This process will
help you visualize
and understand
these techniques,
and after a while
you should be
able to do more
of this on the
fly. Spontaneous
embellishment
and reharmoniza-
tion is the mark
of a deep musician.
Fig. 3 Fig. 3
44 &
G‹ 7
oe
oeoeoe b
™
™™™
oe
oeoeoej Ó
A¨ 13
oe
oeoeoe b
b™
™™™
oe
oeoeoej Ó
G‹ 7
oe
oeoeoe b
™
™™™
oe
oeoeoej Ó
D¨ 9
oeoeoeoe bb ™™™™
oeoeoeoej Ó
˙
&
oeoeoeoe b b ™™™™
3
3
3
3
oeoeoeoej Ó
A¨ 13
4
4
5
6
oe
oeoeoe b
b™
™™™
4
4
5
6
oe
oeoeoej Ó
G‹ 7
3
3
3
3
oe
oeoeoe b
™
™™™
3
3
3
3
4
3
4
4
4
3
4
4
oe
oeoeoej Ó
oe
oeoeoe b
™
™™™
oe
oeoeoej Ó
3
1
3
3
3
1
3
3
A¨ 13
4
4
5
6
oe
oeoeoe b
b™
™™™
4
4
5
6
G‹ 7
3
3
3
3
oe
oeoeoe b
™
™™™
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
&
E¨ 9
oeoeoeoe bb ™™™™
oeoeoeoeJ Ó
oe
oeoeoej Ó
oe
oeoeoej Ó
A¨ 13
3
3
3
3
oe
oeoeoe b
b™
™™™
oe
oeoeoej Ó
6
5
6
6
6
5
6
6
4
4
5
6
4
4
5
6
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
5
6
4
4
5
6
In Fig. 3 I have simply used the previous
example and used tritone substitutions for
each dominant chord. Notice my tritone
subs are also embellished. I’ve also added
a simple “Charleston” rhythm to get away
from the four-to-the-bar feel.
The final option is to increase the dissonance and voice-leading between chords
by adding even more embellishments and
alterations, and using different voicings.
In Fig. 4, we can use chords that contain
9ths, 11ths, 13ths and any alterations of
the 5th and 9th. I’ve also added some more
interactive rhythms to this example.
At this point, you can hopefully see that
you can backcycle as much as you want—as
long as it sounds good. It definitely helps to
write several of these types of progressions
out by hand. This process will help you
visualize and understand these techniques,
and after a while you should be able to do
more of this on the fly. Spontaneous embellishment and reharmonization is the mark
of a deep musician.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
™ ™
44 &
G‹ 7
oeoeoeoe b ™™™™
oeoeoeoeJ OE
A¨ 13
‰
oe
oeoeoe b
b
j
w
www
G‹ 7
oeoeoeoe b ™™™™
oeoeoeoeJ OE
D¨ 13
‰
oeoeoeoe bb bJ ˙˙˙˙
D¨ 9
OE oeoeoeoe bb
™
™ ˙
33
3
5
3
3
3
5
A¨ 13
4
4
5
6
˙˙˙˙ b b ™™™™
3
3
3
5
3
3
3
5
3
4
4
6
4
3
4
4
&
C‹ 9
˙˙˙˙ b b
˙˙˙˙
oeoeoeoe b
G‹% oeoeoeoe b ™™™™
oeoeoeoeJ OE
F13
‰
oeoeoeoe bJ ˙˙˙˙
B¨ 13
‰
oeoeoeoe b ™™™™
3
1
3
3
3
1
3
3
10
11
11
13
10
11
11
11
8
9
10
10
8
9
10
10
7
8
8
10
6
7
8
8
&
A7[äÁ] oeoeoeoe b# ™™™™ oeoeoeoe #J Ó
A¨ 13 oeoeoeoe bb oeoeoeoe
G‹ 9 oeoeoeoe ‰ oeoeoeoe bJ ww w w
A7(#5)
oeoeoeoe ™™™™
A¨ 13 oeoeoeoe bnbJ OE
™™
G‹ 9
‰
oeoeoeoe bJ
5
6
6
6
5
6
6
6
4
5
6
6
4
5
6
6
3
3
3
5
5
6
6
5
4
5
6
6
™
™
33
3
