A place to discuss Jazz Theory, and its applications in music.

I am an electric bass player and one of the tunes I have a solo on at an upcoming gig has some odd changes that I can’t seem to quite nail.

I have solo’d over these changes at a past gig but never feel like I wind up playing anything that really contextualizes the chords.

Looking for any thoughts advice or insight on how to approach these bad boys. Each chord is held out for a whole measure, and the last two for half a measure.

C# m11, B maj6, A maj13, Gm7, F#7

Thank you!

Whenever jazz pianist play tritone substitutions, they rarely just play the dominant 7th chord. Usually they add 9ths, 11ths and 13ths, which can be either sharp or flat. How do I know what extensions to play?

Hii! I’ve been really getting into Jazz music recently and would love to play and improvise over stuff, but I don’t know where I should start to progress my playing.

I’ve been playing guitar for around 2 years almost every single day (missed a few here and there unfortunately) and have progressed decently I think :)

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

Hi there,

This is quite specific, but I was wondering if anyone has any info to share on the analysis of Millers Moonlight Serenade? I’m looking specifically for elements of music (form, harmony, chord structure, progressions, rhythm etc.). I’m doing a project on this and there really is very little info on the harmonic elements of the tune. Websites seem to focus on the songs historical/societal impact rather than the ins and outs of the structure. Any info would help!

Thanks.

And how do you transition smoothly? Cus my brain still hears it in the original key during the change

I'm trying to get better at playing by ear, so I'm trying to practice on different kinds of songs, but when I play things like "didnt we" by frank sinatra, the key changes sooo much and I don't know how to know whick key it changed to or if it even changed at all.

Do I have to be good at chords first, or is this a completely different skill? I can only do melodies because I thought I've thought I should master melodies before I start them. Is this a good idea, or should I learn them at the same time? (Btw im talking about by ear, not chords like Cmaj, rather III chord etc)

Also, sometimes the key doesn't even change, but it feels like it's switching between major and minor

Hi everyone, I’m playing keys (CK88 with an organ effect) in an amateur band, and we’ve got a section where the singer will introduce us for solos. We’ll be playing over a simple progression—E minor to A7— (a full 4/4 measure each) repeating with a groove similar to Santana’s style.

I’m not super comfortable with improvisation, so I was wondering if anyone had tips or simple licks I could use? I’m looking for something basic but effective that fits with the vibe. The concert is in 3 days.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I’m a graduate student doing early research into my specific skill area, which is jazz guitar education. In particular, I’m interested in studying the challenges of working with ‘novice compers’ who are tasked with being handed an entirely new language to learn (sight reading chord symbols on lead sheets). One of my most vivid pain points in my under grad was being tasked with this new skill and having to just struggle to support my ensemble for years before I learned the language enough to swim confidently.

I’ve been reflecting on this, and I’m interested in learning more about existing resources or teaching materials that ‘grade’ lead sheets specifically on their difficulty to comp harmonically. Obviously, in practice a working musician can simplify or lay out changes as needed to support thr music; I am specifically examining this from an educational ensemble perspective for a novice who is very new to the role of comping for a rhythm section. Are there any teaching standards or organizations that do work in this specific aspect?

My teacher is positive that this groove's 1 is on the 16th pickup-sounding note to that guitar riff in the intro. If you turn up the volume way in the start, there's brushes for a few measures that do line exactly up with that note which would suggest it's the 1. This means the chord hits are on the e of 2 and 4. I slowed it down and listened and, I think that's ultimately right. It makes some of the sketchier vocal rhythm make more sense (not perfect imo, but still).

It's pretty intuitive to play that guitar riff. However... teacher plays the drum kit and I keep defaulting to like a backbeat groove thing that lines up the 2 and the 4 on the chord hits. So in addition to what's the groove... how do you all practice a groove that isn't as intuitive? Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z5KPuJOdbw

I was playing a song that moved from an A5 chord to a Bflat5 chord and playing dmajor on the A5 and Bflat major on the Bflat5 seemed to work, but when trying to work this out i also came across the idea that Dmajor7 moving to Bflatmajor7 just works really well and i cannot work out why! Also i found that Dmajor7 TO Bflat major 7 TO Gflat major7 creates like a cycle that repeats forever and sounds really good.

Hey I am very new to jazz and me and my freinds want to know if this set of instruments can play jazz well

Flute Tap shoes Bass guitar Keys Trombone Any advice is appreciated

I'm a new jazz enthusiast here, please excuse me if this is a silly question. Quartal voicings for chords sound really rich when i hear pianists play it my i cannot seem to be able to properly form these chords myself. Spacing notes by perfect 4ths end up including many chord extensions but not the essential tones.

Is there a correct way to do this? Can u point me towards a book or a video that demonstrates the process? Thank you in advance

The first “Africanized” African American genre with no European influences?

specifically night in tunisia. every time i play it i usually revert back to playing the same thing which is basically versions of the d minor pentatonic or harmonic minor over the a sections. the problem is i want to be able to use enclosures and bebop language over the a section but i dont know how since the chord changes every measure. maybe this is just a hard thing for me to do. but how would i practice this?

If you know of any songs or players that use a lot of minor / harmonic minor / melodic minor / augmented / diminished sound send some tracks my way. Especially for this Halloween season! Anytime I lookup Halloween jazz it’s just the lyrics that talk about spooky stuff the music itself doesn’t sound match it.