JAZZ THEORY EXPLAINED ONCE & FOR ALL
by Julian Bradley
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HERO BOOKS .COM
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CONTENTS
PART II: CHORDS
24
literal chord voicings
25
thinking quickly
28
chord inversion
30
extended chords
33
introduction to voicings
36
one handed voicings
39
two handed voicings
44
how to transpose
48
13
PART III: SCALES
50
extended harmony
14
chord / scale relationship
51
understanding a lead sheet
17
arpeggiating the chord symbol 54
characteristic chord progressions 19
aiming for the colorful notes 56
PREREQUISITES
5
reading music
6
scale degrees
8
intervals
11
numbering chords
12
PART I: INTRO TO JAZZ
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emphasizing the changes
59
exotic dominant 7 scales
61
PART IV: STYLES
66
walking basslines
67
bossa nova
71
cuban salsa
76
R’n’b piano
81
PART V: ADVANCED TECHNIQUES 87
melodic embellishment
88
reharmonization
92
favorite sounds
96
before we begin prerequisites to
J
A
Z
Z
reading music
6
scale degrees
8
intervals
11
numbering chords
12
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5
TREBLE CLEF
reading music
To read treble clef pitch just remember middle C is the first line below the stave:
What do you need to know before learning jazz? There are a few skills required:
PITCH VS RHYTHM Sheet music tells you 2 things - pitch and rhythm: • Pitch means which note to play.
From that note you can count upwards - each line or space indicates the next white note up on the piano.
• Rhythm means when to play it.
Some people use the rhyme ‘Every - Good - Boy Deserves - Food’ to remember the lines of the treble clef - which go E G B D F:
I think it’s important for all musicians to be able to read pitch - certainly for the treble clef, and ideally bass clef too. This is necessary so you can play the melody line, and can be learnt quickly (in as little as a few hours). Rhythm is more difficult and takes time. However I don’t consider reading rhythm to be nearly as important it’s easy to learn rhythms by ear just by listening to a recording, and you can get a rough idea when to play notes just by looking at the spacing of notes on the page.
BASS CLEF To read bass clef pitch just remember middle C is the first line above the stave (like the treble clef turned upside-down):
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Alternatively, a flat or sharp can be undone using a ‘natural’ sign which looks like this:
Tackle each clef separately so as not to confuse the two spend a week practicing treble clef, and a week on bass clef.
SHARPS / FLATS / NATURALS Lastly each note can be sharpened of flattened - a sharp sign (#) in front of a note means to raise it by a half-step, and a flat sign (b) means to lower it a half-step:
And finally, most sheet music uses a ‘key signature’ - which is a set of sharps or flats shown at the start of the piece, and which remain in place for the entire song (unless otherwise specified):
Once a note has been sharpened or flattened, any repeats of that note will also be sharpened / flattened for the rest of the bar. For example, flattening the first E in the bar, means that all following E’s will also become Eb, until the following bar where E is back to normal.
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The 3rd, 6th & 7th differ between the 2 scales. For this
scale degrees
reason we call the 3rd, 6th and 7th that occur in the major scale the ‘major 3rd’, ‘major 6th’ and ‘major 7th’.
You’ll also need to be familiar with a few concepts in music theory before you begin, in particular identifying scale degrees and intervals.
And we call the 3rd, 6th, and 7th that occur in the minor scale the ‘minor 3rd’, ‘minor 6th’ and ‘minor 7th’.
SCALE DEGREES
In each case, the major version is one half-step higher
Any scale can be assigned numbers. In C major scale, C is
than their minor version.
1, D is 2, E is 3, etc. When you describe notes as numbers, they become ‘scale degrees’ - each note is a degree within the scale. Thinking of notes as scale degrees (‘3rd’ ‘5th’ ‘7th’) is more useful than note names (‘E’ ‘G’ ‘B’).
The 2nd of the major scale is the same as the 2nd in the minor scale - however, to continue with this major / minor pattern, ‘minor 2nd’ actually refers to a flat 2nd even though the minor scale actually has a major 2nd:
When you line the major and minor scale up in parallel (starting from the same note), some notes are the same, and some notes are different:
And finally the root, 4th and 5th are the same in both scales, so these are just referred to as ‘the root’, ‘the 4th’ and ‘the 5th’ of the scale. They don’t have a ‘major’ or ‘minor’ label - they’re just neutral.
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Before you begin learning jazz you need to be comfortable finding any scale degree from any starting note - for example, to find the minor 3rd to play over your Bb chord, or to find the b5th to play over your F chord, or to find the major 6th to add to your E chord. To find your way to any given scale degree (major 3rd, 5th, minor 7th, etc) you could run up the major / minor scale from the chord’s root note, until you reach the desired scale degree, but this takes a lot of time - so I use a quicker method. First I memorize 4 intervals: 8ve
5th
whole-step
half-step
I can instantly find my way to each of these 4 intervals from any note (the 5th is the only one I had to practice). By adding or subtracting just these 4 intervals, I can find my way to all 12 scale degrees quickly:
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scale degree
Built from
Minor 2nd
C - Db
Half-step
Major 2nd
C-D
Whole-step
Minor 3rd
C - Eb
Whole-step + half-step
Major 3rd
C-E
Whole-step + whole-step
4th
C-F
5th - whole-step
Tritone
C - F#
5th - half-step
5th
C-G
5th
Minor 6th
C - Ab
5th + half-step
Major 6th
C -A
5th + whole-step
Minor 7th
C - Bb
8ve - whole-step
Major 7th
C-B
8ve - half-step
Octave
C-C
8ve
Remember as...
C
See if you can answer the following: 1. !
What is the major 3rd of F?
2.
What is the minor 3rd of B?
3.
What is the minor 2nd of A?
4.
What is the major 6th of Eb?
5.
Which scale degree is D in relation to G major?
6.
Which scale degree is Ab in relation to Eb minor?
7.
Which scale degree is Eb in relation to F minor?
ANSWERS: 1.!
A!
count up 2 whole-steps from F = F - G - A
2.!
D!
count up a whole-steps + half-step from B = B - C# - D
3.!
Bb!
count up a half-step from A = A - Bb
4.!
C!
count up a 5th + whole-step from Eb = Eb - Bb - C
5.!
5th!
counting up G major scale, D is the 5th
6.!
4th!
counting up Eb minor scale, Ab is the 4th
7. Minor 7th!
counting up F minor scale, Eb is the minor 7th
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i n t e r va l s ‘Interval’ refers to the distance between 2 notes. There are 12 different sized intervals that exist within the octave and each has its own name - luckily these names are the same names used to describe scale degrees - ‘minor 2nd’,
5.
What is the interval between F# - C#? (ascending)
6.
What is the interval between Eb - D? (ascending)
7.
What is the interval between Bb - G? (descending)
ANSWERS: 1.!
A!
just learn the 5ths
‘major 2nd’, ‘minor 3rd’, ‘major 3rd’, ‘4th’, ‘5th’, etc.
2.!
Ab!
count down 2 whole-steps from C = C - Bb - Ab
Jazz is a lot of mental gymnastics - every chord and scale will be remembered by their interval patterns, so you need to be comfortable finding your way to any interval starting from any note. To measure intervals, use the same
3.!
Eb!
count up a 5th + half-step from G = G - D - Eb
4.!
Ab!
up a 5th - whole-step = Eb - Bb - Ab
5.!
5th!
just learn the 5ths
process as scale degrees - just treat the bottom note of the interval as the point you start counting from, instead of the root of the chord. Then add / subtract the 4 intervals to find your way quickly.
6. Major 7th!
count up an 8ve - half-step = Eb - Eb - D !
7. Minor 3rd!
count down a whole-step + half-step = Bb - Ab - G!
To practice this, challenge yourself to jump up and down
12 notes - the 5th is a good midpoint within the octave to measure notes from, rather than counting from the root every time:
In particular, make sure you can count up a 5th from all
by random intervals from random notes (this can be practiced away from your instrument), like this: 1.
Which note is a 5th above D?
2.
Which note is a major 3rd below C?
3.
Which note is a minor 6th above G?
4.
Which note is a 4th above Eb?
11
numbering
Lowercase roman numerals are used to describe minor chords (ii - iii - vi). Diminished chords are also written using lowercase numerals, followed by a small circle, like this:
chords In C major scale there are 7 chords that exist, one chord built off each note - some sort of C chord, D chord, E chord, F chord, etc. Just as notes can be numbered by their position in the scale, chords too can be numbered by which scale degree the chord is built from:
Chords can be numbered this way in both major and minor scales - here’s how the 7 chords in C minor scale would be numbered:
C major is ‘the one chord’, D minor is ‘the two chord’, E minor is ‘the three chord’ and so on. When describing chords, roman numerals are used Since the major scale has a different set of chords to the minor scale, it’s important to specify which scale you’re numbering in. For example, you should say ‘lets play a ii - V - I in Bb major’, or ‘lets play a ii - V - i in F minor’ to be clear.
(ii, iii, IV), as apposed to notes which are described using numbers (2nd, 3rd, 4th). Uppercase roman numerals are used to describe major chords (I - IV - V).
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PA R t o n e introduction to
J
A
Z
Z
extended harmony
14
understanding a lead sheet
17
characteristic chord progressions 19
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min 3rd + maj 3rd = minor chord (C Eb G)
introduction to
maj 3rd + maj 3rd = augmented chord (C E G#)
extended harmony
min 3rd + min 3rd = diminished chord (C Eb Gb) In early classical music, chords consisted of just 3 notes 1 3 5. At some point, composers searching for new sounds thought to try building the stack higher - why stop at the
What makes jazz sound so different? Its rhythms? Its melodies? Its instrumentation? While it has its own characteristics in each, the most distinctive feature of jazz has to be its sophisticated use of harmony. ‘Harmony’ refers to the combination of pitches (music’s equivalent of color mixing) - chords, melody notes, bass notes all mix
5th? By adding an extra 3rd above the 5th you get a 7th chord:
together to create harmony.
