I'm kind of an info/theory freak, and so I know quite a bit about jazz theory, but one thing I haven't grasped fully is how a jazz musician might choose a scale to play over any given jazz chord.
This is what I understand so far:
You generally have to go chord by chord. Because jazz chords are usually very colorful, a scale that works on one chord won't necessarily work on the following chord in a progression.
I also understand that one of the techniques for figuring out what scales sound good against a chord lies in breaking down a chord.
For example, you break down an Emin b9 chord, and get:
E, G, A#, C#, E, F, G (etc)
and you can take any four of the above notes, figure out what scales they belong to, and then use that scale against the chord.
But.... How would that work for a jazz song with fast chord changes? (For Example, Manha De Carnaval - Black Orpheus - has some very fast chord changes. How would I solo over that with without reverting to just a standard G mixo scale?)
Also, is there a place with a handy dandy reference of what scales sound good against what chord? It'd be pretty awesome if there was a list on the site that I could look up, and be like, "okay, flat nine chord... this scale would sound dark, this scale would sound more exotic," etc?
Any suggestions for chord/scale combos for soloing on the fly? Or better yet, any exercises I can do to get to the point where I can recognize chords being played, and know what kind of scale I want? Some sort of tester would be cool, something along the lines of, "we're going to play this chord for you, and want you to try these 3 different scales against it, so that you can figure out what each sounds like."
So in short, this post is asking for help with jazz soloing, and giving a few suggestions as well. You don't have to respond to the whole post at once, I'd appreciate anyone addressing even one or two of my questions. Thanks all!
~Jbird
