Use guide tones

Improvising a solo can be intimidating. But there are a few things that you can do to make it easier. One thing is to use guide tones.

Guide tones are the notes that control the chord quality of a chord. They’re the 3rd and 7th of a chord.

Let’s take a look at a few 7th chords.

With these three chords the chord tones that change the chord quality are the 3rd and the 7th.

One way to start improvising is to use guide tones to create a solo. Figure out what the guide tones are for each chord and make up lines using those guide tones.

Start with just half notes.

From there you can add a rhythm to create a more interesting solo than just playing half notes. Then you could have something like the example below.

Once you’ve got that down you can add in other chord tones to give it more color and character.

Now we’ve got a pretty workable line that’s starting to sound more like a solo while still outlining the chords.

After you’ve got that down there’s a ton of other stuff that you can do, but that’s one thing to get you started improvising.

ISJ