EXTENDED HARMONY Chords are built of 3rds - 3rds stacked on top of 3rds. There are 2 types of 3rd (major 3rd & minor 3rd) and you can create different combinations of the 2 to form
C E G B A few decades passed, and then around the romantic period, composers like Ravel, Chopin, Schumann started
different types of chord:
adding another 3rd above the 7th, creating a 9th chord:
maj 3rd + min 3rd = major chord (C E G)
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The 13th is the highest a chord can go, because adding another 3rd brings you back to the root again - so that’s why you never see 15th, 17th or 19th chords. Some musician’s ask why chords are numbered using 9, 11, 13 instead of 2, 4, 6 - the reason is to preserve the thought process that created them - chords are built in 3rds, and not by just playing random 2nds, 4ths or 6ths
C E G B D And eventually this idea was continued to create 11th chords:
out of the blue. So the thought process is reflected by numbering using odd numbers. So when discussing chords I’ll tend to use 7 9 11 13, and when discussing scales I’ll tend to stick with 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.
C E G B D F
Notes added above the 5th are called ‘chord extensions’ so the 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th are all ‘chord extensions’, also referred to as ‘extended harmony’.
And 13th chords - all of which are just large stacks of 3rds.
There are several types of 7th chord, several types of 9th chord, several types of 11th chord and several types of 13th chord - each has its own unique pattern of major and minor 3rds. It can take a while to get used to these new names, like ‘major 7’, ‘minor 9’, ‘dominant 7 b9 #11’ etc, but essentially each name just refers to a specific stack of major and minor 3rds.
C E G B D F A
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The higher you build a chord, the more combinations are possible - so there are more types of 13th chord than
related video: ‘Introduction to Jazz’
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there are 7th chord.
pr ac ti ce ti p When I first discovered how jazz chords were formed (using different stacks of maj / min 3rds) I would play through every combination I could think of at the piano. I recommend doing the same - make a list of every possible combination you can think of, play each one and make note of your favorite chords, even if you don’t know their names yet.
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could be as simple as changing one note from the scale you’re in, or as complicated as changing every note -
u n d e r s ta n d i n g a
lead sheet
either way you’re changing key. So if you see an F in the melody one measure, but an F# in the next, you know a change of key has taken place.
‘Lead sheet’ refers to the minimal notation style seen in
Don’t expect a jazz song to stay in one key for any length
real books. Unlike classical music notation, lead sheets only provide a melody line with chord symbols written above:
of time - it’s rare for jazz to stick to the same key for more than 3 chords in a row, and an advanced jazz musician will aim to play a different scale over each chord - so jazz is continually changing key (changing scale).
IDENTIFYING THE HOME KEY That said, a key signature will still be used at the beginning of the music, to make it easier to write out the melody with fewer accidentals (sharps & flats) - even though the key signature won’t always reflect the key changes within the music:
In this chapter I’ll help you understand lead sheets.
CHANGING KEYS A common question I get asked by students is ‘what key is this jazz song in?’. Most musical styles (including classical and pop music) stick to one key throughout - however jazz makes a feature of changing key often. ‘Changing key’ means changing which scale the music is built from - this
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It’s still fair to say that a jazz song is in a certain key since it’s normal for jazz to start and finish in the same home key. The best way to identify which key a jazz song’s in is to look at the start and ending chords - most jazz songs start and finish on the root chord of the home key, so a song that starts and ends on G minor is probably in G minor (with plenty of key changes in the middle). You can also look at the key signature to give you an idea which key the music is in (as is taught in classical music) but using the key signature only work if the music’s written in the major or minor scale - many jazz songs are written using scales other than major / minor (like the dorian or lydian scales) - so the key signature could be outlining a range of different types of scale.
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characteristic
A COMPLETE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS
chord progressions
It’s possible for a circle of fifths to last as long as 7 or 8 chords, passing conveniently through all 7 chords from the major or minor scale (whichever the music is in).
All styles of music have their own characteristic chord progressions - early classical music mostly used the I - IV V chords, pop music mostly uses the I - IV - V - vi chords,
It’s normal to extend the progression to last 8 measures by playing the root chord twice - either starting and finishing on the root chord...
and jazz is the same - it has its own characteristic chords.
CIRCLE OF FIFTHS CHORD PROGRESSIONS 90% of jazz is built around circle of fifth chord progressions - by this I mean chord progressions that resolve down a 5th each time. For example Dm7 - G7 - C maj 7 - F7 is a circle of fifth chord progression because each chord moves down a 5th (don’t worry about the types of 7th chord yet).
...or playing the root chord twice at the end:
It’s important to emphasize that a circle of fifths moves A complete circle of fifths is designed to end on the root chord (of whichever key the music is currently in) - so playing a complete circle of fifths in the key of C minor
down a 5th each time - not up. Open any jazz song at random in your real book and see how many circle of fifths you can spot.
would make its way through all 7 chords found in C minor and end on C minor, the root chord - ending on any other chord would leave the progression sounding unfinished.
Inevitably the composer will break up the circle of fifths in places, but most chords in jazz move down a 5th.
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Each fragment will normally play the final few chords of a complete circle of fifths - since that’s where the final resolution happens. And this is where the ‘ii - V - I’ comes from: You can hear a complete circle of fifths in the beginning of ‘Autumn Leaves’, in the B section of ‘Take Five’, or in ‘Rondeau from Abdelazer Suite’ by Purcell.
ii - V - I is the characteristic chord progression of jazz, and refers to the final 3 chords in a circle of fifths. So if you count backwards from the final ‘I chord’ (which a circle of fifths ends on), the 2nd to last chord will be the V chord (a 5th above the root), and the chord before that will be the ii chord (a 5th above the 5th). So ‘ii - V - I’ refers to the final 3 chords of a complete circle of fifths.
THE 2 - 5 - 1 Although you will encounter complete circle of fifths from time to time (passing through all 7 chords), most of the time jazz only stays in one key long enough for 3 or 4
And if you ever hear the phrase ‘vi - ii - V - I’ (‘6 - 2 - 5 -
chords to be played. As a result you’ll encounter a fragment of a circle of fifths in one key, then another fragment in another key, and another key, and so on:
1) - well that just refers to the final 4 chords of a circle of fifths (because the vi chord is another 5th above the ii chord). Note: always number chords from the key that the music is currently in - not from the start and end key. So if the music starts and finishes in C major, but at some point inbetween changes key to F minor - well for the F minor section you’ll number chords counting from F (‘that’s a ii V - i in F minor). And then if it switches key to Bb major,
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number chords counting from Bb (‘that’s a vi - ii - V - I in Bb major).
And if the music’s in the minor scale, you’ll create your ii V - i from chords found in the minor scale:
7TH CHORDS ARE THE NORM In addition, pretty much every chord in jazz is played as a 7th chord (at the very least) - so ‘ii - V - I’ really means ‘ii7 - V7 - I7’. It’s a given that each chord will have a 7th added on top, but for convenience we just say ‘2 - 5 - 1’:
Which means that a ii - V - I in C major will consist of different chords to a ii - V - i in C minor.
THE MAJOR II - V - I The major scale’s ii - V - I is straightforward - just take a major scale like C major, and see which type of chord formation you get when you build a ii chord, a V chord, and a I chord using only the notes of C major scale:
2 TYPES OF II - V - I It’s important to understand that there are 2 types of ii - V - I - one for the major scale and one for the minor scale. So if the music’s in the major scale, you’ll create your ii - V - I from the chords found in the major scale:
The ii chord turns out as a minor 7 chord (D minor 7). The V chord turns out as a dominant 7 chord (G dominant 7).
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And the I chord turns out as a major 7 chord (C major 7). This pattern stays the same throughout all major keys the ii chord is always minor 7, the V chord is always dominant 7, and the I chord is always major 7.
However, when you try playing these 3 chords, it doesn’t sound quite right - G minor 7 (the minor v chord) lacks drive / motivation to resolve to C minor (the i chord).
The different types of 7th chord will be explained fully in the chords section coming up.
Whereas if you change the v chord from a minor 7 chord (G Bb D F) to a dominant 7 chord (G B D F), suddenly
THE MINOR II - V - I
the progression comes to life and sounds much stronger. And this is how the minor ii - V - i is played (without exception):
The minor ii - V - i is slightly more complicated, and often causes confusion, so let me explain. You would expect a ii - V - i in C minor scale to be built from the notes of C minor scale (C natural minor scale):
The same applies to a complete circle of fifths in the minor scale - all chords will be built from the notes of C natural minor scale, apart from the V7 chord (2nd to last chord) which is always played as a dominant 7 chord instead:
Building a ii chord within this scale gives you D minor 7 b5 (also known as ‘D half-diminished’). Building a v chord gives you G minor 7. And building a i chord gives you C minor 7.
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This pattern stays the same throughout all minor keys the ii chord is always half-diminished (minor 7 b5), the V chord is always dominant 7, and the i chord is always minor 7.
related video: ‘ii-V-I’s explained’
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PA R t t w o
j a z z
C H O R D S literal chord voicings
25
thinking quickly
28
chord inversion
30
extended chords
33
introduction to voicings
36
one handed voicings
39
two handed voicings
44
how to transpose
48
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‘literal‘
chord voicings When you see this chord in the chord sheet it’s usually the I chord at the end of a major ii - V - I progression:
To begin with lets focus on the exact notes each chord symbol specifies. There are 4 commonly used chord symbols which make up 95% of jazz - these are the 4 types of 7th chord found in the major and minor ii - V - I progressions: Major 7 chord
minor 7 chord
Minor 7 chord
Building a 7th chord from the root of the minor scale will give you a minor 3rd, 5th and minor 7th - this is called a ‘minor 7 chord’:
Dominant 7 chord Half-diminished
major 7 chord Building a 7th chord from the root of the major scale will give you a major 3rd, 5th and major 7th - this is called a ‘major 7 chord’:
When you see this chord in the chord sheet it’s either the i chord at the end of a minor ii - V - i progression, or the ii chord of a major ii - V - I progression:
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unique type of 7th chord if formed, not found anywhere else in the scale - for this reason it’s called the ‘dominant 7 chord’: OR:
It has a major 3rd, 5th, and a minor 7th. You could think of it as being half-way between major 7
dominant 7 chord
and minor 7 chords - it has the 3rd of a major 7 chord, but the 7th of a minor 7 chord.
