you are the best of the best, i dont speak english very well, but i understand everything that you explain. Thankyou i have 20 years play guitar and i learn a lot of you. really, really THANK YOU!!!
This is an incredibly helpful lesson. I've been working on developing my own system for learning jazz tunes and I've been heading in a similar direction as this, so this gives me more confidence in my approach and also helps clarify a lot of questions I've had. It also has really opened my eyes to how flexible I can be with scale choices. With many of those common scales, I expected the outside notes to sound very harsh, but in fact they all sounded great!
This is fascinating to me. I am a bass player that is trying to understand theory. I have been finding backing tracks and putting together baselines for them. Maybe not coincidentally, I use a similar approach to finding a bass line.
Walk That Bass ... in my opinión is the best way to understand this topic... I know it takes time, but if I handle it, I' ll have the world in my hands
No worries. I might do one eventually, but I haven't got one planned yet. But there are already heaps of great ear training resources on the internet - including interactive exeercises. Just google it.
+Walk That Bass That would be great. Thanks. I have some ear training apps that I can use but I really want to see what tips you could offer, especially for people who don't have a good sense of music like me.
Did you know that a Blues Scale can also make use of a note a major third above the key other than the minor 3rd. So your E Blues Scale would also make use of G# even if this note is a passing note. LIkewise the A major would use the C# key aside from the C note.
I watched this 2x through and found this quite helpful in regards to which scales to use over which chords (as long as it has 3rd and 7th). The avoid notes are avoid notes due to them making a flat9th with a chord tone, correct?
Yep, exactly right. Glad you found it useful. So essentially, I do this with every new song I learn. This then provides a kind of base from which I pivot back and forth if I start inserting other more exotic scales or jazz improvisation techniques. So after playing in a whole-tone or a Lydian Dominant scale for a bar or two, I'd return back to either a guide tone or one of the common scales. Again, this is just how I think about it and other people have other techniques and ideas, so certainly don't take this as gospel.
my apologies in advance for the daring question, but since you mention mapping chords with every song you learn - and you seem to be an adept of clean tables to present it ;-) - I was wondering if you would consider sharing some with us jazz noobies... quite seriously, your explanations are the clearest around youtube; but still, once I am faced with a tune, I tend to doubting myself a lot upon each "unexpected" chord - wondering endlessly if I might not have realized that it belonged to a neighbouring key: so (at least a few) examples - sort of "advanced lead sheets" - would go a long way in increasing the learner's confidence, before reaching a proper mapping momentum. in any case, thanks again for your tremendous contribution to the hard task of teaching jazz to the world!!! bonus question: do you have any clue why this amazing concept of chord mapping is nowhere else to be found (except with Dave Frank that addresses it, in his warm but sloppier way)? or am I missing something there?
Your content is great, I really hope your channel takes off soon. I bet investing in a slightly better camera/microphone and maybe using an electric keyboard instead, or getting that piano tuned could really help toward that end!
First of all, let me say that I so greatly appreciate your videos; they have amazingly enhanced my approach to music. However, I have a question with my own chord mapping. I have a jazz piece in Eb Major, and it has been relatively easy finding the key for each bar (typically Eb Major or Ab Major). However, there are two bars that are giving me trouble. One has Ab6 and Am7(b5), while the other has Eb6 and C7(b9). I am not sure what keys correspond with those measures. Any guidance in this would be appreciated.
Hi, Sorry for the late reply. I was away on holiday for the last month. Hope this answer isn't coming too late for you. What song is it? It's little hard to analyse without the full chord progression. These could just be passing chords or secondary dominants. For example if the progression went: | Eb6 C7b9 | Fm7 Bb7 | Eb6 Then this could be looked at as tonicising the Fm7 with a secondary dominant. This would just be a standard I-VI-II-V progression. (I've got a video on secondary dominants which explains this in more detail: th-cam.com/video/alDSEBsxJIw/w-d-xo.html ). Similarly if the progression went: | Ab6 Am7b5 | Bbm Eb7 | Ab6 Then the Am7b5 could be looked at as a substitute for F9 Am7b5 = A C Eb G F9 = F A C Eb G The Am7b9 is a rootless F9. So this would sound like a I-VI-II-V-I in Ab to me, with the secondary dominant VI7 again. | Ab6 F9 | Bbm Eb7 | Ab6 Alternately, depending on the subsequent chords, these could just be unrelated passing passing chords. Does that make sense?
