jazz guitar chords

Drop 2 Guitar Chord Shapes - Infographic

By Stef Ramin
On 04/29/2018
In Infographics
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This infographic with guitar freatboard diagrams show how to play all five types of drop 2 chords on the first set of strings (E, B, G and D strings).

How to Create Chord Melodies with Drop 2 Chords on Guitar

Connecting drop 2 chords Everyone knows the importance of drop 2 chords in jazz music. They are very useful for comping, chord soloing, harmonizing and building chord melodies. Drop 2 voicings are very important for jazz guitarists because they are easy to play and do no require the root on the low sixth or fifth strings, indeed they are played on 4 adjacent strings. The first chapter of this lesson provides all the drop 2 voicing shapes, major seventh (M7), minor seventh (m7), dominant seventh (7), half-diminished (m7b5) and diminished seventh (dim7) to play on the guitar neck. The second part of this post will explain how to connect drop 2 voicings following the notes of the major scale.

What Is a Backdoor Progression And How To Play Over It

The backdoor progression jazz lesson In jazz, there are many types of turnarounds and progressions that eventually we all must encounter. A key part of how you practice should be in preparing yourself for these progressions and turnarounds. Whether that is by learning a shed-full of Parker’s II V I licks, by practicing exercises over progressions or even by learning a new standard. The end result is that you are better equipped to deal with what is in front of you in the moment on the bandstand.
To this end, I’m going to talk to you today about a progression known as the backdoor progression.

The 14 Most Important Jazz Chord Progressions

14 Essential Jazz Chord Progressions

A chord progression is a succession of musical chords (with at least two notes) played one after another. Chord progression can be named harmonic progression and represent the foundation of western and traditional music. Many jazz standards use similar chord progressions, in different keys it is very important to recognize them by ear and visually. Working and practicing basic chord sequences will make you feel more comfortable when you will need to learn jazz standards, it will more evident and easy to comp and solo.

In this lesson you will learn to recognize the 14 most important jazz chord progressions as minor and major II-V-I, the turnarounds and their variations, how to use passing diminished chords. You will find charts with roman numerals to easily transpose these harmonic progressions in different keys and some examples of comping with audio files, tabs and standard notation.

How to Play a Major 7th Arpeggio Over a Dominant 7 Chord

Major arpeggio over g7 When a jazz beginner starts to improvise over a II-V-I progression, he generally plays arpeggios corresponding to the chords of the sequence. In other words, he learns to play minor arpeggios over the minor chord (II), dominant 7th arpeggio over the 7th chord (V) and major arpeggio over the major 7 chord (I). This way the harmony is highlighted without taking risks. Then, comes the modes, the basic rules concerning modes is that to play dorian over the minor chord , mixolydian over the dominant and ionian over the major chord. In short, in the long-run there is nothing exciting. That's why there is a nice trick used by number of jazz players to add smoothness to a line over a dominant 7th chord. This is a little tip that makes all the difference, simply play the notes of a major 7th arpeggio over the V7 rooted on its b7 degree.

Barry Galbraith jazz guitar study - Like someone - Guitar comping video with bass lines

A new video has been uploaded on the YouTube channel. It is a Barry Galbraith comping study named "Like someone". This is the last study from the Barry Galbraith book "Jazz guitar comping series, vol #3" published by Jamey Aebersold. Most of the accompaniments studies (comps) in this book are designed to accompany a melody or an improvised solo with bass lines like a pianist would do. It is a very great book to practice jazz guitar comping.

Jazz guitar chord voicings - II-V-I progression - 5 Exercises

By Stef Ramin
On 06/26/2017
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II V I jazz guitar chords You will find in this page 5 exercises to learn to play different jazz guitar chord voicings over the most used chord progression in jazz, the famous II-V-I sequence.

Jazz Up Your Basic Guitar Chords - Jazz Guitar Lesson for Beginners

Jazz up your chord - Jazz guitar lesson Generally, when a beginner start to learn to play guitar, he tackles open chords (up the guitar neck), those found in many popular songs. Then, come the bar chords (major, minor, dominant 7) a little hard to master. But all these chords do not have a very interesting sound and are not mostly used in jazz music. That's why in this lesson for jazz beginners we will take the main basic guitar bar chords to transform and enrich them so that their sonority is richer, exciting and better suited to jazz concept.

What is The Tritone Substitution - How To Use It

By Stef Ramin
On 04/13/2017
1 comments

Tritone chord substitution What is The Tritone Substitution?