‘Dominant 7’ is the classical term for this type of chord in jazz it’s just called ‘C7’ or ‘D7’ - but I like the term
When you see this chord it’s always the V7 chord of a ii V - I progression - either a major ii - V - I or a minor ii - V - i:
‘dominant 7’ because it explains how this chord is made: Classical music theory has names for each note in the scale - the root is the ‘tonic’, 2nd is the ‘super-tonic’, 3rd is the ‘mediant’ and so on:
‘Dominant’ refers to the 5th note of the scale, and when you build a 7th chord from the 5th (of the major scale) a
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chord, I’m assuming that someone called it a ‘halfdiminished chord’ instead. This is also reflected in its chord symbol which is a small circle (the diminished sign) with a line cutting through it. When you see this chord in the chord sheet it’s usually the ii chord in a minor ii - V - i progression:
half-diminished chord This chord is also known as a ‘minor 7 b5’ chord - it has a minor 3rd, flat 5th, and a minor 7th.
Why is it called a ‘half-diminished’? Because it’s just one note different to a ‘fully-diminished 7th chord’, which is a complete stack of minor 3rds:
The half-diminished chord is 2 minor 3rds and a major 3rd - since it’s so close to being a fully-diminished 7th
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So first I count up a perfect 5th from the root. The 5th
t h i n k i n g q u i c k ly
is a good mid-point to divide up the octave. Each of the major 7, minor 7, and dominant 7 chords have a natural 5th anyway, but even for the half-diminished chord (which has a b5) I start by finding the natural 5th first.
In the previous chapter I explained the 4 types of 7th chord that most jazz is made of - next we need to be able play these chords starting from any note. In this chapter I’ll outline the thought process I follow to create these chords quickly. Next I find the 3rd - if the chord has a major 3rd I count up 2 whole-steps from the root - if it has a minor 3rd I count a whole-step and a half-step:
FIND THE 5TH FIRST This is my thought process to find any chord: !
Find the 5th first.
!
Then find the 3rd.
!
Then find the 7th.
!
Lastly find any ‘add-ons’, (b5 / #5, etc) Then I’ll find the 7th - instead of counting up 7 notes from the root, I prefer to jump up an octave and count down a note. So if the chord has a major 7th I’ll count up an octave from the root, and then down a half-step. If the
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chord has a minor 7th I’ll count up an octave and down a whole-step:
And in case you’re wondering, any extended harmony notes (9, #11, b13 etc) I’ll add last, after I’ve laid down the 4 chordal tones (1 3 5 7) - chord extensions will be discussed soon. Of course I do this thinking very quickly, in a split second, but it’s still the thought process my brain goes through.
This is all that’s needed to form the major 7, minor7 and dominant 7 chords:
p r ac ti ce t ip Play through the songs in your real book and practice finding your way to each chord using my 4 step process:
But to play a half-diminished chord I’ll add an extra step at the end which is to flatten the 5th. Personally I prefer to make a minor 7 chord first and then flatten the 5th last:
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!
!
5th first.
!
!
3rd.
!
!
7th.
!
!
Any ‘add-ons’ last.
C major ‘root position’, C major ‘1st inversion’, C major ‘2nd inversion’.
chord inversion
‘Root position’ refers to a chord’s original voicing, with the root as the bass note. All following inversions are numbered in order - so play the 3rd in the bass is called ‘1st inversion’. Playing the 5th in the bass is ‘2nd inversion’, and playing the 7th in the bass is ‘3rd inversion’.
As you go through a chord sheet playing each chord symbol ‘literally’ (1 3 5 7 every time), you’ll notice your hand having to leap around a lot. For most chords you’ll have to reposition your hand up or down a 4th or 5th.
The more notes a chord contains, the more inversions are possible. So a chord with 7 notes could create 6 inversions (root position plus 6 inversions).
Not only does this get physically tiring, but it creates a jagged sound with each chord change - the opposite of smooth.
WHICH CHORDS TO INVERT?
To avoid this problem, chord inversion is used. ‘Inversion’ means to turn a chord upside-down (or partially upside-
Chords usually sound best played in root position - playing a chord in inversion sounds weaker and is only used as a way to create smooth voice-leading from one chord to the
down) - to rearrange the chord so that a note other than the root is in the bass - maybe the 3rd becomes the new bass note, or maybe the 5th or 7th. The root still gets played but is repositioned higher in the chord:
next - the goal is to invert as few chords as possible. Given that most of jazz is built of ii - V - I progressions, which chord / chords would you choose to invert in a ii - V - I? We definitely need to invert at least one chord in the ii - V - I since playing all 3 in root position causes a lot of jumping around. Since the ii chord and the I chord are relatively
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close together (a whole-step apart), it makes sense to leave these in root position and to invert the V7 chord in-
next in 2nd inversion, and continue to alternate, like this:
between. This allows us to keep the majority of chords in root position. So it is common to play the V7 chord of a ii - V - I in inversion, specifically in 2nd inversion which creates the least hand movement and the smoothest sound:
Using this pattern you only have to change 2 notes at a time (as long as each chord is moving down a 5th each time). First the bottom 2 notes stay the same while the top 2 move down. Then the top 2 notes stay the same while the bottom 2 move down a step. And the pattern continues once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to play. Sometimes I hold down the notes that stay the same and sustain them through to the next chord - it adds to the smooth sound, rather than taking them off and playing them a 2nd time:
MUSCLE MEMORY When playing a complete circle of fifths, I’ll continue this alternating effect - play the first chord in root position, the
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pr ac ti ce ti p Train your left hand to play ii - V - I’s with the V7 chord in 2nd inversion. Do this in all 12 major keys (playing the major ii - V - I), and all 12 minor keys (playing the minor ii - V - i).
related video: ‘chord inversion
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The natural 9th, 11th and 13th are based on the major scale’s 9th, 11th and 13th. So for any type of C chord - the
extended chords
9th will be the naturally occurring 9th in C major scale which is D. The 11th will be the naturally occurring 11th in C major scale - which is F. And the 13th will be the naturally occurring 13th in C major scale - which is A:
Adding chord extensions to a chord (9 #11 b13) is a common source of confusion - not so much the flattening or sharpening part, but knowing which exact note is to be sharpened or flattened in the first place.
FINDING A CHORD’S 9TH / 11TH / 13TH Whether a chord is major 7, minor 7, dominant 7, halfdiminished or other - the extended harmony notes are the same every time. So whether the chord is C major 7, C minor 7, C dominant 7, or C half-diminished - the 9th, 11th and 13th will be the same for each.
Even if the chord is C minor 7, the extensions are based on C major scale. So even though C minor scale has an Ab, the 13th will always be C major’s 13th - A natural. Anytime you need to work out which note is meant by a 9th, 11th or 13th in the chord symbol, just imagine the chord is major, and count up the major scale until you reach the extension note - then play it over whichever chord is actually stated. For example if the chord symbol says ‘D7 add 13’ - and you want to find the 13th, just imagine the chord is ‘D major 13’ for a moment, and count up the notes of D
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major scale until you reach the 13th (the 6th) - in this case you’ll reach B, which means B is the 13th of D whether the chord says ‘D7 add 13’, ‘D major 7 add 13’, or ‘D minor 7 add 13’ - the 13th is always going to be the same - B. The sharp / flat extensions mostly occur over dominant 7 chords, which are known for their exotic scales - whereas the major 7 / minor 7 chords are usually fine sticking to the naturally occurring extensions (no tweaks necessary).
You could think of it this way - the first part of the chord symbol (the ‘maj 7’ / ‘min 7’ / ‘dom 7’ part) is only there to tell you 1 3 5 7 of the chord, but has no effect on any extended harmony notes added after:
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VS
11 13
Sometimes you’ll see chords numbered with ‘6’ instead of ‘13’, or numbered with ‘4’ instead of ‘11’:
SHARPS & FLATS Once you’re confident finding the 9th, 11th and 13th of any chord, the last part is easy - each extended note can be sharpened or flattened - a sharp sign (#) or sometimes a plus sign (+) means raise one half-step, and a flat sign (b) means lower one half-step:
‘6’ refers to the exact same note as ’13’, and ‘4’ refers to the exact same note as ‘11’, but there are conventions which decide which one to use, depending on the situation:
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13
OR
(because the natural 4 doesn’t sound good) but it’s a shame major 7 chords don’t use ‘11’ like the minor 7 and
6? The convention is to use ‘13’ if the chord is a
dominant 7 chord, and ‘6’ if the chord is major or minor (so previously when I demonstrated how to find the 13th of a minor chord, really I should be labeling it with a ‘6’ but it’s the same process to find the 6th - just count up
dominant 7 chords - however jazz theory is a mixture of many musicians’ thinking, it wasn’t one brain coming up with everything, and there’s no control over what catches on - so jazz is a bit like using imperial measuring for some things and metric for others.
the major scale to the same note and call it a ‘6th’ instead).
p r ac ti ce t ip Play through a chord sheet and practice adding extensions of your choice to each chord - add a
11
OR
9th to one chord, an 11th to the next, a 13th to the next and so on.
4? ‘11’ is used for minor 7 and dominant 7 chords
- as long as they have the 4 chordal tones (1 3 5 7) and an 11th on top, then that chord is labeled using ‘11’:
Once you get the hang of this, start assigning yourself flattened and sharpened extensions - ‘b9’, #11’, ‘b13’, etc
Strangely though, major 7 chords are labeled using ‘4’ you’ll only likely encounter ‘#4’ over a major 7 chord
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Or I could play it like this:
introduction to
voicings Once you’re confident playing literal chord voicings, inverted chords, and adding extensions on top - it’s time
C
to discuss chord voicings. The remaining chapters in this section are geared towards piano players.
B D E G
I could spread the notes out like this:
WHAT IS A VOICING? A chord symbol tells you which chord to play (Cm7, F7b9, Bb maj7), but gives you freedom to choose how to ‘voice’ that chord - how to arrange that group of notes, which order to play them in, whether to add notes (9ths, 11ths, 13ths), whether to space notes out wide, or crunch
C
G
D E
B
Or like this:
them together. For example, I could play C major 7 like this:
B C
E
G
E
A
D
G
C
Each of these voicings creates a C major 7 type of
B
sound, because they agree with the chordal tones of C major 7 (1 3 5 7) - each voicing has C, E (not Eb), G (not
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G#), B (not Bb), which means they should sound like C major 7. If the chord symbol said C minor 7 I’d make sure my voicing had C Eb G Bb, and if I was playing C dominant 7 I’d make sure it had C E G Bb, and the
B
same goes for any type of chord.
