The four years of learning jazz piano, your video helped me truly understand how to think of functional harmony. I definitely think this subject is overlooked by A LOT of jazz piano teachers/youtubers. You don't know how grateful to you because I could not articulate how I didn't understand functional harmony so I would get the basic bread and butter answers online. I guess a problem in learning jazz is interpreting it in such a way the person on the receiving end will understand it. Although from what I've learned, I think jazz is something you HAVE to self teach but also have another jazz brain (that's ahead of you) stray you the "right" direction. Thanks for this video!
@@JensLarsen Just a Quick question tho, can MinMaj7 function tonic chords as well as subdominant minor chords? Eg the sequence is F#min7b5, B7, EminMaj7, Amin7. How would you think of this EminMaj7 when improvising? Thank you tons again
@@omarhamouda9512 Yes, the type of chord doesn't say too much about the function. A minor chord can be tonic or subdominant, a dim chord can be subdominant or dominant.
@@JensLarsen Okay yep that clears things up, thank you:) You should defo consider making a similiar video about condensing progressions with functional analysis, but in minor keys; could be super helpfull
Very useful and well explained material, as usual. Always the best, dear Mr. Larsen! Please give us another video about using functional harmony concepts for making solid lines through the changes!!
Btw... You are completely opened my mind to theory. I had no idea how amazing theoretic knowledge could be. I have a life time of stuff here. Thank you so much again from Milwaukee, WI, USA
Jens you have given me new language & direction to communicate with my keyboard player - what is natural for a keyboardist is often work for guitar but this helps to level the playing field so to speak...
This video REALLY helped me connect a lot of dots that I've been struggling to connect for almost a decade. I feel like I've been unable to connect jazz chord progressions into the fundamentals of music theory which has basically paralyzed my ability to create any new sounding chord progressions. As a result I've basically written 0 jazz music even though I've wanted to and even took a jazz theory course in college that didn't do me much good in my honest opinion. Really excited to take this to the piano.
Wow this is a great lesson and has straightened a few things out for me. Fairly familiar with these concepts except the idea of boiling a progression down to these three elements, and on top of that, the flexibility this approach offers, and indeed reducing the mental load. Thanks again for sharing Jens.
You continue to amaze me with the clarity and importance of your content. Not just telling someone to use Dorian over a min7 chord. But how we think as jazz musicians. I share your videos with my own students to reinforce what I’ve been teaching. Your approach is great, and helps out my more advanced students. Thank you
you are right, telling "play dorian on m7" it s like giving a fish to someone instead of teaching him how to fish, and i have lost so much time in complex concept while in reality it comes to very easy and simple concept to understand. Jens gives the way to see the broader picture instead of the small window
This is a very intriguing concept to me as a self-taught amateur. Chord function, never really thought of them this way, but it makes sense. I am not yet sure I have completely wrapped my mind around it yet, but it is definitely something to keep investigating. Thanks for the lesson.
You hit some great concepts. For me, anything jazz, rock, country always can break down to tonic, sub, dominant. A good way to “dial back” is taking rhythm changes and playing around the root key. In Bb, even the G7(with a major 3rd in it) can be treated with a Bb major scale, giving a b3 bluesy sound over the G7. Sequences and little motifs are way easier by grouping chords together as long as you catch important chord tone movement like you said. Thanks
This is single-handedly the best video lesson I've seen on chord theory!! Can't believe I went all these years without knowing this - thank you so much Jens!
Jens, thanks again. I do think in functional harmony, what has happened in my personal process is that I started as a "pentatonic" "free mayor scale/natural minor player" playing over changes. Then I realized I was not skillful in describing harmony with single note soloing. Then I started playing more arpegios with emphasis on 3d's and 7th's and started to understand harmony description, this meant thinking through every chord. Then I did not wanted to be too literal in what's going on, so I started to think more on tonalities that hold entire chords progressions and trust my ear, and now my ear create very free lines that actually describe harmony too but in a more interested way. As today, I am in the process of learning to organize my vocabulary in terms of diatonic/ outside/ angular/ tertian / very chromatic/ slightly chromatic/ etc...
This is a great lesson. I am learning Jazz especially by listening and copying great musicians (and of course improvising) and this is why your lesson is fantastic: you are able to articulate clearly what I am learning while copying. Music consists mainly of building and releasing tension. Tonal, Subdominant, Dominant. A song is like a journey from the beginning point (tonal) to very far places (much tension/dominant) or to very near places (not to much tension/subdominant). That idea helps me to think ahead and to understand music. It helps also when learning a song by heart.
Excellent video Jens. I understood many substitutions and chord functions but you connected the dots for me with this video. The examples doing chordal substitutions and common lines over different progressions brought it home to my ears. Thankyou.
Jens I find that I actually learn more watching your less technical videos which focus on the basics as it helps reinforce my study and realise playing something simple very well is better than playing lots of things without focus. Everytime I am getting ahead of myself I watch a video like this and it makes me go back to the nuts and bolts. Thanks again!
Excellent! A lot of modern jazz standards are filled with ii-V (without going to I), and they go by pretty quickly. I have often just used m7 or dom7 arpeggios or relative major/minor scale ideas on each of them, which leads to parallel and repetitive ideas. So your explanation o functional harmony really simplifies things very well. Thanks!
@@JensLarsen : Why are Em7 and Am7 considered tonic? Is it because the A and the E are a 3rd above the tonic or because Em7 is Cma9 no root while Am7 is Cmaj6?
@@jrbr549 That too, but it is not only about the notes in the chord, it is also about how the chord sounds in the key. Only looking at the notes is a little like going back to chord/scale stuff where the surrounding music doesn't matter
Great lesson. When I studied harmony and theory with Dick Grove in the late 70s some of our homework assignments were to correct chord charts of standards and show tunes and harmonize the songs with chords that had a clearly identifiable function. This way we could see the essence of the song's harmony without embellishment or confusion.
