Jazz Chords: Every Type of Passing Chord You Need To Know

[@JensLarsen]

The exercises that really make you better at comping: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWLViGyNqtaUgrs

[@davidelvis3901]

One thing I know for sure is that years after years your videos will be of great help to guitarists globally.

[@mcny40]

Wow! I love every lesson you publish, Jens, but this one was pretty fantastic and very well explained as usual. Thank you!

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@PascalM-ld9xn]

Many years ago i have working on this and it's very helpful for understand passing chords, thanks 😉

[@JensLarsen]

Glad it was helpful!

[@bohnulus]

Jens, Brother - thee best video to date..... I've been going thru my beloved jazz standards for years with the guidance provided from your channel... really appreciate the ( layout pics of what your doing ) I appreciate the vids of how you play it..... and I really appreciate your point of views ( passing chords are some thing we can adopt In our playing ( harmony ) but they don't need to be written out on the chart ). I've been watching you for years..... checking in on your channel. it's been a big part of my theory understanding... huge difference in the way my standards come across - love it. keep going

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you 🙂

[@robst247]

Another great lesson, Jens, with high information density, yet crystal clear and easy to follow if the learner patiently takes his time to absorb each step. What I love is that I'm learning to use familiar chords, most of which are old friends to me even as a non-jazz player, but to link them in ways that sound jazzy.

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you very much! Makes my day that you think so

[@robst247]

​@@JensLarsenYou're a great teacher, and I just ordered your book.

[@JensLarsen]

@@robst247 Hope you find it useful!

[@drink.juice.]

this just helped me in that i now know what i have been looking for and attempting to expand is diatonic progressions

[@JensLarsen]

Great! Go for it! 🙂

[@eric_james_music]

This vid is like a consolidation of some of your best lessons! Made me think there's really only 2 types of diminished chords instead of 3. There's the dominant diminished (functionally, the #i dim7 and the vii dim7 resolve in the same kind of way). And then the super versatile #iv/biii dim7 that you never know where it'll go. I always think of "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "All The Things You Are" C Section.

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you like it Eric!

[@robbertr1558]

That nasty suspension with the tonic bass over the dominant sounds the right kinda nasty. Love that one Jens!

[@JensLarsen]

👍😁

[@roshan_raju_]

Wonderful lesson as always, but the only difficult part being how to practice these and start implementing them in our own music ideas?

[@JensLarsen]

A good place to start is your own chord melody arrangements, another option could be to work on using them while comping a song you know.

[@emlyngriffith5846]

Lots of information here….very useful. Thanks a lot! 👍🍷

[@JensLarsen]

Glad it was helpful!

[@H00kieD00kie]

best I've ever heard this concept explained. was very hard for me to grasp

[@martinhmh7]

Wonderful as always! Thanks

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you like it

[@rickjensen2717]

Excellent ideas for passing chords 👏

[@JensLarsen]

Glad it was helpful!

[@ricklaino6385]

Always informative Jens....... I kinda like the #4 dim and the 4min sounds myself....... Thanks......!!!

[@JensLarsen]

My pleasure!

[@davidtardio9804]

Wow, this is fantastic. Just going up on the chord while the melody note goes down (like F#13 to G7) is golden.

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you like it, David!

[@JeanYvesP]

Great examples! Thanks!

[@JensLarsen]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Mike-rw2nh]

Hi Jens. I’m just listening to Rotem Silvan live-streaming a casual jam session with a drummer and bassist. Any chance you could do something similar? I loved your session with Aimee Nolte, but that was ages ago.

[@JensLarsen]

Maybe, I would need to buy some microphones I think. I don't have a lot of audio equipment

[@Mike-rw2nh]

@@JensLarsen If you don’t have the equipment to hand then probably best not to spend on unnecessary equipment. Perhaps live-streaming your music might be more viable in the future, as your business model evolves. For the time being, I have plenty of Jens Larsen uploads to work my way through. Thanks for the superb content, good sir. 👍

[@JensLarsen]

@@Mike-rw2nh We'll see. I might try some stuff out on Patreon, but first I need to finish the next online course 🙂🙂

[@matthewgoldberg1461]

Jens, great lesson. I would just add that song writers also use many of these devices. The diminished passing chord of your first example was a favorite of Jimmy Van Heusen: Imagination, It Could Happen to You, Call Me Irresponsible. And the IVm6 at 10:00 is the first chord of the vamp intro that Billy Joel used in Just the Way You Are.

