Jazz Improv Explained (Ridiculously Simple)

If you've ever felt overwhelmed by Jazz  improvisation and unsure of where to get   started today I'm going to show you exactly how  it works make it simple so that you get headed in   the right direction coming up okay so if you're  a beginner or someone who's been looking on the   sidelines on getting into jazz it can seem  a little bit overwhelming frustrating overly   complicated so what I want to do for you today is  break things down into simple terms and give you   essential building blocks that will help you start  improvising today so in order to do that let's   look at this chord progression which is D Minor 7  G7 C Major seven and it sounds like this foreign in the key of C major okay a two five one  in the key of C major and even if you don't   entirely understand what that means right  now what you do need to know is that this   is the most common chord progression that will  come up in jazz standards Jazz standards being   the vehicles in which Jazz musicians use to  improvise so 251 is a really important chord   progression you need to master so we're going to  look at how to start improvising over top of the   two five one because this is going to get you  so far when it comes to Jazz improvisation in   general so the natural first question is what  notes do I play over top of this two five one   to make things really simple what you do need  to understand is that D minor and G7 all share   the same notes that are within C Major seven so C  Major seven is what we call the parent key Center   and the parent key Center has a scale and in this  case it's the c major scale which sounds like this and a lot of us know our major scales pretty  well so I'm feeling confident that this is a   very simple way for you to understand just  how we can get started the most basic level   of what notes we can choose over this chord  progression so essentially because D Minor   ng7 all share notes within the c major scale  they're from the same key that means we can   play the c major scale over top of the 251 chord  progression so it would sound like this foreign okay now listening to that obviously  nothing sounds wrong right so D minor seven right the G7 and then of course the C Major seven those are  all what we would call right notes right there's   nothing that's actually wrong however listening to  that there's really nothing that makes the chord   changes come out and something that you understand  about jazz improvisation is that what makes great   jazz musicians sound so great is they're able to  start making those chords come out so in order to   differentiate a little bit let's go on to the next  step of our note choices here and in comes what we   call the modes of the major scale and in this  case the mode for the D Minor 7 is Dorian for   G7 is mixolydian and then for C Major seven is  ionian now if those names sound foreign to you   don't worry about that because it's very simple  remember that D minor and G7 all share the same   notes as the c major scale so all we're going  to do now is essentially say let's play this   C major scale but starting on the D note over top  of the D minor seven so it would sound like this okay so it's the c major scale starting and  ending on D natural and we just call that Dorian   it's just a fancy name for the second mode of the  major scale in other words starting and ending the   major scale on the second tone all right and then  when we get to mixolydian all that means is we're   going to start and end on the fifth tone of the  c major scale which is G so it'll sound like this okay and then ionian is really just a  fancy name for a major scale the one   major scale so the c major scale  so when we start and end each on   their perspective root of each chord  we're going to get a sound like this so already immediately we have  some improvement here right we   can actually hear the chords a little bit better coming out and differentiating each other  even though we're still just playing the   c major scale and another thing to notice is  that we're actually playing eighth notes here   and that's because eighth notes is a really  common subdivision that you'll find in jazz   so we want to get really good at playing swung  eighth notes if we're playing a swing tune of   course because that is very common for us to see  okay now what hopefully is obvious to you though   is that this still isn't the best solution for  actually sounding like we're hearing the D minor   seven the G7 and the C Major seven it's still  kind of just all sounds like the same stuff   so what we have to start doing when we're given  all these note choices like the scale we need to   start breaking it down a little bit for further  asking ourselves the question what are the most   important notes and the most important notes are  the chord tones now for jazz we use seventh chord   so in our case D minor seven and then g seven  that's a dominant seven and then C Major seven   that's a Major Seventh right and the formula  for all these for the minor seventh is root   flat three five flat seven and for the  dominant seven it's root third fifth   flat seven and for the major seven it's root third  fifth Major Seventh now again all we're really   doing to get these chord tones is simply looking  back at our Dorian scale and asking ourselves what   is every other note in this scale and that is  where you find your chord tones right so every   other note in the scale is the chord tones the  root the third the fifths and the seventh so   when we're playing just the chord tones over top  of this chord progression it sounds like this so I want to emphasize one more time chord tones  are really important in fact I always go to chord   tones first before I talk about scales in general  as far as where should you start with improvising   it's not that we don't want to know what the  scales are because as you can see that helped   us get the chord tones and also it does give us  more information that's going to be important   like what other notes can we play outside of the  chord tones but the chord tones are structurally   important to the chord so we want to really  know those forwards and backwards especially   in the case of this two five one now here's the  problem though we know from what we've heard so   far that this doesn't really sound sound like  jazz and that's because Jazz musicians have a   couple of Secrets and the first secret is that  they actually aren't just using the c major scale   not even close in fact the scale that they're  actually using is the chromatic scale now this   might sound controversial at first especially if  you are already a seasoned jazz musician but bear   with me really quick essentially a chromatic  scale all it really is is every single note   in western music that you can play in this case  we're just going to start on the C so it's c c   sharp D D sharp E F F sharp G G sharp a a sharp  B and then we're back at C again right and if   we're gonna play the chromatic scale over top  of a two five one it sounds like this foreign so if you're really