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Jazz Ukulele
What is Jazz

20090525.1.0 UL10 $9.95

Created: May 2009 Updated June 2009

ADVANCED JAZZ-(II,III) - Curt Sheller- Explore just what advanced jazz is. Determine what foundation is needed to explore more advanced and contemporary jazz styles on ukulele. Well explore chords, scales and several songs in and advanced jazz style. Intermediate to advanced players welcome.

From Wikipedia - Jazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. The styles West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.

Building a core, Chord and Scale Foundation

Regardless of the style of jazz that you venture into. You need a core foundation of chords and scales. Open position, movable form chords and just plain old knowing the notes of chords and scales. Chords can be categorized as open position chords, basic movable form chords, 4-part chords and free form chords. The 4-part chords are commonly called Jazz chords. Although their use can be found in a wide variety of contemporary music.

Jazz Chords
What is a Jazz chord. A jazz chord is just a 4-part chord used in a variety of contemporary music styles. Versus triads or three part chords such as C Am Dm B G+ commonly used in more basic rock, folk and country music. Examples of 4-part chords are Cmaj7, Am7, Bm7b5, G7+, G13, Eb7#11, etc. Pretty much chords with 7, 9 11 and 13ths as part of their names. Chords larger than four parts are still voiced in four parts.

Core Jazz Chords

A core set of jazz chords are: major seventh, minor seventh, seventh, half-diminished 7, diminished seventh and augmented seventh. Commonly notated as maj7, m7, 7 m7b5, 7, +7. As the name implies there are four parts, voices or chord tones to a 4-part chord. These chords are voiced on any 4 strings. On the ukulele we only have four strings. Guitar has 14 possible four string sets. With the possibility of any of the four notes being on any one of the four strings of the ukulele, their will be four voicings or chord shapes to learn for each chord type. These four chords will form the foundation of your jazz chord vocabulary.

Jazz Ukulele
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The Seventh Chord

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In the system the seventh chord forms the foundation for all our jazz chords. Most ukulele players already know the four open position versions of these seventh chords.

C7
O O O O

A7
O O

E7
O O

G7

By moving each note of a chord, including the open strings, one fret higher we have a movable chord with a new root. At fret one the above open position chords can be called C#7 or Db7, A#7 or Bb7, F7 and G#7 or Ab7.

C#7

A#7

F7

G#7

Root on String

Root on String

Root on String

Root on String

Each chord can now be transposed up the fingerboard to any key by moving each note of the chord up the same number of frets. The name of the chord is whatever the note name is of the root (circled note in the diagram). This transposition is easy you know the names of each note or fret on the ukulele fingerboard. As this is the root of the chord. The better you know the notes of the ukulele neck the fast and easier this gets.

Learning the Ukulele Fingerboard

Finally learn names of the notes of the ukulele fingerboard. Learning the notes of your own instrument allows you the flexibility of having to remember so many shapes. There are way too many chord, scale and notes patterns to remember all the shapes. Available at select dealers and books.curtsheller.com

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Example Transposition using a Chart

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Using first chord above, C#7 that was based on the open position C7 and the below transposition chart below. You can move this chord to any key.

Transposition Chart
Fret
(1) (1) (2) (3) (3) (4) (5) (6) (6) (7) (8) (8) (9) (10) (10) (11) (12) (13)

7th
O O O

C#7 Db7 D7 D#7 Eb7 E7 F7 Gb7 G7 G#7 Ab7 A7 A#7 Bb7 B7 C7 Same as fret (1) F#7

Ideally you dont want to have to memorize a chart for each movable chord form. Learning the notes of the neck is the better route.

Derived Chords, The Six Core Chords

Using the four seventh chords as a foundation we can build other chords from these chords. In fact, no matter how complex a chord symbol appears we can always go back to the a core seventh chord and build the chord you are looking for from there. We build ALL our jazz chords using numeric formulas based on the major scale. Each number indicates a chord tone taken from the corresponding scale degree of its major scale. ALL numeric formulas come from the major scale, regardless of the type of chord being created.

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MOVABLE CHORD FORM

OPEN POSITION CHORD

Chord Name

C7

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1 3 5 b7 - Seventh Chord

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1 3 5 b7 is the numeric formula for a seventh chord. For C7 the notes are C E G Bb taken from a C major scale (C D E F G A B C). Here are the location of each of the chords tones for the four core seventh chords.
5 1 3 b7 b7 3 5 1 3 b7 1 5 1 5 b7 3

Minor Seventh
m7 is 1 b3 5 b7 A minor seventh chord is created by lowering the third of a seventh chord one fret.
5 1 b3 b7 b7 b3 5 1 b3 b7 1 5 7 5 b7 b3

Major Seventh
maj7 is 1 3 5 7 A major seventh chord is created by raising the seventh of a seventh chord one fret. This is a very common chord and should be memorized just like a seventh chord.
5 1 3 7 7 3 3 1 3 7 1 5 7 5 7 3

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Half-diminished Seventh
m7b5 is 1 b3 b5 b7

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A half-diminished or minor seventh flat five chord is created by lowering the fifth of a minor seventh chord one fret. This kind of elevates the minor seventh chord to a very core chord that should be memorized with out having to go all the way back to the seventh chord to derive this chord.
b5 1 b3 b7 b7 b3 b5 1 b3 b7 1 b5 7 b5 b7 b3

