What is the most beautiful reharmonization that you know? 😎An Amazing Exercise For Jazz Chords (And Your Playing In General) 👈 ua-cam.com/video/5DlCT5F9VRc/v-deo.html ✅5 Jazz Guitar Tips That Will Save You Years Of Practice 👈 ua-cam.com/video/dFkTgbUXxME/v-deo.html
I discovered this on my own: use minor lydian chord with 9, b7 to diminished value (sus) and such quickly to minor dorian (sus) diad, resolve to Bb∆7 in key of Bb diatonic Major. Works in other places well also and has gotten me out of many composer dilemmas. This video is pure gold. I really, really want to learn this video. I have to admit that I have made many turn around of my own. Say root chord in minor Major 7 nine to five in rootless dominant sus structure. F∆7 chord structures, Fm∆9, Bb dominant rootless to root on eight Eb∆ with Major 3rd. in bass. I have also been doing amazing things with augmented and diminished chord structures through inversion to force into other key structures.
Level 4 is basically the chord progression of the song Reeling in the years from Steele Dan. The turnaround of the verse. I was playing that now and at the same time listening to this and is exactly the same chords This videos are fantastic material. One of the best music channels on UA-cam.
Thanks for being such an informative guide through this musical maze, between your books and videos my playing has progressed from pleasant notes to a musical conversation...Thanks again!
Jen is a fantastic jazz teacher ! ...in his explanation of turn arounds , he breaks it down to the proper source scale of the turn around chords , which allows you to comfortably solo to the chords with the source scale ! This way you can solo thru the progression switching between the basic tunes tonal center and the proper scale that will do the job ( by adding the altered notes you want implied ) 🎸🎶🎶✌
Thanks a lot :)) This is also motivating me to keep practicing And even as someone who doesn't speak english fluently, your videos are really easy to understand
Jens I remember your videos from few years back. Even though all was very interesting as a person who watched (in my opinion) it was boring. But now ?! I really appreciate your work that you had to put into editing your videos. What a great example of adjusting. Congratulation and thank you for an awsome content ! ;)
One could almost argue that the word ‘substitution’ is used very loosely in theory and that every alleged substitution should have a specific type classification based on intent to facilitate its understanding in context. Also, too many harmonic surprises can be just as annoying as the absence of any noteworthy (no pun intended, lol) Always great ideas to ponder coming from your channel Jens.. 👍😎🎸👨🏻🎷🥳
I think that most of the time substitutions are not a useful approach. They are like avoid notes, you worry about what you are not playing instead of what you can get to sound good.
@@JensLarsen Interesting Jens, YES, I always worry about what I’m NOT playing to get a good sound, as I also worry about what I am playing that’s NOT giving me the sound I want, yuck yuck.😁 Actually, I say this in reference to saxophone, as I kind of gave of up on jazz guitar. I can play guitar, but less complicated stuff, like rock and folk. I even played electric bass in groups on different genres of music for quite a while. I know and can play most of the chords you typically show, so I usually have a good understanding of what you’re doing, but the damn arthritis sometimes 😮, although I’m not really sure I understand why many chord sets have to be classified with names like drop2 and drop3. I like to think in terms of what is the bass note of the chord, and the melody on top, and how they’re moving; hence why I love the chords with the 3rd and 7th on the middle strings. It’s a shame, really, that I don’t seriously study jazz harmony, bc I understand a decent amount of theory, and the guitar is so elegantly polyphonic. I ‘grapple’ with several woodwind and stringed instruments; but I’m a senior now, with some health issues, and certainly less motivated these days. I stay interested to avoid boredom, and play what I can when I can here at home.
Always useful tips in your videos. Thanks I find that the predictable bass notes and movement makes almost any chord or group of notes sound like a plausible harmony. I experimented with weird voicings and notes for the chords, and as long as bass moved predictably. the rhythm made sense, and I ended on the Maj7 Tonic chord, almost any harmony worked. Some were a bit "out there" but playing it like it made sense, made it sound all the more convincing. Thanks for mentioning about the challenges and questionable usefulness about thinking in "Chord Substitutions." Feels more like doing Algebra than making music.