paying attention here  basically you're understanding that I just   said you can play any note that you want over top  of any chord now that might sound mind-boggling   and it really can be in fact this is what kind  of non-educated musicians who come and listen   to Jazz sometimes they think that it's just random  notes or that it's all playing chromatics kind of   like we just played here however like I said  Jazz musicians have a second secret and that   second secret is they do not play the chromatic  scale like a scale and they also don't play the   major scale like a scale instead we go back to  chord tones again and we remember the root the   third and the seventh of each chord and instead  we start asking a different question altogether   and that question is how can I use notes that  resolve melodically to those chord tones okay   how do I find the right notes that can resolve  melodically to those chord tones because again   the chord tones are structural they'll make the  chord changes pop out in our solos but the major   scale and every single note in between and the  modes those are the different note choices that we   actually have however when we stop thinking about  scales as we play scales over chords instead we   think of what notes can we use to resolve to chord  tones it changes the narrative altogether so to   better understand this let's use an example of how  a jazz musician might resolve to a chord tone and   what we'll do first is we'll look at resolving to  the third of every single chord okay now the third   for D Minor is f the third for G7 is B natural  and the third for C Major seven is e natural so   I want to resolve to those and a simple way we can  do that is simply by just starting a note above   of and resolving by a half step to that third  okay remember we can play any note that we want   technically the key is we're trying to resolve it  so if we're playing this D minor seven and we want   to resolve to the third let's just say we start  with an e natural which comes from the c major   scale or the D Dorian mode and arrive to that F  note which is the third okay so that's one way we   could do it now taking a look at the G7 let's move  a half step into that third the B natural but this   time what we're going to do is use a note from the  chromatic scale which is a sharp so we're going   to go a sharp to B is the third okay and then  looking ahead of the c major we're arriving at   the e natural which is the third but we're going  to get there also through the chromatic scale   with a D sharp so if we're going to play this line  this is what it sounds like over the two five one oh but this is a legitimate starting place for  us to start understanding what Jazz musicians   are doing again how are we resolving to those  chord tones we're using the chromatic scale and   the major scale so let's look at another way  and let's add another note into the mix now   in this particular case what we're going to do  is we're going to still approach the thirds of   each chord but what we're going to do instead  is start from a half step below in pitch and   a half Step Above So if we're encircling the  third of the D minor seven the F let's go e   natural F sharp which is above and Pitch to F  natural now e again is from the c major scale   F sharp is not in the c major scale it is from  the chromatic scale so we have this kind of a   movement and then let's do the same thing on the  G7 with a B flat a c going into our B natural and then on the c major we have   an E flat an F natural to an e natural okay  now another thing that we like to call this   is called enclosure we call it an enclosure  because again we're approaching from above   and below our Target note which is again  a chord tone so here's what it sounds like now there's many other ways to approach a Target  tone a chord tone and of course you don't have   to just use the third and indeed sometimes  you can actually Target scale tones like the   ninth as we would call it and you can use more  notes to approach it as well and that's where   Jazz musicians really become an expert is they  figured out a bunch of different ways to resolve   to these chord tones so take a listen to this  actual Jazz lick and then we'll talk about it okay and here it is slowly let's identify where the chord tones are so in  this particular line starting on the D minor   seven we have an F natural okay the F natural is  the third then we have an a the a is the fifth   we have a d natural which is of course the root  and then we also have a c natural which is the   seven and then on the G7 we have a B natural which  is the third we have a d which is the fifth we   have another B natural we have G which is the root  G is the root here and then we also have F that is   the flat seven and then over the C Major seven we  have an e natural which is the third and we have   a g natural which is the fifth so every other note  in this line is going to be a non-chord tone that   we're using to resolve to the chord tone so over  top of the D minor seven we start with a G natural   okay so that g natural again is a note from the c  major scale the G flat that we use is part of the   chromatic scale which resolves to the F natural  which is the third so it's then we go up to the   fifth then we go to an e natural which is part  of the c major scale so and then we have our D   note which is the root to a c which is the flat  seven then B flat which is in the chromatic scale   resolving to be natural now we're on our G7  B natural is the third then we do all chord   tones so we go B natural g b to G which is  basically a g Triad right so we're just flat   out playing chord tones now we're gonna do  notes from the chromatic scale B flat and   a flat and then chord tones G to F that's  the root to the seven and then we end on   the C Major seven with a third that's the  e to the G so in totality sounds like this so the next natural question is how do I start  creating my own lines like this well you have   the notes that you can use and you understand that  you can use them to resolve to chord tones so you   can start experimenting and composing your own  melodic lines and see what you come up with but   also it's really important that you learn the Jazz  as language by learning licks and even solos by   great jazz musicians that you love only if you've  heard something can you start to replicate it and   understand it so I have a video on the screen  right now that will help you learn a jazz solo   by ear I give you very simple steps on how to do  that even if you've never done that before so go   ahead and click that video on the screen right now  if you found this video helpful make sure you hit   that like button make sure you subscribe to the  channel and we'll see you in the next video cheers

Channel: Learn Jazz Standards

Views: 86,578

Keywords: jazz practice, practice jazz, learn jazz, jazz lesson, play jazz, jazz education, jazz improvisation, jazz music, jazz musician, jazz advise

Id: 3uP6Tk4Fros

Length: 17min 8sec (1028 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2022