jazz guitar lesson
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How to Practice Pentatonic Scales On Guitar
- By Stef Ramin
- On 06/01/2019
- 0 comments
What are Pentatonic Scales?Pentatonic scales are scales with five notes per octave. They are frequently used in music all over the world. The word "pentatonic" comes from the Greek word "pente" meaning five and "tonic" meaning tone.
Talk of "the" pentatonic scale generally make reference to the major pentatonic scale and its relative minor. It's a mistake, indeed there are many types of pentatonic scales (Egyptian, Ritusen, Man gong, Altered, Locrian...).
Pentatonic scales are considered earlier than heptatonic scales (seven-note scales) and can be divided into two categories :
- Containing semitones (hemitonic)
- Without semitones (anhemitonic)
The purpose of this post is to propose some tips and ideas for practicing and develop pentatonic scales.
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Harmonized Major Scale For Guitarists With Shapes
- By Stef Ramin
- On 04/27/2018
- In Infographics
- 0 comments
This infographic with three neck diagrams is a useful reminder for beginner guitarists and composers. It shows how to build a drop 2 seventh chord from each note of the major scale.
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Jazz Guitar Scale Exercises – Position Shifts with the Melodic Minor Scale
- By Gareth-Evans
- On 01/14/2018
- In Scales & Arpeggios
- 0 comments
Learning and playing scales can be an important part of any guitarist’s practise regime. By playing scales in a variety of ways we can develop our familiarity with the fretboard beyond simply going up and down scales. In this tutorial we will look at combining two different scale patterns by shifting between them on various strings. For this we are going to use two patterns of an Eb Melodic minor scale, patterns 2 and 3. The Melodic minor scale consists of the intervals R 2 b3 4 5 6 7 (R is for the Root note). -
The Blues Arpeggio - How To Mix Major And Minor Triads
- By Stef Ramin
- On 11/17/2017
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
What's the Blues Arpeggio ?Traditionally, when a student learns to improvise over a jazz, blues tune, he taught pentatonic scales, major triads or dominant 7th arpeggios, but there is something missing to get this specific and exciting jazz-blues sound, "The Blues Arpeggio". This is a very interesting and important device to use over this musical genre. It is a mix of a major triad and a minor triad, it contains both major and minor thirds, representing one of the most vital elements of the blues. In this jazz guitar lesson we will see how to build the blues arpeggio, how to practice it and how to play it on a blues.
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Kenny Burrell - In a mellow tone - Jazz guitar transcription
- By Stef Ramin
- On 09/21/2017
- 0 comments
A new video has been uploaded on the youtube channel. It is a jazz guitar transcription of the jazz standard "In a mellow tone" composed by Duke Ellington and performed by Kenny Burrell in 1990. Here is the Kenny Burrell version on which the transcription is based and the link to the album dedicated to Duke Ellington.
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Jazz Up Your Basic Guitar Chords - Jazz Guitar Lesson for Beginners
- By Stef Ramin
- On 04/27/2017
- In Guitar Practice Tips
- 0 comments
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
- 0 comments
One of the most popular jazz chord substitution is the tritone substitution sometimes referred to as the dominant chord substitution.
It consists in replacing 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.
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Stella by Starlight - Jazz guitar chord melody lesson
- By Stef Ramin
- On 04/11/2017
- 1 comments
A new video is online on the youtube channel. It is a quick jazz guitar chord melody arrangement with chord diagrams of the famous jazz standard "Stella by Starlight" (Victor Young).
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What's a Half-Diminished Chord (m7b5)
- By Stef Ramin
- On 04/07/2017
- 0 comments
This guitar lesson explains what is m7b5 chord, how to play it on guitar and how to apply it in common harmonic contexts as major and minor II-V-I progressions.
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NEW PDF eBook available | 11 blues-jazz progressions for guitar | Chords and comping studies
- By Stef Ramin
- On 02/12/2017
- 0 comments
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 -
There Will Never Be Another You - Jazz Guitar Chord Lesson
- By Stef Ramin
- On 01/20/2017
- In Jazz Standards
- 0 comments
"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 with tabs and shapes, we will see how to build chords in fourths, how to harmonize the major scale with and how to use them in comping.
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What Are Guide Tones and How to Use Them
- By Stef Ramin
- On 12/14/2016
- 0 comments
What Are Guide Tones?Guide tones are the notes in a chord which leads or gives harmonic pull toward the next chord, these are an excellent way to study and absorb the sound of any chord progression.
Guide tones are used to outline chord progressions in an improvisation. They are most of the time the 3rd and the 7th because this is what determines whether a chord is major, minor, or dominant.
This jazz guitar lesson explains how to solo over common jazz progressions using and connecting the guide tones.
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How To Practice Scales On Guitar
- By Stef Ramin
- On 10/27/2016
- In Jazz Guitar Lessons
- 0 comments
Tips and Tricks To Help You Practice Scales
When you want to master jazz language, one of the first things to do is to learn scales and modes. Any guitar student need to memorize the fingerings, the names and the composition of each scale.
It is important to make the difference between the main types of musical scales (major, minor, augmented, symmetric and diminished), important to know what scale works with a particular chord.
In the long run the practice of scales can be confusing and seems a never-ending. Here are some tricks and tips for practicing scales while developing your musical ear, your guitar technique and your theoretical knowledge.
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12 Scales You Can Play Over a Dominant 7th Chord
- By Stef Ramin
- On 08/16/2016
- 0 comments
The first thing to do before starting exploring the twelve different scales shown in this lesson is to understand how to build a basic dominant 7th chord and what its role is.
What's a dominant 7 chord?
A Dominant 7th chords is made up of a root / tonic (1), a major third (3), a perfect fifth (5) and minor seventh (b7). It is one of the most versatile chords. It is considered as a major chord because of the major third (3).
Indeed, the 3rd tell us if the chord is minor or major. The minor seventh (b7) indicates whether the sound wants to move or not (resolve) to another chord. Usually dominant chords tend to resolve to a chord down a perfect fifth (or a chord up a perfect fourth).
C dominant 7th chord C E G Bb Intervals 1 3 5 b7 Related Arpeggio 1 3 5 b7 -
The Seven Modes of The Major Scale
- By Stef Ramin
- On 07/12/2016
- 0 comments
What Are Ecclesiastical Modes?Ecclesiastical modes, also named "Greek modes"or "church modes" or "Gregorian modes" formed in the Middle Ages a set of scales whose use has weakened because of the appearance of the major / minor tonal system.
Several centuries later these modes have reappeared. They are very used in jazz improvisation as scale of chords and modal playing.
This lesson explains how are built modes and how to play them on guitar.