Jazz Theory In 15 Minutes (Everything You Need To Know)

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Alright, I'm gonna set the timer over for 15 minutes. I'm gonna teach you all of the music theory that you need to know to play jazz.
🕒CHAPTERS🕒
00:00 Intro
00:21 The first thing to figure out
01:23 Identifying the different chords
01:43 How to harmonize scales with 7th chords
02:08 How to build chords out of the major scale
03:36 The different formulas to build different chords
04:37 What are Relative Minor keys
06:32 The 3 Minor Scales
08:52 What is Modal harmony
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[@infinite-guitar]

7 is a magic numbers in music. Not only 7 notes in a key, 7th chords in jazz but also there is a unique formula in the circle of 4ths and 5ths which makes it easier to learn the number of flats or sharps in a key. Ex. The key of D has 2 sharps and the key of Db has 5 flats. 2+5=7. The key of E has 4 sharps and Eb 3 flats, 7 again! F has 1 flat and F# 6 sharps. 7 yet again. It works for all of the Letters in the circle. 🎸So if you only learn the sharp side you will learn the flat side and vice versa

[@MiguelSanchez-oi9qu]

Bro u just saved me time... thx a lot

[@bronzewand]

Barry Harris would disagree

[@infinite-guitar]

@@bronzewand prove me wrong

[@sunnydaytoad]

Never knew that! That's very helpful, thanks good sir

[@infinite-guitar]

@@sunnydaytoad pleasure

[@HaErBeSo]

Finally an explanation that sticks to the basics and doesn’t overwhelm with all the advanced theory and jargon. Love it!

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Thanks so much!

[@jonnysterling6917]

Not trying to rain on your parade, and this is a very methodical and directed approach through all of the basic knowledge, but as I've said below - been teaching for 30 years and generally have to spend about 1/2 an hour on what the circle of 5ths is and what keys are and how the scales are built on them... and then another 1/2 an hour the next week, plus getting the student to learn a few scales to see how it works, and by the 3rd week we kind of have an understanding of the circle of 5ths and keys. Then we start working on chords (another 3-ish lessons - just for triads). So, this is fabulous for those of us who understand all of the minutia behind the concepts you are throwing out, but if someone who knows nothing about music or Jazz sees this and can grasp it all in 15 minutes, I would LOVE to talk to that person... So, well presented, but I'm afraid it's trying to play to a world where everything comes quick and easy. That's the beauty of music, to be good at it takes good old fashioned time and effort, and that is it's own reward.

[@Marc42]

Greatly appreciated this newcomer-friendly introduction, thanks a lot!

[@Learnjazzstandards]

You're very welcome!

[@joelmoyer4818]

Bro, you literally just summed up my first year of college in music. Thank you! excellent work

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad to hear it!

[@grellis6483]

Guys. Memorizing the key signatures is not required, though over time you will. Beginners, All you need to do is look at the second last flat, and you have the key! The only exception is the key of F which you have to know has a Bflat. But after that, the rule above applies. To recognize the keys with sharps, simply go up a half tone on the last sharp. So for example F# indicates G major. C# as the last indicates D major, and so on.

[@raghavsrivastava4280]

There is no way I hadn't heard of this till today! You are a legend sir!

[@grellis6483]

@@raghavsrivastava4280 Thanks. You're welcome!

[@jeandeshommes14]

Very clear and instructive .Thanks!

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad it was helpful!

[@majaorlicz-bonska5188]

My brain is overloaded 🫠

[@andriiplaysguitar]

Wow! How come I oversaw this pearl of knowledge? Thank you mister.

[@Learnjazzstandards]

My pleasure Andrii!

[@jazzybeeff]

This channel is a golden mate! Thank you with all my respect. I can not wait to try and understand these more deeply when i have free time.

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad to be of help!

[@Michael_barberIreland1]

You’re such a great teacher man, hope you are one of my favourite KZbin teacher forever, you deserve more subscribers, I gave you mine already! And I m going to tell all my friends about you cheers!

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Wow, thanks!

[@zundap100]

This lesson was very interesting, thanks man👍🙂

[@AnnieNakki]

Thanks so much! I've learned this stuff, then forgot it, learned it, forgot it....I've mainly played in rock bands my whole life (except for jazz band in high school) so most of my improv has been over one four five progressions, lol. You've got the theory back in my head! :)

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad to hear that!

