Gary Burton: How To Play Jazz Ballads

Gary Burton (who has an on-line jazz course from the Berklee School of Music here) has a simple recommendation for playing ballads: embellish the melody, don't play scales. His argument is that ballad melodies are always given a thoughtful treatment by the composer. If you like the ballad, it's unlikely that your improvisation will improve on it very much.

This is the same approach that Wes Montgomery used:

Improvisation on a given melody is a melodic variation of the established melody. When improvising in the style of Wes Montgomery, it is important to retain enough of the notes of the original melody to maintain the feeling of the tune (Lee Garson, Jimmy Stewart and Charles Stewart, 1968 Wes Montgomery Jazz Guitar Method Robbins Music, New York, page 18).

Gary Burton is playing the song For Heaven Sake (a song made famous by Billy Holiday, hear her version here), which Wes Montgomery also played.



This is not the easiest ballad Gary might have chosen for instruction. The melody has many non-scale tones and goes through three key changes. Here is the figured bass:

(F)  ||(V)||   II  V  |  I  VIx  |  II V  |  I  Ix   |
           |   IVm  bIVm  |  III  bIIIm7b5 |  II  V  |   I  ||
          ||   II  V  |  I  VIx  |  II V  |  I       |
           |   Ivm  bIVm  |  III  bIIIm7b5 |  II  V  |   I  ||
(Db)      ||   II  V  |  I  | II  V  | I (bVo  VIIx) |
(Eb)       |   II  VIIx  |  II  V  |  Vm  Ix  | (F) II V  ||
(F)       ||   II  V  |  I  VIx  |  II V  |  I  Ix   |
           |   IVm  bIVm  |  III  bIIIm7b5 |  II  V  |   I (V)  ||

And, here is a nice jam track with chord symbols displayed (there are some minor differences from the figured bass above, but the figured bass shows the repeating II-V-I and linear IVm-bIVm-III-bIII patterns that define the song).



EXERCISES

1. Write out the melody in the key of F by playing along with a recorded version and transcribing if necessary.
2. Study Gary Burton's and Wes Montgomery's solos carefully noticing how the melody is embellished but remains in the improvisations, even if only hinted.
3. Take other well know Jazz Ballads (see the list here that includes jam tracks and chord charts-- available when you choose a song). Use the same approach, first play the melody then elaborate the melody, do not run chord scales).
4. Take well know Bebop or Swing tunes (for example here) and see if you can use the same approach (melody embellishment). Can you use this simpler approach or, as Gary Burton suggests, is it necessary to run chord scales for these tunes? Let your ear be the guide.
5. On For Heaven's Sake try another approach: Play only within the major scales defined by the key changes F-Db-Eb-F. Try starting at different points in each scale and playing that mode. For example, starting on the second note (G-G in the F scale) is the Dorian mode. Starting on the sixth note (D-D in the F scale) is the Aeolian. The name of the mode is not as important as hearing that it will sound different. Personally, I like starting on the seventh (E-E in the F scale) which is the Locrian mode (a diminished sounding scale).
6. Finally, treat the entire song as a modal tune. Construct a scale that uses every note in the tune. Run the scale from D-D using all the non-chordal notes and the Bb in the key of F. How does this sound. Does it work across all the key changes or do you need to be careful?