Interesting way of structuring practice. Thanks! It seems like after practicing this way for a while, the scales, guide tones, etc. will just start to stick and you won't have to map them out in advance any more. In other words, the whole process should be able to become automatic after a while. Would you agree?
+BAwesomeDesign Yep, definitely. The goal is to internalise all the info in the table so that you can be given a brand new song and immediately be able to improvise over it. Like all music practice - eventually it becomes muscle memory.
Why is the Major 6 (B) an avoid note for Dm7? Why is the perfect fourth (C) an avoid note for G7? i thought that avoid notes typically were the b9 and the b6? Im a bit confused!
I really hate to ask you yet one more question but you got me so pumped that my mind is just racing with excitement. Just one more? If you don't mind? My question is this... I noticed that, when folks play jazz, whether it's using the beebop scales, majors and/or minors, that they jump from scale to scale and chord to chord without worrying about modulating to each. While watching regular improv by folks who can do so, they'll often talk about modulating (especially when you're playing with a band and not soloing) and will in fact modulate before actually changing scales. Is Jazz different in the sense that one doesn't have to worry about that or is it simply b/c these jazz improv guys are soloing and aren't worried about other band members? Thanks!
Firstly, feel free to continue asking. Seriously. I might take a day or two to get back to you but you're more than welcome to keep asking. Secondly, I think I understand your question, but I'm not completely sure. So let me know if I completely misunderstood your question. So - modulation is the act of changing from one key to another. If we have the following chord progression: | Em A7 | Dm7 G7 | Then bar 1 is in D Major and bar 2 is in C Major. So the chords are modulating from D to C. And if a non-jazz musician were improvising over those chord, they would play the D Major Scale in bar 1 and then 'modulate' to the C Major Scale in bar 2. Now Jazz is a little bit different because jazz musicians think in 'modes' rather than 'keys'. So a Jazz musician would play: E Dorian - over Em7 A Mixolydian - over A7 D Dorian - over Dm7 G Mixolydian - over G7 Now E Dorian and A Mixolydian have the same notes as the D Major Scale, and D Dorian and G Mixolydian have the same notes as C Major Scale. So really we are playing the exact same 'keys' and 'scales' but we are thinking about them in a different way. But this then allows a Jazz musician to use different scales over the same chords: E Aeolian (G Major) - over Em7 A Wholetone - over A7 D Blues Scale - over Dm7 G Lydian Dominant (D melodic minor) - over G7 So even though the chords have 'modulated' from D to C - the scales we use over those chords to improvise can have no relation to those keys whatsoever. I've got a separate lesson on 'Why you can use different scales over the same chord' that explains why we can do this. So the chord progression modulates from D to C, but the improvisation can use many different scales to play over those particular chords. Does that answer your question? Or have I completely misunderstood? Please ask again if I didn't answer your question. What confused me was this sentence: 'they jump from scale to scale and chord to chord without worrying about modulating to each'. Jumping from chord to chord is modulation if those chords are in a different key. Anyway, let me know.
Wow, well thank you for your kindness and taking the time to teach over youtube. You've gone above and beyond! Just now have the time to read this and it's going to take me a bit of time to really absorb this so I'm going to start now and hopefully, with no distractions, I'll be good to go shortly. BTW, I simply meant to say that when Jazz players play, they seem to play in different keys (as opposed to starting in the key of Em say, and staying in the key of Em or if they were to change from Em, they'd modulate properly into another key using one of the modulation methods they speak of. That's all. Hope that makes sense. Thanks again! I'll read it now.
