SUBSTITUTION TEACHER

Superimposing substitute chord changes over a pedal tone

I introduced you to the con-

L
AST MONTH
cept of using chord substitutions when
soloing over a pedal tone, detailing specif-
ically the incorporation of the implied V (five)
chord into one's improvised phrases. As you
recal], a pedal tone.is defined as "a sustained
or continuously repeated tone" and is also the
term used to describe the one-chord vamps
heard commonly in a great variety of funk, __ (8)--9--11 (9-_11 8~
8--(10) -11
rock, blues and jazz. The style known as
modal jazz, spearheaded by Miles Davis and
John Coltrane in the late Fifties and early Six-
ties, is characterized by simple one- or two-
chord vamps that offer the soloist a wide har-
monic environment within which to
improvise and "color" the basic underlying
tonality. With the arrival of jazz fusion in the
late Sixties, one-chord grooves became the 8-10

standard for the improvising musician, and FIGURE 1c

harmonic/melodic adventurousness was the F7
order of the day. This approach is widely
employed by many of the groups on today's
ja'm-band circuit.
Using an F dominant tonality (F7) as a
pedal point, 1provided examples in my last
column of lines thatimply anF7 C7 F7 (I7V7 FIGURE 2
17 [one dominant seven, five dominant sev- Funk Groove J = 92
en, one dominant seven]) chord progression. F7#9 *(F#7)
Within the lexicon of standard jazz/blues "",;::"\
harmony, the V (five) chord, C7, can be
expanded to C7 "altered" (C7alt), altered
meaning b5, #5, b9 and/or #9. For lines 8-"='--12 -9
8-10-8-10111--9-'<-8
based on F7, we used the F Mixolydian mode 10--------11-8

(F G A Bb C DEb), and for lines based on

C7alt, we used the C diminished whole-tone
scale (C Db Eb E Gb Ab Bb), which contains
the b5, #5, b9 and #9 altered tones, relative
to C (Gb, Ab, Db and Eb, respectively).
I'd now like to show you how to use this
implied V (five) chord concept as ajumping-
off point for the incorporation of chordal sub-
stitutions. A typical substitution for an altered
dominant chord is the dominant chord a tri-
tone away, which is a chord whose root note
is three whole tones above (or below) the
original chord. In the key of F we can replace
the implied V (five) chord, C7alt, withF#7;
FIGURE la shows the C diminished whole-
tone scale in two octaves and how the F#
dominant pentatonic scale (F# G# A# C# E)
we learned last month can be extracted from
it. (Play only the standard-size tab numbers
not enclosed in parenthesis.)
FIGURE 1b shows one way to use a tritone
substitution to add a feeling of harmonic ten-
sion and release to a line played over a C root.
What I'm doing here is taking a four-note idea
~+-~=~==~
// ~. ~//
7-X-X-X---X-X---X
8-X-X-X---X-X---X
~
based on the C dominant pentatonic scale (C
DE G [Bb]) and alternating it withthe same
idea transposed up a tritone to F# dominant
pentatonic. The result is an interesting line
that has a strong sense of harmonic motion.
Our next example takes a I V I (one five
one) progression in F (F7 C7 F7) and applies
a tritone substitUtion to the V chord (C7alt),
resulting in an implied chord progression ofF7
F#7 F7, or I bII I (one, flat two, one). We can
now play lines that alternately suggest F7 and
F#7 tonalities, as demonstrated in FIGURE lc.
The phrase in bar 2 of this example implies
F#7, but it can also be analyzed in relation to
C7alt. It's interesting to try "hearing" the line
in bar 2 in reference to either F#7 or C7alt.
FIGURE 2 demonstrates how this concept
can be applied to an F7#9 chord in a funk
groove. The soloist (Gtr. 1) plays a two-bar
melodic phrase that alternately implies F7
and F#7 tonalities in each bar.
Superimposing implied harmony and
chord substitutions is an effective way to cre-
ate musical interest and drama when impro-
vising over a static one-chord vamp. The pos-
sibilities are endless, so keep your ears open
and don't be afraid to try blazing some har-
monic/melodic trails of your own. _