Harmonic Anticipation: A simple technique

to break free
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Many times when we’re soloing we get boxed in so to speak. We think that when we’re
on a particular chord, we must play that chord and that chord only. We have tunnel
vision and there exists little possibility.
One technique that dramatically relieves this boxed in sound and mindset is harmonic
anticipation.
Anticipating a chord is quite easy: you simply anticipate the chord that you’re moving to
by playing it before you arrive at it:

Anticipation is such a powerful technique because it achieves so much with so little. Just
by playing the chord that you’re going to a little earlier, you’ll create a sense of forward
motion, over the bar-line phrasing, and a feeling of excitement in your lines

How anticipation can help you

Like I was saying, we often feel boxed in by the chord changes. For example, here’s a
sample of how someone playing over a Bird Blues may solo.
Pretty boring, huh? It sounds unnatural and boxy. Now, let’s take that same example and
throw in some anticipation:

This is the same example except for the slightly modified resolution at the end of the line
from G7 to C major. Now it’s a bit extreme to anticipate every chord, but you should hear
and understand right away how much more exciting this line became from simply
anticipating each chord by a beat.
Utilizing anticipation within your lines yields a more natural feel that can be heard and
felt right away. And it’s easy to start doing. Here’s some exercises to get you started.

Anticipation exercise#1
To begin practicing anticipation, play through a simple tune you’re working on, or a
blues, and with each line you play, start it by anticipating the upcoming chords with two
eighth notes. Notice I didn’t say to do it on every chord; you could do it on every chord,
but that’s fairly unnatural.
Instead, space out your lines with rest in between them and each time you begin a new
line, anticipate the upcoming chord in the prescribed manner. Here’s a basic example of
what that might look like:
Play simple ideas and focus on pre-hearing the chord you’re anticipating. The two eighth
notes could be played in a scalar fashion as most are in the example, or they could be
intervalic.

The important thing is that they clearly define the harmony that you’re anticipating. It
goes without saying that if the anticipatory notes do not express the harmony you’re
moving to, the result will confuse the listener.
Spend ample time with this exercise before trying any others.

Anticipation exercise#2
This is exactly the same as exercise#1, but instead of two eighth notes, you’ll play three.

This has a completely different sound than anticipating with two notes. It’s amazing that
such a miniscule change can have such a large effect.
The difference between them has to do with how the notes end up being grouped and
how our ears hear these groupings. Using two notes tends to obscure beat one of the
following measure, whereas using three notes drives forward toward beat one of the
following measure.
They’re both cool. Experiment and understand the differences so you can make use of
them how ever you like.

Anticipation exercise#3
In this exercise, you’ll begin each of your lines by anticipating the upcoming chord with a
quarter note that’s tied over the bar-line:

Learning to use anticipation effectively

Those three exercises are just to get your feet wet. Another exercise you’ll want to try is
anticipating four eighth notes ahead. This takes some work to pre-hear the upcoming
chord this far in advance, but with practice it will sound correct.
Another slightly more advanced technique is using an altered sound of the upcoming
chord for your anticipation. For example, if G7 is coming up, anticipate with the notes
from G7alt. This takes practice to make it sound right. Remember, if it doesn’t sound
right, it’s not, so if you want to try things like this, futz with it till it sounds right to you.

Anticipation can be used pretty much anywhere, but there are a few places that it works
especially well. When the chords are very predictable as in the example over a Bird
Blues, anticipation helps to make your lines over the progression not so boxy. So in any
of these standard type progressions where pretty much anyone can hear where it’s
going, try using anticipation.
And when two adjacent chords have very unrelated notes, anticipation sounds really
good. For instance, if two adjacent chords were C- and C#-, anticipation would work
especially well.

Just like all great techniques, don’t use it all the time. Aim for balance between lines that
start before their harmony hits and ones that don’t. By mixing up your lines in this way,
your solo will sound much more interesting as a whole.
Begin with the three straight forward exercises presented and soon it will be second-
nature to implement anticipation whenever you feel like it. Don’t underestimate the
power of this simple technique. It’s a huge step towards musical freedom.