Minor Blues - Solo & Techniques II

In this class I teach you a 12 bar solo chorus on a Jazz Blues in C minor. This solo chorus includes many techniques for creating your own jazz solos, including chromatic neighbor tones, “fiving” the upcoming chord in the progression, using II–V progressions to create more motion in a simple blues, tritone substitutions, melodic sequencing, and two important rhythmic devices. You will learn specific examples of all of these techniques, as well as the specific chord voicings used in the blues chorus.

In this course you will study

• A specific Jazz blues solo and chord progression
• Seven harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic techniques for creating jazz solos
• How to use these techniques and blues solo to create your own solos

The seven techniques

• Chromatic lower neighbor tones
• “Fiving” the upcoming chord in the progression
• Using II–V progressions to create more motion in a simple blues
• Tritone substitution
• Melodic sequence (repetition)
• Hemiola — accenting every three eighth notes (3/8 over 4/4)
• Playing into the changes instead of on the changes

By taking this class, the student will learn seven techniques for improvising jazz lines over a Jazz minor blues progression. These techniques will include harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic devices. Applying these devices will make the student sound more authentically like a jazz guitar player. Specific examples are included of each of these techniques, which are condensed in a written out minor blues chorus. By learning this solo chorus, the student will learn all these techniques, and also how to apply them to other jazz progressions of many types. Chord voicings for this specific minor blues progression are also included.

Running time: 29 minutes. 2 pages PDF included (notated solo with techniques guide + chord voicing diagrams).