exploration of

Harmony
the theory behind the progressions
& how to write your own

by Julian Bradley (a.k.a. Jazz Tutorial)

50
 best chords in the world Jazz Progressions……………………….. 18
- Exploration of Harmony - Cuban Montunos…………………………. 32

Jazz Piano Endings………………………. 35

Modern Sounds……………………………. 39

How to write progression…….……. 41

Contents:
Technique tips……………………………… 44

Final words…………………………………. 47

Welcome…..…………………………………. 2
Copyright © 2017 Julian Bradley. All rights reserved, including the
About the author………………………… 4 right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.


Learning tips……………………………….. 8

Pop progressions………….……………. 14

Minimalist Progressions……………… 16

1
Welcome!
Greetings Harmony Hunter!
Pedal Markings:
I’ve notated pedal markings in some of the music - but not all. These
are shown as a sustained line beneath the stave - while this line is
sustained you should hold down the pedal - and when the line
breaks you should release the pedal (this is usually done as quickly as
Welcome to ‘Best Chords In The World’ where I’ve put together 30 possible):
of my favorite chord progressions of all time. These progressions
span a range of styles and moods - starting with Diatonic
progressions (which stay within one key), and progressing right up to
some of the most sophisticated jazz piano progressions that can
possibly exist.

The chord progressions in this book are taken from my own

composition notebooks from the last 15 years and I’ve titled each
progression based on what I originally wrote the music for.

Backing tracks: But most of the time I haven’t notated the pedal - to keep the music
Some of the progressions have backing tracks, and some don’t. For looking tidy. However you should use the pedal in all of the
the progressions that do have a backing track I’ve marked a small progressions (and almost all of your playing). The general rule for
triangle in the sheet music - like this: pedaling is this:

Change the pedal when the chord changes.

And you should release the pedal exactly as you play the next chord.

However all of the progressions in this book can be played without

the backing tracks and will still sound good on solo piano - so it’s up
to you if you want to play with the backing tracks or not.

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Fingering:
I’ve also marked in my suggested fingering for some of the fiddly
melodic sections. As a piano player it’s important to figure out the
best fingering early on, so that you ingrain the same fingering every
time you play.

Fingering is marked using small numbers above the notes - like this:

And the fingers are numbered with thumb as ‘1’ going through to the
little finger which is ‘5’ - like this:

3
About the author
Hi, my name’s Julian Bradley - I’m a jazz piano player and composer,
and I’m here to hep you master music theory, improve your playing,
and enjoy music on a much deeper level for the rest of your life.
The early years
I started playing piano at age 7, and trumpet at age 9. My parents
weren’t musical at all, but wanted me and my 2 brothers to try music
lessons - since my parents had never had that opportunity
themselves.
I had weekly lessons in both instruments but for the first 9 years I
wasn’t inspired by music. All of the focus was on sight-reading and
performance - and these aren’t my thing. I’m a slow sight-reader to
this day, and I don’t naturally gravitate to being in the spotlight or
playing highly technical pieces.
During this time I did the bare minimum of practice (my piano
teacher would often comment on the fact that the pages of the book
clearly hadn’t been opened!) And if I did practice it was usually just
for 10 minutes the night before my lesson.
4
I displayed no special talent in music during this time - I was a C
student in my music class, and I even remember having to retake a
performance exam at age 16 because I was the only music student in
the class who had completely failed that part of the exam (a very
embarrassing experience for me at the time).
In general, I lacked confidence in any musical setting - orchestras,
music classrooms, auditions - as you can see in this embarrassing
high-school photo:
It wasn’t until age 16 when I moved schools and met my new music
teacher, a really nice and funny guy called Ian McCrae - which
changed everything.
Ian’s teaching was focused on music theory, harmony and
composition techniques - and this was my first introduction to this
side of music. Very quickly I became inspired by music and wanted to
learn everything there was to know about music theory.
Each lesson, Ian would introduce the class to a new concept (like the
Modes, or Polychords, or Atonal music) and I’d go home that night
and experiment at the piano based on what he’d taught us.

These 2 years I spent in Ian’s class (age 16-18) were my musical
breakthrough - largely due to the fact that I was immersed in music
for that whole time. I’d see Ian 3 times a week. Then I’d spend lunch
breaks in the music room playing with my classmates. At the
weekend I’d see my piano teacher and work on a set of classical
pieces for my upcoming grade 8 exam. And my favorite thing of all,
was figuring out songs by ear - which I did every day on the journey
to and from school (while listening to the radio).
• I’d find images to Jazz albums, and zoom right into the image just
to see what notes the pianist was playing in the background (just
to learn one new chord voicing!)
• And I’d even play Jazz recordings at 50% speed in Windows Media
Player while I transcribed an entire jazz solo by ear.
In short - I was truly inspired to learn Jazz piano.

Ian’s teaching in harmony and music theory came at the perfect time
for me - he taught me the fundamentals - like counting intervals,
chord types, harmonic analysis, notating rhythms by ear, composition
techniques, and a bit on film scoring too.