[@JensLarsen]

If you want to hear minor subdominants then go listen to Cole Porter 😁 Glad you like the video

[@GlennJimenez]

I know that guitar. You showed clips of you playing it and using it as a workhorse You still play it! Wow

[@JensLarsen]

Of course, it's a great guitar. Going with me to Iceland

[@graemehill5998]

This is the best video on this topic that I have seen. Thanks.

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@DylanJohnson-t1h]

Great lessons as always Jens ! Thanks.

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you like them!

[@janehutchison1063]

Thanks Jens. Beautiful and very practical. I am finding a good way for me to get these into my fingers is to pick a tune to play as a slower tempo chord solo. Keep them coming!

[@JensLarsen]

That is great to hear! 🙂

[@mandylupton9522]

Great lesson, Jens! 😊

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you for the support, Mandy!

[@mauriciopizarro8653]

You share sir the best jazz guitar chird voincings

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you!

[@tomcripps7229]

Thanks!

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you for the support Tom!

[@louisdombrowski4198]

Ya make it look easy, great videos 🎵🎸🎶🎼

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you kindly!

[@leonardomachadoes]

Great lesson, thanks,. I gotta ask: what is the reason you choose to call it a "F#dim with a C in the bass" and not just a "C dim resolving in Cmaj7?"

[@JensLarsen]

Because it is a subdominant, and that name is clearer like that

[@bozakarlin9034]

Great lesson, thanks.

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you liked it!

[@bobblues1158]

Great Jens!

[@MaunShComb]

Okay, if Jens helps the intermediate to advanced Jazz enthusiast, who on the KZbins is best for the beginner (not a noob to theory, but intensive jazz studies, yes) to mid-intermediate? Although, I can keep up with the ideas of Jens, I just don’t have the foundations for application. Any help would be appreciated.

[@JensLarsen]

It is difficult to give too specific advice because everybody is different and at different levels, but maybe check out this post: jenslarsen.nl/how-to-learn-jazz-guitar-suggestions-to-begin-studying/

[@JonasA]

You can either learn the academic way or the natural, ear trained way. I was taught English in school but when I began living lengthy periods in London, I'd to rethink. I quickly realised I'd to adopt to the people I was talking to, who spoke English quite differently to the English taught in school. It was like playing in a band: you'd to listen, adopt and try to fit in. And there were words and nuances that separated the daily spoken English from the scholar English. The same goes for music. There are nuances that cannot be pinpointed in sheet music, knowledge you will never access when you learn jazz the academic way. The need and use of music theory, comes natural further down the line of learning - don't stress yourself with it in the beginning. Even Duke Ellington started recording before he was taught how to write and sightread music by Fats Waller. I've been working professionally as an artist, recording and touring internationally for 45 years. Alternative rock. I'd no background in music school and hence no music theory. I could play barred chords and solo's by using the blues scale, and that was it. I'd actually listened to Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass when I was 14-15 yrs old. But whatever buddying interest in jazz guitar at that age, was slaughtered ny John McLaughlin and fusion jazz. I made a U-turn and turned to the buddying proto-punk scene with MC5 and the Stooges. But I never forgot about Wes and Joe. In the aftermath of the pandemic, I decided to learn to play the guitar more properly and by learning to play jazz. After spending weeks on YT I gave up. And I thought: No matter what jazz genre, there's got to be a common denominator and a common ground from which everything stems. So I started listening to the blues, moving on to the early Nola jazz recordings (King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and so forth), moving on to Duke Ellington, the swing-era and on to BeBop, Cool and Hard Bop. Then I picked up the guitar and started all over again: What notes and phrases were or semt similar in blues and early jazz (Louis Armstrong is a good teacher)? I took it slow and it took some time, but by expanding blues licks into jazz phrases I discovered how you could move around the blues chords and bridge into jazz. And I discovered (I suppose it's called) arpeggios, by playing blues chords string by string. And there were melodies hidden in the notes of the chords. Then I realised that many jazz phrases and turn arounds, were based on these sort of 'arpeggios' (actually trying to emulate horn- and piano phrases). And then I read Miles Davis confirming everything: No matter what genre in jazz, you can always hear Louis Armstrong in it. So by pre-dominantly listening and learning Louis Armstrong-licks, I began to access the core of jazz and how to pronounce it when you play it. The nuances you can only learn by listening. And by learning jazz by following the development of jazz from the 1920's onwards, there were no difficult 'Giant Steps' in the learning process until the late 50's when jazz moved from the dancehalls and to seated venues. Even Dizzy Gillespie had a lot of swing and jazz roots in his 'be bop'. So by fretting the first chord in a Louis Armstrong-phrase, the notes he plays are close by to the notes in the fretted chord. Then repeat the same procedure with the next chord in the phrase and finally you've sorted out all the notes in the phrase. Then learn the full phrase slowly. Then enjoy playing the phrase and try to pronounce it the way Armstrong plays it. Your picking hand is more important than your fretting hand, as the picking hand is doing the talking and making the music swing. And don't turn practise into homework. Instead have fun with it. Regard it as play time, time for noodling and having fun. Try other notes close to the chords and seen if you can make them work within the phrase. As Miles Davis puts it: There are no wrong notes, it's the following note that makes the previous note right or wrong. These two past yrs have been really exciting. Today I can improvise songs in the tradition of jazz standards of the 1930's. I can play sort of Miles Davis kind of blue-licks. I can play the full A Night In Tunisia intro/theme. I can play the chord melodies to a number of standards, by listening to the advice of Joe Pass and keep things simple and moving forward. I'm beginning to find my way around jazz on the guitar. There's still a long way to go, but the journey is so rewarding. I've no intention of becoming a full fledged performing jazz guitarist. But I have fun and I can even amaze my professional jazz-friends in social situations by playing standards: chord melodies and add jazzy licks and turnarounds. So maybe my voyage of discovery into jazz can be of some help to you, making the journey fun and full of nice experiences and aha-moment rather than a tedious process. Trust your ears, toy around and have fun! 😊