[@abczyz5898]

This was a breakthrough ive been looking for. Thank you

[@KathyFreeman]

In 12.47m! Thanks, excellent presentation

[@curtpiazza1688]

WOW! Very well explained and illustrated! Powerful 15 min. lesson....thanx!

[@Learnjazzstandards]

You're very welcome!

[@MrRonnmaui]

Excellent material here, thanks. Not as deep into this as others but enjoy your simple explanation to "music latin".

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@lundsweden]

I know this is off topic, but your guitar sounds great!

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Thanks my friend! Learn more about it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r56ViZV3i6lse8U&t=

[@Dannytyrellstudios]

Great session

[@anthonybruce3482]

Been following you for quite some time. This may be my most favorite post ever!!! Thank You

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Wow, thank you!

[@steveleeatfullmeasure]

very clear and great graphics.

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Thanks!

[@annettesomers7463]

Really great lesson!

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad you liked it. Thanks!

[@JamesBlackmoon-xc5pi]

I wanting to learn jazz for metal reasons my favorite metal guitarist Alex of testament he's a jazz wizard

[@ainaalberti3647]

un très bon pédagogue ;merci

[@khalidboussif8850]

Wouaw Blowing up my mind Putting science mixed practice Great

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@user-ox6hj6bm3t]

amazing

[@saxoj]

This is the best jazz lesson video I've ever seen

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Thank you!

[@hussx4295]

great video. even for musicians who already know this much about theory this is a great refresher :D

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Thank you!

[@ivanbrown304]

Nah bro each of these individual topics is a good 10 to 15 year study to fully understand how the pedagogy works. Each topic can be followed by its own nomenclature and therefore its own luaguge.

[@vladrileynavilys]

@@ivanbrown304 Sure it''s not 50 years for each? In practice, if you want to make music, these 15 mins are a great guide to refer back to. Then you spend some time integrating it and using in your own stuff. Do a bit of that everyday, in less than 6 months you'll have a good grasp of it all.

[@ivanbrown304]

@@vladrileynavilys good becuase it should be

[@hussx4295]

@@ivanbrown304 On a purely theoretical level (college studies) yes I totally agree with you, it takes a lot of time and effort (not sure about 15 years). But you only need to have decent understanding on these topics and to be able to locate the language on your instrument to be able to make music with the concepts mentioned in the video, which should only take a year to 2 years if you're actively applying them into your playing. At least that was the case with me, but hey I never got any formal education so I might be on the wrong here and maybe there's a deeper more complicated level to these topics that no one is talking about on KZbin.

[@wilsonliberal5195]

Great.

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad to help!

[@chrisgmurray3622]

I like it when people draw up the cycle of fifths,except that I could never understand why it was clockwise running fifths not fourths! Maybe that's because as a beginner guitarist I played all the chords fourth after fourth and was delighted to find I came up on my own tail so to speak. Realising that this was somehow significant, I drew the chords around a circle on a bit of paper, and not knowing even what a "fourth" or fifth was I now had a reference in my head if I needed to change to a lower or higher key while playing at singalongs during school bus trips etc.It meant that although I didn't know why but Am related to "C", the same way that Em related to "G"( imagine my surprise to learn later they were called "relative minors". In music the most supreme rule is that the ear must approve the ( note, chord, scale) as being correct without having to resort to the manual for selection of the thing to be played, unless you are stuck, and need to consult the map.(Sound familiar?)... then if you are a driver of passengers(listeners), you should have already found the correct route based on previous experiences or perhaps you shouldn't be driving.Trying to explain what I was hearing, made me produce this diagram I'd drawn to my guitar teacher and two other students that were there, and my teacher said "who showed you that?". I said "No-one ,but it sounds right!" To this day I hear music mostly progressing in fourths, not fifths and I think that the superior reality of "as heard by ear" should be reflected in the diagram. Every 2-5-1 change is a fourth type move so that basically brings my little rant to a close(sorry)Theory should always follow the ear first( otherwise babies would never learn to speak, let alone read), so that's why I think this abstract teaching aid should be called "the cycle of fourths", and should be only for demonstration purposes, after all, everything in that diagram should be " arrivable at" by listening and knowing a few chord shapes. As you learn more theory to broaden and refine your playing, you can surely expand your visual geometries on the fretboard and by listening and watching find how lowering a certain note in the chord by a one fret (semitone) causes it to be minor, and other such experiments of combining the ear with a fretboard geography, but too much theory( especially too early, or as a means to select what to play) can prevent anyone from the joys of learning guitar, just as pointing out to a baby that combining a subject noun with a verb and an object clause or phrase and therefore making a sentence is a good way for them to express themselves! Of course that's ridiculous, but so is teaching a harmony clock diagram before people have heard it or the results of applying the logic it contains in their own playing experience.By the way, I don't make any claim of being a good musician, I just hate seeing pedantic or academic structural analysis being used to teach. Maybe you're just trying to get people to try this out for themselves, which would be a good thing if you just left it at that.Thank you.

