Okay...so I'm hooked on the Youtube Smooth Jazz backing tracks....

[Aceman]

These things:






Just 15 minutes to really stretch out and explore things. But I'm in a rut for adding some spice to it.

I mean - there is the obvious Em, E Pentatonic Minor, and E Dorian.

What else might one throw in there to give it some color?

[crusty philtrum]

Play a fifth up. For E minor, try using B minor pentatonic. Start lines in Em and cross over to Bm to hear the effect.

There are a million pentatonic substitutions in the big city. This has been one of them.

[TheLivingDead]

Force some chromatic notes in there. Be sly about it.

[gibson175]

chord substitutions - use them to base your arpeggio and scale tones around. thats a great way to make repetitive modal solos interesting.
I kinda like how the used a pic of my guitar in those things tho!

[GuitarStv]

Force some chromatic notes in there. Be sly about it.

A little chromatic thing that I like to do now and again: Play a very inside sounding phrase, then land a half step up or down from your target note. . . hold there for a second and resolve to the target note. Once you get the hang of doing this it makes you sound like a smarter guitar player than you actually are.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

....su gar....siru p....w allpaper.....ca ndy....ele vator......cake.....mallmusic....

Drat that is some slick stuff.....

[KBliss]

Yknow how diminshed=every 3rd fret,
augmented=every 4th fret.

The dimaug leapfrog= every 4th,3rd, 4th, 3rd...

So Emin: Try E - G - B - D - F# - A - C# - E - G#- B - D#- F -A#......

Now, theres 4 E's on your guitar to launch from, each will be different.
But you said add flavor- so don't eat just onions for supper.

I got this idea (sorta) from watching my friends Vinnie Vincent HotLicks vid. (Not that he quite knows what he's doing, he's still a small basket of fresh approaches.) Once I got good at it, the grownups in the music store let me try the fat hollowbodies behind the counter.

I like GuitarStv idea- gonna try that.

[tone4days]

Play a fifth up. For E minor, try using B minor pentatonic. Start lines in Em and cross over to Bm to hear the effect.

There are a million pentatonic substitutions in the big city. This has been one of them.

yup - and if i am thinking about this right, he could also do A minor pentatonic

i always think about this in terms of the root major key of C ('cus sharps and flats give me headaches in my old age)

in any given key, there are 3 minor pentatonic keys contained within ... so in the key of C:
the A minor pentatonic scale is present - the notes are A - C - D - E - G
also
the D minor pentatonic scale is present - the notes are D - F - G - A - C
and also
the E minor pentatonic scale is present - the notes are E - G - A - B - D

so if playing in a minor pentatonic that is functioning as the natural minor (e.g. A minor as natural minor to C), you can play a minor pentatonic with a root a 4th up, and another minor pentatonic a 5th up from that natural minor's root ...

so for an E minor pentatonic (serving as the natural minor from the root key of G major), the B minor pentatonic and A minor pentatonic should work

or am i all wrong on this?

[Hurricane]

Smooth Jazz - cool stuff been around longer than you think , this first real big timers with this sound go back to :

The Jazz Crusaders :



George Benson was among those who ushered it in , he did it before the 70s by a few years and could be considered a leading vanguard on this type of Jazz .

This list include Joe Ferrell and Freddie Hubbard


This stuff was being put down in the early 70s . Wasn't called smooth Jazz though back then . Traditional Jazzers didn't really call it Jazz too .

Personally I think it cooks up serious gumbo . It's Rock-Jazz-Blues-Pop fused into what it is . I have been down with this stuff since it first popped back in the early 70s . The list of those who went in this direction is huge .

Hurricane Ramon

[Aceman]

mmmm - Penta up 5, yes....

I've used "displaced" pentatonics before on occasion. And as Bill said - the 3 biggies in the key always work.

Cool stuff so far - keep it coming dudes: one key tunes. How to "keep it interesting" ???

I like the idea of getting my diminished on. It's not just for shredding metal anymore!

[Hurricane]

mmmm - Penta up 5, yes....

I've used "displaced" pentatonics before on occasion. And as Bill said - the 3 biggies in the key always work.

Cool stuff so far - keep it coming dudes: one key tunes. How to "keep it interesting" ???