Introduction to Jazz
Toward the end of this 2 year ‘immersion period’, I attended a
Wynton Marsalis Jazz concert - which was my first introduction to
jazz. I mean I’d heard it on the radio but it’s completely different to
see it first hand. I even got to sit in on the pre-concert rehearsal
which was very cool. In particular I remember the pianist - a young
African-American guy dressed casually with lumber jack type boots
and a pencil behind his ear - he was trying out different chord After a couple of months of doing this, I was lucky to find a an
voicings and writing things down in the music. amazing jazz piano teacher living near me - called Terry Seabrook (in
Brighton, UK). I started seeing Terry once every 2 weeks and he gave
Overnight I became obsessed with jazz: me plenty to work on. Each lesson was mentally demanding - the
whole time I’d be watching Terry play and trying to memorize all of
the best chord voicings and licks.
• I spent my lunch breaks searching the internet for everything I
could find on jazz (we didn’t have internet at home in those days).
I’d download MIDI files of Jazz performances and open them in Terry started me out learning basic chord voicings - playing literally
the school’s notation software, then I’d print them and take them what the chord states:
home to learn. • So for ‘C maj 7’ I’d play C E G B
• for ‘C min 7’ I’d play C Eb G Bb
• and for ‘C7’ I’d play C E G Bb

5
Then at the next lesson he’d teach me to invert these same chord
voicings - so that my hand didn’t have to jump around so much:
• So ‘C maj 7’ I’d now play as G B C E
• ‘C min 7’ I’d play as G Bb C Eb
• and ‘C7’ I’d play as G Bb C E
With each new lesson the voicings got a bit more advanced. And
we’d work on just 3 jazz songs, applying the new voicings to the
same 3 songs (Autumn Leaves, Ladybird and Afternoon In Paris).
University:
After about 12 lessons with Terry (not many) I went away to
University (Lancaster University UK) where I continued to study
music. Here the focus was on Classical music - where I studied
things like 18th century counterpoint and orchestration.
I did study abroad for my 2nd year, where I had the amazing
opportunity to transfer to UC Santa Cruz for one year (California).
Here I came in contact with yet another world class teacher - called
Anatole Leikin. Anatole had been a conservatoire pianist, he had a
phenomenal ear and written books on Chopin’s use of harmony, and
he was also an inspiring teacher.
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Finally, after graduating I went on to do a one year Masters Degree
at Bristol University (UK) where I studied music composition for
film. My main breakthrough at Bristol was in technology - until this
time I’d stayed away from computers - but here I was forced into the
deep end. Not only did I learn how to record and mix music, but I
also learned to make films too. I’ll always remember in the first week
of class, the film teacher telling us to ‘just make a film’ - and me
thinking ‘how?’ But I’m eternally grateful for being introduced to the
technology side of media and without it, I’d never have posted a
single YouTube video.
Life After University:
When my formal University studies ended, I switched my focus to
music production, and I spent 2 years working on composing music
electronically (using Logic Pro). I was learning a lot from other
people’s YouTube videos - and this eventually gave me the urge to
film my own jazz piano tutorial. So I spent a Sunday and filmed 3 jazz
piano tutorials, searched for a URL that wasn’t taken - ‘JazzTutorial’ of
course - and uploaded these lessons to YouTube.
I never intended to do anything more with it, except after a few
weeks I logged back in and noticed that the videos were getting
quite a few views, comments and even subscribers. So following this
initial encouragement I continued to film videos - my passion for it
grew and grew and now I’m having the time of my life putting Jazz
videos out there. My goal is to put the education that I was lucky to
have and to make it accessible to anyone who has the passion to
learn music.

My music learning was a very special time in my life - I want you to

have the same special journey and to enjoy it for the rest of your life.

But again - I was not born with any super human talent at music. For
the first 10 years I was an average / below average music student,
and I lacked confidence in any musical environment.

What did I have going for me?

• Passion (which only emerged once I got into music theory, and
away from sight-reading and performance)

• A bit of guidance at the right time from several great teachers

(which is accessible to you too through the internet and books)

• Encouragement from a few key people - like my dad and a group of

my music classmates

• Reading books - a very quick way to learn and always time well
spent.

And the good news is that these things are all available to you. You
don’t have to be born with any special natural talent or come from a
musical family.

So with that said, let’s get to the main content.


