This blog is an early draft of a video analysis of Larry Corryell's Turkish Coffee which is contained in his book Jazz Guitar.

What we notice about Coryell’s playing from previous lessons are his chord substitutions, about using for example C7 as chord one, then substituting that with C9 , Em7b5, or even Bbma7 as a substitution for C, using diminished-type chords moving in parallels, and of course chords built on fourths.

In the second part of the book, Coryell goes into some detail with a tune called Turkish Coffee, and he tells a story how he needed to play a blues in Em when he was working with a saxophonist called Benny Golson (b.1929), and Golson showed him how would practise the chord progression by rehearsing all the chord changes including the chord substitutions. So for guitar-players often we are using in E minor for example we can play a standard E minor pentatonic scale like every beginner guitar-player tends to play the minor pentatonic pattern and you can get a lot of mileage out of that kind of pattern. But Coryell takes us into another kind of sound-world, and a sound-world that belongs more to jazz.  He gives us a series of substitutions which use many chromatic notes, notes outside the scale, but and the harmony also moves at a rate of about one chord per beat.


In the first bar he uses four chords Em, F#m7, G6 G# diminished. Then he outlines how we would play a melody line over the chord progressions as they are moving there, but if you analyse those chords you can see the Em, F#m7 and G6 are all diatonic chords, they have not really left the key of E minor. However when he gets to the G#dim chord, of course he has got two new notes in there G# and F both of which are outside the key of E minor. Nevertheless that G# diminished chord is a passing chord and has not got a lot of structural content so basically he is staying the key of E minor for the first three chords but then he uses G#dim as a leading chord to take us into the next diatonic chord which is A minor.

Now in that second bar he gives us four chords, Am7, C7, B7 and Ab over C. Now again if you look at those chords, the Am7, the C7 are blues variations of diatonic chords. With the B7 and Ab over C, you can see that he is starting to incorporate some secondary dominants and some chords which are outside of the key. Am7 is fine in the key of Em, but C7? C7 of course is not directly in the key of E minor. It has the notes C, E G Bb so its main notes outside of the key are well possibly the C, but definitely the Bb. Now the same with B7, the chord can be seen as a Chord V in E minor if you are using harmonic minor, however the chord Ab over C is definitely outside of the key. It has two notes here, Ab and Eb, both of which are outside of the key. So as he builds a melody through this bar here we would be forgiven for thinking that Coryell would outline the chords something like A minor, the C, the B, and Ab, but he does not actually do that. What he does is he takes the four chords, and he identifies just one chord in the bar that is unique to that bar, which is B7. So over those four chords he plays a melodic pattern which is based on B7. Although there are four chords there he is only selecting one chord out of those four to create this melodic line. So Ami7, C7, B7. Ab/C and then [  ].

Now in the following bar, bar three he uses again four chords, he is using G over B, G6, Em7 which uses the same notes, and then this unusual chord, Cm7. Again the Cm7 although it sounds like it is outside of the key of e minor, it has an Eb in it, it has a Bb in it, nevertheless it functions quite well as just a passing chord to take us into B7 in the next beat. So what Coryell does here is he plays a kind of blues pattern and that blues pattern is based around a standard E minor blues. So that third bar makes a lot of sense does it not? Even though there are many chords in theory in fact it is a kind of Em7 tonality all around.

In bar four he moves through Bm7 F7, E7 and Bb7, and you think ‘What is going here?’ Well actually it is really just Bm7 and E7 but he is approaching the E7 from a semitone above and then he is using a chord substitution a flat five to take us back to Am7 in the following bar. So the key notes in that fourth bar are really the Bm7 and E7 and the line that he plays there [ ] . What he does there is just taking a diminished arpeggio which leads into E7 so it really is a kind of E7 arpeggio. So the four chords Bm7, F7, E7 and Bb7 actually are only supporting the melodic line on E7. What we are saying here is that you do not have to be ‘frightened’ of those four chords. This bar has just one main pivotal chord, one main structural chord the E7. The others are just supporting chords.

