S

Building Lines
from Guide Tones
BY JEFF RICHMAN
IMPROVISING OVER
sophisticated chord changes
can be daunting. If youre confused by the seeming maze of
rules that govern scales and
how they relate to chords,
heres an alternative way to
tackle the problem. Instead of
thinking about scales, simply
target the 3 and 7 within each
chord and build melodies
around these two notes. Often
called guide tones, the 3 and
7 strongly define a chords
harmonic character.
X-ray the changes. Lets
explore this concept using the

rhythmic life to the same

guide tones. This eight-bar
line is beginning to sound like
music! In Ex. 3, we take the
process one step further by
fleshing out the guide tones
with a handful of connecting
notes. Notice how the guide
tones (circled) still form the
backbone of the melody, yet
we have a jazzy line to thread
through the chord changes.
Jam on it. You can use this
three-step process to improvise melodically over most
chord progressions. (Some
progressions contain chords

chords for the first eight bars

of the jazz standard Alice in
WonderlandDm7, G7,
Cmaj7, Fmaj7, Bm7b5, E7,
Am7, and Eb7. Rather than
spell out each chord in its entirety, well instead extract the
3 and 7, as in Ex. 1. (This includes b3 or b7, as determined
by the chord formula in questionsee the chart on p. 139.)
By playing through the various
combinations of 3 and 7, we
can get a sense of this progressions core harmony. Try it.
Enhance the guide tones.
Now play Ex. 2, which gives

b
.
3 .
b ..
..
.
..
..
# .
=
(n) .
..
===========================
& 4 .

bb7
bb3
b7
bb3
b7
7
3
b37
3
3
7
7
3
7
3

Ex. 1

Dm7

G7

Cmaj7

Fmaj7

Bm7 5

E7

Am7

E 7
3

3
1

T
A
B

5
3

3
1

4
3

3
2

4
2

2
2

3
2

7
7

7
6

5
5

6
5

b
E7
Am7
Eb7
3
. j j # J b

================================
& 4 j

Ex. 2

T
A
B

Dm

G7

Cmaj7

Fmaj7

Bm7 5

b
E7
Am7
Eb7
3

b

b
================================
&4
j # #

Ex. 3

Dm

G7
3

T
A
B

Cmaj7

2 5 2

3 2

2 3

4 5 4

Bm7 5

3
3

Fmaj7

5 2 3

4 2 4

2 3 4

4 3

5 2 4

6 5 3 6

that lack 3s and 7ssuch as

quartal structuresbut thats
another story.) To recap, heres
the procedure:
Identify the guide tones.
Play the guide tones rhythmically.
Create lines by connecting
the guide-tones with a few additional notes.
Mastering guide tones will

help you hear and understand

chords and progressions. Thats
cool, and theres another payoff:
Because horn and string parts
are typically based on guidetone movement, learning to
work with 3s and 7s will open
the doors to arranging.
g
Jeff Richman teaches guitar at
the Los Angeles Music Academy.

S E L E C T E D

C H O R D

F O R M U L A S

TYPE

FORMULA

major 7

dominant 7

b7

minor 7

b3

b7

minor 7b5

b3

b5

b7