Élan vers l'avant

Connecting Chords Across Bar Lines

Alright, so so far in your solo, you've probably been playing everything in its own bar. In other words, everything's delineated by the bar lines.

The Importance of Flow

This is not the way music generally unfolds. I want to encourage you to:

• Play across the bar lines.
• Connect the chords from one bar to the next.

So, I'm starting my phrase on one chord and finishing on the next. That's really important, not just in this tune, but when you're playing over any chord sequence.

Effective Playing Strategies

You don't want to be playing lots of short ideas on each chord. Instead, aim to:

• Play ideas that straddle two or more chords, if you can.
• Understand that this approach is always effective.

Utilizing Forward Motion

What do I mean by forward motion?

• Don't always change at the bar line.
• Sometimes, use pickups.

Demonstration of Forward Motion

I could demonstrate this very simply just by playing a major triad. I'm still playing the same four triads, but I'm not playing them on beat one anymore. Instead, I'm leading in with them:

1. Two beats of the triad
2. A lead into the next chord.

So, like we did before when we talked about target notes and pickups, think about this as well:

• These are not just pickups; they're pickups with forward motion.
• The right hand is maybe a beat or two beats, or more, ahead of the left hand, so you're leading with the right hand.

The notes that you play in the pickup belong to the chord that you're about to get to in the right hand. This gives you much more momentum.

A Tip from the Greats

You know, all professional pianists do this all the time. Here's a kind of embellished version of this idea:

• I'm using pickups to lead into every chord.
• I'm hardly playing anything in the bar itself, just ending on the target note.

Miles Davis once said, "Everything I play is a pickup." So there's a tip from one of the greats.