The classic 12 bar blues shuffle riff can be played either straight or with a swing feel. In addition to this,  it can be tremendous fun to play around with and to try out a few variations of your own.

I first learned to play my own Blues riffs whilst trying to decode other tunes, and often my own licks evolved out of me misinterpreting what I had heard in the originals.

The following examples are variations all based around the standard 12 Bar Blues shuffle:

Chuck Berry Rhythm Riff

The classic 12 bar Blues rhythm riff

Click for Audio of this lick.

Jim Campilongo Swing Feel

This swing blues riff is based around a G Major CAGED shape of A with a Minor to Major 3^rd on beat 2.

The 7^th is played with a high Major 3^rd on beat 4 to complete all of the key tones of an A7 arpeggio.

Click for audio of this lick.

Alternating Blues Shuffle 1

This is a simple swing pattern based around the Chuck Berry riff that allows for a movement through a Dominant 7 arpeggio with the 6^th on the first beat of the second bar added to give a real rock n roll feel.

Click for Audio of this Lick.

Alternating Blues Shuffle 2

This riff works in a similar way, moving up through the Dominant 7^th chord by playing the Root note, 3^rd and 7^th on the first beat and then on the 3^rd beat.

Click for audio of this lick.

All of these shuffles work well in other keys as well as with other Arpeggios such as the Minor 7.

So try moving them around and making a few up of your own out of the variations.

If you loop them over and over and play to the metronome you will find that you will be able to work with the groove to create riffs of your own quite easily.

About the Author

Simon Joseph James is a London based Guitarist, Vocalist, Songwriter and Teacher. He studied at Manchester University, the London Centre for Contemporary Music and spent four years studying in Seville with Ramon Ruiz of the Alma Flamenco Group. Simon runs the site Guitar4Free.com which contains over 250 Written and Video Lessons focusing on Blues, Jazz, Folk and Latin Guitar.

12 Bar Shuffle – 4 Variations for Blues Guitar from Fretterverse.com

Even though it is not one of the most commonly used scales for guitarists, The Major Scale is the fundamental building block of western harmony for the past 800 years, which we will look at in this major scale introduction.

Most of the chords you hear in music can be formed from this scale. It is essential to understand how this scale works because it is the yardstick by which we describe any other sound.

Of course, the Major Scale is used in rock, but generally it’s extremely happy vibe is a bit too bright for us. There are some great exceptions however.

Check out Friends, by Joe Satriani for a truly triumphant major feeling.

Other tunes you might want to check out, depending on your musical taste are:

• Jessica, by the Allman Brothers
• The main theme from Cliffs of Dover, by Eric Johnson, (this kicks in at 2:32)
• Or even, Like a Rolling Stone, by Bob Dylan

Often, you may find that a melody is created from the major scale, before a guitar solo is played in a minor key for a more rocky sound, for example:

• Jump, by Van Halen

It is extremely important that we understand how the major scale functions and how we create melody and harmony from it before launching into the rest of this book so make sure you are comfortable with the ideas in the following sections before moving on.

Construction

One way to think about a scale, and it’s stepsis to imagine a ladder where the first and last rungs are fixed, but you can change the spacings of any of the rungs in between. Some spaces may be smaller, some larger but however you arrange them, after climbing the ladder, you will always end up at the same fixed place.

The rungs on our ladder are the notes that we play, and the spaces between the rungs are the distances between these notes. These distances are measured in tones and semitones. – Two semitones are equal in distance to one tone.

Going back to our ladder analogy, we can say that the particular sound or ‘flavour’ of the major scale is due to the way the rungs are spaced between the two fixed points at each end.

In other words, there is a set pattern of tones and semitones that give the major scale its unique quality. Let’s discover what they are.

The best way to begin is to examine the scale of C Major.

There are no sharps or flats in this scale, and if you were playing a keyboard, you would start and end on the note C, and play only the white notes, (no black ones).

The notes, therefore, in the scale of C Major are;

C,D,E,F,G,A and B.

