Jazz Blues Chord Soloing Study

When learning how to play jazz guitar, many of us are drawn to the jazz blues chord solos of great players such as Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Lenny Breau and others. While we may be excited to learn how to play chord solos in the style of these legendary jazz guitarists, its often difcult to know where to start in order to maximize time in the practice room, and begin to play chord solos over our favorite tunes. One of the best ways to learn how to build chord solos, is to learn a few jazz guitar chord soloing etudes in order to get an idea of how these choruses are built, how they are phrased, and how they t under your ngers when you take them into your own playing. In todays lesson, well be looking at a chorus of jazz blues chord soloing in the key of Bb that Ive written out to help get you to the next level in your jazz guitar chord soloing development. Check this solo out, rst breaking it up into each phrase and then attacking the entire chorus at once. It features some classic riffs, and it will help get some chord soloing ideas into your ears and under your ngers as you explore the fun and exciting world of jazz guitar chord soloing.

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Analysis: 1st Four Bars

Before digging into the entire chord solo, you might want to break it down into the three, 4-bar phrases from both a physical and theoretical standpoint. Here are a few items to notice, and possibly take out of context and practice in 12 keys, apply to other tunes, or improvise with in other context, from the rst 4-bars of the chord solo. The anticipation of each new chord in bars 1, 2 and 4, where the next chord change lands on the & of 4 of the previous bar. This is a common jazz rhythm, which is used a lot in single-note and chord soloing contexts. The mixture of Drop 2 Chords and Closed-Position Chords in the run that lands on beats 3 and 4 of the second bar. There is a tritone substitution in bar 4, where an E7 has been used in place of the written Bb7. This E7 then resolves down to the Eb7 in bar 5 of the chord solo.

Analysis: Second Four Bars

Here are a few items to keep in mind, and extract for further practice, within the second, 4-bar phrase of this jazz guitar chord solo. The use of a 4th-voicing chord on beat 4 of the rst bar to help break up the use of Drop 2 Chords, which are predominantly used in this phrase.
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 The A7 on beat 4 of bar 2 that lead chromatically back to the Bb7 chord in the next bar, which has been anticipated to land on the & of 4 in bar 2. There are a few chord subs being used in bars 3 and 4 of this phrase, which outline a very common variation of bars 7 and 8 of a jazz blues chord progression. These chords, in this key, are Bb7-Eb7-Dm7b5-G7b9.

Analysis: Third Four Bars

To nish up, here are a few items to keep in mind when learning and studying the last, 4-bar phrase of this jazz guitar chord solo. The climb up from the Cm7 to F7 chords in the rst two bars, which comes from Joe Pass chord soloing vocabulary. Placing the chords in bars 11 and 12 on the & of 2 and the & of 4, which is a common jazz guitar rhythm used by many famous players. The Abdim7 chord that is used to outline a rootless G7b9 chord in bar 11.

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Bb Jazz Blues Chord Study

Now that you have learned and studied each individual phrase of this jazz guitar chord solo, youre ready to dig in and learn the entire chorus. Take your time and use a metronome and/or backing track at a slow tempo when rst learning how to play this chord study. After you are comfortable playing it through at a slow tempo, maybe starting around 50 bpms, the slowly raise the tempo in order to take this solo to a more medium tempo. Click to hear audio for the Bb Jazz Blues Chord Study

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How to Practice the Bb Blues Chord Study

After you have learned this chord solo as written, at a slow or medium tempo, you will want to explore and expand it further in your practice routine in order to get the most out of each lick, phrase and rhythm in this etude. Here are a few ways that you can break down and expand on this chord solo further in your jazz guitar practice routine. Practice this chord solo at various tempos from 50 to 200 bpms if possible. Extract one or more licks from each 4-bar phrase and practice them at various tempos and in all 12 keys if possible. Sing the root note of each underlying chord while playing the above chord solo on the guitar. Begin to improvise with this chord solo by adding in new notes and chords, changing the rhythms and taking notes out of the solo in order to take it off the page and begin to make this solo your own. Write your own chord solo using licks and phrases from this, and other jazz guitar chord soloing phrases, in order to develop the skills needed to improvise in this style on the spot. If you have a question or comment on this jazz guitar chord soloing study, head on over to the Matt Warnock Facebook Page and post a question on my wall. I am glad to help out and answer any questions you may have on this, or any other, jazz guitar topic.

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