This material comes largely from this video and this video.
The Mixolydian mode is an 'uneven' scale - it only has 7 notes, while we ordinarily play in 4/4 time. If you continue marching up or down the the Mixolydian scale tones in sequence, after 8 beats, your scale's chord tones are no longer hitting on the down beats -- they are flipped -- giving an awkward sound. The solution is the 'Bebop Scale.' The C7 bebop scale has extra 'passing tone' -- the B natural (the Major 7 of C). C Mixolydian C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C 1-2-3-4-5-6-b7-1 C 'Dominant Bebop' C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb-B-C 1-2-3-4-5-6-b7-7-1 The 8 notes of the 'Bebop' scale ensures you always fall on the downbeat when you start on a chord tone, even if you march into the next octave. The Minor modes (like Dorian) have the same problem when playing over a minor -- the chord tones fall off the downbeat if you do a run 8 beats or more. The Jazz Minor (aka Melodic Minor) is essentially the Major scale with a flat 3rd. C-D-Eb-F-G-A-B-C 1-2-b3-4-5-6-7-1 However, this scale only has 7 notes. You can turn the Jazz Minor into an 8-tone 'Bebop' scale to enhance the chord tones on downbeats after you enter the successive octave. There are two ideas of how to construct the Jazz Minor Bebop to get 8 tones -- either use the #5/b13 or the flat 7. The first solution is adding the extra passing tone of a flat 13, also known as the sharp 5. G 'Jazz Minor Bebop' C-D-Eb-F-G-G#-A-B-C 1-2-b3-4-5-#5(b13)-13-7-1 descending, you spell the #5/b13 as Ab. This bebop scale ensures the 'quality' of the Major-minor scale. Another approach, is to construct the 'Jazz Minor Bebop' by incorporating both the Major and Minor 7. C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb-B-C 1-2-b3-4-5-6-b7-7-1 In classical music, the minor scales are different ascending and descending. In order to add the 'jazzy flavor' of a Major 3rd with a Minor chord, you can choose to use incorporate Major 3rd as the descending 'Bebop Minor' when doing downward runs. 'Jazz Minor Bebop Descend Variation' C-Bb-A-G-F-E-Eb-D-C 1-b7-6-5-4-3-b3-2-1 or you can descend with the Dominant Bebop scale shown at the beginning. You can any play of these above mentioned scales over a ii-V. For instance, you can play the Jazz Minor ascending, and Bebop descending. The beauty of these scales is that when you move into the next octave, you are still playing chord tones on the downbeats. The videos linked above also talk about 'Broken Chords' which simply mean, phrasing chord tones, like an arpeggio. Any arpeggio within the diatonic progression of a key can create a useful phrase in a solo. The videos also briefly touch on half-step in bebop. Half steps can be used to 'keep your footing' like in bebop scales, or be used as 'approach' tones in the key, or be used to help 'enclose' a chord tone. I am all over the videos produced by Jeff Schneider on youtube. A lot of the videos are sax and piano, but the information, licks and exercises are all useful for guitar. Just make sure you understand which are the concert notes are when he is playing sax.
Here is a great scale warm up -- Best Warm Up Exercise When Time is Limited. R, 2, 3, #4, 5, #4, 3, 2, R (Lydian) R, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, R (Ionian, Major) R, 2, b3, 4, 5, 4, b3, 2, R (Minor) R, b9, b3, 4, 5, 4, b3, b9, R (Phrygian Minor) R, b9, b3, 4 b5, 4, b3, b9, 7 (Locrian, Half-Diminished -- down to next root one semi-tone down) Start again with the last note as the new root. This pdf is inspired by Ted Greene's "Essential Chords" for jazz, from his "Chord Chemistry" book. If you are just starting out learning jazz chords, I would begin with the Jimmy Bruno method: jazzguitarjourney.weebly.com/blog/inversion-jimmy-bruno-method Like a lot of revered Jazz Tomes, Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry is a bit hard to navigate for a beginner. It's much more useful to go through this book with a good teacher and understand the inversions Mr. Burno teaches first. Chord Chemistry was too much for me when I picked it up -- I didn't know exactly how chords were constructed, how they got their names, what their functions were, etc. The Jimmy Bruno method made tons more sense to me and increased my vocabulary in a meaningful way. The best way to approach Ted's Essential Chords is just to go through them one by one, with some examination on how each are constructed. I don't know if this is a great compendium to learn the chords by rote. Instead, go through the whole lot in sequence and see what you discover. Let the process kind of "wake up" your "chord consciousness," so to speak. Try and find each chord on your neck where 'A' is the root (that's mostly what Ted used as an example). Some won't work on all parts of the neck. Some I can't finger at all. Still, see where the notes are in relation to the governing key the chord is in. Use the hollow green dots to finger other versions of the chord idea and discern what those intervals are to the root. Don't spend too much time memorizing each chord at first -- just examine, listen, and move to the next chord. Get a feel for how to alter a chord by adding the 6(13), 9(2), or altering the 5. If you find a chord that sounds particularly good to you, maybe make a note of it as something to practice in a progression, like a 2-5-1. I think the 'Essential Chords' were mostly designed just to canvas the possibilities of the unabridged jazz-chord dictionary. For more advanced players, you might experience satori on how different fingerings are connected, or new possibilities the fretboard offers.