You may be used to playing scales on the guitar across the neck, however to begin with, and to understand how the patterns of tones and semitones lie in the scale, we will examine this scale played along one string:

When the scale is laid out like this, you can see that the distance between some notes is 1 tone, and between others it is 1 semitone.

As each fret on the guitar is one semitone so you can see that the distance between C and D is 1 Tone, and between E and F it is one semitone.

Play through example 2a now. Memorise this pattern as it is essential to everything that comes after.

The previous diagram is the ladder for the major scale.

Wherever we place the first note, the pattern of tones and semitones must always remain the same if we are to create the exact sound of the major scale.

The set pattern is this:

Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone Semitone. 

C – D Tone

D – E Tone

E – F Semitone

F – G Tone

G – A Tone

A – B Tone

B – C Semitone.

As this is the main building block of music, and always the same pattern, it is given a simple formula:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Simple as that may seem, we use this formula to help describe every other scale.

For example, you may see the formula:

1 2 3 #4 5 6 7

This is a shorthand way of saying that this scale is identical in every way to the major scale, except that the 4th note has been sharpened by a semitone.

In our original key of C Major we had the notes

C D E F G A B C

So the new formula tells us that the notes would be

C D E F# G A B C

Construction of the Major Scale in Other Keys

To form the Major Scale in the key of C, we simply started on the note C and ran alphabetically through the notes until we got back to our starting point.

Let’s try this idea starting in a different place, for example, the note ‘G’.

G A B C D E F G

We can check to see if the rungs on our ladder are the same. Remember the major scale pattern:

Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone Semitone. 

G – A Tone

A – B Tone

B – C Semitone

C – D Tone

D – E Tone

E – F Semitone

F – G Tone

Hopefully already you can see that there is a problem with the pattern of tones and semitones over the last 2 notes, F and G.

This is easier to see on a guitar neck.

Play through this example and listen to its sound. Can you hear something that doesn’t belong in a Major Scale?

The last rung on the ladder should be a semitone, and the one before that should be a semitone, like this:

To create our major scale pattern of Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone Semitone, we had to raise the 7th note of the scale by one semitone.

This scale is now identical in construction to the C Major Scale that we studied in the last chapter:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Before we raised the 7th note to F#, we could have described it as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

We raised the 7th note to make it conform to the major scale formula.

About the Author

Joseph Alexander is the author of the Amazon best-selling books, The CAGED System and 100 Licks for Blues guitar, and Complete Technique for Modern Guitar. His website, www.fundamental-changes.com is a database of free guitar lessons and articles.

This article is from the book Modern Guitar Theory in Practice, due to be released in April 2013

Major Scale Introduction from Fretterverse.com

When approaching a chord progression for the first time with a mind to improvise, I always encourage my students to learn the tune first and foremost, followed by the chord progression and other material second, as an “Improvising Made Easy” approach to the song.

After all the melody is the tune, and by mastering it before anything else, you already acquire a sense of the rhythm, feel and harmony of the piece.

This doesn’t require you to be a particularly seasoned improviser either, as musicians of all levels are able to learn a melody, play it with a good deal of expression, and from there add embellishments and make steps towards improvising.

In this lesson, I will outline three useful and very simple techniques for embellishing a melody to build your soloing chops and vocabulary.

The phrase that we will use in this study is the opening to “Autumn Leaves,” where the target note at the end of the phrase is Eb.

Here is the opening phrase in it’s original form.

Enclosures

Enclosures are ornamentations that encircle the target note with the notes above and below it.

As you can see, our Eb has been encircled by two variations in the examples below.

To explore Enclosures further, check out “Jazz Guitar Soloing Techniques: Enclosures.”

Click to hear audio for the first half of this example.

Click to hear audio for the second half of this example.

Chromatic

In the next examples, we first of all have a slide up to the Eb from the C and then a chromatic approach, both allowing you to connect one note, C, to the next, Eb, with chromatic notes filling in the gaps in between.

To find out more about adding chromaticism to your lines, check out “Instant Jazz: Adding Chromatics to Common Arpeggios.”