[@raymondmengezi]

wow... now I get it

[@doctor_who1]

Wow been trying to figure out jazz for 30 years

[@andrejgregoric1324]

Right. Understood everything, just remembering is a small problem 😂

[@frankvaleron]

Very good concise summary

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@burntsider8457]

Well explained despite being done breathlessly. To me, maj7 chords are like Tobasco, i.e. a little here and there adds zest. But a Tobasco soup is too much to enjoy. I prefer major, minor, sus, 7ths, and chords a tick or two away on the Circle of 5ths. I guess that's why I don't like jazz (except Dixieland). Still, I enjoyed your presentation. Be well.

[@michaelyoung8600]

I'm gonna watch music so hard now

[@godtheartist2906]

Next video explains why you chose E flat as opposed to the key with no sharps being C major being the most simple?

[@malxire7084]

What guitar is that? It sounds and looks beautiful

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Thank you! It's a custom-made Victor Baker. You can find the details in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r56ViZV3i6lse8U

[@aidenupshaw1483]

There are some seriously great tidbits of advice in this comment section.

[@cowboybob7093]

It may take you fifteen minutes to explain it, but it's going to take the rest of the year to digest it. Thanks

[@ZebulaJams]

Real quick, you don’t really have to memorize the circle of fifths chart to find key signature. If you see flats, it’s the second to last flat (in the Eb case, we saw three, the second to last one was on the E note, therefore Eb). If you see sharps, just raise the last sharp a major second (if you see one sharp, look at the major second to the right and it’s a G note, therefore G Major). The only one you have to memorize is F Major as it only has one flat and doesn’t follow the flat rule.

[@renesandoval4043]

@ 1:35 and 4:25 he played an Fm9th chord not the Fm7th. @ 4:18 he’s playing an Eb maj9 instead of the major 7th 🤔. I was confused for a bit 😂. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. Thanks

[@dorianduchscherer2236]

thats what i was thinking when i was watching too lol he also played the wrong cord for the ebmaj7 at 1:35 im not sure what its called though i forgot

[@renesandoval4043]

@@dorianduchscherer2236 thanks for the reply cause I thought I was going crazy for a bit but then realized “no, he’s definitely playing a different chord” lol.

[@mgmn6102]

i heard people like charles cornell call locrian minor dorian since its the second step of a minor (aeolian) scale

[@linotom1887]

🎓

[@tolgaguven3467]

With all due respect, that is just basic music theory, not jazz theory. The backbone of jazz theory is what I would call the "bebop equation", something that comes from the bebop dominant scale: IIm7-IVmaj7=VIIm7b7=V7. Combined with the knowledge that comes from the diminished 7th chord, which asserts that a V7(b9) chord can be replaced by any dominant chord whose root is a minor third away, this equation lets us realize and create all kinds chord substitutions. In the song "My shining hour", for instance, this would allow us to recognize that Fm7-Bb7 is FUNCTIONALLY EQUIVALENT to Dm7b5-G7alt. Therefore, the same lines would work over both chords as long as they are resolved correctly. Through the bebop equation, functional chord progressions of jazz standards can easily be reduced to simply tension (subdominant and dominant chords) and release (tonic function chords). This is why understanding chord function and functional harmony is more important than understanding chord degrees in isolation. As for modes understood as chord scales, it is the most detrimental way of thinking for learning the jazz language. That type of thinking should be reserved for modal tunes only.

