One of the biggest myths I hear about jazz improvisation is that you need to know a ton
of music theory and personally I couldn't disagree more in fact I know some musicians that don't know
any music theory and can't even read music yet are incredible jazz improvisers I think learning
things by ear and learning jazz standards and all this stuff is probably more important however I do
think knowing music theory is very important and can be helpful and so I want to simplify things
in today's video and go over the four music theory concepts that I think you need to know let's jump
to it [Music] what's up Bret here from learn jazz standards calm which is a blog a podcast
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on in this channel jazz improvisation does not need to be so complicated by a bunch of music
theory we can simplify things to what I think are the basics of music theory that we need to
know and get a lot of mileage out of them but hey before I go over them I want to make sure
that you are letting me know in the comments below what music theory things do you think
everybody should know for jazz improvisation go ahead and leave a comment would love to hear from
you alright so let's start with number one number one is core quality construction you need to be
able to build the basic seventh chords so like a major 7th chord is a root third fifth seventh in
a dominant seventh chord is root third fifth flat seven and a minor seventh chord is root flat 3 5
flat 7 and then a half diminished chord is root flat 3 flat 5 flat 7 then a fully diminished 7th
chord is a root flat 3 flat 5 double flat 7 those are the basic chord qualities that you
need to know now of course there's extensions and alterations and all that but those are really the
ones that you will see all the time in the most basic form come up in jazz improvisation so just
know those and make sure you're able to play those on your instrument now to take this to
the jazz improv level what you really want to be able to do in the end is voice lead them together
in the context of a core progression so be able to go up the arpeggio of one chord and down the next
connecting them with the closest court tone in between and if you're able to do that you're
going to start being able to connect the dots [Music] cords are really in my opinion the basis
the foundation of jazz improvisation that's really where I think you should start when thinking about
music theory music theory concept number two is scales now I hesitate to say this because I think
scales in the wrong hands can be really unhealthy for a jazz improviser instead I like to think
about scales as pitch collections and the reason I started with chord tones is because really when
I want to think about scales I just want to think about these are the core tones and what notes can
I possibly play in between now scales of course this could be a huge rabbit hole where you know
here's you know the Lydian dominant and here's the you know melodic minor application over this chord
in that chord and I'm really not talking about any of this I want to make things very simple so
in my opinion there's really only four scales that you need to know especially when getting started
number one is the major scale we all know that be able to play that in all 12 keys number two is the
Dorian mode that's basically just a major scale but you're starting on the second tone this is
really great for playing over minor 7th chords be able to play that in all 12 keys mixolydian which
is we play over dominant 7th chords that's the fifth mode of the major scale basically you're
starting the major scale on the fifth tone and ending on the fifth tone so play that in all
12 keys and then the diminished scales are also important because we do come across diminished
chords in jazz harmony so there's the whole half diminished and there's that half whole diminished
the whole half probably being the one you really want to make sure you know how to play in all 12
keys but that's only four scales and seriously I don't really think that we need to go crazy and
all the other scales out there you can learn them as we go along but really just be able
to play those and I think you're really off to a good start a music theory concept at number three
is very jazz specific and it's guide tones now guy tones are the thirds and the seventh of each chord
so these are really just the chord tones that we already know but we're sort of singling them out
within the context of each chord now the reason we want a single those out is because the third
and the sevens are really the strong core tones that are letting us know the difference between
one quality to the next so for example here are the guide tones for a two five one chord
progression now just by listening to that we can really hear the movement of those chords
even without the root or the fifth those are the ones that are really changing and moving
together now this is especially important for jazz improvisation because if you resolve to one
of these notes in your actual jazz lines you will hear the chords come out and you'll be playing the
changes right guide tones can be a real powerful tool and it's just a simple concept it's not even
hard to understand all you need to be able to do is pick them out with each chord so what I would
suggest doing is doing a little exercise where your voice leading like this two five one [Music]
if you're able to do that in all 12 keys you're gonna be able to identify those guide tones easier
you'll be able to resolve to those easier in your jazz lines now number four is chord progressions
chord progressions is really important obviously because when we learn jazz standards we need to
understand what the chords are doing and how they function and connect together so just by
understanding the major and minor diatonic series you're gonna really start understanding how they
work and this is where Roman numeral analysis comes in it can be very helpful to seeing these
things but as far as which court progressions should you really know in jazz it's the major
two five ones and the minor two five ones if you know those in all twelve keys and are able to do
this you can even do this mentally with your head this is going to you know set you apart
you're gonna know and understand jazz standard so much more I would also say the one six two
five both in the minor and major keys are really important as well and then everything in between
are really a lot of variations of those and if you kind of just understand how the diatonic
series works you're gonna be way ahead if you don't understand how the major diatonic series
works go ahead and click that up in the card above or also the minor diatonic series you
can also find that video there as well so as far as I'm concerned these are the important ones to
check out these are the important ones to know but again like I said I want to hear from you I
want to fill the comments up with what you think are the most important music theory concepts for
jazz improvisation we'll go ahead and leave that comment below there now if you're kind
of a little rough on the edges with some of the basics of jazz theory and want something
that kind of ties it together in a more jazz improv - I got my ebook and companion course
zero - improv which really goes over those things and may be a good tool for you you go
to find that at zero to improv dot-com all right I want to make sure that you liked this video if
you do like it at the button below really helps me out and of course leave that comment make sure
you subscribe to the channel I don't want you to miss anything and I'll see you in the next video