In the next two bars, he takes us through this sequence of ii-V's: Am7 D7, Abm7 Db7, Gm7 C7, F#m7 and B7 and he gives a series of interesting notes that he would use there.  For example Am7 and D7 [ ] . You might think, ‘Why does use choose that particular set of notes. E D C Bb Ab G F?’ In his book he calls that a Super-Locrian or Diminished Whole-Tone scale and of course it is on E. Now you think why does he use that over Am7 and D7? Why could he not have use Emi [ ] or why could not he have played an A minor? So if you listen the sound of that Super Locrian scale, [ ] compare that with say, E min or A minor, [ ] you can see that the minor is a fairly bland kind of sound, but the diminished whole-tone starts like a minor scale, flattens out right at the end and gives us a kind of falling, diminished kind of sound to that melody, and I think that is the effect there, a kind of blue effect. So that takes us through Am7 and D7. When it gets to Abm7, Db7 that is just straightforward, he is just using notes from the chords, and the same with the Gm7 C7. When he gets to the fourth chord progression, F#m7 and B7 however he gives us this pattern C, E and [C,B E].  So that C is functioning like a kind of a flat nine over the B7 chord. That gives a touch of dissonance over the chord progression and again if you think of the chord, F#m7 and B7, the note C over a F#m7 chord, well F#m7 has a C# in it and he is playing [C]. That C natural again gives the impression of a kind of falling, a kind of compressed minor sound to this passage. So although the chord progression [in bars five and six] is using standard sequences, you get [ ] and that takes us into a new pattern, into the key of E minor.

Now with that E minor pattern he goes through a cool chord progression, an E minor chord, C a diatonic chord, moving to a B over D#, just a diatonic chord, chord V and Bm7. There are no surprises in that bar. It has just standard diatonic chords, but they sound very cool there in context.
In the following bar he takes us through Em7 and then a Bb chord with D in the bass, going to C6 and Am7. So no surprises there except the chord progression though Em7 uses a non-diatonic Bb chord,  then diatonic C and Am7, so the effect of that Bb chord is again a kind of a flat five, bluesy kind of sound [ ].

He then starts an ascending run for the next three of four bars in the chord progression so we have F#m7b5, G6, Am7, A#dim7 and this extraordinary progression going through Am, C#7#9, D9, Eb7b9, E7, Eb7b9, Eb7b7, Dm7, and G13, a series of rising chords, moving through progressions of a semitone higher each time. So from the Am7 he jumps to the C#, then uses parallel dominant chords [ ] . What helps to make this progression sound anchored in the key of E minor is the fact that it has that E note constant throughout the whole. So Am7 to C#7#9: Even though that C#7#9 is way out of key, it has still that note E in it.  D9 still has the E in it, Eb7b9 still has the E. E7 quite an unusual chord for E minor, it still has the E in it then it comes back down though Eb7b9, D9 and G13th which resolves in the final bar to a slightly unexpected Cma7, F#7 and Fma7. Now the Fma7 functions as a kind of Dominant, because it leads us back into E minor. So in traditional harmony, we tend to think of B7 leading us to E minor, but Fma7 actually sounds quite effective as a chord to take us back to E minor.
In those last three bars he is taking us through an interesting chord progression. Listen, and melodically there he has an interesting pattern. What he does is takes the Am, the C#7#9 and D9, but he selects out of that bar one key chord, and that one key chord in this case is D9 and that is right in the centre of the bar and he plays an ascending scale on that. But does he play a Dominant scale? Does he play a Lydian Dominant? No. He just plays just a straight minor scale. Now remember the chord progression here is Am, C#7, D9 and his choice of notes there is D minor. Now you say why would he play a D minor scale over a D9 chord? I think that this is a characteristic that Coryell uses a lot. Over a Dominant chord he will harmonise with a minor scale. So if you are playing the minor scale over the Dominant chord you are going to get a flat third. The Dominant chord here has F# in it, but when he plays the melodic line [he uses F]. That gives us [D7#9] again a kind of bluesy sound. D9 with a flattened third gives a kind of bluesy flattened ‘down’ sort of sound and you notice that is a characteristic of Coryell’s style in this music here, in that he prefers to go onto a kind of compressed, flattened sound over each of the chords.

