Wouldn’t it be unconfined if you had some Jazz Chords that are easy to play so that you can use them to play songs and progressions? Something that moreover works as a starting point for a lot of trappy grooves like Bossanovas, and chords & Walking Bass.
You do unquestionably have chords like that. They are tabbed Shell-voicings and they are unconfined for playing a lot of things, they can teach you well-nigh harmony and you can expand them to make it easier to learn some increasingly complicated jazz sounds.
What is a Shell-voicing
Shell voicings are tabbed this considering they are 3-Note versions of 7th chords. A 7th chord is of undertow 4 notes, 1, 3rd, 5th and 7th and for the shell voicings we leave out the 5th:
And you can place them in a very clever way on the neck. For a Cmaj7 you have two versions:
C E B with the root note on the 5th string
and the one where you have the root note on the 6th string and flip virtually the 3rd and 7th: C B E:
Notice that this splits the strings so that the root note is on the 5th and 6th strings. The cadre sound of the chord, so 3rd and 7th are on the middle strings, and you have the top strings self-ruling so that you can later add extensions and alterations or use that for the melody in a chord melody arrangement.
You can probably hear this is going to go places.
Exercise #1 Play songs
How do you practice these? The first exercise is to just learn some easy and worldwide chord progressions and then use those to start playing songs. Anything that you practice and don’t put to use in a song is probably a waste of time, and practicing finding chords for a Jazz standard is a unconfined exercise for so many reasons, since it is music, fretboard knowledge, harmony and theory
The chords I am going to imbricate here are:
And actually, some of them are the same shell-voicing which is a bit strange but you’ll see how that works later (highlight m6 = dim and m7(b5) = m7)
Let’s start with a vital II V I which is sort of the cadre progression to know in Jazz. Just like the maj7 chord you have two versions, starting on the 5th string:
and starting on the 6th string:
Like this, you can once start playing songs like Satin Doll. If you don’t know it then maybe trammels out the Joe Pass version which is pretty amazing.
Playing The Chords of Satin Doll!
The song is mostly II V progressions, so first you get the II V in C major, which is repeated
then you get a II V in D major twice using the same way of playing the chords.
Next, you have a II V in G major and Gb major and it sounds largest to stay in the same zone of the neck so here you can use the other version, surpassing resolving to Cmaj7.
Rhythm And Groove
Of course, there is increasingly to it than just finding the chords and playing the right notes: We need some rhythm and groove in there as well, but luckily shell-voicings naturally are split between the root note and the chord,
so you can add groove to it by splitting those two and create rhythms like this:
Exercise #2 diatonic chords
Besides playing songs then a unconfined way to explore any chord voicing is to take it through a scale. In that way, you learn some of the other chords that goes with it and is a unconfined way to find new voicings.
This exercise is useful for knowing your scales and your diatonic chords, which is very important, but there is one weird spot.
For the 5th string Shell-voicings you can move them through C major like this:
And you want to try this in variegated keys, the other string set, and moreover other scales like melodic and harmonic minor
What well-nigh the other chords?
With the Diatonic chords in major then we have maj7, m7,dom7th and moreover m7b5
But with the m7b5 you can see an example of how shell-voicings can sometimes be a bit unclear, because
Bø and Bm7 are the same shell-voicing and that is considering the shell-voicings leave out the 5th of the chord, so you can tell if it is a perfect 5th or b5th. Luckily your ear will fill in the right notes from the context most of the time.
This happens with two other, plane more, variegated chords as well:.check out the first part of the trappy Bossanova: Corcovado, played with Shell voicings:
Here I am really just playing the same shell voicing moved lanugo one fret when I go from
Am6 which is A, F# C
G#dim which is G# F B.
Here it is then the 5th of the chord that makes the difference. If you squint at this with the chords both having the root A, then
Am6 is A C E F#
A dim is A C Eb F#
so if you play shell voicing, and leave out the 5th, then you are playing the same chord, but then the context will tell you and when you play Corcovado then it doesn’t sound like you go from Am6 to Abm6.
Now we have all the chords except one: The Maj6.
But that is really easy. If you can play a Cmaj7
and then find the maj7th and replace that with a 6th then you have this:
and the other version is this
As you will see in a bit then using the Cmaj7 and the C6 together works really well, but there is flipside unconfined sound that I use shell-voicings for really a lot:
The Joe Pass Groove – Chords and Walking bass
Shell-voicings are unconfined for playing chords and walking toned mainly considering when you play 3-note chords with a toned note then it is a lot easier to play a solid walking toned line.
I can’t start explaining toned lines in this video, but I will link to a video that shows that in the video description. Surpassing I get into subtracting extensions then I want to squint at flipside important groove to trammels out.
Bossanova – Trappy Rhythm
One of my favorite grooves that has wilt a huge part of Jazz is Bossanova and shell-voicings are unconfined for this considering you can play the chord and the toned note.
This works expressly well when the toned note is on the 5th string, considering you can go hands get to the other lower 5th on the 6th string, and if the root is on the 6th string then you just repeat that note.
This sounds unconfined on a song like Girl From Ipanema:
Making The Harmony Interesting
As you have seen then until now, it has been well-nigh two of the string sets containing the chords and the bass, but there is moreover a lot to be washed-up on the top strings.
When it comes to playing Jazz chords then it is important to alimony it practical and playable, but for a lot of the shell-voicings it is pretty easy to add extensions and color, just by looking at what is tropical by on the next higher string.
So if you have a vital II V I like this.
then you can add a 9th to the Dm7, a b13 to the G7, and a 9th to the Cmaj7, just by checking what is misogynist on the B string, and that will requite you this:
This is of undertow something you can take a lot further, but it is unquestionably moreover the way you get started making chord melody arrangements and you can trammels out this video if you want to explore the trappy harmonizations that you can create by making your own chord melody arrangements.
Get the PDF and GuitarPro on Patreon:
You can get the PDF and GuitarPro files on Patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/basic-jazz-that-71298513
Get the PDF!
You can moreover download the PDF of my examples here:
Get a self-ruling E-book
If you want to download a Self-ruling E-book of 15 II Valt I licks then subscribe to my newsletter:
Jazz Guitar Insiders Facebook Group
Join 7500 Other Jazz Guitarists 🎸Join us in the Facebook Jazz Guitar Group Community: http://bit.ly/InsidersFBGroup
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for topics then, please let me know. Leave a scuttlebutt on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the weightier way for me to modernize my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and finger self-ruling to connect with me via Instagram, Twitter Google , or Facebook to alimony up to stage with new lessons, concerts, and releases.
