Jazz Theory – Learn Jazz Standards

Master The Dorian Scale Formula In All 12 Keys

James Melton — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:09:45 +0000

The Dorian scale is one of the most used scales in music. Genres like jazz and rock music utilize the Dorian sound because it has unique characteristics—it is a minor mode and contains a minor third. However, it is brighter than the standard minor scale because it contains a major sixth interval. If you want […]

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Backdoor Progression Masterclass: Master the Backdoor ii-V!

James Melton — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 18:09:07 +0000

If you’ve studied jazz for a while, it won’t be long before you discover the concept of the “backdoor progression.” It is an important chord progression that takes the listener through a “backdoor” to a target chord instead of going through the regular dominant or V chord. In this article, we’ll learn all about this […]

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Learn these 13 Easy Music Intervals For Music Mastery

James Melton — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 16:37:37 +0000

Music intervals are the building blocks of melody, harmony, and musical structure. Everything you’ll learn as a Western-trained musician will be tethered to musical intervals, whether you play jazz, classical, rock, or other popular music. Whether you are learning chords, scales, arpeggios, or chord progressions, you’ll need to understand intervals first! In this article, we’ll […]

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2-5-1 Chord Progression Masterclass: Learn the ii-V-I Progression!

James Melton — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 15:55:49 +0000

The 2-5-1 chord progression is the most common (and maybe most important) harmonic building block used in jazz standards. Knowing what ii-V-I chord progressions are, how to identify them, and how to improvise over them are essential to playing jazz! Luckily, we will do a deep dive into the ii-V-I progression, so you’ll come away […]

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How To Play 7th Chords: 5 Types of 7th Chords on Piano & Guitar

James Melton — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:25:08 +0000

Are you stuck on 7th chords and can't seem to break through? This ultimate guide to 7th chords will help you master jazz harmony.

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Ultimate Guide to Jazz Theory: 4 Steps To Master Jazz Harmony and Jazz Improvisation

Brent Vaartstra — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:29:55 +0000

You don’t need to know much about jazz theory to learn how to play jazz. This is one of the biggest misconceptions jazz-curious musicians have. Many of the deeper jazz theory concepts develop naturally after you’ve been listening to and playing jazz music for a little bit. To get the train rolling with jazz improvisation, […]

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Diminished Scales: Everything You Need to Know

James Melton — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 16:12:38 +0000

Diminished scales are incredibly useful tools for improvisers and are necessary for jazz musicians to understand! The unique nature of the diminished scale makes it a strong choice when trying to hit certain sounds in your improvisation. However, many musicians don’t take full advantage of everything the diminished scale offers! That’s why I will break […]

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The Phrygian Scale! Learn the Phrygian Mode in 12 Keys

James Melton — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 20:38:38 +0000

The Phrygian scale is a unique-sounding minor scale with certain qualities that set it apart from other minor scales. In this article, we will explore and learn the Phrygian mode in all 12 keys! This beautiful scale is known for its use in Flamenco music and is sometimes called the Spanish minor scale. However, this […]

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WHAT IS A CHORD SUBSTITUTION? 5 ESSENTIAL JAZZ CHORD SUBSTITUTIONS YOU NEED TO KNOW

James Melton — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 14:44:19 +0000

Chord substitution is a technique used by improvisers and composers. In this technique, one or more chords in a chord progression are replaced by other, seemingly different chords. This is because some chords share certain qualities with other chords, which make them interchangeable under certain circumstances despite having different root notes and sounding very different. […]

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JAZZ SCALES! 16 JAZZ SCALES YOU NEED TO KNOW

Brent Vaartstra — Wed, 22 May 2024 17:33:57 +0000

If you are starting to study jazz, you might feel overwhelmed by all the different types of scales jazz musicians use when improvising. While it’s true that there are quite a few jazz scales out there, each with its own distinctive sound, there are plenty of similarities and connections between them that make learning and […]

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WHAT ARE MODES IN MUSIC? 7 MUSIC MODES EXPLAINED

James Melton — Tue, 14 May 2024 15:38:21 +0000

How often do you ask, “What are modes in music?” Maybe you are new to musical modes, or perhaps you are familiar with them but want to deepen your understanding of them. If either is true, then you will want to read this post. Any music student will eventually encounter modes. A strong command of […]