In the last two bars he just plays standard arpeggios, so he has Eb7 starting on G, E7 staring on G#, and back again [ ]. For D9 he just plays from the chord, E, C, and A, all just notes from the standard D9th. For the G13th chord just before the final bar, he has a short run, [D E F G A]. Now that is just notes from the D minor scale and we have already talked about the D minor scale. He is also taking us into a new key and that is taking us to a C major chord and his melodic line [A F E D]. Then he uses a chord substitution, F# and resolves that onto Fma7. So Cmaj7, F#7 and Fma7 and listen to his line there [ ]. That gives us a cool four-note descending pattern, a sequence to finish his kind of blues-based line but he has really extended that blues idea and over twelve bars has used many interesting melodic patterns through that.

Coryell shows us in this composition he used a Dorian minor scale with Dominant Seventh chords. He would usually build his melodies on structural chords and he used the Lydian Dominant scale as a substitute for the Natural Minor.

So there we have it. That is a brief harmonic analysis of Turkish Coffee. I hope you found that interesting and I hope that you can use some of those interesting chord progressions and melodic patterns for your own excursions in E minor.

So once again I would say thank you for watching. Play guitar every day. Find some good people to make music with and thank you very much.

Welcome to this Lesson six in the series about Larry Coryell’s approach to Jazz Guitar. The musical examples we are using come from his book called Jazz Guitar in which he kindly outlines his understanding of the blues and jazz style customised to the guitar.

Vocabulary in Jazz/Blues:
You remember in lesson five that we looked at Coryell’s harmonised melodies or chord-melodies in which he showed that, for him, the blues pattern consists of four or five structural chords, C7, F7, G7, plus Dm7. When harmonising melodies he stays close to the underlying chord with occasional ventures into diminished chords and chord substitutions. In fact, he showed us a kind of vocabulary of substitutions in that context: For C7 he would use Bbma7, and Em7b5, for F7, F7sus4#3, F#13, F#b13, for connecting passages diminished 7ths and the Gb/G diminished chord.

Vocabulary of Substitutions:
In lesson six we look at how Coryell expands his vocabulary of substitutions and shows us how he develops these ideas. Let us look at the opening phrase:

The first chord, the tonic chord is a chord built on fourths F,Bb,Eb,A. [I call this chord F74, sometimes referred to as F7sus4] That is chord one in his expanded tonal vocabulary. Next Ebma7 although he called it Bbma7, then F9/A, and Cmma7, a slightly more active version of Cmi7 with that B natural, down to Ebma7, his favoured substitution and resolving to B7#5/A. Why B7#5/A? Well firstly, this chord could also be called F7#5/A another variant of F. That means his phrase does not exactly rest here. He has built up a level of Harmonic ‘richness’ some would say instability that is maintained here even at cadence points.

The following phrase (Figure 1, Bar 2), starts with a supertonic (G74) to tonic decoration using more chords built on fourths, the G,C,F chord with the melody note Bb. Moving down by semitone to F, Bb, Eb, really Chord One again, Eb, Ab,Db,G a variant of his Ebma7, D,G,C, Bb, with the bass moving by step down to C,F,Bb,Eb and resolving to F in the bass. In one sense this entire phrase has not left Chord One, with each substitution acting as a decoration of the main sonority.

A brief melodic flourish and here we have this extended phrase of parallel diminished seventh chords (Figure 2, bar 4) going through, F#, A, C, then tumbling back down through Eb, C, A and F# to rest briefly before another tumble using these A/Bb type diminished chords moving down in minor thirds to land on B/C, extended and resolving on a stable B power chord. Harmonically speaking the music has taken us on a journey from the Chord of F to its polar opposite B through a so-called unstable but tuneful progression.

