Jazz Advice

The process of learning to improvise is a journey. A long and rewarding journey andone that is punctuated by a series of milestones.

This can be hard to see from that comfy seat inside of your practice room, but take astep back from your daily routine and look at the path that brought you to where youare today.

You played your first notes, you learned your first scale, you learned your first tune,you figured out the inner workings of a chord progression, you got fluent in all 12 keys,you worked on the blues and rhythm changes, you learned your first ii-V- I line, youtranscribed your first solo…

As you begin your musical journey these milestones are huge and transform you at apersonal level. Your first notes on your instrument turned you into a musician. Your firstsolo over that chord progression made you an improviser.

These leaps forward changed your identity and set you apart from everyone aroundyou. However the better you get, these breakthroughs are fewer and far between. Moreeffort and determination is required to make even the smallest step forward.

But even the small steps forward are essential to your improvement and graduallymove you toward your goal of becoming a great improviser. This musical path thatyou’re on can be as long or short as you want it to be. Your destination can be the soundthat you hear on your favorite records or maybe you just want to be better than youwere last week.

Whatever your aspirations, this path to your goal is paved with many milestones…

Getting started with chromatic ii-V’s

So let’s go back to that stuffy practice room. You’ve taken a quick inventory of yourmusical progress: you’ve learned some tunes, you’ve got some instrumental technique,you feel comfortable over standards, you’ve transcribed some solos and you can evennavigate ii-V’s like clockwork. But what’s your next major breakthrough?

Answer: Chromatic ii-V’s

One of the musical milestones that many improvisers can intellectualize and analyze,but few can play well over is the chromatic ii-V7 progression – a sequence of ii-V7progressions either ascending or descending by half-step:

In your journey through the Great American Songbook, you’ve probably run acrosssome chromatic ii-V’s, especially if you’ve played any of these common standards:

Moment’s NoticeStablematesLoverBlues for AliceThe Eternal Triangle

To get a quick idea, listen to this version of Stablemates from the Paul Chambers albumChambers’ Music with John Coltrane. Especially listen for the descending chromatic ii-Vin the first two bars of the progression, | E-7 A7 | Eb-7 Ab7 | Db |:

Chromatic ii-V’s are also commonly used in a number of standards to add interest andharmonic tension to the otherwise predictable progression of the ii-V-I. Some familiartunes that use this concept are:

It Could Happen to You: last two bars of A sectionWoody’n You: 2nd and 6th bar of the bridgeYou Stepped Out of a Dream:

Instead of playing a “normal ii-V” in the last two bars of the A section:

A chromatic ii-V, a half-step above the original is inserted, doubling the harmonicmotion and adding some tension. Listen for these spots in the above video as Dexterplays (0:28, 1:08, 1:49, etc.):

It’s also important to keep in mind that chromatic ii-V’s aren’t only limited to the“written” chord progression. You can imply this device in various places throughout atune as you solo. For instance, as illustrated in the above example, you can insert achromatic ii-V before the final ii-V in a tune or any strong resolution point.

Employing this simple device in can add harmonic interest, especially when you implythem over the original static chord progression.

Concepts for improvising over chromatic ii-V’s

The first stumbling block that we encounter as we try to play over chromatic ii-V’s isconnecting these two unrelated progressions in some sort of musical way. In this case,ii-V doesn’t lead to the I chord as we would expect, it leads to another ii-V.

What’s more, this second ii-V is not related to the first ii-V at all. The key center iscompletely different and there are hardly any common tones with which you can easilyconnect them. Coming from the guidelines of harmony that we’re familiar with iii – VI– ii – V – I , creating a logical improvised line can be tough.

The goal in these situations, is to come up with something musical, not mechanical.However, like many musical concepts this is easier said than done.

When you first begin, chromatic ii-V’s can feel like a sort of musical straight jacket. It’sas if you are forced to play a specific pattern just to avoid hitting a wrong note or gettinglost in the form. The changes are so complex and moving by so quickly that the onlyoption you have is to outline the chords or insert a memorized lick.

The result is a premeditated music theory exercise instead of a flowing melodic solo.

So how do you improvise musically over chromatic ii-V’s?

As with the majority of your difficulties with improvisation, it’s best to consult therecords for the answers. Rather than trying to follow one set method or a bunch ofmusic theory guidelines, go put on a recording of your favorite player. There are a tonof options out there. Tunes like Blues for Alice, Moment’s Notice, and even Stablemateshave been recorded hundreds of times over the years by pretty much every majorplayer you can think of.

Study these players and figure out how they sounded good over these challengingprogressions. Once you’ve picked out a recording you like, isolate those spots in thetune with chromatic ii-V’s. Then, put them into Transcribe to loop the phrase and slowit down.

It’s no coincidence that nearly every great musician subscribes to the mantra “slowpractice.” Listen to that phrase you’ve selected a dozen times, sing along with therecord, figure out the notes and intervals on your instrument, and analyze how thosenote choices relate to the chord progression. Then slowly get the line up to speed – up tothe point that you can effortlessly play along with the recording. Your ultimate goal is toingrain these lines into your ears and your technique, to eventually make that line a partof yourself.

