Jazz Piano for Beginners : Chords (Lesson 2)

In this Jazz Piano online course I will bring you from the level of a complete jazz beginner up to the level of an intermediate/advanced pianist. We will talk about both theory and applications, and cover concepts ranging from chords and scales, to diatonic harmony, voicings, substitutions, soloing, tensions, and much more. Course playlist:

In this second lesson I will explain what chords are and how to play them. We'll cover eight different types of essential "jazz" chords - more accurately called "7th chords" - including major, minor, dominant, diminished, half diminished and more. Then I'll show you how to apply this knowledge to accompany yourself playing a simple ballad from sheet music. I'll conclude by giving you some tips on how to practice the dizzying number of chord combinations.

Table of Contents
0:00 Theory
1:36 The anatomy of a chord
2:00 Different types of chords
5:08 Application to a ballad
7:54 Constructing a few chords
10:28 How to practice chords

[vincentsconcertina]

This is incredible. As a largely self taught player of various instruments, I’ve been struggling for years to understand a consistent method to easily construct chords in any key from lead sheets, fully understand the notations and their subtle differences, not to mention the difference between diminished, half diminished, diminished Major etc etc… and all this in only Lesson 2. Thank-you so much. Formidable!

[kwright]

Loving the course so far. Am learning that chord melody from the previous course. A little difficult but I’m getting there, almost finish. Can’t put into words how useful these lessons are. This man is definitely gold. Thank you.😊❤

[violetatio]

Thank you for your good heart in imparting piano skills to students who are in earnest wanting to learn.

[JR]

Thank you very much!! The way you broke it down to semi-tones, makes a lot of sense. I've only seen how to construct Major and Minors using numbered semi-tones. But have not seen the formula for all others!! I will have to memorized each construction type. Thank you again!!

[john.]

Thank you so much Assaf, I look forward to the next lesson. 👍

[carlgrainger]

Great work. All chords understood, now will practice changing keys. It’ll be interesting to see how fluent or not this gets over the next week. TY as always.

[lugomoss]

Thank you so much for this amazing lesson. I have seen lesson 4, went back to this lesson to learn the jazz balad. I can now play it completely (simple version) 😄

I have been practing my major scales and major chords. I have scale c to e inprinted now and I know 5 major cords chromatically going from C to E. Thanks for this.

I wish you could make a structured checklist somewhere, so I can follow it step by step exactly. I want to watch the new released videos too but im afraid of going too quick. Cheers mate thanks again

[peacenluv]

Thank you for the piano lessons. Please keep uploading more tutorials videos.❤

[kwright]

This course is amazing, truly amasing. Of course for someone self taught as myself and only starting to do jazz and trying to improvise is a lot of work BUT at least I understand it and it’s not overwhelming to the point I feel I can’t do it or achieve it. So many YouTube teachers and courses and the teachers either work too fast and worse even when slowed down their fingers are so subtle it’s hard to follow. This is clearly illustrated with the music clearly visible and at a good proper beginner pace. Many great piano teachers and even courses but they lack the ability to teach their craftsmanship like a bad maths teacher (but can do it themself just can’t teach!) or their illustrations are either out of focus, too small for the eye or just can’t follow it for various reasons. I’m so loving this course and am going to learn the chords via the jazz ballad illustrated for us to learn. Admittedly, I started learning the hard version and found it initially very hard but today it felt more comfortable moving from one chord to the next. I only got third through though. I will however, now learn the easier version in this video and start transposing. It’s like a light bulb has gone off. Even making sense of the chords e.g. Cm7b5 etc would be confusing but I understand now how to read these jazz chords cos this way will give greater understanding to the chords. I feel so excited and honoured that Mangold is taking time out of his life to do his best to help people that are so interested to learn jazz but no one really cares enough to take us through the concepts from beginner level. There’s too many adhoc random tutoring on YouTube. I can only thank Mangold. Huge thanks.

[JR]

A PDF of "The Basic Jazz Chord Types" Would really help.

[thomasmacdougall]

Thank you. I enjoyed your intermediate/Chaccone lessons. Looking forward to this!

[elizabeth]

Thank you so so much for this excellent lesson! Words can’t express the thankfulness I feel for having found your channel! Thank you for sharing your knowledge, and your kind heart. I learnt so much from this. Good wishes, stay well.

[SnowAngelfish]

Great lesson! I am surprised however, that you didnt include the C 6/9 in your list of chords types in C. Its used so often in jazz instead of a Cmaj7.

[maexe]

that's so useful, i'm really grateful to have came across your channel, i'm looking forward to what comes next in this video series

thanks wholeheartedly for the work that you provide for free !

[JaDy-pntz]

thank you! great instruction especially the exercise suggestion

[spiritwanderer]

this is a fantastic explanation, thank you

[credenza]

Very useful and informative. Thank you.

[stiles]

thanks you so much for thoses videos !!

[bongkeunshin]

Thank you for your great lesson! I just started watching your videos and it seems really nice for newbie like me. Can you recommend any songs for beginners to play for practice?

[jonathanyoung]

This looks like it might be exactly the course I’ve been looking for, thank you - except that there’s no sheet music to download or print that I can find? I’d be happy to pay for it if that’s what it took but without anything to print out it’s hard to practice this at the piano. Pretty please? 😊