You will notice that these chord voicings move around a great deal on the fretboard. Autumn Leaves Tutorial - Intro, Chord Melody, Single-Note Solo & Chord Shapes, The Ultimate No Nonsense Guide to Jazz Harmony, How to Play Shell Voicings for Jazz Guitar (3-Note Chords), take the second highest note and drop it down an octave, drop 2 come from rearranging the chord tones, drop the third highest note down an octave. If you wish to go further and apply these chords in a real setting, adding 9ths, 13ths, rootless shapes and more, then I highly recommend this free resource! Each chord chart contains the melody (or head) and is written above the chords for the tune. This lays well on the guitar fretboard and makes voice leading from one chord to the next easier. Guitar Chords 101 Guitar Chords 101 Gain a greater feel for your instrument by learning Berklee's approach to the construction of chords and chord voicings in this 6-week online course. Now let’s look at how to play the same chords played with a 4th string root. One tip; if you don’t want to buy a Real Book, is to do a Google image search for the title of the standard you want to learn, and add the word “chart”. Now, let's try to play this chord on guitar: Much easier, right? The voicing that I am first going to show you is a chord that is really associated with the melodic minor scale. The easiest way to arrange these notes is to stack them one on top of each other. A triad is built of three notes. Find a good fingering on the guitar 3. Chords with Bass Line Just learning the chords is not enough to really play something that sounds like real Jazz Comping, and you need to develop more than just finding some chord voicings. Include the root of the chord in the voicing (assuming solo piano with no bass player). "Run it through the scale" means to take each note in the voicing and move it up to the next note in the scale. 2. **Note from the editor** This post was updated on 2/18/2019 to improve quality and readability. Later, when we study other types of voicings, you will see that it is not necessacery (and often not desirable) to play the root note in the bass, and we can create inversions of a chord by placing the 3rd, 5th or 7th note of the chord in the bass. 1 - Kindle edition by Vincent, Randy. When you are confident with 6th and 5th string voicings, combine the 4th and 5th string voicings. Extensions and Sus chords 6. You can mute them with the underside of the finger that is playing the fretted note on the lower string. Bossa Nova Style 10. Try playing the same chord sequence just using these Jazz Guitar Chord Voicings. Drop-2 voicings are chords played in close position, in which the alto (middle) voice is played one octave lower than the original alto, in close position. To get the other 48 chords, we're going to apply the same techniques to a drop 3 voicing. Next, combine the 6th and 5th string voicings. By doing this, you've now learned drop 2 voicings for the 4 basic chord types: Major 7, Minor 7, Dominant 7 and Minor 7b5. As before, these chords jump up and down the neck a lot, so we can combine them with 5th string chords to make them flow more easily. This might take some time to sink in if you're new to theory - if so, for now just think "the notes of the chord are rearranged". We will begin by learning three voicings of each of the fundamental chord types, maj7, 7, m7, and m7b5 and then apply them to a common jazz chord progression. For our drop 3 exercise we're going to use a Gmaj7 chord (instead of Cmaj7 like we were using previously). Here's the math: 1. In this lesson, you have learnt to combine the four most important types of chord in jazz in a common jazz chord progression. They are the first jazz chord voicings that most guitarists learn, and will remain a part of your vocabulary from this point for-ward. Hope you enjoy ! Always look for the closest pos-sible voicing when you change chords. For example, the open 5th string is muted by the finger playing the 6th string. Don’t worry about this for now, as when you have a few more voicings under your fingers you can start to smooth out the movements. Learning 20 or 30 songs is a big task but there is no hurry. This is... not great for guitarists! take each note in the voicing and move it up to the next note in the scale. With endorsements from various jazz guitar greats such as Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Jim Hall, Ben Monder, Vic Juris (and many more theThree-Note Voicings book is an obvious must have for serious jazz guitarists... Randy Vincent synthesizes jazz harmony on the guitar in a clear and concise way. How to build and use Quartal Guitar Chords. Where do I start?" These favorite songs are common at jazz jam nights and so it is wise to start your jazz play-ing career by learning the chords (and melody) to some of the most popular tunes. Finally find the closest chord voicings using roots on all three strings. This is a lot easier if you see