Music Theory

This theory lesson for guitarists covers one the most common question asked by beginner musicians : what's the difference between a dominant seventh and a major seventh chord.

Drop 2 chords are built by dropping the second highest note of a close chord down an octave, thus giving four supplementary ways of playing a seventh chord (min7, maj7, dom7, m7b5, dim7, aug7, augMaj7).

This free music theory cheat sheet will help you understand how these drop 2 voicings are built. You can easily get it for free (or name a fair price) in PDF format on GUMROAD.

The circle of fifths is the way the 12 musical notes of the chromatic scale are arranged following a sequence of perfect fifths (7 semitones).

It helps visualizing relationships between notes and better understanding diatonic harmony.

You'll find in this blog post several cheat sheets for guitarists about the Phrygian mode, third mode of the major scale. These infographics are related to the YouTube video below. They show how this minor scale is built, how to play it on guitar, what are the related chords, how to use it over common chord progressions, etc.

This blog post contains free cheat sheets (infographics) for guitar players about the Dorian mode. You will find useful information on how to play chords, arpeggios and minor licks directly related to this minor scale.

Here are some free cheat sheets for guitar teachers and students about the Ionian mode aka The Major Scale. Here, you'll find chord and scale shapes with easy patterns and licks related to the Ionian mode.

This guitar lesson sheds light on the different types of minor modes and scales that can be used in jazz music.

They are built with different combinations of intervals starting on different steps of several scales as the major scale, the melodic minor, the harmonic minor, the harmonic major, the pentatonic scale and the bebop scale. 

The world of jazz guitar books can be a daunting and overwhelming experience for the beginning guitarist. There are literally thousands of books on jazz guitar, many with similar content and information.

Some books are better suited to learning chords, while others are designed to enhance reading skills, still others are meant to teach improvisation concepts. Some books attempt to cover all of these bases. Some of the most useful are collections of transcribed solos and etudes.

Fortunately for you, I have been studying jazz guitar for 15 years and have practiced and taught from many of the best jazz guitar books available on the market.

Whether your focus is developing a strong sense of rhythm, building your improvisational skills, mastering a wide range of chord voicings, progressions, and substitutions, or understanding the theory that ties all of it together, you can use this list of the best jazz guitar books to help guide your path!

Dominant 7 chords are surely the most important to know when you want to try your hand at jazz guitar. These chords are very present in jazz and blues tunes, that's why it is crucial to know them at your fingertips.This quick lesson show 28 dominant 7 guitar shapes based on drop 2, drop 3 and drop 2-4 voicings. 

This guitar lesson with tabs and theory is about cluster chord voicings.

These are chords in which at least two notes are grouped together in order to create a sort of dissonance.

Cluster chords are sometimes quite difficult to play on guitar but they have a very interesting sound widely used in comtemporary jazz and neo-soul music.

"The Lick" is considered as the most famous phrase in jazz music (and also in other styles).

It has been played so many times, by so many players, in so many tunes that it has become a cliche.

Although there are a significant number of common jazz lines, this one is surely the most popular, an essential part of the Bebop language.

This guitar lesson with tabs, charts and theory explains what is "The Lick", how it is built and how to apply it in different harmonic contexts.

A turnaround is a section of two or four bars at the end of a tune.

Its role is to create a harmonic transition going back to the beginning.

It present in many jazz tunes and is an important part of "rhythm changes" progressions.

They is also used to create effective jazz intros and endings.

This lesson with guitar tabs contains 17 exercises for better understanding of the 1 6 2 5 turnaround and its variations.

Learning jazz guitar chords is a real challenge for beginners.

In this lesson, you will understand how they are built and how to play them on guitar.

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.

This lesson explains how jazz guitar chords are built and how to play them 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.

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.