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4 BLUES CHORD PROGRESSIONS TO HELP YOU MASTER THE BLUES

James Melton — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:09:31 +0000

Blues is one of jazz’s three key ingredients, and the blues chord progression is one of its most important song forms. So, if you want to understand jazz’s language, you’ll first need to internalize the sounds, rhythms, and colors. And that involves mastering several forms of the blues progression. In this post, we’ll take a […]

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Tritone Substitutions Guide: Master Solos Over Tritone Subs

James Melton — Fri, 03 May 2024 13:25:33 +0000

The tritone substitution is a very important harmonic device in jazz music. This technique adds color and tension to your jazz improvisation and spices up jazz harmony while keeping the function of the chord progression intact. If you listen to jazz, you have definitely heard a tritone substitution in action. However, you may not know what […]

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Use Bebop Scales Like a Pro and Master Chromaticism in Solos

James Melton — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 17:10:11 +0000

Bebop scales are a staple of jazz vocabulary. If you want to master the jazz language and become a better jazz improviser, you’ll need to practice bebop scales! Luckily, we’ve prepared this primer on bebop scales, where they came from, and how to use them to enrich your jazz playing. We’ll cover bebop scale variations […]

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LEARN THE HARMONIC MINOR SCALE ON GUITAR AND PIANO (ALL 12 KEYS)

James Melton — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 20:02:20 +0000

The harmonic minor scale has a distinctive sound, which makes it a powerful musical choice for jazz improvisers. If you learn how to use the harmonic minor scale and its modes, you’ll be better able to articulate many of the awesome altered sounds found throughout jazz music. Even if you don’t play jazz, the harmonic […]

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The Lydian Scale on Guitar and Piano (Unlock Improv Success)

James Melton — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 17:25:33 +0000

The Lydian scale is a beautiful-sounding variation on the major scale with specific improvisation uses. In this article, we’ll explore the Lydian scale and learn why it is unique. We’ll cover— Be sure to listen to the audio examples of the Lydian scales listed below! Also, if you are trying to improve your jazz playing […]

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The Mixolydian Scale On Guitar and Piano (Everything You Need To Know)

James Melton — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 15:30:12 +0000

The Mixolydian scale is not only an important tool in your improvisational toolbox, but it’s also an important demonstration of functional harmony in action. That’s why understanding how and why the Mixolydian mode works the way it does is crucial for mastering improvisation. Luckily, we’ve prepared this detailed overview of the Mixolydian scale to help […]

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The Altered Scale In Jazz: How To Get That Altered Sound In Your Jazz Solos

James Melton — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 16:29:59 +0000

If you want to improve your jazz soloing and incorporate the altered sound into your playing, you’ll need to learn how to use the altered scale! The altered scale works well over certain dominant chords, but it doesn’t work over others. Do you know why? Understanding the music theory behind why the altered scale works […]

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Double Sharp! Double Flat! Where Do They Come From?

James Melton — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 15:38:48 +0000

You may not know what to do the first time you encounter a double sharp or a double flat in the wild! Don’t panic! In this post, we’ll talk about what double sharps and double flats are and where they come from to help make your encounters with them more bearable. At first, they may […]

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Musical Scales: Make Scale Practice More Fun and Engaging In 4 Steps!

James Melton — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 20:32:13 +0000

Practicing scales is vital to developing your musicianship, but running the same scales in the same way day in and day out can get boring fast. Don’t fret—we have a solution! In this article, we’ll discuss several ways to practice musical scales that are more engaging, rewarding, and challenging than you might be used to. […]

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3 Dominant 7th Chord Types All Jazz Musicians Encounter

Josiah Boornazian — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 08:07:26 +0000

Anyone who has played jazz or leafed through a jazz fakebook or “real book” probably has noticed that the dominant 7th chord is one of the most common chords musicians encounter in jazz standards. However, not all dominant seventh chords have the same upper structures or functions. What a jazz musician plays over a dominant […]

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How to Build Chord Extensions and Alterations (And Become a Better Jazz Improviser)

James Melton — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 13:34:28 +0000

