Chords for 5 Easy Jazz Piano Chords That Sound Great
Tempo:
130.95 bpm
Chords used:
C
E
Eb
D
Bb
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
I'm Peter Martin and today I'm going to give you five easy jazz piano chords that sound great.
Now the good news is you don't have to learn a bunch of jazz theory.
In fact,
don't learn a bunch of jazz theory first.
We're going to jump right in and play some stuff that
sounds great because if you learn too much jazz theory you're going to end up playing
chords that sound like this or even worse this.
The old double root root position.
We're going
to stay away from [C] that.
Instead we're going to use something called root shell pretty.
Now these are
chords that actual jazz musicians use, professional jazz musicians, and they just sound good.
So skip
the corny sounding root position chords.
Let's jump right into root shell pretty.
These are all
built up the same way from the bottom up.
We have three notes in the left hand and two in the right
hand.
Let's jump in.
So we'll start from the bottom up C major 7th with the root on the bottom that's
C and then we're going to have the shell which is the third and the [E] seventh E and B.
So the [C] third
starting on C 1 2 3 that's [E] the major third and then 4 5 6 [B] 7 that's the B the [C] major 7th.
So that's root and shell.
That's everything we need to do with our left hand.
Now we're going
to add the pretty notes in the right hand and we're going to go with a D [Em] and a G.
Now the D is
the ninth or the second.
You can think about it either [G] way.
We call it the ninth because we're
going to count all the way down from [C] the root 1 [D] 2 3 4 5 [E] 6 7 [C] 8 which is the octave and then the
ninth [Em] and then the fifth is the G [D] 1 2 3 4 [C] 5.
[Em] So that sounds pretty good.
Let's compare it to some
root [C] position.
Let's move on to our next chord.
The great thing about these root shell pretty
is that they build up the same way for a number of different types of chords.
We're going to go
through five today but there's many more that they work on.
Of course you can go and should go
through different keys as well.
So we're going to do a minor 7 chord next.
So the root stays the
same still in the key of C and this is a C minor 7 chord and then we go to the minor [Cm] third and the
minor or dominant [Bb] 7th.
Same thing.
So we count up [D] the same way 1 2 [Eb] 3 but we're going up a minor scale
now [A] 4 5 6 7 [Eb] root 3 7 root shell [C] root [Eb] shell.
Okay now for the pretty chords we're going to change
it up a little bit.
We're going to use the [Gm] ninth again and remember we're counting up 1 2 [G] 3 4 5 6
7 8 [D] 9 or second [Eb] and then we're going to go to the [C] 11th.
That's a cool sound right [Bb] and why is this
the 11th?
You could also call it the fourth but we're going to count up from the root [D] 1 2 3 4 [E] 5 6
[C] 7 8 [Eb] 9 10 [Fm] 11 or you can count up from this C [C] 1 2 3 4.
Same thing.
That's a nice sound.
Let's do a C minor 7 in root position.
No pretty notes.
[Cm]
[C] Let's move on to our third easy jazz piano
chord that sounds great.
This is a dominant 7 so this is C7.
A great chord very useful.
Starts the same way root on the bottom shell is the third the major third and the dominant 7.
So
it's a kind of a hybrid between the first [Bb] two that we've seen.
Same thing we're counting up 1 2 3
major third 4 [Am] 5 6 [Gm] dominant or minor [C] 7.
Gives it that great dominant 7 kind of bluesy sound right.
Now for our pretty notes we're going to go back to use the same two that we use on our major 7
because they work nicely.
[G] The ninth and the fifth.
[E] Great sound right.
[Abm]
Nice little voicing.
[D] Again that's the ninth 1 2 3 [G] 4 5 6 7 8 [D] 9 and the fifth 1 2 3 4 5 [C] root shell pretty notes.
Let's compare this to a root position dominant 7 chord.
Now let's move on to chord number four.
This one's great because it's still a dominant chord but we're going to hit our first alteration.
Start to get some new sounds especially for our pretty notes.
So this is C7 sharp 11.
Our root
stays the same of course still on C.
Our shell stays the same as chord number three our dominant
seventh because we got the [E] third seventh [C] root shell.
