Improvising in a jazz context can be a daunting skill to grapple with. But, one of the keys to improving this skill is intentionally targeting, or resolving to notes found in the chords being played. These are called “chord tones.”

In his course, Take 5: Jazz Chord Tone Soloing, Frank Vignola primes you on his approach to chord tone soloing, and then guides you through five practice studies, challenging you along the way.

Here are 3 video jazz soloing guitar lessons from the course. For the full course, check out Frank Vignola’s Take 5: Jazz Chord Tone Soloing on TrueFire!

Jazz Chord Tone Soloing Guitar Lesson – Level 5: Overview


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In our Level 5 study, we’re going to use the progression for the classic song, “All of Me”. This is a challenging progression. We’ll target and play the 9th of each of the chords in the progression, then we’ll connect the 9ths by using neighboring tones and scalar patterns. Even though the underlying chord may not have a 9th in it, we can still target these juicy chord tones such as the 9th.

Jazz Chord Tone Soloing Guitar Lesson – Level 5: Performance


Download the tab & notation for this jazz soloing guitar lesson

This is the performance of the Level 5 study where you can see and hear how I connect the chord tones using neighboring tones and scalar patterns.

Jazz Chord Tone Soloing Guitar Lesson – Level 5: Breakdown


Download the tab & notation for this jazz soloing guitar lesson

Here’s the breakdown of our Level 5 study. Here, I give numerous examples and really dig into the concept.

Digging these free video jazz soloing guitar lessons? Check out Frank Vignola’s Take 5: Jazz Chord Tone Soloing.