Here is a giant PDF of Scales and Modes visualized horizontally several ways. As well as getting each position of a scale under your fingers -- where you can quickly visualize it vertically -- it is also helpful to be able to see the scales horizontally on the neck. Loop your iReal or other helper on an appropriate chord and noodle with each of these pages. This document can also help you visualize double stops and other horizontal-vertical configurations. The following scales are included in this doc:
Here is a giant PDF of scales and mode positions to practice. This doc contains the following scales:
Each scale has patterns in a 'mode box' -- positions where each of the seven modes start on the 6th string.
Additionally, this document contains most of the same scales with handy fingerings including diagonal scales.
Here is a great lesson on 3-note jazz chords by Jens Larsen. Subscribe to his YouTube Channel!
Three-note voicings are economical and free some fingers to alter the chord quality and add melody. The sharp-eleven chord is a dominant chord with a #11 extension. A #11 is the same tone as an augmented 4, a flat 5 and can also be notated as +11. For a B7#11, the notes would be:
B - root D# - major-third (F# - perfect-fifth, possibly omitted) C - flat seventh F - sharp eleventh extension I've updated my chord inversions PDF to include fingerings for dom.7#11 . What to play over a seven #11? Lydian b7. The most 'appropriate' scale to play is something called the Lydian b7. The Lydian b7 scale is equivalent to the Mixolydian with a #4 (instead of Mixo's perfect 4). This gives you the tones of the root, 2, 3, #11, 5, 6, b7. Altered Scale. As with any altered dominant, the altered scale is a good choice. The altered scale gives you the root, b9, #9, 3, #11, #5, and b7. For B7#11 you can play B Altered. Symmetrical Diminished. The symmetrical diminished on get you the root, b9, #9, 3, #11, 5, 6, b7. For B7#11, you can play B Sym-Dim. Whole Tone Scale. Another interesting idea is play the whole tone scale. This gives you the root, 9, 3, #11, #5, and b7. For B7#11, play B Whole-Tone. Melodic Minor at the 5th. Playing the Melodic Minor starting on the 5th from the root will give you root, 9, 3, #11, 5, 6, b7. For B7#11, you can play F# Melodic Minor. Altered Scale at Tritone. Playing the Altered scale based on the tritone of the root is the same as the Melodic Minor of the 5th -- it gives you the same chord tones. For B7#11, you can play F Altered. It is essential at some point to be able to visualize your intervals across the fretboard given a root note. In learning this, I quickly realize that, unless the notes are separated by the string shift at the B-string, the 5 always sits over the Root, the b7 always sits over the b3, the Root always sits over the 11, etc. After that, I began to realize that since traditional positions move in fourths, and the guitar is more-or-less tuned in fourths, the 3-6-2-5-1 sit on each other vertically. Here is the complete vertical layout of the intervals following this concept. Maybe it will help you learn the intervals, or at least be able to quickly double-check.
The second page in the pdf has worksheets where you can fill in the intervals. It's not necessary to have these worksheets to practice. You can scribble out a 7x7 grid anywhere. When you fill out the worksheet, try and fill the boxes as randomly as possible to help you learn where things are.
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HI!I'm teaching myself jazz guitar... these are my notes. Archives
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