HOW TO PREPARE THE TARGET NOTE

 

 

Introduction

I have already proposed you the concept of  the "tripartite division of the phrase": a somewhat bombastic and pretentious label which means nothing more than approaching a line by breaking it down into its three key elements: beginning, development and conclusion.

We also deeply discussed the bebop concept of "chord tones on downbeats" and we called these chord tones on downbeats "target notes"; now that we have these concepts crystal clear in our minds, we can start to discuss how we can make he better use of them, for example through the device - quite broad indeed - of preparation.

Let's make a thing very clear: I am convinced that starting our solo directly with the target note can a completely valid strategy, indeed it is certainly the simplest and most direct way to begin a solo, especially if this strategy is used in the context of "chord tones improvisation" or something based on riffs - or even simple note repetition a la C Jam Blues.

So, it is definitely not mandatory to start the phrase with a preparation followed by the target note, you can very well start immediately with the unprepared target note, but i on the other hand it is evident and quite obvious that if we start every phrase in this way, we would run the risk of sounding very soon rather boring and simplistic.

The question is: what is this famous "preparation"? It is simply a small group of notes (or even a single note) that precede the target note creating a tension (strong or weak, diatonic or chromatic, simple or complex) of which the target note constitutes the resolution.

The note one semitone below the target note, or one semitone above, or one tone above or below, or two notes one above and one below the target note (diatonic or chromatic notes) or even a set of notes arranged in various ways that create a tension, a movement that is resolved precisely when, on the strong beat, the target note appears: this is what preparation is.

As someone wisely said, it is a bit like throwing a ball into a conical hole: initially it will bounce to the right and the left, or it will spin more and more slowly on the edge but will still end up falling to the bottom of the hole.

You can approach and study the dozens of possible preparations in a systematic way, creating them at the table, playing them and then discarding the ones you don't like; you can listen to the solos of your favorite musicians and draw preparations from them in abundance; you can find them by ear - but what matters is that the preparation always resolves, without defect, on a target note played on the downbeat (at least for the moment – ​​soon we will learn to let some tensions fall on the strong beat too, and to “postpone” the resolution to the next downbeat or even to the upbeat).

Pick-up notes

The pick up is a note placed a semitone or a tone above or below the target note.

Example: diatonic ascending pick-up

Example: chromatic ascending pick-up

 

Example: line starting with target note prepared by pick-up

 

Chromatic motif 

Often the target note is prepared with a chromatic motif – descending or ascending – of three or four notes. 

Example: descending chromatic motif of four notes

 

Example: ascending four-note chromatic motif (bluesy) 

 

Enclosures 

A little foreword here: enclosures have been abused by modern jazz didactic, resulting in improvisers playing balls of chromaticism coiled up on themselves looking more like Egyptian hieroglyphics than airy, searing musical lines where the melodic thrust is supported by sparse, balanced enclosures used judiciously like spices in a cooking recipe - and not as the main ingredients.

Having said that, the enclosure is the idea of surrounding the target note with two or more notes that “circle” it – I have always thought of a python strangling its prey – creating a sense of tension that makes the moment in which the target note resolves the harmonic-rhythmic expectation even more gratifying. 

The target note can be surrounded by two notes – one above and one below, both diatonic, both chromatic, the upper chromatic and the lower diatonic or vice versa; or by three, four or five notes: the important thing is the control of the rhythm, that is, building this device so that the resolution on the target note occurs on the downbeat (at least for now). 

Let's start with the simple enclosure, that is, one above and one below that “surround” the target note.

 

Notice that the bottom note here is chromatic and the top one is diatonic – but that doesn’t stop us from exploring other combinations and seeing if we like them. Explore, explore, explore! Keep what we like and throw the rest away.

 

By gradually adding further notes above or below, we will obtain increasingly complex enclosures.

 Example: Roy Hargrove's solo on But not for me

 

Example:other notes in a different order 

 

Example: further combinations

 

And now a nice quote from Sandoval showing masterful utilization of the enclosure device:

Note that enclosures are also used to introduce dissonant notes (diatonic or chromatic) on downbeats: this is what we call displacement – it will be the topic of a future post.

Appendix: little exercises 

Inferior ascendant pick-up

Descendant inferior pick-up

Superior descendant pick-up

Pick-up with displacement

Chromatic motif

 

 Enclosures

NB: also practice all types of chords (maj7, m7, m7b5, 7, dim) and different types of combinations, in all keys – this applies to all exercises in this paragraph.