Very nice lesson I'm kinda confused with something though, in the chord mapping table it says that the avoid note for the Db7 is G#, but in all the other 7 chords the avoid note is the 4th, so wouldn't it be Gb instead? Or it has something to do with Gb being the root of the scale that's played over it?
Quick question... when you're playing the scales, starting at 7:56, your charts reads that you'll play a D scale for both the Em7 AND the A7 when only the A7 should require that scale. Shouldn't the Em7 scale also be played in the key of C? Thanks!
Hi Michael. Em7 is in both the keys. It's the iii chord of C and the ii chord of D. So technically you can play either scale over this chord. Because an Em7 moving to an A7 creates a ii-V chord progression (a very common chord progression) in the key of D Major - I use the D Major scale over both chords. Does that make sense?
It does. Thank you for that quick answer. I played when I was young but I was taught the terrible way that old school teachers would teach. "here is a piece of music, learn it this week and play it next." kinda thing. I quit and just started again 20 years later! So I'm learning the "chord" method this time and it's much easier. I could shoot that teacher of mine! She made me think that learning piano was the one impossibility in life. It's folks like you (and the help of technology of course- youtube included!) who are helping me more in one video than all my years with that teacher!!! So THANK YOU!
Oh and I also like how you're doing the 2 5 chord progression with each 2 chords that you play. I only noticed that once you pointed it out! Super cool. Thanks again!
Please check your pay-pal as I tried to make a donation (well deserved indeed!!!) but the platform keeps asking me for DATE OF BIRTH! And there is no box to fill that info with! From Pay-Pal: Some required information is missing or incomplete. Please correct your entries and try again. Date of birth: Please enter your date of birth.
Thanks, Alberto. Thanks very kind of you. I replied to your comment on my blog but I'll repost here also. Couple options: 1. If you have a paypal account - you can probably just log in and update your personal details 2. If you’re using a credit card, try select a different county (like Australia) - Paypal should then prompt you for a DOB and give you the option (I note that when I select US it doesn’t request my DOB). Enter it in. And then change back to whatever country you’re from and try again. 3. If you’re using a credit card you can donate through TH-cam. My channel home page has a ‘Support this channel’ button on the right hand side which you can click and it should then ask for your credit card details. All my videos, including this one, also has a 'support this channel' card which you can access by clicking the 'i' button on the top right hand side of the video and donate through there. Let me know how you go.
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
One of the best teachers in TH-cam
EXTREMELY EXTREMELY EXTREMELY EXTREMELY USEFUL!!!!!!!! And super well done!
Cheers, mate.
Gordon Benett! 200 years of music explained in 20 minutes. I need to be born again to fully comprehend it :-) thank you.
You make it look so clear and simple!! Best jazz lessons of the year ! ( 3 years later ;) )
I have been blessed ever since finding your channel; thank you so much for all the knowledge!
you are the best of the best, i dont speak english very well, but i understand everything that you explain. Thankyou i have 20 years play guitar and i learn a lot of you. really, really THANK YOU!!!
This is great! this is what I really need. Thank you for saring this..
Great tutorial ! Thanks! you really make the process of learning jazz easy to understand!
+Antonio PX1 No worries, Antonio.
You're a genius mate. Cheers!
Thanks, mate. Too kind.
Excellent and Simplified,
Cheers!
Super grateful for the work you put into these videos!! Thank you!!
Some ideas that I have not seen before or not presented like this. This video was a real lightbulb moment for me! Great stuff
Glad it helped. And thanks for the comment.
Thanks from Brazil !!! God Bless you forever :)
This is an incredibly helpful lesson. I've been working on developing my own system for learning jazz tunes and I've been heading in a similar direction as this, so this gives me more confidence in my approach and also helps clarify a lot of questions I've had. It also has really opened my eyes to how flexible I can be with scale choices. With many of those common scales, I expected the outside notes to sound very harsh, but in fact they all sounded great!
Dude... these videos are great, super helpful for an aspiring high school jazz musician.
Glad you like them, Russell.
Great Stuff!! Thanks for this extremely informative tutorial.
you know this man is about to hit with some serious truth with a disclaimer like that
You are a legend❤
This is a brilliant video, definitely one of your best.
