Thinking about improvising over slash chords, and I thought I'd share an "on the fly" technique I often use.

I play off the diatonic triad, built from the slashed bass note.

EX: Over G/B (In G)
I'd play the Bm triad.

Then, I might expand on that. Maybe treat the Bm as a ii chord. Then, play a ii V (Bm - E7).

The E7 is just a little outside. Not so much, that I get into too much trouble!

You can keep going with this idea if you want to take it outside, or into another key. etc.

It works pretty well. Especially when you're "in the moment".

Let me know, how it works for you guys.

That's a cool approach. I messed with it a bit this morning. Alot of nice intervallic stuff reveals itself. I found that I liked using either B natural minor or B phrygian minor best (or B min. penta.). More of a focus on g's and c's as opposed to g#'s and c#'s (which are in B dorian minor). I also found that this approach led me to play Em7 and A7 stuff. Gets a "little" out, that C# is in there again, but not too much. Playing with E or E7 can take you really out if you keep the E ideas and drop them down by minor 3rd's to Db then Bb then home to G.

quote:

Originally posted by klasaine:
That's a cool approach. I messed with it a bit this morning. Alot of nice intervallic stuff reveals itself. I found that I liked using either B natural minor or B phrygian minor best (or B min. penta.). More of a focus on g's and c's as opposed to g#'s and c#'s (which are in B dorian minor). I also found that this approach led me to play Em7 and A7 stuff. Gets a "little" out, that C# is in there again, but not too much. Playing with E or E7 can take you really out if you keep the E ideas and drop them down by minor 3rd's to Db then Bb then home to G.

Now we're talkin"! I'll have to try it.

Yeah, a lot of old tunes use a III7 chord, instead of a minor iii. Like "Nobody Knows You, When You're Down And Out". I love that move. It makes me think of the min.3rd./Maj.3rd. tension of Blues playing.