Following on from the rhythm section we will now take that 4 chord jazz piece and learn how to solo over it in a George Benson style. This is all about timing, targeting chord tones and vocal phrasing. Have fun!
As always, your first task is to listen and absorb the melodies as much as you can. Remember that this solo is written over the rhythm tracks we studied in the last section, so try to spot which licks are played over which chords. This will massively help you understand them. Run through the track a few times and then tackle the first lesson.
This tune is based around Bb, and this lick specifically moves around the chord tones within the Bb major scale. This means that Dion is targeting the root and third notes within Bb (Bb and D) as well as playing the full scale. Alongside this, we use the octave shapes to slide in and out of these notes creating a more jazzy feel.
For this lick, we use double stops to create a quirky sound that eventually leads to the 3rd of Bb7 chord. The double stops are based on the Bb minor pentatonic shape 2 and 1 as well as the chromatic notes. Once again, try to spot the shapes within the chromatic parts!
For lick 3 we return to our favourite blues scale shape 1 to bring in a touch of blues to this jazzy piece. It's always good to remember that, even though we are playing jazz, you can always use your pentatonic and blues scales as a bit of light relief! They will sound great and the listener will appreciate the familiarity of the sounds.
For the final lick, we return to some cool jazz sounds by playing an Ebm triad over an Ab13. We can do this because the notes in the Ebm triad are the 9th, b7th and 5th of the Ab13 chord, how cool is that! We continue with a different pattern using chromatic notes before settling on the third note of our root chord. This resolves the solo beautifully.
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