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Beginner Jazz and blues chords.


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Posted

Hey,

I have been in punk and hardcore bands but now I am in a jazz kinda expirimental band. I was wondering what are some good pretty easy chords to get started with? If you could tab um out that would be marvelous.

thanks a lot

-steve-

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Posted

Learn the triads and extensions of the Major Scale.

These are all root position barre chords.



Major

3
3
4
5
5
3

Major 7

x
3
4
4
x
3

Minor

3
3
3
5
5
3

Minor 7

3
3
3
3
5
3

Dominant 7

3
3
4
3
5
3


Half Diminished

x
x
3
3
4
3

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Posted

Some rules of thumb regarding jazz chords:

1. It's rare to be playing more than 4 strings at a time. Guitars just have more overtones and sound thicker than pianos so it gets mushy after that. There are lots of 2, 3, or 4 string voicings that are common.

2. It's rare to duplicate scale degrees. The reasoning is the same as above. The notes just get indistinguishable.

3. It's ok to leave out certain scale degrees, especially 5ths. Some chords have many extensions, such as altered chords. It's ok in those cases to leave out certain scale degrees. For example, for an altered chord, I may leave out the 5th and only add one altered extension.

Also, it's ok to learn chord fingerings, but don't forget to learn how they're constructed with scale degrees. That way you just figure them out yourself. If you find a cool maj7 shape, it's no problem to do some fiddling and get a m7, m7b5, diminished, and dominant shape also.

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Posted

These are some notes about playing jazz I've developed over the years, I haven't refined them in a year or more, but the basics are still true

1) In a combo, you are only part of the Chord
A) This means you can drop notes, root & 5th are best to drop
2) Doubling of chord tones sounds heavy
3) Most chords sound best w/ only three or four notes by you
4) 3rd & 7th harmonically define a chord
A)a perfect fifth between them denotes either a M7 or m7
B)a diminished fifth between them denotes either a 7 or diminish
C)an augmented fifth between them is a minor chord with a Major 7th
5) The lowest note most often gives a chord it's tonality, let the bass player worry about that
6) You can play just extensions and it's not a substitution if the bass player doesn't follow
7) Avoid the bottom octave or so of your instrument, that's the bassist space
8) Piano players like to play leading tones, be flexible, or drop out of the end of bars
9) Substitutions & embellishments that directly clash with the melody are bad
10) Too many substitutions could be questionable
11) Any major chord generally plays well for any other, same for minor or Dominant chords
12) Use space
13) Use your ears
14) Know the rhythmic feel of the piece
15) Learn to play the melody, well, even if you don't solo, it will help you connect

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Posted

Originally posted by musical_lucidity

These are some notes about playing jazz I've developed over the years, I haven't refined them in a year or more, but the basics are still true


1) In a combo, you are only part of the Chord

A) This means you can drop notes, root & 5th are best to drop

2) Doubling of chord tones sounds heavy

3) Most chords sound best w/ only three or four notes by you

4) 3rd & 7th harmonically define a chord

A)a perfect fifth between them denotes either a M7 or m7

B)a diminished fifth between them denotes either a 7 or diminish

C)an augmented fifth between them is a minor chord with a Major 7th

5) The lowest note most often gives a chord it's tonality, let the bass player worry about that

6) You can play just extensions and it's not a substitution if the bass player doesn't follow

7) Avoid the bottom octave or so of your instrument, that's the bassist space

8) Piano players like to play leading tones, be flexible, or drop out of the end of bars

9) Substitutions & embellishments that directly clash with the melody are bad

10) Too many substitutions could be questionable

11) Any major chord generally plays well for any other, same for minor or Dominant chords

12) Use space

13) Use your ears

14) Know the rhythmic feel of the piece

15) Learn to play the melody, well, even if you don't solo, it will help you connect

 

 

good advice

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Posted

Originally posted by thliu

Some rules of thumb regarding jazz chords:


1. It's rare to be playing more than 4 strings at a time. Guitars just have more overtones and sound thicker than pianos so it gets mushy after that. There are lots of 2, 3, or 4 string voicings that are common.

 

 

And they look like this: F7 xx21x1, C7 xx32x3, Am7 xx55x5, Dm7 xx53x5, Cmaj7 xx42x3 and Fmaj7 xx22x1. Notice that they're all moveable? This is basically all you'll ever need to play any jazz standard! Yes, they sound good for blues too.

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Posted

Good advice everyone.

I want to add something: I learned to comp jazz chords three ways: 1. w/pick strum 2. With thumb only (down stroke with swing feel) 3. Fingerstyle (w/pick a la hybrid style)

The situation may change so I suggest a good grasp of several ways to play chords. I suggest if your just starting out to use the thumb technique--four-on-the floor, I mean one down stroke per beat w/swing feel. Listen to Freddie Green for an example.

Can sombody else please explain the fingerstyle technique better? I don't really know how to put it other than to us a pick/finger approach and pluck all the notes at the same time. This may be a little advanced and hard to explain...

One other thing. All you Strat players (rookies) who don't already know about this... flip to the neck pickup and roll the tone knob down to around 2 or 3. If your using a good tube amp you should have a nice jazz tone with this.

Thoughts??

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