Improvisation X - "Everything Happens to Me" Part 1
This month’s improvisation exercise begins a new series of arpeggio exercises focused on tritone substitutions, now based on the standard “Everything Happens to Me”. I chose this song in part because I really like it and because it has some slightly unusual harmony in it—at least for a 32-bar AABA jazz ballad. There is a nice use of viiº7/iv (F#º7) in the fifth measure of the A sections. This prolongs dominant harmony from the previous measure’s VI7 (B7) as these two chords share the same diminished set. Additionally, there is a ‘baked in’ tritone substitution in measure seven of the A sections.
Continuing the previous series’s focus on tritone substitutions, I have made tritone substitutions in this arrangement in every situation where a dominant seventh chord would resolve to its associated tonic.
The rules of this arpeggio exercise are:
Arpeggiate the chords of a song in 8th notes within a five-fret range of the guitar.
Starting on the lowest available chord tone in that range (in this case, B, the fifth of an E minor 7 chord) and arpeggiate upward. Change directions only when the next chord tone falls outside of the five-fret range.
While the purpose of this exercise is to improvise according to the above rule, some may find it helpful to read through a reference exercise. You can find one chorus written out here and watch me perform it here.