7
Learning tips
Here are some guidelines to help you learn harmony quickly:
Learn everything from C:
One of the most confusing things when learning music theory is that
we have 12 different keys, and that the songs we play are spread out
in all different keys. It’s very hard for a musician to compare one
song with another when every piece is in a different key - Bb minor,
F# major, D minor, Ab major, … etc. And this is the reason that most
musicians stay confused about music.
I would say that the secret to my success in understanding music so
clearly is that for a 2 year period I did about 90% of my playing lined
up from C. This means that when I was 17-19 I composed in C
8
minor, I transcribed songs by ear in C minor, and I thought of all
music as being in C minor. Sure - I wasn’t very good at playing in
other keys during this time, but it gave me a very clear understanding
of how music works. And once I had that deep understanding in one
key, it was a simple task to transpose everything out into other keys.
And once I did that I became BETTER at playing in other keys than
most musicians who played in all keys from the start.
So when learning new harmonic concepts (like scales, chord voicings,
and chord progressions) I suggest that you line them up to start
from C every time - like this:
• Scales: Every new scale you learn, make sure you memorize it
starting from C:
- C major scale (C D E F G A B)
- C minor scale (C D Eb F G Ab Bb)
- C lydian scale (C D E F# G A B)
- C dorian scale (C D Eb F G A Bb)
- C altered scale (C Db Eb E Gb Ab Bb)
- and the same for every scale you learn.
All of my scales are memorized in my head starting from C - it’s very
neat and organized, and I can compare them all with each other
easily.
• Chord Voicings: Any time I discover a new chord voicing,
the first thing I’ll do is transpose it to start from C (meaning that
C is the root of the chord - e.g. C min 7, C maj 7, C7, etc) and I’ll
memorize that voicing starting from C. So all of my chord voicings
are memorized in my head starting from C - it’s very neat and
organized, and I can transpose them to start from any other note.
• Chord Progressions: Whenever I discover a new
chord progression, the first thing I’ll do is transpose it so that it’s
either in the key of C major (if it’s major sounding) or C minor
(if it’s minor sounding). Usually I’m composing in one of these 2
keys anyway, but if I’m not then I’ll transpose it so that I can learn
it starting from C.
So for everything you learn in harmony, line it up to start from C.
This will give you a crystal clear picture of how everything works.
The nice thing about this book is that I’ve already lined every
progression from C for you:
The major sounding progressions are in C major, and the minor
sounding progressions are in C minor.
This is straightforward for the Diatonic progressions (which means
the ‘Pop’ and ‘Minimalist’ progressions which stay in one key).
However for the sophisticated jazz progressions which have lots of
key changes - I’ve either STARTED these in C major / C minor, or
ENDED in C major / C minor - whichever feels most natural.
learn intervals, not notes:
One of the biggest differences between how a professional musician
thinks of music, to how a beginner musician thinks of music, is that
the professional sees everything as INTERVALS (e.g. major 3rd + 4th
+ whole-step + minor 3rd). Whereas the beginner sees things only as
note names (e.g. ‘C’ ‘E’ ‘A’ ‘B’ ‘C#’).
It’s far more useful for you to think of these chord progressions and
voicings as interval patterns - rather than note names:
9
Let’s take chord voicings for example - if I see a nice new chord
voicing that I want to learn, I’ll start by looking at the intervals
between the notes.
For example, take this C maj 7 rootless voicing:
B E A D G C
I would remember this as:
‘stack of 4ths built from the major 7th (B), ending on the root (C)’
…because each note in the voicing is a 4th apart (B E A D G C) and all I
need to know is the bottom note (the maj 7th - B) and the top note (root -
C).
Here’s another voicing for a C min 11 chord - ‘The Kenny Barron
Voicing’:
C G D Eb Bb F
This voicing I remember as ‘stack of 5ths built from the root’ in the
left hand, and ‘stack of 5ths built from the minor 3rd’ for the right
hand.
Shortcuts:
Now I don’t usually have to memorize all of the intervals in a voicing.
Often there’s ways to take a shortcut and group some of the notes
together. E.g. instead of memorizing a C E G as ‘maj 3rd + min 3rd’ -
you could just group them together and remember them as ‘major
triad’.
For example, take this chord voicing for C maj 7 #11:
C E G D F# A
 (rather than the note names). It’s also great practice for counting
I’ll remember this as ‘major triad from the root’ and ‘major triad intervals in general - which brings me to the next topic:
from the 2nd (or 9th)’. So this one’s easy - I don’t have to remember

Interval Arithmetic:
many intervals.

Or let’s take the following voicing for C min 6/9:

This is one of the most important things you can practice for your
C Eb G A D music - counting intervals. Everything in music is intervals - a scale is
an interval pattern, a chord voicing is an interval pattern - and the
Rather than memorizing all 4 intervals between the notes, I’d prefer quicker you get at counting intervals, the quicker your playing will be,
to just remember this one as: the quicker your learning will be, the quicker you’ll be able to get
your hands to any chord voicing - and you won’t have to freeze up as
‘minor chord (C Eb G) + whole-step (A) + 4th (D). you find each finger to the correct note anymore.

It sounds complicated when I put this in writing, but when it’s in your So here’s my favorite exercise for getting good at intervals - which I
head it feels completely natural. call ‘Interval Arithmetic’:

The main points are: Choose a note - let’s say C.

1. You have the freedom to decide how you’re going to memorize a Now in your head, jump up and down by different intervals:
chord voicing (the way I memorize a voicing will be different to
how another jazz player memorizes it) C - up a 4th
2. You have to memorize the notes as some sort of interval
The answer = F
pattern - and not just by its note note names
F - up a minor 3rd
Once learned from C, transpose it:
So I’ll start by learning every voicing from C. Once I have it in my The answer = Ab
head built from C, then I’ll try building that same interval pattern
from other notes - so if the voicing was for Cm9, next I’ll build it for Ab - down a 5th
Fm9, then I’ll build it for Abm9, and take it through different notes at
random. The answer = Db

This isn’t about playing in different keys - it’s just about building the Db - up a tritone
INTERVAL PATTERN of the chord voicing from every different note.
And by doing this I’m reinforcing the interval pattern of the voicing The answer = G …and so on.

10
Practice this AWAY from your instrument - personally I used to Here’s a table showing you how I remember each of the 12 intervals
practice it in waiting rooms (like at the dentist), or on my train (look at the column on the right):
journey back from school. And you can practice this anytime you’re
waiting for a moment - like inline for a coffee, or for 30 seconds
when you park your car, or every time you brush your teeth. Just
decide on a place that you’re going to practice this - and make that
activity a ‘trigger’ to remind you to practice it.