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Take this as no offense my friend, but anyone who is slightly newer to jazz or just isn't as familiar with theory will take one look at this paragraph and leave utterly confused. Understanding jazz through theory doesn't have to be that complicated.

[@jamesfoster9842]

That first chord you’re playing is not an Ebmaj7. There is no F in Ebmaj7. It is a very pretty chord though. 😊

[@brycelynch3404]

Ever heard of extensions?

[@vladrileynavilys]

I find explaining modes this way is confusing. Like, once you heard the explanation you''re like "So what?" To which the teacher replies "Exactly!"' :]] For me it clicked more when starting to apply the dorian, phrygian etc. scales to other root notes than these (D for dorian, F for lydian...) and then seeing what chords come up from that.

[@gabrieljohnson161]

I want to get good at guitar faster so I can start getting good at jazz. I only know like 10 chords😭

[@octaviodominguez7772]

i found out for my self that you dont need to memorize anything the circle of fifths and the circle of fourths also applies to the flats and sharps

[@dananthony6258]

Should have used the key of . Would have been easier to understand.

[@jonnysterling6917]

If someone doesn't understand the relationship between the key, the scale that results from that key, and the chords that result from that scale, then they are lost at that point and won't learn Jazz theory in 15 minutes. But, thanks for trying.

[@bulkvanderhuge9006]

For sharps, you look at the last Sharp, and move up one note for the Key, so with TWO Sharps you have F# and C#, so the key is D, for Flats, you look at the last Flat and move BACK one flat, and that's the key, So Bb and Eb, so you move back one, and the Key is Bb. Sharps - FCGDAEB = Fat Cows Go Down And Eat Berries. Flats BEADGCF = B E A D GCF

[@jonnysterling6917]

If someone doesn't know what a key is or what a key signature means, then they are lost at the circle of 5ths, and won't learn Jazz theory in 15 minutes. But, thanks for trying.

[@jonnysterling6917]

"But what makes the 7 Major or minor? and why did you just say Bb7? How is that different from the Major 7? Isn't it a major chord too?" Again - this is where people get all kinds of confused...

[@Jaujau933]

This two chord wonder "So What" which is melodicaly a big ZERO but people jump up and down because Miles supposedly wrote it ? The presenter of this video is a super teacher and explains everything very thoroughly, but this Jazz Theory video has all been done before.

[@Dannytyrellstudios]

Check out Stevie Wonder progressions..

[@teckyify]

What

[@BillRiedmann]

Wow you just demystified something that's been hanging me up for a while- You're on a roll...

[@BillRiedmann]

Whoa Whoa Wow the...NO WAY Wow Boss Thank You

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Thank you!

[@davedave8608]

pRAISE God

[@jonnysterling6917]

"But, you used roman numerals I-vi-ii-V and some are lower case and some are upper case and I don't understand why, and now I'm lost and wondering where vii (or 7) comes in for the 7th chords and how does that relate to the other roman numerals?" Trust me, been teaching for 30 years, never had a student that could grasp all of this in 15 minutes. If they could, there would be little prodigies everywhere... But, thanks for trying.

[@markusplattner]

Not possible to learn all theory in 15

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Hey, Markus I never claimed I was teaching all theory in 15 minutes; just the most important stuff to know. For many for whom theory is a bit overwhelming, this should get them off to a good start.

[@markusplattner]

@@Learnjazzstandards you do say ‘everything’, which means all of it

[@tigermcflash131]

Slow down....!!

[@longtalljay]

In relation to jazz, this qualifies as "click bait". If this was "everything you needed to know," I should get a refund for the tens of thousands of $ I spent of Berklee Press books etc. and even more dollars graduates of Berklee etc. have spent. It's good to get people started easily, but this preposterous titular claim is what creators on YT are being suckered into. Resist! (That goes for both creators and viewers.)

[@longtalljay]

Good effort, though! 🙂

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Hey DocStar, I truly believe the contents of this video does cover everything you know, at least to get started or understand the basics. I don't believe you need to know a ton of music theory to play jazz well, but there is always more to learn if one finds it helpful. I have a degree in jazz performance, and I can tell you that you don't need to spend the thousands of dollars to know all of that theory.

[@DizzyKrissi]

These "clickbait-open-mouth"-thumbnails somehow look ridiculous.