How do you work on making better chord progressions and changing it up? Check out more on Functional Harmony and Jazz: th-cam.com/video/8Lx926gI1QM/w-d-xo.html
Jens! You are a musical genius! Your explanations are insightful, instructional, and so very helpful. You inspire, entertain, motivate, and educate. Thank you for all you contribute to help us be better musicians! Thank you!
I am just a rock/blues guitarist that has been playing for 35 years. I have learned so much in the past year that I have tuned in to your lessons. Chords and melody is my favorite thing. This is a great lesson! Thank you from Houston,TX USA.
Such wonderful tonal colours ... very Ted Greene. I REALLY like the way you explain the way you arrive at these subtle pastel like chords. The sonic 'pictures' you 'note paint' are beautiful.
You're one of the best guitar teachers on TH-cam. Just giving out your lessons for free in order to help people make better music. I'm primarily a metal guitarist but I love jazz and fusion and your videos have been helping me a lot. Cheers from the US 🍻
Speechless one of your best videos so far In a II-V-I is easier to view the different harmonic options in a jazz progression than isolated chords from theory. More of these videos please. Thanks
Been watching your videos for a very long time and just wanted to say that the quality of your videos has improved drastically over the years. Your lesson have always been great, obviously your editing, lighting and delivery has improved but I personally love the way you structure these videos now. Keep up the great work mr Larsen
Jazz has always been an impossible dream for me.. love listening to it but never had a clue how it was played. Now I’m watching your videos and finding that ideas I recognise have names (octave displacement, enclosures etc) and it all seems to make more sense. This lesson was amazing and your teaching style is just perfect. Thank you so much for taking me to a completely different level of playing possibilities
Thank you so much for this video! I have been struggling with jazz for a while, but this video turned the messy soup of seemingly random chords into repeating patterns of functional harmony with different interpretations of each chord for different sounds and textures. It didn't quite click until I started playing along and hearing and feeling how each chord 'synonym' related to the original chord when substituted in the original two-five progression.
Your videos are always fantastic lessons filled with useful content. You have generously taught a LOT of guitarists (me among them) how to improve in every facet of their playing.... Thank you very much.
I just started to listen to your series. After focusing on just lead solo as a teenager I am mostly interested in harmony combined with melody less than 52 notes per second. Thank you for introducing me to the theory functional harmony with beautiful sounding examples. I know basics but not the more complex substitution ideas. 👍.
Thank you Jens for sharing your Mastery and insights. Thanks to your videos I am branching out and expanding past what I already utilize and it’s very exciting? :))
I don’t know why someone would say that you can’t use the vi chord as a subdominant lol. Considering that the IV is a subdominant, and you can substitute a minor 7 chord from the 3rd of a major chord, you could think of it like F Major 9 I think they also do it in pop music all the time 😂
This is a good lesson Jen's because I have just been playing with my fingers, no plectrum. Chords are the most important, I don't play solos. So again thanks.
Hey Jens, I really loved this lesson and the funky backing track the you used. Sort of heading into the neo-soul area. The progressions were great. Thank you for sharing! 😊🎶
I remember, years and years ago, doing “”In My Life” by the Beatles, and figuring out that the IVminor was actually melodic minor,. Same with all those b7 Dominants (Lydian Don) in other songs. Magical times. Haha.
@@JensLarsen I'd have a question: at 11:13 you say the "Dbmaj7(#11)" is another minor subdominant, but I thought it was the triton substitution (and Ab would be a minor subdom)? As Db is not present in C minor scale. Thank you.
@@iacopoantonelli1979 Dbmaj7 is the Neapolitan subdominant. It is an Fm triad with an added b6. It is not the tritone of G7 because it does not have a B
I was wondering lately, why the connection between A flat, and C major. Never realizing it’s connection to C minor. Then borrowing it for a major setting. Thanks Jens.
Yes, I think most of us do it like that, at least I was well aware that I liked the sound really a lot years before I had the theory to understand it :)
Great video once again Jens - I think the "Functional" way of looking at things is sadly overlooked - makes sense to me, though, as I was taught to think this way in the choral music (cadences) I learnt (many years ago!).
@JensLarsen I would love to see some videos on re-harmonizing modern chord progressions (especially in minor keys) not strictly following 2-5-1. For example McCoy Tyner's Contemplation. Such type of a chord progression can be found in jazz, pop, metal, etc. It could be quite interesting.
learn jazz...make music. It's a style, and it's a tool, but it's not the end all be all foryou. That's something I cherish about your music. No supremacy or elitism..just education and inspiration.
