Jazz Theory Explained (Printer Friendly)

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JAZZ THEORY EXPLAINED

ONCE & FOR ALL

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C O N T E N T S

PREREQUISITES

5

reading music 6 scale degrees 8 intervals 11 numbering chords 12

PART I: INTRO TO JAZZ

13

extended harmony 14

understanding a lead sheet 17 characteristic chord progressions 19

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

PART III: SCALES

50

chord / scale relationship 51 arpeggiating the chord symbol 54 aiming for the colorful notes 56 emphasizing the changes 59 exotic dominant 7 scales 61

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PART IV: STYLES

66

walking basslines 67

bossa nova 7 1

cuban salsa 76

R’n’b piano 81

PART V: ADVANCED TECHNIQUES 87

melodic embellishment 88

reharmonization 92

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b e f o r e w e b e g i n

p r e r e q u i s i t e s t o

J A Z Z

reading music 6 scale degrees 8 intervals 11 numbering chords 12

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r e a d i n g

m u s i c

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. • Rhythm means when to play it.

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.

TREBLE CLEF

To read treble clef pitch just remember middle C is the first line below the stave:

From that note you can count upwards - each line or space indicates the next white note up on the piano. 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:

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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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:

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.

Alternatively, a flat or sharp can be undone using a ‘natural’ sign which looks like this:

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):

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s c a l e d e g r e e s

You’ll also need to be familiar with a few concepts in music theory before you begin, in particular identifying scale degrees and intervals.

SCALE DEGREES

Any scale can be assigned numbers. In C major scale, C is 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’).

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:

The 3rd, 6th & 7th differ between the 2 scales. For this reason we call the 3rd, 6th and 7th that occur in the major scale the ‘major 3rd’, ‘major 6th’ and ‘major 7th’. And we call the 3rd, 6th, and 7th that occur in the minor scale the ‘minor 3rd’, ‘minor 6th’ and ‘minor 7th’.

In each case, the major version is one half-step higher than their minor version.

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:

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:

scale degree Built from C Remember as... 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

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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’, ‘major 2nd’, ‘minor 3rd’, ‘major 3rd’, ‘4th’, ‘5th’, etc.

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 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.

To practice this, challenge yourself to jump up and down 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?

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

2.! Ab! count down 2 whole-steps from C = C - Bb - Ab 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

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!

In particular, make sure you can count up a 5th from all 12 notes - the 5th is a good midpoint within the octave to measure notes from, rather than counting from the root every time:

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n u m b e r i n g

c h o r d s

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:

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 (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).

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 can be numbered this way in both major and minor scales - here’s how the 7 chords in C minor scale would be numbered:

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.

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P A R t o n e

i n t r o d u c t i o n t o

J A Z Z

extended harmony 14

understanding a lead sheet 17

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i n t r o d u c t i o n t o

e x t e n d e d h a r m o n y

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 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 different types of chord:

maj 3rd + min 3rd = major chord (C E G)

min 3rd + maj 3rd = minor chord (C Eb G) maj 3rd + maj 3rd = augmented chord (C E G#) 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 5th? By adding an extra 3rd above the 5th you get a 7th chord:

A few decades passed, and then around the romantic period, composers like Ravel, Chopin, Schumann started adding another 3rd above the 7th, creating a 9th chord:

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And eventually this idea was continued to create 11th chords:

And 13th chords - all of which are just large stacks of 3rds.

C E G

B

D

C E G

B

D

F

C E G

B

D

F

A

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 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. 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’.

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.

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The higher you build a chord, the more combinations are possible - so there are more types of 13th chord than there are 7th chord.

practice tip

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.

‘Introduction to Jazz’

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u n d e r s ta n d i n g a

l e a d s h e e t

‘Lead sheet’ refers to the minimal notation style seen in real books. Unlike classical music notation, lead sheets only provide a melody line with chord symbols written above:

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

could be as simple as changing one note from the scale you’re in, or as complicated as changing every note - 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.

Don’t expect a jazz song to stay in one key for any length 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:

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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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c h a r a c t e r i s t i c

c h o r d p r o g r e s s i o n s

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, 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).

It’s important to emphasize that a circle of fifths moves 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.

Inevitably the composer will break up the circle of fifths in places, but most chords in jazz move down a 5th.

A COMPLETE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS

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).

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...

...or playing the root chord twice at the end:

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 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.

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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.

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 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:

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:

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.