Now ready for our pretty notes we're going
to go with the ninth the [Gm] D our old friend and [Bb] this time we're going to go with the sharp 11.
That's an F sharp.
Nice little sound there right and this is sharp 11 because we're [C] counting up
from the root [D] 1 2 3 [Fm] 4 [Gb] and then we're making it sharp.
So it's a C [C] sharp [Bb]
C7 sharp 11.
Now [Cm] for our
final jazz piano chord that sounds great C7 sharp 9.
This is another dominant seventh chord with a
nice alteration.
Really gives it a nice bluesy sound a little bit harsh but dominant so useful
sounds great.
Let's build it up root [C]
shell [E] third and seven with the dominant seventh and the major
third and then we're going to go sharp nine [Eb] which is in a D sharp or an E flat.
Now why is that [C] sharp
nine?
Let's count up from the [E] root 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [C] 8 [D] 9 and then we're making it [Eb] sharp.
[C] So root and shell sharp nine and then we're going to put a fifth on top because it sounds good.
[B] [Bm]
Sharp nine.
Okay [C] so that's your five basic jazz chords that you can play and learn today and start
sounding good.
I encourage you to try these.
There's a number of other ones a number of different
ways to build it.
Main thing is that you get the concept root shell pretty notes.
Okay because that
could be root shell for a C7 and then it might [Gb] be two notes [Eb] in the right hand.
That's a 13 and a
sharp 11.
[C] It could be the ninth and the 13.
[Am] It would be the 13th and third [Gm] the fifth and the and the um
a lot [C] of different choices.
These I just gave you five to get started with.
Now let's talk about how
we're going to practice these.
You're going to want to eventually learn them in all keys.
A couple
different ways that you can do that.
If we go back to voicing number one C major 7 [Em] root shell
pretty tones.
You can just move up chromatically.
Take your time [Fm] move everything up half step.
[Gbm]
[Gm] [Abm] [Em]
[Bbm] [Bm] [Eb]
This is a piano so the [Bm] shapes are a little bit [Gb] different.
The intervals are always the same when
we go [Em] to different keys [Abm] but the shapes are a little different.
It's not like a guitar where
you can just shift your hand and keep your position the same.
[Em]
[C] Okay so you can practice all
these in that [Eb] same way minor 7.
[E] [Gb] [G]
[Ab] You can also go through the circle of fifths or the circle of
fourths just sort of for [Em] variety.
C major 7, [C]
[F] F major 7, [Bb]
B flat [F] major 7.
We're just moving up in fourths.
[Bb]
That kind of a thing.
[D] One more way that you can practice this give you a little bit of
interesting thing getting you ready for jazz piano chord progressions.
And that is to take number four and number five of our five chords.
This is number [E] four
C7 sharp [C] 11 root shell [Bb]
pretty tones 9th sharp 11 and combine that with number five [Cm] which is sharp 9.
Okay so this is chord number four [E] C7 sharp 11.
[Eb] That's number five C7 sharp 9.
[Eb] All I'm [D] doing
is going up a half step in the right hand.
[Gb] [F]
[Ebm] [B] [Gb] [D] You can kind of see where this is going.
It can be some
beginning of some little bit of melodies a little bit of voice leading.
[E] Sharp [Eb] chord number four
chord number five.
Now we're going up a half step so we're going to D flat 7 [G] sharp 11 [E]
to D flat 7
sharp 9.
[Ab] D7 going up half a step again D7 sharp 11 [F] [D] D7 sharp 9.
[E]
[F] [Eb]
[Bb] [C] You'll see all this written out
in the worksheet that you can download here and hope you enjoy it.
Remember stay away from root
position voicings.
I mean you want to understand them but you don't want to play this because [F]
[Bb] [Eb] if
you start playing that you're going to [C] improvise like this.
[F]
[Bb] We don't [E] want to do that.
We want to be
[C] [Gm]
[Cm] [G] [F]
[B] [C]
[D] [Ebm] [Abm] [E]
[Gbm] [Eb] [Gm]
all right.
[C] Happy practicing.
[Cm]
Now the good news is you don't have to learn a bunch of jazz theory.
