Chromatics: Simple Soloing Tricks

Chromatic Scales: A tiny bit of history and the application of this concept.

In Western music (as it is commonly called) we have a system that divides each octave into 12 equal parts. This developed over the course of western music history, originally as a way to modify diatonic melody and harmony. The chromatic notes were introduced as tonal “colors” (the Greek root word of chromatic is “chroma” meaning color).

As Western classical music developed over the centuries, the use of chromatic notes and concepts became more widespread. While the harmonic and melodic use of chromaticism in classical music is very interesting, the place where it connects to us as modern guitarists comes mainly through jazz music, and the improvisation that it perfected and passed on to modern music styles.

In jazz music you would have chord progressions and fairly simple melodies (especially in early jazz, where the songs played were mainly show tunes from theatrical productions) which would provide a launching point for adept players to improvise, engaging in spontaneous creativity over an underlying chord pattern. In this practice of improvisation, it was necessary to stay rooted to the harmony and rhythm while inventing melodies on the fly.

When spontaneously creating like this, staying connected to the underlying pattern of the song requires a knowledge of the harmony in order to “follow the changes” – meaning to play notes that fit with the chords being played. Equally as important was staying connected to the rhythm of the song, inventing new melodies in rhythm, playing off of the rhythm of the song.

Chromaticism was (and is) used in this style of playing as a way to travel from one note to another, adding additional rhythmic notes on the way. The fact that many of these notes do not match the chord being played doesn’t matter. If you are on the way from one chord tone to another, the passing notes you play in between don’t bother the listener at all, in fact they add a nice momentary dissonance that has a fun effect, letting the improviser create a denser, or busier rhythm that makes a simple change of notes cover more rhythmic time.

The improvisational spirit of jazz has been carried beyond the boundaries of that style of music, and we can apply these ideas to any style that we may be playing. You can apply chromatic lines into your soloing to capture some of that exciting energy. You can use them to create rhythms that will enhance the diatonic ideas that you are used to playing, and it can bring a fresh new sound to patterns that you already know and play.

Today’s video looks at two particular ways to use this idea when soloing:
1) Connecting scale tones with chromatics
2) Using chromatics to approach specific target notes

Both of these ideas can help you to change the way your soloing sounds, without any real difficulty. It’s pretty easy to just play all the notes in between two scale tones, or to approach a scale or chord tone chromatically. The trick is to do it in a rhythmic cadence that lets you arrive at your destination at the right time.

Practicing chromatic ideas and incorporating them into your playing is a simple yet effective way to come up with new and inspiring ideas for your soloing. I hope this video and it’s practice exercises help you to explore this in more detail, and inspire some new ways of playing for you.

*Side note* The 12 tone system stands in contrast to other systems of music which use different measurements including some quarter tones, most notable for me is Indian classical music. I’ve always been intrigued by these “in between” notes of Indian music and other world musics. We can approximate some of these sounds on guitar using bending or when playing with a slide.