You probably already know that a big part of what makes a solo sound like jazz is the are chromatic passage like this:
And another part of it is how there is a close connection to the chord that you solo over using arpeggios to spell out the harmony.
In this lesson, you are going to see how putting these two concepts together is a solid recipe for making some great sounding licks.
Even if you are not that familiar with Jazz then I think this way of making lines could be a good way to try and make your own licks that have more of a Jazz sound.
Let’s start with a basic 1-octave Cmaj7 arpeggio like this. You probably already know this one.
You want to add some chromaticism to this arpeggio and there are a few ways you can do that. Let’s start with this chromatic enclosure.
Here’s an enclosure that I learned from Pat Martino:
What is a Chromatic Enclosure?
In this context, a chromatic enclosure is really just a short melody with some chromatic notes that resolves to a target note, and when we are using it here the target note is one of the notes in the Cmaj7 arpeggio. You can read more about them here: Chromatic passing notes – Instant Bebop guitar lesson! And if you put together the arpeggio and the enclosure then we get:
This already sounds pretty good, but we can add something at the end like this:
Chromatic below – diatonic above
And now I added an extra chromatic approach which is using a scale tone above and a chromatic note below. In the lick it is on the 5th, G and then you have A and F# to resolve to G.
You can do this on the entire arpeggio like this:
And you can even add one more to the lick like this:
Let’s try making another lick, but now start with a descending arpeggio
the lick could be something like this:
Here I am using an enclosure that works really well on the 7th and also on the 3rd like this:
And you can go back up and add another part like this:
Better Rhythm
You can also change the rhythm of the arpeggio a little by making it a triplet and then adding some chromaticism, something like this:
Here we have an enclosure of the C, then the arpeggio played with an 8th note triplet and then a double approach going from B via Bb to A:
Benson’s chromatic run
Another great variation that you can hear George Benson do a lot is using this type of arpeggio and then connect the top-notes with a chromatic run.
Something like this:
And putting this into a lick could sound like this:
Of course he actually stole this from Charlie Parker who also does this all the time, but you probably knew that already…
Descending Benson
And you can also apply the triplet to a descending arpeggio and add an ending to it:
Add More Chromaticism to Your Playing
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