improvisation

In this guitar lesson, we will explore the differences between five different Phrygian modes taken from the major, harmonic minor, melodic minor, harmonic major and double harmonic major scales.

This guitar lesson with tabs and staves will enlighten you by proposing several options to solo over half-diminished chords aka m7b5.

Satin Doll by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, witten in 1953, is one of the most famous jazz tune. It has been recorded by many jazz musicians as Wes Montgomery, Ella Fitzgerald, Mc Coy Tyner, Oscar Peterson and of course Duke Ellington himself. It has become a classic jazz standard, a must-hear, very popular at jam sessions.

This guitar lesson with chord shapes and scale charts explains how to play easy jazz chords and what basic scales to choose for improvising over Satin Doll.

Lesson by Fabrizio Brusca

Oh, Lady Be Good by Lester Young is Second video from the chapter "Jazz Language And Improvisation Techniques Serie". 

In this chapter, Fabrizio made a selection of some famous solos that show how jazz phrasing has been developped from 1925 until these days. Each video of the serie (organized in a chronological order) features a history of jazz masters that have contributed to the evolution of jazz.

These lines have been transposed on guitar trying to respect all the original instrument nuances and embellishments. 

This guitar lesson sheds light on the different types of minor modes and scales that can be used in jazz music.

They are built with different combinations of intervals starting on different steps of several scales as the major scale, the melodic minor, the harmonic minor, the harmonic major, the pentatonic scale and the bebop scale. 

What Scale To Choose For Improvising?

One of the most common question a beginner asks when he wants to start improvising on guitar is : Which scale to choose over which chords? However, there is a lot of scale and a lot of chord, it is easy to get lost. That's why it is important to make the relation between them, trying to understand what is the appropriate scale that fit the chord and vice versa. 

This guitar lesson provides the seventeen most important scales with shapes and formulas to know for improvising over the most used chord types in jazz music (major, minor, dominant and diminished).

Pentatonic scales are scales with five notes per octave. They are frequently used in music all over the world. The word "pentatonic" comes from the Greek word "pente" meaning five and "tonic" meaning tone.

Talk of "the" pentatonic scale generally make reference to the major pentatonic scale and its relative minor. It's a mistake, indeed there are many types of pentatonic scales (Egyptian, Ritusen, Man gong, Altered, Locrian...).

Pentatonic scales are considered earlier than heptatonic scales (seven-note scales) and can be divided into two categories :

• Containing semitones (hemitonic)
• Without semitones (anhemitonic)

The purpose of this post is to propose some tips and ideas for practicing and develop pentatonic scales.

Arpeggios are essential musical tools that allow you to build pure and beautiful lines while highlighting the harmony. When playing over chord changes, using arpeggios is the most efficient way to connect these chords together.

This lesson provides four exercises with tabs, standard notation and diagrams that will help improve your guitar skills and your theoretical knowledge.

Learn how to make your jazz guitar solos sound more melodic and intentional with target notes and enclosures.

In this lesson, you’ll discover how to aim for important chord tones and approach them using simple scale or chromatic notes.

You’ll also learn basic enclosures, a classic jazz technique that adds movement and a more “jazzy” feel to your lines.

With easy-to-follow explanations and practical guitar patterns, this lesson is a great starting point for beginning jazz players