Tag Archives: rhythm

Rhythm Changes Chords – Hidden in the Easy Chords

Rhythm Changes Chords are essential to check out. If you want to explore jazz and bebob guitar then the rhythm changes progression is a must. The progression is often used and parts of it are common in countless other songs.

In this lesson I will first go over a basic set of chord voicings to play the progression. I will then expand on these voicings by first turning them into rootless voicings. Then I will show you how you can start making variations of the top notes to create more interesting comping ideas like that. Finally I will go over how you can even add notes and create another set of 4-note voicings.

The Basic Rhythm Changes chord set

We don’t need a lot of different voicings to play a Rhythm Changes A part. In fact it is mostly the same turnaround: I [V] II V and then a short trip to the IV and back.

The chords are shown here below:

If you want to read them using chord diagrams or chord boxes you can do so here:

In the above progression I use a #IVdim (Edim) chord to go from Eb back to Bb in bar 6. Another common way to do this is to play a IV minor chord. In most cases this is a backdoor dominant. In Bb major that would be Ab7. This variation of those bars is shown here below:

Introduction to Jazz Chords

The way I play these chords is coming out of some the lessons in this study guide:

How to Play Jazz Chords

Making the voicings rootless and adding melody

An easy way to create some more flexible 3-note voicings is to just leave out the root.

This is shown here below in example 3:These are more flexible and it is fairly easy to change the top note so that we can play several  melodies using these voicings. 

One way of adding these options is shown in example 4:

Creating 4-note voicings (and recognizing them)

Another way to vary the melody is to add an extra note on top of the voicing. This can be done quite easily since we are only playing 3 notes.

An example of how this works is shown in example 5:

As you can probably see these voicings are mostly drop2 voicings.

The most important Lesson of this Process

This way of coming up with different chord voicings is of course a way of giving yourself options, but is is also a way of associating different voicings together so that we don’t have to remember unconnected sets of notes. 

This is a very practical way to think about chords and a great way to help you learn a lot of chords by just really remembering one.

What do you think?

Get the PDF!

You can also download the PDF of my examples here:

Rhythm Changes Chords

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.

Rhythm Changes – How You Use Chord Substitution for New Lines

It can be difficult to have a large vocabulary of lines when improvising over fast moving chord progressions like Rhythm Changes. One way to access some more ideas is to solo over substitute changes and then get some more options by thinking the substituted chords on top of the normal turnaround.

In this video I will go over 5 variations and show how you can use those to generate new ideas for your solos.

The Basic Turnaround in Rhythm Changes

The basic turnaround in Rhythm Changes is usually a I VI II V. In the key of Bb major that would be something like this: Bbmaj7 G7 Cm7 F7

A line on this turnaround could be:

The line is using a Bb6 (or Gm7) arpeggio on the Bb chord and continues with a G7 arpeggio. The melodic idea is using that the Bb can be moved to B and for the rest stay the same. On the Cm7 it’s a descending scale run targetting the A on the F7. The F7 line is using the F7 arpeggio that resolves to D.

A few Dom7th Substitutions – Tritones and Diminished Chords

Two common devices are substitution are using tritone substitutes and diminished chords.

In this example a Bdim replaces the G7 which is the chord on the 3rd of a G7(b9). The F7 is repalced with a B7.

The line is first a descending Bbmaj7 arpeggio. On the Bdim it is an Abdim triad.The Cm7 the melody is a Cm cliche melody built around a Cm minor triad with an added 9. The final B7 line is a B major triad.

Tritone substitutes and altered dominants

On the Bbmaj7 it is also possible to use the arpeggio from the 3rd which is a Dm7 arpeggio. In this example the first part of the line is a descending Dm7 arpeggio. A tritone substitution  replaces the G7 with a Db7. The melody is a descending 1st inversion Db7 arpeggio. On the Cm7 the arpeggio used is a descending Ebmaj7 arpeggio. In this way the first part of this line is an ascending series of descending arpeggios. The F7alt line is a scale run in the F altered scale.

Reharmonizing beyond the original chords

Of course with a fast moving progression like the Rhythm changes it is possible to also use some chromatic passing chords. In this case the idea is to use a chromatic passing chord between the 1st and 3rd chord. It seems obvious that a Dbm7 would work well as a passing chord between Dm7 and Cm7. 

In the line I am connecting the chords across octaves to disguise the way that the arpeggios are actually moving down in half steps.

