No way! You can choose to only play the notes of the chords in your grid. It's playing with arpeggios. It's very useful and very effective, and it already sounds great. But you have to know your arpeggios well, and it's not easy to go from one to the other at the speed of the chord changes. And it remains limited and not very melodic.
I would like to give you the 3 essential points of analysis to dissect a chord chart on which you must improvise on the guitar.
We will see how to analyze a chord grid based on the elements you have available. We will use the well-known jazz standard “Have you met Miss Jones” to illustrate this method of analysis.
Do we have to analyze a grid to play or improvise on it?
No way! You can choose to only play the notes of the chords in your grid. It's playing with arpeggios. It's very useful and very effective, and it already sounds great. But you have to know your arpeggios well, and it's not easy to go from one to the other at the speed of the chord changes. And it remains limited and not very melodic.
1- THE TONE
You have to identify THE TONE!!! This is the basic foundation on which we rely to identify the particularities of the chord grid. Knowing the key means knowing which major or minor scale will work on the majority of chords in the song. The melody of a theme always relies on the notes of the main key.
2- MODULATION
It is necessary to identify possible tonal changes within the piece if there are any. These are MODULATIONS. Sometimes it's just IMPRINTS when it only lasts for a few bars.
3- FOREIGN CHORDS TO THE TONE
These are isolated chords which are not part of the chords of the identified tonality and which must therefore be identified. We compare them with those of the tonality which are the most similar. This allows you to know the modulating notes with the tonality. In improvisation, it is strongly recommended to highlight these modulating notes.
NB Foreign chords may be imprints in another key. That said, it doesn't change anything about how we treat it, that is to say, identifying the modulating notes about the range of the tonality.
How to identify the tone?
When you have a music theory score, (if it is correctly written), the sharps or flats present just after the treble clef give it to you. We call this key armor.
Example: Have you met Miss Jones
In this example, we have a flat (B flat) in key signature. According to the table below, we are therefore in the key of F Major or D minor.
Locate the first and last chord of the song, especially the last one. This often gives you leads.
In this example, the song starts with F M7 and ends with F 6 or FM7. (Gm7 C7 are the chords of the raise. These chords are often in parentheses, as above.)
“ Have you met Miss Jones ” is therefore clearly a piece in the key of F Major .
NB If the Major or Minor side does not seem clearly established to you, or if you have any doubt, then choose the Major. Since each Major key is closely related to another minor key, you will always be able to analyze your grid and play a scale that works on those chords.
How to identify the tone?
If you only have the chords, you must write them down on a sheet of paper, but classify them in order: “Do re mi fa sol la si do” or starting with a note other than do, but always following this order. Here is the grid:
In this grid we have several types of chords with the same root root: for example, Gm7 and further GbMaj7 or even Am7 and further Abm7. There are therefore several tones in play. We will therefore have to isolate the different parts A and B for analysis.
Let's start with the A at the beginning.
You will now have to compare these classified agreements and match them with one of the lines of a table that you will be able to download for free at the end of this video. The goal is to find the row of the table that contains the maximum number of chords of the chords you have classified.
Here is the line found:
All that remains is to read the beginning of this line and find the key
You may notice a tuning difference between the D7 found in the song grid and the Dm7 in the chart row. This therefore means that it is entirely possible to play with the F Major scale on this part of the grid, paying attention to the D7 chord which does not belong to this line. The difference between Dm7 and D7 is the note F which becomes F# on this D7. This F# is therefore a modulating note which would be interesting to play in improvisation on this chord. Be careful, there is no more “normal” Fa during this time! The F# replaced it.
Also note that in the last part, or last A , there is a Bb7 which is also not part of the line found in the table. You must therefore play the modulating note(s) in relation to the BbMaj7 in the chart. Here, it is the Major 7th A which becomes Ab in the Bb7 chord.
Part B and the “modulations”
We can study part B starting with the second ending of A: Cm7 F7. Attention! The terrain here is slippery. In this new part, there are 2 types of chords starting with the same root:
There is therefore a risk of being at least as many different tones as there are different chords found for the same root.
Tip: To save time in your research, you need to locate the 7 chords and check if they are not part of a II V I.
Here, these are only sequences of II-VI characteristics:
In this part of the grid, there are no “foreign” chords to the tones found, therefore no modulating note. However, you will have to change the improvisation scale by following the key changes, below
These 4 tones are also in this famous analysis table which is in my “jazz guitar tool kit” which you can, or by filling out the form below. In addition to this free kit, I will send you training of 6 videos at the rate of one video per day to discover or take stock and progress in jazz guitar. These are videos that you will not find on my YouTube channel and which will help you, through small progressive actions, to progress quickly in jazz guitar.