I just sang my fave French song (originally btw) that I usually do with the standard progression 😢…still exploring y reinterpreting it TY❤ Jens( I usually sing but guitar is fun y keyboards by ear anyways 😢)
You could just call the #IV subdominants Lydian subdominants since you’re raising the fourth degree (technically making it Lydian) and then resolving to tonic or dominant
Awesome video as always Jens. If you had to guess, why do you think borrowing chords from the minor key and putting them ahead of the V - I major progression sounds so good?
Hi Jens, great video for helping me to spice things up! I've always wondered how do you feel about players like Shawn Lane, Allan Holdsworth, or even Buckethead? As I've seen some Allan videos on here before.
I really like Holdsworth, the others are of course great players but not really my thing. Probably because it is more arranged and composed and not really about improvisation and interaction, but I don't know. I didn't think about it, it was just not something I felt like listening to a lot...
This is awesome, I can't wait to try some of this out. Do you have any recommendations for jazz pickups on a hollow body? I got an Ibanez AF75 and I had to replace all the pots on it, so I figured I'd replace the pickups while I'm in there. It's certainly not a great guitar so it's probably not worth putting super expensive pickups in it, but if you have any options that won't break the bank that'd be really helpful
Thanks Jacob! You could look for (2nd hand?) SD Seth Lovers. They are not super expensive if I remember correctly. That is what I have in the neck on my Ibanez.
4:51... I am really interested in your other course about boring chords 😂 Just kidding, thank you very much for you great videos that really inspire me to learn jazz guitar and music theory... Even if i have miles to go... Cheers
On the Emin7 raise the G and E notes a half step. to create D dim 7. On the Emin7 lower the D and B notes a whole step to create C Maj 6 . Lower the C and G a half step and the E a whole step to create Bmin7. " Borrowing diminished notes" apply to some or all of the chords in the progression to create melodic movement. In other words TAKE BARRY HARRIS SERIOUSLY!!! STUDY ALL THINGS BARRY HARRIS TO GET A GRIP ON THE FUNDAMENTALS. YOUR WELCOME
Would you ever do a video on the minor chord functions. I know that even though it’s debatable the chord functions in the major scale are: Tonic I III VI Subdominant II IV Dominant V VII What are the minor ones? Could you cover the three main minor scale chord functions? Great vid thanks 👍🏻
Well, Minor is a little more complicated because there are three scales at play, but maybe I will try to make a video like that. If I can figure out how to do that in an interesting way :)
Jens Larsen I’d really be interested in a video on minor functional harmony as well. In fact, I’d argue that it’s precisely because it’s more complicated that such a video is warranted. Great stuff, as always.
@@jimh77 At the same time, the minor songs tend to be a lot simpler than the major ones and staying much closer to home, if you analyze some standards in minor I am sure you can see what I mean :) I am not sure if it makes sense to go over a lot of options that are really just theoretical and not something you encounter in songs. The stuff I cover here is all pretty common in the repertoire, but the minor songs are somehow always more basic.
THANK YOU! I 've been looking for something like this for years!! I have a question though - how does that work in a context of a trio, meaning the combination of comping like this with a walking bassline? I feel like if someone starts doing crazy substitutions on top of a straightforward II-V-I bassline it's going to be a mess. I know context matters, and you can't put rules into everything, but I'm just wandering (p.s. I'm a composer and a guitarist but for the past 1-2 years I've been playing bass in jazz trios and quarters, just fyi).
I agree, this seems to aim at solo guitar, or composition, so context is important. The bass player in an ensemble is the glue that holds us all together...we need to be on the same chords, especially if you are accompanying vocalists that supply charts just before performance. Although I have found that small added chromatic chord movements, often work in the moment, without clashing with piano or bass.
When you play these alternative chords in a band situation leave out the low roots. So they don’t clash with the bass player. The upper notes will sound fine and are actually all found in the original ii/v/i any way. However if there is a pianist it gets complicated because they could choose voicings that really clash with your clever subs. Could be the subject of another lesson. I’ve personally experienced pianists who won’t play with guitar for this reason. Some pianists are willing to live with us (ha!) and the risks of clashes. I don’t like it when the guitar and the keys swap comping. It always sounds lame in my opinion. To be honest I am beginning to think that the guitar is a redundant instrument in jazz.
