chords progressions jazz popular guitar pdf

Now let’s look at how to play the same chords played with a 4th string root. It is also easier to play these chords at speed because the fretting hand is not moving such great distances. (Voice leading is the technique of ar-ranging chords so that each note moves the smallest possible distance during each chord change). One way of doing this could be:Īnother way to practice this is to begin on the 5th string voicing of the Gm7b5 chord and repeat the same process.īy changing strings in this way, we can always create smoother ‘ voice leading´ between each of the chords in the chord progression.

Always look for the closest pos-sible voicing when you change chords. Try beginning on the 6th string for the Gm7b5 chord and then move to the closest voicing of the C7 chord on the 5th string (3rd fret) when you change. Learn the same chord sequence using just the 5th string voicings: Jazz Guitar Chord Voicings Example 2b:īefore moving on to learning these jazz guitar chord voicings types with a 4th string root, combine the 6th and 5th string chords to voice the chords closer together. Next, learn the same common chords voiced with the root on the 5th string: Don’t worry about this for now, as when you have a few more voicings under your fingers you can start to smooth out the movements. You will notice that these chord voicings move around a great deal on the fretboard. For example, the open 5th string is muted by the finger playing the 6th string. You can mute them with the underside of the finger that is playing the fretted note on the lower string. Pay attention to the ‘X’s that show muted strings that don’t have a fretted note. Learn these jazz guitar chord voicingsand then join them together so you can play example 2a. You may find it easier to play the Fm7 chord ‘up an octave’ at the 13th fret, this is also fine. If you find it easier to use different fingers then please feel free to use them. The numbers written on the notes are suggested fingerings. Let’s begin by learning jazz chord voicings of these chords that have their root on the 6th string. We are going to learn to play the following chord progression using three different jazz chord voicings for each chord.Īs you can see, this chord progression uses each of the chord types once. In order to do this you should at least be familiar with the notes on the bottom three strings: If you wish to play it as an F7 you will have to move it so that the root note is F.

It is important at this point that you know where the notes are on your guitar fretboard as you will learn movable barre chord forms of each chord.įor example, we will learn a barre chord ‘7’ shape and if you want to play this chord as a C7 you will need to place it so that the root note is C. We will begin by learning three voicings of each of the fundamental chord types, maj7, 7, m7, and m7b5 and then apply them to a common jazz chord progression. They are the first jazz chord voicings that most guitarists learn, and will remain a part of your vocabulary from this point for-ward. The Jazz Guitar Chord Voicings in this lesson are designed to ‘get you through the tune’. Now can begin to learn some useful voicings. In the previous Jazz Chord Voicings lesson, we learnt how the most common jazz chords are constructed.

Chords progressions jazz popular guitar pdf