I'm a guitar teacher too. I watch your videos not just to see how you approach the guitar, but also how you explain the ideas. Clear and concise, but personable and enjoyable. Thanks for the inspiration.
When I started out learning guitar 3 years ago, I never considered myself a lover of 'Jazz' as opposed to 'soul' music... But your website and videos made me realize that 'jazz' is indeed very soulful and I am totally hooked to learning from all your Jazz lessons.
Ahhh Justin Sandercoe, without whom I wouldn't be where I am today. Just played in the San Jose Jazz Festival last night! This guy taught me so much about so many things. I'm excited for a new vid on fourths! SANDERCOE FOR PRESIDENT.
Justin... your videos distinguish themselves by being really informative; giving the aspiring player 'the fishing pole' rather than 'the fish' which so many of the online tutorials tend to do...Thank you very much...
I just got my new Ibanez AS73L-TCR yesterday. I got it because Justin recommended it in one of his videos. I love the sound and I think it's a well-made guitar. I plan on spending more time on Justin's channel and even making some donations to him for all the great work he does here on UA-cam as well!
I really need to understand all the theory before playing this stuff. I have the chords under my fingers but have no real idea how to use them. Thx for the lesson(s) dude.
I try to learn something new about music each day , i just wanted to take a min and tell you how much your videos mean to me , Thank you very much for the help , some days i get discouraged about all this theory , thinking if i dont understand it by now ill never get it , but thats not true i just need to stay positive and keep pushing my self. one of these days im going to write a thank you song to you for all the help 8D
Nice I've been exploring similar shapes that I just stumbled into a few years back. Using the major scale as a math foundation, I believe your first shape example (off of a CM7 would actually, if built on 4 ths, be a B flat not a B natural )or sharp 4. Then, based on 4ths, that would make the next 4th above B flat an E flat not an E natural. That makes the first shape the minor leaning shape of your next two examples. To get a CM7 type of sound try building it off of the 5th string 7th fret ( the E Natural 3rd) and making a bar chord with your index on the same fret for the 4th & 3rd string and then your second finger on the 1st & 2 string on the 8th fret. That can be a nice chord to start Green Dolphin St. then move it up a 1/2 step again making a bar out of your index to cover 5,4 &3rd strings with your pinky playing the flat 7 in the key of C i.e. B Flat.....many of the other shapes you were using can be used for the rest of the sound, with plenty of space for single note runs or melody notes.. These shapes your teaching, can be interpreted so many ways so it really makes it fun seeing what you can come up with.
As you stated at the end, people know shapes so their mode playing is robotic and musically off. They need to know what notes are in each mode and play each mode with emphasis on the few notes that make that mode special
What a fantastic lesson, thank you Justin, yet again your easy manner and excellent prsentation skills make a difficult concept easy for a crusty like me to grasp, thank you:)
Marvelous lesson & marvelous hat Sir. I'll be playing these shapes for a while I think, like when I first found out about major 7ths. Thank you very much Sir.
Apparently, the intro to "So What", which introduces the quartal harmony, was written out by Gil Evans and played by Bill Evans and the bassist Paul Chambers.
thanks Justin, great lesson man....really appreciative of your wonderful sharing of knowledge...helped me fill in a lot of gaps in my education and made so many things make more sense to me. thanks again my friend
Gold: 5:48, 12:55. I never thought to use all the grips from the key as freely over the chord. That IV lydian grip ahhhh. The 1,4,7,3 of his F lydian over the D minor is essentially a 3,6,9,5 in context of the root. Like a dorian 6/9. I wanted to add this to my "Favorites" playlist but I didn't. I was going to add it to my "Music" playlist, but I didn't. Instead I had to invent a new playlist called "Study." This is the only vid in there so far.
I believe fourths work for jazz because they give a lot of cool "color" tones. It's rather loose. If you stack up the chords you end up with the root, fourth, seventh and third. The root, 3rd, 7th already has a jazzy style but the fourth in there is almost like a modal coloring. Idk it's just kinda loose I guess.
Well done justin ;) your lesson is so interesting, I wanna play the rythm of "so what" during while the saxophonist plays his solo, and I was a little bit "over space" and your lesson explain so well the rythm techniques that I need. Félicitations J-Pascal
When I heard the chords at the beginning, the first 2 tunes that came to mind were "So What", and "Impressions". A few minutes later, you mention them by name! Extraordinary bit of synchronicity, don't you think?
