jazz theory – Modern Music Theory Improvisation and Application

The 12 Major Triads/Slash chords music lesson in theory and practice:

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a look at altering harmony and cadences with triads, slash and altered chords.

PART 1:

To begin with let’s take a pedestrian V to I cadence,

Now, let’s add some colour to it.

A musical notation diagram showing a V to I cadence with altered substitutions to the Major key, including the slash chords Db/C and C/F for music theory lesson — Illustration of a V to I cadence with altered substitutions, showcasing the Db/C and C/F slash chords.

Here, we can see the slash chord of Db/C resolving to C/F:

The Db/C harmony creates a powerful dominant chord of Csus/b9/b13

Musical notation for Csus/b9/b13 chord with tablature for guitar. Example of slash chord Db/C — Musical notation illustrating the Csus/b9/b13 chord, showcasing its structure and components.

With this in mind let’s now apply this and cadence to the minor key [FmMaj7]

Musical sheet displaying a V to I cadence with altered substitutions for the minor key, featuring Db/C and FmMaj7 slash chords. — V to I cadence illustrating altered slash chord substitutions in a minor key.

Straight away, we can see and hear how easy it is to manipulate and alter the harmony with slash chords.

They also possess a unique flavour and colour that really shines out on the guitar due to the Major triads being very bright. This way they naturally cut through and resonate.

PART 2: Extending 1 simple Triad:

In this example, we will take a simple triad of F Major 1st inversion [F/A]

From this, we will add melodic notes/movement in the top and bottom to extend the harmony, and, finish with a 7sus4 cadence of F/G to Cmaj7#11

Music sheet showing chord substitution notations for F Major 1st inversion (F/A), F6/A, F#m7b5, and F/G with finger placement. — Visual representation of F Major triad variations, including F/A, F6/A, F#m7b5, and F/G, showcasing chord extensions.

Let’s now add this to a complete chord sequence:

A music sheet displaying harmonization techniques with chord notations including Em9, Am, C/G#, F/A, F6/A, F#m7b5, F/G, and Maj7#11. — Chord sequence demonstrating triads and harmonization techniques.

PART 3: Harmonising a melody:

We will now take the simple melody below,

To exploit this, we will employ altered and slash chords starting with G7#9 moving to Eb/E

Sheet music illustrating melody notes with annotations for G7#9 and Eb/E chords. — Melody harmonization using the G7#9 and Eb/E slash chords.

We will now repeat this, but, add a chord of E/F in between to harmonise the Ab note:

Sheet music showing G7#9 and E/F slash chord for jazz fusion reharmonisation

Finally, resolving back to the Eb/E slash chord

Chord diagram showing E/Eb slash chord and diminished harmony with fingering positions on the guitar. — Chord diagram for E/Eb, illustrating finger placements for guitarists.

FULL HARMONISATION EXAMPLE:

Musical notation displaying John McLaughlin guitar melody notes and chords G7#9, Eb/E, and E/F, highlighting the harmonic structure, slash chord and how to re harmonise a melody in jazz fusion music. — John McLaughlin Guitar Harmonization with slash chords and altered chords

PART 4: 12 TRIADS over I bass note

In this exercise we will play all 12 Major Triads over a single C [as root] Bass note.

Musical notation showing a progression of slash chord triads: Db/C, D/C, Eb/C, E/C, and F/C over a single bass note. — Chord progression visual for 12 Major Triads over a C bass note, illustrating various slash chords.

A musical sheet displaying the 12 Major Triads over a C bass note, highlighting various slash chord combinations. — An illustration displaying the progression of 12 Major Triads over a C bass note, highlighting various chord combinations.

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Pat Martino’s Guitar Improvisation Techniques | Free PDF Download

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guy’s,

Today, a look at how jazz guitar legend Pat Martino approaches jazz improvisation.

This unique insight is strictly for guitar players, [although, players of other instruments may well find some of this extremely interesting and probably useful].

Pat’s approach to guitar improvisation is also a brilliant method for any guitarists that find playing through complex chord changes difficult or confusing

EXAMPLE 1: “Coltrane Changes”

Okay, let’s say we are given this set of chord changes to improvise over.

pat-martino-jazz-guitar-improvisation-technique

Well, this is a lot of chords in different keys and with harmonic shifts to get through. This is 3 Chords per bar!!!

At a fast tempo this is a lot of different scales and arpeggios to connect together quickly!!!

So, what do we do???

Here’s where Pat’s unique approach comes into play.

Pat would approach this by employing the minor.

So, if we take a closer look at our sequence we will notice three sets of ii V7 I’s.

Now that we have this, let’s exploit Pat’s minor topic/minorisation improvisational technique:

To do this we will employ the dominant chord and make it minor:

So for Bbm7 we will use Fm,

for F#m7 we will use C#m

and for Dm7 we will use Am.

In the example below we can visually see it all set up.

EXAMPLE: “minor” shapes to build from:

pat-martino-minor-conversion-jazz-guitar-improvisation-technique

This allows us to play freely and easily without worrying about messing up harmonically or rhythmically when connecting/playing through the changes.

EXAMPLE 2–Modal slash chord application:

Let’s now exploit this with 7sus4 chordal movement and slash chords.

As before w will make the dominants minor:

F#7sus7 = C#minor

Ab7sus4 = Ebminor

B7sus4 = F#minor

[DbMaj7 = Fminor or Bbm7]

VISUAL CHART: with dominant minor application below.

pat-martino-minor-conversion-jazz-guitar

BASIC minor shape examples to build from:

EXAMPLE 3:

Minor ii V7 Application:

Finally, let’s add a chain of minor ii V7’s

Here we will employ biii as our minor-isation for easy improvisation:

For example with F#m7b5 the biii will be Am. [F# to A is a flattened 3rd or minor 3rd]

To make this really authentic we will add the 6th to the minor arpeggio:

So,

F#m7b5 = Am6

Em7b5 = Gm6

Dm7b5 = Fm6

Example: Classic Jazz Seq Lick:

pat-martino-minor-conversion-jazz-guitar-ii-V7-1

With this in mind we can either sequence our way through the chain of chords or play freely by exploiting minor biii

IN CONCLUSION

In conclusion this was a brief look at Pat Martino’s brilliant approach to jazz improvisation through any chord changes on the guitar.

The guitar unlike the piano cannot play the same shape through countless octaves, so, when improvising on the guitar we need to be selective [in what actually works] so that ironically we have the freedom to let go and just play.

The minor topic [minorisation] technique allows us to achieve the guitar improvisers aim in a short period of time. For any student frustrated or seeing no end in sight, Pat’s methodology is a shining light. This method can save you 20 years of practice and frustration.

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