Category Archives: Chords

Chords, Diatonic approach, II-V-I, Intermediate, Minor, Music theory, Scales, Tier 5

Diatonic approach 4 – Minor II-V-I

Aside 18 February, 2016 Søren Ballegaard

This video lesson explains the basic scales and chords used over a minor II-V-I – Am.

The minor II-V-I consists of three different scales, one on each chord of the II, the V and the I.
In this video i work on the Am6 II-V-I, Bø7, E7(b9) and Am6.

On the Bø7 chord the II of the II-V-I I play the Cmajor scale from the 7th degree, B C D E F G A B C,
on the E7(b9) i play A-harmonic minor from the Eof, E F G# A B C D E F,
and on the Dm6 i play D-melodic minor, D E F G A B C# D E.
These scales are maybe the most diatonic scales to the these functions.

I made a set of exercises which you can practise to get the scales well into your fingers but also into you ears.
the first exercise basically just plays the scale up from each chord over a four bar period.
I repeat the exercise, more times.
Second line of the exercise is playing the same material but descending.

The next exercise takes the scales from the third degree of each scale and again just plays the scale up.
Second line is playing the scale down.

The arpeggios, the chord tones or the target notes which I sometimes calls the chord tones is the next matter.
on the Bø7(9) you have notes B D F A C, on the E7(b9) you have the E G# B D F and on the Am6 you have the A C E G# B.
I play the arpeggios till the 9th degree of the chord, because i like the sound of the 9th but also because its one of the most common extensions of the chords.

You can make up any exercise you want, i made the following exercise, playing the arpeggios up and down:

Try to find exercises that suits you.

I also like to play quarternote lines staying within the chordtones.
Here is an example of how this sounds:

I use only chordtones and the rhythm is quarter notes, so in this case, four notes in the bar.
the tones are: high A B D F on Bø7, E G# B D on the E7(b9), C A C E – G# A C E on the two Am chords,
next system is: B A B D, E B G# D, C A G# A, C G# A.

With this method you get the notes in your fingers and into your ear in a slow and controlled way.
The second quarter note, chord tone exercise:

The notes are: starting on high D B F D, B G# E D, C A G# E, C A G# B.
The lower system: A B D F, E D E B, C E G# E, C B A.

I will now play some examples of II-V-I lines. I only use the material I presented in this video in the examples.

example 1:

I start on the 7th of the Bø7 going down making an approach through the E and G to the F going down the scale of Bø7. Hitting the B of the E7(b9) i continue down the scale to the G# running up the arpeggio of E7(b9) to the high F semi approaching the C of the Am6 with a E and D from above. On the C of the Am6 i jump down to play the E triad up one octave to the E, running down the scale to end on the B.

Example 2:

running up the complete arpeggio of Bø7 to the high C and from there going down the scale approaching the F of the E7(b9) through the g and E. From the F i go donw the scale to the G# going up the scale hitting a C on the Am major 9 chord going up the arpeggio to end on a high E making a glissando to the B.

Example 3:

i start with an approach to the F, via the E and G, going down the scale to the G# of the E7(b9) jumping up to the high F going down the scale to the C jumping again up to a high G# playing up to the high C to play th Caug triad down, followed by the E triad followed by a small tail E B C D.

Thank you for watching.
More videos, licks and tricks here

Beginner, Chords, Diatonic approach, II-V-I, Music theory, Scales, Tier 5

Diatonic approach 3 – diatonic 7th chords

Aside 8 February, 2016 Søren Ballegaard

In this video lesson I talk about the different 7th chords on a II-V-I in Dmajor.

I start with the scale of Dmajor, the scale has two sharps with the notes D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#.

I strongly recommend that you learn the scale, the notes and how it sounds on the saxophone.
Here is an exercise how to learn the scale even better.

The exercise start on the low D going to the high E, going back down to the low C# and ending on the low D.
This extends the exercise to almost the whole range of the saxophone and you develop your technique likewise. You can put any form to your exercises but make sure the meaning of the exercise stays intact, technique, speed, extremities of the horn etc.

This lesson will further discuss the diatonic 7th chords on a II-V-I in Dmajor. On each note of the Dmajor scale you have a chord that consist of 4 notes. I will play those chords.

