[0:00] If you've ever felt overwhelmed by Jazz 
improvisation and unsure of where to get  
[0:03] started today I'm going to show you exactly how 
it works make it simple so that you get headed in  
[0:08] the right direction coming up okay so if you're 
a beginner or someone who's been looking on the  
[0:14] sidelines on getting into jazz it can seem 
a little bit overwhelming frustrating overly  
[0:18] complicated so what I want to do for you today is 
break things down into simple terms and give you  
[0:24] essential building blocks that will help you start 
improvising today so in order to do that let's  
[0:29] look at this chord progression which is D Minor 7 
G7 C Major seven and it sounds like this foreign
[0:48] in the key of C major okay a two five one 
in the key of C major and even if you don't  
[0:57] entirely understand what that means right 
now what you do need to know is that this  
[1:02] is the most common chord progression that will 
come up in jazz standards Jazz standards being  
[1:07] the vehicles in which Jazz musicians use to 
improvise so 251 is a really important chord  
[1:14] progression you need to master so we're going to 
look at how to start improvising over top of the  
[1:20] two five one because this is going to get you 
so far when it comes to Jazz improvisation in  
[1:26] general so the natural first question is what 
notes do I play over top of this two five one  
[1:35] to make things really simple what you do need 
to understand is that D minor and G7 all share  
[1:43] the same notes that are within C Major seven so C 
Major seven is what we call the parent key Center  
[1:50] and the parent key Center has a scale and in this 
case it's the c major scale which sounds like this
[1:59] and a lot of us know our major scales pretty 
well so I'm feeling confident that this is a  
[2:08] very simple way for you to understand just 
how we can get started the most basic level  
[2:13] of what notes we can choose over this chord 
progression so essentially because D Minor  
[2:18] ng7 all share notes within the c major scale 
they're from the same key that means we can  
[2:25] play the c major scale over top of the 251 chord 
progression so it would sound like this foreign
[2:37] okay now listening to that obviously 
nothing sounds wrong right so D minor seven
[2:44] right the G7
[2:51] and then of course the C Major seven those are 
all what we would call right notes right there's  
[2:58] nothing that's actually wrong however listening to 
that there's really nothing that makes the chord  
[3:05] changes come out and something that you understand 
about jazz improvisation is that what makes great  
[3:09] jazz musicians sound so great is they're able to 
start making those chords come out so in order to  
[3:17] differentiate a little bit let's go on to the next 
step of our note choices here and in comes what we  
[3:23] call the modes of the major scale and in this 
case the mode for the D Minor 7 is Dorian for  
[3:30] G7 is mixolydian and then for C Major seven is 
ionian now if those names sound foreign to you  
[3:37] don't worry about that because it's very simple 
remember that D minor and G7 all share the same  
[3:45] notes as the c major scale so all we're going 
to do now is essentially say let's play this  
[3:51] C major scale but starting on the D note over top 
of the D minor seven so it would sound like this
[3:59] okay so it's the c major scale starting and 
ending on D natural and we just call that Dorian  
[4:09] it's just a fancy name for the second mode of the 
major scale in other words starting and ending the  
[4:16] major scale on the second tone all right and then 
when we get to mixolydian all that means is we're  
[4:21] going to start and end on the fifth tone of the 
c major scale which is G so it'll sound like this
[4:30] okay and then ionian is really just a 
fancy name for a major scale the one  
[4:38] major scale so the c major scale 
so when we start and end each on  
[4:47] their perspective root of each chord 
we're going to get a sound like this
[4:58] so already immediately we have 
some improvement here right we  
[5:02] can actually hear the chords a little bit better
[5:05] coming out and differentiating each other 
even though we're still just playing the  
[5:15] c major scale and another thing to notice is 
that we're actually playing eighth notes here  
[5:21] and that's because eighth notes is a really 
common subdivision that you'll find in jazz  
[5:26] so we want to get really good at playing swung 
eighth notes if we're playing a swing tune of  
[5:31] course because that is very common for us to see 
okay now what hopefully is obvious to you though  
[5:37] is that this still isn't the best solution for 
actually sounding like we're hearing the D minor  
[5:44] seven the G7 and the C Major seven it's still 
kind of just all sounds like the same stuff  
[5:52] so what we have to start doing when we're given 
all these note choices like the scale we need to  
