Why Don’t You Do Right Chords

Learn how to play Why Don’t You Do Right!

Why Don’t You Do Right? is a classic minor jazz/blues using a descending pattern of VI – V – IVx – IIIx.

The verse is simply varied by taking the V chord out.

The II chord is brought in for the chorus allowing us to explore the Dorian mode.

During the chorus the IV chord has now a maj7 extension.

So the basic chord structure is simple, lets focus on how we can tie these chords together with walking bass lines, only indicating the chords.

If it hasn’t been obvious before, to do this you need to know how all your scales, arpeggios and chords work in relation to each other as numbers.

Walking bass lines and chords

On top of this we simply walk the bass around the arpeggios, occasionally adding notes from the relative mode.

To see this in action, keep the DIY TAB at hand when watching the video, can you see each chord shape, arpeggio and mode?

Solo
The solo is simply the melody modulated to Fm (4th up).

The hardest part might be to get back to Cm again using the walking bass as your only way.

By taking a free and improvising approach to playing jazz standards you can avoid all problems such as memorizing chord names.

You simply understand the chord structure, see the arpeggios and scales and you jam with them.