in the beginning I would suggest just playing chord outline solos overtop of this chord say usually only only they usually are only going to last one measure so playing the chord outline solo is gonna sound totally fine but when you have your major chords your mixolydian chords and your minor chords all figured out and know how to solo over them that covers a whole lot of ground and it opens up a whole lot of songs for you to improvise over thanks for taking the time to check out this video I hope that you found it helpful and if you did I would really appreciate it if you subscribe to my channel gave it a thumbs up and share it with your friends if you have any suggestions for future videos or future tutorials definitely leave me a message below or if you have any questions leave me a message below as well thanks a lot [Music]

Channel: Scott Paddock

Views: 184,323

Rating: 4.9554796 out of 5

Keywords: saxophone, saxophone guy, saxophone music, sax, saxo, alto saxophone, chords, chord changes for beginners, chord changes, improv, how to improvise, how to improvise on sax, how to improvise on saxophone, how to improvise on saxophone jazz, how to improvise over chord changes, how to improvise over chords, jazz, mixolydian, modes, how to solo, music theory, music, music theory for beginners, solos for beginners, sax player, improvisation, chord improvisation

Id: Zbv3IK6VscU

Length: 18min 39sec (1119 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 23 2018