Click to hear audio for the first half of this example.

Click to hear audio for the second half of this example.

Using Chord Voicings

In the third instance, things will begin to become more advanced, as this time we are constructing a melody using the keynotes of the chords.

At the start of Autumn Leaves there is a iim to a V (Cm7-F7) cadence in the key of Bb. So, it is possible to use the Bb from the b7 in the Cm chord and the A from the perfect 3rd in the F7.

These guide tones provide a strong harmonic pull to the melody.

Click to hear audio for the first half of this example.

Click to hear audio for the second half of this example.

Creating variations in melodies is a really simple and effective way to start improvising and creating your own phrases that doesn’t involve too much analysis of key signatures and scale positions.

Practice these examples with other melodies that you have learned and work on them in all 12 keys on the guitar.

What are your thoughts on these exercises? Share them in the comments section below.

About the Author

Simon Joseph James is a London based Guitarist, Vocalist, Songwriter and Teacher. He studied at Manchester University, the London Centre for Contemporary Music and spent four years studying in Seville with Ramon Ruiz of the Alma Flamenco Group. Simon runs the site Guitar4Free.com which contains over 250 Written and Video Lessons focusing on Blues, Jazz, Folk and Latin Guitar.

Improvising Made Easy- Melody As Inspiration from Fretterverse.com

These days though, travelling with a guitar isn’t as simple as it may have been in years gone by.

Airlines these days want to charge you for anything they can, and taking a Guitar on a plane may incur extra charges if you don’t do it properly, not to mention taking your Guitar with you and not preparing could result in damages to your most prized possession.

Below are five important things to remember when you are flying with a guitar:

1 – Know which airlines allow guitars as ‘Hand – Luggage’

Some airlines do have exceptions when it comes to what you can take on board as hand-luggage and some of those exceptions include musical instruments.

Below is a table of UK based Airlines and the maximum size hand-baggage they allow you to have when it comes to musical instruments

*source:  http://www.ism.org/news/article/instruments_on_planes

As you can see, there aren’t too many airlines that will 100% let you take your Guitar on board. So if you aren’t flying with them, be sure to pay attention to the following tips.

2 – Buy yourself a high quality guitar case!

If you travel with your guitar fairly regularly this is a must!

Even if you just travel with it in the car or on the bus, investing in a proper guitar case will save you a lot of potential mishaps and trouble!

There are a huge range of different guitar cases that are perfect for a range of different situations:

Flight Cases

Naturally, if you are flying regularly, a flight case is probably a good way to go in terms of buying yourself a high quality guitar case. Flight cases are extremely sturdy pieces of kit.

Places like www.adrenalineflightcases.com can create high quality custom made or pre-made flight cases that will be the perfect fit for your guitar.

The combination of metal, heavy duty plastic and durable travel foam make them a perfect fortress to house your Guitar in when you are flying.

Prices for flight cases range from £150 to upwards of £200 if you are looking into custom made pieces.

Gig Bags

Gig bags are probably better if you are travelling a lot on the road and your guitar is always close.

The heavy duty nylon is very durable and can be good at protecting your Guitar, but these probably aren’t durable enough when it comes to heavy handed baggage handlers!

You can find a whole range of Gig bags here.

3 – Loosen the strings on your guitar

With the change in temperatures and high pressure up in the clouds your guitar can feel the strain and has potential to snap the neck of your guitar if you don’t loosen your strings.

Naturally guitar strings have a lot of tension in them and if the pressure starts to work against the pressure, you may be opening your case to your guitar in two parts.

4 – Stuff your case!

Even if you have a great foam case like the ones from Adrenaline Flight Cases, you still want to take as many precautions as you can.

Your best bet is to give your guitar more cushioning by stuffing clothes or anything soft you are taking with you, into your guitar case. T

his extra bit of comfort for your guitar will put your mind at ease and may be the difference between a broken and working guitar!

Flying with your guitar can be a stressful time in any musician’s life. But, with the proper background knowledge and preparation, you can make sure that your guitar is safe and you have a relaxed and enjoyable trip.

