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Chords scales are very useful for improvisation as for accompaniment. In a
simple way, insted of playing a note, a chord can be played with the same
upper voice than the note. Then, whole phrases can be build around chords
scales : many great pianists have intensively used this kind of
technique, such as Wynton Kelly or Bill Evans. (continue reading…)

After the lick in fourth, here’s another way to climb a scale using groups of three notes sometimes organised in fourth, sometimes not. The tone is D Major, the lick sounds also well on E dorian (second mode of D major), especially if you end the phrase on a C# instead of the B used here.

The second part of the lick is a very classical way to go down the same scale using stricly fourth intervals.

Here’s another lick to climb up and down a tonality without using scale or arpeggios : it’s a repetitive pattern of 3 notes, very easy to notice for the listener. It’s important in an improvisation to provide the listener with such rythmic and melodic patterns, instead of scales and scales and scales…

Here’s a very common lick in fourth, which can be used in a wide range of contexts. It has a very modern and modal color, you can hear for example Alain Caron (Uzeb’s bass player) use it a lot. The final notes are reversed to end the phrase on a D as it started on G.

Here’s a good pratice, for both hands : start playing the first G with the litlle finger, and take care with the right hand’s down-up movement. You can alternate the three last notes to end the phrase with a D (a nineth on C minor) for a more rich color.

On the guitar’s neck :

In jazz, most people use 4 notes chords, also the six strings are not used very often for polyphony. But there are big chords which, quickly played as arpeggios, may sound really well.

For exemple, listen to this one, in E Dorian (second mode in D major):

On the guitar’s neck :

It’s possible to build complete scales using this type of chords, maybe for a next post .