how to play an organic solo over SATIN DOLL

[00:00:00]Hey, there people.

[00:00:02]Yeah, I'm back. I'm doing a tutorial.

[00:00:05]Didn't do one like this in a long time.

[00:00:08]I got that email with a request for Satin Doll.

[00:00:12]So, I thought I would talk about Satin Doll because actually, you can break this tune down sort of easily into chunks. There's a lot of the same stuff happening in a analytical sense of way.

[00:00:25]And I want you to explain how you can know which scales to use.

[00:00:31]But more importantly, I will try to help you play more melodic lines and maybe have some kind of storytelling going on because I think very often we're so busy navigating the changes, right? So, sort of the chords and our knowledge of the fretboard dictates what we play.

[00:00:53]But sort of we want to do our own thing, develop our own ideas sort of no matter the chords.

[00:01:02]So, for someone who doesn't know anything about jazz, it still sounds like an organic thing that we're doing.

[00:01:08]And that's a lot of work, but also what I find the most fun.

[00:01:13]So, yeah. I have this um So, I always go just into Google. I type in the name of the standard and then I go to pictures and then I do a screenshot. So, this is a page of the fifth edition real book.

[00:01:29]I like it. There are also mistakes in it, but it's good enough for today.

[00:01:34]Yeah, so Satin Satin Doll, right?

[00:01:37]The form is AABA. So, let's have a look at the A part.

[00:01:42]The tune is in C major. The first two chords are D minor 7 >> [music] >> and G7.

[00:01:51]And I think you know what that is, right? That's like a 2-5-1 in C major.

[00:01:55]Just it's not going to see my C major, but regardless, we can think, "Okay, those two chords are diatonic in C major.

[00:02:06]We can play the C major scale over both chords."

[00:02:11]And basically, this is the recipe for the rest of the tune. Then we have E minor 7, >> [music] >> A7, which you can think the E minor 7 is diatonic as well, could be a replacement of the tonic chord, the C major chord, but not in this case. In this tune, you can always think 2 5. So, E minor 7, A7, you just imagine to which one this 2 5 would go. That would be D major, and then you know your scale. So, you're going to play D major here.

[00:02:48]C major scale, D ma- uh D major scale.

[00:02:53]And I'm just going to record those first four bars, and I'm just going to improvise a little bit over those first four bars.

[00:03:04]Depending on your level, you can just like find one position of C major, >> [music] >> and then D major, shifting the same pattern, right? If you're more advanced, try to stay in one position and shift from the C major pattern to the D [music] major pattern in the same position, right? So, let's record that.

[00:03:28]So, if you have been following me for a while, you know I love to have a loop.

[00:03:32]Don't get too strict with the rhythm. Just put your metronome. Don't drive yourself crazy.

[00:03:41]The most important important part is that the end of the loop sort of clicks.

[00:03:46]If that's hard, record a longer loop, right? Then it takes longer until it comes to this part.

[00:03:52]>> [laughter] >> One.

[00:03:54]Two.

[00:03:55]One.

[00:04:00]>> [music] [music] [music] >> So, always start simple. Always start simple. And then the complexity will come by itself because you want to hear something, you want to you know, explore something, but start simple. So, now I'm going to just play a little bit over it. Just, you know, getting my feet into the water.

[00:04:35]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Yeah. [music] And so, the first thing that I already find now because I just want to take you along a little bit is finding notes that work in both keys, right? So, if I'm playing the D, obviously this note exists in the C major scale and in the D major scale.

[00:05:28]So, I could just like, you know, try to find something starting on the D on the on the 2 5 in C major.

[00:05:35]>> [music] >> Could be something as simple as descending the scale and then just descending the D major scale.

[00:05:45]>> [music] >> Right? So, like this you already gluing notes together that exist in both keys and already it gets a little bit more organic. Let me try that a little bit for you.

[00:05:58]>> [music] [music] >> Another one, the A major.

[00:06:15]>> [music] >> Oh.

[00:06:28]>> [music] >> The E.

[00:06:30]One more time.

[00:06:34]>> [music] >> Yeah, so >> [music] >> yeah. Just try to find something like this. You can, depending on your level, check it out up front or find it while you play. Another thing that I try to do is to end the phrase with a bigger interval. So, I'm playing a D Sorry, D on the starting from the No.

[00:07:02]Starting from the E on the D minor 7 G7.

[00:07:05]>> [music] >> You know.

[00:07:08]Whatever. And then on the other one.

[00:07:13]>> [music] >> Right, so I just like skipping some notes and having fun with what you have.

[00:07:17]So, the tune goes on with like A minor 7, D7.

[00:07:24]Same concept. It's a 2-5. Think about where it would resolve to to G major.

[00:07:30]So, play the G [music] major scale here.

[00:07:34]Next one.

[00:07:37]Same thing. Think A flat minor, D flat 7. Where would it resolve to to C flat major? So, play the C flat major scale here.

[00:07:47]And then now we're on the tonic, right? It's all like a long stretch until we're here.

[00:07:56]It's very important to note that we had two fives for two bars, but now we have them only for one bar.

[00:08:06]So, the harmonic rhythm accelerates. And I would advise you to practice this like we we're doing it here in this video. Start with the first four bars.