Thanks, mate :)
Your lessons are just brilliant. Thank you for these videos. Keep up the good work!
absolutely brilliant
Thanks Avisek
This is fascinating to me. I am a bass player that is trying to understand theory.
I have been finding backing tracks and putting together baselines for them. Maybe not coincidentally, I use a similar approach to finding a bass line.
Thang god I have found this video.... you just cleared many, many doubs I had for years
Glad to hear it. Everyone is different, but this is the way I think about it.
Walk That Bass ... in my opinión is the best way to understand this topic... I know it takes time, but if I handle it, I' ll have the world in my hands
Your videos are great. Very clear and understandable. Thanks so much for sharing!
+LiveLooseLeaf My pleasure, LiveLooseLeaf.
thats inspiring ! thank you so much for sharing !
No worries, Kurt.
Very useful. Thank you.
Great lesson.
+StreIok737 Thanks, Strelok737.
Good stuff! Thanks.
Thanks, mate.
LOVE IT!!!!!!
Excellent lesson. Thank you!
No worries :)
Not quite understanding why is g# the avoid note for D flat7. Could you please explain?
the best lesson
You make improvisation accessible for beginners! Thanks! Can you do a video about ear-training?
No worries. I might do one eventually, but I haven't got one planned yet. But there are already heaps of great ear training resources on the internet - including interactive exeercises. Just google it.
+Walk That Bass That would be great. Thanks. I have some ear training apps that I can use but I really want to see what tips you could offer, especially for people who don't have a good sense of music like me.
Did you know that a Blues Scale can also make use of a note a major third above the key other than the minor 3rd. So your E Blues Scale would also make use of G# even if this note is a passing note. LIkewise the A major would use the C# key aside from the C note.
It really helps. But I think 6th bar's avoid note on Db7 should be Gb🤔
Neat stuff
I watched this 2x through and found this quite helpful in regards to which scales to use over which chords (as long as it has 3rd and 7th). The avoid notes are avoid notes due to them making a flat9th with a chord tone, correct?
Yep, exactly right. Glad you found it useful. So essentially, I do this with every new song I learn. This then provides a kind of base from which I pivot back and forth if I start inserting other more exotic scales or jazz improvisation techniques. So after playing in a whole-tone or a Lydian Dominant scale for a bar or two, I'd return back to either a guide tone or one of the common scales. Again, this is just how I think about it and other people have other techniques and ideas, so certainly don't take this as gospel.
my apologies in advance for the daring question, but since you mention mapping chords with every song you learn - and you seem to be an adept of clean tables to present it ;-) - I was wondering if you would consider sharing some with us jazz noobies...
quite seriously, your explanations are the clearest around youtube; but still, once I am faced with a tune, I tend to doubting myself a lot upon each "unexpected" chord - wondering endlessly if I might not have realized that it belonged to a neighbouring key: so (at least a few) examples - sort of "advanced lead sheets" - would go a long way in increasing the learner's confidence, before reaching a proper mapping momentum.
in any case, thanks again for your tremendous contribution to the hard task of teaching jazz to the world!!!
bonus question: do you have any clue why this amazing concept of chord mapping is nowhere else to be found (except with Dave Frank that addresses it, in his warm but sloppier way)? or am I missing something there?
Your content is great, I really hope your channel takes off soon. I bet investing in a slightly better camera/microphone and maybe using an electric keyboard instead, or getting that piano tuned could really help toward that end!
Why is a sixth note an avid note? I thought they were most useful in jazz as extended cords and replacing the 7th note often. I am learning. Thank you
Very helpful!!!! Thanx.
Glad it helped 👍
First of all, let me say that I so greatly appreciate your videos; they have amazingly enhanced my approach to music. However, I have a question with my own chord mapping. I have a jazz piece in Eb Major, and it has been relatively easy finding the key for each bar (typically Eb Major or Ab Major). However, there are two bars that are giving me trouble. One has Ab6 and Am7(b5), while the other has Eb6 and C7(b9). I am not sure what keys correspond with those measures. Any guidance in this would be appreciated.
