Chords / Voicings
Welcome to the blog section dedicated to jazz guitar chord voicings. You will find here relevant sources of information (Tabs, shapes, charts, diagrams) for a better understanding of the main types of chords (minor, major, dominant, diminished, half-diminished, augmented, altered, extended) found in jazz standards and common progressions.
These free guitar lessons provide chord shapes, Tabs, theory, YouTube videos, audio files and formula charts. They are intended for the beginners as well as the more advanced players who want to learn how to build chords (triads, tetrads) or how to play chord-melody arrangements using drop 2, drop 3 and drop 2-4 voicings.
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I VI II V Turnaround Variations - Lesson With Guitar Tabs & Theory
- By Stef Ramin
- On 04/17/2020
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
Turnarounds are a section of two or four bars at the end of a tune. Their role is to create a harmonic transition going back to the beginning. They are present in many jazz tunes and are an important part of "rhythm changes" progressions. They are also used to create effective jazz intros and endings.
This lesson with guitar tabs contains 17 exercises to gain a better understanding of the I VI II V variations.
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Walking Bass Lines and Chords - Cheat Sheets
- By Stef Ramin
- On 04/13/2020
- In Guitar Cheat Sheets, Methods, eBooks, Posters
- 0 comments
Here is a serie of guitar walking bass lines and chords cheat sheets for jazz comping.
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After You've Gone - Jazz Guitar Walking Bass And Chord Study
- By Stef Ramin
- On 04/12/2020
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
After You've Gone is a pop song composed in 1918 by Turner Layton. This blog post provides an easy walking bass lines and chords arrangement with tabs for guitar.
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3 Note Chords - Shell Voicings - Guide Tone Chords - Guitar Lesson With Shapes
- By Stef Ramin
- On 04/07/2020
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
Shell voicings are better known as 3-note chords. They are made up of the most essential notes (root, third and seventh) that define a chord (the fifth is omitted) .They are very useful for beginner guitarists who want to explore basic guitar comping rhythms.
They also help understanding harmony, how chords are built, what are the intervals that compose them. You will understand that shell voicings are a good introduction to more complex chords.
This lesson with tabs and audio provides the essential chord shapes and exercises for practicing guide tone chords (aka 3-note chords) on guitar.
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Walking Bass Exercises For Jazz Guitar - Lesson With Tabs and Audio
- By Stef Ramin
- On 04/05/2020
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
This concept highly prized by solo guitar players consists in mixing chords and bass lines. It can be very useful for guitarists who want to accompany a singer or a soloist in a duo situation for example.
Guitar walking bass lines involve playing one note on each beat in order to make the link between the chords of a progression as a bass player would do.
They are usually played fingerstyle, basses are played with the thumb whereas the other chord tones are played with the fingers.
This free lesson with tabs and guitar shapes provides some easy examples.
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All Of Me - Guitar Chord Melody
- By Stef Ramin
- On 03/05/2020
- In Jazz Standards
- 4 comments
A new video is available on the YouTube channel. This is a chord melody arrangement with synced shapes for jazz guitar of the standard All of Me by Simons & Marks.
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15 Jazz Guitar Chords For Beginners
- By Stef Ramin
- On 02/28/2020
- In Chords / Voicings
- 0 comments
Here are 15 basic jazz guitar chord positions that every beginning jazz guitar student must know. They are grouped into five families : - Major seventh chords (Maj7)
- Minor seventh (m7)
- Dominant 7th (7)
- Half diminished / minor seventh flat fifth (m7b5)
- Diminished 7th (dim7)
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Basic Jazz Guitar Chords - Guide For Beginners
- By Stef Ramin
- On 02/15/2020
- 0 comments
Jazz guitar chord voicings present a real challenge for beginners. Many guitarists think they need to know a lot of complicated chords with unpronounceable names to play jazz. But, the truth is that jazz guitar chords are based on easy shapes that you can move anywhere on the guitar neck.
These basic chords are divided into several distinct qualities (minor 7 , major 7 , dimininished 7 , half-diminished, dominant 7). They can be altered or enriched with extra tones as explains in this tutorial.