Have you ever read a lead sheet or chord chart and encountered some crazy symbol built into the chord progression? If crazy chord symbols are getting in your way and keeping you from learning about jazz harmony, then this post is for you! In this post, we’ll review everything you need to know about chord […]

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2 Jazz Improv Concepts and an Etude Over “Solar”

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 13:57:18 +0000

“Solar” is a jazz standard written by one of the most famous jazz musicians of all time, trumpeter Miles Davis. The best-known Miles recording of “Solar” is probably from his iconic 1957 Prestige album Walkin’. Miles typically receives compositional credit for this song even though there is an ongoing debate over the true authorship of […]

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Double Your Scale Practicing Efficiency with this Bebop-Diminished Pattern

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 12:00:45 +0000

All musicians must practice scales at some point in their musical development. Scales are some of the most fundamental building blocks of Western styles of music, including jazz. As musicians, indeed we’re often told how important it is to practice scales and how useful they are for helping us navigate jazz standards. But too often […]

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Hexatonic/Pentatonic Jazz Improvisation Workout

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 16:12:27 +0000

We’ve talked about pentatonics on LJS in the past both on the blog and on the podcast. In this post, I want to build on the concepts surrounding pentatonic scales and talk about a useful hexatonic, or 6-note, scale. After introducing the hexatonic scale, I’ve included a 1-chorus pentatonic/hexatonic workout over the chord changes to […]

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How to Use Altered Pentatonics

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 14:15:38 +0000

I’ve discussed the major pentatonic scale here on LJS before and some of its uses. In this post I want to briefly review the major pentatonic scale and then talk about what I call altered pentatonic scales. Pentatonic scales are useful because they allow you to focus your melodic improvisation by whittling your note choice […]

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How to Improvise Over “Inner Urge”

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 15:13:04 +0000

Joe Henderson’s “Inner Urge” from his iconic 1965 record also entitled Inner Urge is one of the most frequently called tunes at jam sessions when jazz musicians want to play a fast and challenging song. It’s a good tune to know because it’s one of the testing-ground tunes that more advanced musicians call to challenge […]

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Practicing Using Upper Structures on “Solar”

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 16:05:14 +0000

As jazz musicians, we’re always trying to find ways to hear and come up with different types of melodic lines while improvising. One strategy that can help break up a hyper scale-focused approach to building lines involves thinking about and trying to hear lines built around chord arpeggios. I recently posted about practicing arpeggiating chords […]

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“There is No Greater Love” Workout

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 14:56:19 +0000

I’ve talked about voice leading with guide-tones and using chromatic surrounding/approach tones here on LJS before, and now I want to combine these two concepts and apply them to “There is No Greater Love.” The goal is to use chromatic surrounding tones to approach 3rds and 7ths, which we’ll hit on beats 1 and 3 […]

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Exotic 7th Chord Workout for Advanced Jazz Musicians

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 14:02:41 +0000

7th chords have been covered here before on LJS, so in this post, I want to expand our ideas about 7th chords and offer up a fun way to practice 7th chords in all 12 keys. Most of us are already pretty familiar with the most basic and common types of 7th chords: major, dominant, […]

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Spice Up Your Jazz Solos with Asymmetrical Melodies

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 12:00:53 +0000

Once we’ve mastered some of the basic types of jazz vocabulary, we’re always striving to find new and interesting ways of breaking up and varying our improvised melodies. One of the most effective ways to spice up your melodic improvisation is to incorporate rhythmically asymmetrical melodic ideas. By asymmetrical, I mean melodic fragments that rhythmically […]

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3 Lessons Bill Evans Taught Me On “What is this Thing Called Love”

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 14:06:04 +0000

Bill Evans’s 1959 recording of “What is this Thing Called Love” from Portrait in Jazz was one of the first solos I transcribed as a jazz major in college. I learned improvisational strategies from this transcription that I still use regularly to this day. It would require thousands of words to properly analyze the entire […]

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How to Improvise Over Unrelated Chords

Josiah Boornazian — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 12:00:58 +0000

One of the biggest challenges of improvisation involves coming up with melodies that make sense over chord changes that are highly chromatic. Much of the standard jazz repertoire from the post-bebop era includes songs with chord progressions that leap around between contrasting key centers, such as “Giant Steps,” “Dolphin Dance,” and “Cyclic Episode.” I’ve already […]

