Passing notes - 1, 'The Bebop Scale' Major 7th on dominant 7th chords

A 'passing note' is a note which connects two 'more important' notes together. It could be 'within key' (or 'diatonic'), or it could be chromatic ('alien' or 'non-diatonic') to the rest of the chord/scale. Chromatic passing notes are our main concern. They introduce an element of surprise into the improvised line and are thus desirable to break up what might otherwise become too predictable a phrase. Different chromatic passing notes have different effects. Some will essentially embellish a diatonic line, and help to accent the 'strong' notes, or chord tones. For example, the major 7th note is commonly used as a passing note on a dominant 7th chord. This is very characteristic of bop phrasing. In the example below, we can see that its insertion has placed the chord tones on all the strong beats, as opposed to the same descending line without the passing note (which puts the chord tones on weak beats and resolves the phrase onto the 'avoid' note of the 4th).
C7 F C7 F

& n b
R 7 5 3

b bw R 7 5 3 5

4!!!!

Here are a couple of typical bop phrases illustrating the use of this passing note:

& n b
Warm up exercise for Dominant 7 passing note

C7

C7

F n b

This combines the descending mixolydian scale, maj7th passing note, and ascending triad. Do this over the whole range of the instrument. Two keys are given as an example.

& n b

C7

n b

b n b n b &

# b # # n & b # n # n
D7

# # n b n # b n # &