By studying the basic chord voicing shapes in this lesson you will understand how jazz chords are built, how to play them on guitar and how to apply them to any jazz standard or chord progression.
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Variations Of Jazz Blues Progression - 10 Guitar Exercises - YouTube Video Lesson
- By Stef Ramin
- On 02/12/2020
- 0 comments
A new video has been published on the YouTube channel. It contains 10 exercises with chord shapes and numeral analysis about different types of variations of the jazz blues progression for jazz guitar rhythm.
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Triad Pairs For Jazz Guitar - Theory, Tabs, Exercises
- By Stef Ramin
- On 02/02/2020
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
The triad pair system is a technique used by many jazz improviser to build modern improvised lines. It consists of playing two adjacent triads from a scale. The most used are from the major diatonic system, however it is possible to use triad pairs from other scales as melodic minor, harmonic minor and harmonic major. This guitar lesson with tabs, shapes and theory is focused on triad pairs from the major scale only.
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Guitar Chord Construction - Theory And Basic Shapes - Essential Guide
- By Stef Ramin
- On 01/18/2020
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 2 comments
This lesson explains how jazz chords are built and how to play them on guitar using common positions. This will help you understand, identify, build and play one of the most important types of chords.
All the shapes proposed in this tutorial are movable and playable anywhere on the fretboard. So, try to play them in all twelve keys.
To simplify learning, the voicings used in this course ensure that the root is always the lowest note, either on the sixth, fifth or fourth string. In other words, there are no chords with third, fifth, seventh or any other note in the bass.
Don't hesitate to create your own chord positions. In the meantime, take a look at the following essential chord shapes proposed below, classified into four distinct categories :
- TRIADS
- (major, minor, augmented, diminished, sus4 and sus2).
- SEVENTH CHORDS (aka tetrads)
- (maj7, min7, dom7, m7b5, dim7, minMaj7, maj7#5, 7b5, 7#5).
- SIXTH CHORDS
- (maj6, min6).
- EXTENDED CHORDS
- (min9, maj9, 9, 6/9, 7#9, 7b9, m11, maj11, 11, m13, maj13, 13, 7b13)
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What Is The Minor II-V-I Progression - What Scales And Chords To Play Over It
- By Stef Ramin
- On 01/02/2020
- 0 comments
The minor II-V-I sequence is equivalent to the major II-V-I sequence, but played in minor harmonic key. It is a must know for any guitarist who wants to learn to solo over tunes in minor keys.
You will find minor II V I progressions in many jazz tunes as Autumn leaves, Blue Bossa, Black Orpheus, Stella by Starlight, The nearness of you, I love you, Speak low, Soul eyes, Valse Hot, Along came Betty, Stablemates, Are you real, I'll remember April, I hear a rhapsody, Tangerine, In your own sweet way, Nuages and many more.
This guitar lesson for beginners explains what is the minor 2 5 1 progression, what scales and what chords can be used for improvising over it.
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Intervals on Guitar - How They Look On The Neck - Shapes and Theory
- By Stef Ramin
- On 12/23/2019
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
Whether simple or compound intervals are a very important part of music theory. Knowing them allow understand how scales, arpeggios and chords are built. Intervals are useful tools to visualize the notes and understand their relationships on the guitar fretboard. This lesson with downloadable pdf, guitar shapes and theory will help you better figure them out and play them on guitar.
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Harmonization of the Harmonic Minor Scale - Guitar Shapes & Theory
- By Stef Ramin
- On 12/15/2019
- 3 comments
This lesson dedicated to the harmonic minor scale explains how to build drop 2 and drop 3 seventh chords from it. This action which consists in stacking notes in interval of thirds starting on each tone of a scale is commonly called "harmonization".
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Blues Progressions For Jazz Musicians - 11 Forms With Analysis & Audio Files
- By Stef Ramin
- On 10/06/2019
- 0 comments
Jazz blues progressions are very common in jazz music however, there is a lot of twelve-bar blues variations based on the typical form.You will see in this lesson how to incorporate major and minor II V I sequences and turnarounds in order to make evolve a basic blues progression. Each chord changes chart contains roman numeral analysis to facilitate transposing them in any key.
