Diatonic and Chromatic Approach Notes
Learning Approach Notes – Diatonic and Chromatic
Approach notes are utilised by improvisers to emphasise or ‘target’ other (typically significant) notes, such as chord (arpeggio) tones. They go by various names in music education circles, (enclosures, neighbor tones, embellishments, etc.) but for this lesson, I will use the term approach notes.
You can have diatonic or chromatic approaches, and they can certainly be combined very effectively.
Before you begin to incorporate approach notes in your playing, it’s beneficial to practice them slowly in various combinations. To assist you in learning approach notes, I’ve written out 12 diatonic as well as 12 chromatic approach exercises.
I highly recommend that you work through learning approach notes very slowly, playing each approach thoroughly before progressing to the next. There is a lot of work here, so take your time and allow yourself several weeks to begin working on these. Over time you will become more and more fluent with approach notes and their application, so be patient and just work steadily.
After the 12 diatonic approaches, I have listed a series of chord types that it would be useful to practice the approach note exercises with.
The 12 Diatonic Approaches
The 12 Chromatic Approaches
Illustrated below are 12 chromatic approaches and the system is broadly the same as the diatonic exercises already seen above. Once more, I have listed some chord types that you should eventually work with whilst applying the various approach note exercises.
Here are the PDF versions of the above so that you can print them out etc.
