Are you stuck trying to memorize difficult jazz chords but can’t get them to sound right in a song?

There is a simple system, using 3-note jazz chords, that has helped 1000s of my students turn chord symbols into music, not just memorize lots of chord grips.

So in this video, I will show you that system, and how it helps you add rhythm and color to your chords, so that you can finally play songs that sound like jazz.

Let me first show you how these simple 3-note Jazz chords work – the foundation behind all jazz harmony. Once you have these, I’ll show you how to put them to use in real comping and even harmonize melodies, so you can create your own chord-melody arrangements.

Start Simple

This way of playing chords is called shell voicings. It means boiling the chord down to just the essential notes—the root, the 3rd, and the 7th—so you get the full harmony without any extra color notes.

Let’s start with the basics: shell voicings are 3-note chord shapes with the root on the 5th or 6th string, and the 3rd and 7th on the middle strings. Here’s what that looks like with Cmaj7.

For each chord, there are two main versions—one with the root on the 5th string,

and one on the 6th string.

A great way to practice is to play all the diatonic chords in a key. (Diatonic just means the chords that naturally come from a scale—in this case, C major.)

Here’s how that sounds:

If you switch to the other string set, you get this—starting from Fmaj7 the 4th degree of the scale:

You might notice that the B half-diminished chord (also called Bm7b5 or Bø)  is the same as a regular m7 chord here.

That’s because shell voicings leave out the 5th, which is the only difference between those two chords.

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Luckily, that almost never causes problems in real songs, where you can hear what it is from the context.

Now that you’ve got some chords under your fingers, let’s put them to use in a song!

Fly Me To The Moon

With the diatonic chords you just learned, it becomes easy to play real songs. Let’s walk through the first part of “Fly Me To The Moon.” Most of the chords are just diatonic—straight from the C major scale—but there is one chord inserted to create extra movement. Chords like that are called secondary dominants. You’ll hear how it makes sense.

The first chord is Am7, like this. Then, to move to Dm7, you want to stay in the same area, so you can use this, and now G7 is easy here. Cmaj7 is right here. And we are just slowly moving down the neck! Fmaj7 is right here to Bø, and the non-diatonic chord: E7, the secondary dominant for Am7. You can hear how that resolves, and now you get the lower Am7 as well.

Can you see how easy this is? And you have chords moving through the song, with a natural flow from chord to chord. Not skipping around and stressing about finding the next chord.

Let me quickly talk a bit about secondary dominants: In the song you have an E7 resolving to Am7.

E7 is not a chord in the C major scale, but it is the dominant of Am. You will often come across dominant chords that are resolving to something else than the root of the key,

And it is useful to be able to recognize them. Mostly by looking at where they resolve to, in this case, E7 to Am7.

Now that you have the chords the next thing you need is rhythm!

Rhythm Is Important (part #1)

Rhythm is everything when it comes to playing chords in jazz. But for many jazz beginners, learning comping rhythms can feel like a mystery. The great thing about shell voicings is that they’re easy to play, so you can really focus on rhythm without worrying about complicated fingerings.

There’s a trick to improving your rhythm vocabulary, and it has to do with how you think about rhythms. Check out this example, and then I’ll explain:

Here’s how you should think about comping rhythms: Each one-bar rhythm pattern is like a word. On its own, it can sound good—but it really comes alive when you start combining it with other “words” to build sentences.

That’s how great players make their comping flow: they combine patterns and hear longer phrases, just like sentences in a conversation.

Here, I first play a Charleston rhythm, followed by a variation that adds a note. In the G7, the rhythm is not on the one, which creates tension, which fits with it being a dominant. The resolution brings the rhythm of bar 2, which is a nice way to resolve the G7 and close the sentence.

When you start thinking of rhythms like this, you stop memorizing patterns and start “speaking” rhythm—just like learning to speak a new language.

Now you’ve got some rhythm “words” to work with, but you can actually go even further with this shell voicing trick.

Rhythm Is Important (part #2)

I’ll show you how to add more color to your chords in a bit, but the easiest way to add variation right now isn’t by changing the chord—it’s by splitting it in two: bass and chord. This gives you new options, and it’s especially great for duo comping (like when you’re playing with just a singer or a horn player).

Check this out:

What makes this great is that every shell voicing already has these two layers built in. Now you have three ways to play each chord: all together, just the bass, or just the chord.

You can hear it right away on the first chord:

 And this sets up the answer on the Dm7, which uses the same rhythm as before, but now with the split:

By splitting the chord, you instantly get a lot more out of the same rhythms—and it’s easy to add great variations without learning anything new.

Now, let’s add some more notes to these chords before we create a chord melody.

Go Big With Small Chords

You’re already flexible with chords and rhythm, so now it’s time to add more color to your playing. But here’s the thing: don’t just chase fancy chord extensions. Be practical! The best way is to start with your basic shell voicings and then connect them to different melody notes.

Think of it like this: your shell voicing is the bread and cheese, and every new note you add from the scale is a different topping. Each one gives your chord a unique flavor.

Let me show you with Am7. I’ll add notes from the C major scale on the top two strings, like this:

You can do the same thing with Dm7, but remember that you want to think of these as variations of the Dm7 shell voicing:

And if you explore this idea for the other chords, you can play something like this:

See how shell voicings are perfect for creating chord melodies? Let me show you how.

Chord Melody

Have you ever wondered how to turn a simple melody into a lush chord melody? Here’s the trick: if you can play a melody on the top two strings, you can easily harmonize it using shell voicings.

Let’s look at the first few bars of “Fly Me To The Moon.” Notice how I sometimes sneak in a note on the 3rd string – you’ll see in a bit why that works.

Now, watch what happens when I add the chords underneath the melody. Suddenly, it all fits together.

Here’s the thing: you don’t need to be too strict about how long you sustain the chords. For this song it helps that the melody is moving.

Think about how Joe Pass approached it, because that is important for the next section:

[…] and a lot of people think that you’re playing like, bass notes, at the same time you’re playing chords, at the same time you are playing melody. And it’s not true. It’s an illusion. 

And this makes it a bit easier to play the next 4 bars, where you sometimes let go of the chord to keep the melody moving. You can hear that from the very first chord

And if you’re a little bit free with how you play the melody and also add a secondary dominant for the Fmaj7, you get something like this

So you want to be practical so you can keep the music flowing, and building from these basic shell voicings helps you do just that! If you work on using these for chord melodies of other songs, you will quickly become very flexible. Check out this video to learn how to use shell voicings for a chord melody of Autumn Leaves. It works perfectly and is very playable. Check it out!

Learn Jazz – Make Music

Autumn Leaves – Beautiful Chord Melody For Jazz Beginners

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