Tom Lippincott: Jazz Guitar Harmony Part II

Excerpts from Tom's class, available for download at www.mikesmasterclasses.com.

Jazz Guitar Harmony

Are you confused and overwhelmed by books giving you "1001 and guitar chords"? Do you know some "jazz chords" but are sometimes unsure of where and how to use them? Do you have down the basic "jazz guitar" chord vocabulary but are looking for a way to bring your comping, chord/melody playing, and sense of harmony to the next level? Are you relatively new to playing jazz guitar and looking for a clear, logical, and thorough system for learning about chords and jazz harmony? Are you an intermediate or advanced player wanting to incorporate a more modern sound and/or a more pianistic approach into your chord playing? If your answer to any of the above questions is yes, I believe that this series of classes can help you achieve your goals.

This multi-part series covers the application of jazz harmony to the guitar for comping, solo guitar arranging and improvising, and bringing harmonic ideas to soloing within a group context. The classes focus on a detailed and systematic step-by-step approach for building a strong foundation for chordal and contrapuntal playing and will cover everything from the essential basics to more advanced and modern concepts. Numerous musical examples are demonstrated as well as written in traditional notation, tablature, and/or chord grid form, but the material has been designed to be open-ended enough that you will be encouraged to find your own path and work toward developing your unique musical voice.

Jazz Guitar Harmony Part 2 covers:

triads: clear and concise system for learning all close position major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads
four important uses of triads
diatonic harmonized major scales with triads
shell voicings: 10 different practical chord shapes that can be used to comp through any tune in the the typical standard repertoire
diatonic harmonized major scales with shell voicings, including variations with contrapuntal movement
application of shell voicings to comping on tunes
examples with comping rhythms, articulations, half step chord approaches, and discussion of swing feel


chord symbol interpretation and guide to simplifying more complex chord symbols

Tom Lippincott - Jazz Guitar Harmony Part II

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