I've been trying to understand some Beatles songs and their odd harmonies and this video came right in time. Thank you so much for all this great content! ♥
Wow, this video was fantastic. I'm not into jazz and when I read/played some jazz progressions, I saw so many chords and some looked so strange that it was very difficult to memorize or change chords quickly. It took me very long to intuitively understand some things (some I never really understood) that this video easily explains in 5 minutes. Basically, with a list of which chords can play which functions you can start trying jazz things pretty much straight away. I wished I had this info before:)
As sax an guitar (not a good one :) ) player this is the most useful video I have found on your channel. The the kind of things that really change the way you think in music. Many thanks Maestro!
Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony is a good read (although sometimes needlessly verbose and philosophical) - in particular the bits about dealing with Minor tonalities and how the 6th and 7th scale degrees should be altered depending on their ascending or descending movement and ultimate functional goal. I found this more functional and fluid way of thinking helpful in jazz, where I agree that the prevailing idea of a static chord scale method can leave out the nuance of context. It matters where you came from and where you're heading! Thanks for the vids Jens. Cheers from Atlanta.
@@JensLarsen Ha! Yeah, this video just made my life a lot better. I've been working my way through a couple of jazz harmony books and books on navigating ii V I progressions and was getting bogged down in the individual chords, so this bit of wisdom has simplified things greatly.
I love your videos. This is right at the perfect level for me. I understand everything you're saying, but it's still just beyond where I am. Gives me lots to think about. Thanks! Looking forward to more vids.
What is your approach to analyzing music and does it tie into how you hear music? The 5 Chord Progressions You Need To Know For Jazz: ua-cam.com/video/7WG8d1D0QY8/v-deo.html
I think turnaround combinations all the time when i play something with functional harmony What is interesting is that your approach is to simplify and cook down the turnaround In fast "rhythm" changes, it becomes handy unless one is 100% monster bebob player I've spend alot of time finding voicings and approaches to 6 2 5 1 and avoiding playing bebob lines I'd be interested in seeing a video were you explore simplifying bebob /rythme changes into more etherique melodic improvisation and develop an interesting solo over longer periods of time And also in that context how you train periodic sense in a cooking band
@@vhollund Ok. I am not sure I understand why you would play a piece like rhythm changes not to play bebop? Then I would just pick another piece. That's a bit like trying not to play blues on a 12 bar blues to me?
This video is very informative. I think this is one of the two best videos you've produced. The other one is Only Three Jazz Scales. You've given me much to think about. Thank you Jens Larsen.
This one opened my eyes big time. Major thanks Jens. Honestly I struggle big in order to progress and you’re one of the very few people who can teach me on the spot. I couldn’t possibly thank you enough, music is my life and your helping me live it! 🎸 🎶
Last night I looked at Bill Evan's "Waltz for Debby" and was so confused on how to see the chords functionally. Your video has given me some confidence that now, I might be able to understand "Waltz for Debby" chord functions. I see that there are some UA-cam videos on "Waltz for Debby explained" that I'll them too. The timing for this video is just right -- understandable and what I need. This video is going to keep me busy for quite a while. Today, I ordered your book "Modern Jazz Guitar Concepts: Cutting Edge Jazz Guitar Techniques With Virtuoso". Thank you also for referencing 12tone. I learned something from him too. It shows that you are secure in your abilities to give outside references!
Thinking functionally about how the progression moves is fundamental in improvisation. In the same way, understand how the diatonic chords relate to their inverse (negative), especially in the case of minor subdominants, tritonal substitutes and backdoor resolution, as seen in IImin7 - IVmin6 - IMaj7, in which IVmin6 is just another V7, sharing its same function. Great video Jens ;)
Many Thanks for this superb approach to Functional harmony - i was only acquainted to Minor/Major pentatonic scales - i am sure this will be of a great help to Me for playing some basic jazz melodies - once again Many Many Thanks for your help
I spent half this video trying to find out where I'd left a second video playing. Jens, like a Hitchcock film, your stories are interesting enough to stand on their own -- they don't need the background music. We musicians, in particular, find background music distracting. That said, I always enjoy your lessons.
Very nice work Mr. Larsen. It is something that i prefer to do a lot because it provides much more possibilities and material for you to improvise and create new sound and lines. You can play A-7 arpeggio and E-7 arpeggio over a CM7 chord or Em pentatonic and Em blues scale. I like also the way Pat Martino converts everything into minor. This is something that helped me a lot and i was already thinking like that when i discovered Pat's minor thinking although i am not doing exactly the same think. Its something that a lot of players do like in G7 playing D-7 arpeggio. In C7 altered chord playing Db minor pentatonic or Eb minor pentatonic gives you all the extensions or triads lik Gb and Ab... Anyway i like your videos a lot keep doing what you are doing
Wow! Brilliant instruction! Functional harmony is a real breakthrough. I have read many people who criticized Chord-Scale Theory but then most fell short of offering another operational structure instead. Functional harmony fills the gap exactly. The next logical step came in the end; hearing functions! Would it be possible to coin a feeling or mood to functions like; question or ambiguity for subdominant chords - reasoning or argument for dominant chords - resolution, affirmation or consolation for the tonic chords? Because hearing the chord function would eliminate guesswork and enable the player to play in real time! Cheers...
Good stuff, Jens! I believe this is an extremely important concept. When I first started thinking in functional harmony it completely transformed my playing. A few thoughts: While the IVm is its own thing, it also can function in the dominant realm (especially dom-sus). In C, that Ab is like the b9 of a G7. This opens up a whole other set of things to play over that minor IV sound. Additionally, the VIm (Am7 in C), while definitely a tonic sub, can also be used as a sub-dominate sub. Am7 is a rootless Fmaj9. Again, great job and THANK YOU.
