Finding the sweet notes

In video lesson 24 of Learn Jazz Piano  I focus on how songwriters employ ‘sweet notes’ to add that spine tingling effect to their melody. I then relate this to jazz improvisation and show you how to employ this technique of finding the sweet notes in your solos. Using these well-chosen notes is a good way to anchor your solo, reflect the original song and help the listener follow your improvisation.

Here’s an extract from chapter 10 of my eBook ‘How To Solo’, where I deal with this essential topic of finding the sweet notes. To purchase the book follow this link.

Chapter 10

Here are two tunes that target sweet notes to great effect.

In  the first eight bars of Victor Young’s Beautiful Love each sweet note occurs on beat 1 and above the chord.

fig125 finding the sweet notes.

The table below describes the function of each boxed note in relation to its chord.

NoteChordFunction
AEm7(b5)4
FA7(#5)#5
FDm73
CGm74
AC76
AFmaj73

Blue In Green, credited to Miles Davis but probably composed by Bill Evans, has a cyclical structure that never seems to resolve. I recommend that you first revisit this tune by listening to track 3 of the Miles Davis album: Kind Of Blue.

In the following example, rather than writing out the complete melody, I’ve illustrated just the target notes, plus a suggested left-hand accompaniment. Note that these left hand voicings are rootless.

blue in green targets+ rootless. Finding the sweet notes.
  • Table showing sweet notes
BarNoteChordFunction
1EGm66
2CA7#9
3ADm75
3GG71
4FCm74
4DF76
5EBbmaj7(b5)b5
6CA7#9
7GDm74
8CE7#5
9BAm79
10FDm73

Finding the sweet notes and a whole lot more can be found in my video course.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *