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How to Play Jazz Blues Chords For Guitar - Matt Warnock Guitar
5 Easy Drop 2 Chord Exercises For Jazz Guitar - Matt Warnock Guitar
Jazz Guitar: Pentatonics Part 5 - Dominants, Altered Dominants and ...

How to Play Jazz Blues Chords For Guitar - Matt Warnock Guitar

Posted: 05 Jul 2013 12:07 PM PDT

How to Play Jazz Blues Chords For Guitar – 5 Studies

Studying Jazz Guitar means learning how to play jazz blues chords in a variety of textures, progressions and musical situations as you expand your knowledge of this common and important musical form.

In today's jazz guitar lesson. we will be looking at five different chord studies written out over the jazz blues form, in the key of Bb for the purpose of this article, and that use five different types of chord shapes to build each study.

After you have working any of these studies in the key of Bb, feel free to work in in a few, or all 12, keys around the neck in order to get a full understanding of these shapes in all 12 keys.

As well, to make them easier to read, I wrote each chord as a whole or half note in the notation, but mixed in different rhythms and rhythmic groupings during the audio examples for each chord study.

Feel free to mix in your own rhythms when working on these chord studies, and to help you with your rhythmic exploration of these studies, I have included a number of my favorite jazz rhythms at the end of this lesson that you can use to expand upon your study of these jazz blues chord etudes in the woodshed.

Jazz Blues Chords For Guitar – 3rds and 7ths

The first chord shapes that we will explore are the easiest to play, as compared to larger grips, but that are some of the most important chords that you can have under your fingers as a jazz guitarist.

By eliminating all other notes besides the 3rd and 7th of each chord, you will be able to quickly move from one shape to the next on the neck, while effectively outlining the underlying chord progression at the same time.

After you have checked out this example in the practice room, try taking these 3rds and 7ths to other string sets on the neck, as well as inverting them so that you can play 2 positions of each 3rd and 7th for any string set that you explore in the woodshed.

Click to hear audio for this jazz blues chord study.

Jazz Blues Chords For Guitar – 3 to 7 Triads

The second chord study builds upon the previous example, by adding the 5th to each chord shape in the example. By doing so, you are playing a "shell" voicing for each chord, where you take out the root and are only playing the 3rd, 5th and 7th of each chord in the progression.

Not only are these triads easier to play than many four-note grips, but they outline the chord changes effectively, allowing you to move through a jazz blues chord progression by using only 3 notes at a time on the fretboard.

To learn more about these triads, visit the "3 to 7 Triads for Jazz Guitar" page on my site.

Click to hear audio for this jazz blues chord study.

Jazz Blues Chords For Guitar – Drop 2 Shapes

For anyone that has visited my site knows, I'm a big fan of Drop 2 Chords, both as chord soloing and as comping tools for any jazz guitarist to check out. The following chord study uses Drop 2 chords as the basis for each shape in the form, providing a real-life example of how to take these important shapes from the practice room and out onto a tune.

Though these shapes are all written out on the top-4 strings, feel free to explore these shapes on the 5-4-3-2 string set as well, by simply taking the same notes and moving them down by one string-set each.

Learn more about these important shapes by visiting the "How to Practice Drop 2 Chords for Guitar" page on my site.

Click to hear audio for this jazz blues chord study.

Jazz Blues Chords For Guitar – Drop 3 Chords

The next Jazz Guitar Chord Study uses Drop 3 chords as the basis for each shape in this example.

Drop 3 chords have a thicker, lower sound than their Drop 2 cousins, and provide a nice compliment to the shapes explored in the previous chord study. These are usually some of the first shapes we explore when beginning our discovery of jazz guitar, but they are worth coming back to time and again as you continue your development as a player.

You can read more about these shapes by visiting the "How to Practice Drop 3 Chords for Guitar" page on my website.

Click to hear audio for this jazz blues chord study.

Jazz Blues Chords for Guitar – Rootless Chords

The final example of jazz blues chords for guitar that we'll look at uses some of my favorite chord shapes, rootless chord voicings, to build a comping pattern that is reminiscent of great players such as Ed Bickert and Jim Hall.

These chords are built by removing the root from each shape, with the exception of the G7b9 chord which keeps the root in this case, and using other color tones in place of that root.

Though they sound great, and usually fit well under your fingers, not having the root as a guide can be tough to get a hold of at first. Even though you aren't playing the root in these shapes, you might want to visualize a root that is found close by on the neck to these shapes in order to be able to grab them quickly and easily during a musical performance or jam situation.

You can read more about these great-sounding shapes by visiting my "How to Build Rootless Chords for Guitar" article page.

Click to hear audio for this jazz blues chord study.

Jazz Blues Chords For Guitar – Rhythms

As a companion to the Jazz Blues Chords for Guitar Studies written out above, here are 8 of my favorite jazz rhythms that you can use to expand upon these studies in the woodshed.