Do you have any tips on flying with your guitar? Share them in the comments section below.

Top 4 Tips for Flying With Your Guitar from Fretterverse.com

This is the 10th entry in my 10-part series on Drop 2 Chords.

In order to consolidate the techniques in the proceeding chapters, it is important to combine the ideas that have been taught into one etude.

I’m sure you will recognise the song, but it shall remain nameless for copyright reasons!

If you want a sneak peak, just play through the top line of the melody. All will be revealed!

**Disclaimer**

The following piece of music is very ‘forced’. It would be extremely unusual to arrange a whole piece of music with the same type of specific voicing throughout.

Everything we have covered so far has been solely drop 2 chord voicings on the top 4 strings and so that is what we will be using here.

In a real world example it would be normal to combing different voicings, different string groups and arrange the melody so it is closer together on the guitar.

In the following example, all the melody notes have been voiced on the top E string of the guitar to allow for the relevant drop 2 chords to be used.

In summary, this is a study to consolidate the previous 9 chapters and not intended as a real world example.

In the above example, I have written the original harmony as I see it on the top line of chords.

The actual harmony as I play it on the second line, then underneath the staves I have put in any substitutions that I have used to imply the harmony written on the second line.

In the table below, I have analysed my thinking behind each chord in the song.

This is completely subjective and you may see it differently.

Obviously the table is quite a lot of information. My advice to you would be to play through the piece and ignore all the theory for now.

Just seeing which shapes you recognise from the previous 9 lessons.

See if you can figure out how each chord or substitution is functioning. If you get stuck, use the table below to help answer your questions.

As always, have fun with this, try the concepts in the previous chapters with other string groupings and always remember the golden rule: If it sounds good, it is good.

About the Author

A professional guitar teacher for over 12 years, Joseph Alexander graduated from The Guitar Institute in London with a Diploma in Popular Music Performance. He continued his education at the prestigious Leeds College of Music achieving a BA (Hons) in Jazz Studies in 2002. He currently lives in Poynton, England and is busy teaching a new wave of upcoming guitarists and is the author of the eBook Fundamental Changes in Jazz.

Drop 2 Chords Lesson 10 – Combining the Techniques. from Fretterverse.com

Whilst it is good to see possible altered chord extensions as a simple substitution, as shown in previous lessons in my 10-part series on Drop 2 Chords, there is a very easy way to add tension and colour to your chord playing without having to play substitutions at all.

Sometimes it’s just simpler to adjust notes of the chords we already have, a valuable skill when learning how to play jazz guitar.

Often in music, the harmony calls for extensions of the dominant chord, for example A7#5 or A7b9#5.

If you understand where these extensions lie in terms of the original unaltered chord, then it’s easy to adjust your fingering to include these notes.

As I’ve mentioned in previous lessons, the most important notes in any chord are the 3rd and 7th, we definitely want to leave these in.

The other notes, the root and 5th are expendable. So it’s these notes that you will normally adjust to alter the chord.

For example, look at the following voicing of A7:

In the voicing in the above example, the root of the chord, A is played on the top string, and the 5th, E is played on the second string.

So, for example, to make an A7b9 chord, you can simply remove the root and replace it with the b9 note, Bb which is a semitone above.

To make an A7#9 chord, you remove the root and replace it with the #9 scale tone which is a minor 3rd above:

You can also adjust the 5th of the A7 chord in a similar way.

To play A7#5(or b13) you raise the 5th by a semitone, and to play A7b5, you lower it by a semitone as such:

It’s also perfectly fine to combine the above examples as you can see here:

Practice altering the other 3 positions of the A7 Drop 2 Chords in this same fashion.

Not all of the positions are feasible, but it should give you a good understanding of this process and help you recognise where each chord tone lies in each voicing.

You can take a similar approach when extending maj7 and min7 chords.

To make a Maj7 chord into a Maj66, flatten the 7th by a tone or raise the 5^th by a tone.

To make a Maj7 chord into a Maj7#11, flatten the 5th by a semitone.