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How to Improvise Using “Constant Structures”

Josiah Boornazian — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 13:09:16 +0000

A “constant structure” is a fixed set of relationships between pitches. It is related to the ideas of a “pitch cell” that can be transposed and/or sequenced. Constant structures are great for creating motivic units that add a sense of unity to your solos. I sometimes also refer to constant structures as “melodic shapes” or […]

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How to Practice Triads for Max Results

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 09 May 2018 18:37:31 +0000

Along with basic intervals and seventh chords, triads are the fundamental building blocks of jazz harmony and melody. If you want to maximize your ability to hear, visualize, and play jazz harmony, you have to master your triads. Although jazz harmony is primarily built from seventh chords and extended chords, the foundations of all chords […]

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3 Dominant 7th Chord Types All Jazz Musicians Encounter

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 02 May 2018 14:38:45 +0000

Anyone who has played jazz or leafed through a jazz fakebook or “real book” probably has noticed that dominant seventh chords are some of the most common chords musicians encounter in jazz standards. But not all dominant seventh chords have the same upper structures or function. This is vital to understand because the implications of […]

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Voice it Right: Understanding Jazz Chord Symbols

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 17:45:23 +0000

In my time as a jazz musician, I’ve discovered that there is sometimes confusion regarding how to notate and interpret chord symbols. It’s a significant problem in the jazz world, and one that I want to address here. I hope that sharing my understanding and interpretation of chord symbols with you is useful and can […]

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3 Pivotal Exercises to Improve Technique on Your Instrument

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 14:18:56 +0000

As jazz musicians, we are all on a lifelong journey to constantly improve our technique on our instruments. Anyone who has tried to master a bebop tune or improvise at a fast tempo knows firsthand that jazz music is highly virtuosic and technically demanding. If you’re looking for practice ideas to improve your technique, there […]

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How to Play the Elusive Last 4 Bars of “Dolphin Dance”

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:54:02 +0000

Legendary jazz pianist Herbie Hancock’s iconic jazz composition “Dolphin Dance” is one of the most harmonically complex and compelling tunes in the jazz repertory. It is a favored jazz standard for many jazz musicians, and it is popular song among many jazz fans. “Dolphin Dance” is from Hancock’s classic and seminal 1965 record Maiden Voyage. […]

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3 Techniques to Improve Your Bebop Playing

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 14:05:45 +0000

So much of jazz’s musical vocabulary today comes directly or indirectly from bebop. Even though it’s over half a century old, bebop continues to capture music lovers’ ears and imaginations as a unique sub-style of highly sophisticated jazz. Bebop emerged circa the 1940s and is associated with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charlie Christian, […]

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How to Add Chromaticism Into Your Jazz Lines

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 16:39:32 +0000

One question I get asked about from time to time from beginner jazz students is “how do I get my solos to have that jazz sound?” What they really want to know is how jazz language works and how to get those sounds into their lines. Of course, to learn the jazz language, you have to […]

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How to Play the Modes of the Melodic Minor Scale

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 15:42:57 +0000

In addition to learning the major scale in all 12 keys and the 7 diatonic or “church” modes derived from the major scale, the melodic minor scale is one of the most important and useful scales for jazz improvisers to master. In this post, I’m going to make sure we have a firm grasp of […]

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How to Play 7th Chords Like a Pro

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 12:19:54 +0000

One of the characteristics of jazz standards are the lush, colorful chords that populate their harmonies. Jazz musicians often use chords that offer more harmonic information than simple triads. These basic types of chords are called 7th chords. What’s a 7th chord? A 7th chord is a triad with the 7th tone of its corresponding […]

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How to Improvise Over “Stella By Starlight”

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 14:53:41 +0000

Stella By Starlight is arguably one of the most popular jazz standards of all time. As one of the most commonly called “workhorse” songs on gigs and jam sessions, this is a must-know tune for jazz musicians. “Stella,” written by Victor Young, was featured in the 1944 film The Uninvited. Ned Washington later set lyrics […]

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5 Sonny Rollins Licks Over “Tenor Madness”