[5:57] start breaking it down a little bit for further 
asking ourselves the question what are the most  
[6:02] important notes and the most important notes are 
the chord tones now for jazz we use seventh chord  
[6:09] so in our case D minor seven and then g seven 
that's a dominant seven and then C Major seven  
[6:18] that's a Major Seventh right and the formula 
for all these for the minor seventh is root  
[6:25] flat three five flat seven and for the 
dominant seven it's root third fifth  
[6:34] flat seven and for the major seven it's root third 
fifth Major Seventh now again all we're really  
[6:43] doing to get these chord tones is simply looking 
back at our Dorian scale and asking ourselves what  
[6:51] is every other note in this scale and that is 
where you find your chord tones right so every  
[7:00] other note in the scale is the chord tones the 
root the third the fifths and the seventh so  
[7:05] when we're playing just the chord tones over top 
of this chord progression it sounds like this
[7:10] so I want to emphasize one more time chord tones 
are really important in fact I always go to chord  
[7:23] tones first before I talk about scales in general 
as far as where should you start with improvising  
[7:30] it's not that we don't want to know what the 
scales are because as you can see that helped  
[7:34] us get the chord tones and also it does give us 
more information that's going to be important  
[7:38] like what other notes can we play outside of the 
chord tones but the chord tones are structurally  
[7:43] important to the chord so we want to really 
know those forwards and backwards especially  
[7:48] in the case of this two five one now here's the 
problem though we know from what we've heard so  
[7:53] far that this doesn't really sound sound like 
jazz and that's because Jazz musicians have a  
[7:59] couple of Secrets and the first secret is that 
they actually aren't just using the c major scale  
[8:06] not even close in fact the scale that they're 
actually using is the chromatic scale now this  
[8:13] might sound controversial at first especially if 
you are already a seasoned jazz musician but bear  
[8:19] with me really quick essentially a chromatic 
scale all it really is is every single note  
[8:25] in western music that you can play in this case 
we're just going to start on the C so it's c c  
[8:30] sharp D D sharp E F F sharp G G sharp a a sharp 
B and then we're back at C again right and if  
[8:43] we're gonna play the chromatic scale over top 
of a two five one it sounds like this foreign
[8:52] so if you're really paying attention here 
basically you're understanding that I just  
[8:57] said you can play any note that you want over top 
of any chord now that might sound mind-boggling  
[9:05] and it really can be in fact this is what kind 
of non-educated musicians who come and listen  
[9:11] to Jazz sometimes they think that it's just random 
notes or that it's all playing chromatics kind of  
[9:17] like we just played here however like I said 
Jazz musicians have a second secret and that  
[9:23] second secret is they do not play the chromatic 
scale like a scale and they also don't play the  
[9:29] major scale like a scale instead we go back to 
chord tones again and we remember the root the  
[9:36] third and the seventh of each chord and instead 
we start asking a different question altogether  
[9:44] and that question is how can I use notes that 
resolve melodically to those chord tones okay  
[9:52] how do I find the right notes that can resolve 
melodically to those chord tones because again  
[9:57] the chord tones are structural they'll make the 
chord changes pop out in our solos but the major  
[10:03] scale and every single note in between and the 
modes those are the different note choices that we  
[10:10] actually have however when we stop thinking about 
scales as we play scales over chords instead we  
[10:16] think of what notes can we use to resolve to chord 
tones it changes the narrative altogether so to  
[10:21] better understand this let's use an example of how 
a jazz musician might resolve to a chord tone and  
[10:29] what we'll do first is we'll look at resolving to 
the third of every single chord okay now the third  
[10:36] for D Minor is f the third for G7 is B natural 
and the third for C Major seven is e natural so  
[10:45] I want to resolve to those and a simple way we can 
do that is simply by just starting a note above  
[10:52] of and resolving by a half step to that third 
okay remember we can play any note that we want  
[10:58] technically the key is we're trying to resolve it 
so if we're playing this D minor seven and we want  
[11:04] to resolve to the third let's just say we start 
with an e natural which comes from the c major  
[11:10] scale or the D Dorian mode and arrive to that F 
note which is the third okay so that's one way we  
[11:17] could do it now taking a look at the G7 let's move 