Making the tonic a secondary dominant

A great variation is to get a feel of suspension in the turnaround is to replace the tonic chord with a dom7th chord. This takes a way the feeling of starting home and replacing it with an altered dominant. The dominant is making sure that the line is moving. 

The melody here is first a stack of 4ths on the D7 altered. This is followed by a Bdim arpeggio on the G7. On the Cm7 the line is based around a Cm triad. It is in fact an inversion of the Cm line in the first example. The F7 line is a familiar F7alt/Gbm cliché

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:

Get the PDF!

You can also download the PDF of my examples here:

Rhythm Changes – Substitution for New Lines

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.

 

Modern Triplet Rhythms – Essential jazz rhythms and exercises

If you want to add some variation to the flow of your 8th notes solos then you can add these simple Triplet Rhyhms trick to your vocabulary!

Most Jazz Guitar solos are primarily consisting of 8th note lines, but a solo only consisting of 8th note lines can lack dynamics and be a bit boring. Therefore it can be good to check out some ways to change up the flow of the solo a bit. This lesson will go over how you can add some more exciting triplet rhythms to your solo, and you can in fact convert your already exisiting lines to make use of this rhythm very easily.

Let’s first have a look at the rhythm as shown in example 1 below.

The key feature is that it is a rhythm that is 2 beats long and it has 4 notes in the two beats. This means that we can actually take an 8th note line and transfer it to this type of rhythm.

The way I hear this rhythm is probably more what is shown in the second bar of example 1, but for the purpose that we are using it makes sense to also realize that it is (almost) the same as what is shown in bar 1 if you think of the 8th notes as swing 8th notes.

Learning to play and hear the rhythm

To practice playing this rhythm there are two exercises that you can do that will help you approach this.

I have both written out here. In each example the “practice part” is in bar 1 and then the real rhythm is in bar 2.

The first exercise is approaching it from the quarter note triplets.

The second exercise is approaching the rhythm from an 8th note and 8th note triplet angle.

Making licks using the triplet rhythms

In this section I want to use the rhythm for different parts of a II V I. 

All the examples in this lesson are on a II V I in F major.

On the II chord in the cadence

The first example is using a cascading arpeggio idea on the Gm7. The arpeggios are first inversion 7th arpeggios. The first arpeggio is a Bbmaj7 and the second one are a Gm7 arpeggio.

The rest of the line is a C7 altered idea using a scale run and an Ebm pentatonic fragment.

As you can see I am using sweep or economy picking to play the arpeggios on the Gm7. If you want to practice this you can use the exercise shown here below:

Chaining Altered arpeggios on the V

The arpeggio chain that I am using here is a device I use often and really like. The idea is to use the last two notes of an ascending arpeggio to encircle the first note in the next one.

That is used here to connect a DbmMaj7 and a Bbm7(b5) arpeggio.

This type of arpeggio line I don’t have a strategy for picking, so what I use is alternate picking which is a bit tough but still do-able.

If you want to work on this you can check out the exercise shown here below which has three sets of arpeggios in F major.

A Pentatonic application of the triplet rhythms

Applying this rhythm to a pentatonic idea is of course a great way to add some exciting quartal harmony sounding ideas.

This is what I am doing on the tonic chord in the example below.

The pentatonic idea is placed on the F major chord with the Am pentatonic scale.

The idea is a fairly straight forward “diatonic chords” idea.

An exercise to get more used to playing lines like this is shown here below. I am again relying on alternate picking to execute the line.

Converting lines to include the Triplet Rhythms

To demonstrate how to convert a line from a straight 8th note line into a line with triplets we can take the line shown here below as an example:

We can in fact take every “half” of a bar and play the four notes with the rhythm. If you do so you get this line:

Taking this rhythm and the triplets further!

This way of changing the rhythm of your existing lines can be a great way to start to open up your rhythmical vocabulary. Once you get comfortable with this rhythm you should try some variations of it and also make sure to spend some time really improvising using triplets as the main subdivision.

Get a Free Ebook

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

 

Get the PDF!

You can also download the PDF of my examples here:

Essential rhythms for jazz guitar

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics or how I can make the lessons better 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.

Rhythm exercise on a Jazz Blues

Most students learning jazz are working on the harmony and the scales and trying to hit the right notes. This is of course very important but often you find yourself realizing that you need to develop your rhythms so that you don’t only play endless streams of 8th note lines.

In this lesson I am going to go over one exercise that you can do to help develop more rhythms and quickly get them into your playing.

