Jazz Improvisation - Targeting

One of the first concepts of jazz improvisation is targeting, a widely used technique also used by Charlie Parker. The main idea of targeting is basically landing on the tones of a chord. A chord is built up of a root (1st) and the notes a 3rd, 5th, and 7th above the root in the scale. There are a number of ways to target a chord tone. The first is by ascending or descending chromatic approach (chromatic targeting). This means playing the note a semitone above or below one of the chord tones. In the key of C, the notes in the tonic chord are C(1), E(3), G(5), and B(7). So by playing an E flat at the end of a line then resolving to an E, this would be one basic example of targeting and would be targeting the third of the chord (E♮). This may be used with any factor of any type of chord, but rhythm is played so that the chord tones fall on the downbeats.

Enclosure is the use of scale tone(s) above the targeted note and chromatic tone(s) below, or scale tone(s) below and chromatic tone above(s).