Tag Archives: quartal arpeggio

Half Diminished Chords – This is how to use Quartal Arpeggios

Half Diminished chords are difficult to get used to and hard to improvise over. In this video I am going to go over some of the Quartal arpeggios that work great for m7b5 chords and show you how to easily add them to your vocabulary. I also go over some examples of how you might use these arpeggios over a half diminished chord in a minor II V I cadence.

Half Diminished Chords in a Minor Cadence

The examples in this lesson are all on a II V I cadence in Dm:

Eø A7alt Dm6

The first example is using two quartal arpeggios on the Eø, and another two on the A7alt.

The first quartal arpeggio is from A: A D G, which gives us a m11 sound over the Eø with 11(A), b7(D), b3(G). The second one is from the b5: Bb E A basically spelling out a m7(b5(11) chord with the b5, root and 11th in the arpeggio.

On the A7 altered I am using a quartal arpeggio from C and then one from C#. The one from C# you may recognize as the top part of an A7(#9).

Quartal arpeggio Exercise no 1

If you want to work through the Quartal arpeggios for the Eø in this key (which is D minor), then you can check out the exercise here below which includes the two I used and is covering all diatonic quartal arpeggios in the scale on the middle string set.

Quartal arpeggios moving in 4ths

This example is again using the Quartal arpeggio from the b5: Bb E A, and then continues with the quartal arpeggio from E on the next string set: E A D. This way of connecting the arpeggios in 4ths gives us two common notes between the arpeggios. It also creates a movement with a large range. 

The A7 altered line is a scale run from the root ending with a chromatic phrase that resolves to the 5th(A) of Dm6.

Quartal arpeggio Exercise no 2

To check out the arpeggios on the top string set you can play through this exercise. Notice that if you do this with alternate picking it is really a great way to develop flexibility!

The Maj7 Arpeggio from the b5

The Maj7 arpeggio from the b5, in this case a Bbmaj7 arpeggio, is making a guest appearance. This arpeggio is often overlooked but is a perfect fit for the Eø sound. In this example it is chained together with the quartal arpeggio from the root: E A D. 

The A7alt lick is turning around on the #9 and then descending down the scale. Before resolving to the 9th(E) of Dm6 it catches the C# on the A7. 

Half diminished dilemmas?

The m7b5 or Half diminished chord is one of the chords I get asked about most often, so I hope you can apply some of these arpeggios in your own playing.

If you want to see more videos exploring the options on a half diminished or m7(b5) chords then leave a comment on the YouTube video or send me a message via e-mail!

Get a free E-book

If you want to download a Free E-book of 15 II Valt I licks then subscribe to my newsletter:

Sign up for my newsletter – Get the II V I Ebook

Get the PDF!

You can also download the PDF of my examples here:

Half Diminished Chord – Quartal Arpeggios

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.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and feel free to connect with me via Instagram,Twitter Google+ or Facebook to keep up to date with new lessons, concerts and releases.

How to Come up with New solo ideas – Rethink the stuff you already know

It can be difficult to come up with new ideas for your solos, but this video talks about how you can use all of the diatonic triads, arpeggios, pentatonic scales etc and find the right ones to the chord you are playing over. Not only playing just with the arpeggio, but also how to mix it with the other material.

The video has a lot of examples and explanations and also a lot of philosphy on playing over changes, superimposing arpeggios and other things like developing a personal sound and taste.

 

🔴 Subscribe for more free Jazz Guitar Lessons and Videos: https://bit.ly/JensLessons

☑️ Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jenslarsen/

✅DOWNLOAD A FREE E-BOOK with 15 II Valt I licks! Sign up for my newsletter: http://jenslarsen.nl/sign-up-for-my-n…

 

0:49 The Maj7 and the F Major Scale

1:10 What I will check out

1:48 The Fmaj7 chord and diatonic arpeggios

2.55 Solo using Fmaj7 arpeggio

3:12 How you solo with an arpeggio when learning new ideas

3:53 Arpeggio from the 3rd

4:18 Solo using Am7 Arpeggio 

4:43 Why we don’t really want the Bb in there and C7 doesn’t work

5:46 A 3rd below: Dm7

5:56 Solo using Dm7 Arpeggio

6:31 Arpeggios against another root note and the having an overview of the scale

8:20 Solo using F major triad 9:29 Am triad solo

9:51 Thoughts on making melodies with Am triad vs Fmaj7

11:01 Solo using C major triad 11:23 C major triad and not having the 3rd in the arpeggio.

12:14 Solo using D minor triad

12:32 Finding associations with the different arpeggios and the sound they make

13:48 Quartal Harmony

15:19 Solo using Quartal Arp from G

15:34 DIfferent fingerings and mixing it with other things

16:27 Solo using Quartal Arp from A

16:53 Connecting to the chord, using chord tones

17:28 Solo using Quartal Arp from D

17:46 Emphasizing the intervals in the arpeggio

18:32 Solo using Quartal Arp from E

18:53 Different patterns of the Arpeggio

19:37Other options like spread voicing, drop2 and inversions..

