Start With Simple Jazz Chords, But Do This!
A big mistake that a lot of students make when they start learning Jazz chords is learning chords as different grips but not learning how to make music with them.
Let me show you a process using just one very simple chord and how much you can do with that as a starting point. There are a lot of fun things to explore!
Level #1 – The Chord and a Rhythm
Let’s start very basic with a simple G7 chord.
That is a nice chord to vamp on, and there are so many things you can do with it. We also need a rhythm. For now, I’ll use a one-bar rhythm and play it twice. That will also develop.
Notice that I am not playing the chord as a bar chord, so it is not like this,
I am using different fingers for each note. You will quickly see why that is a lot better, especially with the following two levels. As you will see, for this dominant chord, I can also add a few blues tricks along the way.
Level #2 – Phrasing For Jazz Chords
It is not about the notes you play. It is about how you play them. I am sure you have heard that before, and phrasing is also important for chords, so the first thing to add is not extensions or fills but some slides. Already here, you can see how it is helpful not to play this as a bar chord, and let’s upgrade the rhythm a bit by moving one note in the 2nd bar.
But there is another very easy thing to add now without and still without adding notes to the chord.
Level #3 – The Drumkit Split
A voicing like this G7-Shell voicing has two layers built in a Bass or root note on the lower string set and the chord on the middle string set.
Without changing the chord, you have some options with how you play it:
You can split the chord and, of course, slide into the split parts. You probably don’t need more than this, but now it could be fun to add more notes, and since this is a dominant chord, that will give you some Blues options to explore as well!
Level #4 – More Melodies
With the G7 chord that you have been using until now, there are 3 notes, but like this, you are not using the two top strings,
so adding notes from those two strings is an easy way to have more melodies to play. Let’s start with the B string, and then I’ll talk about why that set of notes works so well for Blues.
The basic chord is this, and then you can add the 5th, D, the 13th, E, and double the 7th, F.
There are two ways to use these notes. Just explore what melodies you can play:
Don’t get intimidated by making melodies with the 3 notes. It is not as difficult as you might think. Just mess around until you find something that sounds good, and work with that! But you should also notice that these 3 notes are also what you have in a basic boogie blues riff:
And you can use that to tap into some riff ideas and maybe a bit of call-response like this:
But let’s add another trick that is a part of the “Blues sound” as well.
Level #5 – A Blues Thing (part 1)
Most of these techniques work on any chord, but this one works best on dominant chords. In a way, the last level gave you a “jazz version” of the boogie-woogie riff:
And you can lean into that by adding this way of playing the basic chord part, which includes a hammer on as a passing note to the 3rd:
This is a great way to add a bit of Blues phrasing. I’ll give you two more techniques that work well for blues and that you can use to add a bit of jazz flavor to blues chords.
..but first, check this out!
First, let’s add a few more melody notes.
Level #6 – The Final Frontier
I am sure you realized that we also need to add the notes on the high E string. But we are keeping it practical, so for this G7, that is pretty easy: You have two notes, even if there are a few ways to play them.
This might seem complicated, but I’ll explain why it isn’t in a bit. The G7 shell voicing is here, and on the high e-string, you have a G and an A.
You could play them baring the 3rd fret like this:
But you could also choose not to bar anything and do this:
. Both options will be practical in different situations, depending on what you are playing before and after the chord. You also have to consider if you are also playing notes on the B string:
and the way that I find myself using them the most is actually as rootless chords like this: 
When you check out these chords, you should find an easy way for you and then use that. If you run into a place where it doesn’t sound good in some way, then you can consider changing it. Most of the time, I end up using the rootless version in phrases like this, which use the split to make it more playable:
You can also use the complete version, which I mostly use in Chord melody situations. They are often a bit heavy when competing. That sounds like this:
But you can also use notes that don’t fit the chord because it is Jazz…
Level #7 – Chromatic Notes
Let’s add some wrong notes! This is easy. If you are moving from one melody note to another, you can add a leading note from above or below. To keep it easy to play, I’ll show you with the rootless voicings:
Going from E down to D,
you can add a chromatic note in between the two notes
but you can also add a chromatic note below the note you are going to, D
And, of course, the same is true for A moving down to G:
Adding the leading note to the 3rd, you can create something like this:
And I am not concerned with what the chord with the chromatic note is called because it resolves immediately. Let’s add another Blues trick.
Level #8 – A Blues Thing (part 2)
A huge part of the blues sound on guitar is using double stops, and you should consider using those in comping as well. Again, this is something that will be the easiest to get to work on a dominant chord, but it can also work on other chords.
These are often best applied as fills, and there are 2 practical ways to use them.
Adjacent strings:
And Pedal notes. In this next example, I use the G as a pedal note and then play a riff or fill under it. This is probably too busy to be considered comping and is more a fill:
Let’s level up the chromatic stuff
Level #9 – Passing Chords
Just like you can add chromatic notes you can also add complete chords, and the principle is the same as with the chromatic notes, but instead of doing that with a single note you do it with the entire chord thinking about where you are going.
I still think these from the melody because that is the easiest to hear. From E to D
The Eb leading note now becomes a complete Ab7, and if you want a chromatic passing chord from below, you get this:
(F#7)
Another great one is the chromatic approach to the basic tritone of G7
Putting these to use, you can play something like this:
Level #10 – Split It All!
This next one will also work for any chord: You can play a chord one note at a time, referred to as arpeggiating. That turns the chord voicing into a melody, and since you are already playing the chord, that is a really easy thing to do. A great one is to use this rootless G7(13):
Now you can combine that with some passing chords and double-stops to get a cool riff like this:
Soloing Is The Same
This process of finding techniques to get sounds with a simple chord also works for soloing, and it is incredibly important that you also go through that with melodic material so that you learn to hear and understand the Jazz melodies that sound so amazing. That is what I cover in this video, which will cover 99% of what you need to know and also show you how to put it to use. Check it out!
Learn Jazz, Make music!
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