Variations on The Frank Zappa secret chord progression

[coyote]

Background: I'm a multi-instrumentalist who had been playing mostly drums for the past seven years or so. My lead guitar skills therefore had eroded significantly. Getting the 408 re-ignited my passion for guitar....

It turns out the guitarist in my band, who is a phenomenal player, is also a damn good drummer. And the bassist is as willing to set up a groove and force me to improvise over it as he is when the guitarist is playing. Which is good, as it makes me get past my fears and just listen and play. And in the past few weeks I've been playing Take Five on guitar, and it's coming along nicely. So last week I introduced the two-chord Zappa jam, Black Napkins.

The chords are c-7 to Db major. Simple enough; you can play pentatonic blues in C all day, and it'll work. But those chords are, of course, the iii- and IV of Ab major. So that scale and its arpeggios sound great. Then Bb- opens up, Eb Dorian, F- or blues.... it seemed like the whole neck of the guitar opened to me in a way it hasn't in many years.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I love it when you talk dirty.

Nice.

Would love to hear both. (Take Five is my jam!)

 

[coyote]

I love it when you talk dirty.
Nice.
Would love to hear both. (Take Five is my jam!)

I've always loved Take Five. When I solo on it I start with Desmond's first half dozen sax measures or so, with that great phrasing of his. Then it naturally segues (to my ears and fingers anyway) to some Steve Howe style motifs (think Siberian Khatru). Last week, My Favorite Things somehow popped out in midstream. It was cool because the bassist heard it immediately and locked onto it. Then back into TakeFive, working a couple of rhythmic figure arpeggios up and down the scale before giving way to a bass solo.

So my current 'repertoire' if you will is those two items, plus
Bridge of Sighs (Trower). It's fun to go more "snake charmer" in the soloing on that than to stay in the blues.

Slow 12/8 jazz-blues in G. The 9th bar goes E minor, which again opens things up - you can do lots of 2-5 subbing to get there, and then to get from there back into the IV chord.

Come Dancing (Jeff Beck). I love the octave pedal soloing, and here again the chords D minor - Bb major lend themselves to certain things. In this case, whole tones as you transition from the Bb back to the D minor.

And whatever else happens to catch our fancy. Last week we segued from Take Five to Cat Scratch Fever and then Manic Depression, before I returned to the drum chair