And if you ever hear the phrase ‘vi - ii - V - I’ (‘6 - 2 - 5 - 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 in-between 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).

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’:

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:

And if the music’s in the minor scale, you’ll create your ii - V - i from chords found in the minor scale:

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:

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.

The different types of 7th chord will be explained fully in the chords section coming up.

THE MINOR II - V - I

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):

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.

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). 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 progression comes to life and sounds much stronger. And this is how the minor ii - V - i is played (without exception):

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:

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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.

‘ii-V-I

’s

explained’

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P A 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

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‘ l i t e r a l ‘

c h o r d v o i c i n g s

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 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 usually the I chord at the end of a major ii - V - I progression:

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’:

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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OR:

dominant 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 ‘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

unique type of 7th chord if formed, not found anywhere else in the scale - for this reason it’s called the ‘dominant 7 chord’:

It has a major 3rd, 5th, and a minor 7th.

You could think of it as being half-way between major 7 and minor 7 chords - it has the 3rd of a major 7 chord, but the 7th of a minor 7 chord.

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:

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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

chord, I’m assuming that someone called it a ‘half-diminished 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:

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t h i n k i n g

q u i c k ly

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.

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)

So first I count up a perfect 5th from the root. The 5th 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.

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:

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:

This is all that’s needed to form the major 7, minor7 and dominant 7 chords:

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:

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.

practice tip

Play through the songs in your real book and practice finding your way to each chord using my 4 step process:

! ! 5th first. ! ! 3rd. ! ! 7th.

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c h o r d

i n v e r s i o n

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. Not only does this get physically tiring, but it creates a jagged sound with each chord change - the opposite of smooth.

To avoid this problem, chord inversion is used. ‘Inversion’ means to turn a chord down (or partially upside-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:

C major ‘root position’, C major ‘1st inversion’, C major ‘2nd 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’. 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).

WHICH CHORDS TO INVERT?

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 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-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:

MUSCLE MEMORY

When playing a complete circle of fifths, I’ll continue this alternating effect - play the first chord in root position, the

next in 2nd inversion, and continue to alternate, like this:

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:

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practice tip

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).

‘chord inversion

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e

x

t

e

n

d

e

d

c h o r d s

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 9

TH

/ 11

TH

/ 13

TH

Whether a chord is major 7, minor 7, dominant 7, half-diminished 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.

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 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:

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.

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:

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:

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).

4 6

VS

11 13

Sometimes you’ll see chords numbered with ‘6’ instead of ‘13’, or numbered with ‘4’ instead of ‘11’:

‘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

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 the major scale to the same note and call it a ‘6th’ instead).

11

OR

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’:

Strangely though, major 7 chords are labeled using ‘4’ - you’ll only likely encounter ‘#4’ over a major 7 chord

(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 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.

practice tip

Play through a chord sheet and practice adding extensions of your choice to each chord - add a 9th to one chord, an 11th to the next, a 13th to the next and so on.

Once you get the hang of this, start assigning yourself flattened and sharpened extensions - ‘b9’, #11’, ‘b13’, etc

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i n t r o d u c t i o n t o

v o i c i n g s

Once you’re confident playing literal chord voicings, inverted chords, and adding extensions on top - it’s time to discuss chord voicings. The remaining chapters in this section are geared towards piano players.

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 them together.

For example, I could play C major 7 like this:

C E G B

Or I could play it like this:

I could spread the notes out like this:

Or like this:

Each of these voicings creates a C major 7 type of 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

C B D E G

C G D E B

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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 same goes for any type of chord.

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.

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:

Now lets see how it sounds as a C minor 7 voicing:

Invent one handed voicings (to be played in the left hand under a right hand melody) and two handed voicings. 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):

B E

A D G C

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Add a new color that hasn’t been played yet:

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:

C

G

D

E

B

E

C

G

D

E

B

F #

And finally, most 2 handed voicings work best with the 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 weight:

But these are just guidelines, not rules, and many great voicings don’t stick to these.

practice tip

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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o n e h a n d e d

v o i c i n g s

As a piano player, it’s useful to have a collection of one-handed and two-one-handed chord voicings. One-one-handed voicings can be played in the left hand while the right hand plays a melody / solo:

Or played in the right hand over a left hand bassline (while accompanying a singer perhaps):

And two-handed voicings allow you to create the richest sound possible, whenever you get the chance and have

C h o r d & m e l o d y

b a s s l i n e & c h o r d

both hands available.