Can this be used when comping in a band? Doesn't that jar if the bass player is already returning to the tonic and I am suspending in my comping? Or you have discussions of this before and agree on a common strategy? Thanks
I'm wondering if the "#4 subdominant" could be interpreted as "V of V". Recently, practicing Bach sonatas and transcribing Warne Marsh solos (and messing around with certain substitutions) I kept converging on the same idea. There's a set of chords that can be reduced to the same "sound world": i.e. V of V. Essentially there's the movement of a tritone (F# & C), going to another tritone (F & B), finally to the tonic (E & B/C/A). Basically D7 to G7 to C. You can then go on to add a root and other colours, resulting in different spellings: B7 G7 C; F#half-dim Fm7 C, Ebdim G7 C or whatever.
@@JensLarsen Ah yes, it's not tonicising the V, it's acting as a predominant. I guess what I mean is there's something fundamental about that F#/C tritone to me - those are the key notes in a particular sound that seems to me to work before a dominant chord. I keep hearing it in solos. Some of the older guys (swing) made it quite explicit. They'd precede a V7 with a II7, focusing on those tritones, even if there was no such predominant chord in the changes. I don't know where they got it from but I guess the swing guys liked their dominant cycles.
@@JensLarsen Yes I suppose it's worth getting used to the #IV as a "chord class" in its own right. Night and Day bar 9 has one, and I'm pretty sure it's not a secondary dominant. Also, chords with the the #IV as root can have other secondary dominant functions, e.g. the F#7 in "A Beautiful Friendship" is the tritone sub for C7 (V of IV).
Thanks! I am not really into the through-composed with no interaction things that I have heard from King Crimson, so I never really listened to it. I have had students who really dug it, but it's not for me.
I don't have a video where I only talk about Octave Displacement, I prefer to see it as a part of the tool set you need to sound like Jazz. These videos all have sections on Octave displacement and how to make some great bop lines with it: th-cam.com/video/td2f43uohMc/w-d-xo.html
Awesome video Jens, I think I'm finally starting to keep up with you in these theory videos! One question, why did you call the Abmaj7 a "minor subdominant"? I'm a bit lost on that point.
@@asktomysis Making it a dominant would change the function to dominant (because it is a tritone sub) Both are possible. Personally, I find the Dominant suspension to be not as beautiful and a little unjazzy, but that is a matter of taste.
Wow, again so much great material to work with! Question: I've heard (Joe Pass, Mickey Baker...) say they view chords as minor, major and dominant. How does this relate to your lesson here on functional harmony?
Minor and major aren't chord functions, functions are tonic, subdominant, dominant... They didn't talk about chord functions, just about chord types, and wanted to simplify things a bit, excluding the extensions, i guess...
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How do you work on making better chord progressions and changing it up?
Check out more on Functional Harmony and Jazz: th-cam.com/video/8Lx926gI1QM/w-d-xo.html
Jens! You are a musical genius! Your explanations are insightful, instructional, and so very helpful. You inspire, entertain, motivate, and educate. Thank you for all you contribute to help us be better musicians! Thank you!
Glad you like the videos and put them to use 🙂 !
This is the best chord progression lesson I have ever encountered
Thank you! Glad you found it useful 🙂
I am just a rock/blues guitarist that has been playing for 35 years. I have learned so much in the past year that I have tuned in to your lessons. Chords and melody is my favorite thing. This is a great lesson! Thank you from Houston,TX USA.
One of yourbest lessons Jens - perfectly explained and immediately useable
Thank you, Rick!
Such wonderful tonal colours ... very Ted Greene. I REALLY like the way you explain the way you arrive at these subtle pastel like chords. The sonic 'pictures' you 'note paint' are beautiful.
Thank you so much 😀
You're one of the best guitar teachers on TH-cam. Just giving out your lessons for free in order to help people make better music.
I'm primarily a metal guitarist but I love jazz and fusion and your videos have been helping me a lot. Cheers from the US 🍻
Music theory at its best! Just what I needed! Thank you Jens!
Glad it was helpful!
Speechless one of your best videos so far
In a II-V-I is easier to view the different harmonic options in a jazz progression than isolated chords from theory.
More of these videos please.
Thanks
Thanks!. And also now I have a nice chord melody stuck in my head!
