Canadian Musician - September-October 2022 | Page 62

COLUMNS

Playing F Blues - Tonic Dominant Vs . Functional Dominant

By Jocelyn Gould

In the history of recorded jazz music , there is a seemingly endless number of incredible blues solos to listen to . For anyone learning to improvis e , recordings are the greatest resource , as they provide glimpses into the musical approaches of the players we love . Learning to identify the function of the many dominant chords in the blues chord progression is an important step to being able to construct lines while you ’ re improvising on a blues .

Another option is to outline the tritone :
This is one ( of many ) chord progressions for an F Blues .
The next step is to figure out whether a dominant chord is a Tonic Dominant or a Functional Dominant .
In this chord progression , there are two types of Dominant Chords : Tonic Dominant and Functional Dominant .
Tonic Dominant - This is where a dominant chord acts as a I chord . A common scalar approach to tonic dominant chords is to use Mixolydian . Knowing the language that can be used on each type of Dominant Chord , you can create lines on the Blues form .
An example of a line using mixolydian and approach tones :
Functional Dominant - This is where a dominant chord acts as a leading chord into another chord - Common scalar approaches to Functional Dominant chords are A and Tritone Sub .
F Altered ( or G♭ Melodic Minor ):
This is an example of a line using the F Altered Scale :
Juno-winning guitarist Jocelyn Gould has been called “ a leader in the next generation of great mainstream jazz guitarists ” by Howard Paul , CEO of Benedetto Guitars . She has toured internationally as a leader and a side musician with an impressive résumé of groups . Her debut album , Elegant Traveler , won the 2021 Juno Award for Jazz Album of the Year . She is a fulltime professor and head of the guitar department at Humber College in Toronto .
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