In this proposed round we work out some riffs that work over common “vamps” in Jazz. These are sets of very common chords you’d find:

|:Gmaj7 :A-7 :B-7 Bb-7 : A-7 D7:
:Gmaj7 :C6 C#dim :D6 E-7 : A-7 D7:|

Again the key here is that little chromatic line C:C#:D:E that makes it interesting. Of course you can make this even more interesting, which is what I did in the recording but we won’t go into that right now.

Now in this challenge, you have two choices. First, you can take the above chords and try to work out a good riff or two that fits them. It should be in the key of G, and you shouldn’t need key changes, but they key is to find notes that riffs that while they don’t quite fit the chords, still sound good.

However, a second challenge would be to take what I’ve recorded here and transcribe it. This recording has two different riff runs over the same progressions, but I’ve altered the progressions slightly to make them a bit different.

First to transcribe this you would try to figure out what chords I played, since I didn’t quite play the same chords as above but instead I embellished a bit.

Second, you’d transcribe the notes I played over these chords in both takes. This will be great ear training for you and it’s
something
I work on quite a lot when I can.

So to recap you have two challenges in this, either come up with your own riffs over the simple progression, or try to transcribe what I’ve played.

At the end I’ll post the sheet music so everyone can compare.