At this point the harmony pivots using a Gmaj7 chord to F#m (Figure 3) and resolves down to Chord One again F7sus4, ornamented by its supertonic, and another flight of the bumblebees (Figure 4) with a rapidly rising series of diminished chords through a dissonant and, for me, unplayable G13#11 chord to rest on Bbmaj/C the nearest to an imperfect cadence this music is likely to approach. Through another diminished passage ornamenting chord V, the harmony twists as if it is going to modulate and rest on D minor. An Em7b5 chord, followed by A7#5,#9 sounds like it would be heading to Dm, but Coryell instead rests on Fma7#5. He calls the chord Dm/ma7 but it sounds very much like F major. This deceptive but beautiful cadence is decorated melodically and rests on our unplayable, for me, G13#11 resolving as intended to D. This note D chord is arguably the high point of this brief tone poem. From this moment the music tumbles down to its close.

Though parallel seventh chords, (Figure 5) a chain of suspensions takes us to another brief flight of diminisheds, further falling diatonic sevenths, resting on Gm11, another chord of fourths (Figure 5).

Further melodic decoration, and an improvised cadence. Then F#7#9, pivoting to an altered C7b5 and a harmonically rich but tonally ambiguous fourth chord, A,D,G,B suspended in the upper reach of this tessitura before being anchored by the low F, which brings us back to Chord One not exactly Chord One as we know it Jim but Chord One nevertheless (Figure 6).

Blues Essence?
Coryell said of these two pages of writing that the music has a blues essence. What did he mean by that? Well we can say that there is none of the rhythmic drive, repetitiveness and dark humour of the blues, but there is the concept of harmony based on the 7th chord. Chord One is a seventh chord the music explores through that a sound world of harmonic depth that invites reflection.

In some ways the first eleven bars just lead us via diminished and altered chords to chord V, then resolve on D at bar 14, the music finally falls down though more stable diatonic chords back to Chord One. On the way Coryell turned the guitar inside out and led us on a harmonic and melodic path supported by mostly parallel chords; the bass and melody moving mostly in parallel motion.

The vocabulary of sounds goes beyond a simple blues and has some of the richness of harmony that we would find in the music of for example Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) or the late symphonists. Perhaps it is reading too much into two pages of music but Coryell’s classical European leaning shines through in this music and reminds us of the harmonic excursions of that other brilliant guitarist Joe Pass (1929-1994).

Well there we have it; I hope this look at harmonic extension inspires you to explore this vocabulary in your own playing. As always, play guitar every day, stay in the groove, make music with cool people and there it is.

Larry Coryell Lesson 5
Well welcome to this fifth lesson in this series devoted to Larry Coryell’s guitar-playing in particular his blues and jazz playing as outlined in the book called Jazz Guitar.
You remember that in our previous four lessons we covered several things based on a 12 bar blues and see where we looked at Coryell’s use of the A minor scale and A minor pentatonic based around the fifth position on the guitar at the fifth fret.
Chords: Then we looked at how he used a number of chord substitutions to make the harmony and the twelve bar blues more smooth and flowing. So over the standard three chords you would hear in a typical urban blues like Mustang Sally you hear these interesting chords like F#7b5, parallel diminished chords, Em7b5, and A7#5. That sort of thing.
Chromaticism: Then we looked at his use of chromaticism so how he employs notes which are outside of the key. He introduced us to the use of the diminished scale. He also of course liberally uses the blues scale and then in one of the other one of the other subsequent lessons we also showed how he moved from blues phrasing through to a more jazz type of phrasing with short phrases moving either up or down that don't quite end properly. The use of jumping intervals at the end of a phrase in bebop type intervals.
Harmonised Melody: In this lesson five we can see that Coryell has moved on from the concept of just a simple bass line, and chords then going to melody but he shows us how he harmonizes a melody. So what we what do we mean by that? Well let's look at it.

