Hi Triscuit,
I think for what you want grandpa mojo's site is a good place to start.
In the long run, I am also totally with Will as with the study of Fake Books.
However, I might have a few other ideas for you.
It sounds to me that besides wanting to put a solo in your next compsition, you would like to find some easy progressions to start experimenting with the concept of improvisation. That is I think a totally legitimate desire.
When I teach jazz improv to students, I actually don't even start with any jazz theory. The fact that they are 11 or 12 years old and have very little interest for any form of theory, let alone even reading music also makes it difficult to do that anyway.
I usually start them the way I did, with what I call Jam improvisation. I have them blow over simple 2 or 3 chords grooves which stay within the same key. This way, I can tell them: just play anything in G major now, you'll see it's gonna fit.
Before you can even think of mixing theory with improvisation you need to feel comfortable with improvising itself (without any thinking involved).
I started doing jazz in the 70s during the good old "fusion" or "jazz rock" era.
In order to keep a driving rock or fink beat going,(also in order to not freak out the rockn'rollers listeners who were getting into this type of music) it was very fashionable back then to use some of those simple 2 or 3 chords grooves for solos. All the Jean-Luc Pontys, George Dukes and Jan Hammers of the time seem to rely on the same ones.
Bozos like me could pick-up on them, figure what scale or pentatonic to use and jam for hours thinking we were real jazzmen, even though we had very little clue what we were doing. Those were good days...
Maybe you know these already, but here are some classic ones. I'll put all the examples in C, and can be jammed upon in C major, pentatonics strongly suggested.. Be carefull with high extensions(9,11,13) for voicings on these since some of them might involve some Aeolian and Phrygian scales.
The i-iv ( Amin7 / Dmin7) Good for a rock funk feel. You can add a V7#5#9( E7#5#9) on this one once in a while for a bluesier effect. Amin pentatonic or blues are of course always welcomed.
The ii-V (Dmin7 / G7) Very popular in latin music (Oye Como Va). Also used for funk.
The I7- IV7 ( D7 / G7) (Could also be explained as II7-V7)
This one is like a slight variation on the previous one, with a dominant7 on each chord
I like this one with the boogalow shufflle funk feel, as in Billy Cobham's and Jan Hammer's "Red Baron". This one might require a more extensive use of the blues scale, as the 2 chords aren't actually diatonic. One could always mixolidian both chords, if they change every bar or every 2 bars. However, if they change very 2 beats, that becomes a bit of a headache, and this kind of improv should not involve headaches. You could also just play in C major, the F natural will just sound bluesy on the D7
The ii -iii ( Dmin7 / E min7) This one will also sound nice with 7sus4 chords instead of the min7 chords. Carefull, the 2nd chord is phrygian, will involve a b9. Don't worry though if you hit a F natural that doesn't sound too good you're probably playing it over the Emin7 chord, just resolve it to the E and you'll sound like you know what you're doing.
The VImaj7b5 - iii7su4 (Fmaj7b5 / E7sus4) Can even be used in combination with the previous progression. Same warning about the E chord, will be phrygian.
The iim6\9 - iv (Dmin6\9 / Amin9) Theoritically, could be used with the 1st chord as a min7, but I find it a little lame. Jean-Luc Ponty as a famous one with this progression ("Mirage from the "Enigmatic Ocean" album). Then again, Jean-Luc Ponty has a song( if not 2 or 3) using every single one of these examples.
The i - V7(b9) (Amin / E7) Back to latin here. Both the A harmonic scale and the A blues will provide with hours of though free improv here.
Santana had a big hit a couple years ago in a collab with some young singer( don't know his name, oh well) using this one. They were at the grammys and stuff... now I hear them at the grocery store once in a while. Simple chords can go a long way.
The bVI - bVII - i (F / G / Amin) This one is well at ease with rockers and jazzmen alike, depending on which variation of it you use.
Of course, Stairway to Heaven is the most famous example, Amin / G / F / F G /.
Using it in it's ascending only form can provide a nice groove: F / G / Amin.
or skip the bVII one way or the other: The rockers will appreciate Amin / F . The jazzmen might prefer Fmaj7 / Amin7.
Dmin7 / Ebmaj7 Now this one is for the adventurous type (well it was for the average aspiring jazz bozo of the 70s). You will need to change scales between the 2 chords.
Go D dorian on the Dmin7 chord and Eb lydian on the Ebmaj7 chord, you will have to change the E and the B to an Eb and a Bb on the 2nd chord. Or for a headache free approach, go Dmin pentatonic or blues scale on both chords. This way you will remain in safe territory throughout. (Jean-Luc Ponty again, "Is Once Enough" from the "Aurora" album)
The i - iv - v -bVII Of course I couldn't finish this whithout plugging again my favorite progression of all times. The one one that took the disco dance music world by storm in the late 70s, just as the sonata form swept through classical music in the late 1700s. (I know I've used that line before, but I couldn't help it).
This one is more likly to be played in Bmin, C min, or Dmin, to get that big fat bass on the 2nd chord, So I will spell it in Bmin (shoulb be preferably performed with the classic octave dreddle in the left hand):
Bmin7 / " / Emin7 / F#min A /
Aahhh!!
Anyway, have fun Triscuit. I hope this is of any help to you.
post edited by hypolydien - 2005/12/07 07:50:42