jazz education
Creating a Good Jazz Line Doug Syme, WMEA State Chair, Jazz Education
Hel lo everyone! In my last article, I outlined a simple approach to get- ting beginning jazz students to begin improvising. In this article, I will outline a simple, yet effec- tive, way to create
an eighth-notes-based jazz line using two simple rules.
1. Only chord tones will fall on the beat.
2. Any note at all on an offbeat.
Let’s begin with the first two measures of an F Blues, typically F7 to Bb7. The chord tones for F7 are F-A-C-Eb. The
chords tones for Bb7 are Bb-D-F-Ab. I have included a simple piano part for all of these examples. Here is a systematic breakdown of how I approach this with my class:
• Pick an offbeat on which to begin. I chose the & of 2 as you can see.
• Put in any note. It does not have to be a chord tone. You can see in example 1, I have chosen C#. (example 1)
• Have them play the C#, while playing the F7 chord, in time, several times.
• Now we need a chord tone. This is a good time to teach about proper voice leading and ask the class “which chord tone is the closest
Go to the online version of WSM and listen to audio of examples listed in this article.
to C#?” The answer is of course C natural. (example 2)
• Have them play the C# to C natu- ral, while playing the F7 chord, in time, several times.
• On the & of 3 let’s leap up to G above the staff (non-chord tone). (example 3)
• Once again, have the students play these three notes, in time, with the F7 chord, several times.
• On beat 4 let’s drop to an F. (chord tone) (example 4)
• Play the line thus far, with the harmony, several times.
Play now. Play for life.
• On the & of beat 4 I placed an Eb. Remember, the off beats can be either a chord or a non-chord tone. (example 5)
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We are now at a point where the chord will change from an F7 to a Bb7. This is a good chance to reinforce good voice lead- ing. It is also a good time to begin talking with students about playing over the bar line. A good solo line should not stop to “reset” every time there is a chord change. It should flow effortlessly and seamlessly over the bar line.
Using the same concept of chord tones only on the beat and any note on the off beats, I have completed the first three beats of the second measure. As you can see, the chord is now a Bb7 and the chord tones are Bb-D-F-Ab. (example 6)
In the next example, I have taken a simple ii-V-I progression in the key of C. For this example, I applied the same rules but
September 2017
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