Key Point: Any time you spend doing ‘Interval Arithmetic’ is time
well spent. It’s impossible to waste time doing this exercise - every
interval you count in your head will make you a better musician.
Whatever level you’re at - it’s always a great brain workout. And even
if you’re good at intervals - you can always get better.

How to count intervals:

You can count any interval just by memorizing 4 intervals:

8ve 5th whole-step half-step

The only one of these intervals you’ll probably have to practice is the 5th -
as the octave, whole-step and half-step are quite easy. And for the 5th,
you just have to memorize the twelve 5ths that exist:

Once you know these 4 intervals, you can quickly add or subtract
them together to build any of the 12 intervals, starting from any
note.

11
• So if I need to count a minor 3rd up from F#, then I’ll count up
a whole-step (F# - G#) and then a half-step (G# - A). 7. Bb - up a major 7th = ?

• If I need to count up a major 6th from Db, then I’ll count up a 8. F# - up a minor 7th = ?
5th (Db - Ab) and then a whole-step (Ab - Bb).
9. Bb - down a 5th = ?
• And if I need to count up a minor 7th from Ab, then I’ll count
up an octave (Ab - Ab) and then down a whole-step (Ab - Gb). 10. D - up a tritone = ?

How long does it take to get good at intervals? I’d say it took me
about 2 months to get REALLY good at counting intervals - I used to
casually practice this for about 5 minutes a day, while on the train
back from school. I think you’ll see huge improvement within the
first 2 weeks of doing this, and if you keep doing it for a month then
you’ll really get good at this.
Answers:
Remember, there’s only a limited amount of ‘sums’ that exist within
the 12 notes - there’s just 12 notes, and just 11 intervals I’m asking 1. F
you to practice adding / subtracting.
2. A
Here’s some test questions to get you started:
3. F# / Gb

Questions: 4. Ab

1. C - up a 4th = ? 5. Db

2. C - up a major 6th = ? 6. A

3. C - up a tritone = ? 7. A

4. Eb - up a 4th = ? 8. E

5. Eb - down a whole-step = ? 9. Eb

6. F# - up a minor 3rd = ? 10. Ab

12
 F# up a 5th = C#
Your Mission: Set yourself a time of day / activity when
you’ll practice Interval Arithmetic; will it be over coffee in the Then the next day you could work on the minor 6th and do the
morning? During your tea break? On the tread mill? For 2 minutes same thing:
after you park?
C up a min 6th = Ab
B up a min 6th = G
Eb up a min 6th = B
F# up a min 6th = D

And the next day, maybe you tackle the major 3rd, or the 4th, or the
minor 7th. Just make your way through all 12 intervals over 12 days.

And as I said, practicing Interval Arithmetic is one of the most

important things you can practice. It doesn’t matter if you don’t
practice it long enough to become a master - just practicing it for 5
minutes TODAY will make an instant improvement in all of your
playing:

Decide a time to practice each day and make this a habit for at least Click here to watch my ‘Interval Arithmetic’ video
the next 2 weeks.

one interval a day: Interval Arithmetic Video On YouTube

One way you could tackle this is to focus on one interval a day
(e.g. Monday = 5th, Tuesday = major 3rd, Wed = tritone etc). So say
that you’re working on the 5th today, then you’ll go through all 12
notes (at random) and count up a 5th from each note:

C up a 5th = G
Ab up a 5th = Eb
B up a 5th = F#
Eb up a 5th = Bb 


13
Now for the main part of this book - over the following pages I’ll
explain the different types of harmony I used in the ‘Best Chords’ C min - Eb maj - Ab maj - Bb maj
progressions. I’ll go through the styles in order - Pop - Minimalist -
Jazz, Montunos, Endings - as well as covering additional ‘Modern Eb maj - Bb maj - C min - Ab maj
Sounds’ and ‘Piano Performance Tips’ at the end.
…and so on

Pop progressions: If you’re ever listening to music and you get goosebumps - then it’s
usually caused by these chords being played.
The progressions in this section (#1 - 4) are taken from my years of
trying to become a music producer. Harmonically speaking, the Pop
They don’t just get played in Pop music - they’re heard just as often
Progressions in this book are straightforward - they’re ‘Diatonic’
in film music (especially modern soundtracks by composers like
which means that they stay within one key (no key changes).
Hans Zimmer) - the only difference is that in film music they’re
usually played by an orchestra.
The chords stick to the 4 most popular chords of all time - which I
call the ‘Pop Chords’ - and in our key of C minor these chords are:
These chords are very powerful emotionally - however most Pop
songs overdo them. I think that these Pop chords should be saved
C minor - Eb major - Ab major - Bb major
for special moments in a piece (like the chorus of a song) - rather
than played throughout - since if you keep repeating them, the
But since you’re learning everything by intervals, memorize these
emotion starts to wear off.
chords by their interval distance away from the root:

• Eb maj is a minor 3rd above the root (C) Pentatonic melodies:

• Bb maj is a whole-step below the root And then for the melodies in the Pop section, I mostly use the notes
of C minor pentatonic scale:
• Ab maj is a major 3rd below the root
C Eb F G Bb
And then just remember that they’re all major chords, except for the
root chord - C minor. It’s very common to hear this scale used in a melody - not just in
Pop music but most styles of music. In fact most of the great
The majority of popular music is written using these 4 chords melodies of all time are pentatonic. Why? Well the 5 notes of the
(relative to the key that the music’s in) and you can play them in any pentatonic scale are very easy for people to sing - even for non-
combination and they still sound good: musicians. The pentatonic scale is made up of whole-steps and minor
3rds - which are the easiest two intervals to sing (have you ever
C min - Ab maj - Eb maj - Bb maj noticed that singing a half-step is actually quite hard? It takes some
Bb maj - C min - Ab maj - Eb maj skill and precision).