In fact,
don't learn a bunch of jazz theory first.
We're going to jump right in and play some stuff that
sounds great because if you learn too much jazz theory you're going to end up playing
chords that sound like this or even worse this.
The old double root root position.
We're going
to stay away from [C] that.
Instead we're going to use something called root shell pretty.
Now these are
chords that actual jazz musicians use, professional jazz musicians, and they just sound good.
So skip
the corny sounding root position chords.
Let's jump right into root shell pretty.
These are all
built up the same way from the bottom up.
We have three notes in the left hand and two in the right
hand.
Let's jump in.
So we'll start from the bottom up C major 7th with the root on the bottom that's
C and then we're going to have the shell which is the third and the [E] seventh E and B.
So the [C] third
starting on C 1 2 3 that's [E] the major third and then 4 5 6 [B] 7 that's the B the [C] major 7th.
So that's root and shell.
That's everything we need to do with our left hand.
Now we're going
to add the pretty notes in the right hand and we're going to go with a D [Em] and a G.
Now the D is
the ninth or the second.
You can think about it either [G] way.
We call it the ninth because we're
going to count all the way down from [C] the root 1 [D] 2 3 4 5 [E] 6 7 [C] 8 which is the octave and then the
ninth [Em] and then the fifth is the G [D] 1 2 3 4 [C] 5.
[Em] So that sounds pretty good.
Let's compare it to some
root [C] position.
Let's move on to our next chord.
The great thing about these root shell pretty
is that they build up the same way for a number of different types of chords.
We're going to go
through five today but there's many more that they work on.
Of course you can go and should go
through different keys as well.
So we're going to do a minor 7 chord next.
So the root stays the
same still in the key of C and this is a C minor 7 chord and then we go to the minor [Cm] third and the
minor or dominant [Bb] 7th.
Same thing.
So we count up [D] the same way 1 2 [Eb] 3 but we're going up a minor scale
now [A] 4 5 6 7 [Eb] root 3 7 root shell [C] root [Eb] shell.
Okay now for the pretty chords we're going to change
it up a little bit.
We're going to use the [Gm] ninth again and remember we're counting up 1 2 [G] 3 4 5 6
7 8 [D] 9 or second [Eb] and then we're going to go to the [C] 11th.
That's a cool sound right [Bb] and why is this
the 11th?
You could also call it the fourth but we're going to count up from the root [D] 1 2 3 4 [E] 5 6
[C] 7 8 [Eb] 9 10 [Fm] 11 or you can count up from this C [C] 1 2 3 4.
Same thing.
That's a nice sound.
Let's do a C minor 7 in root position.
No pretty notes.
[Cm]
[C] Let's move on to our third easy jazz piano
chord that sounds great.
This is a dominant 7 so this is C7.
A great chord very useful.
Starts the same way root on the bottom shell is the third the major third and the dominant 7.
So
it's a kind of a hybrid between the first [Bb] two that we've seen.
Same thing we're counting up 1 2 3
major third 4 [Am] 5 6 [Gm] dominant or minor [C] 7.
Gives it that great dominant 7 kind of bluesy sound right.
Now for our pretty notes we're going to go back to use the same two that we use on our major 7
because they work nicely.
[G] The ninth and the fifth.
[E] Great sound right.
[Abm]
Nice little voicing.
[D] Again that's the ninth 1 2 3 [G] 4 5 6 7 8 [D] 9 and the fifth 1 2 3 4 5 [C] root shell pretty notes.
Let's compare this to a root position dominant 7 chord.
Now let's move on to chord number four.
This one's great because it's still a dominant chord but we're going to hit our first alteration.
Start to get some new sounds especially for our pretty notes.
So this is C7 sharp 11.
Our root
stays the same of course still on C.
Our shell stays the same as chord number three our dominant
seventh because we got the [E] third seventh [C] root shell.
Now ready for our pretty notes we're going
to go with the ninth the [Gm] D our old friend and [Bb] this time we're going to go with the sharp 11.
That's an F sharp.
Nice little sound there right and this is sharp 11 because we're [C] counting up
from the root [D] 1 2 3 [Fm] 4 [Gb] and then we're making it sharp.
