Jason Lyon Music

Tag: harmony

  • Deciphering Jazz Chord Symbols

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    Jason
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    Jazz relies on a shorthand system of chord notation, which is not universal, not standard, and not terribly logical or consistent, at least at first sight. This article is intended as a brief general guide for people who are new to this quixotic system and aims to give you a grounding in what any given chord symbol…

  • Drop 2 More

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    Jason
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    I wrote about Drop 2 last year here and I’ve had some feedback (a few people really loved the picture of the Golden Retriever with four tennis balls in her mouth – so here she is for a well-deserved encore). In particular, I’ve been asked variations on the following question: “All very well, mate, and…

  • Diminished Responsibility

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    Jason
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    Jazz musicians don’t use the harmonic minor scale, right? Wrong. Of course, everyone would admit there are occasions where the harmonic minor is specifically called for, to evoke a sort of “Eastern promise” sound (a lot of people use it on Nardis and Caravan, for instance). But actually this scale is commonly used in all…

  • Turnarounds

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    Jason
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    Most lead sheets for standards don’t bother including the turnaround at the end of each section – it’s just assumed that you’ll know what to play. In case you don’t know, this article will run through the most common first choices for turnarounds to chords on each scale degree. You can also use the same…

  • Coltrane’s Substitution Tunes

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    Jason
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    On two groundbreaking albums, Blue Train (1957) and Giant Steps (1960), John Coltrane presented a group of original tunes that stretched to breaking point the possibilities of functional harmony. Shortly after these albums he began increasingly to turn his back on the traditional use of chord changes. Of the 11 tunes on these two albums…

  • Using Upper Structures in Solos

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    Jason
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    The key to using “upper structures” is to observe that simple major and minor triads exist in the upper reaches of altered dominant chords. These structures are often used by pianists and guitarists in chord voicings, but they are also very effective in solo lines. Had you considered that you can play, for instance, an…

  • Practising Soloing Backwards

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    Jason
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    I’ve noticed that an awful lot of people learning jazz have a specific weakness when soloing – their lines don’t really seem to go anywhere, the phrases never really conclude. They’re usually aware of this problem but don’t seem able to fix it. Very often what happens is that a soloist will rip through a…