14

So the key ingredients to a hit pop song are:
• The 4 ‘Pop Chords’ (C min - Eb maj - Ab maj - Bb maj)
• The Pentatonic scale (C Eb F G Bb)
And incidentally, a large part of learning to play music by ear is simply
learning to spot these 4 chords and 5 notes by ear:
Click here to watch my free Ear Training Crash Course where I
cover this fully
Pop Performance tips:
To make these Pop progressions sound their best, try the following:
• Play quietly: the piano has a beautiful sound when played
quietly (in fact most instruments do), and these progressions are
meant to be played quietly. Use these progressions to practice
playing as quietly as possible - while still making each note play.
• Play sustained: hold each note as long as possible, and release
it as you play the next note. Your performance should be seamless
(no gaps of silence). Use these progressions as an exercise to play
as sustained as possible. At times you’ll need to use the pedal to
hold down the notes as you move to the next chord - but make
sure you release the pedal as you play the next chord (exactly at
the same time).
15
• Add reverb (if you’re playing on an electric piano): I like to add
reverb when playing the Pop progressions (and the Minimalist
ones too, #1 - 8). Doing this makes it sound like you’re playing in a
big room.
Pop Backing Tracks:
It’s common in music production to have what’s known as a ‘Pad’ in
the background. ‘Pad’ is the name for a synthesized sound which is
subtle and non-intrusive. It’s held down in the background (in the
midrange, somewhere above middle C usually), and lasts throughout
the entire song (or other times just for the verse, or the chorus).
And whenever there would be silence in the music, the pad is always
there in the background so that there’s no empty space.
Music Production Tip: Before I learned to use Pads, my
music always sounded slightly bare - like there was something
missing. But once I started adding this subtle sound to my music it
made a big difference - my tracks went from sounding amateur to
sounding professional.
What notes does a Pad play? Either a single note - usually the root
of the music’s key (so in C minor, the Pad would play C). Or
sometimes the Pad will play the i chord - so if the song is in C
minor, then I’ll hold down a C minor chord.
And apart from the Pad, I also made sure to add some subtle
rhythmic sounds (drums or simple loops), so that you can keep in
time with the backing track.
But of course the backing tracks are optional - so you can play these
progressions on solo piano too.

Minimalist progressions:
‘Minimalism’ is a genre of music that features repeating loops. So
instead of going with the traditional way of writing music where
there’s an ‘A section’ followed by a ‘B section’, maybe a ‘C section’
and so on, Minimalism just uses the same looping texture instead.
To hear some examples of Minimalist music, just listen to Steve
Reich, Philip Glass, or my favorite - John Adams (these are the 3 most
famous Minimalist composers):
Click here to listen to ‘The Chairman Dances’ by John Adams
Important: ‘Minimalism’ DOES NOT refer to music that has a
minimal number of notes, or is simple in any way (I used to think it
meant this, as many people do).
Minimalist Music can actually be full of notes and played loudly by a
full orchestra (as in the John Adams piece above) - so it doesn’t
mean ‘simple’ or ‘stripped down’ in any way.
I think that the word ‘Minimal’ probably refers to the minimal
amount of melodic writing that the composer does - you don’t have
to write an A melody, a B melody, a C melody, etc. - instead a
Minimalist composer just writes a short fragment of a melody, and
then loops it for long periods of time while varying the texture.
Ending a Minimalist Progression:
The Minimalist progressions in this book loop back onto themselves,
and you can loop them as many times as you like. They’re designed to
be hypnotic and I find it hard to stop playing them. But when you’re
ready to end the piece, you can just end by playing the i chord (C
minor).
16
Odd bar Phrases:
When writing Minimalist Progressions I try to keep things
interesting. Harmonically they might be straightforward (mostly
Diatonic) but rhythmically I like to change things up and I’ll try to
break away from writing standard 8 bar phrases - instead I’ll aim for
numbers like 7 or 9, or other odd numbers.
So if you count the bars to some of my Minimalist Progressions (like
progression #5 ‘Interlaken’) you’ll notice that I’m using 9 bar phrases.
Subtle Modulations & pivot chords:
Another technique I use when composing Minimalist Progressions is
what I call ‘Subtle Modulations’. Unlike the obvious key changes that
you hear in styles like Jazz (where the goal is to actually emphasize
how many notes you’re changing), I like to write a very subtle
modulation that almost no one would notice. In my Minimalist
Progressions it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the key change
happens.
To do this, first I have to make sure that the 2 keys I’m modulating
between have only one note different to each other - like the key of
C minor and the key of F minor for example. This means that the 2
keys will have to be a 5th or a 4th apart from each other (because
this means that there’ll only be one note different - either an extra
sharp or an extra flat). And this means that both keys will share many
of the same chords as each other.
Then I use what’s called a ‘Pivot Chord’ - which is a term from
Classical music - when a Classical composer was preparing to change
key, they would first identify a chord that’s found in both the old key
and the new key, and they’d play this chord in the middle of the
modulation to bridge the gap between the 2 keys. It makes the key
change sound discrete (because in Classical music the composers
wanted to make pure sounding music, and so they’d use a Pivot After the Db major chord - we have an F minor, Ab major, and Eb
chord to help avoid any sort of harmonic clash). major chord - and these 3 chords are found in both keys - C minor
and F minor.
In progression #6 ‘Force of Nature’, you can’t pinpoint exactly when
the progression modulates. It could be in several places, but you
However, when the G minor chord is played, we know that the
don’t know for sure because it’s hidden with Pivot chords on either
music is back in the key of C minor (because a G minor chord can
side.
only exist in the notes of C minor, and not F minor). But when did
the music modulate back to C minor? Because the Ab major and Eb
So the first part of the progression is in the key of C minor, the
major chords are found in both keys - C minor and F minor - these
middle part is in the key of F minor, and then it ends back in C also act as Pivot Chords allowing the music to transition back to the
minor. key of C minor. There’s no way to pinpoint exactly when the
modulations happen. Here I’ve highlighted the Pivot Chords:
When the music reaches the Db major chord, we know that the
music is definitely in the key of F minor (because Db major does not
exist within the notes of C minor). However, the C minor chord that
precedes this Db major chord can be found in both keys - it exists in
the key of C minor, and it also exists in the key of F minor - which
means that this C minor chord that the chord progression starts and
ends on is a Pivot Chord. I’m using it to modulate seamlessly from
the key of C minor to the key of F minor.
This is quite an advanced technique and I don’t think you need to
master this technique in your own writing - I just want you to
understand that it exists and to notice it in progression #6 ‘Force Of
Nature’.