it in terms of the four chord types given above. If we play it as a 6th string root chord, the voicings will flow together more smoothly: Try starting the chord sequence on different strings and see how closely you can voicelead the chord progression. Take your time and persevere. These chord blocks will show you the right shapes, but Topics include: 1. These chords are : By learning each root position chord in combination with other chords that are commonly played together, you’re not just learning ‘shapes’, you’re learning music. In this lesson, you will learn how to construct quartal chords, how to use them on guitar and you will also play through … By changing strings in this way, we can always create smoother ‘voice leading´ between each of the chords in the chord progression. Voicings C/Cm The 4th voicing of the C chord is much like the third. Now you technically have 48 more chords at your disposal, just from practicing this one scale. On the other hand Jazz Guitar Voicings is crystal clear about a profoundly fundamental idea: arrangers have standard ways of arranging the notes in a chord (i.e. Jazz Guitar Voicings - Vol. What we're going to do is take the voicing that we learned in the previous step, and run it through the C major scale. Jazz Guitar Jazz Guitar … note: I don't actually recommend starting with this voicing - it's just the one that is best for understanding the theory. In this jazz guitar lessons we're going to look at 10 basic jazz chords that are essential learning if you want to start playing jazz rhythm guitar. TWO basic voicing types (drop 2, drop 3) 2. We could also change the Jazz Guitar Chord Voicings we use for the final Dbmaj7 in this sequence. It is also easier to play these chords at speed because the fretting hand is not moving such great distances. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Jazz Guitar Voicings - Vol. Marc-Andre Seguin is the webmaster, mastermind and teacher on JazzGuitarLessons.net, the #1 online resource for learning how to play jazz guitar. Use what sounds good and is practical to you. The first drop 2 shape I recommend learning is this standard Cmaj7 chord: Take note of how the chord tones are arranged: C G B E. And believe it or not, that's all there is to it for this step! Lot’s of Wes Montgomery solos use drop2 voicings and it is also a huge part of bebop piano and bigband arranging. Much to the delight of hand surgeons everywhere, some brilliant soul invented drop voicings. The traditional way is to buy a “Real Book”, which is like a bible of jazz tunes. Rootless voicings are preferred in Jazz piano and guitar playing, especially when playing with a bassist. Repeat this until we've gone through the whole scale: By doing this you've now learned Drop 3 voicings for 4 chord types: Major 7, Minor 7, Dominant 7 and Minor 7b5. Minor 7 Jazz Guitar Voicings. Here they are, written as chord diagrams: These are moveable shapes, with the root indicated by the white dot. Run it through a scale These chords are movable shapes. Learn things in this order: 1. https://www.fundamental-changes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Example-2a-3.mp3, https://www.fundamental-changes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Example-2b-3.mp3, https://www.fundamental-changes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Example-2c-3.mp3, https://www.fundamental-changes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Example-2d-3.mp3, https://www.fundamental-changes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Example-2e-3.mp3, https://www.fundamental-changes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Example-2f-3.mp3, https://www.fundamental-changes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Example-2g-3.mp3, https://www.fundamental-changes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Example-2h-3.mp3. Consequently, the use of major voicings on the first and fourth tones of the scale is just the basic. Drop-2 voicings are everywhere in jazz guitar voice leading. To create effective voicings for various chord qualities, be sure to follow these guidelines: 1. Jazz Guitar Voicings and Inversions. Detailed explanation on QUARTAL HARMONY on GUITAR. Application Of Minor Voicings The basic occurrence of minor chords in the major key are on the following tones of the scale: Now, let's continue this until we go through all the chords in the scale: Ta-da! To explain why drop2 voicings are very handy on guitar try to play the first half of example 1. By playing just these notes, the ears are able to pickup the harmonic context fully. Here's where you can use this to generate quite a few jazz guitar chords. Hi, we use cookies to make this website better. Learn and incorporate essential jazz guitar chord vocabulary into your playing quickly, easily and logically. Drop 2 and 3 voicings are physically much easier to play on guitar. Here are some of the most common voicings. Spend some time