How to Analyze Jazz Guitar Phrases Effectively

Hi everyone, how’s it going? Well, today I want to talk about how to analyze licks and phrases.

Main Idea

So the one idea I want you to take from today, besides the analysis part, is whenever you learn a phrase, make sure to learn from the phrase. Learn the concepts, bits, and pieces that are the building blocks of that phrase, and you’ll get 10 or 20 or 30 times more than just learning a lick. For this example, I’m going to use a lick from my 51 Galactic Jazz Licks course. You can check it out; the link is in the description below.

Example 1

Select the major 7 licks over here and we’re gonna go with this first example. So take a listen…

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It’s just over a static C major seven chord. Listen again slowly…

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Okay, so it’s very, very simple. Let me explain. I use brackets to show the different concepts. I use circles to mark the target tones, and I use text just to say what’s going on. It’s really, really basic. Sometimes I’ll use arrows and stuff like that. So let’s jump right in and you’ll understand—it’s very simple.

Concepts

The first thing that we have here is an enclosure to the 3rd. So if you’re not familiar with what enclosures are, basically there’s many ways to approach a chord tone and target tone. One of the most popular ones is probably chromatics and all kinds of enclosures. Enclosures can be diatonic or non-diatonic, as in chromatic. In this example, there’s one chromatic note, and it’s all just surrounding this note over here, which is the third. We’re aiming to the third and then we’re successfully hitting the third.

Target Tones

Then we start moving from one target tone to another. Here’s the first target tone; it’s the root, moving to the third. You can notice that these target tones of C major (this is C right here) are landing on strong beats. So it’s 1e+a 2e+a 3e+a 4e+a. Basically, root, third, root, fifth, and all of these other notes—just a bunch of chromatic notes in between to bridge between now one note to the other. So the root goes to the third, third goes to the root, root goes to the fifth, and then I’m playing the triad.

Triads and Movement

So I just use this blue line over here, the bluish line, turquoise line to indicate just like the triad. So basically, you know, you can really see that there’s movement that is smaller and then all these chromatic notes also use more stepwise kind of smaller motions leading into a more open sound like a triad, which is using a bigger and wider interval, which are 3rds. You know, a bunch of 3rds.

Analyzing Jazz Phrases

It’s something that you can really notice whenever you’re analyzing a jazz phrase, is that there’s a lot of wide versus narrow. Not only in jazz, but in other styles as well. Over here, with this pinkish bracket, I was thinking of E minor pentatonic, which is diatonic to C major. Yep, just using its all diatonic notes, but I had the feel in my fingers and in my mind that I’m playing over an E minor pentatonic. At least that’s what I’m assuming.

Diatonic Enclosure

The diatonic enclosure over here leads into “F”. So this is a diatonic—you know, this is a G and E into an F, is kind of surrounding the F note. It’s kind of like, you know, aiming this whole structure is just aiming to get into F, and then I’m playing an F major seven. Supposed to be seven add nine diatonic arpeggio. So F major 7 is actually a diatonic arpeggio. And even though I’m playing over C major, I’m playing an F major 7 add 9 arpeggio because it’s diatonic to the scale.

Drop Twos

So enclosure aiming to the root of F major, then playing this diatonic arpeggio. I just made this line over here to represent this—the arpeggio. This is, once again, just the target tone.

Using drop twos—if you’re not familiar with drop twos, and by the way, if you’re not familiar with how to really internalize all of these concepts on the entire fretboard, check out my Galactic Modern Guitar series to become a harmonically melodically aware guitar player. Drop twos are concepts that are usually used in arrangement and usually referred to as chord voicings. I love using them as arpeggios. So I arpeggiate some drop twos right here.

Arpeggio Example

This is an A minor seven sus four drop two right there, going into an E7 sus4 arpeggio right here. So once again, just using brackets naming the concept, and this is a way wider. You can see that the notes are further apart; the intervals are wider. There’s a fifth right here, then there’s a second and a fourth, and then a bunch of fours over here, and just ending the phrase on the major seven right there.

Course Promotion

By the way, if you enjoyed this phrase, make sure to check out my 51 Galactic Jazz Licks course. When joining 51 Galactic Jazz Licks, I also make sure to keep you motivated by sending you these types of analysis to your email inbox.

Application

Then the next thing to do, of course, is to take all of these concepts and apply them on tunes, on standards, on songs, whatever you want to. That’s how you get the most out of learning a phrase.

Conclusion

Okay, so hopefully you got some cool ideas about how to analyze and understand phrases. Please support this channel by liking, subscribing, and hitting the bell because there’s so many more videos coming up. Also, check out the videos from last week, like the diminished video or the four must-know concepts, and I’ll see you next week. Thanks for being here. Bye!

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