You can start practicing guide-tone improvisation by embellishing one of the guide-tone lines. On the screen, you can see a structural line written over the Billie's Bounce blues progression that uses only the thirds of the corresponding harmonies. This is a line that uses a lot of intervolic skips. But the main point of this approach, to improvisation, is to use this note either at the beginning of your phrase or at the end of your phrase. And by prioritizing these notes in your lines, you can establish a much stronger relationship with the underlying harmonies. And therefore make your lines more rooted in the underlying harmony and more convincing. So let me play you that structural line that uses only the thirds of corresponding chords. I'm going to use the metronome on two and four. It's set to half note equals 80. So, these are two and four and I'm going to play that structural line. One, two, one, two, three, four. [MUSIC] Okay, so as you can hear that line, there's a lot of skips but again, the main point is to use this note to establish much stronger relationship with the underlying harmony. So now what I'm going to do, I'm going to improvise a chorus based on that structural line. I'm going to prioritize these notes in my solo, so you can hear how my lines establish a convincing relationship with the underlying harmony. One more time, little bit slower. One, two, one, two, three, four. [MUSIC] Okay, let me play it one more time and I'm going to announce the third of the underlying chord. One, two, one, two, three, four, third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Okay, so it's a very useful exercise to do, and to prioritize to embellish a third of the chord. Next thing, we can do the same thing with the seventh, because if you remember, the guide-tones are composed of the third and the seventh of the chord. So here's our structural line that prioritize the seventh on the underlying chord. And just a quick review, the dominant chords we have minor seventh and the minor chords we have minor seventh. So we are only dealing with minor seventh of the underlying harmonies. Okay, so again with the metronome on 24. One two, one, two, three, four, seven, seven, seven. [MUSIC] Okay, and again you could hear that the lines used a lot of skips but the main point again is to establish a very strong relationship with the underlying harmonies. So then here is example of improvisation that prioritizes these note in your lines. Let me play it with a metronome. One, two, one, two, three, four. [MUSIC] Seven, seven, seven. [MUSIC] Seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven. Okay, so you can hear that I have some flexibility as far as where I want to put these notes. I can put them at the beginning of the measure, in the middle of the measure. So in my approach to improvisation, the direction of the line takes the priority. So I'm not obligated to start on this notes, on this guidance at the beginning of each measure. But I'm free to let the line get me there, all right? Okay, so obviously once you feel comfortable with this note and you start hearing them, that's the main point to hear the quality of the third and the seven of the chord. You can begin to utilize both third and sevens and create a structural line that encompasses both of these guides. Okay, it might sound something like this. So I'm going to start on the third and seven. So when you have one chord per measure, there are going to be two half notes, thirds and seventh. When you have two chords per measure, you're going to have four quarter notes, because of the faster harmonic rhythm. All right, so we're going to start with a third of the chord. [SOUND] One, two, one, two, three four. [MUSIC] All right, so this, this is your structural line that uses both third and seventh. And then again, there are lots of skips, but again the point is to use this note as a kind of boundary of your phrase. So for instance you can see, over F7, [SOUND] there is the distance of a tri tone. So you can easily fill that distance [SOUND] with four quarter notes and you can displace the seventh, place it on the end of beat two, creating that syncopated effect. All right, so just by filling in the distance, the space between these larger skips, you can create a convincing melodic lines. [MUSIC] Okay, so let me play it one more time and I'm going to announce what kind of guide-tones I'm thinking of while I'm improvising. So I'm going to start on the third. One, two, three, four. [MUSIC] Third, third, seven, third, third, third, seven. [MUSIC] Seven. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. Seven. [MUSIC] Third. Seven. [MUSIC] Seven. [MUSIC] Third. Okay, so that's fun. So I strongly encourage you to approach these progressions and any other progressions in a kind of methodological way. First, start with the thirds only, then with the sevenths, and then you start combining the two. Finally, when you feel comfortable with thirds and sevenths, you can be more mindful of the voice leading of your structural line. So the last guide-tone technique I want to discuss in this segment utilizes much better voice reading between these notes. Instead of jumping between two thirds or two sevenths, you can simply capitalize on the voice leading principles and resolve the third and the seventh accordingly to their voice reading tendencies. For instance, if you begin on the third of the chord, [SOUND] instead of going upper fourth to the third, [SOUND] you can basically go down [SOUND] to the seventh. [SOUND] So that's much better voice reading, because right now what we're going to accomplish by concentrating on a better voice reading. We're going to create a structural line that works mostly by steps, and that's our goal to create a line that moves mostly by steps, minor seconds or major seconds, and utilizes as few leaps as possible. Okay, so let me play that line that starts on the third [SOUND] and capitalizes on a good voice reading between chords. Okay, one, two, three, four. Three, [SOUND] seven. Three, [SOUND] seven, [SOUND] three, [SOUND] seven. Seven, [SOUND] three, [SOUND] seven, [SOUND] three, [SOUND] seven. Three, [SOUND] seven, [SOUND] three, [SOUND] seven, [SOUND] three, [SOUND] seven. Okay, so now, we're capitalizing on the voice reading, and the propensities of individual notes. Seventh [SOUND] resolving down to third, right? So, obviously, you know what I'm going to say next. Now we can use that line to organize our melodic ideas. So we kind of building, we're kind of improvising using very strong tonal foundation. And there's no better foundation that utilizes the most important pitches from the chord. All right, [SOUND] one, two, three, four. [MUSIC] Seven. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Seven. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Seven. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Seven. [MUSIC] Seven. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Okay, so there's endless possibilities to create your structural length. And I will strongly unquote you to run your own structural length using these as models. There's one more line that I would like to show you and you can see that line on the screen that begins on the flat seven. Okay, so flat seven [SOUND] the tendency of that note is to resolve down, right? So each time in your line you capitalize on that voice reading tendency, whether you're playing melodic diminutions or larger note values, your line is always going to sound convincing. So, just remember about the natural voice reading tendencies of certain notes. All right, so this is your structural line that you can later embarge. One, two, three, four [MUSIC] three, [SOUND] seven, [SOUND] three, [SOUND] seven, [SOUND] three, right? Three, [SOUND] seven, [SOUND] three, [SOUND] seven, [SOUND] three, seven [SOUND] right? Three, [SOUND] seven, [SOUND] three, [SOUND] seven. So when you have two, five, one progression, [SOUND] the third becomes [SOUND] seven. And again you can think about improvising using these notes as a starting and ending point of your solo. And particularly at the end of your solo it is really important to end your phrase at one of these guide-tones, because then you can kind of create a strong relationship with the underlying harmony. Okay, one, two, one two three four. [MUSIC] You hear it. Seven. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Seven. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Third. [MUSIC] Okay, so in the recapitulation. By elaborating these lines and creating your own lines, your lines, your phrases will be more tonally sound and they will establish a much more convincing relationship when the underlying harmony.
