Use THIS Formula To Play Jazz Blues Like A Pro

Your favorite jazz blues solos are not just based on the arpeggios and scales that most of us spend years learning. That’s also why you solos never sound right, but pro players follow a different formula.

So in this video, I’ll show you that formula: how to take simple triads, add the right type of phrasing and chromaticism, and turn that into phrases that actually sound like jazz blues, something scales and arpeggios will never give you.

Jazz isn’t Jazz Blues

Here’s what I mean. If arpeggios, scales, and bebop patterns are what you have, then this is what comes out:

There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s in time, the notes are right, it makes sense. It just isn’t really the jazz blues sound.

That is more like this:

Same chord, same tempo. The difference is what the line is built from, and the techniques used to play it.

I’ll show you how you can start playing like this using the ACE method. A 3-part framework that turns basic material into licks that actually feel like jazz blues.

Let me show you how it works. We’ll start with the Anchor.

Anchor: The Mighty Triad

The A in ACE is for Anchor, because jazz blues phrases are anchored in basic triads.

Jazz Blues was one of the first things that clicked for me when I was getting into jazz. Especially how Charlie Parker plays the blues.

This phrase was a fantastic, mysterious & magical jazz phrase to me for years, until I realized that it was actually very simple:

If you have only ever played minor pentatonic blues, this might blow your mind; that was how I felt, but it is not that complicated.

Notice that the whole thing is hanging on these notes

Which is an F major triad. Super easy, barely an inconvienience.

And then there are chromatic phrases leading into those:

One thing that is different from bebop-inspired jazz: The accent is on chord tones on the downbeat; everything plays to 1 and 3, so it is less syncopated, but it sounds great!

And this is not just Charlie Parker. Check out this even simpler Wes Montgomery phrase from his solo on Au Privave:

All of this is a 2nd inversion F major triad, nothing else.

What should you practice?

First, make sure that you know the basic triad for the chords, in this case F major:

And then notice this about jazz blues phrases:

They are short, and not as dense as 8th-note lines. Having more space in your phrases is also a part of the sound.

You can also repeat notes, which flows very differently from bebop.

But, anticipating the 1 with a sustained note still sounds great

So practice making short lines like this, and while you are coming up with those, you train yourself to hear how they are supposed to sound, and how they sit in the groove.

But I am sure you noticed that Wes did more than just play the triad notes; he also added some phrasing. Let’s dive into that next.

Color: Don’t Just Play The Notes

C is for color. When you play simpler lines that are anchored in triads, you need other things to add life to your playing.

For Jazz guitar, the main technique you will hear used is sliding grace notes. This technique sort of takes the lead over bending in jazz blues.

You already heard it in the Wes Montgomery example where he slides into the top note, A:

As you heard Wes play here, most of the time, this is used to approach the note from below like this:

And to get used to that, you can play this exercise:

But you can also slide down to a note. Mostly, this is done using diatonic passing notes,so notes from the scale.

Here I am sliding down to the 5th, C, from the D right after that first F:

Sliding down to the 3rd is also a great sound. The next example adds a line on Bb7 with the Bb triad:

And that gives you this; it has a bit of a singing quality to it. Notice the slide down to the D on beat 1 of bar 2:

Finally, you can also use the slide as a sort of trill. Especially when you have a half step in the scale.

Here I use it between D and Eb on the F7, and then the line continues to the Bb7 chord. That D isn’t a triad note, but it still works, because the slide is about phrasing, not note choice.

So spend time adding these slides to your jazz blues lines. Sliding up to the 3rd is an easy way to make it sound like blues. Here I do that on both the F7 and the Bb7

Later in the video I’ll show you how this works with more regular jazz phrases too, since it’s a great way to change things up in normal solos.

But first, there’s one more ingredient. You can already do a lot with the triad and the slides, but that first Parker example had some chromatic tricks in it as well.

Let me show you!

Edge: Getting Chromatic

There is also a Jazz edge that you want to have in your jazz blues solos.

The Charlie Parker lick I showed you in the beginning was built around this F Major triad (2nd Inversion):

But there is more going on in the line:

He is approaching both the 3rd and the 5th from below:

So chromatic phrases are where you add some attitude from the jazz side of it all.

Let me show you two types of phrases you can use to add some of those chromatic melodies.

First, a simple diatonic above, chromatic below enclosure.

You can easily apply this to every note in the F major triad, and you get this:

You can use that like this in a phrase, around the 3rd of F7 and the 5th of Bb7:

There are many other techniques for adding chromatic phrases, but a simple one that works well for the blues is simply to step up from below with two half steps, which is also what Parker was doing in his example.

For an F major triad, this gives you this exercise:

And check out a great line you can create with this:

I use the 2-note approach pattern both on F7 and Bb7:

First, slide into the 5th, then down to F, and the approach up to the 3rd A.

On Bb7, you get the slide into the 3rd, and now a 2-note approach up to the 5th, F, and ending on the root.

If you want to dig into phrasing like this, mixing jazz and blues to get those grooving solos that nail the changes on a jazz blues, then check out my course, Jazz Blues Navigator. That will give you the right vocabulary, double stops, and rhythms that get you playing real jazz blues solos! The link is in the description.

These techniques don’t only apply to jazz blues; they can be a great way to change things up in your other jazz solos so that your playing isn’t an endless stream of 8th notes.

This Works Everywhere

When you learn jazz, most of the soloing advice is on how to create 8th-note lines, but that is also why a lot of solos end up sounding the same from beginning to end. Using these techniques, you can now mix different sounds in your playing.

Here’s an example of how that mix sounds on the first part of the jazz standard Take The A-train:

I start off with a bebop phrase before changing the sound a bit.

`This is based around a Cmaj7 arpeggio, adding a trill before playing the descending arpeggio.

The next phrase is more a triad-based phrase, more space adding grace notes and repeating the E. A different sound, borrowing our Jazz Blues method.

Same thing for the D7: The phrase uses a variation of the Charlie Parker lick with the chromatic approaches:

Rounding it off with a descending D major triad and a slide into the 3rd.

Vocabulary like this gives your solos a different sound, and the two work perfectly next to each other. Triads and sliding into chord tones and chromatic notes are not only for jazz blues. They also stop your jazz solos from being endless streams of 8th notes.

The ACE Method

So that’s the ACE method. A triad to anchor the line, slides to add color and phrasing, and chromatic notes for the jazz edge. Three ingredients, and none of them are difficult. What makes it sound like jazz blues is putting them together and playing them like Wes and Parker do, with space and with the accents on the chord tones.

Joe Pass’s Chord System

And Jazz doesn’t have to be complicated, and that’s just as true for chords. Joe Pass got incredible things out of very simple grips, and that’s the best place to start with jazz chords. In this video, I break down his approach, from the basic shapes and how he goes from that to full chord solos. Check it out!

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