Feel free to focus on one single rhythm during a jazz guitar practice routine, or move between two or more rhythms to create various combinations in the practice room.

The goal should be to bring as many of these different rhythms into your playing, but to do so in a way that doesn't sound too busy or non-related. So, focusing on one or two rhythms for several choruses of chordal study is a great way to work these ideas in the practice room, no pressure to learn and play them all at once.

As you can see, by combining a few different jazz guitar rhythms with one or more of the chord studies above, you can produce countless variations on these harmonic ideas when applying them to a musical jam or performance situation.

Click to download the PDF for the "How to Play Jazz Blues Chords For Guitar – 5 Studies" lesson.

Do you have any questions about this how to play jazz blues chords for guitar lesson?

If so, please visit the Matt Warnock Guitar Facebook Page and I'll be glad to help you out with any questions you may have.

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5 Easy Drop 2 Chord Exercises For Jazz Guitar - Matt Warnock Guitar

Posted: 09 Aug 2011 03:00 AM PDT

5 Easy Drop 2 Chord Exercises For Jazz Guitar | MattWarnockGuitar.com | MATT WARNOCK GUITAR

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5 Easy Drop 2 Chord Exercises For Jazz Guitar

Drop 2 Chords are some of the most popular and important chords for any jazz guitarist to have under their fingers, which is why it is essential that you work Drop 2 Chord Exercises out in your jazz guitar practice routine.

Used by many of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time, including Wes Montgomery, Sheryl Bailey, George Benson and many more, Drop 2 Chords fit well under our fingers, sound great and are easy to manipulate, making them ideal for chord soloing, comping and chord melody playing.

Drop 2 Chords are built by stacking four notes together, on adjacent strings, with the following interval patterns:

Root Position: R-5th-7th-3rd
1st Inversion: 3rd-7th-Root-5th
2nd Inversion: 5th-Root-3rd-7th
3rd Inversion: 7th-3rd-5th-Root

Notice how the 3rd and 7th, as well as the Root and 5th, are always next to each other in these voicings.

This knowledge will help you memorize Drop 2 Chords, as well as understand the theory behind how they are built.

If you are new to these chords, or just want a refresher, check out my page on Drop 2 Chord Voicings for Jazz Guitar to learn more about these easy to play and fun to use chords.

So, how do we practice Drop 2 chord exercises?

If we know them already or if they are new to us at this point. Here are a few of the ways I like to practice Drop 2 Chord exercises on the guitar:

Play each inversion of a chord, say G7, on all string sets,
Do this exercise in 12 keys and for all chord types, Maj7, m7, 7, m7b5 etc
Play one chord type, say G7, in one position through all 12 keys, using different inversions for each new root so you don't move your hand more than a fret or two in either direction
Chord Scales: Playing all of the Drop 2 chords for any scale across a string set, for example, all of the drop 2 chords for the C Major scale on the bottom four strings
Comp through a tune without moving your hand out of one position, forcing you to use different inversions for different chords, do this for all of the possible positions for the first chord in the tune. For example, if you are practicing an F blues, work all of the chords within a four-fret span starting on every inversion on each string set for F7, this will give you 12 different places on the neck to comp the chords to the tune without moving your hand, one for each inversion of F7 with 6th, 5th and 4th string roots

These are just some of the ways we can practice Drop 2 Chord exercises.

These chords are essential learning for any jazz guitarist so stick with them until you feel you have a firm grasp on how they sit on the guitar and how they function in the tunes that you're working on.

Purchase the "30 Days to Better Jazz Guitar Ebook" with 20 pages of extra material and 5 never before published bonus lessons!

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Do you have a favorite Drop 2 chord exercise for jazz guitar? If so share it in the Drop 2 Practicing thread at the MWG Forum.

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Jazz Guitar: Pentatonics Part 5 - Dominants, Altered Dominants and ...

Posted: 28 May 2014 11:00 AM PDT

And finally, here's what we saved for dessert: applications on dominant chords, half-diminished (minor 7 flat 5) chords and on altered dominant chords … in fact, this is simply the follow up to Part 4, where we applied interesting pentatonic options on major and minor chords only. We saved the "darker" chords for Part 5, to make the posts (and videos) shorter.

Advice: if you didn't do so already, I highly recommend you read the beginning of the Pentatonics: Part 4 article here … Simply put, we have to be careful when attempting to apply pentatonic scales to chords in jazz guitar improvisation. Read the introduction, and then come back here to work on applications.

Pentatonic Scales on Dominant Chords

I have five favorite applications here. There are two suspended dominant (sus4 or 11) sounds, two unaltered dominant sounds (no altered extensions) and one dominant #11 sound (aka lydian dominant).

• On Suspended Dominant Chords
(Suspended D dominant chord: Here's a play-along of 4 x 8 bars of D7(sus4))

Use the minor pentatonic from degree v or degree ii.