20:14 Pentatonics

20:27 Solo using Dm Pentatonic

20:47 Choosing pentatonic scales for a chord

21:48 Solo using Am Pentatonic

22:13 The “other”Pentatonic scales lesson series

22:48 Shell Voicings – Finding Useable

24:10 Solo using Fmaj7 Shell Voicing

24:51 Solo using Am7 Shell Voicing

25:05 Ways to practice shell voicings in postition and along the neck

26:26 Solo using Dm7 Shell Voicing

27:38 Solo using Em7b5 Shell Voicing

27:55 Compensating for the lack of chord tones in the arpeggio

28:44 What am I trying to do when practicing with these arpeggios

29:26 Sus4 triads and Mark Turner

30:03 Finding useable Sus4 triads

30:38 Difference between Sus4 and Quartal Harmony?

32:02 Solo using Gsus4 triads

32:33 Solo using Asus4 triads 32.49 The sound of the sus4 triad

33:35 Solo using Csus4 triads

33:51 Using the resolution of the sus chord in the melody as well.

34:42 Solo using Dsus4 triads

35:05 Sus4 triads as voicings.

35:33 Using this approach to develop and understand your own taste

37:38 Outro

 

3 Pentatonic Scale Exercises You Never Played

It is incredible how wide the range of sounds you can pull from a minor pentatonic scale is! This video is on 3 exercises and some licks showing how to make some great modern sounds with a simple A minor pentatonic scale.

The lesson goal

The material I cover is going to give you some new ideas for what you can play with a pentatonic scale. It will also give you some solid exercises that you can use to get a better overview of the fretboard and help you connect the different scale positions 

I also discuss how I come up with the exercises, This should give you some tips on how you can make your own exercises and develop this material further.

Know your Pentatonic scale

All the examples that  in this lesson are using an A minor pentatonic. You want to know this scale in positions but it is also very practical to know it along the neck on each string. If you want to have an overview of the scale then check out these Downloadable PDF scale and chord charts

The examples that are using a chord progression are all on this II V I in G major:

The first exercise and lick

The first line, that I also play in the beginning of the video is shown in example 1 here below:

The Am exercise that I am using here is a quite random construction. The idea was to take 2 notes on one string and one on the next.

If I do this on the middle string set and the 1st Pentatonic box we get example 3:

This is a great example of how we can take a random pattern and still make it into music. The pattern turns out to be a set of triads, major, minor and sus4.

The way I am using it in the line is in position so that is shown in the last bar of example 3.

The II V I line is using this pattern in box 2 on the Am7 chord. On the D7alt I use an Fm pentatonic scale and play a line consisting of two quartal arpeggios.

The concept behind using Fm over D7alt is covered in this lesson: Soloing over a II V I with Pentatonic scales.

Exercise 2 – Quartal arpeggios 

Another great aspect of the pentatonic scale is that it is very closely related to quartal harmony. One way this is clear is that if you try to build “diatonic thirds” in the scale you get a lot of quartal chords.

The quartal chords are great arpeggios that you can use to get a more open soundin you lines. In example 4 is a simple Am7 line using only the pentatonic scale and one of the quartal arpeggios found in it

The way I play the quartal arpeggio in the first bar of example 4 is using a string skip and two stretches. This is easier way to play it than the one note per string version that we use for chords.

In example 5 I have written out this exercise up the neck

This exercise is great since you are basically playing two different scale positions for each arpeggio in the scale. In that way you are creating a better overview and linking the two positions. 

Since the exercise also requires some stretches you have to make sure you are warmed up playing it it. If you find it hard to play then start higher on the neck to relieve your left hand.

Example 6 here above is a II V I line using a quartal arpeggio from A. On the Am7 I run down to an Am7 arpeggio and then make a simple D7alt line. This resolves to the Gmaj7.

Exercise 3 More ideas from pentatonic chords

Another way to find material and exercises in a scale is to approach it from chord voicings. The last exercise is coming out of playing the minor pentatonic scale as chords. You can think of this as playing the scale on 3 strings at the same time. This is shown in example 7.

If you arpeggiate these chords and add an extra note you get the exercise shown in example 3.

Using this exercise we can easily make some Am7 lines that move around the scale in a new way:

If I take this exercise and use it in a II V I lick we can get something like this:

Here I am chaining together the exercise by using 4 notes from one string set and 4 notes from the next. On the D7alt I am using the triad pair Ab and F#aug. This is a great triad pair for the altered sound. If you want to check out more about triad pairs in the altered scale you can check out this lesson: Triad pairs in the altered scale  on this topic!