especially on step 3 of each section here, and you'll memorize the moveable shapes in no time. Combined with the 48 drop 2 voicings we learned earlier, we now have 96 jazz guitar chords that we can use for comping, chord melody, etc! Quartal voicings have a jazzy sound and work very well in modal music, but can be used on any jazz standard. A jazz guitar voicing is a specific arrangement of the notes of a chord. you've now learned Drop 3 voicings for 4 chord types: Jazz Guitar Albums: 5 Essential Must-Have Recordings You Should Listen To Now, How to Play What You Hear for Jazz Guitarists, All Things Jazz Blues: Everything You Need to Know About a Jazz Blues, The Definitive Jazz Guitar Chord Chart for Beginners, The Beginner's Guide to Jazz Chord Progressions, The Ultimate Guide to Jazz Guitar Chords: Learn Comping, A Gentle Introduction to Guitar Chord Theory, Jazz Blues Songs List: Top 50 Blues Heads. You’ll start to recognise sequences that crop up time and time again ,and find new ways to navigate them on your guitar. This lesson will teach you a straightforward way to learn 96 jazz guitar chords using a small handful of drop 2 and drop 3 voicings. In this case a G7(#9): The Dm7 is a straight Drop2 voicing for an Fmaj7, which in this context is a Dm7(9). He draws from his experience both as a professional jazz guitarist and professional jazz teacher to help thousands of people from all around the world learn the craft of jazz guitar. We will never sell your data to third parties. Now that we understand what drop 2 voicings are and why we would want to use them, let's learn them on the guitar. They have been given in root position, in other words, they are played with the root (tonic) note played as the bass (lowest) note of the chord. Include the basic chord sound. Advanced Bebop Scales “Rules” The Chromatic Scale Parallel Licks for Improv Connecting Extensions II-V Licks The Triadic Chromatic Approach Pillar #2: Connect Chords Logically Using Motivic Development in Improv Warp Time to Run Changes Limitation Practice for Jazz Pillar #3: Articulate Your Lines Guide Tones in Forward Motion, Jazz Guitar Gear Gear Used by Marc How to I Get the “Jazz” Sound Making Guitar Amps Sound Better Best Jazz Guitars for Beginners Quick Guitar Setup Tutorial Recording/Mixing Jazz Guitar Fix Your Guitar Intonation Hollowbody vs Solidbody, The Who’s Who of Jazz GuitarTop-5 Kenny Burrell AlbumsTop-5 Joe Pass AlbumsTop-5 Charlie Christian SolosFive Essential Jazz Guitar AlbumsEd Bickert BioTop-5 Pat Metheny AlbumsTop-5 Jim Hall AlbumsTop-5 Wes Montgomery SolosKenny Burrell BioWes Montgomery BioTop-5 George Benson SolosTop-5 Jazz Guitar DuosPat Metheny BioJohn Scofield BioGeorge Benson BioCharlie Christian BioJoe Pass UntoldBen Monder BioJoe Pass BioGrant Green Bio3 Ways Metheny Uses “The Secret”Ed Bicket InterviewsWayne Krantz BioTal Farlow BioJim Hall BioDjango Reinhardt BioPat Martino BioEddie Lang BioLee Konitz: 10-Step Method, How to Practice Jazz Guitar A Systematic Path: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 How to Learn Bebop Proficiency Levels and Exams 8 Things: Awesome Practice Sessions Learning and Teaching Jazz, Transcriptions: How-To Transcription Archive 5 Tips to Transcribe Solos Jazz Guitar Workouts Meditative Rhythms How to Build SOLID Ears Podcasts Re-Think Jazz Performance Ear Training for Jazz 5 Reasons to Transcribe Finding Your Muse Jazz Guitar Vlog Commit: Your Reason to Believe Don’t Play That Chord!Prevent Back Pain While Playing Guitar, YouTube: @JazzGuitarLessonsNet Facebook: @JazzGuitarLessons.net Twitter: @JGLessonsNet Marc-Andre Seguin: Artist Website. This changes the order of chord tones to: G C E B. You can open it on a random page and simple play through the chords in the song. You might have heard the term Drop2 voicings before, and it is more or less considered basic voicing knowledge for mainstream jazz guitar. Not all chords are created equal, and in this jazz guitar chord chart, we show one way of addressing a chord voicing, which is a great way to start. Freddie Green Style 8. Intervals 3. Leave a reply. Some of the most common chord voicings used 2. Jazz harmony is dynamic because of the prevalence of chromatic harmony and implied modulation. This ex-ample may be a little more difficult as you may not be as familiar with the note names on the 4th string as you are with the 5th and 6th strings. Here is just one possible ‘route’ through the changes starting on the 6th string: Now you are comfortable with the common voicings of these essential Jazz Guitar Chord Voicings, find as many ways as you can through the following chord progressions using the voicings discussed in this lesson: Begin by playing through each progression using chords all with roots on the same string. The Jazz Guitar Chord Voicings in this lesson are designed to ‘get you through the tune’. Moving the notes in this way gives us a drop 2 voicing for a Dm7 chord. These hundreds of tunes contain