Preface: Treatment of the Dominant Chord Throughout "Have You Met Miss Jones?"

Most recently I have been working on employing or “spinning” several different sounds over the same one chord. There are several strategies, methods, and resources to put into practice and draw upon. Many of my favorite more modern players choose to use a variety of sounds and non-traditional harmonic vocabulary when improvising especially when soloing over a single chord or sonority for an extended period of time. When soloing on a tune like “Impressions (John Coltrane) where there are two chords each for eight measures or more, I would often feel inhibited when using one scale or sound on each chord. When I hear people like Michael Brecker and Chris Potter (to name a few) play over similar chord and song structures I notice they rarely ever (if at all) use one soundscape or scale source during their entire solo. This has led me to explore some of the choices my favorite players are making as well as what resonates with me as a player and listener. This following series of entries is a commentary on what I am working on. Much of the language used is based on the understanding that the reader has a thorough knowledge of music theory and jazz nomenclature as well as the basics of how to improvise.