Approaching
Chapter 11 — Part II, Motion: How Does the Bass Travel?
The Question
Why can the note before a chord change make the destination sound inevitable?
The Mental Model
An approach is a note heard in relation to the target that follows it. Its meaning is directional: it points toward an arrival.
The approach may come from a chord tone, a diatonic step, a whole step, or a chromatic half step. What matters is not that the note is “outside,” but that its placement and resolution make the target clear. A chromatic note that never resolves is colour or tension; it becomes an approach only when the next event completes its motion.
Why does a half step feel more inevitable than a whole step or a leap into the same target? Distance is the mechanism: the smaller the gap between the approach and its destination, the fewer other notes could plausibly have been the “real” target instead, so the ear commits to the resolution before it actually arrives. A whole-step or chord-tone approach (Panel A) still points at C, but less exclusively — several other notes sit at a comparable distance. A half step (Panel B) has exactly one note it could be leaning toward, which is why it reads as more urgent without being any louder or longer.
The common error is crediting the destination note for an arrival’s strength when much of that strength was actually manufactured by the note before it. Play C cold, with no preparation, and it’s just a root; play B into C and the ear experiences C as an event that was earned. This chapter’s approach comes from one side only. The next chapter escalates the same idea by surrounding a target from both sides at once — an upper neighbor and a lower neighbor converging on the same destination — which is a stronger, more deliberate version of exactly this mechanism, not a different one.
The Microscope
Both versions use the same G7–Cmaj7 harmony, right-hand voicings, rhythm, tempo, register, target, and phrase length. Only the final bass note before C changes.
A — Chord-tone route. D moves to C without a semitone pull.
G7 resolves to C major; the bass moves G–D–C.
X:1
T:Approaching — chord-tone route
C:Alessandro Bessi
R:Concept study
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=88
%%score { RH LH }
V:RH clef=treble name="Harmony"
V:LH clef=bass name="Bass"
K:C
[V:RH] "G7"[DFGB]8 | "Cmaj7"[EGBc]8 |]
[V:LH] G,6 "^from the fifth"D2 | "^target"C,8 |]
B — Half-step approach. B sits directly below C and intensifies the arrival.
The identical G7–C-major harmony sounds while the bass moves G–B–C.
X:1
T:Approaching — half step
C:Alessandro Bessi
R:Concept study
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=88
%%score { RH LH }
V:RH clef=treble name="Harmony"
V:LH clef=bass name="Bass"
K:C
[V:RH] "G7"[DFGB]8 | "Cmaj7"[EGBc]8 |]
[V:LH] G,6 "^half-step approach"B,2 | "^target"C,8 |]
Listen
Use Harmony only to confirm that the context is identical. Use Bass only to isolate D–C from B–C. Then use Full and listen to how B belongs to G7 while simultaneously leaning into the next root.
See
The annotation belongs on B, not C. C is the target; B is the event whose job is to approach it. Written notation shows a metrically placed half step. It does not claim that B is pushed ahead of the beat or that C is laid back.
Play
Each bar begins on a harmonic destination. Beat 4 supplies the chromatic lower neighbour of the next root.
Four arrivals. Preserve the target notes and change only their approaches.
A four-bar major-key progression whose bass approaches A, D, G, and the returning C by half step.
X:1
T:Four Arrivals
C:Alessandro Bessi
R:Exercise
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=88
%%score { RH LH }
V:RH clef=treble name="Harmony"
V:LH clef=bass name="Bass"
K:C
[V:RH] "Cmaj7"[EGBc]8 | "Am7"[ACEG]8 | "Dm7"[DFAC]8 | "G7"[DFGB]8 |]
[V:LH] "^target"C,6 "^approach"^G,,2 | "^target"A,,6 "^approach"^C,2 | "^target"D,6 "^approach"^F,,2 | "^target"G,,6 "^approach"B,,2 |]
The final B points beyond the printed exercise to C. Repeat the four bars mentally once more so the last approach has a destination.
Vary
Keep every target, attack, and duration. Replace each chromatic lower approach with a diatonic note from above. Compare the strength and character of the four arrivals.
The Music
“Corner Lights” is an original eight-bar jazz study in G major, swung throughout, over two passes of Gmaj7–Em7–Am7–D7. Structural roots land on beat 1; beat 4 prepares the next destination with a chromatic approach.
Corner Lights. The harmony repeats while the bass varies the route into each root.
A swung eight-bar functional-jazz study in G major with compact right-hand voicings and a monophonic walking bass approaching each root chromatically.
X:1
T:Corner Lights
C:Alessandro Bessi
R:Jazz study
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=88
%%score { RH LH }
V:RH clef=treble name="Harmony"
V:LH clef=bass name="Bass"
K:C
[V:RH] "Gmaj7"[Bd^fg]8 | "Em7"[GBde]8 | "Am7"[GAce]8 | "D7"[Acd^f]8 |
"Gmaj7"[Bd^fg]8 | "Em7"[GBde]8 | "Am7"[GAce]8 | "D7"[Acd^f]6 "Gmaj7"[Bd^fg]2 |]
[V:LH] "^target"G,2 B,2 D>"^approach"^D, | "^target"E,2 G,2 B,>"^approach"^G, | "^target"A,2 C2 E>"^approach"^C, | "^target"D,2 ^F,2 A,>"^approach"^F, |
"^target"G,2 D2 B,>"^approach"^D, | "^target"E,2 B,2 G,>"^approach"^G, | "^target"A,2 E,2 C>"^approach"^C, | "^target"D,2 A,2 "^approach"^F,2 "^arrival"G,2 |]
Reflection
Which approach in “Corner Lights” sounds strongest because of its pitch, and which sounds strongest because of where the phrase places it? Every single approach in this study is a chromatic half step — the piece never once tries a whole-step or chord-tone approach for variety. Does that consistency make each individual arrival feel less special by the second pass through the form, or does the repetition itself become part of the study’s identity?