The mission - The desire to paint a musical picture through a linearly developed musical phase has long been a goal of mine. The ability of the musician to play a solo line that is indicative of underlying chord changes is fascinating to listen to and even more fascinating to play. The mission of this Web site is to provide a workable, procedural method of a way to learn how to improvise through chord changes. Though these techniques will work for any instrument, my involvement in the guitar for the past 40 years will inflect a guitarist's perspective in the musical examples.

The creation of the "blues etude"- In 1990, while teaching one particular private guitar lesson at The Swarthmore Music Store in Swarthmore, PA, I began writing a short musical excerpt that sounded like an F blues, but had a methodical, etude like flavor. What eventually transpired during that 1/2 hour lesson was the creation of a 12 measure study, or etude, that focused on key notes of chords that make up an F blues. The crucial notes that hinted at the chord would occur on the first and third beat of the measure. Notes other than than ones that land on the first and third beat of the measure, would be drawn from various sources:

• Notes that "just sound correct" - Why do they sound correct? Use your "ear" above anything else!
• Notes that are taken from a particular scale - Ok, what scale(s)?
• Chromatic passing notes to connect short phrases - How, when, and where are the chromatic notes played?

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©2005 Tony Ventura