Glad you like it! Subdominant chords often are used as a transition to V, this goes for the bVI as well. It doesn't necessarily make it a dominant chord though. A thing that is sometimes overlooked is that we also can borrow dominants from minor :) And yes the VI chord can be subdominant, but off the top of my head I can only think of Polka Dots and Moon beams as a song where that happens. Do you know others?
@@JensLarsen you are right, of course, but makes for a fascinating discussion. To my ears, the minor IV has a stronger pull to the major tonic than a typical plagal cadence. Plus the fact that the backdoor dom is (as Barry Harris would say) in the same "family" of dominants and the regular dom and the tritone sub makes it cross into the dominate realm. At least a liitle bit Fm/G = G7susb9.
@@mdmellis Sure, of course, any minor subdominant with a G in the bass will sound like a sort of G7sus4. nice to see that I am not the only one in the comment section who can listen to Barry and believe that subdominants exist :D
Jensen, could you not argue that country and folk artists in the U.S. especially are using vi as a subdominant? Many songs use vi-V in the same way that rock will you IV-V
This was very helpful in explaining the application of functional harmony. I believe I've watched the 12 Tone video in the past (dude is awesome), but I kinda sat on the information. This has really helped fill in the gaps and shown the possibilities of its application. Thanks again!
I really enjoyed many of your videos. And this simplification. Or distillation of the chord progression is a great way of thinking. But I wish you would put it into context. Analyze a standard in this way. All the things you are, something like that. I'd love to see your thoughts on it.
Thank you! Making a video like this about a song would exclude everyone that does not know the song, so that is not a very good way to approach it in my experience. But you can check out some of the videos I have done on analyzing standards in the past: ua-cam.com/video/pAnT_wi2WJY/v-deo.html
@@JensLarsen I love playing around with the concept of repurposing licks, melodies, and runs that I normally use in a different harmonic context. Simplifying chords into their functions as well as seeing alternative chords you can use that perform the same function makes this all come together for me. Just need to start playing around with it now. You gave me a nice roadmap. Thank you.
What I really meant was, brilliant lesson! Just my oblique British humour and way of expressing myself. Thanks for another great lesson... it does make a lot of sense and my summary was a bit crap. Keep them coming, I am certainly a big fan!
one of my favorite things is the vii half diminished is actually Dominant but it can also be substituted for Subdominant if you think of it like a Dorian blues scale
Yes Jens, I totally agree with this method of thinking! I've found you can do the same with understanding lines in transcription or playing what you can hear. Instead of thinking about the individual notes you can think about: Where the line starts (maybe on the 9 or 7th or 3rd etc). Is it an ascending/ descending phrase. Is it an Arp, scale, pentatonic or chromatic approach/ enclosure? (These are the most common but sometimes it might be something really rhythmic sticking around only a couple of notes. Obviously a phrase is usually a combination of multiple). Finally, where does it resolve to/ end? If you think about this generally rather than getting caught in the details it's really useful for transcription and playing the lines you really hear! Thanks again, great lesson
Another great lesson Jens, Thank you. We need to meditate around the content at least a month, some other 2 until we are able to turn it to 'reality on the neck'. Anyway, a fantastic lesson.
I like that you have some jazz going on in the background while you're talking. even on a jazz channel, the music is still relegated to wallpaper! haha.
Exellent lesson ! i think that's how joe pass was also thinking when improvising, only he wasn't thinking in term of subdominant chords as they were part of the dominant chords in his approach i think
Thanks a lot for this lesson it was very great. I had a more intuitive notion of chord functions. To me they are tools to steer the energy and tention of a piece and i also listen to music in those terms. Usually the tonic is expressed in a calm way and without much extreme tentions. As a line progresses to subdominant part, it increases in tention to end up in a dominant climax with most tention. Dominant chords almost scream out to find their sollution back into the tonic or a new tonic. This simple movement of drive, energy and tention/ sollution is expressed in so many ways and can be accellerated or slowed down by making the phrase or progression longer or shorter. It's like the tool to manipulate the 'drive' each song has. Notes want to go somewhere and i call that the 'drive'. But i never understood substitute chords very well, or i did but was not confident enough about it, and therefore i did not use them much when improvising ( i ty to make use of inversions of hords and use empbellishing chords) You can now imagine that it was almost undoable to make a good sounding 'jazz' line that also had the jazz in it. So again, thank you very much this lesson will create a giant leap in my playing !!!!!
I was aware of diatonic substitutions but often wondered why some of my lines sounded better than others. Thanks for giving me another piece of the jigsaw..;-))
Just to restore key agnosticity to the conversation, I just want to clarify that at 3:28 when we speak of Minor Subdominant variants, we're talking about ivm7, ivm6, ivmMaj7 bVII7 (backdoor dominant) iiø, bVIMaj7, bIImaj7 Left here for those who find it helpful ;)
This is actually a fantistic video. Thanks jens. Particularily great example around 10 min with the same over different progressions where the chords subs are essentially a similar function. Thankyou :-)
I love your theory videos, but have you ever considered doing a video on tone? I would like to hear about how you craft your tone (amp, guitar, etc). I thought about it because I noticed the Strat on your wall. I'd be curious to hear you play jazz on that.
Here are a few videos with the strat, the last one is on getting a jazz tone Fender '92 SRV Stratocaster videos: ua-cam.com/play/PLWYuNvZPqqcGFoptqOrg1H62fDwZ0TzNz.html
I am working on Donna Lee on piano mostly. I have found that song is a treasure trove of applied music theory. Have you ever did a a theory video on it ? I would really like to get that song down. Started playing uke and harmonica about 8. Still learning things every day I'll watch the one in the description. THANKS.
@@JensLarsen That will work fine. I generally gravitate to doing these songs on guitar rather than piano. I have noticed that anything like that is a weakness. I have also noticed that , for me this is a sign to work on that. Eg .awhile back, I realized I had favorite keys .so I started playing in my least favorite keys It has made me a better musician..better improvisor and much more. Been on you tube .since 2007..started piano channel in 2013..had 2 subscribers till 2 years ago .we weren't called you tubers back then.