The process is the same whether you’re trying to get language over one ii-V or figuringout how to play over the blues. You need a model to study, some language that you canstart with, and hours of practice ingraining that technique or sound into your ownplaying.

Simply put, take one small idea and practice it until you get it.

Below I’ve taken some key spots from a few well known solos and extracted some ideasthat caught my ear over those troublesome chromatic ii-V’s. With each example I’vehighlighted some techniques and concepts that you can incorporate into your ownplaying.

Remember there are countless ideas to be found on any recording, it’s up to you whichones you pick, study, and incorporate into your playing.

Creating lines vs. playing ii-V licks

One of the first traps that we fall into as we play over a tune like Moment’s Notice isinserting ii-V licks over each ii-V. For instance you commonly hear predictable lines like

this played over chromatic ii-V’s:

Seems logical enough, right? You’re following the theory rules and you have all the 7-3resolutions. Just cut-and-paste one ii-V lick and you’re good to go??

As you can see, it’s a very stop start way of improvising. Instead of taking this route, tryto play phrases that go across the bar lines and aim to use language instead of licks.Start thinking in terms of a continuous musical phrase rather than that cut and paste lickapproach.

To get an idea of this concept, let’s check out a few lines from John Coltrane’s solo onMoment’s Notice:

Take this line for example, from Trane’s second chorus (1:38 in the video):

In this example we hear a seamless lines, the musical phrase doesn’t break because thechords change, no stop and start between ii-V licks.

One thing that is often startling when you analyze Coltrane’s solos from a certain

period, is that they are often very inside harmonically. We commonly think of hisplaying as pushing the limits and exploring the boundaries of harmonic potential, but alarge part of his development and mastery of improvisation was spent masteringstandards and common ii-V-I’s.

However, when you take a close look at the lines that he is playing, you see somethingdifferent than what you might expect. As the progressions become more complex and asthe harmonic motion of the tune increases, the melodic content of his solos becomessimpler. (use of bebop scales, arpeggios, triads, language) similar to the way he playsover Giant Steps.

Here is another example from the same solo (1:57 in the video):

In the case of a chromatic ii-V like we find in Moment’s Notice, you don’t always haveto think about your line starting at the beginning of the form and One ii-V is anextension of a previous phrase, the next ii-V is the start of another phrase, not justisolated ii-V’s. Take a look at how Trane uses this idea at the beginning of his thirdchorus (2:14 in the video):

Instead of starting every line on beat one of the first measure, he continues his line fromthe previous chorus into the next chorus. Essentially splitting those two ii-V’s up andeliminating the difficulty of connecting those two sounds.

V7 instead of ii-V7

Playing over chromatic ii-V’s can get overwhelming and stressful pretty quickly,especially on up-tempo tunes, so anything that we can do to simplify this progression isextremely useful. One way to simplify things is to think of the entire progression as asingle chord (only the V7 or only the ii-7 chord)

This type of thinking can quickly simplify this complex progression:

| E-7 A7 | F-7 Bb7 | becomes | A7 | F-7 Bb7 || E-7 A7 | F-7 Bb7 | becomes | E-7 A7 | Bb7 || A7 | Bb7 | Eb |

For example, let’s look again at one of those Coltrane lines from above:

Over the | F-7 Bb7 | in the third measure of the example, he uses a descending Bb7bebop scale over the entire ii-V progression. Rather than a jumble of confusing ii-V’syou can just think of a plain old V7 chord and apply your dominant language over thatentire progression.

Or here’s another example of substituting V7 for ii-V from Sonny Stitt’s solo on thebridge to Eternal Triangle:

On the bridge of his second chorus (3:35 in the video) he plays the line shown below,emphasizing the V7 of every ii-V7 chord.

Similar to the Coltrane example, Stitt uses a descending bebop scale of the V7 chord foreach ii-V7.

You can also go the other way and substitute the ii chord for the entire measure insteadof the usual ii-V7.In the progression below, think | E- | instead of | E- A7 | and | Eb- | instead of | Eb-Ab7 | :

Imply just the minor ii chord over that entire ii-V within a chromatic ii-V sequence:

With this mindset you have an entire measure to apply any minor language that you’vedeveloped and you greatly simply the complexity of moving between chromatic ii-V’s –you’re just moving from one minor chord to the next.

Connecting those ii-V’s

The crucial spot in chromatic ii-V’s comes in finding the connection between one ii-V tothe next. Focus on this spot, practicing it very slowly. Study how great improvisersnavigate this tricky area and employ these devices in your own playing.

Below is an example of how Clifford Brown solves the problem of connecting chromaticii-V’s in a musical way. This excerpt is taken from his solo on the tune Cookin’ which is aBird blues (1:54 in the clip below):

Notice how Clifford connects his line from one measure to the next by half-steps:

Aim for this type of logical resolution in your own lines.

