#JAZZ CHORD AURAL TRAINING HOW TO#

For example, the chords that emerge from harmonizing a C major scale create a set of chords that function within the key of C major. So a “key” or a “key center” is actually something that is created from this process of building chords from a scale and it’s exactly this process that makes harmony functional. This set of chords creates a “harmonic context” that’s referred to as a “key”. When you do this, a set of chords emerges. To create functional harmony, you take a scale and “harmonize it” by building seventh chords from each note of the scale, stacking diatonic 3rds. Let’s jump into a simplified version of what functional harmony is and why it’s so important.

Why the V7 chord in minor becomes alteredīut before we dive into minor harmony, let’s recap some of the essentials of functional harmony… What is functional Harmony?.

Why the Tonic minor chord gets special treatment.

Why there are so many minor scales and their various roles.

#JAZZ CHORD AURAL TRAINING HOW TO#

How to understand the subtleties of the chords in a minor key.Where common minor progressions come from.Where each chord comes from in a minor key.

Today we’re going to look at the intricate details of:

In this lesson we’re going to get into these harmonic complications and a whole lot more, starting from the very beginning and building minor harmony from the ground up. Despite what anyone says, jazz has harmonic complications to deal with that most other music styles do not have… You see, the way we think about harmony – especially minor harmony – as a jazz musician is slightly different than other styles of music… When it comes to playing jazz, minor harmony is not as easy as you might expect. With the knowledge of why a chord progression is the way it is, you give context and meaning to every chord and how the chords function as a cohesive unit.īut why is it so difficult to get this understanding with minor harmony? We get so caught up in memorizing chords to tunes without understanding the HOW and WHY behind them, that we miss out on a deep understanding of how harmony actually works.Īnd it’s exactly this understanding of harmony that will liberate you from needing to memorize a ton of chords simply by rote. I struggled to understand where a minor ii V came from – Why are the chords in them seem so different from one another? Why are they not like major ii Vs where the chords obviously share the same underlying key center?Įven a minor blues didn’t quite make sense – How does the IV chord become minor? Why do both the I and IV chords use The Dorian mode, isn’t that for ii minor chords? Like most people, I can recall running into a million problems when it came to minor keys…I played minor tunes like Autumn Leaves, Alone Together, and Softly as in a Morning Sunrise for years without really understanding how progressions in minor actually worked…Īnd I played jazz standards like I Hear a Rhapsody and My Shining Hour, not even realizing the important relationship between the major and minor key centers within those tunes. It’s as if their teacher said… Ok, here’s The Dorian mode…now you’re all set when it comes to minor…But there’s so much more to minor harmony…in fact, there’s a whole way that chords FUNCTION in a minor key! From this understanding, you’ll memorize jazz standards faster, understand chord progressions on a deeper level, and improvise with more confidence and clarity.Ĭompared to major harmony, everyone seems to get totally lost when it comes to minor harmony. Whether you’re playing a tune in a minor key or a jazz standard that shifts to the relative minor for a section, you need a solid understanding of how minor harmony works in jazz.

Jazz chord aural training