I was taught that the bVII7 (or back door dominant as you refer to it) DOES function as a dominant chord because the justification of its use is as a tritone sub of the III7 which is the V of vi-7, which can be I major 7 as a result of a common tone substitution between vi-7 and I major 7. I assume that ultimately, both interpretations are valid, but the different approaches to the chord would yield extremely different results, ie when I approach such a chord, I target the tritone and root pretty heavily to accentuate the dominant function that I perceive.
Yes, I can see how that works, but I do think that tritone sub thing is a bit of a stretch, mostly because there almost never are any songs that go bVII7 VIm7 so the ear already hears it as resolving to C rather than a surprise instead of A minor (at least that is what I found when I just tried. You can also test it if you try to play C Bb7 C at the end of a song, I am pretty sure you don't really expect it to go to Am) As for different results in improvising: I don't think so, you will end up with F melodic minor in both cases and the Ab and D are also the two strongest note in the IVm sound (typically an Fm6).
What interests me are the IVm substitutions. I suppose the A - Ab - G voice leading is what the alternative progressions have in common. I wasn't aware that IV - IVm was common in jazz, though I recognize it in other genres; e.g. Every Breath You Take, Pretty Good at Drinking Beer. You could get lost down a rabbit hole, trying to recognize Dm7 - Dbmaj7 - Cmaj7 as a IV - IVm progression. The line - Ab G F G Ab Bb G F - avoids C or D anything, so I suppose other substitutions like D7, Do7, or Db7 are possible.
Your videos are always great. I found the background music a bit distracting though. Its a fairly complicated subject when first introduced to it, and while processing what you had just said, I had that feeling you get when you are looking for an address in a foreign city; where you want to turn the music off so you can think better? Anyway, keep up the good work.
The quality level of your lessons is unbelievable.
This is currently my favourite channel on UA-cam. Thank you for sharing all this information so clearly 🙏
Wow, thank you!
That is how I learned harmony in 78. it's always good to be reminded because it gives you so many directions to take the music, Thanks, Jens!
Great! I had the impression they did not teach like that so early :)
@@JensLarsen Yes it was early but my teacher just finished 3 years at Berkley college in Boston, so I was lucky at that time
One of the most enlightening, pragmatic, and helpful jazz harmony videos I've ever seen!
Thank you very much! :)
The four years of learning jazz piano, your video helped me truly understand how to think of functional harmony. I definitely think this subject is overlooked by A LOT of jazz piano teachers/youtubers. You don't know how grateful to you because I could not articulate how I didn't understand functional harmony so I would get the basic bread and butter answers online.
I guess a problem in learning jazz is interpreting it in such a way the person on the receiving end will understand it. Although from what I've learned, I think jazz is something you HAVE to self teach but also have another jazz brain (that's ahead of you) stray you the "right" direction.
Thanks for this video!
This is like 4 years of experience in just a few minutes thank you so much
You are very welcome! I am glad you like it 🙂
Or just play on mushrooms and you’ll connect the dots
@@xmendoza2389 Not how it works buddy.
I think I've been playing for 13 years now and I still don't get it
This is absolutely life changing; chord changes I previously had to think so hard about are so much easier
Thank you so much
So glad to hear that! 🙂
@@JensLarsen Just a Quick question tho, can MinMaj7 function tonic chords as well as subdominant minor chords? Eg the sequence is F#min7b5, B7, EminMaj7, Amin7.
How would you think of this EminMaj7 when improvising?
Thank you tons again
@@omarhamouda9512 Yes, the type of chord doesn't say too much about the function. A minor chord can be tonic or subdominant, a dim chord can be subdominant or dominant.
@@omarhamouda9512 And in that progression you have II V I IV in E minor
@@JensLarsen Okay yep that clears things up, thank you:)
You should defo consider making a similiar video about condensing progressions with functional analysis, but in minor keys; could be super helpfull
Very useful and well explained material, as usual. Always the best, dear Mr. Larsen!
Please give us another video about using functional harmony concepts for making solid lines through the changes!!
Thank you! Did you check out these videos: ua-cam.com/video/RGfmYLirg1I/v-deo.html
Btw... You are completely opened my mind to theory. I had no idea how amazing theoretic knowledge could be. I have a life time of stuff here. Thank you so much again from Milwaukee, WI, USA
Glad to hear it!
Thanks for editing all your video on jazz guitar topics. Very clear and well done. Please continue to cover also additional jazz standards.
Jens you have given me new language & direction to communicate with my keyboard player - what is natural for a keyboardist is often work for guitar but this helps to level the playing field so to speak...
This video REALLY helped me connect a lot of dots that I've been struggling to connect for almost a decade. I feel like I've been unable to connect jazz chord progressions into the fundamentals of music theory which has basically paralyzed my ability to create any new sounding chord progressions. As a result I've basically written 0 jazz music even though I've wanted to and even took a jazz theory course in college that didn't do me much good in my honest opinion. Really excited to take this to the piano.
Wow this is a great lesson and has straightened a few things out for me. Fairly familiar with these concepts except the idea of boiling a progression down to these three elements, and on top of that, the flexibility this approach offers, and indeed reducing the mental load. Thanks again for sharing Jens.
Glad it was helpful 🙂
Thanks for another great lesson! That really helped me connecting a bunch of dots together!
Glad it was helpful!
You continue to amaze me with the clarity and importance of your content. Not just telling someone to use Dorian over a min7 chord.
But how we think as jazz musicians.
I share your videos with my own students to reinforce what I’ve been teaching. Your approach is great, and helps out my more advanced students.
Thank you
Thank you very much, Paul! That really makes my day to hear 🙂
you are right, telling "play dorian on m7" it s like giving a fish to someone instead of teaching him how to fish, and i have lost so much time in complex concept while in reality it comes to very easy and simple concept to understand. Jens gives the way to see the broader picture instead of the small window
This is a very intriguing concept to me as a self-taught amateur. Chord function, never really thought of them this way, but it makes sense. I am not yet sure I have completely wrapped my mind around it yet, but it is definitely something to keep investigating. Thanks for the lesson.