Excellent lesson, even without the Clapton riffs ;) Thanks for sharing your knowledge, skills, and heart...
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is so cool. I love that, rather than simply demonstrating the chords, you teach people how to use them.
9:54
Glad you like it 🙂
Could not be any clearer.
Mind boggling possibilities :)
Thanks!
Wow, this is seriously one of the best chord progression lessons I have ever seen. Thank you!
Glad you like it 🙂
Wow!! You have given the map of Treasure Island!! Superb lesson
As a pianist I always return to your videos. I can't help it!
Glad to hear that you can use them on piano as well! :)
Been watching your videos for a very long time and just wanted to say that the quality of your videos has improved drastically over the years.
Your lesson have always been great, obviously your editing, lighting and delivery has improved but I personally love the way you structure these videos now.
Keep up the great work mr Larsen
Thank you! Glad you think so! :)
Believe it or not I have been trying to find this information over a year on the internet. Many thanks!
so many things to learn about progressions, it makes compositioning so more fun! Great work!
Glad you think so!
@@JensLarsen Thank you so much!
Excellent video Jens. One of the most useful I’ve seen on simple substitutions. Thank-you!
Glad it was helpful!
Jens the sentence analogy is genius
Thank you :)
Jazz has always been an impossible dream for me.. love listening to it but never had a clue how it was played. Now I’m watching your videos and finding that ideas I recognise have names (octave displacement, enclosures etc) and it all seems to make more sense. This lesson was amazing and your teaching style is just perfect. Thank you so much for taking me to a completely different level of playing possibilities
Just starting this and I love that synonym analogy!
Thank you so much for this video! I have been struggling with jazz for a while, but this video turned the messy soup of seemingly random chords into repeating patterns of functional harmony with different interpretations of each chord for different sounds and textures. It didn't quite click until I started playing along and hearing and feeling how each chord 'synonym' related to the original chord when substituted in the original two-five progression.
I love this lesson. Chords are my thing.
Great! Thanks Richard
Thanks for sharing the knowledge Jens. Love that old Ibanez semi-hollow!
Thanks Sven! :)
Ridiculously handy lesson, Jens. Very nice concepts and very usable.
Glad you like it! :)
This was a breakthrough lesson for me. It was just the right tutorial at just the right time. Thank you!
Another excellent video on substitutions! Thank you!
Glad you like it 🙂
You always deliver, Jens! I'm enjoying the humor you're incorporating into your videos too. Polished stuff!
Hi Jens. I found this video really enlightening especially the approach to using the chord families for re-harmonisation.
Glad you like it 🙂
One of a kind teacher, a great insight with practical examples to fast track knowledge improvements, excellent.
Very nice Jens, I love the smooth sound of these chords moving to resolution. In my ear I can hear a lot of musical ideas unfolding.
Your videos are always fantastic lessons filled with useful content. You have generously taught a LOT of guitarists (me among them) how to improve in every facet of their playing.... Thank you very much.
i really enjoy and become a jazz player because of also you...good stuff
I just started to listen to your series. After focusing on just lead solo as a teenager I am mostly interested in harmony combined with melody less than 52 notes per second. Thank you for introducing me to the theory functional harmony with beautiful sounding examples.
I know basics but not the more complex substitution ideas.
👍.
I like how you jab at the “Jazz elitists” 😂🤣
Cool lesson, man. 😎
Thank you 🙂
Thank you Jens for sharing your Mastery and insights. Thanks to your videos I am branching out and expanding past what I already utilize and it’s very exciting? :))
You're very welcome! I am glad you like the videos! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing all this information for free!!
Glad it was helpful! You're very welcome :)
I don’t know why someone would say that you can’t use the vi chord as a subdominant lol.
Considering that the IV is a subdominant, and you can substitute a minor 7 chord from the 3rd of a major chord, you could think of it like F Major 9
I think they also do it in pop music all the time 😂
Haha! Welcome to the internet! If you are new here then grab a tinfoil hat in the corner 😂
Thank you so much sir ❤️🙏
This is a good lesson Jen's because I have just been playing with my fingers, no plectrum. Chords are the most important, I don't play solos. So again thanks.
Thank you Stuart!
Your content is so great, Jens.
Cheers from Brasil!
Hey Jens, I really loved this lesson and the funky backing track the you used. Sort of heading into the neo-soul area. The progressions were great. Thank you for sharing! 😊🎶
Very nice sounding voice-leading in the examples. Thanks!
