The EXACT System Pros Use To Sound Great On ANY Chord

When Wes Montgomery described how he thought about soloing, he said ‘It’s a sound’ — but that’s the opposite of how most guitarists approach it. If you are struggling to turn arpeggios and scales into lines, that is probably why.

So in this video, I’ll show you a system that starts with melody instead of theory, how one m7 lick can fit over 4 completely different chords, and how that helps you build a vocabulary of strong jazz lines.

This video will help you if your solos always end up sounding like this:

But the way you want to sound and the solos you listen to are more like this:

The difference is not the notes. It is the melody, what you do with the notes.

And that is not about theory, as Wes told Joe Diorio about soloing over a II V I:

“Wes, when you think of Dm7 G7 C, what do you think?”

He said, “Man, it’s a sound”

He didn’t think in notes. He thought in sounds, melodies he heard.

This might surprise you about jazz guitarists like Pat Martino, Wes Montgomery, and Joe Pass,

But they didn’t solve complicated equations to come up with licks while they were playing.

Instead, they relied on flexible licks that were strong melodies and worked over many chords.

Check out how often this same phrase is used in Charlie Parkers solo on Scrapple From The Apple

It’s the same phrase — but he’s not just repeating it.

He makes it work on different chords, and he changes what he plays before and how it connects it to what comes next.

So let me show you the system Parker was using with a simple lick.

The Simplest Beginning

To keep it simple, let’s start with a Am7 arpeggio over an Am7 chord — but instead of thinking of it as a set of notes, think of it as this melody:

Like this, it has rhythm, phrasing, and direction. It’s not just a bunch of notes over a chord. THAT is when it becomes a sound.

Now you can practice combining this with other building blocks and get a complete II V I lick, here, Am7 is the II V I in G major:

Using the arpeggios as a melody, not just a set of notes, makes it a LOT easier to turn it into jazz lines.

Now, if you want to go through these examples at your own pace, you don’t need to try to memorize them from the video. I made a free PDF with all the examples.

There’s a link is in the description.

Let’s use this sound with a m7 arpeggio on a different chord type: a maj7 chord.

A Beautiful Major Discovery

Let me show you how great this m7 lick can sound on a maj7 chord.  You also want to keep in mind that m7 chords are, in general, solid vocabulary for maj7 chords. Just ask Charlie Parker. Check out what he plays on the Fmaj7 just before the bridge.

He plays an Am7 arpeggio over an Fmaj7 chord. So the rule is simple: if you have a maj7 chord, use the m7 found on the 3rd.

Here’s why that sounds great using Fmaj7 as an example.

In the F major scale you have these diatonic chords.

Here you want to notice that Fmaj7 and the notes of that, plus the arpeggio off the 3rd of that chord, A, is Am7:

They share 3 notes, and the Am7 adds a G to the sound which is a 9th over the Fmaj7. A Beautiful extension.

Check out how our lick sounds on Fmaj7:

As you can hear, it fits perfectly, and I added a short tag to also tie the melody into the Fmaj7 sound.

To add a bit of context, here it is in a II V line:

If you want to check out more videos breaking down how to play jazz solos and comp through chord progressions with jazz chords, then subscribe to the channel. I publish new videos on this every week.

Did you notice the arpeggio that is used on the dominant?

That is a Gm7, so our m7 lick can also work over dominant chords.

Let’s dig into that next!

The 5th of the Dominant

You already heard the Gm7 over C7 in the previous example.

Since that works, the rule is: Use a m7 arpeggio from the 5th of the dominant.

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In fact, if you check out the first lick Wes Montgomery plays in his solo on Unit 7, a Blues in C, off the “Smokin’ At The Half Note album.

It is exactly that: a Gm7

That’s a very clear and great-sounding example.

So our Am7 lick works the same way over a D7 chord, because the 5th of D7 is A.

Notice how I am also using Bm7, the arpeggio off the 3rd of Gmaj7.

Now check out how it sounds In the context of a full II V I:

Creating solid vocabulary and using it in real jazz solos is also what I help the students do in my Jazz Guitar Roadmap course. If you want to join 8000 other students learning to improvise real jazz solos over an actual jazz standard, then check out the link in the description.

One sound that we have not yet applied our m7 lick to is the altered dominant.

That is the next step.

This Shouldn’t Work, But It Does

We have a way to use m7 chords on m7, maj7, and dom7 chords, but how does it apply to an altered dominant?

There is a trick!

If you apply tritone substitution, the rule from the last section does the work for you.

Let’s stick with the II V I in G major that you already saw.

If you apply tritone substitution to this, you take the dominant, D7, and substitute that with the dominant that shares the same tritone interval: Ab7

Now you have this cadence instead:

Now we can use the same rule for the Ab7 and use the m7 arpeggio on the 5th: Ebm7.

You have the Ab7:

And the arpeggio off the 5th of that is Ebm7:

Notice that we are using a m7 chord a halfstep above the dominant, so Ebm7 over D7.

And in a II V I that sounds like this if you use our m7 moved to Ebm7:

Remember that you can get the PDF if you want to explore these licks and exercises at your own pace.

There’s a link in the description.

So that is the system. One strong melodic lick, and instead of calculating new things to play over each chord while you are playing, you just know how it sounds and where it fits.

That is what separates a vocabulary from a bag of random scales & arpeggios.

Barry’s Scale Magic

One of the best ways to turn scales into music is this Barry Harris exercise

In this video, I cover the exercise he uses to connect scales to songs and step-by-step turn them into solid jazz lines. It is a great way to play real jazz solos and learn songs at the same time. It will change how you practice!

Check it out!

Learn Jazz Make Music

https://jenslarsen.nl/this-barry-harris-exercise-will-save-you-years-but-most-ignore-it/

Get the PDF!

You can also download the PDF of my examples here:
https://mailchi.mp/jenslarsen/hga1fx3h17

Get the PDF and GuitarPro on Patreon:

You can get the PDF and GuitarPro files on Patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/jenslarsen/posts/163768247    

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