PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE FOR AN IN DEPTH EXPLANATION TO ALL THAT IS DETAILED BELOW.
This blog deals with very simple guitar fingering for playing through “Giant Steps” chord changes. Everything that I employ in this lesson consists of very simple guitar fingerings that most “Rock Guitar Players” or “Beginners of Jazz/Fusion Guitar” styles will already know or be aware of. For instance the A minor Pentatonic scale/shape.
THE RHYTHMIC SIDE OF THINGS:
For a beginner it is essential to count time whilst playing 8th note lines through the changes.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
This way you will know where you are in the bar and what chord you are playing over.
To begin with I use the B major pentatonic scale. Next, I employ a simple 2 finger pentatonic scale over D7 and GMaj7. I then play the second part of it [same fingering] up a semitone and land on the note D for the EbMaj7 chord, counting 1 2 3 4 in preparation for the next chord.
For the first three chords I play what could be called “A Dorian Pentatonic”. But, I am not really thinking in that way. [I am just adding the F# note for the 3rd of D7]. This in turn creates a very simple and “Fluid” guitar fingering that is very common to most guitar players and hence easy to do.
On the F#7 chord I play an F#7 arpeggio that then resolves into an Eb minor arpeggio for the BMaj7 chord.
For then next part I again employ a simple Pentatonic to get through the first three chords. This Bb minor leaning works well though because over the Bb7 chord it gives us the “Blue note”. Finally we use our A Dorian Pentatonic again to resolve to GMaj7 for our last three chords.
Here I just use C#m pentatonic and F# Pentatonic to land on the D# to nail the change to the BMaj7 chord. Very simple and very common guitar fingering.
For the last part of this I employ an Fm9 arpeggio and a C minor pentatonic scale that then goes up a semitone and repeats our C#m7 F#7 to Bmaj7 phrase. But, this time we land on an F# for the 5th of BMaj7.
PDF: Whole Guitar Line:
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Giant Steps Backing Trackhttps://jazzimproviser.com/2021/09/17/giant-steps-coltrane-play-along-backing-track-and-chart/