Workshop 66 — Melodic Development Through Guide Tones: Making 3rds and 7ths Sing, Connecting Chords Horizontally, and Building Lines That Explain the Harmony

Workshop 65 asked:

What is my idea, and how does each chord change the way I need to say it?

Now we narrow that idea to the most harmonically informative notes in jazz:

3rds and 7ths.

You have used guide tones since the early ii–V–I workshops, but mostly as a voicing and voice-leading tool.

Now we turn them into melodic material.

The challenge is:

Can you improvise a line so clearly through the changes that the harmony is audible even if nobody plays the roots?

That is one of the strongest tests of harmonic understanding.

The central lesson is:

Roots tell you where the chord is. Guide tones tell you what the chord means.