multiple combinations of chords and sequences. Jazz Guitar Chord Mastery is a guitar chord method that easily develops your harmonic knowledge and fretboard skills, while helping you master and use advanced jazz chords, voicings and inversions. The 1st voicing … Step 2 complete, you're well on your way. Yes! These were used by guitarists like Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, and countless others. As an analogy, shell voicings for jazz guitarists are akin to learning your "C, D, E, G and F open chords" when first starting to play guitar. "That seems complicated! Focus on learning one at a time and do everything you can to memorise it. Here is the first Drop 3 fingering that I recommend learning: So, instead of playing G B D F# in order, we're now playing G F# B D. And... voila! By the end, you'll have  a ton of chords you can use for comping or chord melody, plus a way to practice them! One way of doing this could be: Another way to practice this is to begin on the 5th string voicing of the Gm7b5 chord and repeat the same process. For example, instead of playing EbMaj7 in bar seven of Bella by Barlight, it is common to hear Eb6 (1 3 5 6) or Eb6/9 (1 3 6 9). Learn these jazz guitar chord voicingsand then join them together so you can play example 2a. Next, learn the same common chords voiced with the root on the 5th string: Learn the same chord sequence using just the 5th string voicings: Before moving on to learning these jazz guitar chord voicings types with a 4th string root, combine the 6th and 5th string chords to voice the chords closer together. The most common seventh-chord voicings for guitar are what are called “drop 2” and “drop 3.” These voicings are formed by taking a seventh chord voiced in “stacked thirds,” such as a root-position Cmaj7 (C, E, G, B), and “dropping” the second or third note from the top down an octave. Try beginning on the 6th string for the Gm7b5 chord and then move to the closest voicing of the C7 chord on the 5th string (3rd fret) when you change. Try beginning the chord sequence on a 5th string Gm7b5 and then move to a 4th string C7. Learn the theorybehind the voicing 2. These chord types can be used to get through 80% of all jazz tunes. In the previous Jazz Chord Voicings lesson, we learnt how the most common jazz chords are constructed. These must-know chord voicings are essential for any beginning jazz guitarist and the minimum requirement to learn jazz standards. The following lessons introduce some of the basics of jazz guitar chords. Shell chords only contain 3 notes: The 1, also known as the root. The Harmonic Minor Scale The Melodic Minor Scale, ALL Book Reviews Here Forward Motion Modern Method Advancing Guitarist Barry Galbraith Books Cellular Approach Barry Harris Workshop Connecting Chords w Linear Harmony Harris Harmonic Method Demo Three Note Voicings Chord Dictionary, How to Play Chord Melody Guide 3 Steps to Chord Melody Five Chord Melody Tips for Jazz Guitar … Makes You Question Everything, Basics: 3 Powerful Fundamentals Top-50 Blues Tunes (List) Jazzing Up the Blues Beginner Jazz Blues Soloing Common Jazz Blues Progressions Intro to Bird Blues for Jazz Guitar Jazz Blues SOLOING Lesson Blues COMPING Lesson, Introduction to Rhythm ChangesPentatonics for Jazz Definitive Guide to Scale Positions How to Solo on II-V-I Jazz Guitar Arpeggios Jazz Guitar Licks Ideas Jazz Improv: Ultimate Guide How to Create Melodic Lines 4 Bebop Scale Fingerings 3 Jazz Scales for Beginners Sound Jazzy: Alt Dominants Adding Chromaticism to Your Lines Diagonal Scales for Jazz Phrasing Parallel Licks with Augmented Triads The Three Pillars of Jazz Improv Using Double-Stops Melodically Post-Holdsworth Jazz Vocab Using the Diminished Scale Improv on Typically Jazz Progressions Playing Over Turnarounds Major to Minor Jazz Licks Pillar #1: Define the Sandbox “Make the Changes” While Soloing Backdoor Jazz Guitar Licks How to Play What You Hear? Just like we did in the drop 2 section, what we're doing here is taking the voicing and running it through the major scale. If you memorize every chord shape and practice them well, you will be able to play the chord changes of most jazz standards. The metronome is important as you will learn to stay in time and play at a con-stant rate. If you make a mistake, don’t worry, just stay in time and get the next chord right. The G7 voicing is … If you’ve picked up this book, there’s a good chance you’re interested in lerning some jazz standards (early jazz songs) and it is easy to get a hold of some. (4 chord types x 12 frets = 48). You may find it easier to play the Fm7 chord ‘up an octave’ at the 13th fret, this is also fine. you've now learned drop 2 voicings for the 4 basic chord types: we're going to apply the same techniques to a drop 3 voicing. Over 150 creative exercises with audio. If you find it easier to use different fingers then please feel free to use them. Triads 4. Build basic triads. