Blues Comping #5: Chorus #1 (measures 5 - 8)

For today's lesson, we'll focus on the middle four measures of the twelve bar Jazz Blues progression. In a basic Blues progression, measures five and six usually stay on the IV7 chord but a very common variation is to insert a #IVo7 passing chord to lead back into the I7 usually in the form of I7/5 (a second inversion I7 chord) just like the example here.

I've used the same Drop-2 diminished voicing that was introduced in Blues Comping #3. However, here the chord functions as a diminished chord as opposed to the alternative function of being a rootless Dom7(b9) voicing (as it appears in measure eight).

After memorizing this example, play Blues Comping #4 and Blues Comping #5 back to back to hear how the first eight measures of this first full chorus example sounds like. Experiment comping with different rhythms, articulation, note duration and space. 

Enjoy!

rss feed
Subscribe via Email
If you enjoyed this lesson, Like it and share it with your friends! 

Blues Comping #3: Drop-2 Voicings for the V7(b9)/II and related II-7(b5)

In the third installment of Blues Comping, we're looking at two chords that really adds more Jazz flavor into the Blues progression. In this context, the G7(b9) functions as a secondary dominant that leads into the II-7. The voicing here is a rootless voicing which makes it possible for the chord to also be viewed simply as a Drop-2 diminished 7th voicing.

In the next few lessons, we'll start combining all the voicings we've looked at into complete Jazz Blues choruses. To prepare for this, make sure you practice the voicings as much as possible so that it becomes comfortable. We'll also be playing the same voicings in different keys in future examples, so get a head start by doing that now.

Enjoy!

rss feed
Subscribe via Email

If you enjoyed this lesson, Like it and share it with your friends!  

Chord #80 - Eb dim (Maj7)

This is a tonic diminished voicing. It can also be viewed as a D triad over an Eb bass note.

For the musical example, I played a bossa-nova comp with the Ebdim(Maj7) resolving to an Eb69 chord.

Enjoy!

rss feed
Subscribe via Email