From our free, Jazz Guitar Lessons Daily Series: Lesson 43
Wednesdays - ii V Is and Tunes
3/10/21
When is a 7 chord arpeggio NOT a 7 chord arpeggio? When it’s not an arpeggio.When is a diminished chord NOT an inversion of a 7b9 chord? When it’s not an inversion of a 7b9 chord.
Today we are looking at how to use a dominant 7 arpeggio to improvise melodic phrases that imply the chord without simply “outlining” it. And we’re going to apply this over a fully diminished 7 chord, but in a where where the diminished-dominant relationship won’t make sense.
That might sound really complicated and overly academic. But stick with me. This is worth it. These sounds exist inside of standards. This is going to simplify your ability to improvise more melodically over tunes like Someday My Prince Will Come, All The Things You Are, any rhythm changes tune, and more.
Think about a Bº7 chord. If you know your basic music theory and chord construction, you might already be aware that a Bº7 can be thought of as a rootless G7b9 chord. They’re made of the same pitches, but the G7b9 has a G note. That means you can use the notes of G7 or a G7b9 to play over the Bº7. You probably also know that fully diminished 7 chords resolve up a half step beautifully. So Bº7 can resolve up to C or C minor. G7 is the dominant chord that resolves to C and C minor as well. And this makes sense. Bº7 and G7b9 are almost the same thing, and the both resolve to the same tonic chords.
But diminished chords don’t HAVE TO resolve up a half step. In Chords For Life, the comping course in our online study group, we discuss the different ways diminished chords can move and resolve. Up a whole step is only one option. What happens if we resolve Bº7 DOWN a half step.
For example, check out this chord progression.
[See notation at the full post linked below]
This progression is in the key of Ab major. We’re starting on the iii-7 chord, walking down chromatically through the biiiº7 to the ii-7, and then hitting the V7 chord.
Think about that for a moment. If we play that G7 arpeggio over the Bº7 chord, now we’re melodically voice leading our line through G7 directly to a Bb-7 chord. It might seem strange if you haven’t gotten used to thinking of diminished chords functionally in a...
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