a half step into that third the B natural but this  
[11:23] time what we're going to do is use a note from the 
chromatic scale which is a sharp so we're going  
[11:29] to go a sharp to B is the third okay and then 
looking ahead of the c major we're arriving at  
[11:36] the e natural which is the third but we're going 
to get there also through the chromatic scale  
[11:40] with a D sharp so if we're going to play this line 
this is what it sounds like over the two five one
[11:54] oh but this is a legitimate starting place for 
us to start understanding what Jazz musicians  
[11:59] are doing again how are we resolving to those 
chord tones we're using the chromatic scale and  
[12:04] the major scale so let's look at another way 
and let's add another note into the mix now  
[12:09] in this particular case what we're going to do 
is we're going to still approach the thirds of  
[12:15] each chord but what we're going to do instead 
is start from a half step below in pitch and  
[12:22] a half Step Above So if we're encircling the 
third of the D minor seven the F let's go e  
[12:30] natural F sharp which is above and Pitch to F 
natural now e again is from the c major scale  
[12:39] F sharp is not in the c major scale it is from 
the chromatic scale so we have this kind of a  
[12:44] movement and then let's do the same thing on the 
G7 with a B flat a c going into our B natural
[12:52] and then on the c major we have  
[12:57] an E flat an F natural to an e natural okay 
now another thing that we like to call this  
[13:04] is called enclosure we call it an enclosure 
because again we're approaching from above  
[13:09] and below our Target note which is again 
a chord tone so here's what it sounds like
[13:15] now there's many other ways to approach a Target 
tone a chord tone and of course you don't have  
[13:26] to just use the third and indeed sometimes 
you can actually Target scale tones like the  
[13:32] ninth as we would call it and you can use more 
notes to approach it as well and that's where  
[13:39] Jazz musicians really become an expert is they 
figured out a bunch of different ways to resolve  
[13:45] to these chord tones so take a listen to this 
actual Jazz lick and then we'll talk about it
[13:56] okay and here it is slowly
[14:07] let's identify where the chord tones are so in 
this particular line starting on the D minor  
[14:12] seven we have an F natural okay the F natural is 
the third then we have an a the a is the fifth  
[14:21] we have a d natural which is of course the root 
and then we also have a c natural which is the  
[14:28] seven and then on the G7 we have a B natural which 
is the third we have a d which is the fifth we  
[14:35] have another B natural we have G which is the root 
G is the root here and then we also have F that is  
[14:44] the flat seven and then over the C Major seven we 
have an e natural which is the third and we have  
[14:51] a g natural which is the fifth so every other note 
in this line is going to be a non-chord tone that  
[14:59] we're using to resolve to the chord tone so over 
top of the D minor seven we start with a G natural  
[15:05] okay so that g natural again is a note from the c 
major scale the G flat that we use is part of the  
[15:14] chromatic scale which resolves to the F natural 
which is the third so it's then we go up to the  
[15:23] fifth then we go to an e natural which is part 
of the c major scale so and then we have our D  
[15:33] note which is the root to a c which is the flat 
seven then B flat which is in the chromatic scale  
[15:41] resolving to be natural now we're on our G7 
B natural is the third then we do all chord  
[15:47] tones so we go B natural g b to G which is 
basically a g Triad right so we're just flat  
[15:57] out playing chord tones now we're gonna do 
notes from the chromatic scale B flat and  
[16:03] a flat and then chord tones G to F that's 
the root to the seven and then we end on  
[16:11] the C Major seven with a third that's the 
e to the G so in totality sounds like this
[16:18] so the next natural question is how do I start 
creating my own lines like this well you have  
[16:28] the notes that you can use and you understand that 
you can use them to resolve to chord tones so you  
[16:33] can start experimenting and composing your own 
melodic lines and see what you come up with but  
[16:39] also it's really important that you learn the Jazz 
as language by learning licks and even solos by  
[16:45] great jazz musicians that you love only if you've 
heard something can you start to replicate it and  
[16:50] understand it so I have a video on the screen 
right now that will help you learn a jazz solo  
[16:55] by ear I give you very simple steps on how to do 
that even if you've never done that before so go  
[16:59] ahead and click that video on the screen right now 
if you found this video helpful make sure you hit  
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channel and we'll see you in the next video cheers