I've never thought about listening for the functions of the tune. I appreciate your lessons so much. You allow me to think as I play. Thx Jens
You hit some great concepts. For me, anything jazz, rock, country always can break down to tonic, sub, dominant. A good way to “dial back” is taking rhythm changes and playing around the root key. In Bb, even the G7(with a major 3rd in it) can be treated with a Bb major scale, giving a b3 bluesy sound over the G7. Sequences and little motifs are way easier by grouping chords together as long as you catch important chord tone movement like you said. Thanks
Glad you like it Jimmy :)
I've been watching your lessons for just a few days and have already made massive progress! Thank you!
You're very welcome! I am glad you like them! 🙂
This is single-handedly the best video lesson I've seen on chord theory!! Can't believe I went all these years without knowing this - thank you so much Jens!
Glad it was helpful! 🙂
Wow, Jens, this is pure gold! It's as if you're giving us the best kept secrets. You'll make jazz guitarists of us all! ;)
Jens, thanks again. I do think in functional harmony, what has happened in my personal process is that I started as a "pentatonic" "free mayor scale/natural minor player" playing over changes. Then I realized I was not skillful in describing harmony with single note soloing. Then I started playing more arpegios with emphasis on 3d's and 7th's and started to understand harmony description, this meant thinking through every chord. Then I did not wanted to be too literal in what's going on, so I started to think more on tonalities that hold entire chords progressions and trust my ear, and now my ear create very free lines that actually describe harmony too but in a more interested way. As today, I am in the process of learning to organize my vocabulary in terms of diatonic/ outside/ angular/ tertian / very chromatic/ slightly chromatic/ etc...
Sounds like you are on the right track :)
This is a great lesson. I am learning Jazz especially by listening and copying great musicians (and of course improvising) and this is why your lesson is fantastic: you are able to articulate clearly what I am learning while copying. Music consists mainly of building and releasing tension. Tonal, Subdominant, Dominant. A song is like a journey from the beginning point (tonal) to very far places (much tension/dominant) or to very near places (not to much tension/subdominant). That idea helps me to think ahead and to understand music. It helps also when learning a song by heart.
You're very welcome, Simon! I think that is a very good description of a lot of what is going on in the music :)
This video just awnsered my doubt of dominant and subdominant thanks a lot Jens, great as always
Glad to hear it!
Such a great teacher and lesson. Much thanks, Jens!
Excellent video Jens. I understood many substitutions and chord functions but you connected the dots for me with this video. The examples doing chordal substitutions and common lines over different progressions brought it home to my ears. Thankyou.
Glad you find it useful, Jeff!
Jens I find that I actually learn more watching your less technical videos which focus on the basics as it helps reinforce my study and realise playing something simple very well is better than playing lots of things without focus. Everytime I am getting ahead of myself I watch a video like this and it makes me go back to the nuts and bolts. Thanks again!
Excellent! A lot of modern jazz standards are filled with ii-V (without going to I), and they go by pretty quickly. I have often just used m7 or dom7 arpeggios or relative major/minor scale ideas on each of them, which leads to parallel and repetitive ideas. So your explanation o functional harmony really simplifies things very well. Thanks!
Great that you find it useful! :)
Usually I can follow right along with you. This is a video that's going to take me some time to digest. Good stuff.
Thank you! You can always ask if something is unclear 🙂
@@JensLarsen : Why are Em7 and Am7 considered tonic? Is it because the A and the E are a 3rd above the tonic or because Em7 is Cma9 no root while Am7 is Cmaj6?
@@jrbr549 That too, but it is not only about the notes in the chord, it is also about how the chord sounds in the key. Only looking at the notes is a little like going back to chord/scale stuff where the surrounding music doesn't matter
Great lesson. When I studied harmony and theory with Dick Grove in the late 70s some of our homework assignments were to correct chord charts of standards and show tunes and harmonize the songs with chords that had a clearly identifiable function. This way we could see the essence of the song's harmony without embellishment or confusion.
Thank you! Yes we did that as well :)
I've been trying to understand some Beatles songs and their odd harmonies and this video came right in time.
Thank you so much for all this great content! ♥
Glad you like it! :)
I loved it!
Wow, this video was fantastic. I'm not into jazz and when I read/played some jazz progressions, I saw so many chords and some looked so strange that it was very difficult to memorize or change chords quickly. It took me very long to intuitively understand some things (some I never really understood) that this video easily explains in 5 minutes. Basically, with a list of which chords can play which functions you can start trying jazz things pretty much straight away. I wished I had this info before:)
Really glad you like it! :)
As sax an guitar (not a good one :) ) player this is the most useful video I have found on your channel. The the kind of things that really change the way you think in music. Many thanks Maestro!
Glad to hear that Marcos! It is great when the videos are useful beyond guitar 🙂
Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony is a good read (although sometimes needlessly verbose and philosophical) - in particular the bits about dealing with Minor tonalities and how the 6th and 7th scale degrees should be altered depending on their ascending or descending movement and ultimate functional goal. I found this more functional and fluid way of thinking helpful in jazz, where I agree that the prevailing idea of a static chord scale method can leave out the nuance of context. It matters where you came from and where you're heading! Thanks for the vids Jens. Cheers from Atlanta.
Glad you like it :)
Thank you Jens! Another great lesson and such an easy way to talk about this huge jazz theory chapter !
Glad it was helpful!
hey mate you are my super hero....!!! love your class....I am learning a lot ....thanks for ever
Great that you can put it to use 🙂
This video may have just changed my life.
For the better, I hope?
@@JensLarsen Ha! Yeah, this video just made my life a lot better. I've been working my way through a couple of jazz harmony books and books on navigating ii V I progressions and was getting bogged down in the individual chords, so this bit of wisdom has simplified things greatly.