E
A
D
G
C
Now lets see how it sounds as a C minor 7 voicing:
INVENTING YOUR OWN VOICINGS Each type of chord can be voiced hundreds of ways, and it can be rewarding to search for your own voicings. When creating new voicings I recommend deciding which chord you’re going for first, rather than trying out random stacks of notes and assigning them to chords later.
Bb
A
D
G
C
Invent one handed voicings (to be played in the left hand under a right hand melody) and two handed voicings.
When you discover a voicing you like, see if you can tweak it to fit with other chord types. So say you found a C major 7 voicing - see if it sounds good for C minor 7 by changing E & B to Eb & Bb (just change the chordal tones 1 3 5 7 to those of the new chord) - often this works. Take this C major 7 voicing for example:
Add extensions to your voicings - 9ths 11ths 13ths - even if you were only trying to create a 7th chord voicing. Since there’s a limit to the notes you can play (comfortably), aim to play a new note with each finger. So instead of saying the same thing twice, like this (E is doubled):
Eb
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And finally, most 2 handed voicings work best with the
C
G
D E
B
root as the bottom note, and the 3rd and 7th also voiced low down. These 3 notes tell your ear which type of chord is being played (maj 7, min 7, dom 7), so it helps to voice these notes low down where they’ll carry more
E
weight:
Add a new color that hasn’t been played yet:
C
G
D E
B
F# But these are just guidelines, not rules, and many great voicings don’t stick to these.
A good way to generate new voicings is to focus on a specific interval - for example, build some voicings using predominantly 2nds, others of 3rds, others of 4ths, and others of 5ths:
p r ac ti ce t ip Invent at least one new voicing for each of the commonly used 7th chords (C major 7, C minor 7, C dominant 7, C half-diminished).
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one handed
both hands available.
voicings
In this chapter I’ll share a variety of one handed voicings, each demonstrated over the same ii - V - I in C (major and minor) - that way you’ll see individual voicings as well as how they move / invert in a normal context.
As a piano player, it’s useful to have a collection of onehanded and two-handed chord voicings. One-handed voicings can be played in the left hand while the right hand plays a melody / solo:
LITERAL CHORD VOICINGS There’s nothing wrong with using literal chord voicings (1
Chord
&
3 5 7) - early jazz musicians used only these, so if you want an old-fashioned warm and emotional sound, these work well:
melody
Or played in the right hand over a left hand bassline (while accompanying a singer perhaps):
bassline
&
SHELL VOICINGS
chord
All that’s needed to convey the type of chord is its root
And two-handed voicings allow you to create the richest sound possible, whenever you get the chance and have
3rd and 7th - these 3 notes tell your ear whether the
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chord is major 7, minor 7, or dominant 7. And it’s perfectly reasonable to voice chords as minimally as this:
If you can’t make the stretch comfortably, you can simplify the voicing even more, and play just the root and 3rd, or root and 7th, like this:
These are called ‘shell voicings’ and the benefit to using them is they give the soloist complete freedom to alter as many extended harmony notes as they like (b9 #9 #11
The other advantage to using shells is they create contrast with the complex two handed voicings (coming
b13 etc) without worrying about clashing with your chords.
up). By playing some sections using simple shells you’ll make the sophisticated voicings sound even more complex, than if you were to play complex voicings all the time:
You can play shells as 1 3 7 or as 1 7 3 - the only problem however is the big stretch required when playing a ii - V - I:
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ROOTLESS VOICINGS If you’re playing with a bass player you don’t need to play the root - the bassist will play this so you can save the finger for a more colorful note instead. The most obvious thing to do is to move your hand up a 3rd - making the 3rd your voicings bottom note and then build a stack of 3rds to reach the 9th. So instead of playing 1 3 5 7 you’re now playing 3 5 7 9.
But many players tweak the V7 chord slightly, playing this instead:
To find these rootless voicing quickly, this is how I think: When I see C major 7 I play E minor 7 When I see C minor 7 I play Eb major 7 When I see C dominant 7 I play E half-diminished It’s easier to play (just one note change from ii7 to V7) but results in a more sophisticated V7 voicing, playing the 13th instead of 5th. Or you could invert these 3 voicings the other way round - so far I’ve played ii and I in root position and the V chord in inversion - but it sounds just as good if you
You can apply inversion to these rootless voicings, to minimize hand movement from one chord to another - as with literal voicings, playing the V7 chord in 2nd inversion works well:
invert ii and I (play 7 9 3 5) and leave the V chord in root position (3 5 7 9 - or the tweaked version - 3 13 7 9):
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STRIDE PIANO Rootless voicings are useful when playing with a bass player, but you can also use them as a solo pianist - just hold down the chord’s root note with the pedal (beat one), and move your hand up to play a rootless voicing (beat two) - similar to a stride piano effect but can be played slower: And you can tweak the V7 chord’s extended harmony notes (its 9 and 13) to outline a more exotic scale:
Or played with less effort like this:
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CHORD & BASSLINE
related video: ‘stride piano lesson’
And finally, these rootless voicings sound just as good played in the right hand while the left hand plays some sort of bassline (walking bass, bossa nova bass, etc). When playing a bossa nova I’ll often play the bossa nova bassline
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in the left hand, with rootless voicings in the right hand played to an appropriate bossa nova rhythm (bossa nova chapter coming up later):
ARRANGING And incase you’re wondering - these voicings sound just as good played on other instruments - not just solo piano. When I’ve written for larger jazz ensembles (including big band) I’ve often used these same rootless voicings, distributed between trumpet / saxophone / trombone players (bass player playing the root), and it sounds authentic and professional. Each voice moves smoothly by step to the next chord.
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two handed
contributes to the chord’s lush sound, rather than just being an extra note added on top.
voicings
For this to work I need to have roughly 7 voicings for each common chord type (major 7 / minor 7 / dominant 7) - at least one voicing for every possible melody note.
To create the most sophisticated sounding piano voicings, two hands will be required.
So for C major 7 I need a voicing with C as its top note, a voicing with D as its top note, a voicing with E as its top note, and so on (C D E F# G A B):
When playing with other musicians you’ll be free to play chords using both hands most of the time, but when playing solo piano there are less opportunities, since you’re trying to play melody and bassline at the same time. However it is possible to play melody, chord and bassline together by choosing the right two handed voicing - in this chapter I’ll show you how.
THINKING TOP - DOWN When deciding which voicings to use for a solo piano performance of a standard, I’m looking at two things: !
1. Chord type (maj 7, min 7, dom 7, etc)
!
2. Melody note
Then I need a similar collection of voicings for C minor 7 (covering C D Eb F G A Bb):
Then I scan through my memory bank of voicings, searching for a voicing that happens to have that melody note as its top note. This way I can play the melody and chord together - the melody is already part of the voicing and
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As well as C dominant 7 (covering C D E F# G A Bb):
But when a voicing doesn’t have the root as its bottom note, I can just play the root first on its own, sustain it using the pedal, and then jump up to play the two handed voicing (with melody note incorporated):
PLAYING BASSLINE WITH YOUR VOICING So this allows me to play melody and chord at the same time, but I’d also like to play a bassline, even if it just plays the root of each chord. Luckily, many of my two handed voicings already have the root as their bottom note allowing me to play melody, chord and bassline:
MOVING A CHORD IN PARALLEL Sometimes I’ll have the perfect chord voicing for the occasion - root at the bottom, melody at the top - then the melody moves takes a step sideways, and returns - like this:
This is always an invitation to move that perfect chord voicing up or down with the melody (known as ‘side-
45
slipping’ or ‘moving a chord in parallel’ - to be discussed later) - like this:
And sometimes the final i chord of a ii - V - i (I’m not too concerned with the ii chord):
Not only does it create a sophisticated sound (shifting the harmony in parallel with the melody), but it’s usually easy to play - just lock your hands’ positions and move your arms to the side.
COMBINING ONE HANDED VOICINGS & TWO HANDED VOICINGS And finally, you don’t have to play a two handed voicing for every chord - in fact if you play them all the time your ear gets used to them and loses its appreciation. Personally I like to mix complex sounding two handed voicings in with simpler one handed voicings - that way the listener will always appreciate the complex moments. Normally I save the complex voicing for the V7 chord of a ii - V - I (which is where the magic happens):
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related video: ‘TWO HANDED VOICINGS’
pr ac ti ce ti p
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Go through a jazz standard practicing this top down approach - for each chord, recall a voicing that already has the melody note as its top note choose from your own voicings, or the ones I’ve listed. Attend to the bassline too - either your voicing has the root as its lowest note, or if it doesn’t, use the stride technique (sustain the root with the pedal before playing the voicing above).
songs with side-slipping opportunities
Find voicings that have the melody as their top note. Then spot side-slipping opportunities in the melody: ‘Autumn Leaves’ ‘Taxi Driver’ (Bernard Herrmann) ‘Easy To Love’
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how to
transpose Playing jazz requires constant transposition - being able to recreate any voicing, scale, lick, walking bassline pattern, etc in any key. In this chapter I’ll show you how I transpose and adjust to any key.
Or if I discover a new voicing for A minor 7 - first I’ll transpose each note up a minor 3rd to see how it looks as C minor 7:
LEARN EVERYTHING IN C FIRST To memorize a chord voicing (or scale, lick, or anything else) first I’ll transpose it into C. I do this for any type of chord - rebuild it to start from the same root note whether it’s C major 7, C minor 7, C dominant 7, or C half-diminished, lining up everything from C helps me remember everything clearly - I don’t have to remember the voicing and which key I discovered it in - just the voicing.
To transpose an entire voicing, just work your way up the chord, transposing one note at a time by the same interval.