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 06:00:24 +0000

One of my favorite jazz albums is Sonny Rollins’ “Tenor Madness.” It was recorded in 1956 and is especially notable because it’s the only known recording that features both Sonny and John Coltrane. I used to listen to just the title track “Tenor Madness” over and over again wherever I went. It got to the […]

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Odd Times: Strategies to Improve Your 7/4 Playing

Josiah Boornazian — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 12:00:38 +0000

In my first odd meter post, I talked about some of the ways you can approach learning how to play better in 5/4 time. In this follow-up, I want to take some of those ideas and apply them to the challenge of improvising in 7/4 time. Here’s a review of my perspective on odd-meter playing: […]

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How to Improvise Over “All of Me”

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 12:00:02 +0000

All of Me was written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simon in 1931 and has subsequently become one of the most recorded songs from that era. Popular versions of All of Me were immortalized by Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald just to name a few. A very common standard that all […]

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How to Simplify Your Lines With Major Pentatonic Scales

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 14:26:48 +0000

Though pentatonic scales have been mentioned on the LJS site before, I want to look specifically at major pentatonic scales more in depth in this post. I’ll briefly introduce the way I think about them and talk about a few of the ways the major pentatonic scale can be used by jazz improvisers. Here’s how […]

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How to Improvise Over Rhythm Changes Like a Pro

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 13:50:03 +0000

Like the Blues, “rhythm changes” is one of the most common song forms in jazz music. This 32-bar AABA form and its accompanying chord progression is derived from George Gershwin’s iconic composition “I Got Rhythm,” hence the name “rhythm changes.” Jazz history is rich with examples of contrafacts (which are original songs created by composing […]

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2 Rhythmic Exercises Every Jazz Musician Should Practice

Diego Maldonado — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 14:38:51 +0000

Every time I listen to an aspiring jazz musician, I find that for many of them their rhythmic game is not at the same level as the harmonic one. This is because most of the formal jazz education system stresses the harmonic part of improvisation and neglects the rhythmic one. Jazz education tells you to […]

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Take 5: Strategies to Improve Your 5/4 Playing

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 16:56:50 +0000

In this post, I want to begin to tackle the challenge of playing in odd meters. I’ll start by zeroing in on 5/4 time here. We spend so much time playing jazz standards in 3/4 and 4/4, so why bother with odd meters? Well, as many of you have probably noticed, odd meters are becoming […]

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The “Secret” Scale to Unlock 2-5-1 Chord Progressions

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 31 May 2017 14:26:05 +0000

Most of the time, II-V-I’s are taught as a set of discrete modes or as a collection of related modes derived from a single parent scale. We’re told the II-7 chord corresponds to a Dorian minor scale, the V7 a Mixolydian dominant scale, and the I(maj7) either a Lydian or Ionian scale. Or, on the […]

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“Minor” Issues: 4 Strategies for Tackling Minor ii-V-i’s

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 10 May 2017 14:23:49 +0000

As jazz educators and learners, we focus a lot on major II-V-I’s, but we don’t often address the challenges of tackling those ubiquitous and sometimes tricky minor II-V-I’s. First, let’s quickly review what a minor II-V-I looks like so we’re all on the same page. Minor II-V-I’s are thought of a few different ways. Feel […]

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Stuck On One Chord: Strategies to Improve Your Modal Jazz Solos

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 03 May 2017 15:37:56 +0000

Very often iconic modal jazz tunes, such as Miles Davis’s “So What,” are among the first songs young, inexperienced, and newly aspiring musicians learn how to improvise on. Although modal tunes (which are songs that have relatively static harmonic progressions with only a few chords that alternate slowly/infrequently) are frequently used as jazz teaching and […]

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How to Improvise Over All The Things You Are

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 16:31:33 +0000

All The Things You Are is a popular jazz standard by Jerome Kern, and is one of those songs that every jazz musician needs to know. It’s often called at jam sessions and gigs and has a lot to teach us about music and jazz harmony. Because of its popularity, All The Things You Are is often […]

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3 Game-Changing Rhythmic Secrets to Make Your Solos Swing Harder