Over the first note in the melody, the E he uses a C major seventh Chord. Now the underlying harmony you recall was a C blues so a C7th chord and that C major seventh gives it a kind of sweet and jazzy sound if you had used a C7th:
But he harmonises it with these parallel major 7th chords and that's a nice touch I think. You'll also notice that as he moves down to the melody of D there he used a B flat ma7 and we've talked about this in the previous lesson how for Coryell a common chord substitution below a C7 chord for him is a Bbmaj7. So there's our first phrase:
ED#EDEDD# DbC CDDC FF
Now for that melody note this time it's another Eb he harmonises that with a F# chord 13th, but it has an A# in the bass. This is a common thing that you'll find in jazz chord progressions. You may refer to a chord as an F# chord in this case F#9 or F#13 but in fact there's no F# in it.It is an F#13 but has A# in the bass. It is leaving out the F#. It's a common trick but it can be confusing for us. We say this is an F# Seventh. Where is the F#? But it is a way of understanding the underlying harmony I guess.
Look another way of looking at is that we’ve just got basically an F7 or F9 going up a semitone and adding a 13th. Now let’s put that in context:
ED#EDEDD# DbC CDDC FF
He then follows it with another chord Progression. Now this variation on F7 is an F#9#5 harmonised with percussive melody notes reiterating the melody note F with an F13 with Eb in the bass. Now you say why do we call this chord F? Why don’t we say it is F over Eb? and I think you know part of it is that it is Coryell’s way of thinking. It actually has a sweet kind of sound. It just fits very well in that context.
So that phrase then takes us into the next the next part of the melody which is:
FF#AGG
Well now he does a similar thing here where he's starting by harmonizing the F note with an F7th so nothing very surprising there but when he goes to F# and A harmonising them with parallel diminished seventh chords resolving back down onto the G he harmonizes it with the Em7b5 chord It is really a C9 without the C. That chord occurs again a lot for Coryell In this context. He is using a C9 But places the E in the bass.
The next part of the 12-bar sequence really is just a bass note and chord texture so he does F7 then Em to this interesting chord that he calls A13b9 but it has a G in the bass. You could also call it Db with G in the bass. I guess you would think of it a kind of diminished chord. An A chord would have sounded good there but he uses a E minor to a G in the bass and resolves down to the Dminor. So that is a nice touch.
The melody for the next phrase is
GEDFDEG
he harmonises with Dm so for Dm7, for E Dm9, then for the notes D and F uses parallel diminisheds  and an altered G13b9 for the E and G finishing on the Em7b5, more bass/chords this time through A7#9, Dm7 and the low G7th to the end of the first 12 bars.

In the next 12 bars it starts with this nice chord that we looked at previously. It is a tonic chord for C7 but he uses a Bb chord with a C in the bass. It just moves through a walking bass line to Gm7, parallel 7th chords on Bb and B up to C7 then this interesting pattern:
DAGC#
Now that melody line he harmonizes that first of all with (guess what?) Bbmaj7 first. So the underlying harmony again: C7 but when he harmonizes the D he uses Bbma7 then harmonises the G with Em7b5 which is of course entirely appropriate in this context here. Then for this melody note this strange C# moving in parallel, diminished 7ths to an interesting chord melody here:
G#ACGFF
So the first chord he does is an Esus4#3 moving up to the F. It is like a combination of F major with a suspended fourth as well. Coryell likes this sound. Fsus4#3 is quite a good way of describing it so the underlying harmony is F7. He just approaches that from a semitone below. Now if you just took that melody on its own it would be:
G#ACGFF
So there he likens that to using a big Band-type phrasing again like as if you using parallel saxophones or parallel trumpets in a brass section only it's not quite like that. I suppose the underlying harmony would be:
[Chords]
Then he has a melody line on the top. So there's an interesting passage.
For the next part of the 12 bars he just moves through again bass lines and chords F7, B7, Em, Bb13, Eb13 with a short melodic figure. In the final cadence: If you take that melody on its own it is:
AFEDEFEGC
He harmonises that. When he does that harmonization it is on a Bbma7 chord Dm7, all Dm7. When the melody resolves on to C he has actually put a Bb13/Ab chord underneath. Bb13 underneath it then A7#5, followed by this diminished chord that Coryell likes. He calls it Ab13b9, a variant of the diminished chord. This moves down by semitone to Db9 (an odd but cool sounding A in the bass) and resolves to the key chord C7th.
Listen to that progression from the Bb13/Ab, A7#5, to Ab13b9, Db9/A and C9. 
 