Dmaj7 on the D – D-F#-A-C#, Em7 on the E – E-G-B-D, F#m7 on F# – F#-A-C-E, Gmaj7 on G – G-B-D-F#, A7 on A – A-C#-E-G, Bm7 on B – B-D-F#-A, C#ø7 on C# – C#-E-G-B.
All these 7th chords are very important tools to use in a solo, but also gives you an overview of the scale and the functions.
I will now play an exercise to get to learn the diatonic 7th chords better.
This exercise have a written out rhythm in it and is fitting in a 4-bar period.

You can make up any exercise in this matter pplaying the 7th chords going up or down, or both as long as the exercise fits whatever purpose you want to achieve.

The next exercise is the 7th chords going up but with no break in between, big breath!

This exercise you can easily play as 8th notes as here, but you can also play it as 16th notes with the metronome on the 1 of the bar, training the 7th chords and your timing.
You can also play the chords going down instead of up.

You can also try this exercise playing one chord up – one chord down. Looks like this.

Ill play this exercise faster to give an example of that you need to know this material very well.

The II-V-I in Dmajor have three different chords Em7 – A7 – Dmaj7.
Out of these chords you can find other diatonic 7th chords which also spells out the function of the II-V-I.
I extend the chords of the I-V-I to Em11 – A9 – Dmaj9

The first chords is Em11.

On the Em11 – E-G-B-D-F#-A, you find three different 7th chords.
On the first degree of the Em11 you will of course find the Em7 – E-G-B-D.
On the third degree of the Em11 you have a Gmaj7 chord – G-B-D-F# and on the 5th degree of the Em11 you have a Bm7 – B-D-F#-A.

On the dominant function of the II-V-I – the V, A9 – A-C#-E-G-B, we have two 7th chords, the A7 – A-C#-E-G and the C#ø7 – C#-E-G-B.

On the dominant function, A9, and on our tonic function, Dmaj9, we only have twho chords because if we get higher we get to the fourth degree of the chord which clashes very much with the third degree of the A9 – a D against the C# and the Dmaj9 – a G against a F#.

The root, our tonic function Dmaj9 – D-F#-A-C#-E we also have two chords, Dmaj7 – D-F#-A-C# and F#m7 – F#-A-C#-E.

Get to know these chords and functions well, they are very valuable in your soloing, transcribing solos of others and generally understanding music and what´s happening.

Fx. you dont always have to play up or down the Dmaj7 chord on Dmaj7 but you can easily use the F#m7 chord up or down. On the A7 you can use the A7 of course but also consider the C#ø7 chord which gives another sound. On the Em7 chord you even have three possibilities which are the Em7, the Gmaj7 and the Bm7 chord, check them all out.

Example 1 – II-V-I in Dmajor.

I start on the high D going down the Em7 chord, jumping up to the C#, going down the scale jumping down to the middle B playing up the Bm7 chord dragging over the Em7 (Bm7 chord) over the barline to A7 playing a small bebop lick going down the A7 scale to the C# of the Dmajor running up the C#ø7 chord of the A7 on the Dmaj7 approaching via the B+D, on top the C# going down the Dmaj7 7th chord ending on the C#.

Example 2 – II-V-I in Dmajor.

Starting on a Em11 chord in triplets going up to the A approaching the G through the A+F#, further approaching the F# on the A7 via G+E, jumping down to the low C# running up the C#ø7 chord ending high on a D+F# approaching the E, goiong down the scale to hit the C# on the Dmaj7 chord, jumping down to the D to play the Dmaj9 chord up approaching the D via E+C#, running from D up the Dmaj9 chord.
hint: check my video on diatonic approach notes here

Example 3 – II-V-I in Dmajor.

Going up the Gmaj7 chord of the Em9 approaching, through the F#+A, the G, going down the scale and via the D+B approaching the C# of the A9, playing the whole A9 chord in a triplet figure up to the high D of the Dmaj7, further up to the high F# going down the scale to the C#, jumping down playing the F#m7 up jumping to the A using a Coltrane line 5-3-2-1 on the Dmaj7 ending on the C#.

