The Maestro

It seems to me that one of the biggest hurdles beginner jazz guitarists face when it comes to comping is getting away from the bulky barre chords we all memorize when we first start playing. You know, the “all you have to do is lift up your pinky to get a minor 7th” kind of chords. It’s very hard to get to a point where you start playing less to actually say more.

The smallest number of notes you can play on your own to play any kind of harmony is to notes which, when played together, is known as a dyad.

In the world of jazz guitar, dyads are a great way to keep the soundscape open while still maintaining some semblance of a harmony. Especially if you are playing with another harmonic instrument (e.g. piano, vibes) you need to keep your chords tight and light.

And so, today we’re going to work on a few ideas to improve your comping using our little friends the dyads.

Will Any Old Notes Do?

No. Let’s talk about that first. I mean, technically the answer is “yes,” but if you want to sound like you know what you’re doing you should consider targeting the “right” notes. For example, when playing a standard 7th chord (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th) you will probably want your dyad to be comprised of the 3rd and 7th. These two notes will define the larger character of the chord; meaning, I’m not worried about altered tones at the moment.

So to start I want you to pick a song — or I’ll pick for you; how about There Will Never Be Another You — and figure out the dyads for each chord in the ‘A’ section.

Go ahead… I’ll wait until your done.

(Yes, this is the part when you actually have to do some work on your own. Don’t be a slacker!)

The Dyads

Here is the chord progression:

EbMaj7 / / /  |  / / / /  |  Dm7b5 / / /  |  G7 / / /  |  Cm7 / / /  |  / / / /  |  Bbm7 / / /  |  Eb7 / / /  |
AbMaj7 / / /  |  Db7 / / /  |  EbMaj7 / / /  |  Cm7 / / /  |  F7 / / /  |  / / / /  |  Fm7 / / /  |  Bb7 / / /  |

And… here are the dyads for each chord:

EbMaj7: G, D
Dm7b5: F, C
G7: B, F
Cm7: Eb, Bb
Bbm7: Db, Ab
Eb7: G, Db
AbMaj7: C, G
Db7: F, Cb
EbMaj7: G, D
Cm7: Eb, Bb
F7: A, Eb
Fm7: Ab, Eb
Bb7: D, Ab

Figuring out the dyads were really Assignment #1, but I know you all cheated so we’ll give you another first assignment.

Assignment #1

On the guitar, take each set of adjacent two strings (E/A, A/D, D/G, D/B, B/E) and play all of the dyads. Only play all of the dyads on each string group separately; don’t combine them.

Assignment #2

One you have done this on all five string group combinations, play the inversions. For example, on the EbMaj7 where you were playing the G note on the low E string and the D note on the A string, now I want you to reverse them.

Assignment #3

Now, what I want you to do is connect the chords together using the least amount of voice movement you can. For example, for the first two dyads, it’s best to keep the same interval and just move the whole dyad down a whole step; the G from the EbMaj7 move to the F of the Dm7b5, and the D from the EbMaj7 moves to the C.

For the next chord, however, it’s better to invert the dyad. Doing so allows you to keep the F as a common note between the two chords and move the C from the Dm7b5 moves to B (the 3rd of the G7).

The more common notes you can keep between chords, the less work you have to do, and the better you will sound. (Trust me, you will.)

Assignment #4

Now that you have some inversion ideas down, try to stay in one area of the fingerboard and utilize all five string groups to comp your way through the entire ‘A’ section. Feel free to take a few chords an octave higher or lower to break things up. (Remember, when comping behind someone you want to stay out of their range, so don’t just jump around the octaves for the hell of it. But you should try it to understand the principle.)

Assignment #5

Here’s where it gets fun. Don’t confine yourself to adjacent-string groups anymore. You still obviously want to only play dyads, but try widening the intervals a bit by skipping a few strings in between notes. Repeat the previous assignments using this new fingering.

Assignment #6

At this point I think it’s safe for you to use more than just the 3rd and 7th notes of the chord. For m7b5 chord, try using the b5 and the 7 as your dyads. For altered dominants, try the 3rd or 7th and one of the altered tones (b5, #b, b9, #9). Bear in mind, however, that when you finally start to play with other musicians (keep reading…) you will want to keep your chords simple so you and the person you’re backing up aren’t tripping all over each other.