Some of the interesting chords in this tune are also E7sus4#3, and Ab/G.
 He uses many parallel diminished chords between cadence points so to connect a particular chord to another chord he wanders for a while through a series of parallel diminished 7th chords. He combines that on this example with bass lines and chords like we covered previously and what we learned from this is that there are really three components to his jazz guitar style as outlined so far in this book. He has
1. a bass line with chords,
2. he then has melody lines which can be rewritten or improvised and
3. he shows us how he can harmonize melodies and of course all those three can be combined so
Bass lines, Chords and Harmonized melodies.
In his next lesson lesson 6 in this series we go much more deeply into the idea of harmonized melodies and explore harmonized melodies in a much more pure form so that is actually really interesting and I'm looking forward to making that video and sharing that with you. There is always a lot of insight to be gained from learning from other guitar players and finding out the tricks that make up each player’s individual style so we'll leave it there for today.
In the meantime as I normally do say to you of course practice every day, stay in the groove and make sure you enjoy what you're doing find some friends to play with and okay thanks very much.

Jazz Guitar Larry Coryell Lesson 4:
Jazz and Blues Phrasing 

In this fourth lesson of this series we are looking at some music based on the Guitar playing of Larry Coryell. Most of the examples come from his book called ‘Jazz Guitar’ published 1998 and available on his website www.larrycoryell.net. So if you would like the tab and sheet music for these lessons get yourself a copy. 
Before we look closely at Coryell’s use of jazz-style phrasing let us just recall what we covered in Lesson Three. You remember that in the lesson we played really three melodic phrases over two twelve-bar chord progressions in C. When we listen to the phrase we see certain things in common, namely that they have a classic arch-shaped structure. An ascending line answered by a tumbling, falling phrase often using a blues scale.
The first phrase uses a minor scale with the added Eb. Hear how the line goes up to Eb, touches the note then descends back down through the minor scale with bluesy third infection from Eb to E.
The second phrase remember started on C# and rose through the minor scale picking up some chromatic colouring on the way to a high C, then tumbled back down through the blues scale to the low Bb.
Finally in the second twelve bars there was played, over an F7th chord, a rising diminished scale topped with chromatics and again tumbling down through A minor through our ‘telling’ C# and resolving on a jumpy bebop ending.

The following phrase ascending this time though a C9th arpeggio but finishing abruptly with this slightly odd bebop jump. 
The following phrase is very curly, convoluted  kind of phrase like we often see in jazz, You can just think of it as a complex phrase but I like to hear this a three phrases, in close proximity, joined together. Stevie Ray Vaughan does this also in his blues patterns with a series of short melodic patterns pack in together in a small space.
The next phrase just two notes. And this extraordinary phrase. What is going on here? In his book Coryell described as using the Dorian scale built on the fifth step of the scale built on the root of the chord. Can you believe that? Jazz guys say this sort of thing often. It sounds complicated but yes over a Bb chord he plays the first five notes of an F minor scale. Descending.  And leaving a note out. Over the Eb chord exactly the same. Over the Ab chord he plays an Ebm7th arpeggio and over the Db chord and ascending dominant scale on Ab. Personally I just see the first arpeggio over the Bb chord as just a ninth descending through 765, then then same on Eb. The Ebm7 arpeggio is just a chord extension of Ab7 and the Mixolydian scale on Ab is self-evident. The short four-note connection phrase, D F D Eb leads nicely into a two bars blues phrase again just a descending line replete with sliding inflections.

