All of Me – Bebop Solo Exercise and Analysis

Here’s a jazz standard tune for you with analysis and bebop solo exercise (just look at the chords above the staff).

Here’s a neat gypsy jazz guitar version so you can hear it:

With no sharps and flats, song starting on C6 and melody starting and ending on the note C, we can say that this song is in the key of C major. The 7th chords in C major are Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am7, and Bm7b5. The easy way I analyze (and teach you) songs is to try and stay in key as much as possible and just adjust notes as necessary. Many jazz tunes don’t really go out of key but alter chords from m7 to dom7 for example.

C6 is a common chord in place of Cmaj7 (uses A instead of B which often clashes with melody note). Then in bar 3 we have E7 instead of the expected Em7. So we just sharpen the G to a G# and stay in key of C (this is usually called phrygian dominant mode but let’s not go there!). E7 leads nicely to the next A7 chord because it’s a 5th above (a common movement). In bar 5 we have an A7 instead of an Am7. So same concept, sharpen the C to C#. This would be a mixolydian b6 mode. Note that for both the E7 and A7 chords you are playing a F from the original key of C major.

Then we have Dm7 which is in key, E7 again (play G#), Am7 (in key), the D7 (raise F to F#), then Dm7 to G7 (in key). So you see how much easier this is to play and conceptualize. Just play in key of C using the 5 CAGED shapes I teach and modify a note here and there as required!

The second half of the tune is pretty much the same except for the late 8 bars. We have an F6 which is the four chord in original key. But then it goes to Fmin (common to switch from major to minor). So you can modify the A to Ab, E to Eb and B to Bb (a dorian mode sound). Most of the remaining other chords are back in the other key except for the last Ebdim7 (shown as the enharmonic D#dim7).

I’ve written out a solo for you that demonstrates how to target chord tones. This isn’t something you would play live due to it’s academic nature but it shows many important points. It will also get you playing fast bebop style lines which can be tricky due to the addition of chromatic notes. Here’s the solo and analysis:


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