One of the most popular jazz chord substitution is the tritone substitution sometimes referred to as the dominant chord substitution. The most used is to replace the V with a dominant 7th chord whose root is a tritone below. Example with G7 (V), which can be replaced by Db7 a tritone (Three whole-steps) away. Thus giving two chords that have two notes in common. The 7th of G7 (F) is the third of Db7 and the third of G7 (B) is the seventh of Db7. The inversion of the 3rds and the 7ths between the original dominant chord (V) and the substituted dominant chord (bII7) is the main feature of the tritone substitution.

Tritone substitution

What's a Half-Diminished Chord (m7b5)

By Stef Ramin
On 04/07/2017
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What is a half diminished chord

This article explains what are m7b5 chords, how to play them on guitar and how to apply them in common harmonic contexts as major and minor II-V-I progressions.

Extended Major 7th Chords | Guitar Diagrams & Voicings

By Stef Ramin
On 04/01/2017
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Major 7th chord extensions If the basic sound of jazz is based on tetrad chords (aka four-note chords), it is common to extend them with other tones. These other notes form the upper structure of a chord which includes 9th, 11th and 13th. Adding extensions to chords help to get off the beaten tracks and provides some new harmonic colors to your playing (chord soloing, comping, and arrangement). This lesson provides you useful extended major 7th chord shapes to apply to your playing.

NEW PDF eBook available | 11 blues-jazz progressions for guitar | Chords and comping studies

By Stef Ramin
On 02/12/2017
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A new printable PDF eBook is available. It's about 11 blues progressions for jazz guitar with tabs, analysis (with roman numerals), explanations and audio files, divided into four chapters :

1- Blues progressions and variations
2- Chord studies
3- Guitar walking-bass studies
4 -Rhythm patterns

Download

How to Play Minor and Major 6 chords on Guitar | 24 Diagrams and Voicings

By Stef Ramin
On 02/04/2017
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Major 6 and minor 6 chords are often used in place of major 7 and minor 7 chords when comping over jazz standards. That's why it is very important to be able to play them on the guitar neck. There are two main types of chords that contains a sixth, M6 and m6. These chords are made up of 4 notes and built with the interval patterns :

R-3-5-6 for the major 6 chords.
R-b3-5-6 for the minor 6 chords.

In this post you will see how to play these major 6 and minor 6 chords (root and inverted positions) using 24 guitar diagrams and voicing charts.

There Will Never Be Another You - Jazz Guitar Chord Lesson

By Stef Ramin
On 01/20/2017
In Jazz Standards
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"There Will Never Be Another You" is a popular song by Harry Warren (music) and Mack Gordon (lyrics). It is one of the most known jazz standards and an indispensable study for any jazz guitarist. This jazz guitar comping lesson provides you different chord voicings (drop 2, inverted, rootless and extended chords) on the top four strings of the guitar to comp over this jazz tune. By the way, it will also give you some new ideas to support harmonically a soloist. Indeed, you may even try to apply these chord voicings to the tunes you are used to playing.

Chords in Fourths - Quartal Harmony

By Stef Ramin
On 01/07/2017
2 comments

What is Quartal Harmony?

To enrich and modernize the harmonization of a piece it is common to use fourth chords. They can replace some original chords to bring more melodic freedom into improvisation and more tension in harmony. Since the late 1950s, harmony in fourths has played a very important role in the development of modern jazz. Musicians and composers have used a lot the quartal harmony. Among them, the great American pianist McCoy Tyner, who, is a master in the art of playing quartal chords. Mike Stern, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Bill Evans and Kurt Rosewinkel have also used this technique. In this lesson we will see how to build chords in fourths, how to harmonize the major scale with and how to use them in comping.

15 Jazz Guitar Chords For Beginners

By Stef Ramin
On 10/13/2016
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15 basic jazz guitar chords Here are 15 important 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)

How Chords Are Built ?

Chords can be built with a root (1), a minor (b3) or a major third (3), a fifth which can be perfect (5), diminished (b5) or augmented (#5) and a seventh, which can be major (7), minor (b7) or diminished (bb7).

	minor	major	perfect	diminished	augmented
Root
Third	O	O
Fifth			O	O	O
Seventh	O	O		O

Generally speaking, chords are constructed by stacking thirds (minor and major). Here is a summary chart about the construction of the main types of chords.

Minor seventh (m7)	1	b3	5	b7
Major seventh (M7)	1	3	5	7
Dominant seventh (7)	1	3	5	b7
Half diminished (m7b5)	1	b3	b5	b7
Diminished seventh (dim7)	1	b3	b5	bb7

You will find below 15 guitar fretboard diagrams with formula charts related to these chords. Three positions for each type of chord. One with the root on the sixth string, one with the root on the fifth and one with the root on the fourth string.