Chord Tones and Targeting
Most people learn to improvise through scales: Dorian over this chord, Mixolydian over that one. You play the right notes, nothing is wrong, and it still sounds like a finger exercise. What is missing is not material but direction.
- 4 chord tones
- 2 guide tones
- aim, then approach
At which level
- Intermediate
- Any instrument
- Some harmony needed
In short
Hold a Cmaj7 and sing an E over it, then an F. The difference is not subtle. The E disappears into the chord and belongs there. The F sticks out, asks for attention and wants to go somewhere, usually back to that E. Your ear sorts every note you play into one of those two categories, continuously, whether you intend it or not.
The four chord tones are not equal. The root anchors identity and says nothing about colour, and the bass player is already covering it. The fifth is the weakest: it says almost nothing. The third and the seventh are the pair that decides whether you are hearing a maj7, a dominant or a minor seventh, which is why they are called the guide tones.
How you practise it
Targeting reverses how most people practise. Instead of running a scale and hoping, you choose the note you want to land on when the chord changes, and then work out the approach to it. Aim first, approach second. Landing on a guide tone on beat one is the single change that makes a correct solo start sounding like music.
Where you run into this
- A solo where you can hear the chord change without hearing the chords
- A line that sounds aimless until one note is moved to the downbeat
- Two players over the same changes, one of whom is clearly arriving somewhere
Our own examples
A ii V I here, so you can try landing on the third and the seventh of each chord and then deliberately land anywhere else. The comparison takes about thirty seconds and settles the whole subject.
Keep going
Everything in playing and improvising
- Start Improvising
- Chord Tones and Targeting
- Building a Solo
- Scales in Solos
- Soloing Over the Blues
- Jazz Improvisation