Fast Lane To Jazz Improv

[V7#5b9]

For the past several years I’ve been taking the slow lane, prescribed by the jazz guitar industrial complex. Learn your scales, modes, arpeggios, seventh chords and their extensions, drop voicings, and all the fingering patterns on the fretboard. Build your jazz vocabulary: licks, riffs, melodic patterns, sequences, etc. When you still don’t sound like the masters, you’re told to transcribe their solos. And don’t forget to learn the academic music theory that you are then to forget. Well, that’s nice and dandy, but it takes forever and there’s no guarantee, especially, when you’re older. Nonetheless, you’re satisfied enjoying the process.

Sounds familiar? I personally don’t mind the approach. On the contrary, I like all the theory, but I wish there was a better way to implement it. Kind of like going with the flow rather than always relying on memorized vocabulary. Believe it or not, but there is a better and faster way. Skepticism is normal and I was full of it until I tried it myself.

Before I share it I’d like you to do a little experiment. Map out the C major triad on the fretboard using CAGED for reference, or just use the attached image. Get familiar with the patterns, but do not just play them up and down like a scale. Triads are the most perfect form of organized structure. They act as stable resolution points for our lines or melodies. The other nine notes offer varying degree of tension, each one has a different character or color, but for this experiment just use tension 2, 4, and/or 6 (meaning the 2^nd, 4^th, and/or 6^th degree of the C major scale). 

Using one of the 5 patterns, play around with the C major triad (different combinations of 1, 3, and 5, different rhythms) introducing 2, 4, or 6 here and there. You can combine them, but initially use just one to hear how it works with the triad. When you introduce a tension note, it will want to resolve. You can resolve it to the root, third or fifth of the C major triad. That’s how you can spontaneously create melodic phrases, and you won’t sound like you’re running the C major scale even though you are using its notes. If you feel more adventurous, you can try it over ii-V7-I-VI7 in the key of C. You won’t be outlining the changes yet, but it will be a lot of fun.

There’s much more to the Melodic Triads method including “Practical Perfect Pitch,” but if you like what you hear when experimenting, you may want to check it out. I joined the program two months ago and I’ve made more progress with it than over the last two years with the traditional method. If you have any questions, ask in the thread.

Here’s an interview with Jordan Klemons:

 

 

 

 

[Fretless]

Thank you, V7#5b9, that is just where I am in my jazz journey.