How To Analyze Chords and Progressions

[@JensLarsen]

How do you approach analyzing songs and progressions for finding scales? 🙂

[@kenlee7954]

First thing I always do is to find out what key a song or a progression is in. Then things seem to become relatively easier than when I don't do that at the beginning...

[@JensLarsen]

Exactly! Good order to do things in!

[@DSpeir-pi6tm]

Well, I usually find scales at the drug store, or hardware store . As for analyzing songs and progressions .OH OH "Someone help me!" My brains exploding :D

[@kenlee7954]

Haha~ great sense of humour!

[@gertvdmerwe7597]

Hey Jens dont worry, about that hill person Peter Schwimmer, he plays altered scale on Rudolph the Red Reindeer

[@teaforone77]

Some great players are great teachers too. Thank you, Mr. Larsen!

[@JensLarsen]

My pleasure!

[@DrJoshGuitar]

This was very helpful. I especially liked the part about the lydian dominant being the same as the melodic minor of the relative 5th. Thank you for your great lessons

[@JensLarsen]

You're very welcome! I am glad it gave you some practical stuff to use!

[@urbachd]

This pulls so much together. Thanks, Jens

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you Dan! Great that it ties information together 🙂

[@teaforone77]

Straight forward, concise, understandable and informative. Thanks!

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you very much! Glad to hear you think so!

[@FontenlaAndres]

Great video Jens! More analysis like this will be great!

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you Andrés I will keep that in mind! Suggestions for songs?

[@railcar123]

Great lesson as always Jens!

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks! Glad you like it! 🙂

[@robertdouglas4293]

Thank you Jens, I love what you do, Iearned in the past, not as not a reader would like to study the other instruments that complemented the accompanying instruments, So sorry for my apparent lack of knowlege. Study stuff around what I do, Thankyou sir, have great respect for you.

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks Robert! Really glad you like it! Wanting to find out is what will get you there right? Just go for it!

[@andreluissilvakamla4548]

Great video,Jens,I am learning very much with you.

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you very much Andre! Happy to hear that :)

[@prolificmedia01]

I'd love to see a course on these analysis to help with being able to improvise over them. The thinking part of this music is the slow down

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks Michael! I will have some theory in the comping course since that is a great place to put this theory into context.

[@Shuzies]

Great lesson....Thank you

[@JensLarsen]

Glad you like it Ron! 🙂

[@SkullServant98]

Are you making the distinction between “in the key” and “diatonic” because one phrase evokes a set of notes in no particular order, and the other refers specifically to a set non-chromatically-altered scale?

[@JensLarsen]

Yes, Diatonic to the scale and in the key are indeed two different things 🙂

[@asifluger5429]

Cool lesson Jens but I didn't understand several things. How do you know what scales to play on what chords? What is exactly a Triton substitution? What is exactly a backdoor dominant? And do you relate every chord you analyze to the root of the melody?

[@JensLarsen]

I thought I actually explained a tritone sub in the video? Did I cut that out? You can check out the IVm and backdoor dominants here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYiqaZdneZWEj5o

[@shawndimery]

I dont mean to sound rude, but analysing Jazz standards might be a little ahead of your current knowledge. Really brush up on theory, its worth it!

[@DumCheese]

Shawn Dimery Can you point me towards a good resource for this?

[@XgamersXdimensions]

The part on the ii/V not resolving to Gminor interests me the most because currently my School jazz band is working on “Spring can really hang you up the most”. My solo is going to be on a section where it just switches between the ii/V (Cm7/F7) but never actually resolves. How would you play on this type of progression?

[@JensLarsen]

I don't know the song that well, but that section doesn't ring a bell? In a ballad you could just play the changes, but sometimes you could also just improvise on one of the chords? 🙂

[@uhoh007]

Brackets! [I like it] :)

[@JensLarsen]

Haha!

[@drotted7627]

Thank you for another great video! When I am playing this (or tunes with similar sets of secondary dominants: V/vi and V/IV) my ear wants me to stay in C harmonic minor over the C minor in the 5th and 6th measures, and stay in Ab major (as opposed to reverting to Eb major) in the 9th measure. Do you have any thoughts on this? I know there are "no rules in jazz," but it seems that most harmonic analysis seems to want us to get back to the home key right after we finish playing our secondary dominants.

[@JensLarsen]

I think the melody and the context suggests that the Cm is a Cm7 chord in Eb major. Using harmonic minor on chords that are not moving, like they do in a II V, is not so common in jazz, but of course possible 🙂

[@drotted7627]

Thanks to both of you for your feedback! Jens, I went back and played the melody again, and you are right. It does clearly suggest C-7. Whoops! But to Peter’s point, did you mean to say that you would stick with an Ab major scale over the Ab in bar 9, or would you play it as a IV (Lydian) in Eb major?

[@infinite-guitar]

Hi Jens. Another great lesson, thank you. I notice some charts show alterations in brackets ex. Dm7(b5) and some without ex. Dm7b5. Is one way better than the other and if so why? Or is it just personal preference? Ken

[@JensLarsen]

That is just what you find clearer

[@infinite-guitar]

@@JensLarsen thank you Jens : )

[@nm800]

Great video as always! ! Could you sometimes make a video on Kurt rosenwinkel? That would be great 😊

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you! I will certainly keep that in mind with a Kurt video!

[@nm800]

Hi Jens, don't want to bother you but I would need a piece of advice. What do you think about yamaha sa 2200? It seems to be a very good alternative to 335. Thanks!!

[@JensLarsen]

No worries! I haven't tried the Sa2200, but what I hear is indeed that they are really good!

