Using chord tones

Improvising with Chord Tones in the Blues

I'm going to show you how to improvise using the chord tones throughout the blues form.

Understanding Chord Tones

Chord tones, like we said, are the 1, 3, 5, and 7 of each chord. By using these, it's slightly more inventive and original than using the blues scale.

The blues scale, which we'll have learned from the first video, is a great way of improvising and playing over music. However, it can be a little bit limiting and it doesn't normally stress the harmony that we're playing.

The Importance of Harmony

It works well to play over the music, but it doesn't necessarily work well to highlight the harmony of the music. When we use the chord tones, what we're saying to the rest of the band, and to ourselves, is that we know the harmony that we're playing and we are able to show off our skill of improvising within the harmony of the music.

It's really important as an improviser to not just play over the music that you're playing. It's crucial to be inside of the music. This involves really nailing the harmony and getting a grasp of the ideas of the chords down.

Demonstration of Chord Tones

I'm going to play the chord tones of each chord:

• F
• B flat
• F
• B flat

Using the right hand only, I'm going to improvise using the chord tones of the blues.

So, what I was doing here is using the chords as a way of improvising.