I like the idea of getting my diminished on. It's not just for shredding metal anymore!

One key king : John Lee Hooker

[gibson175]

I like the idea of getting my diminished on. It's not just for shredding metal anymore!

wha?

[LesStrat]

I could really get into playing to those tracks.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Subs that come to mind:

As noted, B minor pent or blues scale.
Bm7 arpeggio
Maj. 7 arp. up a 3rd (Gmaj 7)
Maj. 7 arp down a 2nd (Dmaj7)

Mix up the above with the obvious choices (Em7 arp., E Dorian, E phrygian, E Aeolian).

Scales are arbitrary groupings of chord tones and different extensions, but what matters is the chord tones. So as long as you emphasize correctly, or use a good sounding arp sub (see above), it will work. it is boring to stay in one scale or arp. for very long; and obnoxious to stay outside too long.

You'd think Bm blues would sound bad over Em7 since the b5 of that BmBlues scale is a flat 9 of the Em, a half step off the root, but it doesn't if you use it as a passing tone between the root and 9th and stay in Bm or Bm7 arp long enough to establish it. IT sounds really cool actually, and briefly implies both E phrygian and E Dorian/Aeolian.

And you don't even have to stick to that. You can mix in the 2nd of B into that blues scale, so you can use B C# D E F F# A as your scale, or just add the b5 of the B (F) to the B Aeolian scale (Avoid B Dorian as the maj 13 becomes a maj 3 over the Em, which sounds bad). All that becomes D Major with a passing tone between 2 and 3, which is the basis for E Dorian anyway. So keeping to just a pentatonic or blues scale is, again, an arbitrary grouping of chord tones and extensions over the Em.

Arp subs are like scales, they are really just groupings of chord tones and upper extensions that you can limit yourself to in order to get a certain effect. The more upper extensions in the arp sub, the more it "Floats". Over Em7, Dmaj 7 (which has the 9th, 11th, 13th, and 7th of Em7 and no triad tones) floats more than Gmaj 7 (3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th of Em7).

Personally I think in scales only when I'm doing a very fast run, and even then I'll often use an arp. sub mixed in or instead of a scale. Think of the chord tones, then think about how each of the other tones in a chromatic scale sound around them and go from there.

The only note I'd stay away from over a minor or m7 chord is the maj 3rd, but I've even seen some folks use that to good effect.

[crusty philtrum]

Ya could try playing G minor pentatonic over E minor (or C minor pentatonic over the A minor track). That will bring out the b3, b5, #5, b7 and b9 of the parent key.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

That would work well over E7alt, might be a little colorful for a straight Em7.

[Quencho092]

play a C lydian dominant over that e minor!

play a B superlocrian!

play an A dorian b2!

just learn your melodic minor modes. You can basically slide into a melodic minor mode any time that there is a half>whole step then you add another half step and you can superimpose it onto most if ANY chord as long as your phrasing is true!

If you want to emphasize the upper extensions of Eminor, play an F# half diminished. That tetrachord sub is basically just the 7 9 11 and 13 of the key center (Gmajor). Superlocrian will emphasize this change with the key center a 5th away from eminor, if you just rock those fingerings and know where they go/how to complete them, the opportunities are a blast.

[Quencho092]

learn the tune SUMMERTIME! you can find the chord changes on songtrellis or from any real book.

D minor, E half dim>A7alt>, D-, D7#9, G-, G-, E half dim>A7, Dminor, G->C7>Fmajor, E half>A7>D

It's basically all in Dminor, but it cycles through the harmonized scale using subs, upper extensions of the F major key center, and inversions. This tune taught me how one chord can imply ALL THAT MOTION as long as you build inertia. Motion through those changes, feel where it gets melodic minor/altered, and learn how to slide into altered scales!

[Quencho092]

hurricane, right on with the clips! That's the GOOD smooth jazz, especially street life the whole record, yellowjackets, and moving into vocal music-steely dan. It's all about playing with the most sophistication and ease!

[Quencho092]

basically EVERYTHING parker is blowing here fits over a Dminor. It's that D minor, E half dim, F major, A altered, G minor, C7 cycle tossing in 1625. It's a 'bird blues', but you can rip any of those over a D minor 7 vamp, move it up to E and try those melodic ideas!