@@JensLarsen Yes, keeping the "melody" as the pedal to allow for adventuresome harmonic explorations is another useful approach. The challenges on solo guitar involve how much one should/can preserve in the melody, bass, and chords, and still find enough free fingers to do something interesting. Some guitarists are able to play like they've got more fingers than I have. 😂
Excellent video Jens! - and timely for me working with Rhythm Changes now. I have a related question about the bridge section I was thinking about on my way to work... I could descend in half steps on the dominants with tritone subs D,Db(G),C,B(F), to the Bb tonic which ought to be useful in both comping and soloing. Am i thinking about this right? Thanks Jens!
Thanks Ben! You could do that, but it is a very harsh sound so I would not use that very often. Turning the 2 bars of dominants into a II V is probably a more practical option
Great lesson Jens. I’m so glad you like the harmonic minor. Many people ignore it but it works so well and is beautifully lyrical. My starting point for teaching turnarounds is the cycle of fifths bass notes, So EADG. I’m not sure you actually said this in your video but most of your examples follow this template, then superimpose different chord qualities and tritone “substitutions“ …. Haha
Harmonic minor IS the tonal harmony option if you look at all the songs which are the foundation we build it all on. Sometimes that is forgotten by looking at rows of letters in iReal :)
@@JensLarsen Agree totally. A lot of people don't teach it though. They just go straight for the altered scale over any dominant that has one or more alterations. I also love the fact that you highlighted using the harmonic minor over the ii - V when going to a major tonic. It's something I often use, but I don't think that's taught much either. Parker did it sometimes.
Beautiful Wes Montgomery' 'Too Late Now' progression I guess (Level 1). Very usefull information for me to dig deeper into a jazz basics! Thank you to share your knowledge with us!
Jens - on thinking about substitutions… it seems your overriding issue is focusing on choosing a chord that moves to where you want it to move, and you’re willing to call it a substitution only if the two chords share important notes, as in a tritone sub or with I, vi and iii. Is that correct?
It is not so much that they share notes, it is just that they should be related in some way so similar function and in some other way should be exchangeable.
@@JensLarsen your channel been my fav on youtube for years now! love everything about it. please do a video on how we can make long melodies that have lot variation but cohesive. i appreciate you!
I am checking out 1625s to comp my daughter on trumpet. would it be still ok she is still playing material and arpeggios from c-major on all the variants?
I know it sounds cool, so that's a fine reason; but is there some other way to understand why the "logical scale choice" for the sub-dominant A7 leading to Dm7 is D harmonic minor rather than (say) D melodic minor? Great stuff, as always. Cheers -Drew
A7 is not a subdominant. A part of that is tradition or habit, but you should be able to hear how A7(b9) has a stronger pull than A7(9) when resolving to Dm. Just try to play the chords, it is not that hard to hear.
@@JensLarsen Thanks. I do hear it, and A7(b9) does clearly sound better. I guess that's it! Thank you for responding! I have found it interesting -- never thought about it before watching this vid -- to try the same A7(b9) (instead of A7) to Dm7 in a jazz-blues in C. Predictably, it sounds great, and I recognize having heard it many times! I'm pretty new to jazz, and appreciate your stuff (and your responses) greatly. TY. -Drew
Thanks 🙂 I did videos on specific players for a year and most people are not really interested, so it doesn't make sense to spend 2-3 days making a video like that. Sorry 🙂
@@JensLarsen Yeah thats a shame, havr checked out a lot of those already thats why i asked about a larry coryell one cause the others are so good. Thanks anyway, the stuff you do is great
I'm confused by level 4.... If the Ebdim is an altered subdominant chord of the Dm7 then I would expect something with an A, C#, and G. The Ebdim only has the A... How is this an altered subdominant? I thought an alt. subdominant was a subdominant chord with changes to anything except the 1, 3, and 7. In the video you have the Ebdim as an inversion of the F#dim which is somehow related to Fmaj7 but I am not seeing the connection between Fmaj7 and A7. Amazing video!
What happens when you, as a soloist, head off in a beautiful direction that just flows from you, but the band doesn't expect it? I know you are all to keep your ears open, but how do they keep from ruining the solo?
Usually dissonance like that only takes a second and then you are back in the song, so it will just feel like a tension that is resolved, unless you want to clash with the band, but then that is fine too.
@@JensLarsen you actually demonstrated well that the best description depends on how one chooses the chord. Replacing the chord is a substitution, but setting up forward movement is different. That's the way I understood the video.
