Impov Course comments/Questions

[jake]

Just downloaded the Major improv course. I am at work and really wish I had my sax in my hands tho. Anyways, there may be a light starting to shine. I have watched the 1st 2 lessons so far. I want to apply this to a song and see if I am thinking correctly. If so, hopefully it will help others as well.

For an example I wanna use the song Knockin on Heavens Door by Dylan.
This song consists of 4 chords throughout out the whole song.
Guitar chords: G D Am followed by G D C
This puts the key of the tune in G for C instruments. I wanna apply this solo to my tenor so my concert key will be A.
My thinking is that I can solo over the whole song using this A scale. At the chord changes, it will be more harmonic if I am in the mode of the guitar chord though? Am I on the right though process here?
A scale (A B C# D E F# G# A) So when guitar hits the D chord, I should play the A scale staring in the mode of E? G chord of guitar = A mode? C of guitar = D mode?
Hope this makes sense?

[jake]

Another thought here:
Referring to the previous post.
If I am playing the A major scale to solo, if guitar plays a G chord, on tenor sax I can play in the mode of A C# E or G# because these make up the chord of G on guitar?
As far as the C chord on guitar, the tenor can play D F# A or C# choral modes in the scale of A? Is this correct?
Thanks.

[john]

yes. but you’re better off transposing this stuff to your tenor key so…
go back to the lessons and transpose the G exercises up a tone to A. and also the chordal exercises in lesson 3. If you want to play good solos on Heaven’s Door in A then live there for a while using the exercises I laid out.
You can play the whole song using A major. But as you will see from my examples, you’ll want to bring in the different modes to fit the chord progression of your song, which is 1, 5, 6, then 1, 5, 4,
As you’ll see later in part 2 these are all very common chord progressions in any major key and you’ll be able to apply this stuff from the course.
A great example of how to start a solo on Heaven’s Door would be to play the first 5 notes of the A major scale over the 1st 2 beats which would land on the E (ABC#DE), so the E is now the tonic note of the 5 chord (that’s bar 1). Then the 2nd bar of the progression hangs on the 6 chord which is B minor, a perfect chance to emphasize the F#, D, B which would outline this chord. Do you see that? Keep studying my examples in those videos, what I just explained here is what I’m demonstrating in the videos.

[john]

yes Jake. just take it up a tone for tenor. I may be wrong but it sounds like you’re getting confused by what the guitar is playing…he plays exactly what you play, only down a tone. So he plays G B D and you play A C# E. you guys have just played the same notes. As for the modes, spend a few days on lesson two and it’ll start making sense.

[jake]

Thanks for the clarification. Yea will def be working on these.
After watching more of the videos I have another question for you. I am referring to the Tenor solo on What does it Take.
After looking at the chordal patterns I came up with the notes G B D F#. I noticed on the sheet music in the example (Bar7) (Notes) D B D E B A D are played. For playing the chordal you don’t need to play just the chord notes? The E and A notes confused me here as they are not in G chord pattern I came up with (G B D F#).

As far as the modals go there are 3 different starting notes in the What does it Take example all within the Am chord.
Bar 9 starting note G
Bar 13 starting note A
Bar 33 Starting note D

Just looking for a little clarification here. I know this is new to me and will take a little bit to sink in but loving this information.

[john]

Bar 7 has a G chord and so the riff I played (the notes you said) are all part of the G major chord – G B D. I also added the E and A because they complimented my riff idea. So, no you are not limited to just outlining the chord notes. You can and as you are just staring out it’s a good idea to do so. But I added those 2 other notes to spice it up a bit and so you could see how you can insert out of chord notes. But notice they are still notes that belong to the G major scale so are totally safe and valid.

For the mode riffs I try to keep them matching the chordal tones so…
notice on bar 9 I start on the G which is the 7th note of the A minor seven chord (I didn’t notate the 7th but I played it that way on the backing track, will update this).

Bar 13 is an A minor chord and the riff starts and ends on the A, pretty straight forward right?
Bar 33 I actually start the riff on the A just before the D, jump up a 4rth and then come down modally and end on the A.

[jake]

Thank you for your speedy responses. This makes perfect sense to me. I just need to get home and start applying what I learned to my sax! This will def help me out with understanding and doing solos. For the time being I copy everything by ear which is quite a lengthy process at times. Understanding the basics is a huge help and will allow me to rework some of these solos and really make them my own!

[john]

Ya, copying is one of the best things to do but when you understand the theory behind it it allows you to write it down and see how it all relates. ultimately helping your understanding of it all.

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