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.

LITERAL CHORD VOICINGS

There’s nothing wrong with using literal chord voicings (1 3 5 7) - early jazz musicians used only these, so if you want an old-fashioned warm and emotional sound, these work well:

SHELL VOICINGS

All that’s needed to convey the type of chord is its root 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:

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 b13 etc) without worrying about clashing with your chords.

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:

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:

The other advantage to using shells is they create contrast with the complex two handed voicings (coming 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:

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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.

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

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:

But many players tweak the V7 chord slightly, playing this instead:

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 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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And you can tweak the V7 chord’s extended harmony notes (its 9 and 13) to outline a more exotic scale:

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:

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CHORD & BASSLINE

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 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.

‘stride piano lesson’

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t w o h a n d e d v o i c i n g s

To create the most sophisticated sounding piano voicings, two hands will be required.

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 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

contributes to the chord’s lush sound, rather than just being an extra note added on top.

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.

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):

Then I need a similar collection of voicings for C minor 7 (covering C D Eb F G A Bb):

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As well as C dominant 7 (covering C D E F# G A Bb):

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:

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):

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

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‘side-slipping’ or ‘moving a chord in parallel’ - to be discussed later) - like this:

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):

And sometimes the final i chord of a ii - V - i (I’m not too concerned with the ii chord):

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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’

practice tip

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).

‘TWO HANDED VOICINGS’

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h o w to

t r a n s p o s e

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.

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.

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:

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:

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

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)’:

I’d think of this chord as ‘a stack of 4ths counting down from the root’ (thinking down is fine):

And I’d think of this chord as ‘root, major 3rd, minor 7th (left hand), and a major chord built off the 2nd (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.

practice tip

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 so on. Do the same for each of your favorite voicings.

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P A 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 61

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c h o r d / s c a l e

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 melody or playing a solo) over any type of chord.

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 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) 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.

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 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.

So over C major 7 I’d make sure my scale has C E G B:

Over C minor 7 I’d make sure my scale has C Eb G Bb:

Over C dominant 7 (C7) I’d make sure my scale has C E G Bb:

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And over C half-diminished (Cm7b5) I’d make sure my scale contains C Eb Gb Bb:

GET CREATIVE WITH 2 4 6

Once you have the chordal tones mapped out in your scale, you have freedom with the rest (2 4 6):

So over C major 7 some musicians will play C major scale:

Other musicians will play C lydian scale (major scale with #4):

Some musicians might play C harmonic-major scale (major scale with b6):

And so on. There’s never just one scale you have to play from - you always have a choice.

CHORDAL TONES + WHOLE-STEP RULE

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 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’):

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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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 ‘lydian-dominant scale’):

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’):

These are my ‘default scales’ - unless I have any better ideas, these are the scales I’ll play over each 7th chord.

practice tip

Go through a chord sheet to a jazz song of your choice - play each chord in your left hand using 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.

‘jazz scales’

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a r p e g g i at i n g t h e

c h o r d s y m b o l

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

entirely chordal tones of the accompanying chords, especially when there’s frequent chord changes to keep things interesting. Take a look at the following melodies for example, all of which arpeggiate the accompanying chord:

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practice tip

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.

‘jazz solo breakdown’

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a i m i n g f o r t h e

c

o

l

o

r

f

u

l

n o t e s

CHORDAL TONES

VS

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 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. 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 their melodies and solos. However they’re not the most interesting or sophisticated sounding notes. Since the

chordal tones are already being played in the accompanying chord, you’re not adding anything new to 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.

Most people would agree that playing a #4 over a major 7 chord sounds more sophisticated than playing a plain old major 3rd:

Playing an 11th over a minor 7 chord sounds more sophisticated than playing the plain old root:

And playing a #9 over a dominant 7 chord sounds more sophisticated than playing the plain old 5th:

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So when I write a melody or solo, I’m aiming 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:

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:

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practice tip

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.

‘improv. masterclass’

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e m p h a s i z i n g t h e

c h a n g e s

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.

AIMING FOR THE CHANGES

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 aim for the notes that change, rather than the notes that stay the same, like this:

First I decide which scale to play over each chord in the progression:

Then I identify which notes change from one scale to the next:

! ! F minor 7’s scale has Eb

! ! Bb7#11’s scale has E natural

! ! E minor 7’s scale has F#

! ! A7b13’s scale has F natural

And finally I write a melody that focuses around those note changes:

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):

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practice tip

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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