Cycles Over Blues and Rhythm Changes

August 23, 2008

Filed under: Practice — M.Warnock @ 10:24 am

Hi Everyone,
   I am always asked by my students how to spice up a blues or rhythm changes without sounding
totally out or using altered modes or scales.  One of the best ways, and oldest ways, to add some
cool sounds to your blues or RC is to apply the cycle of fifths to the progression. 

1) Blues 

There are two ways in which you can easily apply the cycle to a blues chords progression, both
occurring in the first four bars of the tune.

 Here is the first four bars of a blues in F: 

F7/Bb7/F7/F7 resolving to Bb7 in bar 5. 

Here’s the first cycle, start on the V7 chord of F, so C7.

 C7 F7/ Bb7 Eb7/ Ab7 Db7/ Gb7 B7/ then the B7 resolves down a semi-tone to the Bb7 in bar 5  

The next cycle begins on the bII7 of F, so Gb7: 

Gb7 B7/ E7 A7/ D7 G7/ C7 F7/ with the F7 resolving down a fifth to Bb7 in bar five.  

Both cycles can be used with comping or blowing.  Remember that if you’re going to use this as
a blowing tool that you should use a very simple chord outline structure to do so, for example
triads, four note arpeggios, 1235, 5321 etc. 

2) Rhythm Changes 

This cycles substitution comes from Art Tatum and are commonly referred to as “Tatum’s”
changes.  

Here are the first four bars of a rhythm changes: 

Bbmaj7 G7/ Cm7 F7/ Dm7 G7/ Cm7 F7/ 

Then in the original changes, not the real book changes, the F7 resolves to Bbmaj7 in bar five.
Here are the original changes from bars 5-8:

Bbmaj7/ Bb7/ Ebmaj7/ Cm7 F7/ 

Now here’s the cycle in the first four bars starting on the bV7 of the key, Gb7: 

Gb7 B7/ E7 A7/ D7 G7/ C7 F7/ with the F7 resolving down a fifth to the Bbmaj7 in bar five: 

We can also do the same cycle but start it on the C7 chord like this: 

C7 F7/ Bb7 Eb7/ Ab7 Db7/ Gb7 B7/ with the B7 resolving down a semi-tone down to Bbmaj7 in
bar five. 

Try adding these cycles to your blues and rhythm changes playing to take your soloing and
comping to the next level. 

Enjoy! 

Matt