This is GREAT info and really well stated! Since these grips are for playing the chords in the Dorian mode, what grips would be used to play in the key of A major, for example? Can you at least point me in the right direction so I can find that out? Thanks!
JustinGuitar thanks for the reply! I think I get it...at least it’s taking root in my mind. So I can better grasp and since modes are newer to me, are you saying that these grips (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii•) could be played over any modern western music - major or minor progression? Thanks!
I've studied up a bit more on modes since my last response. I guess a more accurate question is *why* do these grips and/or voicings only work with the dorian mode, as you stated?
Honestly it's not entirely necessary to learn theory to be a guitarist. If music is something that comes naturally to you, then most of the theory that crafts the music will come naturally as well. Even though you may not know the specific notes, you still understand the harmonies and melodies. You understand the progression of the sounds themselves that creates good music. The knowledge of the notes, scales, arpeggios, etc. make it easier to craft music, not play an instrument.
In this context you could think of the B as a sharp fourth when played over F. The notes in the first chord he plays are CFBE. C to F is a perfect fourth. F to B is a sharp fourth. B to E is another perfect fourth.
"In this context you could think of the B as a sharp fourth." ..but wouldn't that be thinking in the context of being in the Key of F? In the video, we're in the Key of C, so think it'd be easier to think of it in the context of diatonic 4ths in the Key of C (IV to VII)
I was referring to the note directly under the B which is an F. You can still think diatonically but the fact is a B is not a perfect fourth when played over an F, it's a sharp fourth.
This example is diatonic to the key of C. In every key, there is a tritone between the fourth and seventh scale degrees (which is why the original solfege system did not have "ti" - so the "Devil's Interval" would not be heard in church music.) It is not incorrect to build these chords using all perfect fourths, but this example does not do this. I am a music teacher, and I may need to bring this conversation into my classroom for a fun "Musica Ficta" music history lesson :-)
![I VI II V Jazz Guitar Chords Variation Exercise - How to Play Jazz Guitar [JA-031]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DwJzxA6Lks8/mqdefault.jpg)
![I VI II V Jazz Guitar Chords Variation Exercise - How to Play Jazz Guitar [JA-031]](/img/tr.png)
I'm a guitar teacher too.
I watch your videos not just to see how you approach the guitar, but also how you explain the ideas.
Clear and concise, but personable and enjoyable.
Thanks for the inspiration.
When I started out learning guitar 3 years ago, I never considered myself a lover of 'Jazz' as opposed to 'soul' music... But your website and videos made me realize that 'jazz' is indeed very soulful and I am totally hooked to learning from all your Jazz lessons.
Cheers 😊 | Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Approved Teacher
Justin, you are 'The Man' when it comes to helping one bring theory alive on the fret board.
Ahhh Justin Sandercoe, without whom I wouldn't be where I am today. Just played in the San Jose Jazz Festival last night! This guy taught me so much about so many things. I'm excited for a new vid on fourths! SANDERCOE FOR PRESIDENT.
This was an excellent little 'achievement unlocked' moment. Thank you!
Yeah same here this was fundamentally life changing.
I learned 4th chords from this vid YEARS ago! Great vid!
Justin... your videos distinguish themselves by being really informative; giving the aspiring player 'the fishing pole' rather than 'the fish' which so many of the online tutorials
tend to do...Thank you very much...
One of the best jazz guitar lessons I‘ve ever seen. This concept is so versatile.
I just got my new Ibanez AS73L-TCR yesterday. I got it because Justin recommended it in one of his videos. I love the sound and I think it's a well-made guitar. I plan on spending more time on Justin's channel and even making some donations to him for all the great work he does here on UA-cam as well!
I really need to understand all the theory before playing this stuff. I have the chords under my fingers but have no real idea how to use them. Thx for the lesson(s) dude.
I try to learn something new about music each day , i just wanted to take a min and tell you how much your videos mean to me , Thank you very much for the help , some days i get discouraged about all this theory , thinking if i dont understand it by now ill never get it , but thats not true i just need to stay positive and keep pushing my self. one of these days im going to write a thank you song to you for all the help 8D
Gotta LOVE dem Quartal tones !!! THNX Justin
you would usually do it modally, but it's possible to do these based on other scales... actually not tried it, melodic minor might sound cool...
Magic of 4ths. New vistas, for sure.
Keep up the good work. & mucho thanks!
