How to Use Tension in an Improvised Jazz Solo

A dominant 7th chord has a pure quantity of tension built into it. You can hear that it is not settled, it needs to go and move somewhere. By comparison, the significant chord IS a chord that is settled, it's a feeling of rest. Why is the dominant so unsettled?




The solution is the 3rd and 7th notes. Listen in the case how the 3rd and 7th are extremely dissonant. This interval is referred to as a Tri-tone. When you look at a piano and select two notes, state C and C one octave higher, and find the note that is directly in between the two notes, this is actually the tri-tone. In this case it's F#. Looking at the circle of 5ths graph, you can see also that the tri-tone is your note right across from the one you are looking at. See that F# is directly across from C. The word tri-tone literally signifies three tones. Go up three complete steps from any note, and you will be at the tri-tone. The noise of this tri-tone wants to naturally collapse. The 3rd note wants to come up 1/2 measure, and also the 7th notice wants to go down 1/2 step. This starts out as tension, and then releases the tension.

You'll see that on the V7 chord (G7) that the 3rd is B and the 7th is F. B would like to go up 1/2 step, and F wants to return 1/2 step. The new notes that they form are C and E. Together C and E are the origin and 3rd of the Major chord of our E. V7 I! That is the reason why the ii V7 I connection is so strong! V7 wants to eventually become I chord because of the tension and release. The whole idea of using altered dominants would be to make more tension on the V7 chord, so the release is much more satisfactory!

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