That's really great to hear :) Playing changes is an important skill, but playing music is more important!
agree!!!
I got a separate notebook just for this channel. Amazing stuff.
Thank you 🙂 👍
I love your videos. This is right at the perfect level for me. I understand everything you're saying, but it's still just beyond where I am. Gives me lots to think about.
Thanks! Looking forward to more vids.
Glad you find it useful 👍🙂
What is your approach to analyzing music and does it tie into how you hear music?
The 5 Chord Progressions You Need To Know For Jazz: ua-cam.com/video/7WG8d1D0QY8/v-deo.html
I think turnaround combinations all the time when i play something with functional harmony
What is interesting is that your approach is to simplify and cook down the turnaround
In fast "rhythm" changes, it becomes handy unless one is 100% monster bebob player
I've spend alot of time finding voicings and approaches to 6 2 5 1 and avoiding playing bebob lines
I'd be interested in seeing a video were you explore simplifying bebob /rythme changes into more etherique melodic improvisation and develop an interesting solo over longer periods of time
And also in that context how you train periodic sense in a cooking band
@@vhollund Ok. I am not sure I understand why you would play a piece like rhythm changes not to play bebop? Then I would just pick another piece. That's a bit like trying not to play blues on a 12 bar blues to me?
Hello. How can I purchase your book called jazz with DVD?
@@rogerjeune9034 I have a book for sale on my website, link in the description of this video. I don't have any DVD's out
This video is very informative. I think this is one of the two best videos you've produced. The other one is Only Three Jazz Scales. You've given me much to think about. Thank you Jens Larsen.
This one opened my eyes big time. Major thanks Jens. Honestly I struggle big in order to progress and you’re one of the very few people who can teach me on the spot. I couldn’t possibly thank you enough, music is my life and your helping me live it! 🎸 🎶
Last night I looked at Bill Evan's "Waltz for Debby" and was so confused on how to see the chords functionally. Your video has given me some confidence that now, I might be able to understand "Waltz for Debby" chord functions. I see that there are some UA-cam videos on "Waltz for Debby explained" that I'll them too.
The timing for this video is just right -- understandable and what I need. This video is going to keep me busy for quite a while.
Today, I ordered your book "Modern Jazz Guitar Concepts: Cutting Edge Jazz Guitar Techniques With Virtuoso".
Thank you also for referencing 12tone. I learned something from him too. It shows that you are secure in your abilities to give outside references!
Glad you liked it! I hope you enjoy the book!
Again this is a great explanation. Some of the thing I hear and play, start to makes sense now :) Thanks a million!
Great to hear!
Great video and awesome job driving these points home.
Glad you enjoyed it!
BraVO .... Good teachings. I have saved lots of your vids. I am determined to Learn More and I am in Way.......Over my Head.. but Loving It. 🌴🌴🌴🌴
Thinking functionally about how the progression moves is fundamental in improvisation. In the same way, understand how the diatonic chords relate to their inverse (negative), especially in the case of minor subdominants, tritonal substitutes and backdoor resolution, as seen in IImin7 - IVmin6 - IMaj7, in which IVmin6 is just another V7, sharing its same function. Great video Jens ;)
Exactly! :) Glad you like the video!
Thanks so much again , Jens! Helps make sense and simplify progressions on which I am trying to improvise.
Glad you like it, Scott 🙂
This is really profound, thanks for posting this lesson Jens!
You're very welcome Andreas!
Really helpful lesson, glad you linked to it today
Glad it was helpful, Frank!
Really great material to work on my jazz playing. Jens, you are an amazing teacher. Love your content
You're very welcome! Glad you like it!
Wow, Jens, such a useful lesson! Thank you! I have yet to try it, but it's opened my ears to stuff I knew but didn't know I knew. The best!
Thank you, Dan
Many Thanks for this superb approach to Functional harmony - i was only acquainted to Minor/Major pentatonic scales - i am sure this will be of a great help to Me for playing some basic jazz melodies - once again Many Many Thanks for your help
I spent half this video trying to find out where I'd left a second video playing. Jens, like a Hitchcock film, your stories are interesting enough to stand on their own -- they don't need the background music. We musicians, in particular, find background music distracting. That said, I always enjoy your lessons.
A really excellent and very helpful lesson, many thanks again Jens!
You're very welcome! :)
Great lesson Jens!
Thank you very much, Emanuel! Praise from a colleague is always great 🙂
Very nice work Mr. Larsen.
It is something that i prefer to do a lot
because it provides much more possibilities
and material for you to improvise and create new sound
and lines.
You can play A-7 arpeggio and E-7 arpeggio over a CM7 chord or Em pentatonic and Em blues scale.
I like also the way Pat Martino converts everything into minor.
This is something that helped me a lot and i was already thinking like that when i discovered Pat's minor thinking although i am not doing exactly the same think.
Its something that a lot of players do like in G7 playing D-7 arpeggio.
In C7 altered chord playing Db minor pentatonic or Eb minor pentatonic gives you all the extensions or triads lik Gb and Ab...
Anyway i like your videos a lot keep doing what you are doing
Thanks Spyros! You can indeed use those arpeggios too, though that is a slightly different topic than this video :)
Wow! Brilliant instruction! Functional harmony is a real breakthrough. I have read many people who criticized Chord-Scale Theory but then most fell short of offering another operational structure instead. Functional harmony fills the gap exactly. The next logical step came in the end; hearing functions! Would it be possible to coin a feeling or mood to functions like; question or ambiguity for subdominant chords - reasoning or argument for dominant chords - resolution, affirmation or consolation for the tonic chords? Because hearing the chord function would eliminate guesswork and enable the player to play in real time! Cheers...