Nice I've been exploring similar shapes that I just stumbled into a few years back. Using the major scale as a math foundation, I believe your first shape example (off of a CM7 would actually, if built on 4 ths, be a B flat not a B natural )or sharp 4. Then, based on 4ths, that would make the next 4th above B flat an E flat not an E natural. That makes the first shape the minor leaning shape of your next two examples. To get a CM7 type of sound try building it off of the 5th string 7th fret ( the E Natural 3rd) and making a bar chord with your index on the same fret for the 4th & 3rd string and then your second finger on the 1st & 2 string on the 8th fret. That can be a nice chord to start Green Dolphin St. then move it up a 1/2 step again making a bar out of your index to cover 5,4 &3rd strings with your pinky playing the flat 7 in the key of C i.e. B Flat.....many of the other shapes you were using can be used for the rest of the sound, with plenty of space for single note runs or melody notes.. These shapes your teaching, can be interpreted so many ways so it really makes it fun seeing what you can come up with.
3 gold metals for Justin!!!!!!
More jazz lessons please.
As you stated at the end, people know shapes so their mode playing is robotic and musically off. They need to know what notes are in each mode and play each mode with emphasis on the few notes that make that mode special
Fantastic lesson. I learned this a while ago and also makes making arpeggios for each chord SO EASY! 🙏🙏🙏
What a fantastic lesson, thank you Justin, yet again your easy manner and excellent prsentation skills make a difficult concept easy for a crusty like me to grasp, thank you:)
Marvelous lesson & marvelous hat Sir.
I'll be playing these shapes for a while I think, like when I first found out about major 7ths.
Thank you very much Sir.
hey justin.... i just want to say thank you so much for breaking everything down for noobs like me..... take it easy
Interesting. I'd love to know the theory behind why this chords can be played over anything in key and sound good!
Apparently, the intro to "So What", which introduces the quartal harmony, was written out by Gil Evans and played by Bill Evans and the bassist Paul Chambers.
I’ve learnt something new today! Thanks a lot 👍🍷
thanks Justin, great lesson man....really appreciative of your wonderful sharing of knowledge...helped me fill in a lot of gaps in my education and made so many things make more sense to me. thanks again my friend
I love it! it looks like those chords form some sort of 11th grip. Cool way to memorize a shape.
Thanks Justin. Very helpful stuff. I wish you ALL the best!!!!
Fantastic lesson....Great explanation of how to do it...Great stuff Justin...Thank you!
Been waiting on this for ages. Thanks Justin!
Gold: 5:48, 12:55. I never thought to use all the grips from the key as freely over the chord. That IV lydian grip ahhhh. The 1,4,7,3 of his F lydian over the D minor is essentially a 3,6,9,5 in context of the root. Like a dorian 6/9. I wanted to add this to my "Favorites" playlist but I didn't. I was going to add it to my "Music" playlist, but I didn't. Instead I had to invent a new playlist called "Study." This is the only vid in there so far.
i once tried learning some tetrachords, hopefully this time some actually stick!
Thanks for making stuff like this easy to understand
Very creative lesson, I look for cool things like this and was happy to find your lesson, it was helpful to me.
4 note chords built in 4ths in 4/4 time for 4 fortnights
Thanks for the great lesson, Justin! Very coll stuf;)
I always learn something from your posts!
awesome lesson so many harmonies have opened up for me ty
And in the key of c if you change the e note to an eflat you will have the melodic minor scale built in fourths.
This is really great, many thanks Justin!
I believe fourths work for jazz because they give a lot of cool "color" tones. It's rather loose. If you stack up the chords you end up with the root, fourth, seventh and third. The root, 3rd, 7th already has a jazzy style but the fourth in there is almost like a modal coloring. Idk it's just kinda loose I guess.
Well done justin ;) your lesson is so interesting, I wanna play the rythm of "so what" during while the saxophonist plays his solo, and I was a little bit "over space"
and your lesson explain so well the rythm techniques that I need.
Félicitations
J-Pascal
thank you for "E thinking", it helps me a lot
Great Lesson (again)! Thanks for posting and congratulations on that awesome guitar! :)
new stuff for me to try. thanks justin
When I heard the chords at the beginning, the first 2 tunes that came to mind were "So What", and "Impressions". A few minutes later, you mention them by name! Extraordinary bit of synchronicity, don't you think?
Not really. It's because your ear is good enough to recognize the sounds. That's better than synchronicity. :)
Such a beautiful guitar
Thanks for all the time you devote to helping people. What amp for this video?
thanks Justin, this is really useful! I'm gonna have a lot of fun with these chords =)
Great lesson Justin!
Thank you Justin. Awesome stuff.
Wonderful ... Thanks Justin..
