The Secret To Great Jazz Lines

Using Guide Tones To Create Flowing Jazz Lines.

Among the most useful concepts in jazz theory is the idea of guide-tones. It is basically what makes your jazz lines flow.

A guide-tone is a melodic line composed of one or two pitches extracted strategically from each chord in a tune. It is the idea that if you distill a chord down to its essence, you can create a melody that outlines the harmonic progression of a tune in no time at all.

In the process of elaborating on the guide-tone melody, embellishing it, and decorating it, you can create a rich and creative musical vocabulary while clearly referencing the chord changes.

3rds and 7ths of chords are often and effectively used as guide-tones.

Guide-tones like 3rds and 7ths can be used to distinguish the three most common types of jazz chords: major, minor, and dominant 7th chords.

Using Bb rhythm changes , here is an example of how guide-tones can be visualized.

If you want to explore the concept of guide tones and how to take your solos to the next level and be able to create beautiful jazz lines check my course Galactic Modern Guitar.