Music Theory

Here is a list of the main musical scales and modes.

Drop voicings are chords which span more than an octave. They are very useful tools in music composition and arrangement and are greatly appreciated by guitarists for comping and soloing.

There are several types of drop voicings as drop 2, drop 3, drop 3-4, drop 2 and 4 voicings and drop 2-3-4 voicings. 

In this lesson you will learn how drop 3 voicings are built and how to play them on guitar.

Altered dominant chords are used to bring tension and an outside flavor to jazz chord progressions. 

They generally resolve to an inside chord as the I or a substitute as iii or vi.

They have one or more notes lowered or raised by a half-step, in other words they contain one or more alterations.

These alterations are b9,#9, b5 (#11) and b13 (#5).

Altered Chords are generally used by jazz musicians, composers and arrangers as substitutions for diatonic chords for adding dissonance and spicing up the harmony.

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.

In this lesson you will learn to recognize 14 important jazz chord progressions as minor and major II-V-I, turnarounds and their variations, how to use diminished passing chords...etc.

You will also 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.

Unlock new colors in your soloing with one of the most versatile tools in jazz guitar: the minor pentatonic scale. While it’s often associated with blues and rock, this simple five-note scale can create rich, modern sounds over dominant 7 chords when used creatively. 

Arpeggios are among the most essential tools to learn when beginning improvisation.

When played over their matching chords, they produce a more harmonically connected sound.

They also make it easier to clearly outline chord changes in solos and improvisations.

This guitar lesson introduces the simplest type of arpeggios, built from three notes, known as “triad arpeggios.”

The tritone substitution sometimes referred to as dominant chord substitution is one of the most popular harmonic technique found in jazz and other styles of music.

It involves replacing a dominant seventh chord with another dominant seventh chord located a tritone (or augmented fourth) away from the original chord's root.

This lesson breaks down the m7b5 chord, shows how to play it on guitar, and explains how to use it in common harmonic situations like major and minor II-V-I progressions.

Intervals are the building blocks of melody and harmony—the distances between two pitches.

Understanding intervals helps you recognize and create musical relationships, build chords, and develop more expressive solos.

In this lesson, we’ll explore the full spectrum of intervals, from the smallest step (a minor 2nd) to the expansive leap (an octave and beyond).

By mastering intervals, you’ll improve your ear and your understanding of how music works underneath the surface.

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 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. 

The major 2 5 1 sequence is the most common chord progression used in jazz music but also in a whole number of styles of music as pop, rock, blues, country.

It is present in many jazz standards (Summertime, Autumn leaves, Blue bossa, All the things you are and many more), this is why it is very important to master it.

Scale harmonization is the process of creating chords from each note of a given musical scale. This is one of the fundamental theoretical elements to understand music.

This lesson explains how to create triads and seventh chords from each note of the major scale.

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 chord progressions by using guide tones.

Drop 2 chords are very used and appreciated by guitarists of all styles, they are formed by dropping the second highest note of a four-note chord in close position down an octave.

This guitar theory lesson with diagrams and charts explains how drop 2 chords are built and how to play them.

Ecclesiastical modes, also named "Greek modes"or "church modes" or "Gregorian modes" formed in the Middle Ages a set of seven 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 scales of chords and modal playing.

This guitar lesson explains what are the seven modes, how they are built and how to play them on guitar.