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Essential Lines and Patterns for Soloing 

This is an article recently written for PAS' magazine Percussive Notes by Gustavo Agatiello. Gustavo did a great job transcribing and analyzing Joe's solo on the standard "It Could Happen To You". As always, Joe is playing brilliantly on this track.

The playing took place during a long weekend that Joe, Gustavo and I spent together at my house in December 2009. We had a great time picking each other's brains, sharing improvisational concepts as well doing some serious cooking. Joe makes a great chicken cutlet dish.

Can You Do This?

Working on the bebop dominant scale is important. This is a mixolydian scale with a half step between the root and the 7th. So in the key of C the scale descending would be.

C B Bb A G F E D C

Print out the pdf, The first chord is a D7, you write in the chords and look at each bar and the notes. Play this exercise, in fact memorize it.

Can you make up your own bebop dominant scale licks?

I have two tracks here, one with the melody from the pdf and one where you can make up your own stuff and cycle it through the cycle of 5ths.

This is an improv concept that will be featured in Volume Two of The Complete Guide To Improvisation which will be coming out soon. I was working on this concept with a private guitar student this week at Berklee. Here is the concept applied over Autumn leaves. The concept involves superimposing a Maj 7th #5 structure over any chord and outlining the Maj 7 #5 chord in the improv. We can also use the related Symmetrical Augmented scale as well as use passing and approach notes to notes in the Maj 7 #5 structure.