You know a scale for every chord in Autumn Leaves. Maybe you know five for every chord. Then the tune starts, the chords go by very quickly, and you freeze, because you’re trying to decide between all of them in real time.
Quick answer
Pick one scale per chord instead of five, and choose them so they voice lead. Start in the middle of the neck, find the one or two notes that change between chords, like the B flat on C minor 7 becoming the A on F7, and keep dominant chords simple at first.
Here’s how I use jazz scales for bass solos without freezing up: one scale per chord, chosen so the changes come through. I’ll show you on Autumn Leaves and then on Blue Bossa.
One scale per chord
If you know theory and harmony, you know you can use a million scales over each chord. John Coltrane really mastered this. He was using Middle Eastern scales and all these different scales over each chord, and that’s why his sense of harmony was so deep. But the point here isn’t to become John Coltrane. The point is to improvise fluently over a song.
If you have to assess how you’re going to work five different scales in each chord, well, then it becomes kind of a mess, and that’s when you freeze up.
Cole Davis
That’s when you panic in your solo. I’ve definitely felt that way, especially on upright, which is a much bigger and harder instrument. So when it comes to real-time improvisation, I find it more helpful to think of one scale for each chord and just focus on that.
The scales I use are box scales. That’s what I call pentatonic scales that fit in a certain shape on the fingerboard. Pick them so they voice lead from chord to chord, and highlight each change with the one or two notes that make that box scale different from the last one. When people ask what the changes are, they’re really asking what the differences are.
Where should you start a bass solo on the neck?
Down at the bottom of the neck, you’re in bass line range. Soloing down there can be interesting, but it’s too low, unless you’re taking a groove solo where you vary the bass line. What we’re after here is a good melodic solo in the style of a horn player.
So I start in the middle. That’s my anchor, the midway point where everything is accessible. I can go up and I can go down. If I start at the bottom, I can only go up. If I start all the way at the top, I can only go down.
What scales work over Autumn Leaves?
C minor 7. I pick a scale that brings out the 11 (the F) and the 9, balanced by the 5 and the 7, with the third right there if I want it. That turns C minor 7 from a stock, basic sound into a more interesting color palette.
F7. Here I choose a simpler scale on purpose, starting 1, 2 (the 9), 3, because I really want to outline the dominant chord. We outline major and minor chords beautifully, but we don’t outline dominant chords the same way, because they’re harder. A lot of us develop an allergy to dominant chords, and it makes sense: much of the popular music we came up on doesn’t have lots of them. I love Taylor Swift and I love Michael Jackson, but you don’t hear a lot of dominant chords there. So our ears aren’t trained to hear them.
Dominant chords also have way more options. Major and minor chords have the 9, 11 and 13. A dominant chord has the flat 9, the sharp 9 and the regular 9, so that’s three 9s. It has the 13 and the sharp 5 or flat 13. It has the sharp 11 or flat 5, and the natural 11. Some people like to avoid that natural 11, but Charlie Parker uses it all the time, so I think it’s good. That’s a pretty advanced way of saying any note will work on a dominant chord. So at first, keep the scale simple and outline the chord as clearly as you can.
Between C minor 7 and F7, the difference is simple: the B flat on the C minor 7 becomes the A. You always want one difference. You could play the notes the two chords share over both, but that defeats the purpose. You want to outline the changes.
B-flat major 7. This is the Pastorius chord. Jaco loved that sharp 11 sound, and you can especially hear it on Pat Metheny’s album Bright Size Life. So across the 2-5-1, you’ve got somewhat interesting on the C minor, pretty basic on the F7 and super adventurous on the B-flat major 7.
E-flat major 7. Same exact scale as the C minor 7. They’re relative major and relative minor, so the notes take on a different meaning and it sounds different.
A minor 7 flat 5, D7, G minor. The minor 7 flat 5 is dark and mysterious, because you’re not really sure what chord it is. On the D7 I pick something more interesting that outlines the flat 9, then resolve to G minor.