@@jeanenviedapprendre it isn't really about that, I am just pointing out that thinking in substitutions mostly does not make any sense and is actually limiting your options because you focus on the chord that you don't play instead of thinking about what sounds good in the context of the other chords and the melody.
What is the most beautiful reharmonization that you know?
😎An Amazing Exercise For Jazz Chords (And Your Playing In General) 👈
ua-cam.com/video/5DlCT5F9VRc/v-deo.html
✅5 Jazz Guitar Tips That Will Save You Years Of Practice 👈
ua-cam.com/video/dFkTgbUXxME/v-deo.html
I discovered this on my own: use minor lydian chord with 9, b7 to diminished value (sus) and such quickly to minor dorian (sus) diad, resolve to Bb∆7 in key of Bb diatonic Major. Works in other places well also and has gotten me out of many composer dilemmas. This video is pure gold. I really, really want to learn this video. I have to admit that I have made many turn around of my own. Say root chord in minor Major 7 nine to five in rootless dominant sus structure. F∆7 chord structures, Fm∆9, Bb dominant rootless to root on eight Eb∆ with Major 3rd. in bass. I have also been doing amazing things with augmented and diminished chord structures through inversion to force into other key structures.
The first turn around is some sort of backdoor minor cadence and has to be altered when used in other places.
Level 4 is basically the chord progression of the song Reeling in the years from Steele Dan. The turnaround of the verse. I was playing that now and at the same time listening to this and is exactly the same chords
This videos are fantastic material. One of the best music channels on UA-cam.
Glad you like the videos :)
Thanks for being such an informative guide through this musical maze, between your books and videos my playing has progressed from pleasant notes to a musical conversation...Thanks again!
Great to hear that Brian! 🙂
Always very interesting to watch your video. Thank you so much for all the explanations, it’s really appreciated. 😍
Glad you like them!
El cariño y la confianza que pones en nosotros al transmitirnos tus conocimientos es tu gran premio.¡Gracias Jens!
Glad you like it :)
Thanks for the pdf on Patreon, really much appreciated !
Hope you enjoy it!
Jen is a fantastic jazz teacher ! ...in his explanation of turn arounds , he breaks it down to the proper source scale of the turn around chords , which allows you to comfortably solo to the chords with the source scale ! This way you can solo thru the progression switching between the basic tunes tonal center and the proper scale that will do the job ( by adding the altered notes you want implied ) 🎸🎶🎶✌
Glad you like it 🙂
Always in awe of your musical knowledge, and love to practice the progressions, thank you again
Glad you like the video!
Großartig erklärt !!! Danke !!!
Super Anregungen !!!
Glad you like it :)
Your videos get better and better. Keep it up, we love you Jens!
Thank you so much!
Lot of material to study. Many thanks, Jen for these beautiful explanations
Glad it was helpful!
In my mind you're my cyber mentor thanks for the lessons
Glad it is useful :)
Amazing stuff, really ! I'll be doing my homework with immense pleasure...
Go for it 🙂
I like to watch your lessons on my VR headset as you are a GIANT professeur 😉
Thanks a lot :))
This is also motivating me to keep practicing
And even as someone who doesn't speak english fluently, your videos are really easy to understand
So glad to hear that :)
this video is sooooo great!!!!!!
Glad you like it :)
Jens I remember your videos from few years back. Even though all was very interesting as a person who watched (in my opinion) it was boring. But now ?! I really appreciate your work that you had to put into editing your videos. What a great example of adjusting. Congratulation and thank you for an awsome content ! ;)
You can never please everyone. I have quite a few people asking for videos more like the old ones, especially among my supporters on Patreon :)
One could almost
argue that the word ‘substitution’ is used very loosely in theory and that every alleged substitution should have a specific type classification based on intent to facilitate its understanding in context. Also, too many harmonic surprises can be just as annoying as the absence of any noteworthy (no pun intended, lol) Always great ideas to ponder coming from your channel Jens.. 👍😎🎸👨🏻🎷🥳
I think that most of the time substitutions are not a useful approach. They are like avoid notes, you worry about what you are not playing instead of what you can get to sound good.
