Jazz Harmony (basic)
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Jazz is a musical style which cannot be summarised with just the word, 'jazz'. It has so many sub-categories and fusion styles nowadays, that It just hints at the type of audience, rather than the type of music.
For the purposes of this explanation, I'll keep It general and to the sort of techniques used in all forms of Jazz, post-bop.
To start with, a basic understanding of musical symbols (Chord symbols, notation) is needed. If this goes straight over your head, let me know and I'll write a prequal to this editorial.
A good place to start, is with the twelve bar blues. 'Blues!' I hear you cry! Yes. It is the foundation of alot of Jazz and indeed, alot of other musical styles. Chuck Berry was the first use of this in pop. It started the whole Rock and Roll movement. So it is with Jazz. Here is an Example of a simple twleve bar blues:
4/4 |C |F |C |C |F |F |C |C |G7 |F |C | G7 :|
Now. Harmonising this is fairly simlpe using the main major modes. The major modes are the scales you get when you play the same scale (eg C maj), and start in on a differet note (eg C maj played from D to D is the Dorian Mode).
Here is a list of the major modes in a harmonised C major scale.
Chord | Start and End note | Mode | Tonality |Played over
1 C to C Ionian Major Major or M7 chord
2 D to D Dorian Minor Minor or m7
3 E to E Phrigian Minor Minor
4 F to F Lydian Major Maj7
5 G to G Mixolydian Major Dominant 7 or 13 or 9
6 A to A Aeolian Minor Minor
7 B to B Locrian Minor7b5 m7b5 or diminished
The way we put this into context, is to play a certain scale, when we get a certain type of chord. This is also described above. This isnt just the case for Jazz, but for alot od classical and pop music.
Jazz Harmony uses all sort of scales and chords that are rarely found anywhere else in popular music. These are Chords and scales related to the Melodic Minor and the Harmonic minor family of harmony. For those of you already fed up with learning theory behind it, here is a Jazz twelve bar, to practice and give you an idea of what you are getting yourselves into.
4/4||: Bb13 | Eb9 |Bb13 | Fm9 Bbalt |Eb9 |Edim |Dm7 |G7b9 |Cm7 |F7#9 |Bb9 G7 |Cm7 G7#9 :||
Now. There are some trully Jazz chords there.
Using the same theory as we used to create the major scale modes we can create modes from the melodic minor scale.
For now, there is only one I would like to look at. It is the seventh mode of the melodic minor scale, which means that it starts and ends on the seventh note of the scale. So if we were playing Cmelodic minor, we play it from B to B.
The scale we have created, is the SUPERLOCRIAN. It has a very distinctive sound and cad be heard in many pieces of Jazz. Its main use, is over an altered dominant 7th chord. For example, in the above sequence, it would be used on the last chord, G7#9. and also the two chords G7b9 and F7#9. Here we would use G superlocrian and F superlocrian, resprctively.
Now what we have to do, is apply the scales to the appropriate chords, and we have nailed the harmony.
Here we go. This is how I would harmonize the sequence using the methods described.
4/4||: Bbmixolydian | Ebmixolydian |Bbmixolydian | FDorian Bbsuper loc. |Ebmixolydian |Ediminished | D Dorian | Gsuperlocrian | C Dorian | F superloc. | Bbmix. Gmix | C Dorian G superlocrian :||
Now, get out there and find your own sequences to harmonize! That way, you will learn how to understand jazz and the harmony surrounding it.
For the purposes of this explanation, I'll keep It general and to the sort of techniques used in all forms of Jazz, post-bop.
To start with, a basic understanding of musical symbols (Chord symbols, notation) is needed. If this goes straight over your head, let me know and I'll write a prequal to this editorial.
A good place to start, is with the twelve bar blues. 'Blues!' I hear you cry! Yes. It is the foundation of alot of Jazz and indeed, alot of other musical styles. Chuck Berry was the first use of this in pop. It started the whole Rock and Roll movement. So it is with Jazz. Here is an Example of a simple twleve bar blues:
4/4 |C |F |C |C |F |F |C |C |G7 |F |C | G7 :|
Now. Harmonising this is fairly simlpe using the main major modes. The major modes are the scales you get when you play the same scale (eg C maj), and start in on a differet note (eg C maj played from D to D is the Dorian Mode).
Here is a list of the major modes in a harmonised C major scale.
Chord | Start and End note | Mode | Tonality |Played over
1 C to C Ionian Major Major or M7 chord
2 D to D Dorian Minor Minor or m7
3 E to E Phrigian Minor Minor
4 F to F Lydian Major Maj7
5 G to G Mixolydian Major Dominant 7 or 13 or 9
6 A to A Aeolian Minor Minor
7 B to B Locrian Minor7b5 m7b5 or diminished
The way we put this into context, is to play a certain scale, when we get a certain type of chord. This is also described above. This isnt just the case for Jazz, but for alot od classical and pop music.
Jazz Harmony uses all sort of scales and chords that are rarely found anywhere else in popular music. These are Chords and scales related to the Melodic Minor and the Harmonic minor family of harmony. For those of you already fed up with learning theory behind it, here is a Jazz twelve bar, to practice and give you an idea of what you are getting yourselves into.
4/4||: Bb13 | Eb9 |Bb13 | Fm9 Bbalt |Eb9 |Edim |Dm7 |G7b9 |Cm7 |F7#9 |Bb9 G7 |Cm7 G7#9 :||
Now. There are some trully Jazz chords there.
Using the same theory as we used to create the major scale modes we can create modes from the melodic minor scale.
For now, there is only one I would like to look at. It is the seventh mode of the melodic minor scale, which means that it starts and ends on the seventh note of the scale. So if we were playing Cmelodic minor, we play it from B to B.
The scale we have created, is the SUPERLOCRIAN. It has a very distinctive sound and cad be heard in many pieces of Jazz. Its main use, is over an altered dominant 7th chord. For example, in the above sequence, it would be used on the last chord, G7#9. and also the two chords G7b9 and F7#9. Here we would use G superlocrian and F superlocrian, resprctively.
Now what we have to do, is apply the scales to the appropriate chords, and we have nailed the harmony.
Here we go. This is how I would harmonize the sequence using the methods described.
4/4||: Bbmixolydian | Ebmixolydian |Bbmixolydian | FDorian Bbsuper loc. |Ebmixolydian |Ediminished | D Dorian | Gsuperlocrian | C Dorian | F superloc. | Bbmix. Gmix | C Dorian G superlocrian :||
Now, get out there and find your own sequences to harmonize! That way, you will learn how to understand jazz and the harmony surrounding it.
