Tag: 2-5-1

Posted in Tips and Online finds

Guitar Great Vic Juris: A couple of great video lessons.

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I was lucky enough to study with Vic Juris in the early 90’s. Today I stumbled into a couple of great lessons on youtube  and I wanted to share them with you. He is a great jazz guitarist, if you don’t know about him, check out his music: http://www.myspace.com/vicjuris

In this lesson he talks about some very cool (and incredibly easy) applications of the standard box pentatonic shape:

Here he talks introduces his book Modern Chords:
Advanced Harmony for Guitar (Mel Bay’s Private Lessons)

I cannot recommend enough to check out this incredible musician!

Posted in The Jazzy stuff (but good for every style!)

Tips: play Giant Steps on guitar

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Giant Steps has always been a challenging standard to play, in this video I give a few tips on how to approach this famous tune.

The Chords (from the fake book-as far as I know it is not copyrighted material so I am posting the original):

One good ‘pattern’ to start familiarising with the progression in playing 1235 for every chord (meaning the 1st,2nd,3nd and 5th of every chord). For the original key it would be B,C#,D#,F#(Bmaj7) then D,E,F#,A (D7), G,A,B,D (G)and so on…

It’s all about getting used to keep your brain engaged at any time. A great exercise!

Posted in The Jazzy stuff (but good for every style!)

Easy standard jazz song analyzed

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In this video I will show you how jazz standards are actually much easier that most people think. I bring as an example the famous standard ‘Autumn leaves’. You’ll notice right away that this is mostly made up by two 2-5-1 progressions one in major, the other one in minor. I have already show you previously how to approach those two progressions and what to use to solo over them. So now all you should do is learn the chords and record a backing track for yourself to solo over.

Printable PDF: Lead Sheet

Posted in The Jazzy stuff (but good for every style!)

2-5-1 minor

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Like the 2-5-1 in major this is quite a reoccurring progression in many different styles. Its originates from the  Harmonic Minor scale and the chords are IIm7(b5)-V7(b9)-Im(maj7). In the video I show you a scale (that really has no name) that fits these 3 chords, and if learned in all keys, will cover your basic soloing needs for this kind of progression. It is basically a natural minor scale with an added major 7th. To me it sounds a bit like a bebop scale so it naturally sounds its best when played in a descending fashion.  This is the scale in Cminor:

C D Eb F G Ab Bb B (C)

You can download the printable PDF file: Minor 2-5-1/ Eight note scale.

Posted in The Jazzy stuff (but good for every style!)

2-5-1 Pt2:Examples

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Just some examples on the 2-5-1 (to be ‘proper’ I should write II-V-I ) progression in C major, using only notes from the major scale. Remember the harmonic rhythm concept: strong notes on strong beats. I definitely advice recording yourself and criticize your playing in a positive way. There is no point in saying ‘that was horrible’. Istead say ‘ why does that not sound as it should?’. Am I playing too many wrong notes? Is my timing off? Are my melodies not strong enough? Try again and fix what you think is wrong.

Again you can find the 2-5-1 all keys Printable PDF >Here<