Assignment #7

Stop sitting in your bedroom playing by yourself. Using dyads will make you a better comper, but if you are playing by yourself then you’ll never really “get” it. Go out and find someone to comp behind. That’s when you’ll really put your practice to the test and see how dyads work.

A surefire way to kickstart your comping and get to the next level is to remove yourself from those Doobie Brothers chords you’ve been playing your whole life. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be jazz! Just think of how insanely awesome your death metal band would sound if you were comping instead of riffing and playing dyads instead of drop-tune power chords?

Good luck!

Better Comping With Dyads is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

I'd like some 2% 4th chords, please.

As I have discussed in previous posts, traditional harmony/theory constructs chords in intervals of a third. There is another type of chord construction that is quite common in jazz, called “quartal harmony” or sometimes better known as “4th chords.”

Quartal harmony is most commonly associated with the modal jazz of the late 1950′s and 60′s. For those of you who have ever heard the greatest jazz recording ever made – Miles Davis‘ Kind of Blue – you are already familiar with the sound.

Quartal harmony and 4th chords translate extremely well to the guitar, making anyone who plays them an instant multi-platinum record selling artist and put on the Grammy short list. (It’s true, just ask Lil’ Wayne; he’ll tell ya.)

Let’s hip ourselves to a little modal jazz and quartal harmony, shall we?

Would you rather I throw one of these wrenches at you instead?

One of the great aspects of 4th chords is their slightly ambiguous/rootless quality. Because they don’t contain any tension notes such as the 3rd and 7th in a traditional chord, they have something of a more mysterious and aloof sound to them (to my ears, anyway). To form 4th chords, simply stack a chord using intervals of a 4th. Here is what they look like in D:

Now, I’m hoping you played through this example before continuing to read, because I purposely threw a wrench into the works. Did you figure out what it was? If not, please go back, play through the chords, and think about the concept for a minute. See if you can figure it out. It’s a great exercise for your brain.

You should have noticed that some of these chords are not built in perfect fourth intervals. The third chord, for example, has the notes Bb to E, which is a tritone/augmented 4th, not a perfect fourth (which should be Eb). So why are we not using perfect fourths? The answer is because we’re playing music, not engaging in theoretical discussions about music. You always have to keep in mind that it has to sound right just as much (if not more) as be right from an academic standpoint. If you are playing a quartal harmony vamp in ‘D’ the Eb will probably not sound very good. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t. It’s up to you to figure out what is appropriate and go from there. In most modal songs the E natural note will most likely sound better, so your chord will include the tritone from Bb to E and then stack the ‘A’ note as a perfect fourth above ‘E’. Read that again if it doesn’t make sense, especially the part about playing music.

Quartal Harmony Comping

Now when we comp, as mentioned in several other posts, we don’t necessarily want to play thick chords with lots of voices. This muddies up the music and makes it difficult for the soloist to stretch out. For that reason, we can remove the root voice of each chord and only play the three upper voices, like this:

The sound is essentially the same, but it breathes a little better.

Chord Inversions

One very cool feature of these chords occurs when you start to use inversions. By taking the bottom note of each chord and transposing it up one octave, you create some very hip chord voicings that you can use in your comping.

Definitely play these voicings over a ‘D’ bass vamp and listen to how they sound. The 2nd intervals sound great to me, very pianistic in nature. You can also experiment with a second inversion, moving what is now the bottom note up an octave as well. (Figure this out on your own, folks. I want to keep your brains actively working.)

You don’t have to only play these chords over modal tunes, by the way. These chords also sound great as substitutes for many minor chords, especially minor 11 chords. Again, let your ear guide you; if it sounds good then use it. If not, modify it. If that still doesn’t work, throw it out and do something else.

That is, in a nutshell, the concept of 4th chords and playing quartal harmony. I suggest you get some modal playalong tunes (or use Band in a Box) and go to town for a while. Also experiment with moving voices in each chord so you’re not just clunking chord after chord. If you have not heard Kind of Blue, buy it and absorb it. If you don’t know who McCoy Tyner is, now is the time to start thinking about non-guitarists for a spell.

4th Chords and Quartal Harmony is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

A triad, as you all hopefully know, is a series of three notes of a scale, stacked one on top of another. If you need more of a refresher please read my posts on chord structures and chord inversions.