Minimalist Performance Tips:

Question: What key is the music in for the first chord (C
minor)? It’s impossible to say for sure - the music could be starting
out in the home key of C minor, as you’d expect. Or it could be in F
minor all along, since the next chord is Db major - and maybe it just
started on F minor’s v chord (‘5 chord’).
As with the Pop progressions, the key to sounding great is to play
these progressions quietly and as sustained as possible (possibly
with some reverb added too if you have the option).
Focus on playing strictly in time (no speeding up and slowing down
for these progressions).
And the Minimalist progressions can be played with or without
the backing tracks.


17

JAZZ Progressions:
The Jazz progressions are the most complicated progressions in this
book - they feature frequent key changes (with almost every new
chord the scale changes). However these progressions should be
straightforward for you to understand after reading this section.
ii - V - I’s:
Every genre of music has its own ‘characteristic chord progressions’.
And for Jazz, its chords consist mostly of ii-V-I progressions
(pronounced as ‘2 - 5 -1’).
‘ii - V - I’ refers to 3 chords - a ii chord, V chord, and I chord - and
these 3 chords can be played in any key. The Roman Numerals refer
to the scale degrees that each chord is build from (‘scale degrees’
are when you number all the notes in the scale starting on one, and
counting up 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7).
So say we’re in C major scale:
• ‘ii’ refers to a chord built from the 2nd of the scale (D)
• ‘V’ refers to a chord built from the 5th of the scale (G)
• ‘I’ refers to a chord built from the root of the scale (C)
18
Chord Numbering:
It’s useful to number chords based on which scale degree they’re
built from - because these numbers stay the same whichever key
you’re playing in.
And it’s also normal to use Roman Numerals when writing
chords:
I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII
• When using Roman Numerals we use UPPERCASE numerals
for major chords - I, IV,V for example.
• And we use lowercase numerals for minor chords - i, iv, v,
etc.
So by looking at how I’ve written ‘ii - V - I’ you should be able to tell
which of these 3 chords is major, and which is minor:
• ii - is lowercase so this chord is minor (D minor)
• V - is UPPERCASE so this chord is major (G major)
• I - is also UPPERCASE so this chord is major (C major)
adding 7ths:
Now in Jazz it’s normal to play every chord as a 7th chord. The term
‘7th chord’ means a chord that has a root, 3rd, 5th and 7th - as a
posed to the standard 3 note ‘triad’ chords that most other music
styles use. 7th chords have an extra 3rd added above the 5th - e.g.
the notes ‘C E G B’ make a ‘7th chord’.
Now the term ‘ii - V - I’ only specifies triad chords - because there
isn’t a number ‘7’ after each Roman Numeral. However in jazz we
play each of these 3 chords as a 7th chord - so a ii-V-I in C major
really means this:

D min 7 - G7 - C maj 7
Each chord is built from notes in the scale that the ii - V - I is in. So
right now we’re in C major scale, so we simply build each chord
just by counting up in 3rds using only notes from C major scale (the
white notes):
• So for the ii chord - just start on D and count up in 3rds (every
other note):
D - (skip E) - F - (skip G) - A - (skip B) - C
• For the V chord - start on G and count up in 3rds:
G - (skip A) - B - (skip C) - D - (skip E) - F
• For the I chord - start on C and count up in 3rds:
C - (skip D) - E - (skip F) - G - (skip A) - B
4 main chord types:
Now each of the chords above has a different INTERVAL PATTERN
- if you measure the intervals between each note you’ll see that
they’re all different combinations of major 3rds and minor 3rds.
19
Nearly all chords in jazz boil down to one of just four types of 7th
chord. No matter how many extensions you see listed in the chord
symbol - b9, #9, #11, b13, etc - all of these are just added for
decoration on top of what is just a basic 7th chord at the bottom.
And the first step in jazz is to learn the four main types of 7th chord
- here they are built from C:
• C major 7 = maj 3 + min 3 + maj 3 (C E G B)
• C minor 7 = min 3 + maj 3 + min 3 (C Eb G Bb)
• C7 (a.k.a. ‘C Dominant 7’) = maj 3 + min 3 + min 3 (C E G Bb)
• C Minor 7 b5 (a.k.a. ‘C Half-Diminished’) = min 3 + min 3 +
maj 3 (C Eb Gb Bb)
Practice Tip 1: If these 7th chords are new to you, then spend
time looking at this and memorizing it. Play these 4 chords on the
piano built from C first, and then build them all 12 notes.
And to learn these chords you have to memorize the INTERVAL
PATTERNS to each one - so this will be great practice for you to
measure out all of the major 3rds and minor 3rds.
Practice Tip 2: When I was first learning jazz, I’d spend time at
the piano building stacks of major 3rds and minor 3rds. I’d try out
every combination I could think of as I searched for new chords.
To do this yourself, just play combinations of major 3rds and minor
3rds built from C. Start with 7th chords (just 4 notes). Once
you’ve played every combination, then build your chords a 3rd higher
(9th chords) and try out all the minor 3rd / major 3rd combinations.

Then go another 3rd higher (11th chords), and finally a 3rd higher
(13th chords). ‘13’ is as high as a chord can go, because adding a 3rd
above 13 brings you back to the root again - so that’s why you’ll never see
a ‘15th’ chord, or a ‘17th’ chord.
And the higher you go with your chord extensions, the more maj 3 /
min 3 combinations will be possible (there’s a lot more combinations
for the 13th chords than there are for the 7th chords).
2 types of ii-V-I:
Now there are 2 types of ii-V-I - there’s a major ii-V-I and a minor ii-
V-i - and the difference between these 2 progressions is the scales
that they’re built from.
So we’ve already looked at the major ii-V-I above - I was building all
3 chords from notes of C major scale.
(C D Eb F G Ab B)
The Harmonic Minor scale is a normal minor scale up to the 6th (C
D Eb F G Ab) but then it has a major 7th (B).
Questions:
Before I tell you, see if you can figure out which types of 7th chords
are found in a minor ii-V-i. We’ll do this in C harmonic minor, and to
figure it out, just count up in 3rds from each root note (D - G - C).
Once you have the notes written down, measure out the intervals
between the notes (which will be major 3rds and minor 3rds) and
figure out which type of 7th chord each one is (refer to the previous
page if needed - where I listed the four types of 7th chord).

Well the minor ii-V-i follows the same idea, except it’s built from the 1. Which type of 7th chord would the ii chord be? (built from D)
notes of the minor scale instead.

Now there are several minor scales that exist (Natural Minor, 2. Which type of 7th chord would the V chord be? (built from G)
Melodic Minor and Harmonic Minor) but in jazz, the minor ii-V-i is
built from the notes of the HARMONIC Minor scale. Here’s C 3. Which type of 7th chord would the i chord be? (built from C)
harmonic minor scale:

20

Answers:
1. D minor 7 b5: Your notes would be D F Ab C. The intervals
between the notes are min 3 + min 3 + maj 3, which makes a
‘min 7 b5’ chord.
2. G7: Your notes would be G B D F. The intervals between the
notes are maj 3 + min 3 + min 3 which makes a ‘V7’ chord.
3. C minor major 7… ok this is a trick question - if you build
the i chord from notes of C Harmonic Minor scale then you get
something that's NOT one of the 4 commonly used 7th chords -
so let me explain:
The final i chord in a minor ii-V-i is one of the reasons jazz can be
confusing - it’s nearly easy to understand (and teach) except for this i
chord in the minor ii-V-i.
Normally you would expect the i chord to be built from notes of C
Harmonic Minor scale, which would give you a C minor chord with a
major 7th (C Eb G B). This chord has a very film noir sound to it (it’s
featured in the soundtrack to Hitchcock’s film ‘Vertigo’), and this
chord is SOMETIMES played for a minor ii-V-i - but not very often.
More commonly, we either play the final i chord as a minor 7
chord (C Eb G Bb), or as a minor 6 chord (C Eb G A). We do this
because these chords have a less dramatic sound - they’re more
casual and sound better for most scenarios within a jazz song. Only if
21
the minor ii-V-i is at the END of the piece would I consider ending
on a C minor major 7 chord - since it’s so dramatic.
If music theory was all that mattered in music, then we would build
the minor i chord from the notes of C Harmonic Minor scale and
everything would be straightforward. However in music, the most
important thing is ‘what sounds good’ - and the music theory comes
AFTERWARD. Only after someone discovers a new sound do we
then try to make sense of it. And in this case, it just sounds better to
abandon C Harmonic Minor scale for the final i chord - and to play a
C min 7 or C min 6 chord instead.
Try playing through the 3 possible types of i chord below and see for
yourself how they sound:
And whether you play a C min 7 or C min 6 chord, in both cases
you’re breaking out of C Harmonic Minor scale. So C minor 7 has
a Bb (whereas C Harmonic Minor has a B natural) and C minor 6 has
an A natural (whereas C Harmonic Minor has an Ab).
Notice also that when I write ‘ii-V-i’ for the minor version, I’m
writing the ‘i’ in lowercase, because in this situation it’s a minor
chord. Whereas for the major version I wrote it as ‘ii-V-I’ - because
the I chord is major.
And of the 2 types of ii-V-I, the major ii-V-I is used most of the time
in Jazz. It’s almost slightly rare to see a minor ii-V-i - you really have
to find a minor sounding song like Cry Me A River to encounter a
minor ii-V-i - and the giveaway of a minor ii-V-i is seeing a minor 7 b5 The answer is Eb major scale. All I did was this - I spotted the 3
chord - since this only occurs in the minor ii-V-i. chord pattern of a major ii-V-I (min 7 - V7 - maj 7). I also noticed the
ii-V-I bassline pattern - up a 4th, then down a 5th (F - Bb - Eb) and