So it's a C [C] sharp [Bb]
C7 sharp 11.
Now [Cm] for our
final jazz piano chord that sounds great C7 sharp 9.
This is another dominant seventh chord with a
nice alteration.
Really gives it a nice bluesy sound a little bit harsh but dominant so useful
sounds great.
Let's build it up root [C]
shell [E] third and seven with the dominant seventh and the major
third and then we're going to go sharp nine [Eb] which is in a D sharp or an E flat.
Now why is that [C] sharp
nine?
Let's count up from the [E] root 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [C] 8 [D] 9 and then we're making it [Eb] sharp.
[C] So root and shell sharp nine and then we're going to put a fifth on top because it sounds good.
[B] [Bm]
Sharp nine.
Okay [C] so that's your five basic jazz chords that you can play and learn today and start
sounding good.
I encourage you to try these.
There's a number of other ones a number of different
ways to build it.
Main thing is that you get the concept root shell pretty notes.
Okay because that
could be root shell for a C7 and then it might [Gb] be two notes [Eb] in the right hand.
That's a 13 and a
sharp 11.
[C] It could be the ninth and the 13.
[Am] It would be the 13th and third [Gm] the fifth and the and the um
a lot [C] of different choices.
These I just gave you five to get started with.
Now let's talk about how
we're going to practice these.
You're going to want to eventually learn them in all keys.
A couple
different ways that you can do that.
If we go back to voicing number one C major 7 [Em] root shell
pretty tones.
You can just move up chromatically.
Take your time [Fm] move everything up half step.
[Gbm]
[Gm] [Abm] [Em]
[Bbm] [Bm] [Eb]
This is a piano so the [Bm] shapes are a little bit [Gb] different.
The intervals are always the same when
we go [Em] to different keys [Abm] but the shapes are a little different.
It's not like a guitar where
you can just shift your hand and keep your position the same.
[Em]
[C] Okay so you can practice all
these in that [Eb] same way minor 7.
[E] [Gb] [G]
[Ab] You can also go through the circle of fifths or the circle of
fourths just sort of for [Em] variety.
C major 7, [C]
[F] F major 7, [Bb]
B flat [F] major 7.
We're just moving up in fourths.
[Bb]
That kind of a thing.
[D] One more way that you can practice this give you a little bit of
interesting thing getting you ready for jazz piano chord progressions.
And that is to take number four and number five of our five chords.
This is number [E] four
C7 sharp [C] 11 root shell [Bb]
pretty tones 9th sharp 11 and combine that with number five [Cm] which is sharp 9.
Okay so this is chord number four [E] C7 sharp 11.
[Eb] That's number five C7 sharp 9.
[Eb] All I'm [D] doing
is going up a half step in the right hand.
[Gb] [F]
[Ebm] [B] [Gb] [D] You can kind of see where this is going.
It can be some
beginning of some little bit of melodies a little bit of voice leading.
[E] Sharp [Eb] chord number four
chord number five.
Now we're going up a half step so we're going to D flat 7 [G] sharp 11 [E]
to D flat 7
sharp 9.
[Ab] D7 going up half a step again D7 sharp 11 [F] [D] D7 sharp 9.
[E]
[F] [Eb]
[Bb] [C] You'll see all this written out
in the worksheet that you can download here and hope you enjoy it.
Remember stay away from root
position voicings.
I mean you want to understand them but you don't want to play this because [F]
[Bb] [Eb] if
you start playing that you're going to [C] improvise like this.
[F]
[Bb] We don't [E] want to do that.
We want to be
[C] [Gm]
[Cm] [G] [F]
[B] [C]
[D] [Ebm] [Abm] [E]
[Gbm] [Eb] [Gm]
all right.
[C] Happy practicing.
[Cm]
Key:
C
E
Eb
D
Bb
C
E
Eb
I'm Peter Martin and today I'm going to give you five easy jazz piano chords that sound great.
Now the good news is you don't have to learn a bunch of jazz theory.
In fact,
don't learn a bunch of jazz theory first.