Diminished Seventh
7 is 1 b3 b5 bb7 A Diminished Seventh chord is created by raising lowering the seventh of half-diminished chord one fret.
b5 1 b3 bb7 bb7 b3 b5 1 b5 bb7 1 b5 1 b5 bb7 b3

Augmented Seventh
+7 is 1 3 #5 b7 An Augmented Seventh chord is created by raising the fifth of a seventh chord one fret.
#5 1 3 b7 b7 3 #5 1 3 b7 1 #5 1 #5 b7 3

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Application of Chords

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4-part chords are used in solo settings for creating melody and chord arrangements. In an accompaniment role to backup a singer or soloist. Chords can smoothly flow from one voicing to another using common tones, called voice leading. 4-part chords are part of your chord vocabulary that should include open position chords, basic movable form chords, these 4-part chords. And, when you really know what the chords tones of any chords are and the notes of the ukulele neck are: free form chords.

QuickStart Scale Fingerings for Ukulele, Volume I, Key of C Tuning

Six essential scales for C tuned ukuleles. Blues, Pentatonic, Dorian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Ionian scales are covered in all keys with fingerings. Available at select dealers and books.curtsheller.com

A Guide to Advanced Ukulele Chords Volume I

Commonly referred to as jazz chords. A Guide to Advanced Ukulele Chords provides detailed information on voicing 4-part chords. Available at select dealers and books.curtsheller.com

A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele A to Z

The volume covers the key of C major and C minor, including detailed accompanying text explaining the principles behind each progression and the chord substitutions. In C and G tuning. Available at select dealers and books.curtsheller.com

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A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele

All the above scales typically contain more notes than are in the chord. By stressing the notes or chord tones that are also in the chord will lead to more melodic solos and improv.

Basic Blues

Example D

A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele

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A Jazz Blues

A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele

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Example H

A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele

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Jazz Scales

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Scale selection can be vertical or horizontal. Vertical scale selection is choosing what scale to use based on the chord type. This is the easiest to determine. Horizontal scale selection requires determining the harmonic function of chords within their progression.

Vertical Scale Choices

maj7 m7 7th m7b5 7 +7 Ionian, this is the common Major scale an alternate scale choice is Lydian . Dorian (Minor) or Aeolian (Natural Minor) Mixolydian, this is commonly called Dominant Locrian Diminished Whole Tone

Reference core Scales

The above scales are a few of the essential scales typically used in jazz. All can be derived from Ionian (Major) and Aeolian (Natural Minor) scales using the same numerical formula principles as we used for chords.
1 3 6 4 2 7 5 8 2 b3 5 b6 8 1 4 b7

Ionian ( Major )
Ionian Aeolian Mixolydian Locrian 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.

Aeolian ( Natural Minor )

For Lydian raise the fourth in half step. 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7. For Dorian raise the sixth in half step. Lower the seventh of the Ionian scale a half step Lower the second and fifth of the Aeolian scale a half step.

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The Diminished and Whole Tone scales are symmetrical scales using an equal distant intervalic pattern. For Diminished it is whole half whole half, etc. For Whole Tone it is all whole steps.

Using the Scales and Chord Tones

All the above scales typically contain more notes than are in the chord. By stressing the notes or chord tones that are also in the chord leads to melodic solos and melodies.

Next Steps
With a style so broad as Jazz, a short workshop can only offer a snapshot of what is needed and outline a path to explore this style of playing. Here are some suggested books and online lessons of mine that can help with this journey.

Chord Books
A complete listing of all my books for ukulele are at: www.curtsheller.com/books_ukulele.shtml Exploring Jazz Chords takes the core chords from my book A Guide to Advanced Chords for Ukulele and shows their use over a variety of common chord progressions, based on songs from the standard jazz repertoire. A Guide to Advanced Chords for Ukulele - Commonly referred to as jazz chords. A Guide to Advanced Ukulele Chords Volume I provides detailed information on voicing 4-part chords. A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele A to Z - The Blues are at the heart of all American music. It has influenced Country, Rock, Folk, Jazz, Bluegrass and just about every form of American music we listen to today. Studying the blues chord progressions presented in this book will open a wealth of creative possibilities for exploring chord progressions in all styles of music, not just blues. The volume covers the key of C major and C minor, including detailed accompanying text explaining the principles behind each progression and the chord substitutions.

Scale Books
QUICKSTART - Scale Fingerings for Ukulele is a concise, well organized book ideal for any ukulele player beginning to explore improvisation. Scale Fingerings for Ukulele keeps a sharp focus on six critical scales, their fingerings and their related chords. All material is covered in every key. This book is available in C, G and D tuning.

Online Lessons
Visit my Online Ukulele Lessons at www.curtsheller.com/lessonsUke.shtml for an ever expanding selection of lessons.

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Cool Chords - These are the chords do not typically show up in chord dictionaries or song books. These are the chords players ask, What is that chord? Using Triads - Triads are a great resource for creating simple melodies and solos... Chord Shapes and Learning Chords - There is no way one can memorize ALL chord shapes. Even memorizing a few hundred is time consuming. A chord shape is a function of a particular instrument and tuning. Know how they are built and the notes can work on any instrument. Beyond the basic open position chords and basic movable form chords (major, minor and seventh), one needs to learn how chords are created. Then you can build ANY chord you will ever need by moving or displacing a note or notes from the basic chords. Its the notes that make the chord shape. And, there is no way one can memorize ALL chord shapes. Even memorizing a few hundred is impossible.

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