Changing direction

One thing that can make your playing very predictable is the direction of your lines.

In the above example, every phrase starts and stops with the same lick an ascendingminor arpeggio that resolves downward. It sounds like a music theory exercise becausethat is essentially what it is, the same line in the same direction over and over again.

Change direction in your line, as shown in Coltrane example, as the progression ascendsby half step, have your line descend, Many players get stuck playing a sequence foreach set of ii-V’s, using a ii-V lick and transposing it through each succesive key. if yougo up one ii-V, go down the next one:

Take a listen to the Parker line (0:49 in the clip below):

This line isn’t that harmonically different from the ii-V “exercise” above, however it is ina different world musically. Rhythmically the line is much more interesting, not justeighth notes, and the direction of the line is varied from one measure to the next.

Harmonic anticipation and delayed resolution

One way to steer clear of the predictability of chromatic ii-V’s is to avoid resolving eachchord on the barline or as the chord changes. An effective way to do this is through the

use of delayed resolution and harmonic anticipation. Instead of changing progressionson the bar lines wait one or two beats before or after the chord to resolve. Take a look atthat Clifford Brown excerpt again:

Notice how he doesn’t resolve the chord at it arrival, but rather delays the resolution bya few beats. He achieves this effect primarily through the use of enclosures.

Besides delaying the arrival of the chord, you can also anticipate the next progression(see this article for more detail).

Anticipating a chord is essentially starting new progression one or two beats before itsarrival. Once again let’s go back to that Sonny Stitt line on the bridge of Eternal Trianglefor a great example of this concept:

Notice how he anticipates the arrival of each chromatic ii-V by a few beats.

Chord substitutions

Finally you can explore substitutions for the chromatic ii-V’s you encounter. Forascending chromatic ii-V’s (like Moment’s Notice) you can imply a minor ii-V a minor

3rd above the original progression (check out this article for more info):

| E-7 A7 | F-7 Bb7 | becomes | G-7 C7 | F-7 Bb7 |

or you can even think of it like this:

| E-7b5 A7 alt. | = | G-7 C7 |

In the above progression, | E-7 A7 | F-7 Bb7 |, the problem spot is connection the A7 tothe F-7. This minor 3rd substitution essentially replaces A7 with C7, which naturallyleads to F-7 in the next measure.

Here are some other ideas that you can experiment with by altering the V7 chord:

There are many possibilities continuing with the concept above of using adiminished triad relationship, for that A7 chord you can substitute C7, Eb7, andF#7.

Experiment with Tritone substitutions on the V7 chords:| E-7 Eb7 | F-7 E7 | EbMaj7 |or replace the first ii-V by transposing it up a minor 3rd and tritone subthose V7 chords:| G-7 F#7 | F-7 E7 | Eb Maj7 | which creates a nice descendingchromatic motion.

Tritone sub with only the V7 chords: | A7 | Bb7 | Eb Maj7 | becomes | Eb7 | E7| Eb Maj7|

Practicing these methods and concepts

The idea of playing well over chromatic ii-V7’s goes directly back to playing well over asingle ii-V7 progression. If you have trouble over one ii-V, multiple ii-V7’s moving byhalf steps are going to be very difficult. If you can’t play over Satin Doll, Moment’sNotice is going to feel impossible.

One thing that you have to remember is that all of these concepts and lines look great onpaper and hopefully they make sense in your mind, but when it comes to actuallyplaying them in your solos, you need to get to another level of understanding.

You need to physically hear the sound of these lines, you need to ingrain them in yourear and fingers through repetition, you need to transform that music theory intolanguage.

Practice these concepts and sounds slowly and out of time at first. Hear the nuance ofeach musical device and spend time until they are ingrained.

Get the sound of the progression in your ear and try to play what you would sing overthese chords. It’s very easy to sound mechanical and unmusical over chromatic ii-V’s.Thinking only of voice leading rules (i.e. 7-3 resolutions or arpeggios) can become verypredictable and boring and disjunct from a melodic perspective

All of these lines and devices are useful to study, but remember that you will gain themost benefit from transcribing them yourself. It’s one thing to look at them on paperand it’s an entirely different thing to listen to them and figure them out for yourself.

Finding your milestone

Enjoying and appreciating each of these milestones is one of the great parts of practicingthis music. Getting up to speed on chromatic ii-V’s is just one example of a musicalmilestone that you can aim for. No matter where you are in your development, nomatter how far you’ve come, you can always practice, study, and listen and improve alittle more, aiming for that next milestone in your musical development.

The nice thing about improvisation, is that you can continually come back to any aspectof the music and improve and expand your abilities and knowledge. With something assimple as a major chord, a ii-V progression, or the blues there will always be room forimprovement…always.

You can apply new concepts you’ve discovered through listening, new language thatyou’ve transcribed, and new techniques that you’ve developed on your instrument.Those tunes, chords, and progressions continue to remain the same, however, you arebringing something new to the table every time you attempt them. The potential forimprovement and discovery is always just a focused practice session away.

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