I arranged the melody of Blue Bossa the way you would play it in a jazz
trio by adding chords to the melody. When you play in a combo without a
piano or another guitar player, it’s a good idea to harmonize your
melodies.
I play the theme with a plectrum. The chords I pluck with my plectrum and
fingers combined (the plectrum hits the lowest string).
Backing Track
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BLUE BOSSA – BACKING TRACK VIDEO (130 BPM)
To practice improvising over Blue Bossa, you can use the following
“Karaoke-style” backing track video, made with Band in a Box.
Here are the chords and the scales you can use to solo over the chord
changes:
Bars 1-8 and 3-16
On these parts, you use the Aeolian (aka natural minor) scale. The
Aeolian scale is one of the guitar modes.
You can also use the C minor pentatonic scale or the C minor blues
scale here.
As a variation, you can make bar 2 into a C dominant 7th chord, by
playing the F harmonic minor scale.
Bars 6, 14 and 16
On the G7b9, you can use the C harmonic minor scale (=G Phrygian
dominant scale) or the G altered scale.
Bars 9-12
Here the chord progression modulates to Db major. It is a regular II V I
progression, and you can play the Db major scale (=Db Ionian mode)
here.
Arpeggios are a very important tool for jazz musicians because they
enable you to mirror the harmony of a tune in your solo, something that’s
harder to achieve with scales.
The best way to learn arpeggios is:
Memorize the shapes for all chord types in all positions.
Play them over chord changes in one position without stopping (in
continuous 8th notes). This forces you to come out of your comfort zone
because you’ll end up in places on the guitar neck that you’re not very
familiar with.
Do this in all positions.
The following arpeggio study over Blue Bossa will help you on your way. I
play the arpeggios continuously up and down the strings and stay in one
position.
Cm7
Fm7
Dm7b5
G7
Ebm7
Ab7
Dbmaj7
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BLUE BOSSA ARPEGGIOS 2
In study 2 we add the first extension to every chord (the 9) by using chord
substitutions.
1. You know that chords are built by stacking triads. For example, a Cmaj7
chord consists of these notes: C E G B
2. Instead of stopping at the 7, we can add more thirds. In the case of
Cmaj7, we can add a third on top of the B, the D.
3. The result is a Cmaj9: C E G B D
4. Now we omit the root of that chord. These notes are left: E G B D, the
notes of Em7.
5. Instead of playing a Cmaj7 arpeggio over Cmaj7, we will now play an
Em7 arpeggio over Cmaj7.
Em7 Arpeggio E G B
Cm7: Ebmaj7
Fm7: Abmaj7
G7: Bdim7
Ebm7: Gbmaj7
Ab7: Cm7b5
Dbmaj7: Fm7
Listen & Play Along
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BLUE BOSSA GUITAR CHORDS
One of the most common non-swing rhythms that jazz guitarists explore
when learning how to comp over tunes is the bossa nova groove. While
many of us learn to play Brazilian Jazz tunes in our practice routine,
learning how to pay an authentic bossa or samba groove on the guitar
can be tricky, especially for those players who didn’t grow up in Brazil.
Notice that bossa nova chord patterns always have the following
specifics:
The bass notes come on the beat and are played with the thumb.
Usually, the root note is alternated with the 5th (or a b5 in the case of
m7b5 chords) in the bass.
The top voices of the chord are syncopated (syncopation = accenting a
normally weak beat).
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Blue Bossa Chord Study 2
Here is a similar chord study, but this time on electric guitar, without the
alternating bass pattern and some variations added in.