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Seventh Chords, Drop 2 and Drop 3 5. Step 3 will be much easier this way . Now can begin to learn some useful voicings. Try beginning on the 6th string for the Gm7b5 chord and then move to the closest voicing of the C7 chord on the 5th string (3rd fret) when you change. Learn things in this order: I want to start by quickly talking about what drop 2 voicings are and they work well for jazz guitarists. Tunes like Anthropology and Oleo are grouped as “Rhythm Changes” tunes, beacause they are based on the changes to George Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm. C major is a great key to try this in because there are no accidentals - simply move each note to the next letter in the alphabet. It is important at this point that you know where the notes are on your guitar fretboard as you will learn movable barre chord forms of each chord. (Voice leading is the technique of ar-ranging chords so that each note moves the smallest possible distance during each chord change). It just might be your favourite way. The Real Book is a big book and contains hundreds of tunes you’ll probably never learn fully, but are great to practice with. (4 chord types x 12 frets= 48). The best way to practice Jazz Guitar Chord Voicings is to apply them to real songs, and there are plenty of ways to do this. Here they are as moveable* chord diagrams: *white notes indicate the root of the chord, Because these are all moveable, you've technically learned 48 jazz guitar chords just by practicing this one chord scale! The Berklee Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionaryis a resource for 7th-chord voicings and other frequently encountered jazz chord shapes on the fretboard. For 6th chords, the basic chord sound consists of chord tones 1, 3, and 6. A favorite of jazz guitarists such as Joe Pass, who used these shapes to perfection in his solo guitar performances, drop 3 chords are ideal to use when playing in a solo or duo setting. The 3rd determines whether the chord is of major or minor quality and the 7th (or 6th… If there is a really difficult passage, switch the metronome off and plan your route through the chords. Also note that each 4-set voicing is the same chord, only played in different areas on the guitar. This is the magic of drop 2. Again, this doesn’t mean the notes have to be played in that order. For the best experience, please accept cookies. voicings), low to high. Playing through chord charts with a metronome is one of the best ways to learn to comp jazz chords. 1. "96 chords... really, Marc?" Once you start having a vocabulary of Jazz Chords it becomes clear that there are many different ways to play any jazz chord on the guitar. Before moving on to learning these jazz guitar chord voicings types with a 4th string root, combine the 6th and 5th string chords to voice the chords closer together. Quartal Chords 7. The following diagrams indicate what notes you should use for each chord voicing. Of those few hundred, most jazz players normally like to play only around 20 to 30 of their favourites. For 7th chords, the basic chord sound consists of chord tones 1, 3, and 7. Just try to play that as a moveable shape - can you imagine having to stretch that far every time you needed to play a major 7 chord? I'm glad you asked! The most basic jazz guitar chord voicings are called Drop 2 and Drop 3. Once you get that down, challenge yourself with our drop 2 challenge and this big five warmup! You can move any of these chords to ANY NOTE by moving the “shape” up or down the neck of the guitar. Tag Archives: jazz guitar comping chord voicings Comping A Jazz Standard – This Is How To Get Started. While there are thousands of jazz songs, only around a few hundred are commnly known. As you can see, this chord progression uses each of the chord types once. Chord Chart for BeginnersJazz Chords: Ultimate GuideHow to Play Shell VoicingsComping Lesson of Your DreamsHow to Learn Voicings?Drop 2 Challenge!Chords From Three ScalesIntro to Bossa Nova CompingUncommon Uses of Common…Create Harmonic MovementWalking and Chromatic ChordsVoice Leading TutorialBig Five: Chords Warm UpBarry Galbraith Comping StudiesBarry Harris Harmony Primer, Complete List of Tunes HERE7 Steps to Learning Jazz TunesDummies Guide to Jazz StandardsHow to Learn Jazz StandardsAutumn LeavesAll the Things You AreSummertimeMistyMoon RiverBlue in GreenGiant StepsMy Funny ValentineI Fall in Love Too EasilyTake the “A” TrainBlue MonkBody and SoulThe Shadow of Your SmileStella by StarlightTenor MadnessHow InsensitiveOleoStraight No ChaserJust FriendsWhat Is This Thing Called LoveYesterdaysSolarSilent NightIf I Should Lose YouCommon Tunes for Jam Sessions, ALL Theory Articles Here Chord Substitutions: Survival Guide Chord Progressions for Beginners No Nonsense Jazz Harmony Chords: Theory Basic Jazz Chord Cycles Scales: Theory Dominants: Ultimate Guide Reading Rhythms 101 The Major Scale Reading Exercises How