So what are the secrets that pro level jazz musicians know that allows them to play incredible
jazz solos well today i'm gonna go over four tips so that you can start playing like them
too let's do this now very common frustration for musicians trying to play jazz is their solos
they're never really happy with their solos or satisfied constantly trying to find whatever that
special secret sauce is for amazing jazz solos well i'm gonna go over these four tips that i know
are going to really help you if you start taking action tip number one is to focus less on scales
and focus more on chord tones now when it comes to jazz and listening to your favorite jazz solos the
likelihood of them focusing on scales is very low in fact they're definitely very versed in playing
the chord changes and spelling out those chords in their musical lines for example if we have a 1
6 2 5 1 in b flat it's b flat major g7 secondary dominant c minor seven and f seven well one skill
you could play over top of all that is the b flat major scale now obviously there's only one
note with that g7 it clashes but you could also treat each one individually like a b-flat major
a g7 mixolydian and then a c dorian and then an f mixolydian but all of that is really almost
completely just b-flat major and you wouldn't really hear the difference between the chords
if you're coming at it from a scalier approach therefore it's better to think about chord
changes so what i would really recommend you do is become an expert at spelling out the chords so
for example if we started mapping out the chord tones on this 1625 it would sound like this
right and if we're connecting the chord changes in such a way that we're using what we call
voice leading which is simply connecting the chords to the nearest chord tones together
that's when we can start figuring out how to connect those sounds together
in a more dynamic and musical way later on but if we're not familiar with how to map out those
chord tones then we're really a few steps behind where we need to be so make sure that you know
how to spell out the chord tones of every single chord that's existing in jazz all the qualities of
seventh chords but also figure out ways that you can connect them kind of like i did just
there become an expert at this and i guarantee you your souls are immediately going to take a
next step up now tip number two is to focus on strategies for resolving to those chord
tones one thing that jazz musicians do really well is they use what are called approach tones
meaning that they are approaching we call target notes in their lines from chromatic and diatonic
whole steps and half steps to give you an example of what that actually looks like we can take a
look at this exact same chord progression the one six two five and identify what are the notes
that we want to target now the notes that we want to target are the thirds and the sevens those are
what we call the guide tones but really you can pick any chord tone that you want so in this case
in this approach tone line that i have composed the b natural on the g7
is gonna be our first target note now the b natural is the major third so we are targeting
the major third the next target tone that we are targeting is on the c minor and we're targeting
the e flat which is again the third it's the flat third and finally the last target tone is the a
natural on the f7 so the a natural on the f7 is the third so i often like to think about the note
that comes before the target tone or even the two to three notes that come preceding the target tone
so in this particular case i'm gonna go ahead and just slowly play through this approach tone
line so again it's b flat major seven g seven c minor seven f seven and so we're gonna play
okay so that was our first target tone the b natural and the g7 so i'm basically
walking up the chord tones of that b-flat major right and then i am approaching it
we call that an enclosure we are approaching from below in pitch and then above and then down to
that b natural for the g7 the third so these are all diatonic approach tones that we're using here
then i'm choosing to play this flat nine that sounds really good
okay and then arriving at that e flat so in a stepwise motion right so those approach
tones are the g the f leading into the e flat the third of the c minor so we have
okay now from the e flat we have to get to the a natural of the f7 so we're going to go
up the arpeggio off the chord tones of c minor and then we're going to do a chromatic passing
tone this chromatic passing tone is not in c minor but we're enclosing it with this a flat note and
then arriving at the a natural right the third of the f7 right there so in totality sounds like this
okay and jazz musicians pro jazz musicians are really good at figuring out how to
resolve to those chord tones so use exercises like this for yourself to start getting better
at doing this and by the way if you need any help working on some of these techniques definitely
check out our ljs inner circle membership we work on approach tone maps guide tones chord
tones and etudes all the time inside there so check it out ljsinnercircle.com and we'd
love to have you come over there and become a member now tip number three is to learn licks
and even entire solos of jazz musicians by ear i want to emphasize the by ear point because
great jazz improvisers they have amazing ears and they've internalized jazz language on a very deep
level and so if you're just learning solos and licks by reading music you're really operating out
of a different part of your brain than you want to be as a jazz improviser for example as a classical
musician it's a great idea to be learning how to play music by rote but it's a really good idea to
be learning it by ear if you want to become a great jazz improviser so for example you
could learn how to play this particular lick this was a lick from one of our etudes that
we studied in our inner circle membership it's over a 1625 and it sounds like this
okay really great line it spells out all the chord changes has some chromatic passing tones in it as
well all that combined to create a beautiful musical line using some of the tenants that
we recently discussed so learning that by ear even if it's just note by note from a recording
is really going to pay dividends for you and your ear and your improvisation tip number four
is to compose your own jazz solos and licks now this is something that the pros are really doing
after they've learned how to play other people's music to get some inspiration and ideas they're
going out and not only improvising for themselves but dreaming up the actual music they would want
to play slowing the improvisation process down to composing allows you the ability to really figure
out what you would want to play and internalize something that comes from you so for example i
composed this lick over the same chord progression and it sounds like this and that was really just
the first idea that came to my head and really to my ear it was just something that came easy to me
and those are the things that i really want to identify and latch on to because those are most
likely to come out in my actual playing and i can use the lessons that i've learned from chord tone
maps from approach tones from other people's musical language and adopt it for myself and by
the way if you want to learn more about approach tones how they work some more in-depth techniques
for playing bebop language click on the video on the screen right now where i talk about how to
play instant bebop that's a great one to check out next thanks for watching this video make sure you
like this video if you found it useful subscribe and we'll see you in the next one