The Diminished scale is a scale that you have probably heard of and you know that it is a symmetrical scale and most of the time when people talk about using it then you get all these patterns that repeat. But for, the problem was always that melodies with repeating patterns like that don’t sound that great. Some people can make that work, but I always wanted a different sound with strong melodies that were not that predictable.
In this video, I am going to show you how I improvise using the diminished scale and talk a little bit about how I never really practiced the scale but focused on something else.
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Music Theory and Harmonic Analysis can be great tools when you want to learn jazz and figure out how to improvise over a chord progression. These videos help you get started understanding how to do that, understanding functional harmony, tonal centers, and the rich harmonic language found in Jazz standards.
The videos will give you examples of how to analyze songs and also how to choose scales from that analysis. You will learn a lot from analyzing the songs that you play.
Remember that it is more important to hear the changes and recognize the sound of the theory as it is to know the name, so working on the songs you already know well will really help you. A fancy name probably won’t.
Analyzing Jazz Standards – Understand what you play!
How To Analyze Chords and Progressions – This video uses the song There Will Never Be Another You as an example and discusses the progressions found in there.
All The Things You Are – Harmonic Analysis– All The Things You Are is a great Jazz standard that we all need to have in our repertoire. In this video I am going to go over a thorough All The Things You Are Harmonic Analysis.
Secondary Dominants – What You Want To Know Understanding what a secondary dominant is and being able to recognize or find them for chords is a powerful tool you can use in your playing and compositions. This video will show you how to use them, understand them and improvise over them
And actually, it is pretty simple if you know your basic scales.
Jazz Scales! The 3 You Need to practice and How You apply them to Jazz Chords– Jazz Scales can seem like a million options that you all need to learn in all positions and all chords, but there is a way to approach this that is a little easier than trying to learn all jazz scales in all modes. After all the Dorian mode is not as important as the Major or Minor key.
This video has a PDF download of the overview of the analysis – Click Here
Music Theory Is The Effective Way For You To Learn Faster – If you know you basic Music Theory well then you can easily start to add another level to how you analyze melodies and chord progressions which will help you work more focused and learn faster when you practice.
The Harmonic minor scale is a very distinct sound and it is one of the cornerstones in the songs we play. It is also just a beautiful color that you can add to your solos. In this video, I am going to show you how you can apply the harmonic minor scale to some chords and get some great sounds.
I sometimes see people comment that you don’t need the harmonic minor scale, I think this video will clearly show you why you don’t want to miss it.
I am going to apply it to 3 chords, and to have some chords that you can use we need to just check out the diatonic chords in harmonic minor.
A harmonic minor – What we use it for and why
A harmonic minor is: A B C D E F G# A
The diatonic 7th chords of A harmonic minor would be:
AmMaj7 Bø Cmaj7(#5) Dm7 E7 Fmaj7 G#dim
The 3 chords that I am going to focus on are the 3 last diatonic chords: E7, Fmaj7 and G#dim.
Two are extremely common and in a lot of songs and one is a very specific sound that is a great way to change things up a bit and a good introduction to poly chords.
One way to understand Harmonic minor is to see it as a minor scale that Is changed so that we have a dominant chord.
The A natural minor scale has these diatonic chords:
Am7 Bø Cmaj7 Dm7 Em7 Fmaj7 G7
A harmonic minor A B C D E F G# A has these diatonic chords: AmMaj7 Bø Cmaj7(#5) Dm7 E7 Fmaj7 G#dim
You want to have a dominant chord to really hear that the piece is in A minor. This is the primary function for A harmonic minor
E7 – In Minor and in Major
In this scale we have an E7 with a b9 and a b13:
E G#B D F A C
You get this chord by stacking 3rds in the scale.
This gives us these E7 chords shown below. Of those three the E7(b9,11) is not that nice, but the E7(b9,b13) is a great description of how the dominant sounds.
And some of the arpeggios that work well for this chord would be:
Using E7 from harmonic minor
You can use the E7 in a minor II V I like this:
But it also works great in a major cadence as a surprising sound that quickly resolves back to the tonic:
G#dim – More than just A minor progressions
If you look at the A harmonic minor scale and the key of A minor then the G#dim is a dominant chord that wants to resolve to the tonic
Notice that I don’t use harmonic minor on the tonic chord, I am using melodic minor which is a more common tonic minor sound.