We're going to jump right in and play some stuff that
sounds great because if you learn too much jazz theory you're going to end up playing
chords that sound like this _ _ or even worse this. _
_ The old double root root position.
We're going
to stay away from [C] that.
Instead we're going to use something called root shell pretty.
Now these are
chords that actual jazz musicians use, professional jazz musicians, and they just sound good.
So skip
the corny sounding root position chords.
Let's jump right into root shell pretty.
These are all
built up the same way from the bottom up.
We have three notes in the left hand and two in the right
hand.
Let's jump in.
So we'll start from the bottom up C major 7th with the root on the bottom that's
C _ and then we're going to have the shell which is the third and the [E] seventh E and B.
So the [C] third
starting on C 1 2 3 that's [E] the major third and then 4 5 6 [B] 7 that's the B the [C] major 7th. _
So that's root and shell.
That's everything we need to do with our left hand.
Now we're going
to add the pretty notes in the right hand _ _ and we're going to go with a D [Em] _ and a G. _ _
_ _ _ Now the D is
the ninth or the second.
You can think about it either [G] way.
We call it the ninth because we're
going to count all the way down from [C] the root 1 [D] 2 3 4 5 [E] 6 7 [C] 8 which is the octave and then the
ninth [Em] _ and then the fifth is the G [D] 1 2 3 4 [C] 5.
_ [Em] So that sounds pretty good.
Let's compare it to some
root [C] position. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Let's move on to our next chord.
The great thing about these root shell pretty
is that they build up the same way for a number of different types of chords.
We're going to go
through five today but there's many more that they work on.
Of course you can go and should go
through different keys as well.
So we're going to do a minor 7 chord next.
So the root stays the
same still in the key of C and this is a C minor 7 chord _ _ and then we go to the minor [Cm] third and the
minor or dominant [Bb] 7th.
Same thing.
So we count up [D] the same way 1 2 [Eb] 3 but we're going up a minor scale
now [A] 4 5 6 7 [Eb] root 3 7 root shell [C] root [Eb] shell.
_ Okay now for the pretty chords we're going to change
it up a little bit.
We're going to use the [Gm] ninth again and remember we're counting up 1 2 [G] 3 4 5 6
7 8 [D] 9 or second [Eb] _ and then we're going to go to the [C] 11th.
_ _ _ That's a cool sound right [Bb] and why is this
the 11th?
You could also call it the fourth but we're going to count up from the root [D] 1 2 3 4 [E] 5 6
[C] 7 8 [Eb] 9 10 [Fm] 11 _ or you can count up from this C [C] 1 2 3 4.
Same thing.
_ _ _ That's a nice sound.
Let's do a C minor 7 in root position.
No pretty notes. _
_ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ Let's move on to our third easy jazz piano
chord that sounds great.
This is a dominant 7 so this is C7.
A great chord very useful.
Starts the same way root on the bottom _ _ shell is the third the major third and the dominant 7.
So
it's a kind of a hybrid between the first [Bb] two that we've seen.
Same thing we're counting up 1 2 3
major third 4 [Am] 5 6 [Gm] dominant or minor [C] 7.
Gives it that great dominant 7 kind of bluesy sound right.
Now for our pretty notes we're going to go back to use the same two that we use on our major 7
because they work nicely.
[G] The ninth and the fifth.
_ _ [E] _ _ Great sound right.
_ _ _ _ _ [Abm] _ _ _
_ Nice little voicing.
[D] Again that's the ninth 1 2 3 [G] 4 5 6 7 8 [D] 9 and the fifth 1 2 3 4 5 [C] root shell pretty notes.
Let's compare this to a root position _ _ dominant 7 chord. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Now let's move on to chord number four.
This one's great because it's still a dominant chord but we're going to hit our first alteration.
Start to get some new sounds especially for our pretty notes.
So this is C7 sharp 11.
Our root
stays the same of course still on C.
Our shell stays the same as chord number three our dominant
seventh because we got the [E] third seventh [C] root shell.
Now ready for our pretty notes we're going
to go with the ninth the [Gm] D our old friend and [Bb] this time we're going to go with the sharp 11.
_ That's an F sharp.
