Chord Tone Soloing - Step 4

Surround the 3

 We're now going to add two vital notes to the Dominant 7 Superchord. They live on either side of the 3.

They are, of course, the ♭3 and the 4. In the diagram below, I've coloured the 3 green and the 4 purple.

These two extra notes are particularly useful when playing Blues, Jazz, R&B... in fact, most modern music.

The ♭3 (minor third) isn't a chord tone. If you play it with the chord, it changes the harmony into a minor 7th chord. But when you're playing melodies, lines and improvising, it's pure gold... just don't linger on it!

As I say in the accompanying video, think of the ♭3 as the 3's Siamese twin. They're joined together and work best as a pair. You'll see and hear exactly what I mean in 30 B♭7 Snippets.

The 4 is the next scale degree above the 3. Notice in the diagram that the ♭3 and the 4 sit on either side of the major 3rd. In musical parlance, they enclose the 3.

I can see how daunting this collection of notes is starting to look. The trick is to ignore the clutter and always keep the basic Superchord firmly in mind. In this case, that's the Dominant 7 Superchord: 1, 3, 5 and ♭7.

Those are your landmarks.

I'll mention again that there's an even deeper set of landmarks that makes both the CAGED forms and the Superchord templates easy to see. That's the subject of PlaneTalk.

See these two new notes as passing tones, notes you 'pass through' on the way from one chord tone to another  chord tone.

Roots, thirds, fifths, and flat sevenths 1s, 3s, 5s, and ^♭7s are still, and always will be, your HOME notes These are your fail-safe notes. The ♭3 and 4 add color (various Blues!) and interest to your lines and phrases

By now, hopefully both you and your fingers are becoming comfortable with the Dominant 7 Superchord, so adding these two extra notes shouldn't feel too difficult.

As always:

• Train your hands to move through them freely.
• Build short melodic ideas.
• Slide into notes and slide out of them.
• Move between adjacent forms.
• Repeat a phrase in the next position.
• And, most importantly... listen.

Thirty B♭7 Snippets

CLICK HERE to order the 30 B♭7 Snippets video lesson. (Buy for $10 and get a $10 discount when you order PlaneTalk!)

In it you'll see and hear me play thirty mini-licks and riffs that all use these notes. 

I've included TAB and the scale degrees for every example, so you can follow not only where the notes are, but what they sound like. I recommend NOT referring to the tab but rather find the underlying Superchord pattern and use it to find the notes that I play. That's really the whole point of this exercise ... to hear the numbers in the context of the chord. When you instinctively recognise what a ♭7 sounds like... or a 4... or a ♭3... you'll stop thinking about notes and start actually playing music.

And remember...

When it stops being fun, go mow the lawn!