Today I’d like to talk about upper structure triads and how you can use them to spice up your already smokin’ solos. Just a small dose of triads in your daily guitar diet will give you enough musical protein to extend your playing life for decades to come.

So What the Hell is an Upper Structure Triad?

Yeah, that’s probably a good place to start. Let’s take a look at what I call a master chord structure. This is basically a scale organized as one chord by stacking each note in intervals of a third. In the key of C Major this becomes a CMaj13:

To form an upper structure triad we basically just deal with the chord tones starting from the 5th and higher. So in the case of a CMaj13 chord we have three upper structure triads – G Major, B Diminished, and D minor.

You can use all four triad types: Major, minor, augmented, and diminished.

There are many books and websites that will go on to say that a “true” upper structure triad is one in which there is at least one allowable tension that is not an avoid note. For example, triads containing the note ‘F’ from a CMaj7/13 chord are typically considered not good upper structure triads because ‘F’ (the 11th) doesn’t sound well against the 3rd of a C triad (C, E, G). The question here becomes what someone’s definition of an allowable tension is. Frankly I don’t really care. As long as it sounds cool, play it!

Okay, so back to the upper structure triads. If you play a G Major triad over a C Major chord, you are basically highlighting the 5th, 7th, and 9th notes of the scale. This is a very cool sound because you are putting emphasis on notes that don’t strongly imply the chord. If you play a B diminished triad you get the 7th, 9th, and 11th. (Again, some people don’t like this because of the ‘F’ against the ‘E’, but I think so long as you don’t hang on the ‘F’ then it sounds fine.) Playing a D minor triad gives you the 9th, 11th, and 13th.

It is a little tricky at first because, especially for those of us that grew up playing rock, we’re not used to hearing these sounds. Playing an ‘A’ over a C Major chord can be very foreign to rock players and will take some time to get used to. I suggest that you spend some time working with the diatonic possibilities. Spell out each chord to the 13th and then figure out what each triad is. Play each triad over a chord backing track so you can hear the changes.

Alterations

But you don’t have to stick with diatonic triads, either. There are a ton of possibilities for playing different triads from borrowed key signatures in order to get very hip sounds. Here are some suggestions for upper structure triads borrowed from other keys:

• CMaj7 chord: DMaj, Bmin to get a Lydian sound.
• C7 chord: DMaj, BbAug to get a Lydian (b7) sound.
• C7 chord: GbMaj, AbMaj, Dbmin, Ebmin to get an “alt” sound.
• C7 chord: DAug to get a whole tone sound.
• Cm7: AbMaj to get a Phrygian sound.
• Cm7b5: AbMaj, BbMaj to get a Locrian nat. 9 sound.

How about a few that you can quiz yourself on?

• What does playing an EMaj triad over CMaj7 give you?
• What does playing an F#Maj triad over CMaj7 give you?
• What does playing a Dmin triad over Cm7 give you?

I hope you are playing these while figuring out the answers, rather than just using your theory brain (hint, hint).

Triad Stacking/Polychords

Once you have gotten a few of these under your belt you should obviously try injecting them into your solos. I don’t suggest you only play triads for a solo, however – that would get very lame. But, you can stack a few triads into polychords for a phrase or two and get some awesome sounding runs. For example, over a C7 chord you can see from the above list that you have a lot of choices to create different sounds. So how about playing a few of them one right after another? For example:

Triads are cool, triads are fun. Triads will get you chicks you never thought you could get. Seriously, try it!

Upper Structure Triad Soloing is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

If you’ve ever wondered where the “Rhythm” in “Rhythm and Blues” comes from, now you know. “Rhythm Changes” is a chord progression found in many jazz songs, modeled after the song “I Got Rhythm,” which was written by George and Ira Gershwin. It has become one of the most important song structures in jazz, and if you have any desire to be a jazz performer you absolutely need to have the song nailed.

Today I want to give you a general overview of the changes, some variations, and a few ideas on how to improvise over them.

(This really would be a cool book, though…)

The Chord Changes

Let’s start with the typical chord progression for a Rhythm Changes song. Unless the bandleader is on crack, Rhythm Changes will always be played in Bb.

