What are Guide What Are Guide Tones in Jazz? (And Why Your Solos Don’t Sound Right Yet)
Have you ever played a solo and it just didn’t sound quite right? You are not alone, and the issue is not technique. Perhaps work on your guide tones to increase your level of improvisation and really sound good.
What are guide tones?
Guide tones are the 3rd and 7th of any chord.
The guide tones define whether the chord is major or minor (based on the 3rd), and if the 7th indicates whether the chord is dominant.
These two notes are also known as the color tones, shell voicings, color notes, and are DNA of each chord.
Why Guide Tones Matter More than Scales
Many musicians are taught to play a scale that matches the chord. Scales are great, but they can lead to:
Meandering solos
No sense of direction
No arc to the story
Weak resolutions
Guide tones fix this because they:
Outline the harmony
Create forward motion and/or resolution, by intent
Make your lines sound intentional
The Big Idea
Guide tones are like the guardrails in jazz improvisation. If you listen and internalize the guide tones, your solos will sound:
Intentional
Rooted in the essence of each chord
Musical
Quick Exercise
Download one of our guide tone exercises and play along with the backing track. Notice whether you start on the 3rd or the 7th of the chord, and whether the next note is the third or the seventh of the chord. Then, take a solo on that chord progression, aiming to hit the guide tones in each measure. You can access each of these in our 15 Minute Warmup Routine eBook.
View the video below to learn more about guide tones. Put your requests for guide tone worksheets in the comments on YouTube!
👉 Inside the Jazz Improv Institute community, we provide daily 15 minute warmup routines for musicians wanting to work on their jazz improvisation skills.