Over the walking chords based around C7th Coryell used a Bbma9th arpeggio, then exactly the same an octave higher and resolving. Personally I would not have thought of using a Bb major scale over a C blues chord but it sounds good here no problem.
Over the F9 chord he just plays a cute repetitive arpeggio pattern
Nearing the end of this 24 bar solo Coryell plays an arpeggio fragment like he played previously but this time on the beat in semiquavers again using that frenetic, almost nervous, compressed jazz rush, Compare the relaxed eighth-note triplet blues sound the first time with the same notes this time semiquavers.
Again a bluesy descending arpeggio tumbling down to a low G answers the semiquavers.

In the last four bars Coryell employed two tumbling relaxing blues phrases, echoing some of phrases we heard before.
Ok so there is a brief analysis of Coryell’s jazz-style phrasing, Remember the aim here is not to just copy this line, but to learn from Coryell’s note choices, rhythmic style and melodic shape so you can create your own melody,
Just recapping that:

• Basic eight-note phrases in A minor with added Eb
• Short disconnected phrases sometimes with leaping bebop ending.
• Short melodic fragments played rapidly close together.
• Short arpeggiated phrases based on one scale per chord.
• Using a Bbmaj9th chord over C7th.
• Repeating a phrase with faster, compressed note-values,
• Relieving tension and resolving through descending blues phrases,

Enjoy this look at his work, and learn from it. Remember to play every day, stay in the groove and have fun making music.     

In this third lesson in the series with the work of Larry Coryell we want to look at his use of extra notes, chromatic notes or notes that are outside of the key. You remember in our first lesson we talked about the blues we talked about C7, F7 and G7 chords and then we went on to look at how we could use the minor Pentatonic on C with the major third E. We also looked at how you could use the minor Pentatonic on A and how those scales work effectively with the chord progression.

We also looked at how Larry Coryell took the three basic chords in the blues and took them in a jazz direction by putting extra chords in there, using those extra kinds of sounds. In this jazz direction he starts to introduce and use chromatic notes or notes which are outside of the key and in this melody which he has kindly written out for us, he shows us in the first twelve bars how he can introduce just one new note into the first phrase. He starts on C7 as usual then F7, then plays the phrase which uses notes from a standard A minor scale. So if we look at those notes and listen to the phrase we can see that he added just one extra note that is the Eb, and only does it very briefly, as a trill. He also uses the Eb an octave lower on the fifth string as a slide onto the E. Nothing very startling about that, but if we are going to play a phrase in the style of Larry Coryell based on that idea we would play several similar phrases. There are many different combinations. So with one extra note we can learn a lot about how he approached playing the blues.

In the second half of his first twelve bars he has a more complicated chord progression. He goes through C7, F7 Emi7b5 A7#5 then when goes into the D minor he starts with the note C# which is just a movement by semitone onto the D. The C# is not accented, it is off the beat, and moves onto the beat. The C# is of course outside of the key.

On the top part of the phrase he moves by semitone from E to G. He introduces a new note the F#, and when he goes to the first string plays an upward moving line moving in semitones from A to C through another new note the Bb. That gives us then some new notes to use in the blues pattern. Try some combinations of these notes.

Then as he comes down the scale he uses the Blues scale going down through Bb, which we had passed briefly through on the way up but here it is accented. The next new note is the Gb played as a trill then continues down through Eb, and Bb. Note the way he slides from Eb to E and finishes the phrase on a Bb.

If we want to create our own phrases in this style we should use the same notes in a different order. Try as many different combinations of these notes, interspersing them with the chords in the same rhythm and groove as the blues patterns we have already played.

In the second twelve-bar melody he takes us through the more complicated chord substitutions through to bar 17 then over the F9th in that bar we can see that he used a two-octave diminished scale starting on B with an extra two chromatic notes on the top, C and C# leaping up to the high E. The diminished scale is a useful connecting scale moving semitone, whole tone semitone whole tone etc. Try playing something similar. You could break up the diminished scale into shorter fragments, put a chord in between the two fragments, change the rhythm and vary the note order.
On the way down this phrase Coryell uses a different set of notes, basically just an ordinary A minor pattern, but adds a new note, the C# on the third string. The C# is accented and matches the A7#5 chord in the harmony. It has a very strong, telling kind of sound in this context.