INTERVALS & SCALE DEGREES
So if I discover a new voicing for F major 7 - first I’ll transpose each note down a 4th to see how it looks as C major 7:
Once I’m looking at the chord played in C, I’ll memorize the voicing as a combination of intervals and scale degrees. So I might think of this C major 7 voicing as ‘a stack of 4ths built from the major 3rd’:
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I’d think of this chord as ‘a stack of 5ths built from the root (left hand), and a stack of 5ths built from the minor 3rd (right hand)’:
Memorizing voicings as a combination of intervals and scale degrees is the easiest way to transpose them into other keys - don’t get distracted by note names (C Eb A D etc) which will be different for every new key.
p r ac ti ce t ip I’d think of this chord as ‘a stack of 4ths counting down from the root’ (thinking down is fine):
Transpose your favorite chord voicings into C, and find a way to memorize each one, as a combination of intervals and scale degrees. Next, practice transposing voicings into different keys. For example, focus on one of your favorite voicings for C minor 7, and set yourself to rebuild it for Eb minor 7, then B minor 7, then F# minor 7, and
And I’d think of this chord as ‘root, major 3rd, minor 7th
so on. Do the same for each of your favorite voicings.
(left hand), and a major chord built off the 2nd (right hand)’:
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PA R t t h r e e
j a z z M E L O D Y chord / scale relationship
51
arpeggiating the chord symbol 54 aiming for the colorful notes 56 emphasizing the changes
59
exotic dominant 7 scales
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WWW. JAZZ HERO BOOKS .COM
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chord / scale
AGREE ON THE CHORDAL TONES FIRST For a scale to sound consonant when played over the accompanying chord, the main criteria is that your scale agrees with the chordal tones of the chord (1 3 5 7). So if there’s a major 3rd in the chord, make sure your scale has
r e l at i o n s h i p Many books tell you which scale to play with which chord, but don’t explain why. In this chapter I’ll show you how to decide which scale to play (whether composing a
a major 3rd. If there’s a minor 7th in the chord, make sure your scale has a minor 7th, and so on. 1 3 5 7 need to agree.
melody or playing a solo) over any type of chord.
So over C major 7 I’d make sure my scale has C E G B:
HARMONY Chord symbols don’t just tell you which chord to play they also tell you which scale goes with it. Chord and melody (and bassline) are built from the same group of
Over C minor 7 I’d make sure my scale has C Eb G Bb:
notes - the only difference is that a melody plays one note at a time, while a chord plays multiple notes at the same time. But both are derived from the same collection of notes. We refer to this group of notes as ‘harmony’. Jazz prides itself on changing harmony (changing scale)
Over C dominant 7 (C7) I’d make sure my scale has C E G Bb:
with each new chord - it’s these constant shifts in harmony that give jazz its complex sound. So when writing a melody or playing a solo, you need to understand which scale is implied by each chord.
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And over C half-diminished (Cm7b5) I’d make sure
Some musicians might play C harmonic-major scale
my scale contains C Eb Gb Bb:
(major scale with b6):
And so on. There’s never just one scale you have to play from - you always have a choice.
GET CREATIVE WITH 2 4 6
CHORDAL TONES + WHOLE-STEP RULE
Once you have the chordal tones mapped out in your scale, you have freedom with the rest (2 4 6):
If you need help deciding which scale to play over a chord, a good rule of thumb is to build a scale using the chordal tones (1 3 5 7) plus each note a whole-step above
So over C major 7 some musicians will play C major scale:
these (2 4 6). So applying this rule to C major 7 would give you C E G B - then add a whole-step above C E G to give you D F# A (C ‘lydian scale’):
Other musicians will play C lydian scale (major scale with #4):
For C minor 7 you’d get C Eb G Bb - then add a whole-step above C Eb G to give you D F A (C ‘dorian scale’):
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p r ac ti ce t ip Go through a chord sheet to a jazz song of your choice - play each chord in your left hand using
For C dominant 7 (C7) you’d get C E G Bb - then add a whole-step above C E G to give you D F# A (C ‘lydiandominant scale’):
literal chord voicings (1 3 5 7), and in your right hand play a consonant scale ascending. Try using the ‘chordal tone + whole-step’ rule to start with. Then make your own scales, being as creative as you like for 2 4 6.
And for C half-diminished (Cm7b5) you’d get C Eb Gb Bb - then add a whole-step above C Eb Gb to give you D F Ab (C ‘half-diminished scale’):
related video: ‘jazz scales’
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These are my ‘default scales’ - unless I have any better ideas, these are the scales I’ll play over each 7th chord.
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entirely chordal tones of the accompanying chords, especially when there’s frequent chord changes to keep
a r p e g g i at i n g t h e
chord symbol
things interesting. Take a look at the following melodies for example, all of which arpeggiate the accompanying chord:
There are just 2 ways a melody can move from one note to the next - by step, or by leap - that’s it, there’s no other way. It can run up and down the scale in step, or it can jump across multiple notes by leap. When writing a melody or improvisation, the goal is to create a balance between the 2 - some steps and some leaps.
MOVING BY LEAP When a melody moves by leap, rarely will it leap to random unrelated notes, out of the blue. Instead it’s common to jump through the chordal tones of the accompanying chord (1 3 5 7) - I call this ‘arpeggiating the chord symbol’. ‘Arpeggio’ means to play a chord one note at a time, forming a melodic line. You can arpeggiate a chord ascending (1 3 5 7), descending (7 5 3 1), in any inversion (3 5 1 7), and in any combination you can think of. In fact, it’s perfectly normal to write a melody or solo using
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pr ac ti ce ti p Go through a chord sheet to a standard of your choice - set yourself to play a solo using only the chordal tones (1 3 5 7) from each accompanying chord. Do this in slow motion to start - it’s perfectly fine to write a solo in slow motion.
related video: ‘jazz solo breakdown’
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chordal tones are already being played in the accompanying chord, you’re not adding anything new to
aiming for the
colorful notes CHORDAL TONES
VS
the harmony by playing them in your solo. Instead, it is the extended harmony notes (9 11 13) that sound the most colorful, modern, and sophisticated.
EXTENDED HARMONY
Each note has its own unique sound, its own unique flavor, its own unique color, when heard in context of the scale. Only the root of the scale sounds like the root, only the major 3rd sounds like the major 3rd, only the b9 sounds like the b9, only the #11 sounds like the #11, and
Most people would agree that playing a #4 over a major 7 chord sounds more sophisticated than playing a plain old major 3rd:
so on. These different sounds are sometimes called ‘tonal colors’ - each note has its own unique tonal color. When writing a melody or playing a solo, it’s important to know how each note sounds. Some notes sound bland and ‘vanilla’, other notes sound colorful and sophisticated.
Playing an 11th over a minor 7 chord sounds more sophisticated than playing the plain old root:
So far I’ve mentioned arpeggiating the chord symbol which means playing a melody built from the chordal tones (1 3 5 7). These notes are good for making a strong memorable melody, they create a warm and familiar sound and the early jazz musicians mostly used these notes in
And playing a #9 over a dominant 7 chord sounds more sophisticated than playing the plain old 5th:
their melodies and solos. However they’re not the most interesting or sophisticated sounding notes. Since the
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So when I write a melody or solo, I’m aiming for the colorful notes:
If you play only extended harmony notes your melody will start to lack emotion, but a mixture of chordal tones (1 3 5 7) and a few deliberate extended harmony notes (9 11 13) creates a nice balance. Here are a couple of my own melodies where I’ve clearly aimed for the colorful notes:
Over a major 7 chord - 7, 9, #4 & 6 sound nice:
Over a minor 7 chord - 9, 11 & 6 sound nice:
Over a dominant 7 chord - b9 #9 #11 b13 sound particularly classy:
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pr ac ti ce ti p Write your own melodic licks over each type of chord (maj 7, min 7, dom 7). Set yourself to start from a different note each time, and aim to write one good lick starting from each note in the scale - e.g. start by writing licks starting from the root of the scale, then from the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.
related video: ‘improv. masterclass’
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Then I identify which notes change from one scale to the next:
emphasizing the
changes In the previous chapter I explained how to create a sophisticated sound when soloing over individual chords. In this chapter I’ll explain how to create a sophisticated sound over a series of chords.
!
!
F minor 7’s scale has Eb
!
!
Bb7#11’s scale has E natural
AIMING FOR THE CHANGES
!
!
E minor 7’s scale has F#
Every time you change chord, you also change scale. When you change from one scale to the next, some notes stay the same, and some notes change. When soloing I like to
!
!
A7b13’s scale has F natural
And finally I write a melody that focuses around those note changes:
aim for the notes that change, rather than the notes that stay the same, like this:
By emphasizing the changes my melody achieves a complex sound. And the melody can be as simple as running up and down the changing scales by step (doesn’t have to be anything complicated):
First I decide which scale to play over each chord in the progression:
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pr ac ti ce ti p Aim for the changes while improvising over ii - V I progressions. First write out the scales you intend to play with each chord, then identify the changing notes between scales, and finally write melodies which focusses around these notes.
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long as we change things up for the chord in-between (G7). Playing a new scale over the V chord is the simplest
exotic dominant 7
scales
solution to break up the Dm7 and C maj 7 chords. There are several dominant 7 jazz scales used by professional jazz musicians to create a shift in harmony over a ii - V - I. In this chapter I’ll explain 4 exotic scales, starting with the simplest (least number of note changes),
EMPHASIZING CHANGES OVER II-V-I’S Over a ii - V - I in C major, a beginner jazz musician might play notes from C major scale over all 3 chords:
progressing up to the most complex (maximum number of note changes).
lydian-dominant scale The lydian-dominant scale is the mixolydian scale with a #4: Dm7, G7 and C maj 7 are all built from C major scale so playing C major scale over all 3 chords will sound consonant. However, playing the same scale over 3 chords in a row means there’ll be no changes in scale for you to emphasize with your melody, and you’ll be left with a bland sounding solo.
The first half of the scale (C - F#) is the lydian scale, and the 2nd half (G - C) is the ‘dominant scale’ (aka the ‘mixolydian scale’) - hence the name ‘lydian-dominant’.
So to make things sound interesting we need to change the scales at some point. It’s fine to play the same C major scale over the first and last chords (Dm7 & C maj 7) as
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When you play this scale over the V chord in a ii - V - I it creates just one note change - which is its #4:
It has a lovely dreamy sound and was featured by impressionist composers like Debussy (or in films when someone goes into a day dream). Playing this scale over the V chord in a ii - V - I creates 2 note changes - which are its #4 & #5:
So if I were playing this scale over G7 in our Dm7 - G7 C progression, I’d emphasize the C - C# - C note change in my solo: So if I were playing this scale over our Dm7 - G7 - C progression, I’d emphasize the C & D to C# & D# change (and back again) in my melody:
This scale is implied when you see a G7#11 chord symbol.
whole-tone scale
You’ll also have to change the chord symbol to G7#5 so that your chord fits with the new scale.