First, the degree v application is simply the related "ii chord" of an existing ii-V cadence. So, if you want a suspended sound on the V, stay on the minor pentatonic of the ii. For example, in Am7-D7, if we want a D7(sus), just use A minor pentatonic.

Next, the application using the minor pentatonic from degree ii is simply a suspended sound with the added bonus of a 13th (aka 6th degree). A bit more modern. Use Em pentatonic on D13(sus) … it is still just one note away from Am pentatonic.

• On Unaltered ("Plain") Dominant Chords
(Plain D dominant chord: Here's a play-along of 4 x 8 bars of D7)

Use the dominant pentatonic from
degree i or minor pentatonic from degree vi.

First, the application with degree i … is a very obvious one. On D7 chord, use D7 pentatonic.

Next, the application using the minor pentatonic from degree vi clearly outlines a dominant 13th type of sound. This should note come as a surprise: on D7 chord we use Bm pentatonic … which is simply D major pentatonic!

• On Dominant Chords with a #11
(Lydian dominant D chord: Here's a play-along of 4 x 8 bars of D7(#11))

Use the dominant pentatonic from degree ii.

This is clearly one note difference from the above "Use Bm pentatonic on D7″ … now we use E7 pentatonic instead. The one note difference (A to G#) is the #11 of the D7 chord.

Pentatonics on Minor 7th (b5) Chords

This is, perhaps, the hardest pentatonic application to hear. (It is the hardest for me anyways!) The minor seventh flat five chord (aka half-diminished) makes itself hard to love in some situations.

Choices will become more obvious when dealing with complete progressions, if you wish to extend your knowledge / playing in this way. But for now, the suggested application work well on a static F#m7(b5) vamp.

But why F#m7(b5) and not any other m7(b5) chord ??!

I wanted us to keep using some of the pentatonic scales we have been using … in familiar keys. For instance, Am, Em, Bm and D7 pentatonics. They all fit on F#m7(b5) here…

Use the minor pentatonics from degrees biii, iv, bvii
or use the dominant pentatonic from degree bvi.

At this point, you probably have a fair handle on applying different pentatonic scales to the same chord or sound. I will simply list the applications with degrees outlined. And here is a play-along of 4 x 8 bars of F#m7(b5).

Here's my "beef" with the pentatonic application for the F#m7(b5) above: none of them include the natural 9th degree. Furthermore, only two of them include the flat fifth!!! However, we clearly hear the natural 9th on minor7(b5) chords played by Jazz pianists from the 1960′s and on. Think Herbie Hancock. In summary: this means that the above list of suggestions is incomplete. You'll have to do your own research.

Pentatonics on Altered Dominants

This is the easiest and hardest one at the same time! In fact, ANY pentatonic can work on an altered dominant (as long as it "lands" on a proper resolution.) So, all in all, take the suggestions here with a grain of salt.

The neat thing about pentatonics here, is that we can pick and choose a scale that clearly outline the altered notes we really want to hear, for instance: b9, #9, b5 (aka #11), #5 (aka b13). Here are my suggestions:

Use the minor pentatonic from degree biii or dominant pentatonic from degree bvi or the dominant pentatonic from a tritone up.

And here is a play-along of 4 x 8 bars of F#7(altered).

This first choice really is "perfect" in terms of outlining the altered tones. We have the b7 along with all the alterations (that is sharp and flat ninths and fifths!)

The second choice is "equivalent" to the first one, but now, the 3rd is present along with all altered tones.

And lastly, differing only by one note from the Am pentatonic application above, we have this, a simple trade off: we have the root (tonic) of the F#7 instead of the b9.

It's worthwhile exploring for other altered dominant pentatonic possibilities. This chord type lends itself to very high degrees of chromaticism. All twelve notes are an "acceptable" choice for altered dominants!

Even if you wind up not using some of the applications you work on, at least, you'll give your brains and fingers a little workout.

About Resolving Altered Dominants …

And one last though: rarely will you find yourself in playing situation where you just sit on an altered dominant chord for an extended period of time. Most often than not, you will resolve back to something. For instance, after F#7(alt), you could here some sort of B chord (B minor of B major for instance).

It would be wise to practice with backing tracks that have that type of resolution. Say, 4 bars of F#7(alt), then 4 bars of Bm. So you can also apply the stuff you learned in Pentatonic Part 4 on the B minor chord!

Check out iReal Pro (for Mac), you can create these type of accompaniment very easily… and it's cheap too.

That's it!

I hope those 5 articles on pentatonics can help you develop your own ideas and concepts in improvisation. Remember, whenever you're in doubt, go back to the basics. Less is more. Go back to learning the minor pentatonic and dominant pentatonic shapes over the fretboard (part 2) and working on simple fun patterns (part 3).

Practice well and develop your own sound and concepts!

Read the previous posts in the series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 here …

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