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Jazz harmony
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Main page Jazz harmony is the theory

Contents and practice of how chords are
Featured content used in jazz music. Jazz bears
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certain similarities to other
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practices in the tradition of
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Wikipedia store Western harmony, such as
Dominant seventh chord on C: C 7
many chord progressions, and Play (helpinfo).
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the incorporation of the major
Help and minor scales as a basis for
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chordal construction. In jazz, chords are often arranged vertically in
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major or minor thirds, although stacked fourths are also quite
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common.[1] Also, jazz music tends to favor certain harmonic
progressions and includes the addition of tensions, intervals such
Tools as 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths to chords. Additionally, scales unique to
What links here style are used as the basis of many harmonic elements found in
Related changes jazz. Jazz harmony is notable for the use of seventh chords as the
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basic harmonic unit more often than triads, as in classical music.[2]
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In the words of Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha, "7th chords
Page information provide the building blocks of jazz harmony."[2]
Wikidata item The piano and guitar are the two instruments that typically provide
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harmony for a jazz group. Players of these instruments deal with
Print/export harmony in a real-time, flowing improvisational context as a matter
Create a book of course. This is one of the greatest challenges in jazz.
Download as PDF In a big-band context, the harmony is the basis for horn material,
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melodic counterpoint, and so on. The improvising soloist is
In other projects expected to have a complete knowledge of the basics of harmony,
Wikimedia Commons as well as their own unique approach to chords and their
relationship to scales. A personal style is composed of these
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building blocks and a rhythmic concept.
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Jazz composers use harmony as a basic stylistic element as well.
Franais Open, modal harmony is characteristic of the music of McCoy
Nederlands Tyner, whereas rapidly shifting key centers is a hallmark of the
Edit links middle period of John Coltrane's writing. Horace Silver, Clare
Fischer, Dave Brubeck, and Bill Evans are pianists whose
compositions are more typical of the chord-rich style associated
with pianist-composers. Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Wayne
Shorter and Benny Golson are non-pianists who also have a strong
sense of the role of harmony in compositional structure and mood.
These composers (including also Dizzy Gillespie and Charles
Mingus, who recorded infrequently as pianists) have musicianship
grounded in chords at the piano, even though they are not
performing keyboardists.

The authentic cadence (V-I) is the most important one in both

classical and jazz harmony, though in jazz it more often follows a
ii/II chord serving as predominant. To cite Rawlins and Bahha, as
above: "The ii-V-I [progression] provides the cornerstone of jazz
harmony"[2]

The ii-V-I ( Play ii-V-I (helpinfo)) may appear differently in major or

minor keys, m7 -dom-maj7 or m75-dom9-minor.[3]

Other central features of jazz harmony are diatonic and non-

diatonic reharmonizations, the addition of the V7(sus4) chord as a
dominant and non-dominant functioning chord, major/minor
interchange, blues harmony, secondary dominants, extended
dominants, deceptive resolution, related ii-V7 chords, direct
modulations, the use of contrafacts, common chord modulations,
and dominant chord modulations using ii-V progressions.

Bebop or "straight-ahead" jazz, in which only certain of all possible

extensions and alterations are used, is distinguished from free,
avant-garde, or modern jazz harmony.[2]

Contents
1 Chord symbols
2 Melodic minor
scale
3 See also
4 Further reading
5 References

Chord symbols [edit]

Analytic practice in Jazz recognizes four basic chord types, plus

diminished seventh chords. The four basic chord types are major,
minor, minor-major, and dominant. When written in a jazz chart,
these chords may have alterations specified in parentheses after
the chord symbol. An altered note is a note which is a deviation
from the canonical chord tone.

There is variety in the chord symbols used in jazz notation. A jazz

musician must have facility in the alternate notation styles which
are used. The following chord symbol examples use C as a root
tone for example purposes.

Chord tones
Equivalent
in example Name Audio
 symbols key
C, CM7, major seventh
CEGB Play (helpinfo)
Cmaj7 chord

dominant seventh
C7 C E G B Play (helpinfo)
chord
minor seventh
C-7, Cm7 C E G B Play (helpinfo)
chord
C-7, minor/major
C E G B Play (helpinfo)
CmM7, C seventh chord
C, Cm75, half-diminished
C E G B Play (helpinfo)
C-75 seventh chord
fully diminished 7th
Co7, Cdim7 C E G B Play (helpinfo)
chord
dominant or minor
Csus7 C F G B suspended 4th Play (helpinfo)
chord

Most jazz chord symbols designate four notes. Each typically has a
"role" as root, third, fifth, or seventh, although they may be
severely altered and possibly use an enharmonic spelling which
masks this underlying identity. For example, jazz harmony
theoretician Jim Knapp has suggested that the 9 and even the 9
alterations are functioning in the root role.

