Jazz Guitar Improvisation Tips: How Do You Use Blues Sounds on All the Things You Are?
You can play blues sounds all through All the Things You Are: F minor blues over the opening chords, A♭ minor blues over E♭7 resolving to A♭ major blues, and one blue note — B natural — that becomes the 3rd of G7.
Why Does a Ballad Ending Chord Sound Like a Tritone Substitution That Isn’t One?
The #ivm7b5 chord you hear right before a jazz ballad resolves isn't technically a tritone substitution — but it shares the exact same upper-structure triad as the tonic 6 chord it comes from, which is why it behaves like one anyway.
re Does a Jazz Blues Actually Need Dominant Function? Three Spots, Not Twelve BarsWhe
Every chord in a jazz blues is a dominant 7th, but dominant function lives in only three places — bars 4, 8 and 12. Play the upper structure there and rest inside the tonic elsewhere.
sition? Playing Your Own Changes Over the Band’sWhat Is Superimpo
Superimposition means playing your own chord changes on top of the band's — and it's earned through voice leading, not license. How half-step upper-structure moves create the altered sound and outside colors that still resolve.
How Do You Get the Altered Sound Without the Altered Scale?
Every altered tension — b9, #9, b13 — is available without practicing the altered scale: play the upper structure a half step above your target and resolve down. Plus the common-tone lines that glue it together.
How Do You Hear a Chord Change When Only One Note Moves? Upper Structures and the Announcing Note
Drop the root and Fmaj7 becomes an A minor triad. From there, most chord changes are carried by a single moving line — find the one fresh note that announces the change and target it in your solo.
lo Over All The Things You Are Without Thinking in Scales? Five Chords, Two ShapesHow Do You So
The first five chords of All The Things You Are reduce to two upper-structure shapes: Fm7 becomes A♭maj7, B♭m7 becomes D♭maj7, and E♭7 is just D♭maj7 with one note lowered. Here is the full walkthrough plus the diatonic circle-of-fifths practice sequence.
With Upper-Structure Triads by Harmonizing the MelodyHow to Solo
Upper-structure triads aren't random color — they come from harmonizing the melody first. Lock the tune's melody into a chord-melody, then play the triads that sit on top of each chord to build a solo that still sings.
Dissecting a George Benson Line: The Harmonic Secret of Playing Bbmaj7 Over C7
Some of the most exciting jazz guitar lines don’t come from scales at all.
George Benson’s “outside” sound often comes from superimposing upper structures—borrowing harmonic material from one chord to create modern, unexpected colors inside the changes.