Common Tones
When playing chords in a chord progression, the ability to play all of the notes of each chord, in all of the inversions (refer to Playing Chords), it is a great place to start. Pin-pointing the common tones that exist within the neighboring chords of the progression can be very helpful in building more interesting lines and finding the key notes that really connect the chords together.
In the "Playing Chords" section, I used the chord changes to "Confirmation" by Charlie Parker to demonstrate running the chords up and down in all inversions. In the following examples, using the same chord progression, you can see the common tones connected by arrows. By adding upper extensions, you can create even more common tones, which adds even more possibilities when using them in lines:
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In the next examples, the common tones are used to start the chord runs, which helps to unify them. Then a musical line is built using the common tone "E" which provides an excellent build up to the "Eb" in the last measure:
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