‘A’ Section

BbMaj7 / Gm7 / | Cm7 / F7 / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7 / F7 / |

BbMaj7 / Bb7 / |  Eb7 / Edim / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7 / F7 / |

Repeat this ‘A’ section

‘B’ Section

D7  /  /  /  |  D7 /  /  / | G7 /  /  /  | G7 /  /  / |  C7 /  /  /  |  C7 /  /  /  | F7 /  /  / |  F7 /  /  /  |

‘A’ Section

BbMaj7 / Gm7 / | Cm7 / F7 / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7  F7  BbMaj7 / |

It’s a pretty simple progression, actually, with an AABA song form.

Basic Chord Substitutions

Quite often you will see chord substitutions taking place to spice up the harmony a bit. The first and most obvious one happens right in the first measure, where players will often turn the Gm7 into a G7 to lead into the Cm7 more smoothly:

BbMaj7 / G7 / | Cm7 / F7 / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7 / F7 / |

Sometimes you will also see the Gm7 turned into a Bdim, which gives you chromatic root movement from Bb to C:

BbMaj7 / Bdim / | Cm7 / F7 / |  Dm7 / G7 / |  Cm7 / F7 / |

Both ways sound cool, and you’ll definitely have to keep on your toes to hear what the rest of the band is playing to know how to address the harmony.

You can certainly play with the other chords as well, but since this is a “Dummies” post I’m going to stick with the most common and basic elements.

Improvisation

So, how do we improvise over this song? First, keep in mind that this song is generally played “up”, meaning fast. The more experienced the players, the faster they generally like to play the song to give them more of a challenge. My suggestion to you, as a newbie, would be to take the changes slowly! (I will make a playalong track with the basic changes and put it on the Downloads page this week.)

If you feel so inclined, you can simply play Bb Major over the entire ‘A’ section. If you do this then there will be a few wrong notes. (The Bb over the G7, for example, will give a #9 sound, which technically isn’t wrong but you’ll probably alert everyone to the fact that you are a beginner if you are careless). But it’s an okay place to start.

If you really want to start digging in from the get-go, I suggest you start with simple arpeggios. Don’t try to be fancy, just get the sound in your head.

Here’s another one:

Next, start adding some altered tones. For example, every time you hit one of the dominant 7 chords, play the b9.

I hope you’re starting to get the idea. You can also use the tritone substitution principle; when playing over a dominant 7 chord, play your line as if you were playing over its tritone substitution. So, for example, over the G7 you would play a C#7 line. Here are a few ideas over the ‘B’ section:

Comping

Because Rhythm Changes songs are usually played very quickly, you don’t want to play full chords when you comp. It will sound muddy, you will probably have a coronary trying to get to each chord, and it won’t give the improviser any sonic room to play in. Here are some suggestions for how to comp over the changes:

1. Small voicings. Only play the 3rd and 7th of each chord (dyads).
2. Guide tones. Play only one note that represents the harmony, in a scalar fashion.
3. Don’t play all the time. Especially in the bridge, there is no need to play the entire time. Sit out for a few chords, or maybe even a bar or two. Give the song some breathing room.
4. Basic chords. Keep the chords simple; don’t add many extensions, and leave out any alterations (b9, #5, etc). The alterations will be covered by the improviser should he choose to play them. If you add the alterations then you and the person you are comping behind are going to run into each other and it will sound like crap.
5. Simple rhythms. Keep your rhythms simple and clean. Don’t add a lot of syncopation. Remember, the song is going by very quickly. You don’t want to present problems for the rest of the band, and certainly not for the people listening. KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid!)

Rhythm Changes on its face is not an impossible hurdle. But, the possible changes and alterations can make it somewhat daunting (I still struggle with it). These changes are to be digested slowly. Don’t go nuts trying to fit in every alteration, substitution, and chromatic idea all at once. Take your time and work through the ideas one at a time. Play diatonically first, then progress through simple alterations (like the b9 I described above). In time you will get it.

Of course, transcribing the masters is a great way to learn. Here is a list of some heads that are Rhythm Changes. I suggest you find as many recordings as you can and start listening.

Ah-Leu-Cha
Anthropology
Cotton Tail
Crazeology
The Eternal Triangle
Flying Home
Good Bait
Lester Leaps In
Moose the Mooche
Move
Oleo
Rhythm-a-ning
Seven Come Eleven
The Theme

Rhythm Changes for Dummies is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Damn cats!

Sorry there was no post yesterday, everyone. I was quite under the weather yesterday due to a bad allergy attack from spending time in a house with three cats. Needless to say I’m not their biggest fan.