Check out how I solo on a standard

If you want to investigate the way I play solos you can check out this lesson on a 4 chorus transcription of my improvisation over the jazz standard There Is No Greater Love

There is no greater love – solo transcription


Get a free E-book

If you want to download a Free E-book of 15 II Valt I licks then subscribe to my newsletter:

Sign up for my newsletter

Get the PDF!

You can also download the PDF of my examples here:

3 Pentatonic Exercises You Never Played

Jazz Guitar Insiders Facebook Group

Join 600+ Other Jazz Guitarists 🎸Join us in the Facebook Jazz Guitar Group Community: http://bit.ly/InsidersFBGroup

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.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and feel free to connect with me via Instagram,Twitter Google+ or Facebook to keep up to date with new lessons, concerts and releases.

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.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and feel free to connect with me via Instagram,Twitter Google+ or Facebook to keep up to date with new lessons, concerts and releases.

10 Arpeggios over a Maj7 chord

It is often difficult to keep coming up with fresh ideas for solos and not play the same lines all the time. Looking for new arpeggios is a great way to expand on your vocabulary for lines.  It is important that we always keep developing new options and solid melodies that we can apply to the chords that we solo over.

In this lesson I am going to go over 10 different arpeggios that you can use in your Maj7 lines. All the examples are played overa Cmaj7 and I chose to keep it in the 8th position just to make it easy to mix up the different ideas. I decided to keep it all major so not any Lydian sounds. I can do that in another lesson if you are interested.

I have written out all the examples in C and I am not going to give you a formula, but you can move this to other keys yourself and figuring it out in other keys will give you a better overview of those keys.

1 The Cmaj7 arpeggio

The first arpeggio is of course the arpeggio of the chord itself. In the example I am using it as a triplet where the 7th is the target of the arpeggio. It is followed with a chromatic line that is also quite common. Both of these ideas are fairly common bebop lines but will work in a lot of contexts.

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 1

2 The Em7 arpeggio

The next place you should always look for arpeggios is to look at the arpeggio found on the 3rd of the chord. In this case that is the Em7 arpeggio. In the line I am chaining together an Em7 and a Cmaj7 arpeggio in a way that gives you a line with a fairly big range (an octave and a fifth).

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 2

3 C major triad

The triad may sometimes be overlooked because we are so busy with extensions and alterations, but a lot of good lines can be made with it. Especially if you use a sequence like I do in the line. Practicing arpeggios in different sequences is an almost limitless wealth of possibilites for making lines.

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 3

4 The E minor triad

Since the C major triad is a strong structure it makes sense that the triad on the 3rd of the chord is also a good candidate. In this line I am using the same melodic idea to chain an Em and an Am triad together as I did in the 2nd example.

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 4

5 The Am7 arpeggio

In the same way that we can use the arpeggio that is found a diatonic 3rd higher than the root we can also use the one found on the note 3rd lower: Am7. In fact the Am7 is of course also an inversion of a C6 chord.

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 5

6 Cmaj7 Shell voicings

If you focus too much on the notes that you play and not on the melody you might forget to check out structures like Shell Voicings as Arpeggios. But if you try to make some lines with shell voicings you’ll probably quickl start to enjoy the sound of the structure. In the example I am using the shell voicing and then leadin into an Am pentatonic line.

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 6

7 Stack fo 4ths from A

Quartal Harmony is such a rich sound in melodies and plays a huge part in the modern jazz language. Probably because it is so closely related to pentatonics. In the example I am using both the stack of 4ths found on the A and on the D. Both are in fact a part of the Am pentatonic scale. Do you really know the pentatonic scale?

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 7

8 Stack of 4ths from B

Another great stack of 4ths is the one found on the B. It spells out a Cmaj7(13) and is easy to use as a clear definition of the color of the Cmaj7. In the example I am combining the arpeggio with a G major triad. If you want to check out more about stacks of 4ths in solos you can check out my lesson: Quartal Harmony in Solo lines

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 8

9 Cmaj7 Drop2 vocings

For lines with a big range it is a grreat idea to experiment with using Drop2 Voicings as Arpeggios In this example I am using the Cmaj7 drop2 voicing. Because it is a melody with almos only large intervals it is easier to use if you put it at the beginning of the line so that it sounds like a sort of pickup. This is also how I use it in the example.

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 9

10 Quintal Arpeggios

The stack of 5ths or Quintal arpeggio from G is a cool structure that you may or may not know more as “the police chord”. In the example I am using it in the position and the melody is mixing it up with an Em7 shell voicing which creates a line that moves quite a bit in big intervals.

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord 1 - ex 10

 

That was 10 different structures you can take out and experiment with. I hope you got some new ideas and that some of the examples sounded inspiring to you!

If you want to study the examples away from the video or article you can download a pdf here:

10 arpeggios over a Maj7 chord

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics or how I can make the lessons better then please feel free to leave 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 want to hear.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and feel free to connect with me via Instagram,Twitter Google+ or Facebook to keep up to date with new lessons, concerts and releases.