Musicians who start in rock or different styles of pop music might feel overwhelmed and confused when looking at jazz chords, jazz scales, melodies and patterns. And while jazz can be complicated and difficult to learn, it doesn’t have to be.
Like with everything, it’s important to first establish the foundations of what actually makes jazz sound like jazz. To write jazz music, or add a jazz vibe to your songs, we need to understand where the actual sound of jazz comes from.
When you have a solid understanding of chord extensions, how their sound and common uses you can write jazz music with intention. To the untrained ear jazz can sound disoriented and filled with notes that don’t “fit”. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Jazz is incredibly intentional.
In this guide, we'll explore common jazz chords and how they’re typically used in jazz. Afterwards, we look at some jazz chord progressions that are commonly used in various jazz standards. The goal is for you to become more familiar with the sound of jazz and help you incorporate it into your own music productions, whether you want to write jazz music or add a jazzy flavor to your tunes.
Pretty much all musicians have stumbled upon a chord that looks something like this “Ab7b9#5” and wondered what in the world that means. Once you understand the basics of chord construction, a chord like this won’t seem as daunting.
Essentially, a large chord like this is nothing more than a basic triad with a few extra notes. We call these chords extended chords.
Fundamentally, the sound of jazz comes from these extensions. No matter how many notes you stack on a chord the basic principles are always the same. We build chords in thirds.
We start on the root and add either a major or minor third. Then we add another one, and another one, and so on until we’re happy. Then, for a different type of sound, you can invert the chord, which we’ll briefly discuss here too.
We don’t necessarily think about standard triads as part of the jazz repertoire, but they very much are. On their own they don’t inherently sound like the sound we usually associate with jazz, but they play an important role in jazz music.
It’s easy to overlook the significance of a simple triad in music as complicated as jazz can sometimes be. But for a composer or producer, it’s crucial to not neglect triads.
Triads are the fundamental building blocks of melody and harmony. Chord extensions and chromatic patterns are a way of adding a particular color or texture to the music.
There are 4 different types of triads, all of which are regularly featured in various styles of jazz.
When you’re writing music for a band it’s important to carefully arrange what each instrument is playing. The function of triads in jazz is similar to the function of triads in other genres. However, in jazz, triads are often performed in the background to establish the key signature of the song.
A guitarists, or pianist might play standard triads to avoid doubling 3rds, 7th, other chord extensions, in the overall arrangement. Doubling the certain qualifying notes can lead to muddy textures and loss of clarity.
So, the chord that is performed by the entire band might be an extended chord, but the actual chordal extensions might be performed by for example trumpets, while the guitar is playing a triad.
In other genres, diminished and augmented chords are often used as passing chords and to increase tension in a chord progression. If you have a chord you want to end up at, you can precede it with a diminished chord.
Augmented chords, are excellent at allowing you to move chromatically in a natural way to reach a desired chord:
Diminished sevenths and half diminished chords add a dissonance to the music typically associated with jazz. Furthermore, the three notes that make up the diminished chord are also three notes in a dominant 7th chord without the root. This facilitates good voice leading (which is explained further down).
Seventh chords are a minor or major triad with another third stacked on top of it. Just like in triads, there are major and minor sevenths, and they are also either 3 half steps from the previous note (minor 7th) or 4 half steps (major). This means that there are several different seventh chords you need to know.
A major triad + a major 7th
A minor triad + a minor 7th
Major triad + minor 7th
Minor triad + major 7th
The seventh chords add a sense of tension and release that you don’t normally get with standard triad chord progressions. By extending chords you get a greater color palette to paint it, which in turn allows for more complex harmonic structure. Intervals of dissonant and consonant chords creates more movement - especially during solos. These continuous elements of tension and release adds depth, intensity and interest to the music.
Quick tips on arranging seventh chords:
Shell chords are a type of seventh chord, but with only two or three notes. A shell chord consists of the 1, 3 and 7th. In other words you omit the 5th and only play the most important notes.
The 5th note of any chord is the only note that doesn’t add any actual quality to the chord, and is thus the easiest one to remove without losing the characteristics of the chord. A perfect 5th has a roundness to the chord and makes it feel more complete, but they can be omitted to increase clarity in the arrangement.
Shell chords, just like the sevenths, can be either major or minor. Both the 3rds and 7ths can be raised or lowered to change the quality of the chord.
It’s also possible to play shell chords with only two notes! In these instances we keep only the 3rd and 7ths. Now we have a somewhat ambiguous sound because it only consists of the 3rd and the 7th, and no root.
Below are the same chords as above, but without the root and the 5th.
These types of chords work excellent in larger arrangements to avoid textural muddiness. When played on a piano they add a romantic touch to the sound.
Three note shell chords give space to vocal lines or other melodic elements. When you omit the 5th you reduce the risk of unintentional dissonances and clashes. Shell chords without the root only provide harmonic structure and can be useful when the bass is particularly present.
They’re also useful to create a sense of ambiguity. If you don’t want the listener to know the key or tonic you can use shell chords before you ultimately land on the tonic for a strong sense of stability.
