Upper Extension Musical Improvisation Exercises

             Before we can improvise using the chord tones of various seventh chords with upper extensions, we must know those chord tones.  My previously posted video entitled Learning Music With Ray: Chord Color Tones helps to explain the various types (qualities) of upper extensions that can be added to seventh chords.  To improvise using these pitches, we must obtain the ability to rapidly recall and perform these pitches at will.  The following exercises are designed to help achieve that ability. 

There is a connection between the scales and the chords that we use in musical improvisation.  To demonstrate this connection, let’s use a Cmaj7 chord as an example.  If we continue to stack diatonic thirds beyond the seventh of this chord we get the pitches D (the 9^th), F (the 11^th) and A (the 13^th).  If we lower these three pitches one octave, and insert them between the chord tones of the Cmaj7 chord we end up with a C major scale.  In this same fashion, we can used the upper extensions of most seventh chords to create scales that can be used for musical improvisation.

However, only certain upper extension are applied to various seventh chord when performing in most common musical styles.  For major seventh chords, the most common upper extensions are the natural 9^th and the # 11^th.  In addition the 6^th can be used in place of the 7^th.  Since the upper extensions commonly used for minor seventh and dominant seventh chords differ from this, I will display exercises that cover each of these qualities of chords.

 

In these first three exercises, the pitches of each major 9^th chord are arpeggiated in three different ways.  The first exercise arpegiates the chord up and back down by starting on the root.  Every key is covered by ascending through the keys in half-step increments.  The next exercise arpegiates down and up the chord starting on the root.  This time we cycle through the keys by descending chromatically.  The third exercise arpegiates up and back down starting on the root, just like the first exercise.  However, now we cycle through the chords by descending through the circle of fifths. 

These three examples have only displayed exercises that arpeggiate the major 9^th chord.  We have two other types of major seventh upper extensions to cover in this lesson in addition to the minor and dominant seventh chords.  For this reason, we will limit the rest of the example to exercises that ascend chromatically through the keys and arpeggiate the chord starting on the root.  Please realize that there are many other applications of exercises that can be created.  My previous lessons on triad and seventh chord exercises help to provide an example of some additional applications.   Please apply those ideas to your personal practice of upper extension exercises as well.

The next two exercises arpeggiate the pitches of the major 9(#11) chord and the major 7 chord where the 6^th is a substitution for the 7^th.  Each seventh chord is arpeggiated up and back down by starting on the root.  Every key is covered by ascending through the keys in half-step increments. 

The next group of exercises arpeggiate the pitches of various minor seventh chords with upper extensions.  The three most common upper extension applications for minor seventh chords are the natural 9^th, the natural 11^th and the 6^th as a substitute for the 7^th.  Each seventh chord is arpeggiated up and back down by starting on the root.  Every key is covered by ascending through the keys in half-step increments. 

The next group of exercises arpeggiate the pitches of various dominant seventh chords with upper extensions.  The six most common upper extension applications for dominant seventh chords are the natural 9^th, the flat 9^th, the raised 9^th, the raised 11^th, the flat 13^th and the natural 13^th.  Each seventh chord is arpeggiated up and back down by starting on the root.  Every key is covered by ascending through the keys in half-step increments. 

For the dominant 13 chord, I also demonstrate an exercise here in which the 5^th of the chord is omitted.  In this example, the 13^th is substituted in the area of the arpeggio where the 5^th would normally be located.  This helps to avoid the awkward jump and extended range found in the previous exercise. 

In this exercise, a simple pattern is created by arpeggiating through the 2-5-1 progression.  The exercise arpeggiates up the ii9 chord, starting on the third.  It then arpegiates down the V13 chord starting on the 13^th.  This pitch is tied over from the previous chord since it is a common tone of both chords (13^th of the V and the 9^th of the ii).  Finally, it arpeggiates back up the I maj9 chord starting on the third.  This exercises cycles through all the keys by converting the root of the I chord at the end of the progression into a ii9 chord for the next progression.  This pattern will cycle through 6 of the 12 possible keys.  The cycle can be repeated with a starting key that is half a step higher in order to cover the other 6 possible keys. 

The musician should start with a simple applications like this, and then create more complex arpeggiated patterns.  The ultimate application is to create a free form musical improvisation that only utilizes the pitches of each seventh chord, and outlines the chord changes of the progression.

The final way to practice chord tone based musical improvisation with the use of seventh chords with upper extensions is to apply the above exercises to the chord structure of an actual song that contains these types of chords.  For example, we could arpeggiate each chord of the song up and then down starting on the root.  Instead of applying a half step or circle of 5ths progression to change chords, we merely apply the exercise to the chord changes of the song.  When the beat duration of a given chord limits the amount of material that can be played, we modify the arpeggio pattern (example: only go up the arpeggio instead of going up and down). 

             In this Learning Music With Ray video I demonstrate various upper extension chord exercises that can be used to develop the rapid recall of the pitches of any seventh chord with upper extensions for use in musical improvisation. Each exercise is demonstrated with major seventh, minor seventh and dominant seventh chords. I explain which upper extensions are common to each of these types of seventh chords. Then I apply the theory behind these exercises to create a 2-5-1 arpeggio exercise. Finally, I apply the same exercises to the chords of a song.