Now try transferring these ideas to other voicings.

With minor 7 chords you can flatten the 5th by a tone to play a m11 and Flatten the 7th by a semitone or raise the 5th by a tone to play a m6.

Again, transfer these ideas to other voicings as you take these ideas further in the woodshed.

About the Author

A professional guitar teacher for over 12 years, Joseph Alexander graduated from The Guitar Institute in London with a Diploma in Popular Music Performance. He continued his education at the prestigious Leeds College of Music achieving a BA (Hons) in Jazz Studies in 2002. He currently lives in Poynton, England and is busy teaching a new wave of upcoming guitarists and is the author of the eBook Fundamental Changes in Jazz.

What did you think of this lesson? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Drop 2 Chords Lesson 9 – Altering Inside Tensions from Fretterverse.com

As a slight digression from the Major ii V I, as we’ve covered so far in my 10-part series on Drop 2 Chords, today we’ll be continuing our Drop 2 Chords study with the minor ii V I progression.

In essence, this is the same fundamental progression, but instead of coming from a major key, the chords come from the minor scale.

Instead of the ii chord being m7, it is now a minor7b5, which is a tricky but important sound to get under your fingers as you learn to play jazz guitar.

Minor ii V i chords crop up all over the place in the jazz genre, and you’ll normally find at least one in most jazz standards.

The minor ii V i progression in the key of A minor is as follows:

Bm7b5 – E7 – AmMaj7

However, it is more common to play the home chord as a m7 or m6 chord.

For the purposes of this lesson we’ll treat it as a m7 chord.

Once again, let’s look at the Drop 2 Chords for this progression.

If you’re not familiar with Drop 2 Chords, check out lesson one in this series.

Become comfortable with these chords by first of all recognizing where the root of the chord (B) is in each shape.

Then transpose these Drop 2 Chords to a few other keys, I’d recommend G, Eb and C to start and build up from there.

Next, let’s look at how these chords fit into a minor ii V i progression in all four positions, as you can see in the next example.

You will notice that to follow proper voice leading, I’m using the 7b9 diminished substitution on the dominant chord (i.e. E7b9).

For more information about how to form these chords, check out lesson 3 in this series.

As a final idea today, let’s look at another substitution you should explore for the dominant chord of the minor ii V I progression.

The tritone substitution (see lesson 7)

Your homework is to extend example this last example into all 4 positions on the top four strings.

What did you think about this lesson? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

About the Author

A professional guitar teacher for over 12 years, Joseph Alexander graduated from The Guitar Institute in London with a Diploma in Popular Music Performance. He continued his education at the prestigious Leeds College of Music achieving a BA (Hons) in Jazz Studies in 2002. He currently lives in Poynton, England and is busy teaching a new wave of upcoming guitarists and is the author of the eBook Fundamental Changes

Drop 2 Chords Lesson 8 – Minor ii V i Chords from Fretterverse.com

Are you tired of leafing through big chord dictionaries only to find that they don’t help you apply the shapes to actual music once you get them under your fingers?

If you are in this situation, or are simply looking to increase your ability to play jazz guitar chord progressions, then the Matt Warnock Guitar 251 App is just the thing to get your guitar chord playing to the next level.

With fun and easy to follow material designed to help you increase your ability to comp common chord progressions and tunes on the guitar, the Matt Warnock Guitar 251 Chord App is a chord dictionary and voice leading textbook all in your pocket, without the heavy reading or hours spent sifting through books and articles to find the chords you need.

The Matt Warnock Guitar 251 Chord App lets you build custom 251 chord progressions in major and minor keys all at the touch of a button.

You can customize each 251 with the following options, giving you countless new 251 chord progressions in major and minor keys to explore in the practice room and take out on the bandstand.

Every progression is presented with proper voice leading, which minimizes hand movement on the fretboard, making it easy to to move from chord to chord as you bring these voicings to your favorite changes and tunes.

Click to Download the Matt Warnock Guitar 251 App today!

