I am writing a smooth jazz song.....all is good but I have 2 measures of G which is followed by one measure of C.....the G is G major.........I want to walk all of the eight notes I have for G into C.......

Does anyone have any suggestions......I am very new at writing so any help will be greatly appreciated......

G A B A G F E D(or G), C

?

Ok, first things first: G goes to C on the circle of fourths. Also, you have the root, third, fifth and octave to play with (forget scales when you're walking except to connect one chord to another). You should keep that in mind. You can do about a dozen or more things. I'll suggest two.

You have two bars of G major and a bar of C. That means you have room to create a peak and a valley which gives a cooler, more sophisticated sound. You could play R,2,3,5 and then 8,5,3,R for G. That works because you end on G, which is the low fifth of C, which is acceptable for walking one chord to another.

Then you could play whatever on C and connect it to w/e is next. I'd assume it's going to be F or perhaps you'd be moving to a minor chord via a diminished.

Another option is on the last beat to use the b5th of G to connect to C. Again, it's really jazzy; use it sparingly, mostly on turn-arounds like I, VI, ii,V7. Only use it on chords which connect together on the circle of fourths like G to C or Db to Gb etc etc.

Get yourself Todd Johnson's Walking dvds. Very useful for walking. Carol Kaye's books are great for reading and theory (though I'd still reccomend Todd's stuff as it's a little easier to pick up....her stuff...well you have to rewind a lot as she moves quickly...but once you get it...its useful).

G, E, F,F#,G, A, A#,B, C

I often like to anticipate the C (4) at the beginning of the second measure, but hit the G (1)--or a higher G (8)--instead. For example:

/1--2--3--9---/8--3--5--5b--/4
/G--A--B--A*-/G*-B--D--Db-/C
(*higher octave)

This includes 3 or 4 changes in direction, which provide additional interest.

Bluesy Soul :cool: