I Wish I Learned Jazz Chords Like This – Stop Wasting Time

Like most jazz beginners, I started out making jazz chords much too complicated, a mistake I also see 90% of my students make. But once I discovered Joe Pass’s method for chords, it changed the game completely and tied everything together. So in this video, I’ll show you how he simplifies Jazz chords so they’re easy to play, easy to remember, and a lot easier to use in real songs.  Joe Pass had one rule for jazz chords:

As Joe Pass said: “You must think about the chords in the most simple possible form”

But what are those simple chords, and how does that help you learn to play beautiful Jazz chords? Let me show you!

The Problem With Beautiful Jazz Chords

• 1. It’s visual and easy to remember,
  2. You can improvise and connect chords on the fly.,
  3. It’s simple to add some beautiful chromatic chords.

When you first got into jazz guitar, I bet it was those huge beautiful chords with lots of color that hooked you—the ones that make you stop and say, “Wow, how do they do that?”

So, like me, you probably dove into chord books and started memorizing one complicated shape after another. But each chord has its own name, its own diagram, and its own weird fingering. And before long, you were drowning in a sea of chords and diagrams.

Here’s the problem: Nobody—not even the pros—can remember thousands of separate chord shapes. And when you’re playing jazz, it’s not just about knowing all those chord grips, it’s about moving smoothly from one chord to the next and making the music flow. That’s impossible if you’re piecing together random shapes. Instead, you need to start grouping chords together. Think in families, not an endless chord menu. What I’ll show you makes everything easier.

And there is a bonus: This approach is THE shortcut to chord solos—the thing that seems like quantum physics if you’re stuck thinking one chord at a time. I will show you how it works and bust 3 huge misunderstandings that are holding jazz beginners back.

Making Chords Into Music

Let’s make jazz chords simple—so simple, you’ll wonder why you ever did it the hard way.

We’re not jumping into chord solos or fancy chromatic tricks just yet. Let’s start with a classic: G7(13).

You’ve probably seen this shape before. But what can you really do with it?

Here’s the secret: Instead of grabbing the whole four-note grip, strip it down to the essentials—just like Joe Pass did. Focus on the heart of the chord: the 3rd and the 7th. For G7,

those notes are right on the middle strings.

Why does this matter? Because those two notes give you the sound of the chord. The “G7” part tells your ear what’s happening. The 13th?

That’s just extra flavor—you can add it if you want, but you don’t need it to make great music. And the bass note?

Leave that to your bass player! That frees up your fingers for other fun things.

Most guitarists are used to finding chords by hunting for roots on the 5th or 6th string. Instead, what you want to do is visualize the root, but only play the “shell”—the top part.

Try this: Play a II V I in C major, but only the 3rd and 7th for each chord.

Hear how clear and smooth that sounds? You can do this for every chord. Keep those 3rd and 7th notes on the middle strings. That leaves you space above for melodies and extensions, and space below if you want to add a bass note or even some walking bass.

So now, you’ve just ditched one of the biggest jazz chord misunderstandings—and you’ve got a super simple way to play any chord. Next, let’s smash another myth, and then I’ll show you a hack for chromatic passing chords that makes them ridiculously easy.

Adding Melody Not Extensions

Here’s the second big misunderstanding: Chords are not just isolated islands, they are always in a context, a song or a chord progression. A G7 is not just a G7, it depends on what is happening around it.

Peter Bernstein puts it perfectly: “It’s an Eb7 but which one, it matters where in the form”

The most important part of that movement is melody, but adding the melody is not that difficult now that you already reduced the chord to two notes. I’ll first show how to find notes that work and then talk a bit about how to create melodies.

Let’s break down how you actually add melody to your chords.

Think of it like this: you’ve got your G7 shell—just the 3rd and 7th on the middle strings.

Now, all you need to do is look at the top strings and see what other notes from the G7 scale you can add on top, as long as they fit with the sound of the chord.

Now, instead of thinking, “Is this a G7(13) or a G7(9)?”—just think of it as G7. It’s a spot where you can play a melody using all those notes. I’m calling all of them G7, because that’s really what’s happening.

Now, my point with writing G7 doesn’t mean that you should not know what the extensions are, it is just to make it clear that when you see G7 like this, then you can use a G7(13) or a G7(9). G7 is not a specific chord; it is a category, just like saying something is a pasta dish tells you something about it, but it can still have a lot of variations.

You can do this same thing for Dm7

and Cmaj7

just add notes above the 3rd and 7th. (Again, show the diagrams.) For example, I’m leaving out the F on Cmaj7 because it doesn’t really work there, but you’ll hear that as you play around with it. Don’t be afraid to trust your ear.

Like this, you’re not stuck memorizing a million shapes. You’re actually making music, and you’re doing it in a way that’s flexible and creative right from the start.

Making Chords Into Music

Now that you have the basics down—your chord shells and some melody notes—it’s time to actually turn those chords into music.

Here’s an example that might sound a little busy, but I also want you to see just how much is possible when you start adding melody to your comping:

Try taking a chord progression, or even just a song you like, and experiment with improvising simple melodies on top of your chords. Don’t worry about getting it perfect—just explore and see what sounds good to you.

If you’re comping behind a soloist, here are three things to keep in mind:

Misunderstanding #3: Never Play Chords On The Downbeat

Now, this third misunderstanding is one I see pop up in comments all the time: “You should never play chords on the downbeat.” Honestly, that’s just not true—and you won’t hear any real jazz musician saying that.

Of course, you want to learn to play off-beats, but you’re also there to support the music and the soloist. Sometimes, you need to lay down the groove and make things clear. There’s nothing wrong with hitting a chord on the one or the three—sometimes that’s exactly what the song needs.

Your off-beats only sound good if they’re balanced with some solid downbeats. It’s like cooking with only pepper and no salt—it just doesn’t work.

Let’s move on to a visual hack for chromatic passing chords, and then we’ll start looking at some chord soloing!

Chromatic Chords – Melodic And Visual

With this approach, you can see how chords really just boil down to 2 notes, plus a bunch of melody notes you’re free to improvise with. At this point, what you play is more about hearing a melody than worrying about complicated chord formulas, extensions and alterations.

Now, jazz melodies often use chromatic notes too—and you can add those into your comping very easily. The simple way to look at chromatic passing notes in jazz is that they create a bit of tension by landing on a note that’s “outside” the chord,

and then resolving by moving up or down a half-step. For example, on the G7, if you play an Eb between E and D:

If you have this melody over a G7, your first chord is a G7(13), and the last one is just a regular G7. For the Eb in the middle, you don’t need to invent a brand new chord. The Eb resolves to D, so take the chord on D, the G7, and use that for Eb. Moving that down a half step works perfectly:

You can do the same thing going up. Say you’re moving from G to A in the melody, you can add a G# as a passing note. Here, you could use a F#7 shape moving up to G7:

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It’s both easy to figure out and easy to play, since you’re just thinking about where the melody resolves and moving your chord shape to match. There’s no need to overthink the passing chord itself, you don’t even really need to know what chord it is.

Put this together, and you can play something like this:

It Is Already A Chord Solo!

Here’s something cool: when you improvise with your chords while comping, you’re actually learning to play chord solos—maybe without even realizing it! You’re already making phrases and melodies using these simple chord shapes, so the next step is just to use them as a solo, not just for backing someone up.

Let’s take a different example. Instead of a II V I in C, let’s look at a blues in G. For the first four bars, you already know the G7 so all you need is an C7 to make a solo statement.

Start with a basic C7 like this

Then you reduce it to these two notes

and a practical set of notes could be:

With those notes, you can play a chord solo like this. Notice how I’m repeating riffs on the C7 and using call-and-response to connect the melodies:

This approach to chord solos is super practical, and you’ll hear it all the time in the playing of greats like Joe Pass. If you want to see more, check this video where I break down chord solo phrases and some amazing jazz blues from Joe Pass himself! It doesn’t get better than that!

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https://jenslarsen.nl/this-jazz-blues-solo-is-perfect-and-nobody-is-talking-about-it/

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