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Lyle Ronglien >> Jam Sessions - Smooth Jazz >>


Jam Sessions - Smooth Jazz Style

Lesson 10 - Jam in Bbm



Lyle: Ready to jam, all tuned up?

Lyle: Two chords make up this simple smooth jazz jam in Bbm.

Lyle: Ebm and Bbm.

chord chart


Lyle: Here is your jam track for this lesson:



Lyle: The little rhythm riff in the jam goes like this:



Lyle: I know that is hard to read but if you playback the TAB file, you'll understand what's going on with the two chords - Ebm at the 11th fret and Bbm at the 6th fret. It's a down strum, then a slide up one fret, then and up strum.

Lyle: The video will help:



Lyle: These two chords are related to the key of Db major. The Ebm is the ii chord, and Bbm is the vi chord in the key of Db major. This means the Eb Dorian minor can be used against the Ebm chord, and the Bb Aeolian minor can be used against the Bbm chord:



Lyle: So as you improvise over this jam you can follow the chords with these two scales. This makes things fun and exciting for you and the listener!

Lyle: Same thing works for the minor pentatonic scales. Play the Eb minor pentatonic during the Ebm chord, then switch to the Bbm pentatonic for the Bbm chord:



Lyle: You could even play the notes from the Db major scale over the whole jam track:




Lyle: Any questions so far?

Bill: All these scale are essentially the same notes right?

Lyle: In this case yes. There are related. (check out "Understanding Modes" lessons on CD-ROM)

Lyle: Now that you have a few ideas to use when jamming to the jam track, I'd like to show you a few riffs I came up with. Here's how to play the solo from the lesson sample. I started off with riffs made from the "secret sliding jazz riff" in the minor pentatonic for each chord:






ac: Just slide into any of the notes of the pentatonic scale?

Lyle: Yes!

Lyle: The next riff is made from the minor scales that follow each chord:





Picky: The sliding jazz riff fits in very nicely!

Lyle: It's a nice simple technique that gives you the "smooth" sound. I was going to record this solo on my nylon string guitar but it didn't have a cut-away so I couldn't get up there for some of the notes I wanted to play. Nylon string "classical" guitars sound awesome for the smooth jazz style.

Lyle: The next riff from the solo is made from a couple sliding octave riffs, then into the Db major 7 arpeggio:





Lyle: The final riff of the solo is simply made from the Eb minor pentatonic, then the Bb minor pentatonic. I picked every note but you may find it easier to use pull-offs and hammer-ons:





Lyle: See how you can follow each chord, the Ebm and Bbm as you improvise? That's what I felt was fun about this lesson, getting you to move your hand around and think about what chord was being played.

Lyle: That's all for this lesson. Thank you for your purchase and hope you enjoyed this series of lessons. All the jam tracks from this series are all available for download from my web site in high quality MP3 format. That way you can make a CD from them and play them in your home stereo and crank it up! Go to my site - TheGuitar.net and go to Jam Tracks for more info.

Thanks and Stay Tuned! - Lyle
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