The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    Hi folks! New here.

    I'm fairly new to Jazz guitar, and having trouble with working out the harmony to my melodies.

    I can hear and work out the melodies in my head easy enough and can hear some of the chords yet working out/hearing some of them is proving difficult.

    I'm working on my own Christmas tunes and simple analysis of classics has helped like - 6 5 2 1 progressions and observing commonalities. If you can list any other common tricks for Christmas tunes that's great!

    Baffled how a song in C major can go to G minor for the bridge (Theory wise) but aurally sounds great.

    I like my ear to be my guide as much as possible (although it sucks at times), yet realize theory can help- I don't want to get bogged down in theory too much if I can help it!

    Is there a kind of - Jazz chord progressions/harmony and melody matching for dummies kind of book?! Or anything obvious I've missed?

    I have a few Christmas books yet some of the chords/transcriptions sound wrong or just don't lend themselves to guitar very well, although different voicings/inversions of the chord sometimes help.

    I am working my way through Bob Contis chord assembly line and that helps a little.

    The simplest way I've found is if I can hear the harmony (Or a rough idea) in my head I try to arpeggiate the chord in my head then work it out.

    Anyway hope that makes sense.
    Any help appreciated.

    Cheers

    Nate

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I'm always recommending Fred Sokolow's videos to beginners, mainly because I'm a beginner myself and I have found them very useful. His videos 'Playing and Understanding Jazz Guitar' and 'Understanding Chord Progressions' might help you. You can find excerpts from them via the guitarvideos.com website.
    Last edited by Matt Milton; 07-06-2020 at 01:26 PM.

  4. #3
    Thanks Matt. I'll check them out.

  5. #4

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    Here is a great crash-course. Made many things clear to me and made me learn *Girl from Ipanema* by head as a side-effect.

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL7B08Q1_M7g2cm3PMukudATb8G0ITTfU

  6. #5
    Cheers Michael!

  7. #6

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    For Classical

    Matching Harmony With Melody-bachflows-jpg

    For Contemporary

    Matching Harmony With Melody-progflows-jpg