There is a stylistic feature that Coryell does at the end of this phrase. He does this kind of leap. Often in jazz phrasing we hear these short jumping notes. In the jazz of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s the style is known as bebop and you often hear these phrases finish with a sudden leap downward or sometimes upwards.

So if we want to play in the style of Coryell we could use the diminished scale, an ordinary A minor pattern descending but with an added, accented C# and a jumping Bebop ending. See how many times you apply these stylistic techniques to create new melodies. Remember also to use the Eb added to the A minor scale, the E, F, F# G figure and A Bb B C figures moving by semitone, the descending blues scale with a major third E natural as well.

At the end of this third lesson we see the picture starting to emerge of how Coryell’s approach works. Do not just copy the notes, but copy the techniques, while creating your own new note choices. Good luck. Stay in the groove and make it sound good.

Chord Substitution

The Blues Larry Coryell: Lesson 2:
Chord Substitution

Lesson Two

In this second lesson we are looking at the guitar-playing of Larry Coryell (1943-2017). In a book called Jazz Guitar he showed us how he approached the art of playing smooth jazz chord progressions on the guitar using a twelve-bar blues sequence like we looked at in Lesson one.

Remember that musicians do not use these chords in jazz alone. We use them in all styles of music even though we are basing today’s lesson around a jazz style. The second thing is that they do not belong to Larry Coryell or anyone. They evolved over a period of time so we can hear precedents in the European orchestral work of the Italian Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), French musician Erik Satie (1866-1925), George Gershwin (1898-1937) and Duke Ellington (1899-1974) and many others.

Still Coryell had his own way of doing things on the guitar and that is what we are looking at here.
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Of course you need to make it sound good so just playing mechanically does not work. Remember as long you can feel the groove and it sounds good then fine.

So to warm up play a twelve bar blues using the chord sequence from lesson one and combine it with notes from the Minor Pentatonic in A.

The second part of this lesson then is about chord substitution.

We often use four main techniques of what they call substitution. Instead of just staying on one chord for a whole bar we use other chords to add more movement to the musical texture, with the aim of creating a smooth or sometimes surprising transition from chord to chord. There are four well-known ways of doing chord substitution:
Chord extension,
Moving by bass line,
Approaching chords by a semitone above or below, and
Using turnarounds.

Turnarounds

Turnarounds are often used like in the last two bars of blues. Instead of C to G, we could use four chords C Am Dm7 G7 like Stand By Me. There are many variations on turnarounds.

Semitone Approach

Finally we can approach any chord by a semitone above or a semitone below. Therefore, instead of for example, Dmi7 to G7to C we could play Dmi Ab7 down to G7. Or Dmi7 to Db7 to C. Again there are many ways to do this. Listen to these substitutions.
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We could play our A minor pentatonic with this as well. Try it.

This lesson covered the use of the minor pentatonic three semitones below and a brief look at chord substitution. Please do more with this material than just copy it. Experiment with it and see how you can continue to find new ways to apply these techniques to make new sounds every time you play.

Remember music is best when we share it. Good luck. Stay in the groove and make it sound good.

Guitar-players often use riffs, a riff is a repeating pattern, a little like a bass-player would play.
You could combine the riff with the chord progression and that would give you something like:
....

You could then include chords, a melody using the pentatonic scale and some riffs, still following the same twelve-bar pattern.


Well this short lesson should be useful to you just to give you a brief introduction to the blues on guitar. If you already know how to do this, well good, but if you think you need to brush up on some of these techniques you could rewind the video, pause at any point, and check out the detail.

Finally I should say that making music is best when you share with it with other people so while it is good to learn as many skills as you can, team up with some other musicians and make music together. You will find that you learn much better that way. So good luck, play every day, stay in the groove and make it sound good.