Brains, Bebop, and Breakdowns

Hi. I'm into demystifying the "jazz process," so if you've already done a little research into jazz improvisation and are trying to wrap your mind around what "scales and modes" to play over what chords, you can stop worrying right here. We don't actually hear and play jazz that way. This is apparently a controversial view, the music-theory version of "There is no Santa," but it's true; that's why it's so hard to find actual examples of, say, "mixolydian mode" in transcriptions of great solos. There is a place for scales and even modes in your practice, and we'll get to that in later columns, but... "chord scales?" Not in any solo worth hearing. "The blues scale??" Fuggedabouddit! Ain't no such thing as a "blues scale," and I guarantee you will not find it in any authentic blues solo, be it Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker or B.B. King. What I want to do with this first post on playing jazz is to start putting scales in their proper context, and to show you the true foundation of a good jazz solo.

Let's start with a look at a jazz tune we all know, that one called Foggy Mountain Breakdown. What?? What's not "jazz" about it? It's basically a 16-bar blues, it's great to solo over, and played right it swings like all get-out! Now, what's the first thing you know about FMB? The first thing that pops into my head is "It's in G." Think of "being in G" as the audible foundation of FMB, the thing that influences everything else. Take the harmony for example: we hear the chords not just as G, Em, and D, but G, Em, and D in the context of a tune in G. Want proof? 

If you didn't already recognize this lick (and I'm guessing most of you do), you'd never guess it's something played over a D chord. It doesn't sound wrong here in bars 13 and 14 of FMB, because it's being played over a "D-chord in the key of G." Why doesn't this clash like crazy with Lester's big fat D-chords? Try it over a "D-chord in D" and it will. The original key of the tune influences everything else!

OK so we're in G. G-what? Major, minor? Mixossippian? My answer would be something precise and theoretical like, “oh y'know...G-majorish...bluesy...stuff..." 

Here's why: When we talk about a "key," out of habit we imply a 7-note scale with all the letters. So FMB is in G-major: GABCDEF# right?. Of,course, there are no F#'s or C's at all in Earl's part, but let's assume them for the sake of argument. Along with the pentatonic G-major (GABDE) he also uses some blue notes and a leading tone D#. If we put those together with all the possible chord tones in G, Em, D7, we account for every chromatic note but G#! There is an implied scale here, GABCDE(F/F#) which carries the main melodic information, but it takes all 12 notes to properly put that information across. 

With that in mind, here's a G-major scale based on G chord in D-position:

The next five examples will eventually make use of all 12 chromatic notes, and as you will hear, you'll never leave the sound of G-major. See if you can relate all these licks to that D-position G-major chord. A performance note: if you swing these, be careful of the tendency to rush the final eighth notes of phrases that end on the “and,” as in examples c) d) and e). 

The point is that whether you're channeling Earl or Miles, scales are not straitjackets. You can also adjust a note here and there to imply changes in harmony without ever leaving the pattern or the tonal center.  We’ll be exploring this idea in some depth not too far down the road.

So now don't forget: It can be anything from country blues to bebop, but our ears always know where they are in relation to the "home key." Earl's open 5th string on Foggy is nothing less than the workings of our brains made audible.

For the next few posts I'm going to be making a (hopefully convincing) case that Job One for the aspiring jazz player is to be able to play stylistically over one chord, in one key. Doesn't sound particularly romantic I know, but you might be surprised at how many dedicated jazzers are entirely at sea when they don't have a lot of changes to hang their ideas on! Besides, how can anyone play over a lot of chords if they can't play over one? OK see ya.