Chromatic Approach Notes

Approach notes are a common way to add flavor, movement, and emotion to a melodic passage or phrase, the most basic of which is the chromatic approach. Below you can find several variations of the chromatic approach. First, approaching from below the target note, C in this case, then from above. Lastly we have several approaches into a C Major 7 arpeggio to illustrate the different sounds in context. For an even more interesting sound, move your approaches up an octave from the target note, this is often called “octave displacement” a technique I plan to elaborate on further in another post! When you practice, try to approach multiple notes in an arpeggio or scale to create riffs and phrases, this is a large part of jazz and blues.

I used A as the target notes in the video but it works just the same with C or any other note you choose!

Thank you for reading!

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Scale Tone Approach Notes