You're very welcome, Terje :)
Man, your tone is gorgeous... Congrats
Thank you 🙂
Beautifully explained I must say!!!
great lesson Jens
Thank you! :)
Amazing video! Thanks!😁
Glad you like it 🙂
Outstanding! Thank you.
Great Lesson, fascinating subject and you make it look so easy, LOL... Thank You for the links, this will take some extra time and effort. ;-)
I subscribed bc i can learn and laugh. Well played on both counts.🍻
Thank you very much Eric!
Excelente sonido esas voces .. gracias por compartir
Wonderful video.
Thank you 🙂
Beautiful lesson!
Glad you think so!
I remember, years and years ago, doing “”In My Life” by the Beatles, and figuring out that the IVminor was actually melodic minor,. Same with all those b7 Dominants (Lydian Don) in other songs. Magical times. Haha.
Great one, Jens!
Thank you, Brad 🙂
This is so cool !!!
Glad you like it!
Great job man
Thank you! :)
WE need to learn this systematic
Go for it :)
Thank you. Very high quality content.
Glad you think so!
@@JensLarsen I'd have a question: at 11:13 you say the "Dbmaj7(#11)" is another minor subdominant, but I thought it was the triton substitution (and Ab would be a minor subdom)? As Db is not present in C minor scale. Thank you.
@@iacopoantonelli1979 Dbmaj7 is the Neapolitan subdominant. It is an Fm triad with an added b6. It is not the tritone of G7 because it does not have a B
@@JensLarsen thank you for the answer. I confused it with Db7, which is indeed the triton of G7.
I was wondering lately, why the connection between A flat, and C major. Never realizing it’s connection to C minor. Then borrowing it for a major setting. Thanks Jens.
Love your delay
Thanks Chris 🙂
Suuuper!! Nice lesson😀
Thank you! 😃
Great job Sir
Glad you like it! :)
@@JensLarsen style of your teaching is just awesome
A few videos back I asked you what a subdominant is. After this video I think I'm starting to get it.
Great! :)
I'm never this early! I do need to work on my coming though, so let's see if I can turn it into something useful :D
Go for it! :)
No complaints here😉.. thnx
No problem 👍
I LOVE THE GUITAR BRO... ITS AMAZING TUTORIAL.. I LIKE YOUR STYLE... Y PLAY ALSO TRUMPET AND KEYBOARDS AND LITTLE BASS GUITAR
Thank you! Go for it :)
Great! More!
Thanks Jens (@ 5:52), I use the #4 half diminished and diminished because they sound good to me. I just didn't know the context of their use.
Yes, I think most of us do it like that, at least I was well aware that I liked the sound really a lot years before I had the theory to understand it :)
Great video once again Jens - I think the "Functional" way of looking at things is sadly overlooked - makes sense to me, though, as I was taught to think this way in the choral music (cadences) I learnt (many years ago!).
Grandissimo
Thank you! :)
Thank you❤
@JensLarsen I would love to see some videos on re-harmonizing modern chord progressions (especially in minor keys) not strictly following 2-5-1. For example McCoy Tyner's Contemplation. Such type of a chord progression can be found in jazz, pop, metal, etc. It could be quite interesting.
Maybe, there is a chance it gets a bit too specific for it to make a good lesson though.
learn jazz...make music. It's a style, and it's a tool, but it's not the end all be all foryou. That's something I cherish about your music. No supremacy or elitism..just education and inspiration.
Your lessons are incredible. Sadly, I'm not there yet. But I am working my way up.
Go for it 🙂
I just sang my fave French song (originally btw) that I usually do with the standard progression 😢…still exploring y reinterpreting it TY❤ Jens( I usually sing but guitar is fun y keyboards by ear anyways 😢)
You could just call the #IV subdominants Lydian subdominants since you’re raising the fourth degree (technically making it Lydian) and then resolving to tonic or dominant
No, modal names don't really make sense in functional harmony since they are static and functional harmony is about movement
Awesome video as always Jens. If you had to guess, why do you think borrowing chords from the minor key and putting them ahead of the V - I major progression sounds so good?
Because the progression makes sense but resolves surprisingly
Hi Jens, great video for helping me to spice things up! I've always wondered how do you feel about players like Shawn Lane, Allan Holdsworth, or even Buckethead? As I've seen some Allan videos on here before.