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 14:37:50 +0000

Making improvised lines truly swing is one of the biggest challenges jazz musicians face at all levels of their musical development. It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned pro, a young player just starting out, or a hobbyist – we all want our music to be rhythmically compelling. We want to be able to swing […]

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Spice up your improv with 3 types of Tritone Substitutions [Lick Examples]

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:06:44 +0000

An important technique that jazz musicians use to create harmonic movement is tritone substitution. This technique can add some great color to your jazz solos. In this lesson, I’m going to talk about tritone substitution, what it is, and 3 different types you should be aware of. For each type I’ll also provide a lick (short […]

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The Right Way to Use the Diminished Scale

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 14:58:17 +0000

The diminished scale is one of jazz improvisers’ most useful and versatile tools. However, many musicians resist learning how this eight note scale works (and how you can use it to bring color and tension to your jazz solos). It has been covered on LJS before, but we will try to offer additional perspectives on […]

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24 Places to Use the Diminished Scale

Camden Hughes — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 15:09:22 +0000

The Diminished Scale is often misunderstood. It is symmetrical, unlike the major scale, and this alone gives it a certain mystery. When you consider its exotic sound, the mystery grows. Many people first learn to improvise using major and blues scales, and so we are used to learning scales that have a different scale for […]

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How to Use Guide-Tones to Navigate Chord Changes

Josiah Boornazian — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:10:07 +0000

One of the most useful concepts which has emerged in jazz theory is the notion of guide-tones. Guide-tones are melodic lines constructed from one or two pitches strategically extracted from each chord of a tune’s changes. The idea is that if you distil a chord down to its essence, or its “shell,” you can begin […]

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A Guide for Which Scales to Use Over 7th Chords

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 18:42:53 +0000

When it comes to jazz improvisation, it’s all about learning the jazz language. We do that by learning jazz solos, licks, and just listening to jazz. These are of the utmost importance and should be a regular part of every jazz musicians practice. However, it’s also important to be aware of how jazz language works. Furthermore, […]

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A Beginner’s Guide To Implied Metric Modulations

Diego Maldonado — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 13:00:00 +0000

Implied metric modulation is a device used to create rhythmic tension, by giving the impression of shifting to a new tempo or playing what seems to be an unrelated tempo on top of the original one. In the late 60’s, great post-bop era bands like the John Coltrane Quartet and the second Miles Davis Quintet […]

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2 Exercises for Practicing the Major Modes

Brent Vaartstra — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 17:10:16 +0000

As jazz improvisers, we want to know how to navigate our instruments competently. The ultimate goal is to have the freedom to play whatever we want, and not be tied down by our technical limitations. An important part of learning our instruments is practicing scales and arpeggios. As I always do when talking about scales, […]

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How to Substitute a Dominant 7 for a Diminished 7

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 15:39:28 +0000

As a jazz musician, I love learning new jazz theory tricks to apply to my playing. While learning jazz language by ear should be the primary way we learn to play, conceptualizing different ideas through music theory can be a really helpful tool. So here’s a simple but quite useful theory tip for you to use today: […]

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How to Harmonize Minor Scales With 7th Chords

Brent Vaartstra — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:12:25 +0000

This lesson is continuing off of the How to Harmonize a Major Scale with 7th Chords post. If you don’t know how to harmonize a major scale or haven’t checked out that lesson yet, I would encourage you to do so. I go into much more detail on how I come up with the results, […]

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How to Harmonize a Major Scale with 7th Chords

Brent Vaartstra — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 15:16:16 +0000

Something important for all musicians (especially in jazz) to understand is that you can take any scale and harmonize it with chords. This is done by identifying the notes of a scale and then building chords off of them that contain only notes from that scale. You can do this using triads and you can do this using […]

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How to Use Enclosure In Your Jazz Solos

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 17:13:01 +0000

To learn jazz language, you must be listening to the music and learning solos and lines from your favorite jazz musicians. Jazz is first and foremost an aurally learned music and it must be treated as such. But it is also important to analyze jazz language and observe how jazz greats constructed their phrases. We […]

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9 Ways To Use The Minor Pentatonic Scale

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 17:54:01 +0000

The video above is based on the lesson below. The minor pentatonic scale is a fairly well-known scale, and I imagine many of you have used it before. However, I find that many musicians think about using this scale with a limited perspective. Often times it’s thought of in a blues context, which of course the […]

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17 Important Jazz Scales in Tetrachords

Camden Hughes — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 04:32:51 +0000

It’s important for jazz musicians to learn their scales. While the major scales are important, they are only the beginning. Tetrachords are a wonderful way to learn your scales. Once you understand the basic tetrachords, you can combine these tetrachords into scales. A Tetrachord is a four-note scale. Instead of having to remember 8 separate notes, […]

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What is a Tetrachord and Why Does It Matter?