@@JensLarsen Interesting Jens, YES, I always worry about what I’m NOT playing to get a good sound, as I also worry about what I am playing that’s NOT giving me the sound I want, yuck yuck.😁 Actually, I say this in reference to saxophone, as I kind of gave of up on jazz guitar. I can play guitar, but less complicated stuff, like rock and folk. I even played electric bass in groups on different genres of music for quite a while. I know and can play most of the chords you typically show, so I usually have a good understanding of what you’re doing, but the damn arthritis sometimes 😮, although I’m not really sure I understand why many chord sets have to be classified with names like drop2 and drop3. I like to think in terms of what is the bass note of the chord, and the melody on top, and how they’re moving; hence why I love the chords with the 3rd and 7th on the middle strings. It’s a shame, really, that I don’t seriously study jazz harmony, bc I understand a decent amount of theory, and the guitar is so elegantly polyphonic.
I ‘grapple’ with several woodwind and stringed instruments; but I’m a senior now, with some health issues, and certainly less motivated these days. I stay interested to avoid boredom, and play what
I can when I can here at home.
Very interesting concepts...!
Thanks Jens...!
My pleasure!
Great video! Thanks, Jens!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great lesson. Learned a lot :)
Fantástico vídeo. Muachas gracias.
Glad you like it 🙂
great vid again ... thank you
Glad you enjoyed it
Always useful tips in your videos. Thanks
I find that the predictable bass notes and movement makes almost any chord or group of notes sound like a plausible harmony. I experimented with weird voicings and notes for the chords, and as long as bass moved predictably. the rhythm made sense, and I ended on the Maj7 Tonic chord, almost any harmony worked. Some were a bit "out there" but playing it like it made sense, made it sound all the more convincing.
Thanks for mentioning about the challenges and questionable usefulness about thinking in "Chord Substitutions." Feels more like doing Algebra than making music.
That can certainly work, you will find similar results if you keep the melody as a pedal point :)
@@JensLarsen Yes, keeping the "melody" as the pedal to allow for adventuresome harmonic explorations is another useful approach. The challenges on solo guitar involve how much one should/can preserve in the melody, bass, and chords, and still find enough free fingers to do something interesting. Some guitarists are able to play like they've got more fingers than I have. 😂
checking the joe pass solo jazz guitar dvd the last days your lesson here makes lots clear that pass just passes over (pun maybe).
Excellent video Jens! - and timely for me working with Rhythm Changes now. I have a related question about the bridge section I was thinking about on my way to work... I could descend in half steps on the dominants with tritone subs D,Db(G),C,B(F), to the Bb tonic which ought to be useful in both comping and soloing. Am i thinking about this right? Thanks Jens!
Thanks Ben! You could do that, but it is a very harsh sound so I would not use that very often. Turning the 2 bars of dominants into a II V is probably a more practical option
@@JensLarsen Thank you!
Great lesson Jens. I’m so glad you like the harmonic minor. Many people ignore it but it works so well and is beautifully lyrical. My starting point for teaching turnarounds is the cycle of fifths bass notes, So EADG. I’m not sure you actually said this in your video but most of your examples follow this template, then superimpose different chord qualities and tritone “substitutions“ …. Haha
Harmonic minor IS the tonal harmony option if you look at all the songs which are the foundation we build it all on. Sometimes that is forgotten by looking at rows of letters in iReal :)
@@JensLarsen Agree totally. A lot of people don't teach it though. They just go straight for the altered scale over any dominant that has one or more alterations. I also love the fact that you highlighted using the harmonic minor over the ii - V when going to a major tonic. It's something I often use, but I don't think that's taught much either. Parker did it sometimes.
Thanks!
Glad you like it 🙂
I would love a full course this
A theory course is on the horizon, but I have quite a few other things I want to do first.
What chords do the camels like?
They are mostly into hillbilly chords 🙂
Great stuff
Glad you like it Patrick!
Hi Jens, what effects do you use for guitar?
It is just delay and reverb 🙂
Beautiful Wes Montgomery' 'Too Late Now' progression I guess (Level 1). Very usefull information for me to dig deeper into a jazz basics! Thank you to share your knowledge with us!
Glad you find it useful 🙂
Jens - on thinking about substitutions… it seems your overriding issue is focusing on choosing a chord that moves to where you want it to move, and you’re willing to call it a substitution only if the two chords share important notes, as in a tritone sub or with I, vi and iii. Is that correct?
It is not so much that they share notes, it is just that they should be related in some way so similar function and in some other way should be exchangeable.
thanks!
