Mike's Music Musings

An instructor once told me that a great skill to develop is the ability to translate one lick to multiple scales and chord qualities. Music is made up of patterns and thematic development of a motif, which is usually expressed over changing chords. Accomplishing this involves understanding how scales are constructed, and which of the scale degrees are stable versus unstable . This is just another way of saying which tones carry tension and which tones carry the absence or resolution of tension. Chord tones are stable, and the non-chord tones are more unstable- especially if within a half step of a chord tone. For example, the b9 really wants to resolve to the 1, and the 4 is begging to resolve to the 3.  Non-chord tones with a whole step relationship, for example, the 9 or 6 in a major scale, are more stable and depending on the context can act as stable or unstable tones. Notes that are neither chord tones nor non-chord tones (i.e., outside of the scale) can be also expressed as ...

I've been thinking a lot about connecting chords, especially with strong voice leading. I have been asking myself, when playing through progressions, how would I use only Drop2 chords to work my way up and down the fretboard?  I started with a simple ii-V and realized I had come up with the intro to "Wave," perhaps in the same way Jobim discovered it. Step 1: Start with the ii-V in C, starting with the root position Dm7.  Work up the fretboard, which is a drop2 G7 3rd inversion.

Studying how the Coltrane Changes chords connect allows the improviser to create lines which more strongly outline the changes, with better voice leading. This post will only consider the chord movement of I to bIII7 because the other change is a common V-I.  All examples are transposed to the key of C.