You Are Too Beautiful, pt. 2 - getting your solo together

Over the next two posts we’re going to look at some scale patterns you can use to solo over “You Are Too Beautiful.” My original idea was to bash out a solo using these patterns in an unambiguous way where you’d be able to identify each one within the solo; I quickly realized that that would result in a lousy solo. https://soundcloud.com/jocko-macnelly/you-are-2-bfl-72618-832-pm So that’s the first thing to keep in mind: our purpose here isn’t to show off our fingerboard knowledge, and it’s not to “play over the changes.” It’s to bring 

You are too beautiful, my dear, to be true

And I am a fool for beauty

Fooled by a feeling that because I had found you

I could have bound you too.

You are too beautiful for one man alone,

For one lucky fool to be with

When there are other men with eyes of their own

to see with.

Love does not stand sharing

Not if one cares.

Have you been comparing

My every kiss to theirs?

If on the other hand, I’m faithful to you

it’s not through a sense of duty

You are too beautiful and I am a fool

For beauty.   (Richard Rogers)

to life for your listeners.

This tune is in C, and it is one of those tunes that, regardless of what the changes are, they never really leave C. You’ll see what I mean in one of the next posts, but first, here are some scales and patterns in C-major, almost all of which I touched on in my own solo. Get hip to this first pattern as we're going to be playing around with it, i.e., changing some notes to play over different chords.

 This one is nice to run over the II-chord, Dm7.

I love these 6-note patterns. You can play them over any scale degree in major or minor.

Here's another really useful pattern that can be used all over the place.

Now take all this and just play around in C-major. Don't try to commit Great Art, just make your fingers happy and enjoy how your banjo sounds in "the peoples' key" as we jazzers like to call it. I know, we're all hilarious.