Water Melon Man for Guitar - Improvising

For more information from the source site of this video please visit: secretguitarteacher.com/youtub...
Water Melon Man - Jazzing up the rhythm and improvising a solo.
This lesson is a sample for the Secret Guitar Teacher website (see link above).
It is aimed at Intermediate level players and assumes you already know the basic chords and melody of Herbie Hancock's 'Watermelon Man'.
Here's the abridged video transcript:
In the last lesson we mapped out the chords and melody of this great tune. Now let's look at one of the approaches we might take to jazz up the rhythm part of Watermelon Man.
As a point of departure let's take another listen to the original instrumental version and hear how the great Herbie Hancock created the rhythm on the piano.
This riff starts by breaking the F7 chord down into an octave F then sliding into these two notes here ...the C and the Eb Think of these as being part of the D7 shaped F7 chord. Then we bounce off the F note again and hit the Bb chord.
So that's the F7 taken care of. On the Bb7 change at the fifth bar he switches to using a Bb9 chord to bounce off. Again, you may remember from the chord substitution lesson that, under the laws of simple substitution, any dominant chord can in theory replace any other dominant chord of the same root. So, for example, 7ths can be replaced by 9ths 11ths or 13ths without upsetting the harmonic function of the chord.
Finally we can use this three-string 7th shape from the ninth bar to skid into the C7 chord from a semitone above - yet another basic chord substitution idea - and then, similarly jump from the C7 to the Bb7 - jumping into a chord from the same type a tone above is also a commonly used trick.
So that is a look at how we can adapt Herbie Hancock's brilliant piano riffs straight onto the guitar.
Remember how in the last lesson we discovered that the first part of the melody comes directly out of the minor pentatonic scale - well that means we can use this scale to form the basis of our improvised solo over the first part of the tune.
Here's the fourth position pattern for the minor pentatonic scale in F....and here's an idea of how I might use this over the first 8 bars of the tune
Now, do you remember how the next part of the melody used notes directly related to the chord C7? What exactly do we mean by that? Well, take a close look at this diagram. Here we have the notes of the C7 chord, in this area of the fretboard, mapped out in red. I've labelled them according to their interval names in the key of C. 'Root' 3rd, 5th and flatted 7th. So our diagram has the notes 1 3 5 and b7 from the C Major scale.
These are the notes shown in Red. We refer to these as chord tones. But there are one or two other notes that are always useful to locate near to the chord tones. Firstly there are what I call the neutral notes, the 6th and 9th notes of the Major scale - shown here in Yellow.
I call these neutral notes because, no matter what type of chord you are playing, they tend to be easy to blend in without sounding out of tune. Some people call them 'safe' notes or 'utility' notes So those are always really handy to locate when improvising over a chord of any type.
Finally, I have coloured blue the flatted third note of the scale. This is coloured blue because it is commonly referred to as a blue note - the note most guaranteed to make your lick or phrase sound bluesy.
However, notice that, over a MAJOR or DOMINANT chord it is almost always used in conjunction with the MAJOR third either by sliding , hammering on, or bending up a semitone .
Here's how we put all this together. As we approach the chord change we might grab a couple of notes out of the chord in anticipation just ahead of where the change comes and then build a phrase mixing in some of the chord tones with some of the neutral notes and of course the blue note... Here are some random examples...
Finally, after three changes from C7 to Bb7 we resolve back to the F7 chord and we can revisit the F minor pentatonic to complete the verse.
Ok, let's apply all this now to playing over the backing track which, as usual you can access from the toolbox to the right of the screen.
Well I hope you enjoyed taking a closer look at Watermelon Man and I hope you can see how, by analysing how great artists like Herbie Hancock have approached creating their performance, we can begin to isolate some basic principals that we too can use to smarten up our playing.
In the next lesson we are going to look at a tune that is probably the single most played tune in Jazz bands throughout the world: George Gershwin's 16-bar minor key blues: Summertime.
I look forward to seeing you then.

[@Youtubemademeaddahandle]

I've been searching for something more than an unexplained personal interpretation of a particular song. I usually have to listen (and watch) several of those to glean the logic necessary for me to understand what led a particular artist to that resulting version. You go straight to the logic which lies within (not behind) the appropriate music theory. Your style of instruction allows me to overlay the personality of my preferred tonal effects on a firm .logical foundation. You have just been placed straight to the top of my list for guitar instruction. Theory is only as useful as it supports playing. The recent requirement to learn this simple (yet inviting to improvise) chord progression has lead me to where I naturally live musically. Regardless of style I am intrigued by the logic which informs it. I expect to enjoy a now accelerated (read "excel-erated") growth in guitar playing and so cherish your approach. Thank you for truly teaching how to create ,not to simply to play.

[@manuelpeters6216]

superb, many thanks! You really helped me understanding this tune!

[@alvei48]

Excelente clase, gracias

[@Marian333music]

Super :)

[@joeyroble7864]

hey that was enlightenmning, many thanks

[@dosilable]

great lesson, as each

[@B1N4RYGH0ST]

Thank you for the upload.

[@clesleify]

exelent lesson. Thanks a Lit

[@sergiopierobon7057]

lezioni accurate ed esaurienti.grazie.

[@guloguloguy]

AWESOME LESSONS!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!!! &...I'd like to find some lessons on using 'intervals' as they are often used in Surf Music! - I wonder how they might relate to a scale such as the minor pentatonic patterns you've outlined here. ; D

[@ukulelechriswilson]

Hi i don't understand wher is your others parts of Watermelon ? Thank you

[@ukulelechriswilson]

Thanks mister. Good work.