Tim Miller Substitution Idea
Hello IG, In this tutorial we’ll be dealing with a substitution idea that should breathe new life into your playing over a certain chord vamp. I ran across this device upon transcribing Tim Miller’s solo on Janek Gwizdala’s song “Mana” off the “Live at 55 Bar” record. What Tim did was play an F# major triad against a static Cm7 groove. This creates a beautiful sound that instantly got me hooked and helped me come up with a few interesting, outside sounding licks. Firstly, let’s see what intervals are in an F# major triad superimposed on a Cm7 chord: F# (root) against Cm7: b5 A# (3rd) against Cm7: b7 C# (5th) against Cm7: b9 Now that might seem really strange at first, so the trick is to resolve these intervals in a logical manner and thus making your licks work. For example: - b5 to 4 or 5 - b7 stays or moves to nat 6 or root - b9 to nat 9 or root Triads have a very strong sound, so as long as you resolve them nicely you’re good to go and you'll profit from the distinctness of those triads. If that’s too theoretical for you, you’re welcome to just memorize the examples. Now, on to Example 1!
6 Lessons
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1
0:27
Lesson Tim Miller Substitution Idea - Concept
Hello IG, In this tutorial we’ll be dealing with a substitution idea that should breathe new life into your playing over a certain chord vamp. I ran across this device upon transcribing Tim Miller’s solo...
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2
0:20
Lesson Tim Miller Substitution Idea - Example 1
Okay, time to get playing! This first example is really dry and not overly creative, but it is just the right thing to get the sound of this substitution into your ears. It also shows you a simple but...
Tab
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3
0:45
Lesson · 1m Tim Miller Substitution Idea - Example 2
Example 2 is a little bit more interestingly sequenced. Look at how the lick steps out of Cm into F#maj in bar 2, and is back “inside” on beat 1 of bar 3.
Tab
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4
0:22
Lesson Tim Miller Substitution Idea - Example 3
Here’s a little twist I added myself. My initial idea was to add more notes to the F# triad without compromising too much of its distinct sound (like a scale would do), so I expanded the triad with the notes...
Tab
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5
0:12
Lesson Tim Miller Substitution Idea - Example 4
And to round things off, here’s a nice little example combining the concepts discussed in this tutorial and my last tutorial, Eric Johnson Style Triads. As always, be sure to ask anything that’s on your...
Tab
- 6 2:09 Backing track · 2m Tim Miller Substitution Idea - Cm7 Vamp Now it's time to practice these licks to the backing track. Have fun!
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