The “difficult” dim chord
But in Jazz we mostly come across subdominant diminished chords, and here the harmonic minor scale is also very useful. Mostly the diminished chord is then written as an Abdim chord like this in F major:
Am7 Abdim Gm7 C7 Fmaj7
The way you arrive at the A harmonic minor scale here is by altering the F major scale:
F major: F G A Bb C D E F
And if you want to fit the dim chord in there then we need an Ab(or G#) and a B:
F G# A B C D E F = A harmonic minor
An example of a line sounds like this:
Fmaj7(#9,#11) – Harmonic Minor Poly Chord
This chord is not very common, in fact I don’t think it is in any Jazz Standards I know. It is however a great different sound that you can use to play something surprising in a solo. Monk used this chord in Round Midnight and Wayne Shorter uses it in Speak No Evil.
This chord is in fact the diatonic chord on F in the scale:
A harmonic minor: A B C D E F G# A
Fmaj7(#9,#11) : F A C E G# B
You could look at this as being an E major triad over an F major triad.
The way you usually play this chord on guitar is like this where you leave out the 5th of the lower triad:
A line using this sound as a substitute for a tonic F major chord:
Melodic Minor – The Other Cornerstone
Harmonic minor is a cornerstone in tonal harmony and is what you want to use for a lot of essential chords in a key. Another very important and also very beautiful minor sound that sounds really great on especially tonic minor chords is melodic minor. If you want to check out this scale and how to use it then this video will really give you something to work with.
You can also download the PDF of my examples here:
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
Maj7 chords have a great open yet resolved sound, but even if they sound very much at rest you can easily use them in some very interesting chord substitution concepts.
In this video, I am going to show you some of the great sounding chord progressions you can make using maj7 chords in chord substitution, and later in the video, I am going to show you how changing one note in the voicing gives you a lot more beautiful sounds.
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You can get the PDF and the GuitarPro files for these examples through my Patreon page here:
There is a great way that you can create new lines over a chord progression which is a simple way of changing the chords and outline other chord sequences. This way you get more movement in the lines and another logic to the melody. And checking out a few of those options on basic progressions like a II V I or a static chord can add a lot of variation to your solos.
In this lesson, I am going to show you a few examples of this. Some are staying within the key and others add a few outside sounds, and later I will also show you how this works if you open up the rhythm a bit.
The Basic Chord Progression and Concept
To show you how this works, first we need to set up a key and a II V I to work with.
We have a basic II V I in G major: Am7 D7 Gmaj7 and often if I play these chords then I can also get away with these chords: Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7 (see example 2 below)
Using this progression in a solo
If I do that in a solo in a really basic way then that sounds like this:
You can hear that the comping is just playing the II V I, but it still works and a freer solo line that still sounds like this: could be something like this:
As you can see I am still using the super-imposed chords (short rundown of the arps)
A Modal or Static Variation
You can hear that I am using the direction of the “alternative chord progression” to give the line a specific direction that works great, almost as a counter-point to the comping underneath.
And of course, the same concept used on a static Am7 chord works as well:
More Diatonic Reharmonizations
The previous example was moving up the scale, and there is a very easy way to use the same principle and move down through diatonic chords like this:
The Ab7 is there because it fits in the descending motion, but a D7 would work as well, of course.
Strong Triad lines
A good way to clearly use the descending movement on top of the standard harmony is to use basic triads like this:
Adding Chromatic Passing Chords
There are two obvious ways you can add a chromatic passing chord in this context, namely using a side-slip up or down.
The two examples below shows how that might sound:
And if you translate these into solo lines:
Example 10 using a Bbm7:
And example 11 using Abm7:
More Creative Rhythms and Polyrhythms
Until now the chord progressions have been used as if the chords are placed on the heavy beats of the bar. This is of course what you usually find with chord changes, but when you solo you can be a lot more open and have more fluid barlines.
These 3 examples have a more open approach to the rhythm and also make use of polyrhythms.
A loose Bbm side-slip
Example 12 is a more loose way to quickly insert a Bbm7 line (actually just a Db major triad) and here it almost sounds like an added Eb7 in the context.
The triad is introduced by moving up the preceding C major triad a half step.
Dotted Quarter note arpeggios
The example below uses the Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7alt chord progression, but the melody uses a 3 8th note long melody for each of the chords.
Another great 3 8th-note grouping
Again triads are a fantastic resource to create melodies. This example is using the basic triads of the chords and spelling out the Cmaj7 Bm7 Am7 Ab7 chord progression. The last two beats are covered with a quartal arpeggio that is essentially an Ab7(13).
Level up your Jazz Lines with Bop Embellishments
Another great way to add more variation to your jazz vocabulary is to use more interesting phrasing:
You can also download the PDF of my examples here:
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
Exploring the Fretboard and the options you have for chords is a great exercise. This video takes one melody note and one chord and I go through 57 maj7 chords and show you how I come up with voicings, how I listen to harmony and think about the chords.
This video is a bit of an experiment, but exercises like this are very very useful for developing your fretboard knowledge, your taste in harmony and your understanding of chords and how they sound.