Camden Hughes — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 01:11:48 +0000

A tetrachord is a four note scale. Music theory doesn’t have to be scary. A tetrachord is just four notes. The majority of Western scales have 8 notes, so a tetrachord can be thought of as half of a scale. Just as an interval is a basic building block in music, a tetrachord is a (larger) […]

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Help! How Do I Improvise Over a Half-Diminished Chord?

Camden Hughes — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 12:57:22 +0000

I was recently asked if I could I do a post on the mysterious Half-Diminished chord (check out our Half-Diminished chord workouts) so here is a basic guide to improvising over this widely misunderstood chord symbol, including some scale choices and example licks. The half-diminished, or minor 7(b5) chord, is a pretty common chord, but it’s not as […]

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How to Find the Key to a Tune

Camden Hughes — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 22:40:18 +0000

Sometimes it’s very obvious what key a song is in because the first chord shows you the name of the key. “Oleo” (Bb Rhythm Changes) is a great example of a tune where the first chord corresponds to the key of the song, but there are countless examples of other songs where the first chord […]

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4 Important Applications of the Melodic Minor Scale

Camden Hughes — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 06:28:08 +0000

The melodic minor scale seems to be a big mystery to many jazz musicians. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on this mysterious scale without going into too much technical detail. Further study on your own can reap tremendous rewards in your improvising by playing around with some of the ideas […]

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Mastering Scales with Tetrachords, Part 2

Camden Hughes — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 03:15:40 +0000

Tetrachords are groups of four notes that make up half of a scale. You can combine two tetrachords to form any of the common jazz scales (through you may need to add a doubled root for a 9-note scale like a diminished or bebop scale). In Part 1, we learned about the different types of […]

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Mastering Scales with Tetrachords, Part 1

Camden Hughes — Wed, 20 May 2015 05:24:19 +0000

Jazz musicians use many different types of scales when improvising. It can be overwhelming at first to try to assimilate so many scales into your playing/improvising. Many musicians don’t really have a system for learning all of these important scales. However, there is an easier way than just trying to memorize a whole bunch of […]

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Understanding Coltrane Changes Part 3

Brent Vaartstra — Thu, 14 May 2015 16:16:52 +0000

In Understanding Coltrane Changes Part 1 I talked about the Three Tonic System and Four Tonic System and how Coltrane used these to create different formulaic cycles. We took a look at two of his iconic original compositions: Giant Steps and Central Park West and examined them a little bit further. Moving forward from there, in Understanding Coltrane […]

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Understanding Coltrane Changes Part 2

Brent Vaartstra — Thu, 07 May 2015 21:07:55 +0000

In the last lesson we took an in-depth look at Coltrane Changes and how they work. We talked about two types of systems that Coltrane used: the Three Tonic System and the Four Tonic System. If you haven’t checked out Understanding Coltrane Changes Part 1, don’t go any further until you have! Understanding that information […]

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Understanding Coltrane Changes Part 1

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 01 May 2015 21:53:40 +0000

Coltrane Changes. If you’ve been playing jazz for a while and have really gotten deep into it, you’ve probably had to confront them. At some point you’ve attempted to play Giant Steps at a jam session or even by yourself at home and had to learn the hard lesson: it’s not easy! Sure playing tunes like […]

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6 Alternatives to the V7 chord

Camden Hughes — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 05:36:32 +0000

Learning about the V7 chord and how it functions within a major or minor key is very important, but sometimes we want a different sound from the traditional V7. The V7 resolves quite well to a major I or a minor i chord. We know this, and you can’t escape it! Example 1 has an […]

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Secrets of the Diminished Scale

