Playing through Changes with Digital Patterns

At the last All 12 Notes Swing Jam, the topic of Digital Patterns came up as technique for navigating chord changes. Digital patterns are easy to implement and are great for getting the sound of individual chords and chord progressions in your ear. They're also good technical studies.

What's a Digital Pattern?

Simply put, a digital pattern is a specific sequence of notes. The major scale could be considered a digital pattern: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Here's the first digital pattern I was introduced to as I began my journey into jazz improvisation: 1, 2, 3, 5. This four note sequence is created by taking the 1, 2, 3, and 5th notes of the major scale.

Application

If I were in the key of C the notes of the 1, 2, 3, 5 pattern would be C, D, E, and G-notice the pattern has a C triad in it. It can be applied to the major family of chords, for example: C, C6, C7, Cmaj7.

What if I'm confronted with chords of the minor family? To adjust the pattern to fit the minor chord I would flat the 3rd in the sequence. The pattern becomes 1, 2, b3, 5. Remember the difference between a major chord and a minor chord is the 3rd is lowered by a 1/2 step in a minor chord.

Exercise 1 applies the pattern to 2 minor 7th chords (D-7 and E-7) and 2 dominant 7th chords (G7 and A7). Remember, over the minor 7th chord you'll play 1, 2, b3, 5 and over the dominant 7th you'll play the 1, 2, 3, 5.

Click for Exercise 1

Here's a play-along you can use to work on Exercise 1.

Good luck with it and let me know how it treats you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning the Notes on the Fingerboard

Image
One of the best pieces of advice I received from a former instructor during my developing years was, "You need to know every note on the fingerboard." This seemed like a daunting task to say the least. But this instructor was right on! It's incredibly helpful to know the names of every fret on every string. So let's look at what it takes to accomplish this task. Open Strings To start, you must know the open strings of the guitar. From strings 6 (lowest) to 1 (highest) the notes are as follows: E, A, D, G, B, E. By memorizing these notes you now have a home base to work from for figuring out the remaining notes. Musical Alphabet and Natural Half-Steps The musical alphabet is made up of 7 notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. When you reach G you wrap back around to A. The distance between each pair of adjacent notes is fixed. For example the distance between A and B is a whole-step and on the guitar a whole-step is 2 frets. There are two pairs of notes that are a h
Read more

Free Music-Adventures of Superball

I've had a few people request a written version of my tune Adventures of Superball . So, for those who are interested, you can download a copy here . There are two versions one for guitar and one for mandolin. This tune is on my latest CD, Open Spaces . You can purchase the track, Adventures of Superball and the rest of the CD below. Have fun with it!
Read more

Swing Jam- 10 Picks for Sweet Georgia Brown

Image
One of the tunes we've covered in the Swing Jam at All 12 Notes has been the classic Sweet Georgia Brown . This tune is a great vehicle for some hot pickin'. Soloing Tip The tune is primarily made up of Dominant 7th chords. A common chord scale for the Dom. 7th chord is the Mixolydian scale. The Mixolydian scale is nothing more than a major scale with a lowered 7th. The formulas is: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7 8. Take a D7 and record yourself playing the chord. Now that you have a practice track try playing the D Mixolydian scale over the D7 you just recorded. Listen to how the notes of the scale fit with the chord. Reference Recordings Below you'll find 10 different recordings of Sweet Georgia Brown. Taking ideas from recordings is great ear training and it will help you develop vocabulary that you can use to create your own solos. Amazon.com Widgets You can also find many of these tracks on Emusic...
Read more