 

The exercise

If you are trying to learn a new arpeggio or a scale you are not immediately going to try to play it all over the neck in the middle of a tune. You are more likely making smaller goals so that you first learn the arpeggio in one position, maybe only one octave and then later more positions while trying to make lines with it and using it over easy progressions.

The same approach can also be applied to a rhythm. To make it easy to learn we take one rhythm at a time. Learn the rhythm, practice making lines with it over one chord and then try to play with that rhythm through a simple F blues.

The 1st rhythm

The first rhythm, shown in exampe 1 is a really simple 3 note pattern. The first thing you want to try is to just play the rhythm on the guitar. Once that feels comfortable you can expand it so that you start working on making melodies with the rhythm. Start with one chord and take it from there. If you need to slow down or even to stop between phrases that is ok, it is part of the process.

Rhythm exercise on a Jazz Blues ex 1

Once you have the rhythm under control and can easily play it and can make lines over a chord in time with this rhythm you can take it through a progression that you are familiar with.

In example 2 I have written out an improvised chorus over an F blues that I played using the rhythm. You can hear the solo in the video.

Rhythm exercise on a Jazz Blues ex 2

Of course the next step after being able to play through the F blues with this rhythm is to try to open up so that you don’t use the rhythm all the time but still try to use it and get it to sit well in the rest of your melodic ideas.

The 2nd Rhythm

The same of course goes for this second rhythm, so first get comfortable with playing the rhythm and working on making lines over one chord at a time.

Rhythm exercise on a Jazz Blues ex 3

When first taking it through the blues it can be a good idea to play one bar and then take a break to hear the melody that you play in the next bar so that they are somehow related. This is of course not only useful for playing with this exercise but is soemthing you might want to work on in general to get better at playing solos that have a larger context and is not only a bunch of notes strung together over some chords.

In example 4 I have written out the chorus I improvised with this rhythm.

Rhythm exercise on a Jazz Blues ex 4

To demonstrate how you could take the two rhythms and try to use them more loosely in a blues I improvised a chorus where I am using the rhythms but not so strictly, so that they are allowed to melt into the rest of the solo in a natural way.

Rhythm exercise on a Jazz Blues ex 5

In my experience this a very direct and easy way to work on rhythms and also to not only work on an aspect of your playing but also still work on making music at the same time which is why I use this approach with a lot of different topics when I practice and when I teach.

I hope you can use this exercise to develop your rhythms and rhythmical ideas.

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

Rhythm exercise on a Jazz Blues

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 thme 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.

Triplet Rhythms – Part 2

Using triplets is a good way to start improvising with poly rhythms in jazz. In this lesson I will talk about how you can use quarter note triplets and some of the different quarter note triplet rhythms you can make. I will also discuss how to use them to create the illusion of another groove on top of what you are playing.

In my first lesson on triplets: Triplet Rhythms – Part 1 I was mostly looking at 8th note triplets, since that is a good basic subdivision that is very related to swing. In this lesson I will take it to the next step above the swing groove: the quarter note triplets. If you are not familiar with 8th note triplets you should probably check out the first lesson mentioned above before getting into this one.

Similar to the first lesson I have decided to demonstrate 3 rhythms with an exercise and then give an example on a II V I in G where that rhythm is used rhythm.

Rhythm no 1: Quarter note triplets

 

In example 1 I have written a short simple exercise to hel practicing quarter note triplets. ONe way to connect this to 8th note triplets (which is easier to feel) is to play each note twice. You need to practice this so that you can play this in time and it feels natural and easy, especially watch out that the beats 2 and 4 are exactly between the 2nd and 3rd notes of the triplet.

Triplet rhythms - Part 2 - ex 1

In the line in example 2 I am using the quarter note triplets on both the Am7 and  on the altered D7 chord. The part on the Am7 is first a scale run on starting from the root. The second part of the line is a quarter note triplet on a part of the Am7 arpeggio. On the D7 the entire line consists of quarter note triplets, but the melodic pattern is grouped in 2 notes so that the connection to the original groove is even furter away. In general if you group triplets in even numbers you will have a more poly rhythmic effect, not unlike using 8th or 16th notes in groups of uneven notes.

Triplet rhythms - Part 2 - ex 2

Rhythm 2: Shifting and staying in the groove

This rhythm is a sort of transition exercise because it will help with the last rhythm which is a quarter note triplet shifted on 8th note triplet (that sounds more complicated when you write it..) The rhythm is shown in example 3:

Triplet rhythms - Part 2 - ex 3

The fact that the rhythm contains all 4 beats of the bar makes it easier to feel and also to keep it in time.