The staple of jazz music comes from chord extensions. These are the chords that add a level of harmonic depth to the music. Learning how to use them is an important component of capturing “that” jazz sound.
The 9th is the 9th note in the diatonic scale. That means it’s the second note in the scale but raised an octave. If you perform it an octave lower, as a second, you’re playing a suspended chord which we’ll return to further down.
The 9th chord can be added to
The 11th is the 4th note of the scale raised by an octave. This chord is usually played as a minor chord to avoid clashing with the major 3rd.
You can add the 11th to the following chords:
13ths are the 6th of the diatonic scale raised by an octave.
Chord extensions are crucial in jazz music. As a music producer, it’s important to understand extended chords and how to distribute them among the band. If the piano is playing the entire extended chord, the guitar player might only play a triad, power chord or shell chords.
And as mentioned above, it’s good practice not to double certain notes, such as major 3rds or 7ths. If the lead melodic line plays is playing a B the accompanying piano might only play a standard triad to avoid the muddy texture of doubling the extension (B is the 7th that is the note that makes it a C7 - a dominant chord).
With that said, if you can double any note if you do it purposefully. Sometimes it’s appropriate to use unusual doublings to create instability, tension, or to achieve a specific sound.
add9, add11 and add13
When you’re looking at a score or a chord chart you might come across chords that read “Cminadd9”. This means that you’re only playing the triads and add the 9th note of the source scale. In other words, you don’t play the 7th.
If it doesn’t read add9, add11, add13 you play all the notes in the chord.
Suspended chords are chords that are neither major nor minor. To play suspended chords you raise or lower the 3rd so you get either a major second or a perfect fourth.
They’re written as either sus2 (lower the third to a major second) or sus4 (raising the 3rd to a perfect 4th).
These chords are consonant sounding due to the lack of thirds, but they require some sort of resolution. They’re useful to get the listener to anticipate resolution, and it’s up to you, the composer or producer, to give to them or not depending on what emotions you want to convey.
Sus chords are an excellent tool for prolonging or adding ambiguity. In classical music, suspended chords are resolved to the tonic. But in jazz it’s frequent to move to a dominant 7th instead.
Just like augmented and diminished chords are often used as passing chords in pop and rock music, the sus chords tend to play a similar role in jazz.
A common usage is to land on the suspended tonic to build anticipation in your chord progressions. When you finally resolve to a tonic, it’ll be all the more noticeable and satisfying.
This is perhaps the most known jazz chord progression and is used in countless jazz standards.
Part of what makes this chord progression so smooth and easy to use is the smooth voice leading in inherently possesses between the 3rds and 7ths.
The third in the opening ii chord becomes the seventh of the dominant7, then the 7th becomes the third in the tonic. This gives the progression a strong resolution and smooth transitions between each chord.
The interval of V7 —> I is called a perfect cadence, which has a strong resolution.
Popular jazz standards with this chord progression:
Here’s a minor version of the previous jazz chord progression. The minor variation often uses the half diminished ii chord for extra harmonic interest. It also creates a darker character and a more somber quality.
This chord progression is used in Miles Davis’ “So What” and where we hear this somber tonal characteristics often associated with modal jazz.
Here we have a set of chords known as the turnaround progression which derives from George Gershwin’s "I Got Rhythm."
The I-VI-ii-V progression moves through a cycle of chords that provides a strong sense of motion and is used to seamlessly transition back to the beginning of a section or song. This progression is versatile and forms the basis of many jazz standards and bebop tunes, providing a lively and dynamic harmonic framework.
To be diatonically correct, the VI should be a minor chord in a major scale. However, turning minor chords into major chords adds a stronger need for resolution. If you make it a dominant 7 chord (which is a major triad with a minor 7) you make it even jazzier.
Try playing the VI chord as both major, minor and dominant 7 and see how that changes the quality of the chord progression. Adding different chord extensions is a good way to change how this progression feels.
This progression incorporates modal interchange, borrowing chords from parallel keys to add harmonic interest. The inclusion of a secondary dominant (II7) creates additional tension and resolution within the harmonic structure. It's a staple in many jazz compositions, providing a rich, dynamic harmonic palette.
This progression is great for adding harmonic interest and variety to your compositions, enabling smooth transitions between different sections of a piece.
Chords can be played in a multitude of different ways. How you decide to voice a chord (i.e which note goes where on the vertical staff) the sound will be different. Having the chord extensions in the middle of the chord sounds different from a chord with the extensions on top.
Playing the C and B in a C7 right next to each other is a different quality then playing the extension an octave higher.
Where on the staff you place the notes should also be determined on what comes next. Great, or smooth, voice leading is when you players have to move as little as possible to get to the next note or chord.
When you write for other performers, such as Musiversal’s session musicians, it’s important to keep this in mind. The shorter the intervallic distance between notes or chord, the easier it is to play, especially at faster tempos.
Remember, music theory is a tool box, not a rule book, so feel free to do things the unconventional way. Just make sure you know why you’re doing it with intention.
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