Chords for Western Swing Guitar Lesson - #2 Outling Chords, Embellishing Arpeggios - Jason Loughlin

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
In this concept we're going to talk about outlining chords and embellishing arpeggios.
So I'm going to take just a simple A bar chord here and this is going to act as a map for
us to show us where all of our chord tones are.
And so much of improvisation in Western Swing is just outlining and embellishing [A] these notes
that make up the chord.
So I can start at any point in this [C] chord shape and [A] arpeggio these notes, arpeggiate
these notes, sorry.
_ _ _ _ I could play two of them, three of them, I could play all six of them, whatever I want to do.
[D] Okay, so [A] throughout a progression I'm [D] just assigning a [A] chord shape for each chord _ [D] and
then I'm using that as my map.
[A] So if I was just doing a really simple 1-4 [D]-5 progression I could use an A, [E] D, and _ E from
our cage system [A] and just outline those chords.
_ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [F#m] _
_ [F#] _ [D] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ Okay, now the great thing is you can actually really hear that I'm [Em] following the changes
because [A#] I'm using the actual changes [A] in my solo.
Alright, so now to soup these up a little bit we can do a half step approach.
So any one [B] of these notes I can approach from a half step lower, [A] _ [E] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ [G#] _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
[A#] _ okay, and I can work that
into [G#] my solo. _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [F] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ [A] _ _ Okay, I could also use diatonic passing tones.
So these are just notes from the scale or from the key.
I could [Em] use them to connect notes of the chord.
So [F#m] say I wanted to get from A to C sharp, I could just use the A major scale and [B] throw
in [A#m] a passing tone [F#m] in between.
[G#] _ So this is my point of origin, point of destination, and this is just a little connection here.
[A#m] _ I could do that between the third and [C#] fifth.
[E] _ _ I could do that between the fifth [F#] and the root.
_ Now this brings up _ an interesting point.
You don't always have to follow the scale exactly.
I don't have to play every single note on the way to something.
So for instance, if I'm going from the fifth to the root, I don't have to play the sixth
and [B] the seventh or the sixth and the dominant seventh, whatever I choose as a passing tone.
[A] I could just play one of [E] those. _ _ _ _
I could also embellish any note with a passing tone above it.
So say I wanted to start a solo on my fifth.
I don't have to start right on the fifth.
I could start with the passing tone or with the scale step above it.
_ You can call that an upper neighbor.
If you start below it, it's called a lower neighbor.
[B] _ But you're just embellishing with notes of the scale.
That's the simple way to think of it.
[A] _ _ _
[A#m] _ _ _ [A] _ _ And that would work for any one of these chord shapes.
_ [F#] _ _ [B] _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [F#] _ _ _ _ [C#m] _ _ _
[B] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [G#] Now let's talk about chromatics.
_ _ Same concept.
We can connect any of these chord tones with a chromatic run.
And we don't have to do a complete chromatic run.
We could start at any point and just start a chromatic run from wherever.
Because essentially it's just an effect.
It always sounds better if you're actually starting on a chord tone _ and ending on a chord
tone if something is in key.
But [A] this is really just serving as an effect.
So let me give you an example.
If I was taking those four notes of an A major chord, [E] _ _ I could walk in from a whole minor
third below each of [B] them. _ _
[F#m] _ _ _ [A#] And it sounds interesting.
Now this note, leading into the C sharp, that's not in key.
But it was just a temporary _ dissonance.
And it was just kind of serving an effect.
So it's not something you really [B] notice.
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _
So let's say I wanted to connect [B] my third to my fifth.
I could do that with chromatics.
[A#] _ [E] _ _ _ _ I could connect my passing tone note, my upper neighbor or scale step with chromatics. _
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
[A] So you can already see just by adding that stuff in, I already have all this color and
all this interesting stuff happening just from that shape.
So let me try to throw in some of those chromatics just to a [A#] simple 1, 4, 5 here.
_ _ [C#] _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [A#] _
_ [B] _ _ [C#] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ Okay?
And you can hear I'm targeting the changes every time.
There doesn't even have to be other chords playing.
You can hear when I'm going from the 1 chord to the 4 chord or to the 5 chord.
Just because I'm landing on or starting on each one of those chord tones.
So we were using very simple chord shapes here.
You could use anything though.
You could use that major 7, that calling card that we were talking about earlier in the
chorus for the 1 chord.
[C#m] _ [F#] _ _ [D#] _ _ [A] _ _ [F#] _
You could use that 4 [D] to minor 4 thing.
[A#] _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ [F#] You could use your augmented.
_ [B] _ _ [E] _ _ _ [C#m] _ _
_ Okay?
And then just imagine you have all those chord shapes all over the neck.
You think about the cave system, you think about all those 7 chords we learned, your open chords.
So you could do that to any one of those shapes.
That's a lot of vocabulary that comes just from outlining chord shapes and embellishing arpeggios. _