Improvising Melodic Phrases On Nica's Dream Vamp with Triads || Jazz Guitar Lessons Daily 38

From our free, Jazz Guitar Lessons Daily Series: Lesson 38
Wednesday - ii V Is and Tunes
3/3/21
The opening few measures from Horace Silver’s tune Nica’s Dream are not only a hip progression to play over during the form, but also make for a great vamp that can be used as an intro or an outro, for Nica’s as well as other tunes.
It’s generally notated as a BbminMaj7 to an AbminMaj7. And the usually go to approach to improvising is to think Bb melodic minor to Ab melodic minor. Given that these are the proper chord-scale options for this progression, and the length of time we have to play around inside of each chord before it moves to the next, this is a good starting point for scalar ideas.
But what if we want to go for something more direct and lyrical. What if we want to develop bring out some of the upper extension notes more clearly while implying the chords, but ultimately focus on clean phrases and voice leading to play over this vamp and bring it to life with a less obvious sound.
Enter the minMaj9 sound. We can create the minMaj9 by using the major triad built on the 5th of a minMaj7 chord. For BbminMaj7 we can use an F Major triad. If we treat F, A, and C as the melodic triad to use over a BbminMaj7 chord, we accomplish a couple of things. First, we get rid of running around inside of scales and can spot three distinct notes to act as melodic stable points to anchor our phrases and the harmony without getting trapped arpeggiated the 1 - b3 - 5 - 7 chord tones. Here we’re getting rid of the root and the 3rd. Now our most stable notes are the 5th, the 7th, and the 9th. Learning to hear these notes as the most stable sound over a minMaj7 will give us a great sense of melodic intention and authority… like we’re not simply noodling inside of a key signature but are putting our flag in the ground and saying, “I own this.”
The other thing it does is give us some melodic direction and the ability to very cleanly and precisely voice lead from one chord to the next. Start off by practicing improvising over the looped vamp with the F major triad over the BbminMaj7 chord and the Eb triad over the AbminMaj7 chord. Keep the rhythm simple and focus entirely on strong voice leading. The idea is to be able to play triad “lines” through the chords without needing to jump down to the root note or the 6th string of the guitar to reset for a new position. Simply take the last note of the triad you’re playing for one chord and find the...
► To Read The Full Post and Download The PDF
www.nycjazzgui...
► Come Hang In Our Facebook Group
/ melodictriads
► Learn About My Online Jazz Guitar Programs
www.nycjazzgui...
#jazzguitarlessons #jazzguitarlessonsdaily #melodictriads