The whole-tone scale is a 6 note scale, each note a wholetone apart:
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diminished scale This is an 8 note scale based on a repeating interval pattern - half-step - whole-step - half-step - whole-step, etc: This scale is implied when you see chord symbols like G7b9, G7#9, G7b9#11. And if you ever forget which way the half-step / wholestep pattern goes (as I used to do), just remember you should have a b9 and #9 over your V chord.
It gets its name because it fits naturally over a diminished 7 chord (C Eb Gb A), but it actually fits over many chords including the minor 7 (C Eb G Bb), half-diminished (C Eb Gb Bb), and dominant 7 chord (C E G Bb).
altered scale And finally there’s the altered scale - this scale is similar to the diminished scale, it has the same notes up till the #4 but then changes for the 5th and 6th:
Playing this scale over the V chord in a ii - V - I creates 3 note changes - which are its b9 #9 #11:
It gets its name because it has the maximum number of altered notes possible when playing over a dominant 7 chord. So it has a normal root, major 3rd and minor 7th as needed for it to represent a dominant 7 chord, but
So if I were playing this scale over Dm7 - G7 - C, I’d make sure I emphasized either the A B to Ab Bb change, or the C to C# change in my melody:
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then every other note is altered - it has a b9 and a #9, a
Incase you’re new to the melodic-minor scale, here it is built from C - it’s a minor scale with a major 6th and 7th:
#11 and a b13. Playing this scale over the V chord in a ii - V - I creates 4 note changes - which are the altered notes:
To give another example, over C7, instead of thinking ‘C altered scale’, I’d think ‘Db melodic-minor scale: So if I were playing this scale over our Dm7 - G7 - C progression, I’d emphasize either the A B to Ab Bb change (as I did playing the diminished scale), or the C D to C# Eb change in my melody. The other benefit to thinking of the ‘melodic-minor scale built from the b2’, is guides you naturally towards the colorful notes. So over G7, if you think ‘G altered scale’, the first notes that spring to mind might be G B Eb F (1 3
Since it’s a lot of brain work to recall a scale that has b9 #9 #11 b13 in any key, the short cut is to think of the altered scale as a melodic-minor scale starting from the b2nd of the dominant chord. So instead of thinking ‘G altered scale’ over G7 - I think ‘Ab melodic-minor
5 7 from G), most of which are not the colorful altered notes this scale has to offer. Whereas if you think ‘Ab melodic-minor’ the first notes that spring to mind might be the first 5 notes of Ab minor scale - Ab Bb Cb Db Eb simply playing these notes alone will create all the color
scale’.
and sophistication you need - you’ve got the b9 #9 #11
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and b13. So this is another reason I prefer to think of the
scale - either play the b13 instead, or don’t play any 5th in your voicing, so that your chord fits with the new scale.
altered scale this way - the first notes that spring to mind are the interesting ones.
p r ac ti ce t ip Improvise over a ii - V - I trying out each of the 4 dominant scales over the V chord. Stick with literal chord voicings in the left hand (1 3 5 7) and aim for the changing notes in your right hand melody.
And if this is still too much brain work, you could simplify things further and just aim to play the 4 notes of a minor 6 chord built off the b2 of the dominant 7 chord. So over G7, just aim to arpeggiate an Ab minor 6 chord, ascending or descending, as I’ve done in the excerpt above. Here are some other examples:
related video: ‘exotic dominant 7 scales’
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If you decide to play this scale you’ll have to change the chord symbol to G7b13 (sometimes written as ‘G7alt.’) and avoid playing a natural 5th which is no longer in the
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PA R t f o u r
j a z z
S T Y L E S walking basslines
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bossa nova
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cuban salsa
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R’n’b piano
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WWW. JAZZ HERO BOOKS .COM
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LEAP
wa l k i n g b a s s l i n e s
VS
STEP
As with melody, there are just 2 ways a bassline can change note - by leap or by step: • When moving by leap (gaps of a 3rd or more), the idea
Walking bassline’s are a good way to inject energy into your playing. Traditionally they’re played by a bass player
is to leap between chordal tones of the accompanying chord (1 3 5 7), and not just random notes. Like this:
but sound equally effective in the left hand of a solo piano arrangement. In this chapter I’ll explain how to write a walking bassline over any chord progression.
TARGET NOTES The goal of a walking bassline is to play the root of each chord on the first beat the chord’s played (usually beat 1 or 3). So the first step is to write out the root note of each chord - these are your ‘target notes’:
• When moving by step (half-steps / whole-steps) the idea is to use notes from the scale (whichever scale the current chord outlines), and not just random notes. Remember - bassline, chord and melody are built from the same scale, so when writing a walking bassline, use the scale outlined by the chord - if there’s a major 3rd in the chord, use a major 3rd in the bassline. If there’s a minor 7th in the chord, use a minor 7th in the bass, etc - just as you would when playing a solo in the right hand. Each time the chord changes, so does the scale - so you’ll be playing from a different scale with each new chord. Here’s
Now you just have to fill in the notes in-between.
a walking bassline that moves by step:
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CHROMATICISM Sometimes you’ll reach your target note early - you find that you’re only a whole-step away from the target note but still have an extra beat to fill. How could you stall things for one extra beat?
Sometimes I’ll approach a target note chromatically even though the bassline is further away from the target note:
How about bridging the gap between your current note and the target note, by passing through the chromatic note in-between? ‘Chromatic’ means moving by half-step, taking you out of the scale you’re supposed to be in.
And sometimes I’ll precede a target note by playing a chromatic note either side of it, like this:
Breaking out of scale so you can move by half-step is a good solution when you arrive at your target note too soon:
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Once I’ve written 4 bars of walking bassline I’ll repeat my line a few times so that I remember it (use paper if
AVOID STAGNANT CHORD PROGRESSIONS Walking basslines need frequent chord changes to thrive (ii - V - I’s in particular). Personally, I wouldn’t set myself to play a walking bassline unless the song has frequent chord changes to keep aiming for.
needed). And when I’m completely finished I’ll play it repeatedly until my left hand can play it more or less automatically, allowing me to focus on the right hand. Here are a few excerpts of walking basslines I might play:
THE WRITING PROCESS Don’t feel that you need to be able to improvise a walking bassline. It’s normal for me to compose a walking bassline slowly, working on one chord at a time. I’ll play the first chord in my right hand, and in my left hand will try a whole range of possible journeys my bassline could travel through to reach the next target note. Some of these journeys will be ascending, some will be descending. For each chord, I’ll come up with as many ideas as I can in about 30 seconds until I find the best solution. Then I’ll move onto the next chord and do the same - hold down the chord in my right hand while testing a range of possible journeys in the left.
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pr ac ti ce ti p Set yourself to write a complete walking bassline to at least one jazz song. Sustain each chord in your right hand while you write your bassline, and use a combination of leaps, steps & chromaticism when needed.
related video: ‘walking basslines
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So the rhythms I discuss in this chapter and the next (salsa) are played exactly as written.
b o s s a n o va
However, it’s important to note that bossa nova, as well as cuban salsa, write music in half-time - which means that what most listeners would hear as one bar of 4/4 would be written out as two bars of 4/4 - twice the length. So for each rhythm I list, imagine it played at a fast tempo -
In this chapter I’ll explain how to make an authentic bossa nova piano arrangement of any jazz song.
STRAIGHT TIME INSTEAD OF SWING Most north american jazz styles are written in ‘swing time’ (blues, swing, bebop, etc). However latin jazz styles
two bars will sound like one bar.
(jazz styles of latin american countries, like Brazil and Cuba) use ‘straight time’.
Latin music is known for its rhythms, and each country
BOSSA NOVA RHYTHMS and region has its own specific rhythms. The best way to absorb authentic bossa nova rhythms is to listen to a lot of bossa nova music, but I’ll start by listing two of the most characteristic bossa rhythms. Typically the guitarist or piano player will play chords to these rhythms
If you’re unsure what ‘straight time’ sounds like, bare in mind that most music is in straight time, including most pop music, funk, and classical. Imagine a computer drum beat in 4/4 - this will be in straight time. The rhythms you learn to clap back in music school will be in straight time. ‘Straight time’ basically means ‘normal’. It is ‘swing time’ that is the unusual type of rhythm.
repeatedly:
Straight rhythms are played exactly as they’re written in the manuscript (there’s nothing fancy) - whereas swing rhythms are played differently to how they’re written.