Nice solo at the start Justin!
awesome lesson opened a new door thx Sir Justin
I like these chords. damn good stuff in here
Nice! A shout out to one of my very favorites -- Bill Evans...
Great lesson as always
Great video, many thanks!
What a beautiful guitar, man!!
Thank you Justin!
Nice! Thanks Justin! Great lesson!
Please do some lessons on jazz lead guitar!!! :)
Thanks for this lesson, helps a lot!
Good stuff, I like your Lessons :)
This is GREAT info and really well stated! Since these grips are for playing the chords in the Dorian mode, what grips would be used to play in the key of A major, for example? Can you at least point me in the right direction so I can find that out? Thanks!
Dorian is 2nd mode of a key right. so D dorian would be same as all the other C modes, E phry, F lyd, G mixo etc :) goddit?
JustinGuitar thanks for the reply! I think I get it...at least it’s taking root in my mind. So I can better grasp and since modes are newer to me, are you saying that these grips (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii•) could be played over any modern western music - major or minor progression? Thanks!
I've studied up a bit more on modes since my last response. I guess a more accurate question is *why* do these grips and/or voicings only work with the dorian mode, as you stated?
love this lesson!
Honestly it's not entirely necessary to learn theory to be a guitarist. If music is something that comes naturally to you, then most of the theory that crafts the music will come naturally as well. Even though you may not know the specific notes, you still understand the harmonies and melodies. You understand the progression of the sounds themselves that creates good music. The knowledge of the notes, scales, arpeggios, etc. make it easier to craft music, not play an instrument.
Cool stuff!
He has the vial of youth
great lesson!
What amplifier do you used in this video? And what ES is that? This sound is amazing!
Cool lesson :)
thanks
Ha, we'll hang around in D because... well we are in D ;) don't want anyone going too modal!!
hey justin, what kind of strings did you use here? gauge, type of material and kind of winding (round, flat)? thanks a lot...!! great lesson btw! :)
great lesson - thanks for this new inspiration!!!:):)
sounds great..hey justtin do you think you could do a lesson for the jazzy song 'misty' please..
Thanks a lot.
still the best,,
thanks bro...
Thank god there isn't some douche saying "First!"
Awesome lesson as always Justin. I've been getting into Jazz lately, so this is a great help :)
thanks so much brain download complete.
how do you go about stacking 4ths in a minor chord progression?
Justin your fingerboard could do with some divots filled which would give you way better play-ability (-;
It's actually the wood's natural imperfections that creates an illusion of dents. Lol I used to think it was a hole.
Justin could you show the Dorian Bass line please?
You cant figure that out by ear?
Thanks for a great vid!
Man, how many gibbies do you own?? lol
Interesting
Wow, you need strong fingers to do these grips!
you are just delicious - i once experimented with chords on bass - using the root note, it's 4th and their octaves each.
Are you using standard tuning?
which loop pedal are you using?
Maybe I heard you!
literally just stared at the 335 for the whole lesson
I play guitar and I still don't what this guys on about
what changed?
I think I just creamed myself
Sounds like Barney Kessel.
shouldn't it be C F Bb (Eb) if it's in fourths? An F to a B is a flat 5th.
Khasab it's a raised 4th because B is a sharp Bb because Bb is the 4 of F
ahaha. me 2. i'm heading to ebay right now.
Why are the I, IV, and V shape different?
Never mind.....I figured it out
Maybe I haven't got it but F to B isn't a fourth ... F to Bflat is ...everything else looks like a fourth to me
You can build quartal chords diatonically or using perfect 4ths. This example is diatonic (belonging to the key of C.)
In this context you could think of the B as a sharp fourth when played over F. The notes in the first chord he plays are CFBE. C to F is a perfect fourth. F to B is a sharp fourth. B to E is another perfect fourth.
"In this context you could think of the B as a sharp fourth."
..but wouldn't that be thinking in the context of being in the Key of F? In the video, we're in the Key of C, so think it'd be easier to think of it in the context of diatonic 4ths in the Key of C (IV to VII)
I was referring to the note directly under the B which is an F. You can still think diatonically but the fact is a B is not a perfect fourth when played over an F, it's a sharp fourth.
This example is diatonic to the key of C. In every key, there is a tritone between the fourth and seventh scale degrees (which is why the original solfege system did not have "ti" - so the "Devil's Interval" would not be heard in church music.) It is not incorrect to build these chords using all perfect fourths, but this example does not do this.
I am a music teacher, and I may need to bring this conversation into my classroom for a fun "Musica Ficta" music history lesson :-)