251 Chord Generator Options Include

• Drop 2, Drop 3 or Drop 2 & 4 Chords
• Multiple strings sets and fretboard positions to provide countless options for each 251 on the guitar
• iim7, iim9 or iim7b5 Chords
• V7,V9, V7b9, V7#9, V7b5, V7#5, V7b9b5, V7b9#5, V7#9b5 and V7#9#5 Chords
• Imaj7, I6, IMaj9, Im7, Im9, Im6, ImMaj7 Chords
• Random Chord Generator for fun and challenging practice routines
• Left or Right-Handed Fretboards
• Multiple Rhythms for Playback and Adjustable Metronome Allowing You to Practice Along with Each Progression in Real Time and with Common Comping Patterns

Alongside the 251 Chord Generator, the app includes a chord dictionary where you can explore specific chords outside of a 251 progression to further enhance your jazz guitar learning experience, and there is a Practice Tips section that lays out fun and productive ways to get the most out of this app in the woodshed.

The Matt Warnock Guitar 251 App is not only a reference tool, but it will help teach you proper and easy ways to voice lead 251 chord progressions with any chord variations you can think of on the fretboard.

Why wait to take your jazz guitar chord playing to the next level?

Click to Download the Matt Warnock Guitar 251 App today!

Actual Screen Shots

Click to Download the Matt Warnock Guitar 251 App today!

Matt Warnock Guitar 251 Chord App Launches from Fretterverse.com

The most important substitution to get under your fingers when learning how to play jazz guitar, is the tritone substitution, which is what we will explore in this instalment of my 10-part series on Drop 2 Chords.

In its simplest form, this is the substitution of the original dominant chord for another one three tones (hence tri-tone) away.

The distance of 3-tones in music is a flattened 5^th or b5, and so the terms tritone substitution and b5 substitution are synonymous.

Staying with the ii V I progression in C Major, the original dominant chord is G7.

The tritone substitution on the b5 is therefore a Db7 chord.

Something very interesting happens with the guide tones (the 3rd and b7 of each chord) in a tritone substitution, which you can see in the table below.

Look at the guide tone notes (3 and b7) in both chords.

Can you see that in each chord the 3rd has become the b7 and the b7 has become the 3^rd?

In fact it is a rule of music that when you substitute a dominant chord for another dominant chord three tones away from the original, the two chords will ALWAYS share the same guide tones.

Why is this important?

As you may know from soloing or comping, the two most important notes and defining intervals of a chord are the 3rd and the 7th. The 3^rd tells you if the chord is major or minor and the 7^th tells you which kind of major or minor chord it is.

If you target those in our playing, your soloing will always closely outline the harmony that you are soloing on.

Not only that; if you strongly emphasise the 3 and b7, you can pretty much get away with any amount of tension in the melody as long as we melodically resolve our phrases.

All of this means that soloing or comping the tritone substitution is a very concise way to ‘stick to the changes,’ whilst adding in some beautiful creative tensions.

Analysis of the Tritone Substitution.

Let’s look at the intervals formed when you play the tritone substitution Db7 over our original bass line of G7.

The above table shows that if we play a Db7 chord over a G bass line, the resultant harmony is G7b5b9.

Ok, enough chitchat!

The next example shows the Drop 2 Chords for Db7 on the top four string.

And here are those Drop 2 Chords substituted into the ii V I in C major.

Study the voice leading in each chord change carefully from the above example.

Notice that every note except the B moves down by a semitone between Db7 and Cmaj7, the B doesn’t change.

The tritone substitution is one of the main ways that you can produce chromatic voice leading when playing in a chord melody style.

It’s also an extremely useful device to reinforce a jazz melody in the rhythm part when the notes are chromatic to the chord.

Drop 2 Chords Extensions

You can also extend the tritone chord as far as you like away from the original Db7, for example using Db9, Db13 etc.

You can also add altered extensions too, such as D7b9, D7b13 etc.

An interesting quirk is that natural extensions like 9s and 13s make the substitution more dissonant from the original chord of G7, whereas altered extensions like the b9s and b13s make the chord less dissonant against the G7.

