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“Outside” on the Blues

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5 Ways to Play “Outside” on the Blues
By Josiah Boornazian October 11, 2017  9488  1

The 12-bar blues is one of the most simple, short, and iconic standard jazz forms. As
jazz musicians, we all are used to playing blues tunes frequently, which can be both a
blessing and a curse. With so many blues choruses to improvise over, it’s easy to nd
yourself stuck in a rut playing the same types of ideas over and over and again. It’s
especially easy to feel boxed in when playing a blues since the form is relatively short,
simple, and repetitive.

On the other hand, the very fact that the blues is so simple, repetitive, and easy to hear
and follow harmonically can actually be viewed as a liberating circumstance. The blues
form is really open-ended and subject to so many variations and alterations, so you can
actually get away with playing a lot of different ideas over the blues that are “outside of
the box.”

A question I often ponder is, how do I play “outside” the changes – i.e. inject some ear-
grabbing chromaticism into a solo, without making my ideas sound just plain “wrong” or

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10/6/2020 5 Ways to Play “Outside” on the Blues - Learn Jazz Standards

“random.” How can I play “out” with The

logic,LJS
clarity, andCircle
Inner musicaliseffectiveness
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sound like I’m lost? Want  to take you jazz playing to
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One way to attack this problem is tostandard study,
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your “out” ideas. A simple
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and direct way to create clarity, logic, and a sense of inevitability while playing “outside”
the typical blues harmonic framework is to use chord substitutions.
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By substituting chord progressions that have a powerful sense of logic, structure, and
forward momentum, your “wrong” notes don’t sound wrong even though you’re playing
“outside” the key center, because the power of sonic inevitability takes over and lets the
listener’s ear override the “wrongness” of temporary dissonance if the dissonant
substitution pattern is resolved convincingly.

So, to get your creative juices owing, here are 5 examples of classic chord
substitutions over a Bb blues. These have some super clear melodic patterns to practice
that will help you warp your ears and break out of the standard blues chord
progression, all while improvising over this classic jazz form (they’re notated below):

1. The “Dizzy” maneuver for the first 4 bars of the blues. I made up this name, because it
sounds like the sort of thing Dizzy Gillespie might do and because the circus-like
cycling of dissonant dominant 7th chords can feel like a sort of musical merry-go-round.
Start one half-step above the tonic key and follow the cycle of ascending 4ths
(descending 5ths) using all dominant 7th chords, 2 beats per chord. Also feel free to
turn these chords into altered chords or dominant 7 (#11) chords for even more variety.

2. “Giant Steps” substitution: Superimpose the cyclic harmonic pattern from John

Coltrane’s Giant Steps over the first 4 bars of the blues (the root movement is up a
minor 3rd, up a perfect 4th).

3. Saturate your blues with melodic minor modes (see my post on modes of the melodic
minor for a primer for this exercise).

4. Saturate your blues with diminished scales.

5. Saturate your blues with one bar 2-5’s and “side-step” half step approach 2-5’s (treat
the dominant 7th chords as one bar 2-5’s and then approach them all from a half-step
above).

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I hope this inspires you to explore some of the endless possibilities for chord
substitutions over the blues. Happy practicing!

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Josiah Boornazian
https://www.josiahboornazian.com

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10/6/2020 5 Ways to Play “Outside” on the Blues - Learn Jazz Standards
Josiah Boornazian is a saxophonist, composer, educator, and scholar primarily active in
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Brownsville, New York City, Miami, and California. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Jazz
and Applied Saxophone Want  to take
at the University you
of Texas Riojazz
Grandeplaying to information,
Valley. For more
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please visit: https://www.josiahboornazian.com.

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