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Both rhythms are in fact the same rhythm, just starting from different points - so the first rhythm starts from bar one, and the 2nd rhythm starts from bar two. Bossa nova rhythms are heavily ‘syncopated’, which means they switch between playing on-beats and off-beats. Onbeats are beats 1 - 2 - 3 - 4, and the off-beats are half-way between each on-beat. So if you say ‘1 - and - 2 - and - 3 -
BOSSA NOVA BASSLINES The next most noticeable difference of bossa nova is its bassline. A bossa nova bassline alternates between 2 notes - the root and 5th of whichever chord is being played, and
and - 4 - and’ at even spacing, the off-beats are the ‘ands’. A ‘syncopated rhythm’ combines on-beats and off-beats, continually switching between the two.
these notes are played to a specific rhythm:
CHORD VOICINGS Bossa nova is based on the same jazz harmony that’s been discussed in this book so far - after all it’s still jazz. Chords, scales, voicings, ii - V - I’s, circle of fifth progressions, changing scale at every opportunity - all apply to bossa nova with no significant changes. So you can use all the same voicings, scales and licks you’ve learnt
The root is played on beat 1 and the 5th on beat 3 (as notated in half-time). But most importantly each beat is anticipated with an eighth-note just before. Beats 1 and 3 are played sustained, and the anticipation note is played ‘staccato’ (very short), creating contrast between the two.
previously when playing a bossa nova. As far as voicings go I’ll usually play rootless chord voicings in the right hand over a bassline in the left:
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You could play this anticipation note for each note, but this gets repetitive so it’s common to vary things by
So if you’re low down within this range it makes sense to ascend, but if you’re at a high point then it makes sense to
playing something like this:
descend. Here’s how I might play a bossa nova bassline under a major ii - V - I:
A bossa nova bassline can move both up or down - as long as it plays the chord’s root on beats 1 and 3, and the chord’s 5th on beats 2 and 4. Whether you ascend or descend depends on how low or high your bassline currently is - generally you want to keep your bassline within a 12th range (octave + 5th):
Or a minor ii - V - i:
And one final variation on the bossa nova bassline is this:
2 o c t av e r a n g e b e l o w M i d d l e C
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When you see a sustained chord (works best on minor 7 chords) you can overshoot the root and play the 9th instead, creating a more unusual and sophisticated sound. And if there’s no melody being played for a while (e.g. intro / outro) then I’ll switch to playing chord voicing over bassline - so with my right hand I’ll play a one-handed voicing to a bossa rhythm, like this:
CREATING A SOLO PIANO BOSSA NOVA When playing a bossa nova on solo piano, there are 3 elements you’re trying to play - bassline, chords, and melody. Most of the time you’ll only be able to play 2 at a time which means you’ll need to juggle the 3. The bassline stays playing fairly constantly throughout, but in the right hand you can alternate between melody and chords. I prioritize playing the melody, but anytime the melody takes a rest or is sustained, I’ll attend to the chords. If the melody is resting on a note for a few beats, I’ll hold it down with my 5th finger (right hand), and with my thumb, 2nd and 3rd fingers play a fragment of the
And occasionally, it’s nice to give the bassline a short rest, so I might jump up and play some 2-handed chord voicings to a bossa rhythm, like this:
chord to a bossa rhythm, like this:
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related video: ‘bossa nova lesson’
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pr ac ti ce ti p Try playing any jazz standard as a bossa nova. Just change the rhythms from swing to straight, play a bossa nova bassline, and switch between bassline, chords and melody to create a full sounding arrangement.
recommended playing Bossa novas or songs that work well as bossa novas: ‘Girl From Ipanema’ ‘So Nice (Summer Samba)’ ‘Invitation’ ‘Slow Hot Wind’ ‘Misty’
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cuban salsa In this chapter I’ll discuss characteristics of Cuban style piano. As with bossa nova, cuban music is notated in halftime, so imagine the rhythms in this chapter played at a fast tempo, where two written bars sound like one bar when performed.
The Cuban bassline’s rhythm is more complex than the bossa nova’s, and I remember it taking me a while to get used to. If the authentic rhythm is too complicated for you to play, I recommend playing this instead:
CUBAN BASSLINES A Cuban style bassline is similar to a bossa nova bassline it uses the same notes (root & 5th) but plays a slightly different rhythm:
This might seem like an overly-simple solution but it doesn’t sound bad - in fact if you’re playing solo piano (without a drummer) it helps the listener keep track of the pulse. After all, the authentic Cuban bassline is
The Cuban bassline always arrives at the next chord a beat early, which drives the music forward:
designed to be played with percussion backing to set the pulse first. So feel free to play half-notes if needed.
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These patterns are built entirely from the chordal tones (1 3 5 7). The only chord that doesn’t sound good is the
MONTUNOS ‘Montunos’ are a rhythmic style of arpeggiating chords, usually played on piano or guitar. When you hear them played you’ll recognize their sound instantly (the ‘sex in the city’ theme is based on a montuno), and they’re a
major 7 chord (since the major 7th sounds weak in this context) so for major 7 chords I’ll arpeggiate a major 6 chord instead (1 3 5 6).
distinctive feature of Cuban music styles including Salsa.
Simple montunos sound best over a moving chord progression:
SIMPLE MONTUNOS A quick way to conjure up a Cuban feel without going deep into music theory, is to arpeggiate the chord symbol to a Cuban rhythm, like this:
ADVANCED MONTUNOS ‘Advanced montunos’ create a more authentic Cuban sound, but are more complicated to explain: Advanced montunos work best over circle of fifth chord progressions (like ii - V - I’s). The right hand plays a specific voicing which is broken into 2 parts - an outer octave
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which either plays the 7th or the 3rd of the chord. And
(D). And the inner voices stay the same (Ab and C)
then there’s an inner voice (2 notes) which play the remaining chordal tones of the chord (the ones not yet played by the outer octave).
which now become the 7th and 9th of Bb7. The next chord is Eb major 7 - to transition I move the inner voices down a step to the 3rd and 5th of Eb major 7 (G and Bb). And this time the outer octave stays the same (D) which now becomes the 7th of Eb major 7.
Here’s how I’d play advanced montunos over a complete circle of fifths in C minor:
The next chord is Ab major 7 - to transition all I do is move the outer octave down a step to the 3rd of Ab major 7 (C). And the inner voices stay the same (Eb and G) which now become the 7th and 9th of Ab major 7. And this pattern repeats for the entire circle of fifths when the outer octave moves down, the inner voices stay still. And when the inner voices move down, the outer octave stays still. As long as the chord progression resolves down a 5th each time, the outer octave will always play the 7th or 3rd of the chord (it alternates for each chord - 7th - 3rd - 7th - 3rd), and the inner voices alternate between the 3rd & 5th, and the 7th & 9th.
The first chord is an F minor 7 - I’ll start by playing the chord’s 7th (Eb) in the outer octave, and for the inner voices I’ll play the remaining chordal tones - 3rd and 5th (Ab and C). I don’t need to play the root because the bass plays that (even if my left hand is the bass player). The next chord is Bb dominant 7 - to transition I move the outer octave down a half-step to the 3rd of Bb7
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RHYTHM & ARPEGGIATION To create variation you can arpeggiate the inner voice from time to time (instead of playing them together):
Montunos aren’t just played to any random rhythm - as with bossa nova there are specific rhythms used in Cuban music, and if your goal is to play authentic salsa piano, the best way to absorb the rhythms is to listen to a lot of Cuban music (I highly recommend the film ‘Buena Vista
TURN AROUNDS When you play advanced montunos over the circle of fifths, you’ll notice your hands continually moving downwards, and there’ll come a point where you need to start again higher up the keyboard. To do this, a
Social Club).
‘turnaround’ is used. Wait till the last bar of a phrase (bar 8 of an 8 bar phrase), drop out the inner 2 voices, take the outer octave and play a melodic line moving up the scale in step, like this:
DOUBLING IN OCTAVES Cuban jazz is loud, so it’s common for the pianist to double montunos in 2 hands. You can play montunos in 3 octaves like this:
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p r ac ti ce t ip Practice playing montunos over circle of fifth chord progressions, in a range of keys.
Or in 4 octaves like this:
related video: ‘salsa piano lesson’
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It’s also common in Cuban jazz to double the melody in octaves, so as to be heard clearly:
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r’n’b piano In this chapter I’ll discuss some characteristics of R’n’B and Gospel style piano.
C
G
Bb D Eb G
C
G
Bb D Eb f
CRUNCH VOICINGS ‘Crunch voicing’ refers to a chord voicing built mostly of 2nds - resulting in a crunched up sound. To create a crunch voicing just play a group of consecutive notes from the scale you’re in - so for a C minor 7 chord, play a series of notes from C minor scale, like this:
Since crunching up the notes this way makes it hard to tell which note is the root of the chord, I usually play the root and 5th in the left hand below, to make it clear what the chord is before adding the crunch sound above.
C
G
Crunch voicings can be created for all chord types, but in my opinion work best for minor 7 chords. I’ve already
C D Eb F G
shown my favorite crunch voicings for C minor 7 above, but here are some voicings I might use for other chord types:
You don’t have to play this many notes to create a crunch sound - you could use 2 or 3 consecutive notes instead:
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C major 7:
C
G
C dom 7:
C
B D E G
G
E A Bb D
C dom 7 #11:
C
G
B c E C
C major 7 #4:
F# A Bb D
In R’n’B you’ll often hear crunch voicings played either on piano or rhodes piano (a classic electric piano sound). In
C
G
addition these voicings often get moved around in parallel, which I’ll discuss next.
E F# G B
MOVING CHORDS IN PARALLEL If a song’s chord progression goes from Gm7 to Fm7 which chord could you add in-between as a passing chord?
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When I see Gm7 going to Fm7, I think ‘F#m7’ - why not take the exact voicing I’m playing for Gm7 - transpose each note down a half-step to play F#m7 - and then do the same again, down another half-step to Fm7.
Or F minor 7 going to a C minor 7:
This is called ‘moving a chord in parallel’, or ‘side-slipping’ - it has a sophisticated sound and works great on any type of chord (although minor chords are my favorite especially minor 9 and minor 11 chords). Side-slipping springs to mind whenever I see the same chord type (maj 7 / min 7 / dom 7) played twice in a row -
It’s the perfect opportunity to freeze your hands position and move it in parallel.
e.g. C major 7 going to a Bb major 7:
And if the 2 chords are further apart you can go on a side-slipping journey, just move through a series of intervals that sound good to you:
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Over C major 7 an acciaccatura would sound best on E or B (3rd or 7th):
THE ACCIACCATURA ‘Acciaccatura’ is a classical term referring to a type of ornamental note (decorative note) which can be used to decorate a melody. Precede the melody note with a very short note (as short as is possible to play) a step below (usually a half-step). In my opinion, the acciaccatura doesn’t sound good on all notes - in fact it’s usually applied to about 2 notes for each
In classical music the acciaccatura was always a half-step below the target note, but in R’n’B musicians will sometimes play a whole-step below instead, which creates more of a clashing sound:
type of chord: Over C minor 7 an acciaccatura would sound best on G or D (5th or 9th):
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ACCIACCATURA APPLIED TO CHORDS You can apply the same idea to chords - plan which voicing you want to use for the approaching chord, then, instead of playing that chord, transpose each note up a half-step - play the transposed voicing very quickly and immediately slide your fingers down to the original chord. This won’t work for all chords - in fact it’s only possible to perform if the approaching chord is built of white notes -
RIPPLING CHORDS Most of the time chords are played together (all notes at
allowing you to slide down from the the black notes which stand out higher in the piano.
the exact same time). But to create variation you can ‘ripple’ the occasional chord - ‘ripple’ means playing the chord one note at a time, very quickly.
