In this session, Aaron continues his look at using chord tones while soloing—this time focusing on the common tones between chords. He says, “This is one of my favorite devices to use while improvising so I'm particularly excited to explore it with you!” He shows you how to apply the concept to a solo for “Just Friends,” a popular song from the early 1930s that became a jazz standard after recordings by Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughan in 1949. You’ll learn it in the key of G, a common key for this song. It has an ABAC form and it’s an unusual song in that it doesn’t start on the I chord, but rather on the IV chord (C, in the key of G). In this video, Aaron shows you how to find notes in common between adjacent chords in the progression and to integrate those into a solo. In the shift from C to Cm7, for example, the C and G are common tones.
