If you’re looking to upgrade your straight ahead soloing, you’re not alone. Luckily, Vincent is going to share five methods for how you can improve in your day-to-day playing. All the material that we’re going to talk about today can be found in our new resource called Straight Ahead Phrases. In it, you can find 100 phrases over several chord progressions covering categories like cells and patterns including diminished and pentatonic phrases as well. Plus, if you are interested in learning more, make sure to check out our accompanying YouTube video “5 Ways to Upgrade Your Straight Ahead Solos.”

Now let’s get playing!

Contents

Using harmonic minor

Fragmented pentatonic

Using tritones

Voice leading  

“Scrambled eggs”

Using harmonic minor

Let's get into the first concept today, using harmonic minor. We use harmonic minor for minor iiº-V-i sounds or from V-i progressions.

So here we have major:

And then here we have minor.

And the first line we’re analyzing is built on the harmonic minor.

We’re playing the minor ii-V-i, and with V going to I, we have some similarities. In this case, there’s a line Vincent likes to play.

We have the minor ii-V, and then the phrase starts and it leads back to the D minor for the alto or F concert, and generally in this period over those minor chords, there’s harmonic minor. 

And the phrase is built around that particular sound. And then we have a chromatic bridge to get to the V chord by half steps. 

Fragmented pentatonic

The second concept we're using is fragmented pentatonics.

When Vincent first put together this line, he was trying to create pentatonic sounds over a ii-V-I. And while some things work technically, it doesn’t mean it’s a good musical choice. There are a lot of things he’s created that he considered failures in the sense that they’re just not something he would play, but it’s important to work through that so that you can master it and learn how to edit your creations.

This originally started as an exercise of minor chords across the board.

But he didn’t like the way it sounded, and didn’t feel like musically it was something he would use. So in messing around and trying different things, he came up with this.

That’s over the first.

And then you can take it through the cycle.

So it’s kind of pentatonic bass, but it’s also fragmented pentatonic. 

Using tritones

The third concept is using tritones, which is something a lot of great players use all the time.

From Vincent, he was thinking of the chords Dm7, G7, and C. And so he made that Dm7, G#m, C#7, to C. In other words, making that tritone a ii-V. And sometimes when we think about chords as V or ii-V of something, that can change how you approach it, rather than thinking about individual chords. 

So creating a ii-V pattern on the tritone, we have:

Just a ii-V and the tritone. So that’s the Dm, G#m, and C#, going back to C major.

Voice leading  

The next tip is based on voice leading. Vincent talks about his first lesson with Phil Woods — and he thought he was going to show him all kinds of crazy licks, but instead, they just did something like this.

And Vincent was confused, because…well at first glance it feels kind of boring, right?

But this is still something that is part of his playing today.

He did a 3 to a 7, and so here you see him starting on the 7 of the ii, and then it goes into a little phrase that leads to the 3, and then we walk through a phrase to get to the 5 of the next chord. And the same thing even with the Em7b5 to A. It’s all about voice leading the phrases. Those things are just good voice leading.

And if you ever work with a singer, and you need to play behind that singer, there’s no set thing, except to be musical with whatever you’re doing in whatever setting. 

If we outline the chords on a tune like “Confirmation”...

We can see the voice leading and you can hear how as the chords pass by, with us playing a minimal amount of notes, this captures the essence of the harmony, because it’s a reflection of good voice leading.

“Scrambled eggs”

The last concept we’re going to look at is “Scrambled Eggs.” And what we mean by that is the manipulation of the V going to I. V tends to be the place where you can take some harmonic liberties, and then resolve it strongly to the tonic.

But once when Vincent had a sit down lesson with Bunky Green, he recommended trying “double resolution.” And he was wondering, as you maybe are, “what is double resolution?”

So he tends not to resolve these things but to find a more interesting way to continue—this was a bit more of a thought exercise. 

But of course we make decisions based on what works for us musically. But when Vincent says “Scrambled Eggs,” he means the manipulation of the V, like in this particular line.

So it’s a ii-V line, and we are manipulating those V chords going back to wherever they’re going. We have the VI going back to the minor, and we play:

And we take the diminished and mix the triad combinations up. There was an A7 going back to the Dm.

On this ii-V, we have manipulation on the diminished scale. The diminished scale has four triads in it.

Then we go like this.

And we manipulate those triads. And instead of tonic and tritone, which would be this:

You can also use other combinations here.

And those combinations sound really nice, kind of like “Scrambled Eggs.”

Well that’s all we have for today, but if you want to dive deeper on this, make sure to check out our accompanying YouTube video, “5 Ways to Upgrade Your Straight Ahead Solos,” as well as our resource, Straight Ahead Phrases.

See you next time!