Jazz Chords And The Best Way To Think About Them

If you want to learn Jazz comping, then it is very important that you stop thinking in Jazz Chord grips and start seeing how patterns are actually variations of the same chord.

Get the PDF on my website:

Get the PDF and GuitarPro files on Patreon:

✅DOWNLOAD A FREE E-BOOK with 15 II Valt I licks!
Sign up for my newsletter:

Content:
00:00 Intro
00:31 Start Simple
01:06 The Great Thing About Using Only A Few Notes
01:58 Completing The Overview
03:43 You Don’t Usually Do This With Chords
04:17 The Blues Slur and the Chromatic Slide
05:38 Level Up Your Comping
05:49 3 Reasons Your Comping Sucks and How To Fix It
05:53 Like the video? Check out my Patreon page!

My name is Jens Larsen, Danish Jazz Guitarist, and Educator. The videos on this channel will help you explore and enjoy Jazz. Some of it is how to play jazz guitar, but other videos are more on Music Theory like Jazz Chords or advice on how to practice and learn Jazz, on guitar or any other instrument.

The videos are mostly jazz guitar lessons, but also music theory, analysis of songs, and videos on jazz guitars.

My Gear:

[dlanska]

Funny and brilliant. Slipping in a reference to "Smoke on the water" in a jazz context is just genius. And the eyebrow raise after was really great. Just made me laugh.

[nikolasmussmann]

Haha. I cracked up at that smoke on water reference

[bradhurlburt]

Really happy to see you feeling better and making videos again, Jens! As always, thank you for another useful instructional video. I hope all is well in your world.

[jakemf]

Man these chord videos take simple concepts and make so much from them. Love this

[Materva-hvsz]

Jens has one of the best tones I've ever heard. And his chord melodies and phrasing blow me away

[adhoc]

This is so damned intelligent, clever and enjoyable. So I add it to my play list 'important' which is mainly Jens Larsen... absolutely brilliant. Thank you for giving this away. Only a rich man can afford to be so generous and that isn't only about your bank balance.

[JensLarsen]

Do you feel stuck with chord diagrams, or are they actually more useful?

[jantonisito]

Thanks for video Jens - as always - perfect mix of information - pointing you to right direction but without synaptic overload. Here is little chord phrase I came up after 1st minute - xx8910x, xx89108, xx891010, xx10111011, xx910910, xx89108.

[lollipophugo]

I've sort of been doing this working through Ted Greene's million I vi ii V variations as well as Tom Quayle's recognition of intervals to root method, thinking of which notes make up the "chord" in the progression and which are creating melody/harmony to move to the next chord, and really slowing down on this has made me feel like I'm making huge progress and giving me a lot of confidence. This video helped me feel like I'm on the right track, thanks for yet another great vid.

[GodfreyGuitar]

This is great! It reminds me of how my old teacher taught me basic jazz chords. I learned which string was playing the 3rd, the 5th, etc. Then he would have me take a shape and figure out how to flat the 5th, add a 9th, 13th, or whatever. It was a long process, but it taught me how to teach myself chords without having to constantly look them up, and it was SUPER useful in learning how to write arrangements.

[fivetimesyo]

I have instituted the "Larsen Benchmark". Now I measure my progress by how much of your videos I can understand and connect to my playing... And I have to say today I'm not too bad.
Keep 'em coming, Jens. You might just make a jazz player out of me yet!

[haralde.langner]

The "master"🙂 shows: not just companing with cords, but make music 🎶 - great stuff 👍

[stephensmith]

Wonderful guitarist and that rare thing, also a great teacher

[claudiotacconi]

Brilliant and simple way to make a complex topic accessible.... congrats Jens, and thanks a lot for sharing!! Cheers.

[diegomaugeri]

That's exactly what I needed to break free from the tyranny of the root on the 6th and 5th string!
Thank you!!

[andywilberding]

This was a real eye opener. Thanks so much!

[jnbriss]

What a great video! I’m starting to dive into making my own arrangements, turning a song into a chord melody I can play on the guitar. I was considering mostly straight major and minor chords played as triads, but using a dominant 7 chord with that box on the highest two strings, what I could arrange would probably be even more unique. Thanks for the inspiration.

[casandre]

rigtig lækker gennemgang, du er bare god!

[herculesrockefeller]

That was a catchy melody. I think it has possibilities!

[dlanska]

Funny and brilliant. Throwing in a reference to "Smoke on the water" in a jazz context was just genius. And the raised eyebrow after without a verbal comment was great. It made me laugh.