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JAZZ KEYBOARD CHORD DICTIONARY HOW TO
JAZZ KEYBOARD CHORD DICTIONARY SERIES

Minor 7 Inversions (Drop 3) – E-String Bass Note.

Minor 7 Inversions (Drop 2) – D-String Bass Note.

Minor 7 Inversions (Drop 2) – A-String Bass Note.

Dominant 7 Inversions (Drop 3) – A-String Bass Note.

Dominant 7 Inversions (Drop 3) – E-String Bass Note.

Dominant 7 Inversions (Drop 2) – D-String Bass Note.

Dominant 7 Inversions (Drop 2) – A-String Bass Note.

Major 7 Inversions (Drop 3) – A-String Bass Note.

Major 7 Inversions (Drop 3) – E-String Bass Note.

Major 7 Inversions (Drop 2) – D-String Bass Note.

Major 7 Inversions (Drop 2) – A-String Bass Note.

So, there are just a couple of steps you can use to start creating your own jazz piano arrangements. I love it when artistic beauty expresses itself in multiple forms! Notice how beautifully the individual chord voices move on the keyboard, which I just noticed myself after creating this picture. So, finally, our I-vi-ii-V7 progression becomes IM7 – vi7 – ii7 – V7 and might be played like this:Īnd if we’re playing the chord roots in the left hand, we could even omit the root in the right-hand chords shown above. So, A minor, written Am – A-C-E – becomes A minor 7th, written Am7, and played A-C-E-G.įor now, we’ll leave G7 alone, although there are a few other things we can do with that one, too! To create a minor 7th chord, we add the note one WHOLE STEP below the root of the chord. So, C major – C-E-G – becomes C major 7th, written CM7, and played C-E-G-B. To create a major 7th chord, we simply add the note that is one half step below the root of the chord. Adding 7ths to the Chordsįinally, we can begin to move towards that “jazzy” sound by changing major chords to major 7th chords and minor chords to minor 7th chords. They should sound a bit smoother and less “disjoint” than the first version. Play those for yourself and notice the difference in sound. Good voice leading might have us play this instead: Ideally, we’d like the individual chord notes to move as little as possible from one chord to the next. Next up, we need to talk about creating good “voice leading” – meaning that we don’t want the chords we play to jump around too much on the keyboard.Īnd we use chord inversions to accomplish that. Got it? Piece of cake, right? Good “Voice Leading”

If we move G to the top, we’re back again to C-E-G, or root position. If we then move the E to the top, that’s called… you guessed… 2nd inversion. If we move the C to the top of the chord as E-G-C, that’s called 1st inversion. So, a C major chord in root position is C-E-G. In order to talk about our first technique for sounding better on the piano, we need to talk about… Chord InversionsĪ chord inversion is simply a chord that is played in something other than “root position.” Root position means the root of the chord is on the bottom (left-most on the piano keyboard).

So, in the video, I’m working with the famous I – vi – ii – V7 progression, which you may know from “Heart and Soul,” that famous duet played by aspiring pianists of all ages. The “V” (5) chord is normally played as a dominant 7th chord, FYI. Also notice that the vii(dim) chord is diminished, since the notes are B-D-F.Ī very popular chord progression that’s been around forever is ii – V7 – I. There is no VIII chord – it’s the same as the I chord. Similarly, we get the following chords, moving up the C major scale: Since this chord’s root is the “2” note, and since it’s a minor chord, we’ll label this with a LOWERCASE Roman numeral ii. If we then move each of those 3 notes up the C major scale one note, the next chord we get is D minor, or D-F-A. Since the root of this chord is the “1” note, and it’s a major chord, we’ll label this with a capital Roman numeral I. 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.

JAZZ KEYBOARD CHORD DICTIONARY SERIES

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.

JAZZ KEYBOARD CHORD DICTIONARY HOW TO

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. Jazz Piano Lesson: Chords, Inversions and Voice Leading (Video)