Your question about resolving in the middle of a phrase gets right to the heart of what is a cadence, and what does “resolve” mean exactly. I’ll say no in general (although I think there’s probably some case where it may make sense). It’s also handy to refer to the second audio example in this page (http://music.linear1.org/2006/10/20/playing-idiomatic-bebop/) for an example of what I’m talking about exactly. There are two V-I licks, but I’m playing them without any underlying chords. You’ll hear the cadence in there, and imply a chord change yourself because the line adheres to the guidelines for strong resolutions. Here’s a case where hearing it beats any amount of explanation.

Can you resolve a phrase in the middle of a ii-chord? or V chord? Or, for that matter, any chord that isn’t a I-chord ?

The most convincing resolutions come when your line places a chord tone on a down beat. When the chord tone is not a member of the prior chord, those are the strongest resolutions of all. So out of 1,3,5,7 can you tell me which ones would create the strongest feeling of resolution as a landing point playing over E7->Amaj7?

(I)(IV)(I)(I)
(IV)(IV)(I)(I)
(V)(IV)(I)(V)

every time you see a I-IV or a V-I in succession? What about the (IV-I)’s ?

For solos, I tend to relate to the chord tones of that chord, or block of related chords.

http://music.linear1.org/2006/08/28/video-i-love-you/

For one phrase, he moves from F to A. The C#s and G#s that belong to the Bmi7-E7-Amaj phrase, they don’t relate to F at all. they don’t occur in that key. So I’m playing an E bebop scale in that phhrase, and aiming for a chord tone of Amaj for the resolution.

ie: lets say you’re playing a 12-bar blues in the Key of F. The lick starts on an “F” of the second measure.

(I)(IV)(I)(I)
(IV)(IV)(I)(I)
(V)(IV)(I)(V)

Do you hear the “F” as the 1 of the tonic? Or do you hear it as the 5 of the new root of that measure(Bb)? And once you’ve hit that first note, do you continue to hear the following notes in the context of a key, as just described? Or do you hear them in terms of their intervalic distance between each other? Thanks!

The dominant-tonic relationship is the most important one in harmony. (Watch for an upcoming post all about this). Dominant chords set a strong expectation of what follows. A lot of the cool stuff that happens in music occurs when those expectations are violated. But most of the time, they allow you to “see forward” into the tune.

I’ll bet you can hear melodic intervals reliably. Listen for the intervals between bass notes, and know that the most common motion is along the circle of fifths. The next most common occurrences are substitutions for motion by fifths.

What I’ve been doing recently is listening to a lot of different songs that are played in the same key, (in this case, F). Usually blues songs, songs with simpler chord changes. I will try to identify the notes in the solos based on how they sound relative to the key center (F). The thing is, when the root movement changes ie: from I to IV or I to V, I get worried that the same note in one measure might ’sound’ different in the next. What do you think about this? Sound like a waste of time? Thanks!