Blue Bossa Chord Progression
Blue Bossa by Kenny Dorham is a great jazz standard to play over and contains a very nice chord progression that is suitable even for beginners. Blue Bossa is usually one of the first jazz standards that people learn to improvise over. Blue Bossa is written here in the key or C minor. There is only really one A section to this tune. It starts in C minor and modulates up a half step to Db major. Once you have learned the melody and chord changes to Blue Bossa you will need to know how to improvise over it.
Below I have written out the chord changes to Blue Bossa
Blue Bossa Chords
Cm7 | Cm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Dm7b5 | G7alt | Cm7 | Cm7 |
Ebm7 | Ab7 | Db | Db |
Dm7b5 | G7alt | Cm7 | Dm7b5 G7alt |
There are several ways you could approach improvising over the Blue Bossa chord progression. The first four bars are all taken from the C natural minor scale and you can use the C natural minor to play over the Cm7 and Fm7 chords.
Cm7 | Cm7 | Fm7 | Fm7
Bar 5 and 6 give us a minor 2 5 progression that is best handled by playing the C harmonic minor scale.
Dm7b5 | G7alt
Bar 7 and 8 return to the C natural minor scale.
Cm7 | Cm7
In bars 9 to 12 we have a 2 5 1 in Db major. The easiest way to play over this part would be to use the Db major scale over these four bars.
Ebm7 | Ab7 | Db | Db
In bars 13 and 14 we have another minor 2 5 progression which can be tackled using the harmonic minor scale
Dm7b5 | G7alt
Bar 15 briefly returns to the C natural minor scale
Cm7
Bar 16 is a short minor 2 5 progression and you can use the C harmonic minor scale over this section
Dm7b5 G7alt
As you can see we can play over the Blue Bossa chord progression using only three scales: the C natural minor scale, the C harmonic minor scale and the Db major scale.
If you want to make your solos sound more interesting then you should really try and highlight the sound of the G7alt chords in this progression by using the altered scale over them. You can do this by playing the Ab melodic minor scale over the G7alt chords. You could also try playing through the Blue Bossa chord progression using only arpeggios to really nail the sound of the changes in this tune. I hope you have fun learning the Blue Bossa chord progression. It is one of the easiest jazz standards to play over and a really great tune to have in your repertoire.
7 Responses to “Blue Bossa Chord Progression”
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I’m currently practicing B. Bossa for an applied jazz recital. I’m trying to solo with c dorian, F Mixolydian, and c harmonic minor. I have been a ’shredder/wanker’ call it what u will for 8 years, primarily focusing on Major and minor scales. I would LIKE to do one of my improv verses relative to MY style by going natural c minor all over it… Is this a No-no in jazz? I ask because I know that the natural C minor scale won’t bring in a nice leading tone over a II chord.
Hi Jack. I came from a shred type background so I totally understand what you mean. It is easy to get stuck into playing just one scale of large portions of a progression when coming from a rock background.
There is no right or wrong way to do anything in music but to sound more authentic I recommend targeting at least the most obvious chord changes. Even using the basic arpeggios over some of the key chord changes will help you sound more “jazz”.
The most important part of this song is the Dm7b5 G7 alt part. If you just play C natural minor of all of it but then perhaps play C harmonic minor over the Dm7b5 G7 bit you will sound a bit more melodic. Hope that helps. Mix up a combination of C harmonic minor and C natural minor.
Very much so, thank you. The arrangment I made is at 190 bpm so switching modes for that half of a bar is tricky… only needing to sharp the 7th should really help. Thanks again.
I have a nice Band in a Version that uses these chords
Cm7 | Cm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 |
Dm7b5 | G7alt | Cm11 | Cm9 |
Ebm9 | Ab7 | DbM7 | DbM7 |
Dm7b5 | G7alt | Cm7 | Dm7b5 G7alt |
end on Cm9
blue bossa like it says’wow
what i mean is that the harmony dictates the tunes name
Remember something, if u really wanna have control over your notes, first you must realize which intervals fit your interests at which part of the rythm in a measure, as for myself i really like falling on Roots or 5ths, sometimes 7ths, but not 3rds so much.
Now what u want is a solid state background of what scale to play over that D half diminished, G altered chord. Well, remember Locrian mode (vii of I/ ii of i) is the Half diminished one for diatonic scale (R,b2,b3,4,b5,b6,b7) and the Altered Scale that u should play with the same root as the altered dominant chord (R,b2,#2,3,b5,b6,b7) or for a mellower feel the lydian dominant scale which is a diatonic lydian mode with the maj7th switched for a b7. REMEMBER THE POWER OF THE TRITONE!!!
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