The Secret To Great Jazz Lines

Introduction to Guy Tones

Guy tones are the backbone of any phrase. It can be core tones or tensions, depending on the type of color you’re trying to express. When we’re talking about playing very basic guy tones, we’re basically saying just play one note on each chord that describes the progression, describes that chord, and leads into the progression.

Example with Rhythm Changes

For example, if we’re talking about rhythm changes in B-flat, we can start off on the root:

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When we go to G, we can lead into this B, which is the third. Then we get this sound:

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Then when we want to lead into the C minor, we can just go a half step, and we’re in that C minor. So we get:

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Now, since the continuity of this line is pretty chromatic, if we just move another chromatic step up, we get the flat 13 of that next chord, which is F. So all together we have:

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Chord Progressions and Guy Tones

Then the next chord, D minor, is also just a half step above. Then when we go into G7, we can go into its flat thirteen. Then when we go into C minor, we can go into the eleven. Going into F, we can go to the flat nine. Then when that F becomes F minor, we can go to its nine, G. Then a half step above would be the seven of B-flat, and a tone above would be the five of that E.

Now we can actually jump a step and a half into the six of E diminished, which is a beautiful thing to play. A6 over a diminished chord. And then on the D minor, we’re right on the root. G7 flat 13, on the C we can play the eleven, and on the F, we can play the flat nine. Then we can land on the six, so we get this line:

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Adding Triads

What I can do is I can start adding notes into those notes. So, on that B-flat, maybe I can play a B-flat triad:

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First inversion going into the next chord, G. Maybe I can play a B diminished, which is actually part of the G7 chord. Then going into C minor, I can also use a C minor first inversion triad, so I have:

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Right, so it’s still an exercise right now, but you can already see that just using triads you’re already getting a sense of phrasing. Now on the F, since it’s a dominant chord and I’m playing a flat 13, I can embellish that with an augmented triad:

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Then when I’m going to the D minor, I can also play the first inversion. And to the G, we get a G augmented. On the C minor 11, I can play this shell voicing of a G minor shell voicing. I get basically the five, seven, and the fourth. Then on the F7, I can play this second inversion of E-flat diminished.

So far, we get this:

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Further Embellishments

Then on the F minor, we can play a part of the shell voicing at nine. So we get this:

• This sound is the nine, flat three, seven, nine

Then we can play this shell voicing over the B-flat seven:

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Then on the E-flat on the five, I’m going to play a sus2 arpeggio. This is the triad; this is the sus2 sound, giving me that add 2 and 9 quality. And then on the diminished, I’m just going to play this diminished triad, which is going to give me the first inversion and it’s going to give me the root, the flat three, and jumping into the thirteen.

So far, we have this:

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Suspended Sounds and Quartal Harmony

So on the D minor first inversion, I am going to lower the five into a four, getting this kind of suspended sound leading into G7, which is going to be a quartal harmony kind of thing, giving me the seven, sharp nine, flat 14, which is a sound from the altered scale.

So of course, that’s a good reason to learn scales and arpeggios so you know the materials so you can build these kinds of linear structures:

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Then moving into the next chord, C minor, I’m actually going to take a part of this drop 2 voicing. This is the original drop 2, which has a natural three, but I’m gonna raise up the flat three into the eleven over here. And then I can get this sound, which gives me the eleven, the five, the flat seven.

Then when I’m moving into the flat nine on the B-flat, I’m going to use this diminished structure that gives me this kind of triad over bass sound and gives me the seven, the three, the flat four, the natural thirteen, actually, and the flat nine. And then I can resolve it into the six.

Then I’m stacking some fourths above the root, so I’m getting a major seven, third, and six.

So all together, we have this:

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Comping and Course Promotion

And the wonderful thing is that this is also so good for comping:

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I’m going to take a quick second here to let you know that I dive way deeper into these concepts on my course platform at weissguitar.com, where I recently released a full series on how to solidify your fretboard knowledge, Galactic Modern Guitar. In it, I teach all the fun and important foundations and fundamentals that you can add into your solos and playing, such as chromatics, arpeggios, scales, chords, how to connect all of the elements when moving through chord changes, stuff like that and much more.

There are over 15 modules, 96 videos, and PDFs that all include tabs and notation, as well as step-by-step guidance with instructional videos and exercises. And let me tell you, one of my biggest setbacks back in the days was trying to figure everything out by myself, so definitely a course I wish I had back in the days.

Anyways, let’s get back into guy tones.

Using Enclosures

Okay, so now what I can start doing is taking those same notes and instead of approaching them with triads, I can approach them with enclosures. So if you’re not sure what enclosures are, it’s basically like a cage around the note. So if you have a note, that would be an example of an enclosure because I’m surrounding that note and then I’m ready to target it. So it’s like a ready, aim, here we go.

So an example of using these types of embellishments can be something like that:

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So I landed on my root, then proceeded to my next guy tone. So now on the next guy tone, I can do maybe a part of a scale, maybe the Mixolydian flat 9 flat 13 scale. Then I can move, maybe only take two notes over here, just the root and the flat third, and then I can play the augmented triad.

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Then on the root, maybe I can play something like starting off from the third but then aiming into:

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The B-flat over here:

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Then I’m going into G:

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So my next note is the flat thirteen over here. I can play an embellishment from the altered scale:

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So this seven chord is actually built out of the seventh from the G7 altered:

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Then the eleven, I’m just gonna play the structure from the shell voicing we did previously, but I’m going to put this down.

Then on, maybe I should play a chord now. So I’m just going to play that diminished kind of structure and then play the rest of the notes. Let’s see what we got:

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Conclusion

Now, being able to understand what’s going on on the fretboard, arpeggios, scales, the triads, the different voicings, and how everything connects, so you can actually start seeing one chord leading to another without being confused. Most of us hear lots of ideas in our mind and we can’t really play them on the spot because of technical, theoretical, and visualization stuff on the fretboard.

So it’s very important to have a very step-by-step guidance on that if you haven’t yet.

So that’s it for today. If it’s your first time here, hit the bell, hit that like button, please subscribe. I’m really looking forward to seeing you in the next video. I’m gonna upload a video every week, so please stay tuned. I’ll see you in the next video.

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