I hope you enjoyed the video and hope to see you back soon.

Check out my other videos

Beginner, Chords, Diatonic approach, II-V-I, Music theory, Scales, Tier 5

Diatonic Approach 2 – diatonic triads

Aside 26 January, 2016 Søren Ballegaard

In this video I talk about how to use diatonic triads in Gmajor.
Further i present the triads in the Gmajor scale and a II-V-I in G.

Diatonic triads is a strong tool which you can use in your soloing. Further by knowing the diatonic triads you get more overview of the theory of what you are playing. You get to know where all the chords are from and you attain flexibility in you improvisation.

The material we will work on is the G major scale:

Diatonic means that you are only using notes that are in the scale, so no notes outside the scale.

You would want to know your material by heart and also over the whole range of the saxophone.
The next exercise will help you with this.

The triads of the scale are each on one of the notes of the scale. This means you get 7 different triads in a major scale:
on the note G in the scale you have a Gmajor triad, on A you have a Aminor triad, on B you have a Bminor triad, on C you have a C major triad, on D you have a D major triad, on E you have a E major triad, on F# you have a F# diminished triad.

here is an exercise how to get this into your fingers:

This exercise is written to cover the whole range of the saxophone. Its important that you have flexibility with all material over the whole range of the saxophone because when you improvise you never know how you react to what is happening around you in a band. Maybe you need those high or low notes.

The exercise i just played was written with a little pause in between the triads, the next exercise is not,big breath!

This exercise without the pause in it will save you time when you practise, a very small amount but everytime you play the exercise you save this time, which you can use to practise more.

You can play the triads both up and down, like in the next exercise, first triad going up second triad going down:

The exercises mentioned here are free to use anyway you want, play the triads up, down, cluster them in groupings etc.
Its important that you know your material well to get more freedom in your soloing. Learn the names of the triads, make you own exercises, learn the triads over the whole range of the saxophone.

Ill now present the material of a II-V-I in G major – Am9 – D7(9) – Gmaj7(9).
There are different triads on each of these chords which i will explain in the following exercise:

The first chord, the Am9 with the notes A-C-E-G-B consists of three triads, the Aminor triad on the first degree of the Am9 chord A-C-E, the Cmajor triad on the third degree of the Am9 triad – C-E-G and the Eminor triad on the fifth degree of the Am9 chord – E-G-B.

The next chord in our II-V-I is the D7(9)

We begin with the complete D7(9) chord – D-F#-A-C-E. The triads of this chord is Dmajor triad on the first degree – D-F#-A. On the third degree of the D7(9) chord we have the F# diminished triad – F#-A-C and on the fifth degree we have the Aminor triad – A-C-E.

The last chord of our II-V-I is the Gmajor 9 chord – G-B-D-F#-A.

The three triads on the Gmaj9 chord are: on the first degree, Gmajor triad – G-B-D, on the third degree, the Bminor triad – B-D-F# and on the fifth degree there is the Dmajor triad – D-F#-A.

One of the best ways to get this material into your fingers is naturally to play the above mentioned exercises but as soon as you know the material just a bit start to get it into live material like lines you make and play, licks etc.

I have made some examples of lines that uses the diatonis triads, the first line:

I start playing a Eminor triad down ending on a B going up the Cmajor triad. Using diatonic approach notes G and E to hit the F# on the D7 chord. Playing down the scale from F# to D jumping down to a F# playing up the F# diminished triad running down the scale from C to A. Jumping up to a D on the Gmajor9 shord playing down the Bminor chord ending on a E on Gmajor9.

The next example:

I start with a Eminor triad on the B jumping down to play the triad up, playing the scale down from a till E. Jumping on to the D7(9) dragging the Aminor triad to the D7(9) in a triplet playing it down. I use the diatonic approach notes G and E to get to the F# playing down the scale. eight note rest on Gmajor9 playing the Bminor triad down ending on an A repeating the Bminor triad ending on the low D approaching the end F# with a E – A to F#.

The third example:

I play up the Aminor triad with a triplet figure, ending on the high G going down the Cmajor triad using a diatonic approach over the barline G – E to F# of the D9 playing down the Dmajor triad, jumping to the high B playing down the scale extending the F# over the barline playing down the Bm triad jumping up to the F# going down the scale to pull over a D across the barline to end on a Bm triad going down ending on an E.