_ Nice little sound there right and this is sharp 11 because we're [C] counting up
from the root [D] 1 2 3 [Fm] 4 [Gb] and then we're making it sharp.
So it's a C [C] sharp _ [Bb] _ _
C7 sharp 11.
Now [Cm] for our
final jazz piano chord that sounds great _ C7 sharp 9.
This is another dominant seventh chord with a
nice alteration.
Really gives it a nice bluesy sound _ a little bit harsh but dominant so useful
sounds great.
Let's build it up root [C] _ _
shell [E] _ _ third and seven with the dominant seventh and the major
third and then we're going to go sharp nine [Eb] _ which is in a D sharp or an E flat.
Now why is that [C] sharp
nine?
Let's count up from the [E] root 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [C] 8 _ [D] 9 and then we're making it [Eb] sharp.
_ _ [C] So root and shell sharp nine and then we're going to put a fifth on top because it sounds good. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
Sharp nine.
Okay [C] so that's your five basic jazz chords that you can play and learn today and start
sounding good.
I encourage you to try these.
There's a number of other ones a number of different
ways to build it.
Main thing is that you get the concept root shell pretty notes.
Okay because that
could be root shell for a C7 and then it might [Gb] be two notes [Eb] in the right hand.
That's a 13 and a
sharp 11.
[C] It could be the ninth and the 13. _
[Am] It would be the 13th and third [Gm] the fifth and the and the um
a lot [C] of different choices.
These I just gave you five to get started with.
Now let's talk about how
we're going to practice these.
You're going to want to eventually learn them in all keys.
A couple
different ways that you can do that.
If we go back to voicing number one C major 7 [Em] root shell
pretty tones.
You can just move up chromatically.
Take your time [Fm] move everything up half step.
_ [Gbm] _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ [Abm] _ _ [Em] _ _
_ [Bbm] _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ [Eb] _
This is a piano so the [Bm] shapes are a little bit [Gb] different.
The intervals are always the same when
we go [Em] to different keys [Abm] but the shapes are a little different.
It's not like a guitar where
you can just shift your hand and keep your position the same.
[Em] _
[C] Okay _ so you can practice all
these in that [Eb] same way minor 7.
[E] _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [G] _ _
[Ab] You can also go through the circle of fifths or the circle of
fourths just sort of for [Em] variety.
C major 7, [C] _ _
[F] F major 7, _ _ [Bb] _
B flat [F] major 7.
We're just moving up in fourths.
_ [Bb] _ _
That kind of a thing.
[D] One more way that you can practice this give you a little bit of
interesting thing getting you ready for jazz piano chord progressions.
And that is to take number four and number five of our five chords.
This is number [E] four _
C7 sharp [C] 11 root shell [Bb] _
pretty tones 9th sharp 11 and combine that with number five [Cm] which is sharp 9. _ _ _
Okay so this is chord number four [E] C7 sharp 11.
_ _ [Eb] That's number five C7 sharp 9.
[Eb] _ All I'm [D] doing
is going up a half step in the right hand.
[Gb] _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
[Ebm] _ [B] _ [Gb] _ _ [D] _ You can kind of see where this is going.
It can be some
beginning of some little bit of melodies a little bit of voice leading.
_ [E] Sharp [Eb] chord number four
chord number five.
Now we're going up a half step so we're going to D flat 7 [G] _ sharp _ 11 [E] _
to D flat 7
sharp 9. _
_ [Ab] _ D7 going up half a step again D7 sharp 11 [F] _ _ [D] D7 sharp 9.
[E] _
_ [F] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ [C] You'll see all this written out
in the worksheet that you can download here and hope you enjoy it.
Remember stay away from root
position voicings.
I mean you want to understand them but you don't want to play this _ because [F] _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [Eb] if
you start playing that you're going to [C] improvise like this.
_ _ [F] _ _ _
[Bb] _ We don't [E] want to do that.
We want to be _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [F] _
_ [B] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ [Abm] _ _ [E] _
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Gm] _ _
all right.
[C] Happy practicing. _ _ _
_ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Now the good news is you don't have to learn a bunch of jazz theory.