Homework

Your homework today is to extend the Db7 chord to a Db9 chord and insert it into the major ii V I progression.

We used a similar approach with G7 in lesson 3 of this series, so you should already have the chord shapes ‘down’.

Notice how the natural 9th extension becomes a #5 (b13) against the original chord root of G.

When you are comfortable with that, try doing the diminished 7 sub from lesson 2 to create a Db7b9 instead of the Db7 chord.

Now notice how the b9 of Db becomes a natural 5^th of the underlying G harmony. Do this in all four positions.

About the Author

A professional guitar teacher for over 12 years, Joseph Alexander graduated from The Guitar Institute in London with a Diploma in Popular Music Performance. He continued his education at the prestigious Leeds College of Music achieving a BA (Hons) in Jazz Studies in 2002. He currently lives in Poynton, England and is busy teaching a new wave of upcoming guitarists and is the author of the eBook Fundamental Changes in Jazz.

Drop 2 Chords Lesson 7 – The Tritone Substitution from Fretterverse.com

Last lesson in my 10-part series on Drop 2 Chords, you began looking at different substitutions for the dominant chord in a ii V I chord progression.

In this lesson, we’ll continue with another one of my favorite subs that you can take and use over 7^th chords in your solos and chord playing.

This substitution is as follows:

Play a Dominant 7 chord on the b3 degree of the original Dominant Chord, for example playing Bb7 over G7.

First off, let’s analyze the notes and resultant intervals of the Bb7/G7 substitution.

So, this means that if the bass player is playing a G7 idea, and you play a Bb7 chord, the harmony you are implying is G7b9#9

At the risk of repeating myself, I believe that it’s important to initially understand the theory behind this sub, but if you’re thinking about subs ‘on the fly’ while you’re playing you’re dead in the water.

After you’ve thought it over on paper, learn this sub as a shape to play on your guitar, just like you would any other scale fingering, arpeggio or lick.

Learning how to play jazz guitar means digesting the theory, but also using these concepts to make music, so make sure to approach these ideas from both angles in the practice room.

In the context of our ii V I in C, one way to play this with Drop 2 Chords would be like the following.

I’ve written the chord that you are seeing between the staves, and the resultant harmony (that the audience hears) along the top of the staves.

This is a very simple way to bring very complex harmonic sounds into your playing.

As any chord substitution idea can be used as a soloing idea too, try playing a dominant 7 arpeggio from the b3 of the dominant chord next time you jam on a ii V I.

Now, let’s extend this idea out to all four positions of Drop 2 Chord on the top four strings of the guitar as you can see in the following example.

Hopefully it is becoming clear to you that you can create complex and rich harmonies and solos with some very simple chord substitutions, and that it’s easier to keep track of the subs that you’re playing rather than the complex sounds that they produce over the given chords.

These ideas sometimes have to be used with care, especially if you’re comping under the head or melody of the tune, as often the composer will specify which extensions should be played.

However, these ideas can usually be freely woven into comping under a soloist and they work especially well when you have a good bass player or the piano player comps fairly sparsely.

Drop 2 Chords Homework

For today’s homework, I’d like you to write the above example but with a new substitution idea: Play a Dominant 7 chord on the b6 of the original chord.

For the chord G7, you would substitute an Eb7 Drop 2 Chord over top of it.

Start by working out the resultant extensions for the substitution as we did in the table above, and then work out how to play the sub in each position of the guitar like the following example.

Here is one position to get you started and you can take it from there.

About the Author

A professional guitar teacher for over 12 years, Joseph Alexander graduated from The Guitar Institute in London with a Diploma in Popular Music Performance. He continued his education at the prestigious Leeds College of Music achieving a BA (Hons) in Jazz Studies in 2002. He currently lives in Poynton, England and is busy teaching a new wave of upcoming guitarists and is the author of the eBook Fundamental Changes in Jazz.

Drop 2 Chords Lesson 6: Dominant Substitutions Part 2 from Fretterverse.com