[@JensLarsen]

Kurt Rosenwinkel - This Is What Makes His Style Unique kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6TKfKp9ot6oZpI&index=24

[@simonband5590]

I could follow to the diatonic chords and the 2-5-1 progressions to the diatonic chords. But the other stuff was a little too high for me. Could you introduce those more advanced things and how i know which scale to play maybe in an easier "beginner" version? Thanks so much!

[@JensLarsen]

I have a other videos on minor subdominants and tritone subs you can just look that up :)

[@simonband5590]

Thanks maybe i've not seen them in the list! Do you see music only in a jazz music theory way or do you use the classical music theory things too? Or are these 2 different ways to look at the same?

[@JensLarsen]

Just search on the channel. I think very much in classical or functional harmony terms, to me it is more the same way to look at different things.

[@simonband5590]

Thanks for taking time for the answers! I think to learn theory alone without a teacher to ask about problems is maybe a little hard especially in jazz

[@JensLarsen]

I would imagine that was easier than learning to play? But everybody is different 🙂

[@liontone]

Ah, Lydian Dominant. My favorite scale:)

[@JensLarsen]

There are certainly a lot worse scales to have as a favourite.

[@nm800]

Hi jens, I didn't know in what video to post this comment. Anyway, I have a very simple question: why does the Imaj7-VImaj7 passage work so well? (ex. Cmaj7 to Amaj7, which is out of key). Thanks :)

[@JensLarsen]

Does that really work that well? What song has that?

[@nm800]

well... I don't know but I use that a lot. I hear something chromatically pleasant in the interval between the fifth of the I (ex. g) and the major seventh of the VI (g#). Maybe we can also consider the first chord (Cmaj7) a Gmaj9 and the second a C#min with the 13b in bass... don't know but it's a passage I find useful. If we consider the Amaj7 the tonic of a new tonality the IVmaj7 sounds fine after that

[@JensLarsen]

Or maybe you just like the sound and it doesn't really need to be explained? A Cmaj7 chord is not a Gmaj7 at least 🙂

[@nm800]

sorry I meant Gmaj6 (D raised to E), C would be 11th and you have a double chromatic passage... anyway you are probably right. I just like it😂

[@1Mrbudgood]

Im confused, how do you find the scales linking the chord changes?

[@jorgtully1774]

I learned a lot, also from your shop lessons, thx! As a little hint: reading and listening to s.o. speaking doesńt work out really good, says psychology research. Itś creating interferences... (i always need to stop the vid to read and not to miss your explanations). But perhaps i am just to old for multitasking...

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you very much Jörg! I never heard that about reading and listening, maybe I need to refine how I work with that :) It does seem to work in terms of audience retention

[@jorgtully1774]

Jens Larsen you dont use it too often. And your vids follow a good Script.

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you! I don't actually script the videos :)

[@ivo5630]

But how do you differ, in a specific harmony, when the non-diatonic chords are only chromatic resources - but in a standard and unique (or not) key - of progressions that are in other keys (i.e. a modulation)?

[@JensLarsen]

Maybe you need to give me an example? I am not sure what you mean with "a chromatic resource"?

[@ivo5630]

4:07 you show a Dm7b5 G7 Cm7. My question is: how do you know isn't a modulation (minor ii-V in Cm) but the G7, in this case, a dominant of the VI chord (and I don't know how you see that ii chord). In a nutshell, how do you recognize when ‘oh, these chords, even if they are non-diatonic, we still on the key” (’chromatic resources’) and when it's a modulation? I call ‘chromatic resources’ to any non-diatonic chord but that doesn't change the tonal center at all (secondary dominants, extended dominants, tritonal substitutions, etc).

[@JensLarsen]

@@ivo5630 You can hear if songs modulate, there is a point to changing key, and most Jazz Standards don't really modulate. It is about context and in this case, the song goes to Cm which is a diatonic chord and if you look at the progression that follows (the II V to IV) then that makes sense in Eb, but not so much in C minor. A song that modulates would be something like the bridge of Polka Dots and Moonbeams or My One And Only Love, there it makes much more sense to hear a new root. You probably need to listen to the melody and hear if you feel the root note change. Does that help? To me, your "chromatic resource" category sounds a little like you just have a name for all the chords that you don't really understand? Maybe try to focus on what the chords are instead of grouping them together in a random pile of chords. Even if you don't fully get what a secondary dominant or II V is then it is more useful to remind yourself that it is called that for when that clicks in place, because that is only a question of experience.

[@ivo5630]

​@@JensLarsen But how do you explain all the non-diatonic chords in a classic tonal jazz harmony (e.g. a standard) in a context of functional harmony?

[@JensLarsen]

@@ivo5630 Wtih functional harmony. They are secondary dominants and cadences, minor and raised subdominants and stuff like that. That is what functional harmony is (and why it sounds good) I am already doing that in this video, or not?

[@robertdouglas4293]

Ever do your own version of Fly me to the moon?

[@JensLarsen]

As a lesson? I have two in my WebStore, but I never did one on KZbin 🙂

[@izahyap09]

Wow this is great! Im gonna eat a lot of rice 😀

[@JensLarsen]

Haha! Good luck with it 👍🙂

[@robertdouglas4293]

I actually feel bad for understanding everything you say, and not being able to pass that on, My bad, thankyou so much.

[@JensLarsen]

Don't worry about that! You don't have to teach all the time

[@guitarsword1]

Hi Jens. Go a little slower please. And play the tune as an example. Tnx

[@JensLarsen]

Don't you already know it? It's pretty famous I thought 🙂

[@JensLarsen]

I can't play the whole melody without getting struck with a copyright claim. I had that a few months ago

[@xxczerxx]

guitarsword1 To be fair, you should already know the song somewhat; backing tracks are very easy to find and the ones on YT literally go through the chords karaoke-style. Also, you can rewind the video or even play it at 0.75 speed. That kind of attitude is silly, and isn't very constructive as far as criticism goes.