Good stuff, Jens! I believe this is an extremely important concept. When I first started thinking in functional harmony it completely transformed my playing. A few thoughts: While the IVm is its own thing, it also can function in the dominant realm (especially dom-sus). In C, that Ab is like the b9 of a G7. This opens up a whole other set of things to play over that minor IV sound. Additionally, the VIm (Am7 in C), while definitely a tonic sub, can also be used as a sub-dominate sub. Am7 is a rootless Fmaj9. Again, great job and THANK YOU.
Glad you like it! Subdominant chords often are used as a transition to V, this goes for the bVI as well. It doesn't necessarily make it a dominant chord though. A thing that is sometimes overlooked is that we also can borrow dominants from minor :)
And yes the VI chord can be subdominant, but off the top of my head I can only think of Polka Dots and Moon beams as a song where that happens. Do you know others?
@@JensLarsen you are right, of course, but makes for a fascinating discussion. To my ears, the minor IV has a stronger pull to the major tonic than a typical plagal cadence. Plus the fact that the backdoor dom is (as Barry Harris would say) in the same "family" of dominants and the regular dom and the tritone sub makes it cross into the dominate realm. At least a liitle bit Fm/G = G7susb9.
@@mdmellis Sure, of course, any minor subdominant with a G in the bass will sound like a sort of G7sus4.
nice to see that I am not the only one in the comment section who can listen to Barry and believe that subdominants exist :D
Jensen, could you not argue that country and folk artists in the U.S. especially are using vi as a subdominant? Many songs use vi-V in the same way that rock will you IV-V
@@khbgkh The melody mostly then suggest tonic and not subdominant in those progressions, so actually I don't think so.
I love these videos I'm late to the party but he's the best. Absolute beast. And seems hella nice too
Thank you! :)
Thank you!
This was very helpful in explaining the application of functional harmony. I believe I've watched the 12 Tone video in the past (dude is awesome), but I kinda sat on the information. This has really helped fill in the gaps and shown the possibilities of its application. Thanks again!
You're very welcome Zach. I am glad you like the video
Such a useful, thorough and well explained lesson. Thank you Jens.
Glad you like it Matt! :)
Thankyou so much, this is a gold for me, i've been searching a lot of videos and lesson about this, but this one kicks me out 😂
That's great! Glad you like it!
Awesome video! Thanks Jens.
You're very welcome, Andrew 🙂
I don't understand all of this yet, but I get enough to find it very interesting and making sense to me in essence. Thanks!
Just keep at it :)
I really enjoyed many of your videos. And this simplification. Or distillation of the chord progression is a great way of thinking. But I wish you would put it into context. Analyze a standard in this way. All the things you are, something like that. I'd love to see your thoughts on it.
Thank you! Making a video like this about a song would exclude everyone that does not know the song, so that is not a very good way to approach it in my experience. But you can check out some of the videos I have done on analyzing standards in the past: ua-cam.com/video/pAnT_wi2WJY/v-deo.html
Fantastic lesson. You just simplified my life. I was listening to this lesson and I could visualize the fretboard while doing bench presses. :)
Really glad you like it, Joe!
@@JensLarsen I love playing around with the concept of repurposing licks, melodies, and runs that I normally use in a different harmonic context. Simplifying chords into their functions as well as seeing alternative chords you can use that perform the same function makes this all come together for me. Just need to start playing around with it now. You gave me a nice roadmap. Thank you.
What I really meant was, brilliant lesson! Just my oblique British humour and way of expressing myself. Thanks for another great lesson... it does make a lot of sense and my summary was a bit crap. Keep them coming, I am certainly a big fan!
No worries, Paul. It's difficult to know exactly what people mean in YT comments :) Glad you like the video!
Very helpful video, thanks Jens.
My pleasure!
more jewelry ads on this channel again ..., oh right it is because the lessons are GOLD , that was very useful thank you very much
Haha! Thanks, Omar!
Great video - please continue to dive into more details of jazz harmony
Thanks Ray! I already have a lot of videos on theory, so just have a look around :)
one of my favorite things is the vii half diminished is actually Dominant but it can also be substituted for Subdominant if you think of it like a Dorian blues scale
Yes Jens, I totally agree with this method of thinking! I've found you can do the same with understanding lines in transcription or playing what you can hear. Instead of thinking about the individual notes you can think about:
Where the line starts (maybe on the 9 or 7th or 3rd etc).
Is it an ascending/ descending phrase.
Is it an Arp, scale, pentatonic or chromatic approach/ enclosure? (These are the most common but sometimes it might be something really rhythmic sticking around only a couple of notes. Obviously a phrase is usually a combination of multiple).
Finally, where does it resolve to/ end?
If you think about this generally rather than getting caught in the details it's really useful for transcription and playing the lines you really hear! Thanks again, great lesson
Subscribed! I’m so happy I found your channel.
Thank you! I hope you find something you can use 🙂
Another great lesson Jens, Thank you. We need to meditate around the content at least a month, some other 2 until we are able to turn it to 'reality on the neck'. Anyway, a fantastic lesson.
Great lesson Jens. I remember learning this years ago. I'm going to have to study more theory with you.
Thanks! Great, maybe check out some of the videos analyzing standards. There is a playlist on the Channel :)
@@JensLarsen I will Jens Thanks
I like that you have some jazz going on in the background while you're talking. even on a jazz channel, the music is still relegated to wallpaper! haha.
At least it is homemade 😂
you're a great teacher, thank you so much
Glad to hear that you find the videos useful 🙂
Exellent lesson ! i think that's how joe pass was also thinking when improvising, only he wasn't thinking in term of subdominant chords as they were part of the dominant chords in his approach i think
You certainly tell that he does that sometimes! Good observation 👍
Thanks a lot for this lesson it was very great. I had a more intuitive notion of chord functions. To me they are tools to steer the energy and tention of a piece and i also listen to music in those terms. Usually the tonic is expressed in a calm way and without much extreme tentions. As a line progresses to subdominant part, it increases in tention to end up in a dominant climax with most tention. Dominant chords almost scream out to find their sollution back into the tonic or a new tonic. This simple movement of drive, energy and tention/ sollution is expressed in so many ways and can be accellerated or slowed down by making the phrase or progression longer or shorter. It's like the tool to manipulate the 'drive' each song has. Notes want to go somewhere and i call that the 'drive'. But i never understood substitute chords very well, or i did but was not confident enough about it, and therefore i did not use them much when improvising ( i ty to make use of inversions of hords and use empbellishing chords) You can now imagine that it was almost undoable to make a good sounding 'jazz' line that also had the jazz in it. So again, thank you very much this lesson will create a giant leap in my playing !!!!!