The line using this rhythm starts out with two rhythms from the first lesson on the Am7 chord. It is for the rest a variation on the line used on the Am7 in example 2. On the D7alt I am using the rhythm from example 3 and using it to chain two arpeggios: A C dim triad and an EbmMaj7. It resolves the Eb to the 5th(D) of Gmaj7.

Triplet rhythms - Part 2 - ex 4

Rhythm 3 – Shifted or Upside down triplets

The 3rd rhythm is the same as the 1st one except that it is move an 8th note triplet (ahead or behind). This means that now the rhythm is not together with the meter on the 1 and 3, but instead on the 2 and the 4. In the exercise I keep it simple and start the melody after the 1 just to help you get an idea about how the rhythm feels.

The term upside down triplet is something I’ve learned from Dutch Bassplayer Heyn Van Der Geyn. There might be other names for the rhythm, but I didn’t come across them.

Triplet rhythms - Part 2 - ex 5

In the line the example is using the same rhythm on the D7, but we have  an example of the rhythm in the version that is shifted so that it begins before beat 1. On the Am7 I am playing a fairly basic 8th note triplet rhythm (even if it looks a bit complicated written out). The D7 line consists of a three note pattern: a C dim triad played descending. The line begins before the 1 and resolves to the 5th of G before the next 1. The way the whole 3 note phrase on the D7alt is placed creates a lot of tension and also almost gives the impression that the beat is turned around. The resolution is also nicely vague until you afterwards can feel the groove continue under it (speaking as a listener).

Triplet rhythms - Part 2 - ex 6

 

When you want to work on this you should probably first get very comfortable with playing the exercises and feel the beat at the same time. You are also better of working on this with a metronome. It can also be very useful to make a few exercises on your own.

After that you can move on to making your own lines and trying to use these rhythms while playing songs.

If you want to download a PDF of the examples I went over here for later study you can do so here: Triplet rhythms – Part 2

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 thme 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.

 

Developing Basic Comping Rhythms

Most people are struggeling to find good way to develop their comping, and especially coming up with good rhythms to support a soloist in an interesting and varied way. In this lesson I am going to take a simple rhythm that everybody needs to know anyway, and I am going to show you how to develop that into more interesting rhythms.

If you play in any kind of ensemble you are probably spending more time comping than soloing, but at the same time it is ironically also a skill that most people doesn’t work too much on. This is ironic both from the point of view that we spent the most time doing this and also that if you can comp well you are asked to play much more often.

The Rhythm that I am using as a starting point in this lesson is the Charleston Rhythm. This is a good first choice to start with since it has two notes one on the beat and one off the beat, so you have a sense of the swing feel even with just these two notes..

The way I approach making variations with the Charleston rhythm you can actually do with any rhythm that you come across. Since I am concerned with rhythm in this lesson and not the voicings I’ll leave the discussion of the voicings out. I have a lot of lessons on melodic aspects of playing voicings and on different times of voicings you can check out.

The first example is the basic Charleston Rhythm through a 12 bar blues in C.

Developing Basic Comping Rhythms - ex 1

Once you can take this rhythm through the progression yourself (using your own voicings and with some freedom in making your own melodies) Then you can start working on the first variation.

Basically what is happening is that I am starting with two 8th notes instead of a quarter note, and then I took that through the Blues progression.

Developing Basic Comping Rhythms - ex 2

When you can do this you can start working on the next variation where I add n 8th note on the 2 of the bar.

Developing Basic Comping Rhythms - ex 3

So in this way we have 3 different rhythms that we can use on the C blues. Note that in all three examples I am not using the 2nd half o f the bar, and I didn’t displace or leave out part of the original rhythm. Both quite powerful options to expand this even further.

Now that we have 3 rhythms we can start mixing them up over the progression. That would be this:

Developing Basic Comping Rhythms - ex 4

As you can tell I am trying to keep the voicings and melodic ideas very simple in this lesson, you can always  make this more or less complicated when really comping, when you are working on the rhythms you should probably try to keep it simple.

I hope you can use the examples I went over here to get some new comping rhythms and also as an approach to take any rhythm you already use and make variations on it and get more out of it.

You can download a PDF of the examples for later study here:

Developing Basic Comping Rhythms

If you want to see more examples of how I comp and what sort of ideas I have for comping then you can also check out these two lesson in my webstore:

Drop 2 voicings on All The Things You Are

F blues Comping Etude (3 choruses)

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 thme fit what you want to hear.

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