[00:08:18]And now let's only practice the next four bars. It's always a good idea to work on four-bar phrases, okay? So, I'm going to record this now, maybe a little faster.

[00:08:39]Which is actually a really bad idea because >> [laughter] >> I just realized everything is going to be faster anyway, so I'm not going to record it faster. Maybe I'll rather a slower. I don't know which tempo I had before.

[00:08:55]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Yeah, and so I'm ignoring the two chords in the second bar and the last bar. I'm just playing C major because I find it's so important for us to hear that we're really landing on the tonic here. So, now again you can just like play the same patterns [music] that you used before. If you're more of a beginner, just shift your one pattern that you know of the major scale now to G G flat and C major.

[00:09:43]Or if you're more advanced, try to play in one position. Or if you're more advanced, try to play across the fretboard. Or even just try to play by ear. I'm just going to make a mix of all of it.

[00:09:57]Oh my goodness.

[00:10:03]>> [music] >> And you can play the same phrase. That's a >> [music] >> good way. Sorry.

[00:10:14]So, it's all also about hearing stuff, right? Sometimes we just don't hear what is happening.

[00:10:20]I would advise you to play just the same thing, especially here in this place.

[00:10:28]Play the melody that you play over A minor 7 D 7. Play the same damn melody over A flat minor D flat 7. Just shift it. So, on the A minor, let's say you play >> [music] >> then you play and then you play whatever on the tonic.

[00:10:46]Maybe a triad.

[00:10:49]>> [music] >> Triads really sound very good, especially on tonic chords. So, let's look what's happening.

[00:11:01]>> [music] [music] >> Yeah. [music] So, basically you're helping yourself hear what's happening in the tune with playing stuff in the most easy way.

[00:11:35]And then after a while, you just start to improvise. A very good exercise is just to play the melody for eight bars and then improvise for eight bars. Or play the melody over the entire form and then improvise.

[00:11:49]I want to just like have a functional harmony analysis very quickly. So, how you would write it down in Roman numerals. So, this would be 2 5 and this would be 3.

[00:12:02]>> [music] >> This would be 5 going to 2.

[00:12:08]6 [music] 5 going to 5. And this A flat minor D flat 7 [music] this also happens in Just Friends. If you're confused about 2 5 always look for the dominant chord. So, the dominant is D flat 7.

[00:12:26]>> [music] >> Right? So, tritone substitution of the C7 and it just brings along its 2 like we can always add the 2 to a 5 chord or even the 5 chord to a 2 chord.

[00:12:41]>> [music] >> And then we're here.

[00:12:43]I just remember that I heard Frank Zappa talk about in his book about modal interchange. I want to look it up really quickly.

[00:12:52]Yeah. So, very often when we have a turnaround like C major 7 A7 D minor 7 G7 becomes E minor 7 A7 D minor 7 then the E minor is just like really you know, Barry Harris made that whole video on All the Things You Are. That's exactly what's happening here. The This is not a chord on the 30 on the second degree. It's a chord on the third degree. It's not Dorian. But here in Satin Doll it's actually a Dorian chord.

[00:13:21]So, the root stays but sort of the quality, the mode changes. I think this is what is called modal interchange. It's like instead of playing E Phrygian or however you want to call it, you're playing E Dorian. Listen to the recording and tell me if I'm right. So, Yeah, and then I wanted to show you this little snippet from a Wes Montgomery solo because now we are in the last two bars of the A part and you can play those chords here.

[00:13:58]And especially this one, which I [music] find so cool.

[00:14:03]So, you play the melody and then when you come to this place, it's all anticipated. It's 1 2 3 4.

[00:14:12]>> [music] >> I love it.

[00:14:17]I'm sorry.

[00:14:20]>> [music] [music] >> Because the E half diminished A7, that's leading back to the D minor, right? So, this is like a 2 5 1 leading to D minor, right? And I love those chords, this C major 7 9.

[00:14:45]And then the F7 13, the E half diminished, but [music] especially this chord, which is so cool. That's like a E flat [music] or D sharp chord.

[00:15:02]And yeah, so the This is something that happens a lot if you have a 2 5 starting with a half diminished, then there's the F7 leading into it.

[00:15:17]>> [music] >> No.

[00:15:22]Right. And of course, that was would also work in your solo.

[00:15:28]The B part is also the same thing basically. G minor 7, C 7, you can play F major here, and it also goes to F major.

[00:15:38]And then we have A minor 7, D 7, you can play G major. [music] So, nothing new under the sun.

[00:15:56]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Yeah, so one thing that interests me for example would be to play ascending or descending lines through the chords without changing the direction. So, for A minor for example, I could play >> [music] >> going into A flat minor. So, always thinking Dorian, right?

[00:17:20]>> [music] >> And to C major.

[00:17:29]>> [music] >> So, basically, just like, you know, change not changing this the direction, playing a scale sort of continuous through the scales. If that makes any sense. I hope this video is helpful in a theory run. But, new webinars are coming up in 2 weeks.

[00:17:49]They're going to be three new tunes, and you can have a live zoom call with me in a group session.

[00:17:56]We're just going to dive deep. I answer all your questions.

[00:18:01]And yeah, if you're interested, um please send me an email. Or if you want to have a specific tune, please send me an email as well.

[00:18:11]>> [laughter] >> And I make notes, um and then I possibly do what I want to see or >> [laughter] >> play.