Camden Hughes — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 05:50:20 +0000

There are 12 major scales. It would seem to follow there are 12 of any other type of scale, one for each chromatic note. However, this is not the case. Because of their symmetry, there are only 3 diminished scales and only 2 whole tone scales! Of course, there is only one chromatic scale. In […]

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Using Scales to Approach Tritone Substitution

Camden Hughes — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 06:17:20 +0000

Yesterday I gave some detailed examples of common places you can use a tritone substitution, including some tunes that use tritone substitution in different ways. Today we are going to discuss some scales that you can use to approach various tritone substitutions when you improvise. Keep in mind that no scale is a cure-all for your […]

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Understanding Tritone Substitution

Camden Hughes — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 23:56:44 +0000

For some reason the term “Tritone Substitution” makes some musicians freeze up with terror. While tritone substitution sounds like a tricky concept at first, it’s actually not that complicated. Let’s start with a basic understanding of tritone substitutions, and then we’ll get more specific and dig deeper throughout this article. For more on how to […]

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ii-V-I (With Tritone Sub) Chord Progression Workout

Brent Vaartstra — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 17:40:45 +0000

This is our ii-V-I (With Tritone Sub) Chord Progression Workout in our our series of Chord Progression Workouts. The difference between this progression and a regular ii-V-I, is that the V7 chord is being substituted with another dominant 7 chord a tritone interval away. You can also think of a tritone as being 6 half-steps away […]

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“Mixo-Dorian Blues” Scale for Bass Clef Instruments

Camden Hughes — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 11:00:08 +0000

Recently, I published an article about the “Mixo-Dorian Blues” Scale, which combines the Mixolydian and Dorian Modes with the Blues Scale to make one scale. This scale is better than the blue scale for blues soloing because it adds more note choices that a good improviser uses when improvising! The Mixo-Dorian Blues Scale: 1 2 […]

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36 Important Scales You Must Know

Camden Hughes — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 09:00:47 +0000

Recently I did a post about the 3 Most Important Jazz Scales for Beginning Improvisers. To summarize, the most important scales to learn first are the Major, Dorian, and Mixolydian scales because they help you navigate major 7th, minor 7th, and dominant (b7) chords, respectively. Here is a PDF of the 36 Important Scales (Major, Dorian, and […]

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The “Mixo-Dorian Blues Scale” for Blues Soloing

Camden Hughes — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:00:25 +0000

Many band directors arm their beginning jazz students with the Blues scale and unleash them on the unsuspecting jazz world. Sometimes the students haven’t even heard of Miles Davis, but they can blow that blues scale! While you have to start somewhere, I’ve heard enough misuse of the blues scale that I’ve come up with a […]

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First Jazz Lesson (“72+72”)

Camden Hughes — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:00:53 +0000

If you are a basketball player, you need to practice your fundamentals. Basketball players practice free throws and dribbling drills to improve instead of just playing basketball games. The same thing goes for musicians. Some musicians just practice major scales, and that’s the extent of their practicing the fundamentals. Others practice some minor scales in addition to […]

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Cool and Unusual Applications of the Minor Pentatonic Scale

Camden Hughes — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:01:57 +0000

This is one my favorite jazz education videos on youtube… the perspective of is that of a brilliant guitarist, but any instrumentalist could use these concepts. I’ve included a summary below of his main point for reference (or if you aren’t a guitar player and have trouble following what Vic is doing). Summary for all […]

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Melodic Minor Soloing Over Minor ii-V-i

Camden Hughes — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:02:38 +0000

Soloing over a minor iim7b5-V7-i progression is often played with either melodic minor harmony or harmonic minor harmony. Some musicians prefer the melodic minor sound, while others prefer using the harmonic minor sound. I will demonstrate both sounds over this next two-post series. Jazz melodic minor soloing is a very hip sound. Over a minor […]

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Use of Melodic Minor scale in Stella by Starlight

Camden Hughes — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:28:58 +0000

When you play over a minor ii-V chord progression, such as the first two chords of Stella by Starlight (which you expect to resolve to the minor i, D-, but it goes to a ii-V in Bb instead) one fun sound to play around with is the melodic minor scale. Over the ii-7b5, use a […]

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