>>From your answers to my latest posts I am starting to think that my
definitions for theoretical terms are a bit different than yours. "Guide
tones" to me is only a phrase which means the third and seventh of a chord
by my definition and that of many educators like Jamey Aebersold, the late
Paul La Rose, and many of my guitar and theory teachers through the years.
By my definition, guide tones are not a theoretically arguable concept, they
are just a way of labeling important tones in a solo to be aware of the inner
workings of a particular lick. They are in many solos and can be found by
simply circling every third and seventh in a solo.
This is one way to analyse the sign posts in a solo and see how the artist
handled this particular form of dissonance and consonance. Whether an artist
realizes that what they are playing has guide tones in it or not does not
negate the guide tone's existence. If when practicing writing with guide
tones a student writes an overly mechanical or contrived lick, they should
learn more about the placement of guide tones in more melodic ways which can
be done by transcription and analysis. Guide tones are also an easy way to
show a student the concept of bV7 substitution because the V and its bV
substitute's third and flat seventh are enharmonic equilivants (G7= G,B,D,F;
Db7= Db,F,A,Cb; which leaves the guide tones: B,F=Cb,F).
Transcribing (not store-bought transcription books) of solos and arrangements
is of course the key ingredient of learning jazz methodology and styles, but
after that comes analysis of these transcriptions to understand the concept
behind the melodies to try and recreate the model's idea in different keys
and in different context. Without analysing transcriptions many people can't
remove the ideas from the original solo and only use them for the song they
heard them being played on (only thinking of them as "that Doxy lick" or that
"Stella lick," etc.)
When I used the word "spice" about George Benson's substitution ideas I was
quoting from a roughly two hour master class tape which I have. In this tape
George used the word substitution to also mean when the Imaj7 chord is
substituted by the iiim7 or the vim7 chord, the iim7 is substituted by the
IVmaj7 chord, and the V7 is substituted by the viim7b5 chord. The lick I was
referring to uses this substitution idea: iim7, V7, Imaj7, becomes
IVmaj7,viim7b5,Imaj7. Although as a piano player this is easy to see as
rootless voicings, guitar players tend to see these as "direct" or "common
tone" substitutions (Howard Roberts often referred to them as substitutions).
The Fm arpeggio over the E7 chord in the Stella bridge is preceded by the b7
of E7: D. The F,Ab, and C are the enharmonic equivalents of F, G#, and B#,
the b9, 3, and #5, of E7. In his master class tape George talked about using
the melodic minor scale (and the minor triad arpeggio) a half step above the
root of a dominant chord in strong resolving situations, in this case V7 to
im7.
I transcribed the bass line at that point and the bassist is hitting an E
squarely on one in both measures but hitting the tri-tone on the 2,3,and 4,
so it's an interesting decision to make which chord was intended because at
this point in the solo there is only bass, drums, and single-line guitar,
McCoy sits out until the second chorus. I chose the E as the root because of
the rhythmic placement (on the downbeat of both measures).
George's tape made me realize how much substitution thinking is involved in
his licks, he may come off like a "street" player but he certainly has a firm
grasp on his chord theory too. I have also transcribed all eleven choruses
of his solo on Billie's Bounce which is full of cool subs over the basic
blues changes in F and the last chorus is a great chord solo. This
transcription may be to much to post but let me know if you are interested in
this transcription or a fragment of it, I will E-Mail it to you privately
next time.
Brian Oates