I also choose positions where the other notes are right there if they slip out. That’s the beauty of it: you’re always a half step away from a right note, and you can always resolve. Think about how many wrong notes Charlie Parker or John Coltrane played. The wrong notes actually sound great. If you only played right notes, it wouldn’t sound good.
And that covers the tune. All the chords in the first eight bars of Autumn Leaves repeat throughout, and you get a minor and a major 2-5-1. What more do you need? (If you’d rather walk it first, here’s how I walk Autumn Leaves.)
The same idea on Blue Bossa
Blue Bossa is a great tune by Kenny Dorham, a very underrated trumpet player. It’s also in C minor, and the whole point is still voice leading: scales that outline the changes without playing the same scale over and over, but aren’t so different that they stop sounding cohesive and flowing.
The first chord is C minor and the next is F minor. You’d think it would go to F7 like Autumn Leaves, but it goes to another minor chord. So I lean on the A flat. In a regular C minor chord, that flat 6 isn’t part of the chord. Wayne Shorter uses that note deliberately, but when he does, he writes out C minor 7 flat 6. In F minor, the A flat is the third. That’s the note that differentiates the changes, and it’s always good to find that note.
On the D minor 7 flat 5, I start on the 1, so the D becomes an essential component. Then comes G7. It’s a simple 2-5-1. With only one bar per chord, there’s no time for some crazy scale that works but sounds out. I want it as cohesive and flowing as possible.
Then the tune modulates to D-flat major, which is so opposite from C minor. When a song modulates, make it a modulation. It’s a little annoying when players modulate without modulating. I really hammer that change in, and on the D-flat major 7 I go a little further, to the sharp 11. Play the whole chorus like that and it sounds like one scale and like different scales at the same time, which is the essence of playing changes.
Try this today
- Find the middle. Pick a spot in the middle of the neck where you can go up or down.
- Two chords. Choose one scale for C minor 7 and one for F7, find the note that changes (B flat to A), and improvise on just those two chords.
- Three chords. Add B-flat major 7 with the sharp 11 and play the whole 2-5-1.
- The minor 2-5-1. A minor 7 flat 5, D7 (outline the flat 9), G minor.
- The full chorus. One scale per chord, all the way through.
If getting off the root and off beat one is still the hard part, start with how to solo on electric bass. For a step-by-step soloing course, Jazz Soloing on Electric Bass: From the Beginning takes you from walking a line to soloing through blues, rhythm changes and ii-V-Is.
Put on Autumn Leaves tonight, pick one scale for C minor 7 and one for F7, and make the B flat move to the A.
Go deeper
The Language of Jazz
ii-V-I vocabulary, bebop scales, the modes, shell chords and soloing over standards.
FAQ
What scales should I use for a jazz bass solo?
One per chord, at least when you’re improvising in real time. You can use a million scales over each chord, and John Coltrane did, but if you’re weighing five scales on every chord, that’s when you freeze up. I use box scales, chosen so they voice lead from chord to chord.
What is a box scale on bass?
It’s what I call a pentatonic scale that fits in a certain shape on the fingerboard. You pick one for each chord, and the one or two notes that change from one box scale to the next are what highlight the changes.
Where on the neck should I start a bass solo?
In the middle. Down low is bass line range, and soloing there is usually too low unless you’re taking a groove solo. The middle is an anchor where everything is accessible, so you can go up or down. Start at the bottom and you can only go up. Start at the top and you can only go down.
How do I solo over dominant chords on bass?
Start with a simpler scale and outline the chord as clearly as you can. Dominant chords have way more options than major and minor chords: the flat 9, sharp 9 and regular 9, the sharp 5 or flat 13, the sharp 11 and the natural 11. That’s a pretty advanced way of saying any note will work, so keep it simple at first.
What scales work over Autumn Leaves on bass?
One per chord. On C minor 7, bring out the 11 and the 9. On F7, use a simpler scale that starts 1, 2, 3 to outline the dominant, and let the B flat move to the A. On B-flat major 7, go for the sharp 11. E-flat major 7 takes the same scale as C minor 7, and on D7, outline the flat 9.
