Sometimes it seems like a skill you have from another style of music should work with jazz as well. After all, a D7 chord is just a D7 chord, right? Unfortunately, that's not really always the case. Then it can be kind of a rude awakening when you get told your chords aren't sounding right or are clashing with something else that's happening in the band. And this is especially frustrating when you're sure you're playing the right stuff. You know, you're playing the chord that's called for on the page. The problem isn't necessarily the chord that you're playing, but the structure of that chord on the fretboard - how the notes of the chord are stacked up. It's entirely possible to play the correct chord like a D7 when the sheet says D7, but it not sound good for the style you're trying to play. This idea isn't necessarily just for jazz either, although that's our focus today. Variations on your standard barre chords happen throughout rock country and other styles of popular music where playing your full barre chord is not going to sound right for the song. In this lesson, we're going to take a look at some of the common problems with using barre chords in jazz and some solutions to those problems. And finally, we're going to take a look at some examples of how you can turn the barre chords you already know into real jazz guitar chords. We’ll take some common dominant seventh and minor seventh barre chord shapes you already know and turn them into a couple of different good options for jazz guitar chords. Let’s get started.
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Jazz guitar chords can be an overwhelming subject at first - especially if you're used to playing open chords and barre chords. This is pretty normal if you're coming from any kind of style other than jazz (like most guitar players are - most of us start out with rock, blues, country, etc). If you happen to be feeling overwhelmed by jazz guitar chords, I have some good news for you: What can seem like an impossible number of chords for you to learn is really just a small number of chord shapes that you can move around the guitar neck. This means we're using movable chord shapes to play the same chord type in multiple keys. For example, you'd have the same finger pattern for D7 as you would for E7. You would end up playing the same movable chord shape at two different frets to play those two different chords. Learning these basic jazz guitar shapes is going to help you get started playing jazz guitar quickly. It will help you sound good and a jazz band scenario, and will build you a good foundation for learning new jazz guitar chords as you improve. Learning movable jazz guitar chords is also going to help you learn the guitar neck because in order to play your chords in different keys you have to know what the notes are along the strings of the guitar (or at least the 6th and 5th strings). Okay, let's get started. |
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