[@cbolt4492]

I need this Jens...

[@JensLarsen]

See you tomorrow!

[@jamescopeland5358]

I like that Jens

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you, James

[@nosequeponermexD718]

Genial. Gracias

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you like it! 😎

[@vivsavagex]

you can imply these passing chords in your single note soloing playing too!

[@gmitter-sl3qq]

I think the red "VII" should really be "VI7" in 1:11, right?

[@JensLarsen]

No, it is a secondary 7th degree which is why it is analyzed as [VII] the reference to the A7 is only to describe the dominant function, and if it was to be analyzed as an A7 not a C#dim I would have notated it as [V] since it is a secondary dominant. Does that help explain it?

[@mer1red]

The generally accepted correct ways to notate this are: V7 of ii, or: vii of ii . Sometimes a shorter notation is used: V7/ii, or: vii/ii . Writing vii° instead of vii is also possible, in fact I find this more informative. V7 and vii are functionally equivalent.

[@gmitter-sl3qq]

Thank you for the clarification!

[@pauloadelino]

Hello Jens, I love hour KZbin videos, but lately with this epiphone guitar the sound is very distorted.

[@JensLarsen]

Ok, I am not noticing that so much? Can you give me a time in the video?

[@jimyoung9262]

Just finished the whole video and didn't notice any distortion.

[@pauloadelino]

5:13 for example

[@pauloadelino]

It's in the begining of some of the guitar explanations and after disappears

[@JensLarsen]

@@pauloadelino ok, I am not hearing it at 5:13. Are listening on a phone?

[@BitBam]

im so tired of seeing premiers in my sub feed, another one bites the dust

[@JensLarsen]

This video has been online for 6 days?

[@BitBam]

@@JensLarsen i cant comment on the premiere because its not out yet

[@JensLarsen]

@@BitBam yes, you can.

[@BitBam]

@@JensLarsen TIL. my point remains, yt is baiting you into premiering your vids, and i know im not the only one who is tired of it. we cant choose to hide them so the only way out is the door.

[@JensLarsen]

@@BitBam yes, I have had two comments about this before. At the same time, it is a lot of fun for the people who show up during the premiere, and there are a lot more of them. Maybe join some time.

[@josephkantor2548]

Thanks!

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you for your support! Glad you like the videos

[@Jack-OLantern]

Thanks!

[@JensLarsen]

You're welcome! Thank you for the support!😁