Soloing through Witch Hunt

[2ndry]

Hi! I'm new to this forum. I love playing jazz guitar, but I'm not too good at it.
I was wondering if anybody could give me some tips on soloing over Wayne Shorter's "Witch Hunt." I'm trying to keep that 'mystical' sound.

The chord changes are essentially

1 2 3 4||1 2 | 3 4 ||
||C-7 ||C-7 | G7#9 || x8 times

Then

||Gb7 ||F7 ||E7 | Eb7 ||
|| Ab-7 ||Amaj7/Ab ||

For the main part I imagine mostly C minor and C Phrygian. Then what for the second part?

Thanks a lot for the help

[Jakeweiser]

I haven't listene to it in a while but I'm pretty sure that there's no G7#9 chord played in the rhythm section strictly, but it's just a V chord back to your Cm tonic so it's fine. But essentially it's

Cm7 x8
Eb7 x4
Cm7 x8
Gb7 F7 E7 Eb7
Ab- AbdimMA7 Ab- G7alt

Long periods of a single chord tonality. The melody, in it's 4thyness really keeps things open in terms of looking at the tune in a modal standpoint (seeing as there is no use of the 13th in the melody over the Cm it could be Aeolian or Dorian. Melodic and Harmonic minor will create interesting tensions so don't avoid them.

It will be easier at the start however, and better for you as a guitarist in a technique way to not think about the scales just yet and instead think about the notes that make these chords up. Sure it eliminates a few notes at the start, however this is the building blocks of the music. Still, with such simple note choices other, more important aspects need to be thought about rather then what notes to play, think of when to play them. Something that isn't stressed enough, why, no idea. There are only 12 notes, yet unlimited rhythmic possibility.

ANYway, you ask about the last half of the tune.

You have descending Chromatic Dominant chords. Dominant chords are the juicy lovely little parts of Jazz that create, typically the most interest because of the fact hat Dominant chords all tend to want to resolve to something. In this instance, the resolution is the Ab- chord. So you have 4 bars of tension to resolve. The important part is the making of the changes. You can justify any Dominant Scale you know of...

Mixolydian (somewhat vanilla)
Lydian Dominant (Has interest with the added tritone from the chord it comes from)
Mixolydian b13 (often overlooked scale, I like it)
Altered/Superlocrian (Somewhat Cliche because it is so handy)

Not to ignore whatever else you can dream up.

The point being, when things move in sequence such as this progrssion (roots down by half steps) then you can create simple motifs and just move them down as the chords move down, this creates a strong line. Then, when you have the Eb7 to Ab- change, make that happen as you would a ii V I. It's almost no difference.

The AMA7/Ab chord or whatever it is really comes off nicely if you play F melodic Minor over it, I never liked that spelling because it misleads people tihnking it has some sort of stable sound to it when it's really a not.







you're welcome