Baby Elephant Walk – Soloing Info Sheet

Dominant 7th chords are also known as “major/minor 7th chords” because they use a major triad,
with a minor 7th.

A major triad is built up with a ROOT, a major THIRD and a perfect FIFTH. To make this into a
dominant 7th chords, we must add a minor SEVENTH.

It is important that you remember that the third is major, the fifth is perfect and the seventh is
minor, otherwise you may accidentally build a chord that has a different sound than what we are
going for.

Baby Elephant Walk is in the key of CONCERT B flat Major.

For C instruments (flute, oboe, bassoon, trombone, euphonium/baritone, tuba, string bass,
mallet percussion), the dominant 7th chords used in the Solo Section (starting at bar 35) are:

E♭7 x2 bars, B♭7 x2 bars, F7, E♭7, B♭7 x2 bars

Spelled out, these chords contain the following pitches, also known as “safe notes”:

E♭7 – E♭ G B♭ D♭; B♭7 – B♭ D F A♭; F7 – F A C E♭

For B flat instruments (clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, trumpet), the dominant 7th
chords used in the Solo Section (starting at bar 35) are:

F7 x2 bars, C7 x2 bars, G7, F7, C7 x2 bars

Spelled out, these chords contain the following pitches, also known as “safe notes”:

F7 – F A C E♭; C7 – C E G B♭; G7 – G B D F

For F instruments (French horn), the dominant 7th chords used in the Solo Section (starting at
bar 35) are:

B♭7 x2 bars, F7 x2 bars, C7, B♭7, F7 x2 bars

Spelled out, these chords contain the following pitches, also known as “safe notes”:

Bb7 – Bb D F A♭; F7 – F A C E♭; C7 – C E G B♭

These notes are safe, because in the bars with these chords you could solo on any of them and
they won’t sound overly dissonant (crunchy) or “wrong.” These pitches are also known as
“chord tones.”

Pitches outside of these chords are known as non-chord tones.

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Baby Elephant Walk – Soloing Info Sheet

The minor blues scale is a good scale to know for soloing because it sounds versatile. It can be
used to solo over major and minor triads, major and minor 7th chords and dominant 7th chords.

If we use the blues scale starting on the tonic (or first note of the scale of the key the piece is in –
in this case, concert Bb), we can solo with the same notes through the entire solo section.

The minor blues scale works off of an altered Major diatonic scale (the major scales you already
know).
The concert major scale for Baby Elephant Walk is:

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
C Instruments: B♭ C D E♭ F G A B♭
Bb Instruments: C D E F G A B C
F Instruments: F G A B♭ C D E F

If we use the concert Bb minor blues scale the pitches are:

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
1 ♭3 4 ♭5 ♮5 ♭7 1
C Instruments: B♭ D♭ E♭ F♭/E♮ F♮ A♭ B♭
Bb Instruments: C E♭ F G♭ G♮ B♭ C
F Instruments: F A♭ B♭ C♭/B♮ C♮ E♭ F

The pitches in the minor blues scale, though they contain some non-chord tones or dissonant
notes, are all relatively safe bets. You could use this minor blues scale through the entire solo
section (bar 35-42) and your solo should sound good!

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Baby Elephant Walk – Soloing Info Sheet

We can also use the major blues scale to solo over specific chords. This scale is best when used
to solo over major 7th chords or dominant 7th chords.

The major blues scale also works off of an altered Major diatonic scale.

We can use the concert Bb major blues scale to solo over the B♭7 chord (bars 37-38, 40):

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
1 2 ♭3 ♮3 5 6 1
C Instruments: B♭ C D♭ D♮ F G B♭
Bb Instruments: C D E♭ E♮ G A C
F Instruments: F G A♭ A♮ C D F

We can use the concert Eb major blues scale to solo over the B♭7 chord (bars 35-36, 41-42):

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
1 2 ♭3 ♮3 5 6 1
C Instruments: E♭ F G♭ G♮ B♭ C E♭
Bb Instruments: F G A♭ A♮ C D F
F Instruments: B♭ C D♭ D♮ F G B♭

And we can use the concert F major blues scale to solo over the B♭7 chord (bar 39):

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
1 2 ♭3 ♮3 5 6 1v
C Instruments: F G A♭ A♮ C D F
Bb Instruments: G A B♭ B♮ D E G
F Instruments: C D E♭ E♮ G A C