Chords for Education Spotlight: Gary Burton - Soloing on Ballads

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Maybe I might talk for a minute about soloing on ballads.
We haven't done that much yet, but I am going to be assigning _ a couple of ballads here in
the course materials and in the final project. _ _ _
_ _ The temptation _ is to treat the ballad like you do a medium swing piece.
In a medium swing piece, we're apt to play a fair amount of arpeggios and scale fragments.
It's part of the typical _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
running around jazz lines that are normal.
But in a ballad, they don't work so well. _ _
You've heard me say several times that one of the decisions you want to make about a
song is, is it a vocal piece or is it an instrumental piece?
That means, is the melody of the song so busy and running around that it seems _ better for
a trumpet player or a piano player and that a singer would have trouble singing that [N] kind
of a song.
A vocal song, _ on the other hand, has a simpler melody and sounds imminently singable by the human voice.
Ballads fall in that category.
_ _ [Ebm] _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
_ [A] _ [E] _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Db] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Cm] _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ [E] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ [G] _ You're going to hear a very pretty song, melody, simple quarter notes, half notes, whole notes.
_ _ Our solo also needs to be in this same melodic style.
If we start soloing, _ _ running [F] _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ all over, it's going to suddenly, the whole feel, the beauty
of the song is going to be lost.
_ We can play an occasional arpeggio or fast run just for interest and so on, but if we
play most of the time like that on a ballad, it'll just sound like we're really overplaying
and we'll lose this beautiful mood that the ballad has established.
So I'm thinking of the melody, [Bbm] _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [Abm] _ [F] _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ [F] _ _ [G] _
so I'm thinking of that and I'm going to improvise, start
out, I'm just going to embellish around it _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _
_ _ [Ebm] _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ [F] _ [Db] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ [Cm] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ [C] _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ [F] _ _ [Db] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bbm] _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ and _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Dm] _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ _ [Gb] _ _ _ _ so _ on.
Now, [Gm] you may not recognize it if you're just a listener that I'm really using elements
of the original melody a lot _ to pace my solo and I know the original melody works really well.
The composers spend a lot of time choosing those notes and making sure they're nice,
strong melodic notes.
So hey, I don't have to reinvent the wheel here.
I use those notes myself and just rearrange them a little bit, embellish them a little
bit and it doesn't take much effort _ to disguise them from no longer sounding like the original
melody but sounding like good, strong melodies on their own.
_ _ That is a good way to get started in ballad playing.
Mostly, remember, don't overdo. _
Keep the same melodic style as the original melody _ and use the original melody _ _ _ as a guide
when you're soloing.
It's an easy way to get good, strong lines in your solo without having to totally reinvent everything. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _