Jazz Improvising - Key of D

So you've learnt your scales, you have good rhythm and you're been playing a few licks here and there. Now it's time to put the theory into practice. This improvisation MP3 uses the D Major & B Minor scales with a definite Jazz flavour to it. So get your George Benson fingers ready and see what you can do with this backing track.

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Chord Progression...

|D Maj7 |Bm7 |Em7 |A7 |
|D Maj7 |Bm7 |Em7 |A7 |

|F#m7   |Bm7    |F#m7   |Bm7    |
|F#m7   |Bm7   |C      |G/B   |
|A      |A7     |

Use the D Major Pentatonic Scale...

R = Lowest Root Note
r = root note (other)

---|-o-|---|---|-r-|---
---|-o-|---|---|-o-|---
---|-r-|---|-o-|---|---
---|-o-|---|-o-|---|---
---|-o-|---|-o-|---|---
---|-o-|---|---|-R-|---

R --> starts on the 10th fret (D Major Pentatonic)

...or the D Major Scale

---|-o-|-r-|---|---|---
---|---|-o-|---|-o-|---
---|-o-|---|-o-|-o-|---
---|-o-|---|-o-|-r-|---
---|-o-|-o-|---|-o-|---
---|---|-R-|---|-o-|---

R --> starts on the 10th fret (D Major)

...or the B Minor Scale (Relative Minor)

---|---|---|-r-|---|-o-|-o-|---|---
---|---|---|-o-|-o-|---|-o-|---|---
---|---|-o-|-o-|---|-o-|---|---|---
---|-o-|---|-o-|---|-r-|---|---|---
---|-o-|---|-o-|---|-o-|---|---|---
---|-o-|---|-R-|---|-o-|---|---|---

R --> starts on the 7th fret (B Minor)

Scale: D Major Scale

1 - [T] - 2 - [T] - 3 - <S> - 4 - [T] - 5 - [T] - 6 - [T] - 7 - <S> - 8

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
D	E	F#	G	A	B	C#	D

Chord Key Relation (Common chords used in this key):

Degree Formula	Chords	Chord Formula *	Chord Notes *	Progression Chords	Chord Formula **	Chord Notes **
1st Major	D Major	1-3-5	D-F#-G	D Maj7	1-3-5-7	D-F#-G-C#
2nd Minor	E Minor	1-3b-5	E-G-B	Em7	1-3b-5-7b	E-G-B-D
3rd Minor	F# Minor	1-3b-5	F#-A-C#	F#m7	1-3b-5-7b	F#-A-C#-E
4th Major	G Major	1-3-5	G-B-D	--	--	--
5th Major	A Major	1-3-5	A-C#-E	A7	1-3-5-7b	A-C#-E-G
6th Minor	B Minor	1-3b-5	B-D-F#	Bm7	1-3b-5-7b	B-D-F#-A
7th Diminished	C# Diminished	1-3b-5b	C#-E-G	--	--	--
8th Octave	D Major	1-3-5	D-F#-G	D Maj7	1-3-5-7	D-F#-G-C#
--	--	--	--	C Major	1-3-5	C-E-G

Degree Formula - This is a formula that work out the chords used in any key
Chords - These are the common chords used in the key of D Major
Chord Formula * - This is the formula that creates chords, 1-3-5 representing the 1st, 3rd & 5th notes of any 8 note Major Scale
Chord Notes * - These are the notes created from the previous column, Chord Formula
Progression Chords - These are the chords used in the song
Chord Formula ** - This is the formula that creates the chords in the previous column
Chord Notes ** - These are the notes created from the previous column, Chord Formula

As you can see all the chords used in the progression are made from the notes of the D Major Scale (D - E - F# - G - A - B - C#). The C Major chord however consists of the notes "C E & G", when you look at the D Major Scale the "C" note is not a part of it, but "C#" is. To avoid the chance of hitting a bum note when this chords comes around in the progression just make sure you adjust any "C#" your were going to use in the solo to "C".

Warm Up Exercises

Play this scale up and down in eighth notes (2 notes per beat)

E||--------------------------------|-------------------------9--10--|
B||--------------------------------|-----------------10--12---------|
G||--------------------------------|------9--11--12-----------------|
D||---------------------9--11--12--|--12----------------------------|
A||----------9--10--12-------------|--------------------------------|
E||--10--12------------------------|--------------------------------|

|--10----------------|--10--9-------------------------|
|--------------------|---------12--10-----------------|
|--------------------|-----------------12--11--9------|
|--------------------|----------------------------12--|
|--------------------|--------------------------------|
|--------------------|--------------------------------|

|--------------------------------|--------------------||
|--------------------------------|--------------------||
|--------------------------------|--------------------||
|--12--11--9---------------------|--------------------||
|-------------12--10--9----------|--------------------||
|------------------------12--10--|--10----------------||