In fact,
don't learn a bunch of jazz theory first.
We're going to jump right in and play some stuff that
sounds great because if you learn too much jazz theory you're going to end up playing
chords that sound like this _ _ or even worse this. _
_ The old double root root position.
We're going
to stay away from [C] that.
Instead we're going to use something called root shell pretty.
Now these are
chords that actual jazz musicians use, professional jazz musicians, and they just sound good.
So skip
the corny sounding root position chords.
Let's jump right into root shell pretty.
These are all
built up the same way from the bottom up.
We have three notes in the left hand and two in the right
hand.
Let's jump in.
So we'll start from the bottom up C major 7th with the root on the bottom that's
C _ and then we're going to have the shell which is the third and the [E] seventh E and B.
So the [C] third
starting on C 1 2 3 that's [E] the major third and then 4 5 6 [B] 7 that's the B the [C] major 7th. _
So that's root and shell.
That's everything we need to do with our left hand.
Now we're going
to add the pretty notes in the right hand _ _ and we're going to go with a D [Em] _ and a G. _ _
_ _ _ Now the D is
the ninth or the second.
You can think about it either [G] way.
We call it the ninth because we're
going to count all the way down from [C] the root 1 [D] 2 3 4 5 [E] 6 7 [C] 8 which is the octave and then the
ninth [Em] _ and then the fifth is the G [D] 1 2 3 4 [C] 5.
_ [Em] So that sounds pretty good.
Let's compare it to some
root [C] position. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Let's move on to our next chord.
The great thing about these root shell pretty
is that they build up the same way for a number of different types of chords.
We're going to go
through five today but there's many more that they work on.
Of course you can go and should go
through different keys as well.
So we're going to do a minor 7 chord next.
So the root stays the
same still in the key of C and this is a C minor 7 chord _ _ and then we go to the minor [Cm] third and the
minor or dominant [Bb] 7th.
Same thing.
So we count up [D] the same way 1 2 [Eb] 3 but we're going up a minor scale
now [A] 4 5 6 7 [Eb] root 3 7 root shell [C] root [Eb] shell.
_ Okay now for the pretty chords we're going to change
it up a little bit.
We're going to use the [Gm] ninth again and remember we're counting up 1 2 [G] 3 4 5 6
7 8 [D] 9 or second [Eb] _ and then we're going to go to the [C] 11th.
_ _ _ That's a cool sound right [Bb] and why is this
the 11th?
You could also call it the fourth but we're going to count up from the root [D] 1 2 3 4 [E] 5 6
[C] 7 8 [Eb] 9 10 [Fm] 11 _ or you can count up from this C [C] 1 2 3 4.
Same thing.
_ _ _ That's a nice sound.
Let's do a C minor 7 in root position.
No pretty notes. _
_ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ Let's move on to our third easy jazz piano
chord that sounds great.
This is a dominant 7 so this is C7.
A great chord very useful.
Starts the same way root on the bottom _ _ shell is the third the major third and the dominant 7.
So
it's a kind of a hybrid between the first [Bb] two that we've seen.
Same thing we're counting up 1 2 3
major third 4 [Am] 5 6 [Gm] dominant or minor [C] 7.
Gives it that great dominant 7 kind of bluesy sound right.
Now for our pretty notes we're going to go back to use the same two that we use on our major 7
because they work nicely.
[G] The ninth and the fifth.
_ _ [E] _ _ Great sound right.
_ _ _ _ _ [Abm] _ _ _
_ Nice little voicing.
[D] Again that's the ninth 1 2 3 [G] 4 5 6 7 8 [D] 9 and the fifth 1 2 3 4 5 [C] root shell pretty notes.
Let's compare this to a root position _ _ dominant 7 chord. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Now let's move on to chord number four.
This one's great because it's still a dominant chord but we're going to hit our first alteration.
Start to get some new sounds especially for our pretty notes.
So this is C7 sharp 11.
Our root
stays the same of course still on C.
Our shell stays the same as chord number three our dominant
seventh because we got the [E] third seventh [C] root shell.
Now ready for our pretty notes we're going
to go with the ninth the [Gm] D our old friend and [Bb] this time we're going to go with the sharp 11.
