Chords for The MISTAKE "all" jazz guitar students make - and how to AVOID it

In this lesson I'm going to show you a great melodic device that you can use in your improvisations.
This is part of my essential jazz vocabulary section, so it's perfectly balanced or
in the pocket and it also contains some really nice harmonic colors.
_ After the lesson I'll tell
you about the common mistake that almost everyone does that will make sure they'll never be able to
play lines like this and how you can avoid doing the same mistake.
So make sure you stick around
for that as well.
Okay so the melodic device that we're going to check out today is [D] like this.
_ [Ebm] _ [F] _ [G] _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ Sounds simple right?
It comes from the altered chord, D altered, and you can see we start
_ [Eb] on the top note of the chord [Gm] like this.
[Ebm] _ [D] _
[Bm] _ [C] So chord progression we're playing on right now,
very simple, A minor, _ [D] E7, [Bm] G major. _
Playing on major you could of course [Bb] use this line on a
chord progression as well.
So what it is, it's a mix kind of an arpeggio and a scale.
If you look at the top here _ _ _ [Bm] that's kind of the [Bb] beginning of [Ebm] _ _ E flat minor major [Gb] 7 but
[F] only this far is arpeggio and then [Dm] _ [C] it's scale [Bb] right?
Arpeggio _ and that scale is the altered scale or
_ if you will E flat melodic minor.
_ _ [D] _ [F] _ [D] _ [G] _
_ [C] Resolving to G.
Now the nice thing that we're going to do today, we're going to do this exact lick
and just move it a tritone.
So instead of [Bb] starting on [E] this top note here we're going to start on this
E.
_ [Am] _ _ [Ab] _ [Gbm] _
[G] _ _ Very similar, ends a little bit different.
By doing this we're going to alter the dominant chord, _
in a different way.
We're not going to make it like you know quote unquote altered.
It's still
you know you can say it's an alteration of the dominant chord.
We're [C] making _ _ [E] a sharp 11 kind of
sound [Am] _ [Ab] _ [G] _ [Abm] right?
So [Bb] compared to this _ [Cm] _ [G] that _
[C] _ _ [A] _ [Gb] _ [G] _ _ _
was the second example.
The third one is like the first
[Ab] one but down [Bb] one [Ebm] and _ [C] _ [B] _ [G] _
then [Gb] the [E] last one.
[Abm] _ [G] _ So we have [Bb] altered, _ [C] _ [Bm] sharp [C] 11, _ _ [G] _
[Bb] altered, [Ebm] _ [D] _ [B] _ [E] sharp 11.
[Am] _ [Ab] _ [G] _ [Gb] So I'm
going to put this little device _ inside a little longer line so you can check that out.
So if you
check out example number three that's on the altered duration.
[E] _ _ [Bb] _ [Eb] _ [G] _ _ [Ab] Starting [Eb] out with an arpeggio.
[Gb] _ _ [Db] _ [E] _
[Eb] Again you know that mix of arpeggios and scale.
So arpeggio [D] is _ _ [C] _ on A minor you know from
5 7 9 11 arpeggio.
So whatever you want to call it E minor 7, C major 9 or A minor 11 you know
[Cm] same [D] thing just [Am] thirds up.
[G] _ _ [Am] _ [G] _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _ [A] _
_ [D] _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
[Gbm] _ [Gb] _ [Ab] _ [G] _ _ _ Okay second variation that's example number [C] four. _ _ _
[G] _ So we're now starting playing [Fm] with an A [Am] minor _ arpeggio.
_ [Gb] _ [E] _ [G] _
So you can hear that it hasn't got that
same kind of minor-y feel that the altered variation has.
It's a little bit [Am] brighter.
_ [Gb] _ [Ab] _ [G] _ [Ab] _ [Am] _ [B] _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [Ebm] _ [C] _ _
Example five same as example three [Eb] down one octave.
[D] _ [B] _ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ [B]
[G] All [C] right [D] _ [C] [Bb] you see here [Ab] this is the minor [Am] third of G right we're going to resolve this to G major.
[Eb] _ [Em] _ [Db] _ [B] _ [D] _ _ [F] _ [D] _
[B] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Bb] [Ab] And the last example is the sharp 11 variation down one octave like this.
[Em] _ [F] _ [C] _ [A] _ [Ab] _ [G] _ [Am] _ _
[Gb] [Ab] So _ [G] _ [F] _ _ that's it we have four variations here.
[E] _ [Bb] _ _ [Bm] _ _
[A] _ [G] _ [Ab] _ _ [G] _ [Am] _ [Eb] _
[Bb] That's _ [Em] _ [Am] _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
[G] _ _ _ it I'll just play [Am] quickly through all of them.
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [D] _ [C] _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [F] _
[A] _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [Am] _ [Ab] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ [B] _
[Em] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[D] _ [Eb] _ [D] _ [Ab] _ [Bm] _ [D] _ [Db] _ [E] _
[Ab] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [Bm] _ [Gb] _ [G] _ [D] _ _ _
[Am] _ [D] _ [Ab] _ [Cm] _ [Gb] _ [G] _ _ _
[Am] _ [D] _ _ [C] _ [G] _ [Am] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [E] _ [Am] _
_ [N] _ Okay so hopefully you heard them you know in there here and there.
So yeah good luck with that
have a great time see you soon bye bye.
_ So the common mistake that almost every jazz student
does is this.
They think that if they practice all the scales all the modes all the melodic minor
modes the whole half scale and so on and practice all thinkable scale patterns and practice all the
arpeggios and all sorts of crazy arpeggio exercises plus plus plus.
If they practice all
that stuff well then lines like this like the one I just show you will magically appear in their
improvisations out of thin air because they are then able to play instantly what they hear and
they will just hear lines like this and other brilliant never heard before jazz lines.
This
is simply not the way it works.
To play great jazz lines you need to practice great jazz lines
and to be able to play lines like this you have to practice lines like this and you have to practice
many of them and a lot and then when you really really know them inside and out they will appear
in your improvisations without you forcing them in there like rehearsed licks and you will be able
to play different variations of the lines and you're able to use them as parts of longer lines
and seamlessly play in and out of them and eventually they will not sound like lines that
you rehearsed or that you borrowed from someone else or that you learned from me it will just sound