to Analyze Progressions? This is a common voicing on guitar that you can easily sub for a regular minor 7. Having a good understanding of shell chords will make it easier for you to learn more complex chords later on. Shell Chords (aka guide tone chords) are the most basic jazz guitar chords and are essential knowledge for every jazz guitarist. Take a look at this C major 7 chord that you would see in a generic jazz theory textbook: This is called a closed voicing. Sample Comping Rhythms 9. TWELVE frets of the guitar 2 x 4 x 12 =96 chords "That seems complicated! As the name suggests, Drop 3 voicings are created by in a similar way to Drop 2 voicings. Jazz standards are often grouped into tunes that have similar chord changes. Again, this means that every note in the chord is moving up to the next note in the scale: What that gives us is A G C E, which is a drop 3 Am7 chord. Comping Voicings----appropriate jazz voicings used by keyboard & guitar players Comping Style----- appropriate style, does not clutter with other comping players Bass lines---constructed & performed properly, steady tempo, connects with drummer Fills-----stylistically correct, connects with ensemble For example, you might hear Autumn Leaves described as a “ii V I” tune because it contains lots of ii V I chord progressions. The 3-note shells describe the harmony perfectly because they contain the essential notes of the chord: degrees 1, 3 and 7. Join 20,000 guitarists and get the latest jazz guitar tutorials delivered to your inbox. Where do I start?". The simplest example is a C major triad, it contains … In Part One, I pointed out that a ‘7th’ chord contains four notes; the root, third, fifth and 7th of the parent scale. The phrase ‘ Chord Voicings ‘ refers to the way the notes of a chord are arranged, both in musical notation and on our instrument. For more Jazz Guitar Chord Voicing lessons for beginners, check out my book The First 100 Jazz Chords for Guitar. Minor 7 chords are built: R-b3-5-b7. Movable Shapes I have used “C” as the root for all of these chords, but it is important to realize that you can change the root of these chords! Drop voicings are often employed by guitarists, as the perfect fourth intervals between the guitar's strings typically make most close position chords cumbersome and impractical to play, particularly in jazz where complex extensions are commonplace. ✨. Drop 2 chords are the most popular chord voicings in jazz guitar, and serve a wide variety of purposes, including comping, soloing, and chord melody. Let’s begin by learning jazz chord voicings of these chords that have their root on the 6th string. Jazz Tone Step by Step: How do I get "THE" jazz sound ? These quartal chords were made popular by McCoy Tyner (John Coltrane’s piano player) and Bill Evans (for example on Miles Davis’ standard So What from the album Kind of Blue). Once again, you’ll notice that one of the voicings includes the 9 extension. . For example, to play a drop Bb7, use the dominant 7 shape above and make the root a Bb note. FOUR most common chord qualities 3. It is useful to know what “type” of progression each standard is, as they are often used as workhourse tunes when learning to solo and there is a list of the most popular jazz stand-ards and their types of progression in the next lesson. I'm glad you asked! One of them -- Drop 2 -- is the key to playing chord scales and melodies in a way that doesn't induce hand cramps. An example of the use of 4th voicings (and inversions), over a II V I in Dmaj. Here are the 12 Voicings: PDF of 12 Beginning Jazz Guitar Voicings. One important substitution to know is that Maj7 chords are often played as 6 or 6/9 chords on the guitar. Piano players may use different formulas to play 6, and 6/9 chords but these voicings work well on the guitar. They have been used by many of the great jazz guitarists including Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery. This creates a shell where extensions, alterations and other chord tones may be added. This is still a C major 7 chord, as all the chord tones are still present. Pay attention to the ‘X’s that show muted strings that don’t have a fretted note. The first way to use it is as an altered dominant. The numbers written on the notes are suggested fingerings. Pdf available on my website (pay what you want!) Notice that the 1st voicing is the most common voicing you've seen, as well as possibly voicing 2. In addition to removing the 1, the 5th is often omitted, leaving the 3rd and the 7th. For example, we will learn a barre chord ‘7’ shape and if you want to play this chord as a C7 you will need to place it so that the root note is C. If you wish to play it as an F7 you will have to move it so that the root note is F. In order to do this you should at least be familiar with the notes on the bottom three strings: We are going to learn to play the following chord progression using three different jazz chord voicings for each chord.