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Jam Sessions - Smooth Jazz
Style
Lesson 5 - Jam in Cm
Lyle:
This jam has a strong Latin jazz sound, mainly because of the rhythms. Here's
your simple 4 measure jam track:
chord chart
Lyle:
Here's my suggested way to play these
chords:
chords
Lyle:
Here's how to play the rhythm pattern you hear in the jam
track:
Lyle:
This video clip shows you two ways to strum these chords:
Picky: How much
room would you normally have with improvising the strumming
patterns?
Lyle: Depends. Sometimes a different rhythm part
will "break" the groove. You don't want to be a "groove killer" when jamming.
That's why in the video example I start by play a simple 1 beat strum for each
chord to avoid breaking the groove.
Lyle: How's everyone doing so
far?
ico: no
problem so far
jax: cool i like
it!
Mike: I'm
doing good
Lyle: Good. When improvising over a jam like
this, a good scale to use is the C natural minor:
Lyle: C
natural minor is also the relative minor, related to the Eb major scale. This
means you could also use the Eb major scale to improvise
with.
Lyle:
Many guitar players struggle when playing the Eb major scale because it's not a
key they are used to playing in. This jam is a great way to get in extra
practice playing in this key of Cm -
Ebmaj.
Lyle: Another great scale to use is called the C
harmonic minor:
ico: Is it
because they are used to the E major scale instead?
Lyle: Well, most guitar plays don't play in the
key of Eb, Ab, Db.
Lyle: They'll play in E, D, C, A, and
G.
ico: Right, I
see.
Lyle:
Here's an example of a smooth jazz riff using notes from the C harmonic minor
scale. Notice how the sliding of the notes helps give it the "smooth jazz"
vibe:
Lyle:
Take that same riff and add octaves to it just like this:
Lyle:
Here's how I played the solo from the lesson sample. It's made from the C
natural minor scale and the harmonic minor.
Lyle:
The combination of the clean, neck position pickup sound, the use of octave
riffs, and the sliding into the note riffs really help give this the smooth jazz
sound.
Lyle: Here's the second half of the
solo:
jordan: Lyle,
did I hear a little SRV style lick in the first
half?
Lyle: A little blues lick,
yes.
Lyle: In the blues and rock guitar styles you
would be bending lots of notes. In the smooth jazz style you can lay back and
just slide into the notes or riffs.
Lyle: Here's a couple more riffs that use the
harmonic minor scale:
Lyle:
Next I copy that riff but play the ending harmonic minor riff at a higher
location:
Lyle:
Here's what this solo might sound like if you added a thick overdrive and played
single note lines:
Pacer:
nice!
jax: Yea
dude that is very nice!
Lyle: Thanks. It's a fun groove to jam
to.
Lyle:
That's all for this jam in Cm. Hope you're having fun with this one. All the jam
tracks from this series are available for download off my web site,
TheGuitar.net in a high quality MP3 format. Email me if you have any questions.
Thanks! - Lyle
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