Hi,
Sorry for the late reply. I was away on holiday for the last month. Hope this answer isn't coming too late for you.
What song is it? It's little hard to analyse without the full chord progression. These could just be passing chords or secondary dominants.
For example if the progression went:
| Eb6 C7b9 | Fm7 Bb7 | Eb6
Then this could be looked at as tonicising the Fm7 with a secondary dominant. This would just be a standard I-VI-II-V progression. (I've got a video on secondary dominants which explains this in more detail: th-cam.com/video/alDSEBsxJIw/w-d-xo.html ).
Similarly if the progression went:
| Ab6 Am7b5 | Bbm Eb7 | Ab6
Then the Am7b5 could be looked at as a substitute for F9
Am7b5 = A C Eb G
F9 = F A C Eb G
The Am7b9 is a rootless F9. So this would sound like a I-VI-II-V-I in Ab to me, with the secondary dominant VI7 again.
| Ab6 F9 | Bbm Eb7 | Ab6
Alternately, depending on the subsequent chords, these could just be unrelated passing passing chords.
Does that make sense?
You probably cover playing outside the scale in another video I would think.
Interesting way of structuring practice. Thanks!
It seems like after practicing this way for a while, the scales, guide tones, etc. will just start to stick and you won't have to map them out in advance any more. In other words, the whole process should be able to become automatic after a while. Would you agree?
+BAwesomeDesign Yep, definitely. The goal is to internalise all the info in the table so that you can be given a brand new song and immediately be able to improvise over it. Like all music practice - eventually it becomes muscle memory.
Why is the Major 6 (B) an avoid note for Dm7? Why is the perfect fourth (C) an avoid note for G7? i thought that avoid notes typically were the b9 and the b6? Im a bit confused!
If you have a jazz guitarist friend , can you tell him to make video tutorials like what you do 😆
I really hate to ask you yet one more question but you got me so pumped that my mind is just racing with excitement. Just one more? If you don't mind? My question is this... I noticed that, when folks play jazz, whether it's using the beebop scales, majors and/or minors, that they jump from scale to scale and chord to chord without worrying about modulating to each. While watching regular improv by folks who can do so, they'll often talk about modulating (especially when you're playing with a band and not soloing) and will in fact modulate before actually changing scales. Is Jazz different in the sense that one doesn't have to worry about that or is it simply b/c these jazz improv guys are soloing and aren't worried about other band members? Thanks!
Firstly, feel free to continue asking. Seriously. I might take a day or two to get back to you but you're more than welcome to keep asking.
Secondly, I think I understand your question, but I'm not completely sure. So let me know if I completely misunderstood your question.
So - modulation is the act of changing from one key to another.
If we have the following chord progression: | Em A7 | Dm7 G7 |
Then bar 1 is in D Major and bar 2 is in C Major.
So the chords are modulating from D to C.
And if a non-jazz musician were improvising over those chord, they would play the D Major Scale in bar 1 and then 'modulate' to the C Major Scale in bar 2.
Now Jazz is a little bit different because jazz musicians think in 'modes' rather than 'keys'. So a Jazz musician would play:
E Dorian - over Em7
A Mixolydian - over A7
D Dorian - over Dm7
G Mixolydian - over G7
Now E Dorian and A Mixolydian have the same notes as the D Major Scale, and D Dorian and G Mixolydian have the same notes as C Major Scale. So really we are playing the exact same 'keys' and 'scales' but we are thinking about them in a different way.
But this then allows a Jazz musician to use different scales over the same chords:
E Aeolian (G Major) - over Em7
A Wholetone - over A7
D Blues Scale - over Dm7
G Lydian Dominant (D melodic minor) - over G7
So even though the chords have 'modulated' from D to C - the scales we use over those chords to improvise can have no relation to those keys whatsoever.
I've got a separate lesson on 'Why you can use different scales over the same chord' that explains why we can do this.