_ That's an F sharp.
_ Nice little sound there right and this is sharp 11 because we're [C] counting up
from the root [D] 1 2 3 [Fm] 4 [Gb] and then we're making it sharp.
So it's a C [C] sharp _ [Bb] _ _
C7 sharp 11.
Now [Cm] for our
final jazz piano chord that sounds great _ C7 sharp 9.
This is another dominant seventh chord with a
nice alteration.
Really gives it a nice bluesy sound _ a little bit harsh but dominant so useful
sounds great.
Let's build it up root [C] _ _
shell [E] _ _ third and seven with the dominant seventh and the major
third and then we're going to go sharp nine [Eb] _ which is in a D sharp or an E flat.
Now why is that [C] sharp
nine?
Let's count up from the [E] root 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [C] 8 _ [D] 9 and then we're making it [Eb] sharp.
_ _ [C] So root and shell sharp nine and then we're going to put a fifth on top because it sounds good. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
Sharp nine.
Okay [C] so that's your five basic jazz chords that you can play and learn today and start
sounding good.
I encourage you to try these.
There's a number of other ones a number of different
ways to build it.
Main thing is that you get the concept root shell pretty notes.
Okay because that
could be root shell for a C7 and then it might [Gb] be two notes [Eb] in the right hand.
That's a 13 and a
sharp 11.
[C] It could be the ninth and the 13. _
[Am] It would be the 13th and third [Gm] the fifth and the and the um
a lot [C] of different choices.
These I just gave you five to get started with.
Now let's talk about how
we're going to practice these.
You're going to want to eventually learn them in all keys.
A couple
different ways that you can do that.
If we go back to voicing number one C major 7 [Em] root shell
pretty tones.
You can just move up chromatically.
Take your time [Fm] move everything up half step.
_ [Gbm] _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ [Abm] _ _ [Em] _ _
_ [Bbm] _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ [Eb] _
This is a piano so the [Bm] shapes are a little bit [Gb] different.
The intervals are always the same when
we go [Em] to different keys [Abm] but the shapes are a little different.
It's not like a guitar where
you can just shift your hand and keep your position the same.
[Em] _
[C] Okay _ so you can practice all
these in that [Eb] same way minor 7.
[E] _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [G] _ _
[Ab] You can also go through the circle of fifths or the circle of
fourths just sort of for [Em] variety.
C major 7, [C] _ _
[F] F major 7, _ _ [Bb] _
B flat [F] major 7.
We're just moving up in fourths.
_ [Bb] _ _
That kind of a thing.
[D] One more way that you can practice this give you a little bit of
interesting thing getting you ready for jazz piano chord progressions.
And that is to take number four and number five of our five chords.
This is number [E] four _
C7 sharp [C] 11 root shell [Bb] _
pretty tones 9th sharp 11 and combine that with number five [Cm] which is sharp 9. _ _ _
Okay so this is chord number four [E] C7 sharp 11.
_ _ [Eb] That's number five C7 sharp 9.
[Eb] _ All I'm [D] doing
is going up a half step in the right hand.
[Gb] _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
[Ebm] _ [B] _ [Gb] _ _ [D] _ You can kind of see where this is going.
It can be some
beginning of some little bit of melodies a little bit of voice leading.
_ [E] Sharp [Eb] chord number four
chord number five.
Now we're going up a half step so we're going to D flat 7 [G] _ sharp _ 11 [E] _
to D flat 7
sharp 9. _
_ [Ab] _ D7 going up half a step again D7 sharp 11 [F] _ _ [D] D7 sharp 9.
[E] _
_ [F] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ [C] You'll see all this written out
in the worksheet that you can download here and hope you enjoy it.
Remember stay away from root
position voicings.
I mean you want to understand them but you don't want to play this _ because [F] _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [Eb] if
you start playing that you're going to [C] improvise like this.
_ _ [F] _ _ _
[Bb] _ We don't [E] want to do that.
We want to be _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [F] _
_ [B] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ [Abm] _ _ [E] _
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Gm] _ _
all right.
[C] Happy practicing. _ _ _
_ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _