www.jamieholroydguitar.com 1 Beginner Jazz Guitar Chords Learn to Comp Like Your Favourite Jazz Guitarists Written by: Jamie Holroyd Edited by: Hayley Lawrence Cover design: Bill Mauro Copyright 2019 Jamie Holroyd Guitar www.jamieholroydguitar.com 2 Table of Contents Introduction How to Use This eBook Chapter 1 - Root on 6th & 5th String Chords Chapter 2 - Extended Chords Chapter 3 - Drop 2 Chords Chapter 4 - Comping Rhythms Chapter 5 - Transcribing Jazz Chords Chapter 6 - Diminished 7th Chords Chapter 7 - Dominant 7b9 Chords Chapter 8 - Dominant 7#9 Chords Chapter 9 - 9th and 13th Chords Chapter 10 - Triads Chapter 11 - 6th Chords Chapter 12 - Inner Chord Voicings Epilogue Blank Music Paper Blank TAB Paper Transcription Answers About The Author www.jamieholroydguitar.com 3 Introduction Welcome to Beginner Jazz Guitar Chords! Glad to have you here. You're in the right place if you're new to jazz guitar and want to learn how to play jazz guitar chords. Two of the biggest challenges you face as a jazz guitarist is learning chords in a systematic way and making them sound like jazz. This eBook gives you the skills to thoroughly learn jazz chords and make them sound like your favourite players. To begin with, you will start by learning the fundamental jazz chords. Then you will move progressively while building on what you learn in each chapter. By the end of the eBook you will be able to comp through any chord sheet using a variety of harmonic colours and rhythmic imagination. www.jamieholroydguitar.com 4 How to Use This eBook The following tips in this section will help you keep focused and avoid getting overwhelmed. So, read through them slowly and revisit this section when you need to. Stay on each chapter until you feel comfortable! The book progressively builds on what you learn in each section. Therefore, you must feel confident with one technique before moving to the next section. For example, once you feel confident with extended chords in chapter two, add them to the etudes in chapter one. This eBook gives you the road map to go from complete beginner to a competent accompanist. By working with this eBook, you can go from not knowing a single jazz chord to having complete choice in how you comp. That's a big journey and a lot of effort. So, be prepared that fully learning everything in this eBook can take anywhere from a few months to even a year or two. Jazz guitar chords are a technique and should be practiced with at least one other item such as learning tunes or transcribing for example. Mixing up practicing chords with other assignments will keep your practice balanced and help the material in this book stay fresh over time. www.jamieholroydguitar.com 5 Extended Chords Now that you are comfortable playing the four main chord types, let's look at extending your knowledge. Have you ever come across a chord with #11’s, b9’s, or a combination of both and felt confused? This section will help you understand, locate and use any extended chord that you need. By working through these exercises you will be able to: ➢ Voice lead jazz progressions by only changing one or two notes ➢ Use extensions and alterations for the main jazz chord types ➢ Play any type of alteration on major, minor and dominant 7th chord types ➢ Impose extended chords over basic chord progressions What is an extended chord? An extended chord is a chord that contains notes besides the essential notes of the chord. Hence, the word extension. For example, the root, third, fifth, and seventh are typically found in a jazz voicing. But besides these, you can also add intervals beyond the octave such as the 9th, 11th, 13th, etc. Extended notes can also be within the octave such as raised and lowered fifths for example. Extended chords are usually not essential to the harmony, but they can add a new dimension to your playing. Think of extended chords as like getting a house extension on a house. The extension is not essential, but usually a luxury. www.jamieholroydguitar.com 6 You will learn extended chords by studying each of the main jazz chord types in two positions on the fretboard. The two positions are based on the chords with the root on the 6&5 string to correspond with the previous chapter. There are ultimately more ways in which you can find extended chords over the neck, but these will get you started. When you can smoothly play these extended chords, we will them apply them to three common chord progressions. Each of the examples below contains a root note on the 6th or 5th string in the second diagram. Though it is not always essential to play this, the root can provide a solid reference point when working with extended chords. There are two types of extended chords we are going to look at. The first is alterations to the fifth of the chord, e.g. raise fifth, lowered fifth. The second is alterations to the third, e.g. raised nine, flat nine. A combination of both alterations is possible, e.g. G#9b13. www.jamieholroydguitar.com 7 Major 7th Extended Chords The first chord type that we are going to learn the extensions for is the major 7th chord. Commonly used extensions on major 7th chords include the #11, #5, 9th and the 6th or 13th. You may have noticed that the 11th is not included. The 11th is only a semi-tone above the major 3rd, which creates an unwanted semi-tone interval when played together. However, the #11 is a tone above the root, resulting in a less dissonant sound used frequently by jazz musicians. Be careful when using extended major 7th chords with non diatonic extensions such as the #11 and #5. Unless they are being used in a modal tune reprehensive of the chord, they need to be used in the correct way because they are not diatonic. www.jamieholroydguitar.com 8 Dominant 7th Extended Chords Unlike the major and minor 7th chord, the dominant 7th can take almost any alteration possible. This is because dominant 7th’s are typically used to resolve to a I chord. So, any alteration you put on the chord, no matter how dissonant it sounds, will generally resolve. This type of extended chord is called an altered dominant. Any extended note within the scale such as the 9th, 13th, etc is fine to use on any type of dominant 7th chord. So, for example, if you are playing a blues, use diatonic extended chords on the I and IV chord. For the resolving dominant chord, e.g. bars 4 and 9 of a blues, use altered dominant 7th chords. Because of this, there are more chords to learn for dominant 7th extended chords than the other chord types. I’m sure that some of you will have noticed that some voicings have more extensions than the chord symbol suggests. For example, the C9 in the fourth bar also has the 13th. This is because the 9th is the highest note in the voicing, the chord is classed as a 9th. The chord could be played with the fifth instead of the 13th to avoid any confusion. But jazz guitarists frequently add the 13th underneath. I think you’ll agree that adding this makes the chord sound better, but you can remove if you prefer the sound of the 5th. www.jamieholroydguitar.com 9 www.jamieholroydguitar.com 10 Minor 7th Chords Minor 7th chords complete our introduction of extended chords. Commonly used extensions on minor chords come from the parent scale and are diatonic. Examples of extended minor chords are the 9th, 11th, b6 and 6. Some of you may notice that the shapes are similar to those you already know. For example, the second to last chord is a drop 2 chord which is looked at in the next chapter. This is to show you the connection between drop 2 chords and extensions. By changing one note, the root is in this example, the chord has become a minor 9th chord. www.jamieholroydguitar.com 11 Now that you can smoothly play each of the voicings, you need to be able to play each one of the chords in all 12 keys. The last thing that you want is to be holding up the band while you’re looking for a particular voicing. You ultimately need to be able to find any chord voicing on the spot. One effective way to practice extended chords is through the cycle of fourths as shown in the previous chapter. You can take one chord type, e.g. a 13th and practice throughout the cycle. Do this with every extended chord in all 12 keys. After you can do this, we have three etudes to get stuck into which will help you string all these extended chords together in musical situations. Each of the three etudes teach you how extended chords are used in different situations such as chord soloing, bossa nova comping, and blues melodies. www.jamieholroydguitar.com 12 Satin Doll The first progression you are going to apply extended chords to is the first A section of Satin Doll. Multiple ii-V’s and a dominant 7th chord turnaround make Satin Doll a great workout for using extended chords. The chord progression is typically written out without any alterations. So, the first chord would be written out as Dm7, as opposed to Dm9 in this study. You can impose extended chords over diatonic chords for greater harmonic potential.