MATT WARNOCK GUITAR

Guide Tones 10 Essential Soloing Patterns

Guide tones are used by improvisers to smoothly outline chord progressions in their solos, and
are often the 3rd and 7th of the underlying chord.

By working on guide tones in your soloing practice, youll learn how to target important notes in
each chord.

As well, youll develop the ability to confidently navigate chord progressions at the same time.

If youre new to guide tones, check out the background information first before moving on to the
10 patterns in this lesson.

This will help clear up what guide tonesare, and why youll want to use them in your Jazz solos
and phrases.

So, time todig into these 10 guide toneii V I patternswhere youll learn how just two notes, the
3rd and 7th, cantake your jazz guitar playing to the next level.

Free Jazz Guitar eBook:Download a free Jazz guitar PDF thatll teach you how to play Jazz
chord progressions, solo over Jazz chords, and walk basslines.

Intro to Jazz Guitar Guide Tone Patterns

In this lesson youll be focusing on one of the most important and commonly used guide tones,
the b7 to 3 movement between ii V I chords.

These guide tones move by half step from one chord to the next.

This allows you to smoothly transition from the iim7 to the V7 to the Imaj7 as you build your
solos over these chords.

If you look at these notes in the key of G major, which youll use in the following examples, you
can see how this movement works.

The b7 of Am7 is G which moves to F#, the 3rd of D7.

The b7 of D7 is C, which moves to B, the 3rd of Gmaj7.

You can see how these guide tones resolve down by half-step from one chord to the next,
leading smoothly through the entire progression.

Before moving on to the 10 patterns below, put on a ii V I backing track in G and playi the above
guide tones, G to F# then C to B, to see how they sound on your instrument.

Once youve checked out the guide tones only over these chords youre dig into the 10 patterns
below.

Guide TonesPattern 1

The first guide tone pattern that youll look at involves an ascending arpeggio over the iim7
chord, followed by a descending scale pattern over the V7 chord, as well as a 3 to 9 arpeggio over
the Imaj7 chord to finish the phrase.

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Guide Tones Pattern 2

In this guide tone pattern, youre playing all of the same notes as the previous phrase, though you
are introducing an Eb, b9 interval, over the D7 chord in the progression.

Learning how to adapt licks and phrase by one or two notes to produce permutations of common
phrases is an important skill when learning how to solo over Dominant 7th Chords, ii V I phrases,
and tunes as a whole.

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Guide TonesPattern 3

Youll now look at altering the rhythm for the next guide tone pattern, by inserting triplets into this
phrase that is based off of the same arpeggios-scale-arpeggio concept as we saw in the first
phrase.

Using various jazz guitar rhythms to alter your soloing lines and phrases is an easy way to extend
upon any pattern, lick or phrase when soloing over jazz standards and other tunes.

Because of this, it should be explored further in the woodshed as you expand upon these licks in
your guitar practice routine.

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Guide Tones Pattern 4

Youll now look at arriving at these guide tones from above, by descending down the iim7 scale,
then using the arpeggio notes from V7 to resolve to the 3rd of Imaj7 in the second measure.

As you can see and hear, just a slight alteration such as changing direction in your lines, can make
a big difference when learning how to solo over ii V I chord changes using patterns and guide
tones.

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Guide Tones Pattern 5

In this pattern, the last short ii V I progression well explore, we are using mostly scale-based
lines to reach each guide tone for the iim7, V7 and Imaj7 chords in the phrase.

Learning how to use jazz guitar scales to outline changes can go a long way in helping you reach
these guide tones in your lines, as well as provide a second texture to your arpeggio based
phrases.


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Guide TonesPattern 6

Youll now look at how you can apply guide tones to your long, ii V I chord changes.

Notice that I used a delayed resolution in this phrase.

This is where the b7 of Am7 is played on the 3rd beat of bar 1, and then there are two lower
neighbor tones that resolve up to the 3, F#, of D7, which is anticipated by a half-beat as that note
falls on the & of 4 in the first measure.

Once you have the basic concept of outlining b7 to 3 guide tones in your fingers, you can start to
work with the placement of these notes, using anticipation and delayed resolution for example, to
create more interest in your lines and build a tension-release vibe in your improvised phrases.

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Guide TonesPattern 7
 Guide TonesPattern 7

In this guide tone phrase, youre exploring one of my favorite jazz guitar techniques, the enclosure,
as its applied to the 3rd of the V7 and Imaj7 chord in this progression.

By adding a chromatic note below the 3rd of the next chord in the progression, after playing the
b7 of the underlying chord youre on, you can delay the guide tone resolution.

This brings a sense of chromaticism to your ii V I lines while sticking close to the guide tones at
the same time.

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Guide TonesPattern 8

This lick, in the style of legendary jazz guitarist Pat Martino, uses chromatic notes as well as long
slurs to hide the guide tones, while still maintaining the guide tone vibe throughout the pattern.

Check this lick out and then explore this idea further, of expanding upon your guide tone lines
with chromatic notes, slurs and other extended guitar techniques, in order to move beyond
simply playing b7-3 in your phrases on their own.

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Guide TonesPattern 9

You can also use chordal substitution and superimposition to apply guide tones to your lines and
phrases.

In this guide tone pattern, youre turning a ii V I progression into a iii VI ii V I progression by
playing Bm7-E7 then Am7-D7 over the Am7-D7-Gmaj7 progression.

This type of substitution, playing iii VI ii V over ii V chords, is a common way to create interest over
ii V chords, and is something that you can explore further in the woodshed.

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Guide Tones Pattern 10

In this last lick, youll be looking at a more advanced substitution as we play biii bVI ii V I over
the underlying ii V I chord progression.

Learning how to apply various substitutions to your jazz guitar solos is an important part of
learning how to play jazz guitar.

As well, using guide tones is a great way to help keep these subs from getting too outside, as
the guide tones glue them together over the underlying changes.

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Jazz Guitar Guide Tone Exercises

To help you get started with these 10 Guide Tone Patterns, here are 5 ways that you can expand
upon these exercises in the woodshed.

Play a ii V I progression on the guitar, sing the guide tones, b7 over iim7, then 3 and b7
over V7, and finally 3 over Imaj7. Repeat in 12 keys.

Pick a Jazz Standard, such as All The Things You Are, and practice just playing the guide
tones for each ii V I in that tune. From there, improvise a solo based on those guide tones.

Solo over Tune Up, by Miles Davis, and use one of these Guide Tone Patterns over each ii
V I chord progression. Begin to alter the pattern by adding notes, taking notes away, and
changing the underlying rhythm of the pattern.

Write out 10 Guide Tone Patterns of your own using the building blocks discussed in this
lesson.

Transcribe a chorus of solo by a legendary Jazz guitarist, analyze the lines in that chorus to
discover how your favorite players use guide tones in their solos and improvised phrases.