Glad you like it 🙂
@@JensLarsen
your channel been my fav on youtube for years now!
love everything about it.
please do a video on how we can make long melodies that have lot variation but cohesive.
i appreciate you!
I am checking out 1625s to comp my daughter on trumpet. would it be still ok she is still playing material and arpeggios from c-major on all the variants?
I know it sounds cool, so that's a fine reason; but is there some other way to understand why the "logical scale choice" for the sub-dominant A7 leading to Dm7 is D harmonic minor rather than (say) D melodic minor?
Great stuff, as always. Cheers -Drew
A7 is not a subdominant.
A part of that is tradition or habit, but you should be able to hear how A7(b9) has a stronger pull than A7(9) when resolving to Dm. Just try to play the chords, it is not that hard to hear.
@@JensLarsen Thanks. I do hear it, and A7(b9) does clearly sound better. I guess that's it! Thank you for responding!
I have found it interesting -- never thought about it before watching this vid -- to try the same A7(b9) (instead of A7) to Dm7 in a jazz-blues in C. Predictably, it sounds great, and I recognize having heard it many times!
I'm pretty new to jazz, and appreciate your stuff (and your responses) greatly. TY. -Drew
@@drewdsaunders Great! Yes, often just making it real and not some theoretical concept helps a lot :)
Hey would love to see a Lesson on some of Larry coryells ideas .
Cheers
Thanks 🙂 I did videos on specific players for a year and most people are not really interested, so it doesn't make sense to spend 2-3 days making a video like that. Sorry 🙂
@@JensLarsen Yeah thats a shame, havr checked out a lot of those already thats why i asked about a larry coryell one cause the others are so good. Thanks anyway, the stuff you do is great
I opted for F7 flat 5 to C6 , would that be secondary dominant?
Great lesson Jens! Thank you
Glad you like it 🙂
I'm confused by level 4.... If the Ebdim is an altered subdominant chord of the Dm7 then I would expect something with an A, C#, and G. The Ebdim only has the A... How is this an altered subdominant? I thought an alt. subdominant was a subdominant chord with changes to anything except the 1, 3, and 7. In the video you have the Ebdim as an inversion of the F#dim which is somehow related to Fmaj7 but I am not seeing the connection between Fmaj7 and A7.
Amazing video!
Why do you expect it to be an A7? Something being an altered subdominant does not mean it is a dominant chord.
It is just altered as in changed.
I keep reading "Dø" - That's very violent of you :D
3:21 oh lol I used to write like that
Wi-cked Jens ! 🤘
Thank you Kevin! :)
May i ask why the D7 is not a flat 13 at the level 2 ?😅😅 I'm very bad at theories.....
Give me a time stamp in the video, and I will have a look 🙂
@@JensLarsen 2:09
did you ever get an answer?@@Chelsea-gy3lg
That's funny at 3 min 7 secs it's Clannad Scarlet inside from legend.
Wooohooowoo when my baby smiles at me I go to rio
Nice but too tricky for me.
You can do it!
What happens when you, as a soloist, head off in a beautiful direction that just flows from you, but the band doesn't expect it? I know you are all to keep your ears open, but how do they keep from ruining the solo?
Usually dissonance like that only takes a second and then you are back in the song, so it will just feel like a tension that is resolved, unless you want to clash with the band, but then that is fine too.
☕
lol, you might know V I if you follow barry harris...
"Surprise the listener" that's why you backpedaled on substitutions, isn't it?
backpedaled? As in saying that you should call everything a substitutio? I don't actually think I did that 🙂
@@JensLarsen you actually demonstrated well that the best description depends on how one chooses the chord. Replacing the chord is a substitution, but setting up forward movement is different. That's the way I understood the video.
@@jeanenviedapprendre it isn't really about that, I am just pointing out that thinking in substitutions mostly does not make any sense and is actually limiting your options because you focus on the chord that you don't play instead of thinking about what sounds good in the context of the other chords and the melody.
oh wait no I didn't resolve it hahaha that was it
You are a brilliant player, but you talk much too fast, it’s difficult to keep up with what you teach.
Maybe go to the article on my website, then you have a text version to follow along with? There is a link in the description 🙂
I mean, there is still time right, unless I die before Ill do it I'm not necessarily an asshole