The jazz chord naming system is as deterministic as the composer

wishes it to be. A general rule of thumb is that chord alterations
are included in a chart only when the alteration appears in the
melody or is crucial to essence of the composition. Skilled
improvisers are able to supply an idiomatic, highly altered
harmonic vocabulary even when written chord symbols contain no
alterations.

It is possible to specify chords with more than four notes. For

example, the chord C-9 contains the notes (C E G B D).

Melodic minor scale [edit]

Much of jazz harmony is based on themelodic minor scale (using

only the "ascending" scale as defined in classical harmony). The
modes of this scale are the basis for much jazz improvisation and
are variously named as below, using the key of C-minor as an
example:

Melodic Characteristic Scale tones

minor chord in C- (chord tones Scale name(s)
scale tone minor in bold)
I-C Cm() C D Eb F G A B melodic minor
 Phrygian or Dorian
II - D Dm7 D E F G A B C
26
Lydian 5 or Lydian
III - E E(5) Eb F G A B C D
Augmented

Mixolydian 4 or
IV - F F7 F G A B C D Eb
Lydian Dominant
Mixolydian 6 or
V-G G7 G A B C D E F
"Hindu"
VI - A A A B C D E F G Locrian 2
Altered, diminished
VII - B B7alt B C D E F G A whole tone, or
Locrian 4

The VII chord in particular is rich with alterations. As it contains the

notes and alterations (, 9, m3/9, M3, 5/11, 13, m7), it is
particularly important in the jazz harmonic idiom, notably as a
chord in a minor key. For our example key of C-minor, the V chord
is G7, so the improviser would draw upon the G7 altered scale
(mode VII of the A melodic minor). A complete ii-V-i progression in
C-minor7 extended 9 flattened fifth might suggest the following:

ii D D Locrian 2 (mode of the F melodic minor scale)

G altered scale (mode VII of the A melodic minor
V G7(alt)
scale)
I Cm() C melodic minor (mode I of the C melodic minor scale)

See also [edit]

Altered chord
Bebop scale
Chord-scale system
Modal jazz
Tritone substitution

Further reading [edit]

Harmonie et orchestration pour orchestra de danse, Robert de

Kers (de) (19061987), Brussels: ditions musicales Charles
Bens (1944); OCLC 35083146 , 930383216 , 1456272 &
OCLC 757363748 , 915601359
The Chord Scale Theory & Jazz Harmony, by Barrie L. Nettles
(born 1942) & Richard Graf, Advance Music (1997);
OCLC 39925889 , ISBN 3-89221-056-X
Popular and Jazz Harmony for Composers, Arrangers, and
Performers (revised ed.), Daniel Anthony Ricigliano, New York:
Donato Music Publishing Company (1969); OCLC 24031 ,
 756982208
DOG EAR Tritone Substitution for Jazz Guitar, by R. Ken,
Amazon Digital Services, Inc. (2012); ASIN: B008FRWNIW

References [edit]

1. ^ "Stacking Thirds" . How To Play Blues Guitar. 2008-09-29.

Archived from the original on 2008-10-03. Retrieved
2008-10-06.
2. ^ a b c d Robert Rawlins, Nor Eddine Bahha (2005). Jazzology: The
Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians, Hal Leonard, pps.
11 , 13 , 42 ; OCLC 82480053 , ISBN 0-634-08678-2.
3. ^ Peter Spitzer (2001). Jazz Theory Handbook, Mel Bay
Publications, pg. 30; ISBN 0-7866-5328-0.

V T E Jazz theory and improvisation

Avoid note Backdoor progression Bar-line shift Bebop scale
Bird changes Block chord Blue note Cadenza Call and response
Chord-scale system Chordioid Coltrane changes Comping
Constant structure Contrafact Electroacoustic improvisation
Free improvisation (List) Groove Harmolodics Harmony Head
Jam band Jam session Jazz chord (So What) Jazz improvisation
Lead sheet Melodic pattern Outside Polyrhythm Rhythm changes
Scale Swing Syncopation Turnaround (ii-V-I Tadd Dameron)
Twelve-bar blues Upper structure

Categories: Harmony Jazz techniques

This page was last edited on 22 June 2017, at 11:07.

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