I really like Holdsworth, the others are of course great players but not really my thing. Probably because it is more arranged and composed and not really about improvisation and interaction, but I don't know. I didn't think about it, it was just not something I felt like listening to a lot...
Jens Larsen that’s cool, yeah Allan was monstrous in a good way
This is awesome, I can't wait to try some of this out. Do you have any recommendations for jazz pickups on a hollow body? I got an Ibanez AF75 and I had to replace all the pots on it, so I figured I'd replace the pickups while I'm in there. It's certainly not a great guitar so it's probably not worth putting super expensive pickups in it, but if you have any options that won't break the bank that'd be really helpful
Thanks Jacob! You could look for (2nd hand?) SD Seth Lovers. They are not super expensive if I remember correctly. That is what I have in the neck on my Ibanez.
4:51... I am really interested in your other course about boring chords 😂
Just kidding, thank you very much for you great videos that really inspire me to learn jazz guitar and music theory... Even if i have miles to go... Cheers
Go for it 🙂 I have a study guide for jazz Chords on my website, if you are interested
grazie
Glad you like it 🙂
how would you approach a chord progression like this:
Bar 1: Emin7 -> Bmin7
Bar 2: E9 -> Amaj7
Bar 3: Dmaj6/9 -> A13
Bar 4: A7 -> Dmaj7
Figure out what key(s) it is in and then analyze it. Use that to reharmonize it.
On the Emin7 raise the G and E notes a half step. to create D dim 7. On the Emin7 lower the D and B notes a whole step to create C Maj 6 . Lower the C and G a half step and the E a whole step to create Bmin7. " Borrowing diminished notes" apply to some or all of the chords in the progression to create melodic movement. In other words TAKE BARRY HARRIS SERIOUSLY!!! STUDY ALL THINGS BARRY HARRIS TO GET A GRIP ON THE FUNDAMENTALS. YOUR WELCOME
Your classes are great. Thank you very much. I just wanted to add that I think that the DbMaj7 and FmMaj7 chords are not borrowed from C minor
With borrowed it is not a strict scale thing, it is a way to explain a chord in a piece of music 🙂
Muchísimas gracias me servío más allá que no entiendo inglés Gracias
Would you ever do a video on the minor chord functions. I know that even though it’s debatable the chord functions in the major scale are:
Tonic I III VI
Subdominant II IV
Dominant V VII
What are the minor ones? Could you cover the three main minor scale chord functions? Great vid thanks 👍🏻
Well, Minor is a little more complicated because there are three scales at play, but maybe I will try to make a video like that. If I can figure out how to do that in an interesting way :)
Jens Larsen I’d really be interested in a video on minor functional harmony as well. In fact, I’d argue that it’s precisely because it’s more complicated that such a video is warranted.
Great stuff, as always.
@@jimh77 At the same time, the minor songs tend to be a lot simpler than the major ones and staying much closer to home, if you analyze some standards in minor I am sure you can see what I mean :)
I am not sure if it makes sense to go over a lot of options that are really just theoretical and not something you encounter in songs.
The stuff I cover here is all pretty common in the repertoire, but the minor songs are somehow always more basic.
Jens Larsen That’s a great point.
How about changing the tonic like a deceptive cadence?
Instead of resolving to CM7, you can use AM7 or the VI(M7).
That can work, it will depend on the context.
THANK YOU! I 've been looking for something like this for years!! I have a question though - how does that work in a context of a trio, meaning the combination of comping like this with a walking bassline? I feel like if someone starts doing crazy substitutions on top of a straightforward II-V-I bassline it's going to be a mess. I know context matters, and you can't put rules into everything, but I'm just wandering (p.s. I'm a composer and a guitarist but for the past 1-2 years I've been playing bass in jazz trios and quarters, just fyi).
Well, on dom7 will not be the mess, probably, but for the rest - not sure. :)
Good question, to me it’s also not clear how reharmonisation works in a band context.
I agree, this seems to aim at solo guitar, or composition, so context is important. The bass player in an ensemble is the glue that holds us all together...we need to be on the same chords, especially if you are accompanying vocalists that supply charts just before performance. Although I have found that small added chromatic chord movements, often work in the moment, without clashing with piano or bass.
