Hey all,

Hope you’re doing well! I just wanted to share a new lesson that I posted this afternoon to my youtube channel talking about taking a practical approach to fretboard visualization. This approach combines practicing arpeggios while naming the individual notes and practicing scales that fit the arpeggio as a way to get the most out of your practice time. Practicing the arpeggio followed by the scale helps to show you where the chord tones are located within the scale shape and saying the chord tones out loud can help you remember where certain notes are on the neck. I have included the fretboard diagrams for both the major 7 arpeggios and the major scale, and you can watch the video here

If you have any questions please. Don’t hesitate to comment here or on the video, have a great day!

I’ve just uploaded a new video to act as a follow up to my previous blog discussing how to apply the concept of voice leading to the 8 chord shapes that we learned. It gives practical examples of how to start working the shapes into your playing both in terms of exercises and in terms of adding them to your repertoire. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to comment or contact me through the contact page on my site. Here’s the link https://youtu.be/uLKc30xZLG0

I hope you’re doing well!

Today I wanted to share with you 8 chords that I consider essential knowledge for anyone starting out playing Jazz guitar. These voicings are known as drop 3 chords and once you are comfortable playing all 8 shapes you will be able to play almost any Jazz Standard! I have written out the four main chord types in both root position and second inversion (or “fifth in bass”) as these are the most stable sounding inversions of the chord. I have included chord charts below and a link to a YouTube video where I demonstrate how to play these chords as well! *All roots on the chord sheets below are left hollow*

YouTube Demo

Root Position Drop 3’s:

-I would recommend getting comfortable playing all these shapes on the third fret of the low E string (Root=G)

-Once you get comfortable with the shapes I would harmonize the G major scale moving all the way up the neck (Gmaj7, Amin7, Bmin7, Cmaj7, D7, Emin7, F#min7b5)

-After you have practiced this in G it’s incredibly useful to practice this in the other 11 keys as well!

Fifth In Bass (or second inversion) Drop 3’s:

-For these shapes I would recommend learning them in the key of D with the root on the third fret of the B string (remember this chord is inverted so that the root is on the B string and is therefor NOT the lowest note in the chord)

-Repeat the steps you took with root position chords! (In D major the harmonized sequence of chords would be Dmaj7, Emin7, F#min7, Gmaj7, A7, Bmin7, C#min7b5)

Once you have gotten comfortable playing these chords the next step is to apply them to a tune (or tunes!) that you’re working on!