You can also emphasize this technique by playing the preceding chord accented (loud), and the second chord quietly:
You can ripple a chord upwards (which is most common) or downwards:
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related video: ‘r’n’b / gospel lesson’
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Rippling is a good way to draw attention to an interesting chord voicing (save it for the sophisticated chords). For a dramatic sound, you can play the preceding chords with increasing loudness, and then clear the pedal and play the rippled chord quietly, as I do here:
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PA R t f i v e
a d v a n c e d T E C H N I Q U E S melodic embellishment
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reharmonization
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favorite sounds
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WWW. JAZZ HERO BOOKS .COM
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melodic
embellishment
In this chapter I’ll share with you several forms of embellishment (melodic decoration) which can be used to make a simple melody sound more interesting.
RESOLUTION NOTES & TENSION NOTES This doesn’t mean that every melody follows these natural resolutions - often jazz will sustain a tension note and not resolve it - however these are the natural pulls effecting each note.
There are 2 types of note - resolution notes and tension notes: • Resolution notes are 1 3 5 of any scale - only these notes sound content and stable where they are.
So the resolution notes over C major 7 are C E G.
• Tension notes are all remaining notes (2 4 6 7) these notes sound unstable and want to resolve to the nearest resolution note, like this:
The resolution notes over F minor 7 are F Ab C. And the resolution notes over Bb7 are Bb D F. Following are a range of techniques you can use to embellish any melody. All are borrowed from classical music (hence their Italian names), and are designed to tease the listener by delaying the sense of resolution:
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APPOGGIATURA
DOUBLE-APPOGGIATURA The ‘double-appoggiatura’ goes one step further (literally) - precede a resolution note with the tension note below, then the tension note above, and finally end on the resolution note itself. So over a C minor chord, you
Precede a resolution note in the melody with the tension note immediately above or below it:
could apply a double appoggiatura to each of the 3 resolution notes - C Eb G: It sounds simple but can be very effective, especially when used on several notes in a row. Take this melody for example - over A minor 7 I’ve identified the resolution notes to be A C E: Or you could play the same shape upside down:
Now I can apply appoggiaturas to any of these resolution notes, by preceding with the tension note either side: I used multiple double-appoggiaturas in my Blue Lotus solo:
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THE ‘TURN‘
CHROMATICISM
Play the resolution note - tension note above - resolution note - tension note below - resolution note. For example, over a C minor chord you could decorate each
For each type of ornament, the tension notes you play can be from the scale you’re in, or they can be chromatic notes outside the scale (a half-step above or below the resolution note), like this:
resolution note like this:
Or you could play the same shape upside down:
And sometimes I skip the resolution note in the middle of the 5 notes, and just play this:
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ALL CHORD TYPES
related video: ‘melodic embellishment’
Embellishment sounds great over all chord types (maj 7, min 7, dom 7, half-diminished) - just identify the chord’s 1 3 5 and apply any of these techniques surrounding those notes.
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pr ac ti ce ti p First, practice playing each type of ornament over individual chords: Hold down a chord in your left hand (major7, minor7, dominant 7), identify the resolution notes (1 3 5), and embellish those notes using each type of ornament (appoggiatura, double-appoggiatura, turn). Once you’re comfortable doing this over individual chords, do the same for real melodies - just play through a jazz standard, and anytime the melody lands on a resolution note (1 3 5 of the chord) decorate it using an ornament.
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r e h a r m o n i z at i o n ‘Reharmonization’ means to make changes to a song’s original chord sheet - that could mean adding extra chords in-between the existing ones, or substituting new chords in place of old ones. In this chapter I’ll outline some of my favorite approaches to reharmonization.
I could precede each chord with a dominant 7 chord like this:
PASSING CHORDS Some songs have sparse chord progressions. To make things more interesting you can add ‘passing chords’ chords that help you move to the next chord in a more interesting way.
CIRCLE OF FIFTHS To take this idea further, you can create a longer circle of fifths leading up to the next chord. The trick here is to think backwards (not forwards) from each chord in the
A simple starting point you can use is to precede each chord in the chord sheet with a dominant 7 chord a 5th above. So if C minor 7 is coming up, you could precede it with G7. If D major 7 is coming up, you could precede it with A7, and so on. Dominant 7 chords are designed to
chord sheet. I call these ‘target chords’, because they’re the target you’re trying to reach. So work backwards from each target chord, counting up a 5th for each preceding chord.
resolve down a 5th, so this creates a natural progression leading up to the next chord.
So say that A major 7 is my next target chord - the preceding chord will be a 5th above A (some sort of E chord), the chord before that will be another 5th above
Take the following chord sheet for example:
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(some sort of B chord), before that an F# chord, and so
THE ‘SLIGHTLY WRONG’ SOUND
on - for as many chords as you need to fill:
This works best on well known songs that listeners have heard before: Substitute an important chord in the music (one that people are familiar with) with a chord that’s similar but noticeably different. To do this, substitute the original chord with a chord that contains about half of the same chordal tones (1 3 5 7) but differs on the other half. Lets try this on the opening of ‘Misty’ with its well known major 7 chord:
You’re free to choose which type of chord you build off each root note (maj 7 / min 7 / dom 7, half-diminished) but a good rule of thumb is to alternate between minor 7 - dominant 7 - minor 7 - dominant 7:
Jazz is known for its continual key changes from one chord to the next, so you don’t have to keep chords
First we could try substituting a chord that has the same root and 5th as the original chord (Eb major 7) but a different 3rd and 7th:
within the same scale - in fact the more you can change scale with each chord the better.
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So say I see C major 7 in the chord sheet - I could try substituting any of the following:
Or a chord that has the same 3rd and 7th, but a different root and 5th perhaps?:
Or if I see C minor 7 in the chord sheet - I could play:
Maybe your new chord has the same root, but every other note is tweaked a half-step one way or the other:
p r ac ti ce t ip Search for your own ‘slightly-wrong’ chord substitutions, by playing through a well known jazz song, and substituting the most crucial chords with new chords that have small but drastic tweaks to the chordal tones (1 3 5 7).
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TWEAKING THE MELODY
INVENT A RULE
Bare in mind that when you change the chord, you also change the scale - so be prepared to tweak melody notes (and bass notes) to fit with the new harmony.
Set yourself a reharmonization rule - for example: !
‘When I see major 7 - I’ll play minor 7 instead’.
Then play through a familiar jazz song and see how your rule sounds applied to the original chord sheet.
related video: ‘reharmonization’
Apply your rule to a specific chord type (maj 7 / min 7 / dom 7) and have it change any of the following:
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• Chord type (‘major becomes minor’, ‘minor becomes major’, etc). • Transposition (‘up a 5th’, ‘down a minor 3rd’, etc). To give you an idea, here are some rules I might try: • When I see major 7 - I’ll play minor 7 a wholestep up (‘C maj 7’ becomes ‘D min 7’). • When I see minor 7 - I’ll play dominant 7 a major 3rd below (‘C min 7’ becomes ‘Ab dom 7’). • Play all major 7 chords as minor 7 chords, and all minor 7 chords as major 7 chords.
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sometimes playing a major 3rd, and other times a minor 3rd). However when doubling in 4ths it works best using a
a few of my
f av o r i t e s o u n d s
‘perfect 4th’ every time (the interval of 5 half-steps, e.g. C - F) - this might take you out of the scale the music was supposed to be in, but usually results in an interesting ‘slightly out’ sound:
And to end this book, I’d like to share some of my favorite jazz sounds which I saved for last.
DOUBLING A MELODY IN 4THS You may have heard of playing a melody in 3rds to create a warm chordal sound (called ‘harmonizing’) - just build up or down a 3rd within the scale from each melody note:
MINOR 6 CHORD
But for a less familiar / more intellectual sound you can double a melody in 4ths. To double in 4ths, count down a 4th from each melody note (not up) - that way it’s clear
One of my all-time favorite jazz sounds is to hold down the pedal and arpeggiate a minor 6 chord upwards through several octaves. It just seems to embody the mood of a sunny afternoon perfectly:
that the top note is still the melody (your ear interprets the top note as the melody note). When doubling a melody in 3rds it’s normal to keep the doubled melody line within the scale (which means
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This scale was featured regularly in film noir soundtracks (like Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ soundtrack composed by Bernard Herrmann). As a result, the minor 6 chord arpeggiated always conjures up black and white film noir images for me.
This is a great way to end a minor song, and I use it for songs like ‘Invitation’ and ‘Summertime’, for the final minor chord. And here’s a slight variation I sometimes use:
AN INTRIGUING ENDING CHORD Another favorite sound of mine is to play a C major chord in the right hand, over a Db in the bass:
Although this pattern is in 3/4, you can still play it as an ending for 4/4 songs, since jazz endings usually breakdown into free time on the final chord anyway.
Db
C
E
G
C
This chord has a dark but intriguing sound, perfect for creating an unexpected ending. It just sounds so dark, so
Both the minor 6 chord, and the minor chord with major 7, sound classy because they outline the melodicminor scale (minor scale with major 6th and 7th):
Db
sophisticated, and so surprising that it’s even shocking to
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the listener, which is hard to do in jazz. It sounds like no other chord I’ve heard. I’m not aware of a name for it - I just think of it as ‘C major over Db’. Personally I hear the right-hand chord as the root of the scale, and the Db in the bass as being a b2 (not the root). So if I’m playing a minor song, I might reharmonize the final minor chord and play the ‘intriguing ending chord’
But since I only use this chord for endings (and not within the music) I consider the chord interesting enough on its own. The only variation I might add is to repeat the right hand’s major chord up an octave or two (always played rippled).
instead - say the music ends on C minor, I’ll play C major over Db:
related video: ‘jazz piano endings’
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To give some more examples, if the end chord was G minor, I’d play G major over Ab. Or if the end chord was D minor, I’d play D major over Eb. As for which scale this chord comes from, it’s hard to say - all we know is that it has a root, flat 2nd, major 3rd, and 5th - so there are a few scales you could play over:
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in closing I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it - and that it’s laid things out clearly, increased your confidence, and opened your mind to new possibilities. I’d love to hear your thoughts - please email me at:
[email protected]
Thank you for reading this book - Julian Bradley
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