Now, if we play a C major chord in root position, we would play C-E-G, or 1-3-5. In the key of C, the C major scale is simply made up of all the white keys on the piano: In this case, we’re working in the key of C, so we just need to translate those symbols to that key. In the video, I’m working with the I-vi-ii-V7 chord progression, which refers to a series of chords independent of any key. This is kind of a bonus lesson for my Jazz Piano… FAST! online/DVD video piano course, which you can learn more about here. In this post, I’ll show you – in both video and text/picture form – how to get started making your own piano playing sound more… well… “jazzy.” Jazz piano can seem kind of “mysterious” or “magical” to the uninitiated or untrained, but once you know a few basic tricks, it’s easy to see how to create your own jazz piano arrangement using just a few standard techniques. When I will speak about harmonic concept of chords’ substitutions, I will show you as vary the harmonic structures of songs and of the major and minor blues.Jazz Piano Lesson: Chords, Inversions and Voice Leading (Video) Learn by heart minor and major blues structure with their main variants to concentrate better on the improvisation. Remember modal music is often based on very few chords (“So What” by Miles Davis has two ones only).

I love simplicity and I prefer few chords, so that I can concentrate better on melody and phrasing creativity in playing. These are different chords sub substitutions being more complex in jazz standards but which tend to simplicity just with three chords in rock-blues, funky, dance music and pop. Thousands famous songs are based on these chords. It is very expressive and music becomes consequently deep. This blues structure is one of my favorite harmonic forms. So as in major blues, it improvises on these structures just using chordal notes (the 1st the 3rd the 5th the 7th of the chord) and paying attention in varying the beginning and the end of the phrases (in different points in a-bar). It has more tension and pathos and it is ideal in order to compose intense melodic excerpts. Minor blues is so much more expressive than the major one.

Chords charts jazz piano