When you play these alternative chords in a band situation leave out the low roots. So they don’t clash with the bass player. The upper notes will sound fine and are actually all found in the original ii/v/i any way. However if there is a pianist it gets complicated because they could choose voicings that really clash with your clever subs.
Could be the subject of another lesson. I’ve personally experienced pianists who won’t play with guitar for this reason. Some pianists are willing to live with us (ha!) and the risks of clashes. I don’t like it when the guitar and the keys swap comping. It always sounds lame in my opinion.
To be honest I am beginning to think that the guitar is a redundant instrument in jazz.
Can this be used when comping in a band? Doesn't that jar if the bass player is already returning to the tonic and I am suspending in my comping? Or you have discussions of this before and agree on a common strategy? Thanks
Amazing
Thank you :)
Do you have a lesson on functional harmony in minor keys, how it overlaps with this lesson? Thanks for the amazing lessons.
Glad you like them 🙂
Maybe something like this? th-cam.com/video/DFZWMI_s0B4/w-d-xo.html
@@JensLarsen Thanks. Lots of info to absorb.
@@sammiller9855 go for it 🙂
I'm wondering if the "#4 subdominant" could be interpreted as "V of V".
Recently, practicing Bach sonatas and transcribing Warne Marsh solos (and messing around with certain substitutions) I kept converging on the same idea. There's a set of chords that can be reduced to the same "sound world": i.e. V of V.
Essentially there's the movement of a tritone (F# & C), going to another tritone (F & B), finally to the tonic (E & B/C/A). Basically D7 to G7 to C. You can then go on to add a root and other colours, resulting in different spellings: B7 G7 C; F#half-dim Fm7 C, Ebdim G7 C or whatever.
To me, if it does not resolve to a V or at least a suspension of the V then it does not function as a secondary dominant
@@JensLarsen Ah yes, it's not tonicising the V, it's acting as a predominant. I guess what I mean is there's something fundamental about that F#/C tritone to me - those are the key notes in a particular sound that seems to me to work before a dominant chord. I keep hearing it in solos. Some of the older guys (swing) made it quite explicit. They'd precede a V7 with a II7, focusing on those tritones, even if there was no such predominant chord in the changes. I don't know where they got it from but I guess the swing guys liked their dominant cycles.
The V of V is indeed very common, but that doesn't mean that #IV is a V of V. 🙂
@@JensLarsen Yes I suppose it's worth getting used to the #IV as a "chord class" in its own right. Night and Day bar 9 has one, and I'm pretty sure it's not a secondary dominant.
Also, chords with the the #IV as root can have other secondary dominant functions, e.g. the F#7 in "A Beautiful Friendship" is the tritone sub for C7 (V of IV).
Since you brought it up: Forget Eric Clapton -- what about Robert Fripp!? Great tutorial, BTW!:-)
Thanks! I am not really into the through-composed with no interaction things that I have heard from King Crimson, so I never really listened to it. I have had students who really dug it, but it's not for me.
@jenslarsen Do a video on octave displacement, my g. That would be awesome 🤘🏾
I don't have a video where I only talk about Octave Displacement, I prefer to see it as a part of the tool set you need to sound like Jazz. These videos all have sections on Octave displacement and how to make some great bop lines with it: th-cam.com/video/td2f43uohMc/w-d-xo.html
Great
Thank you! :)
Awesome video Jens, I think I'm finally starting to keep up with you in these theory videos! One question, why did you call the Abmaj7 a "minor subdominant"? I'm a bit lost on that point.
Is it a dominant in the key of C or is it a tonic chord? 🙂 It would have to be one of those two.
Hi Jens. Great lesson as usual. Why you use a maj7#11 as a minor subdomint. To my ears it sounds better 7/#11. But it is cool anyway. Bye
What are referring to exactly?
@@JensLarsen 11:10
@@asktomysis Making it a dominant would change the function to dominant (because it is a tritone sub) Both are possible. Personally, I find the Dominant suspension to be not as beautiful and a little unjazzy, but that is a matter of taste.
Wow, again so much great material to work with!
Question: I've heard (Joe Pass, Mickey Baker...) say they view chords as minor, major and dominant. How does this relate to your lesson here on functional harmony?
I like more different chords than just 3 categories (actually Joe Pass has more types of dom7th chords as well)
Minor and major aren't chord functions, functions are tonic, subdominant, dominant... They didn't talk about chord functions, just about chord types, and wanted to simplify things a bit, excluding the extensions, i guess...