In an attempt to balance out some of our knowledge, I thought a brief primer into the world of Jazz would be helpful. I'll be honest- I find the entire realm to be very confusing, and I never developed a true passion for the style. But my studies weren't fruitless, and I've distilled the fundamentals down to a 30 minute lesson for you all here.
The following videos are suggested prerequisites to understanding this lesson-
Composing with Major: https://youtu.be/M8eItITv8QA
Composing with Seventh Chords: https://youtu.be/3JizNRwHYNY
To follow along, I suggest you download and/or print out the attached PDF. It includes nearly all of the chord voicings I play in the lesson, and also demonstrates 3 simple one-octave shapes for the Bebop Scale, which is utilized in this video.
NOTE- I DO MAKE AN ERROR! I fix it with the text on screen, but for some silly reason at 11:54 i say "E7" when I clearly meant to say "A7". Sorry for the confusion!
Do keep in mind- the jazz rabbit hole goes very very deep. But this may be the very first few descending steps before you completely fall in. Should that happen, you have my blessings and best wishes. For me, I won't be doing too many jazz videos in the future just because it's way my comfort zone as a professional musician, and I think there are plenty other characters on YouTube doing a great job of teaching and explaining jazz.
In a few days, my next youtube lesson will be posted. It is about learning scales, and what the best way to do that is. Most importantly though, the video goes to the heart of why we learn scales- to make music. The lesson spirals off into a composing session, and a mini-song is born all through playing around with the Bebop scale. I don't talk much about the scale's properties in my YouTube video, so I wanted you to have some extra background knowledge here before it posts.
See you all soon!
-Jake