Anyway, I wanted to start off the week by giving you some actual material you can practice with. I recognize that many of my posts have been somewhat more philosophical as of late. I actually prefer to write about that aspect of music and performance, but I understand that it can get to be a bit much after a while. So, here are some lines you can work on for the turnaround section in a jazz blues in F.

Learn, Don’t Memorize

The point is not necessarily to memorize these lines and use them verbatim. They are to be thought of as jumping-off points.

Even if you are a rock player you can still use these lines for ideas. Just take out the 7ths, add some distortion, and put a rock beat behind them. They’ll sound great in any style of music!

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

Example 4:

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I’m going to show you a few, but I caution you to not run these up and down the typical root pentatonic mode that you all know and love to use. I suggest that you figure out all of the pentatonic modes and be able to play any minor pentatonic scale in any position. I still have a little trouble with this, so I know I need some more work. But that shouldn’t preclude you from checking these out!

I like to work with minor pentatonics, so all of my examples will be in minor. I tend to convert all pentatonics to minor.

1. As discussed in my Pentatonic Scale Ideas post from a few months back, over a Maj7 chord you can play a minor pentatonic scale 1/2 down from the root of the Maj7 chord. So, over CMaj7 you play Bmin pentatonic. This gives you the 7, 9, 3, #11, and 13 of CMaj, generating a Lydian sound.
2. Min7 chords are easy; just play the same min pentatonic scale. Cm7 = Cmin pentatonic. (1, b3, 11, 5, 7)
3. Can also play Fmin pentatonic or pentatonic over Cm7. (11, #5, b7, root, b3).
4. You can also play Gmin pentatonic, giving you 5, b7, root, 9, and 11.
5. If you want to get a Dorian sound over a m7 chord, play a minor pentatonic scale one whole step up from the root of the chord. Over Cm7 play a Dmin pentatonic scale, which gives you 9, 11, 5, natural 6/13, and root.
6. If you want to get a Phrygian sound (looking for that McCoy Tyner feel), play down one whole step. Over Cm7 play a Bbmin pentatonic (b7, b9, 3, 11, b13)
7. Cm11 = Gmin pentatonic (5, b7, root, 9, 11)
8. C9sus4 = Gmin pentatonic
9. C9sus4 = Dmin pentatonic (9, 11, 5, 13, root)
10. CMaj7b5 = Bmin pentatonic (#11 as in example 1 is enharmonically the same as a b5.)
11. C7 = Dbmin pentatonic (b9, 3, b5, #5, Maj7) *Be very careful about the Maj7 in this pentatonic. It will clash very badly against the b7 of the chord if you aren’t careful.
12. C7 = Ebmin pentatonic (#9, #11, b13, 7, b9)

Those are 12 ways to play to spice up your improvisation. Check them out and see how ya like ‘em!

Improvising Pentatonics is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

So what can we do with just five notes? For those of us that aren’t B.B. King or Jeff Beck, I mean. What can we do to add a little flavor into the soup; that little kick of chili which makes someone say, “Woah! That’s got some bite to it!”

Block Phrasing

Not sure if there is a better term for this, but I’m a fan of the term Block Phrasing. Here’s an example of what I mean, played over a C Major chord:

The patterns contains little “blocks” of four-note groupings, hence the name Block Phrasing.

Changing Your Note Group Numbers

Somewhat similar to the Block Phrasing approach, you can hip up your lines a bit by varying the number of notes in each group. Here’s an example:

It’s nothing more than an A Minor Pentatonic scale, but the number of notes in each group displaces the rhythm, thereby causing the phrasing to make the line sound somewhat “out” rather than the note choices themselves.

Scale Weaving

John McLaughlin is a master of this concept. If you remember from the last pentatonic lesson, we discussed how, over a C Major chord for example, you can play both A Minor or B Minor Pentatonic scales. In Scale Weaving, you play a line by weaving in and out of two or more scales as one phrased idea. In my opinion, this concept works better with smaller, motif-type note groups rather than long runs; long runs that weave in and out start to sound more like just running scales.

In this example, I’m using the Block Phrasing and Note Group concepts with Scale Weaving to shift in and out of the two different minor pentatonic scales. Check it out:

Must I Say It Again?

It’s almost becoming my signature: Experiment, and Enjoy!

Spice Up Your Pentatonics is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Jam Tracks Added is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.