The PDF with examples for this video is available through Patreon. You can check out my Patreon Page here: https://www.patreon.com/jenslarsen
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Every arpeggio is a melody and Triads is a great very strong melodic building block you can use in your Jazz solos. In this lesson, I will show you:
You will learn how to:
Find Triads for Chords
Exercises to play them
How to use them as Odd-Note groupings, strong melodies and outside material
Let’s first look at how to find triads and then what to practice and how to use them going from diatonic to a little outside stuff as well.
The examples of lines using the triads are all on a static or modal Dm7.
Finding Triads – Analyzing Chords For Solo Material
This is really simple if you know a little theory. You only need to know the notes in the chords and the scale they are found diatonic to.
The basic way to look at this: II V I in C major – Dm7 G7 Cmaj7
The scale: is C major: C D E F G A B C
Dm7: D F A C
G7: G B D F
Cmaj7: C E G B
For each chord we can find a triad from the root, so Dm for Dm7 and from the 3rd of the chord. For the Dm7 that is F A C which spells out an F major triad.
By adding extensions and looking at the available triads you can construct this overview:
The available triads are:
Dm7: Dm, F, Am, C
G7: G, Bdim, Dm, F
Cmaj7: C,Em,G
What Should You Practice – Solid Triad Exercises
Now you can find the triads but you also need to be able to use them in your playing and for that, you need to have them as flexible sets of notes, so basically you want to be able to play triads in as many ways as possible.
You can try out these exercises, don’t focus on speed just on being able to play them in tempo with a good tone and technique, then you can use them in your playing.
Some of the triad exercises I play in the video are:
Diatonic triads
Triad arpeggios in Position
Across the neck (showing F major and G major triads)
Inversions on string sets
3-1-5 Pattern in the scale
Across the neck in a skipping pattern
You can check out more exercises in this Triads Lesson
Whether it is Charlie Parker, Pat Metheny or Julian Lage, they all use triads as a part of their solo vocabulary. These 3 examples will give you some different ways to use them in solos.
Odd-note groupings and cascading triads
This lick starts with a chromatic enclosure and from the continues with cascading triads.
In this example, I use the F major, Am, and C major triads as 3-note groupings. The melody works because I am stacking the triads in 3rds to connect them.
Open-Voiced/Spread Triads
The 2nd lick is combining Dm, F major, and C major triads.
Dm in a standard root position followed by the open-voiced F major triad in bar 2, and finally the C major triad in 2nd inversion played in a pattern.
Outside Chromatic Triads
Another interesting way to use triads on a static chord is to use them as chromatic structures and approaches, similar to how you would use chromatic passing chords
In the example below you have the melody moving from Dm triad to Db major to C major triads.
An example of this in a Kurt Rosenwinkel solo on All or Nothing At All is shown below:
Kurt plays this at the beginning of his solo off the East Coast Love Affair album.
You can also download the PDF of my examples here:
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
Reharmonization! I imagine the word itself sets off alarms for some people thinking: “Crazy Music Theory will follow” and there are going to be the weirdest examples of chord substitutions and bass-notes over triads with extensions.
But it isn’t that bad. Reharmonization is a great way to add variation to both your solos and your interpretation of a song, for example in a chord melody arrangement.
In this video I am going to give you some basic reharmonization ideas to use, it is pretty basic and stuff you might know already but not use like this or maybe have played examples off. The video is not going to make you the best arranger of our time but it will give you some things you can put to use in a lot of places and if you are only playing the basic changes all the time then starting to work on improvising with the chords could be just the thing you should do to get to a higher level.
The PDF with examples for this video is available through Patreon. You can check out my Patreon Page here: https://www.patreon.com/jenslarsen
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Most of the time the one thing that holds you back from really understanding Music Theory or using an idea on several different chords is a really simple part of what is going on.
A big part of what having a good overview of music theory is to be able to think in different layers. You can think of the notes you play as individual notes but also as groups of notes like arpeggios, scales or other melodic ideas. But you need the basic overview of the material to be able to do this.
Content:
0:00 Intro – The Basics Are What is Holding You Back
0:21 Three Layers of understanding what is going on
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Functional Harmony is a great tool if you want to understand how chord progressions flow and use that information to help you improvise better solos and spell out the harmony.
To me, Music theory is something that I can use to tell me how chords sound and how they move in the jazz standards and tonal songs that I play.
This video discusses why this approach to understanding music is very useful for playing Jazz.
If you have seen any of my videos or maybe also some my Instagram posts were on analyzing chord progressions and small melodic fragments then you’ve seen me reduce the progression for the melodies down to Simple functions so a row with several chords I will often reduce to one or two maybe three functions. It is a way to understand how the progression works.
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