So the chord progression modulates from D to C, but the improvisation can use many different scales to play over those particular chords.
Does that answer your question? Or have I completely misunderstood? Please ask again if I didn't answer your question.
What confused me was this sentence: 'they jump from scale to scale and chord to chord without worrying about modulating to each'. Jumping from chord to chord is modulation if those chords are in a different key.
Anyway, let me know.
Wow, well thank you for your kindness and taking the time to teach over youtube. You've gone above and beyond! Just now have the time to read this and it's going to take me a bit of time to really absorb this so I'm going to start now and hopefully, with no distractions, I'll be good to go shortly. BTW, I simply meant to say that when Jazz players play, they seem to play in different keys (as opposed to starting in the key of Em say, and staying in the key of Em or if they were to change from Em, they'd modulate properly into another key using one of the modulation methods they speak of. That's all. Hope that makes sense. Thanks again! I'll read it now.
Okay, I see where this is going. Remembering this when one is playing is a different story. I guess it starts to come naturally???
In Satin Doll, bar 6, the avoid note for chord D♭7, should be G♭?
thank your lesones
My pleasure.
Very nice lesson
I'm kinda confused with something though, in the chord mapping table it says that the avoid note for the Db7 is G#, but in all the other 7 chords the avoid note is the 4th, so wouldn't it be Gb instead? Or it has something to do with Gb being the root of the scale that's played over it?
I am confused about this too.
I was accustomed to thinking that a song was in a key. One key. I think this one would be in the key of C. Am I right?
Where did you Study? If may ask.?
I didn't actually study music at university. I mostly learned through private tutors, reading and transcribing.
Quick question... when you're playing the scales, starting at 7:56, your charts reads that you'll play a D scale for both the Em7 AND the A7 when only the A7 should require that scale. Shouldn't the Em7 scale also be played in the key of C? Thanks!
Hi Michael.
Em7 is in both the keys. It's the iii chord of C and the ii chord of D. So technically you can play either scale over this chord.
Because an Em7 moving to an A7 creates a ii-V chord progression (a very common chord progression) in the key of D Major - I use the D Major scale over both chords.
Does that make sense?
It does. Thank you for that quick answer. I played when I was young but I was taught the terrible way that old school teachers would teach. "here is a piece of music, learn it this week and play it next." kinda thing. I quit and just started again 20 years later! So I'm learning the "chord" method this time and it's much easier. I could shoot that teacher of mine! She made me think that learning piano was the one impossibility in life. It's folks like you (and the help of technology of course- youtube included!) who are helping me more in one video than all my years with that teacher!!! So THANK YOU!
Oh and I also like how you're doing the 2 5 chord progression with each 2 chords that you play. I only noticed that once you pointed it out! Super cool. Thanks again!
Please check your pay-pal as I tried to make a donation (well deserved indeed!!!) but the platform keeps asking me for DATE OF BIRTH! And there is no box to fill that info with!
From Pay-Pal:
Some required information is missing or incomplete. Please correct your entries and try again.
Date of birth: Please enter your date of birth.
Thanks, Alberto. Thanks very kind of you. I replied to your comment on my blog but I'll repost here also.
Couple options:
1. If you have a paypal account - you can probably just log in and update your personal details
2. If you’re using a credit card, try select a different county (like Australia) - Paypal should then prompt you for a DOB and give you the option (I note that when I select US it doesn’t request my DOB). Enter it in. And then change back to whatever country you’re from and try again.
3. If you’re using a credit card you can donate through TH-cam. My channel home page has a ‘Support this channel’ button on the right hand side which you can click and it should then ask for your credit card details. All my videos, including this one, also has a 'support this channel' card which you can access by clicking the 'i' button on the top right hand side of the video and donate through there.
Let me know how you go.
Where are you from
Australia :)
Walk That Bass i foken knew it ahahahahahah where abouts? Im from alice springs in the NT and no one plays jazz here its fucked
What city? This is the most pleasant English I've heard
guilleagudelo alice springs...
Voice too lout and piano sounds terrible.