Practical Use of Guide Tones
There are several ways in which guide tones are commonly used. They can be played by two or more players as a horn section backing a soloist or vocalist.
They can also be used by a single player to create a counter line while the melody is being played, or they can be used as a guide to the smoothest way through a progression when improvising. When using the guide tones as a basis for an improvised line, the soloist often plays a guide tone right on each chord change. The following example shows two guide tone lines for 2 5 1 progressions. Notice how the 3rd of one chord becomes the 7th of the next chord and vice versa. In the first half, the 7th is above the 3rd, while in the second half, they are reversed. The choice of which note is on top is up to the players, depending on the musical context.
Guide tones are extremely useful when writing a song arrangement, as they make for economical writing. E..g. the bass will usually play the root of a chord, so there is no need for a two part horn section to repeat that note. The 5th doesn’t indicate major, minor or dominant chord quality, so it can also be left out. The horn players can play the essential notes only, which are the 3rd and the 7th. Of course, the notes chosen depend on the musical context, as other group members (e.g. keyboard or guitar) may already have these notes allocated to their part, and in some situations a busier unison or octave line may be more effective than guide tones.
The following example is a two part Funk line using the guide tones of the chords C7 (E and Bb), F7 (Eb and A), and G7 (F and B). These are chords 2, 4 and 5 in the key of C played as dominants – as in a Blues. The part is created by simply playing the guide tones and adding a rhythm which works in the musical context.
An effective way of varying a guide tone based part (or a full chord) is to approach it from a semitone below or to deviate from the chord temporarily by a semitone in either direction before returning to the chord tones. Here is an example based on the previous part.
As mentioned earlier, guide tones can also be used as a framework for improvisation. The following example shows how this can be done over a 2 5 1 progression. The guide tones are played right on the point of each chord change, with notes from the appropriate mode being used as the other notes over each chord. Write out the two lines of guide tones for this progression and then analyze the line against them. Then memorize both this line and the basic guide tone lines and transpose them to every other key. The more familiar you are with the guide tone lines for any progression, the easier you will be able to improvise over it.