I was aware of diatonic substitutions but often wondered why some of my lines sounded better than others. Thanks for giving me another piece of the jigsaw..;-))
Great to hear, Andrew :)
@@JensLarsen I've played countless 'better lines' this morning Jens & I'm smiling big time!! Thank you...;-))
Your lessons saved my life
Thank you! I am surprised they could, but glad you find them useful! :)
Very well explained and presented.
Thank you :)
Excellent!! Very useful video. Thanks Jens!!
Thanks, Viajerosonico1. Glad you found it useful!
@@JensLarsen Sure, it's very clear and well structured. I'm glad to follow you. Best!
Blowing my mind!
Thank you downhill2400! 🙂
Just to restore key agnosticity to the conversation, I just want to clarify that at 3:28 when we speak of Minor Subdominant variants, we're talking about
ivm7, ivm6, ivmMaj7
bVII7 (backdoor dominant)
iiø, bVIMaj7, bIImaj7
Left here for those who find it helpful ;)
Your guitar tone ohh my goddddd. I envy that tone
This is actually a fantistic video. Thanks jens. Particularily great example around 10 min with the same over different progressions where the chords subs are essentially a similar function. Thankyou :-)
Glad you like it, Paul!
I'd love to hear you do a lesson of this kind of thing on some Jobim tunes with his tricky ambiguous harmony!
Actually they are not that different from standards? Maybe a little wilder but very tonal. I guess the only real exception is The bridge of GFI?
As usual, awesomely fascinating stuff. 😎
Glad you like it!
I love your theory videos, but have you ever considered doing a video on tone? I would like to hear about how you craft your tone (amp, guitar, etc).
I thought about it because I noticed the Strat on your wall. I'd be curious to hear you play jazz on that.
Here are a few videos with the strat, the last one is on getting a jazz tone Fender '92 SRV Stratocaster videos: ua-cam.com/play/PLWYuNvZPqqcGFoptqOrg1H62fDwZ0TzNz.html
@@JensLarsen Oh, wow, thanks! I probably should have just looked more closely through your videos.
@@nairanvac79 no worries! Hope you find something you can use 🙂
I am working on Donna Lee on piano mostly. I have found that song is a treasure trove of applied music theory. Have you ever did a a theory video on it ? I would really like to get that song down. Started playing uke and harmonica about 8. Still learning things every day I'll watch the one in the description. THANKS.
Glad you like the video! I haven't done a video on Donna Lee, but the form is very similar to All Of Me which I do have a video on.
@@JensLarsen That will work fine. I generally gravitate to doing these songs on guitar rather than piano. I have noticed that anything like that is a weakness. I have also noticed that , for me this is a sign to work on that. Eg .awhile back, I realized I had favorite keys .so I started playing in my least favorite keys It has made me a better musician..better improvisor and much more. Been on you tube .since 2007..started piano channel in 2013..had 2 subscribers till 2 years ago .we weren't called you tubers back then.
When you get a chance, send me the link on all of me .I would love to do a piano video on it. The best
@@PIANOSTYLE100 You can search on the channel as well. Here is the playlist: ua-cam.com/video/frzyy30d3UY/v-deo.html
Awesome concept understandable by yours truly! Interesting to learn, as with all of your videos!
Thank you! Always great to hear that the videos are useful :)
@@JensLarsen Why of course! Keep up the great work!
Functional harmony is a german view about the chords in a scale. It is extremly helpful, maybe the most useful tool in the music theory.
I was taught that the bVII7 (or back door dominant as you refer to it) DOES function as a dominant chord because the justification of its use is as a tritone sub of the III7 which is the V of vi-7, which can be I major 7 as a result of a common tone substitution between vi-7 and I major 7. I assume that ultimately, both interpretations are valid, but the different approaches to the chord would yield extremely different results, ie when I approach such a chord, I target the tritone and root pretty heavily to accentuate the dominant function that I perceive.
Yes, I can see how that works, but I do think that tritone sub thing is a bit of a stretch, mostly because there almost never are any songs that go bVII7 VIm7 so the ear already hears it as resolving to C rather than a surprise instead of A minor (at least that is what I found when I just tried. You can also test it if you try to play C Bb7 C at the end of a song, I am pretty sure you don't really expect it to go to Am)
As for different results in improvising: I don't think so, you will end up with F melodic minor in both cases and the Ab and D are also the two strongest note in the IVm sound (typically an Fm6).
What interests me are the IVm substitutions. I suppose the A - Ab - G voice leading is what the alternative progressions have in common.
I wasn't aware that IV - IVm was common in jazz, though I recognize it in other genres; e.g. Every Breath You Take, Pretty Good at Drinking Beer.
You could get lost down a rabbit hole, trying to recognize Dm7 - Dbmaj7 - Cmaj7 as a IV - IVm progression. The line - Ab G F G Ab Bb G F - avoids C or D anything, so I suppose other substitutions like D7, Do7, or Db7 are possible.
perfect lessons. thank you
fantastic as always
Super helpful yet again, long live jens Larsen!
Thank you 🙂
Wow! amazing advice!
Your videos are always great. I found the background music a bit distracting though. Its a fairly complicated subject when first introduced to it, and while processing what you had just said, I had that feeling you get when you are looking for an address in a foreign city; where you want to turn the music off so you can think better? Anyway, keep up the good work.