Blue Bossa

Blue Bossa is a popular bossa nova standard written by Kenny Dorham and made famous by Joe Henderson on his album Page One (1963). It was written after Dorham visited the Rio de Janeiro Jazz Festival in 1961.

Blue Bossa is a good song for beginners to improvise over chord changes because it is usually played at a medium tempo and has an easy-to-follow harmony (including a modulation). Blue Bossa is often played at jams, so it’s a good idea to add it to your repertoire.

Besides The Girl From Ipanema, Blue Bossa must be the most popular bossa nova song ever.

 

Recommended listening:

• Joe Henderson – Page One (1963)
• Dexter Gordon – Biting the Apple (1976)
• Joe Pass & J.J. Johnson – We’ll Be Together Again (1988)
• Pat Martino – Comin’ and Goin’ (1999)
• Jimmy Rosenberg – Trio (2004)

 

 

 

Blue Bossa Video 1 – Single-Note Melody and Solo

Blue Bossa Guitar Pro File (Melody & Solo)

Blue Bossa Band in a Box File (Chord Melody & Solo)

 

Blue Bossa – Melody

Backing Track (195 bpm)

Listen & Play-Along

 

Blue Bossa – Chord Analysis

Before we go on to the solo, let’s first have a look at the harmonic structure and the guitar scales you can use over Blue Bossa.

Structure: 16 bars long

Key: C minor

 

 

 

C Natural Minor Scale (Measures 1-8 and 13-16)

On the blue parts, you use the C natural minor scale, aka the C Aeolian mode.

 

 

As an alternative, you can use the C minor pentatonic scale or the C minor blues scale.

 

 

 

On the Cm7 chord, you can also play the C Dorian mode.

 

 

F Harmonic Minor Scale (Measure 2)

As an optional variation, you can make bar 2 into a C dominant 7th chord, by playing the F harmonic minor scale.

C7 (in Blue Bossa) is a secondary dominant chord (V/iv) that resolves to Fm7.

A secondary dominant is a dominant chord  that resolves to any chord that is not the tonic (I).

 

The scale of choice to play over C7 is the F harmonic minor scale, also known as the C Phrygian dominant scale or the C Mixolydian b9 b13 scale.

 

F harmonic minor scale	F	G	Ab	Bb	C	Db	E
Played over C7	11	5	b13	b7	1	b9	3

 

C Harmonic Minor Scale (Measures 6, 14, and 16)

The scale of choice over the dominant chord (G7) is the C harmonic minor scale (= G Phrygian dominant).

 

 

As an alternative, you can play the G altered scale over the G7.

 

 

Db Major Scale (Measures 9-12)

Here the chord progression modulates to Db major.

This is a regular II V I progression, and you can play the Db major scale (=Db Ionian mode) over it.

 

 

Blue Bossa – Solo Study 1

Backing Track (195 bpm)

Listen & Play-Along

 

Blue Bossa Video 2 – Chord Melody and Easy Solo

 

Blue Bossa Guitar Pro File (Chord Melody & Solo)

Blue Bossa Band in a Box File (Chord Melody & Solo)

 

Blue Bossa – Intro & Chord Melody Theme

In this version of Blue Bossa, I arranged the melody the way you would play it in a jazz trio by adding chords to the melody.

When you play in a combo without a piano or another guitar player, it’s a good idea to harmonize your melodies.

 

Backing Track (155 bpm)

Listen & Play-Along

 

Blue Bossa – Solo Study #2

Backing Track (155 bpm)

Listen & Play-Along

 

Blue Bossa – Arpeggio Study 1

Arpeggios are an important tool for jazz musicians because they enable you to mirror the harmony of a tune in your solo, something that’s harder to achieve with scales.

The best way to learn arpeggios is:

• Memorize the shapes for all chord types in all positions.
• Play them over chord changes in one position without stopping (in continuous 8th notes). This forces you to come out of your comfort zone because you’ll end up in places on the guitar neck that you’re not very familiar with.
• Do this in all positions.

 

The following arpeggio study over Blue Bossa will help you on your way. I play the arpeggios continuously up and down the strings and stay in one position.

Here’s how you use the study:

• First, memorize the arpeggio shapes of Blue Bossa (see below).
• Play the study a couple of times.
• Now try the exercise without the sheet music.
• Try starting on another note of the chord. I begin the study on the root of Cm7, but try starting on any other chord tone.
• When you know this position well, go to another position and do the same. Try starting on the C of the 6th string for example.

These studies are not meant to sound good, but they are a good way to master arpeggios so you can use them in a more creative and musical way in your solos.

 

Blue Bossa Arpeggio Shapes

Here are the arpeggio shapes used in this study:

Cm7

Fm7

Dm7b5

G7

Ebm7

Ab7

Dbmaj7

 

Listen & Play Along

 

Blue Bossa Arpeggios 1 Guitar Pro File

 

Blue Bossa – Arpeggio Study 2

In study 2 we add the first extension to every chord (the 9) by using chord substitutions.

Here’s how this substitution works:

1. You know that chords are built by stacking triads. For example, a Cmaj7 chord is built with the notes C E G B
2. Instead of stopping at the 7, we can add more thirds. In the case of Cmaj7, we can add a third on top of the B, the D.
3. The result is a Cmaj9 chord: C E G B D
4. Now you omit the root of that chord. These notes are left: E G B D, the notes of Em7.
5. Instead of playing a Cmaj7 arpeggio over Cmaj7, you will now play an Em7 arpeggio over Cmaj7.

 

Playing an Em7 arpeggio over Cmaj7 gives you the major 9 sound:

 

Em7 Arpeggio	E	G	B	D
Played over Cmaj7	3	5	7	9

 

Playing substitutions gives you a richer sound compared to playing the vanilla arpeggios, something that is almost always desirable. Make yourself accustomed to playing chord substitutions instead of the plain chords.

 

Blue Bossa Arpeggio Substitutions

Here are the substitutions for Blue Bossa’s chords:

Cm7: Ebmaj7

Fm7: Abmaj7

Dm7b5: here we play the plain chord for now.

G7: Bdim7

Ebm7: Gbmaj7

Ab7: Cm7b5

Dbmaj7: Fm7

 

Listen & Play Along

 

Blue Bossa Arpeggios 2 Guitar Pro File

 

Blue Bossa – Backing Track Video (130 BPM)

To practice improvising over Blue Bossa, you can use the following “Karaoke-style” backing track video, made with Band in a Box.