To see more of my lesson videos, click.
and click to subscribe to my youtube channel

Chords, Diatonic approach, II-V-I, Intermediate, Music theory, Scales, Tier 5

Diatonic Approach 1 – Diatonic Approach Notes

Aside 8 January, 2016 Søren Ballegaard

This lesson describes a way to get diatonic approach notes into your playing by guiding you through certain exercises and progressions. It also gives you some prefabricated licks you can use directly in you soloing.

Diatonic notes are the notes belonging only to key which you are playing in. Fx. if you are playing in C major the diatonic notes would be the notes of the C-major scale.

Using a diatonic approach to improvising you will achieve a very clear sound in your lines without outside the key notes of course. I play for tenor saxophone in the scale of C-major.

The approach notes works as follows: they are the surrounding notes of a target note.

In this example my target note is G and my surrounding notes are A and F which are also the approach notes

when i use the approach notes on a II-V-I it could fx sound like this:

Here you see i approach the F of the Dm7 first with the E and the G, my second group of approach notes are in the G7 bar where i play the target note C and uses approach notes B and D, and the third approach group to the end note, A where the approach notes are G and B.

Another example of the clear sound you achieve with only using diatonic notes.

The first diatonic approach group is to the G on the G7 with the approach notes F and A. The second group of approach notes are to the D on the G7 with the approach notes E and C.

An exercise in getting the approach notes in your fingers could be.

This exercise spells all notes out of the scale with their surrounding notes/approach notes in front.

Try to play around with the exercise and approach different notes in this way.

Approach of the G, the A, the C, the E, the high G and the high A.

If you alter the rhythm of the approach note exercise you can play it more continuously.

In this way you approach all the notes in the C-major scale all the way to the high D – the 9th of the scale.

If you play the approach note exercise moving down you will need to repeat the target note and use this as the first approach note.

now we have worked a bit on the whole scale you can get down to the approach notes of the chords of the II-V-I in C. Dm7 – G7 – Cmaj7.
We start with the Cmaj7 chord – the target notes are C E G B D.
start with this exercise but try as soon as its in your fingers to alter the exercise and randomize the target notes to get flexible in the execution.

The target notes of the Dm7 chord are D F A C E
the same rules apply, learn the basic approach notes and order, then start to experiment.

The G7 chord – target notes: G B D F A

To get some more functionality with the approach notes its important to use the method over basic chord changes.
These following II-V-I lines will show some ways to use the approach notes.

First on the Dm7 chord i run down 5321 pattern to make a jump to the G of an Am7 chord on the Dm approaching F of the G7 with E and G of the Am7 chord.
I then play a 1235 of F on the G7 going up to a high E running down the G7 scale to G on the Cmaj7 playing 5321 ending on B and G as approach notes to A.

The next line of II-V-I:

Starting with a run up a Am7 chord using the approach notes E and G to land on the F, going down the Dm scale skipping down to an A and making a double approach, A-C-A, to B on the G7 chord. Going down the G7 scale to approach the F on G7 with the G and the E. Going up the G7 scale to the Am7 chord on the Cmaj. Running up the Am7 chord to the 11th (D) using the B and the last mentioned D to approach the C on the C chord, ending on a B – over the barline to bar 4.

The third and last II-V-I example:

Beginning with an upbeat approach B and G going to the A on the Dm7 chord. Playing down the wellknown Coltrane/pentatonic run 5-3-2-1 of Dm7 approaching the F via the approach notes G and E. Going up the scale to the G7. Starting the G7 playing a subdominant Am arpeggio using C and E to get to the D. The D and B is the approach notes to the following C leading to the D. Going down the scale from the B ending on the G of the Cmaj7. Coltrane pattern 5-3-2-1 on Cmaj ending on B and G surrounding the A, jumping to D, playing in the last bar an Em pentatonic/blues fragment – B-A-G-E.

Thanks for checking this out.
Please click the link and subscribe to my you-tube channel and check the rest of my videos.

Saxophone-inspiration-motivation