How jazz works: that means that this is a major ii-V-I. And since the final I chord is
Eb major 7, I know that the music is currently in Eb major scale. So
So most of jazz is built of ii-V-I’s, and these ii-V-I’s modulate all the final I chord tells you what the scale is.
around the place through different keys. It’s normal for a jazz song to
start and end in the same key (called ‘The Home Key’), but that’s the
only real ‘rule’ - for the rest of the music anything is possible. There’s
no right or wrong set of keys to move through, and a composer can
Questions:
literally just jump straight to any new key and play a ii-V-I in that key. Let’s practice this a few times. You see the following chord symbols
in a chord sheet - what keys do they tell you that the music is in?
You can tell which key the music is currently in just by looking at the
chord symbols above the music and spotting the ii-V-I chord pattern. 1. Bb min 7 - Eb7 - Ab maj 7

Note: Often a Jazz Standard will use a key signature at the 2. G min 7 b5 - C7 - F min 7
beginning of the music (this is a display of sharps or flats that stay in
place for the whole piece). In other styles of music it’s normal to 3. A min 7 - D7 - G maj 7
figure out the key of the music just by looking at these sharps / flats
- however in Jazz, even though there might be a key signature, this 4. F# min 7 - B7 - E maj 7
doesn’t mean that the music is in that key from beginning to end.
Instead the key signature probably just outlines the Home Key - but
the music will almost certainly modulate through many other keys.

Answers:
So let’s say we saw the following 3 chords - what key do these
chords tell us the music is currently in?

1. Ab major scale (this was a major ii-V-I)

2. F minor scale (this was a minor ii-V-i)

3. G major scale (this was a major ii-V-I)

- Figure this out before reading on - 4. E major scale (this was a major ii-V-I)

22
Partial ii-V-I’s:
A lot of the time you’ll see all 3 chords from a ii-V-I, as in the
examples above. However there’s also many times in Jazz when you
won’t get all 3 chords - sometimes you only see the first 2 chords
(ii-V) and other times just the last 2 chords (V-I) - and then the
music jumps to a different key without playing all 3 chords.
For example, a typical Jazz song might play something like this:
D min 7 - G7 - F min 7 - Bb7 - Abm7 - Db7
Every two chords are a ii-V to a new key, but the music doesn’t stay
long enough to play the final I chord.
You’ll see this happen a lot in the Jazz progressions to this book - for
example in Progression #12 ‘Never Ending ii-V’s’:
This is a set of descending ii-V’s, where instead of playing the normal
I chord as a major 7 chord, I’ve played the I chord as a minor 7
chord instead - and then you realize that this is NOT the I chord, but
it’s actually the ii chord of a new ii-V-I instead.
This pattern keeps repeating itself and takes you through several
keys, moving down a whole-step each time.
23
Other ii-V-I variations:
Other ii-V-I variations include something I call the ‘Almost ii-V-I’. This
is based on the never ending ii-V progression mentioned above,
except this time instead of resolving down a perfect 5th from the V
chord, here you resolve down a diminished 5th (or a ‘Tritone’):
D min 7 - G7 - C# min 7 - F#7 - C min 7 - F7 - B min 7 - E7
And so on… I didn’t include this progression in the 30 Progressions,
but you can certainly try playing this too. I suggest that you look at
Progression #12 and use the same voicings, but transpose them to fit
with the following pattern instead:
Dm7 - G7 - C#m7 - F#7 - Cm7 - F7 - Bm7 - E7 - Bbm7 - Eb7 - etc
Cycle of Fifths:
The ii-V-I is actually taken from a bigger type of chord progression -
known as a ‘Cycle Of Fifths Chord Progression’ - which is a long
string of chords in which each chord resolves down a 5th to the
next chord. You’ll hear this progression in Classical music (where it
originates from) as well as Jazz music, and it typically lasts for 7 or 8
chords in a row - like this:
B7 - E min 7 - A7 - D min 7 - G7 - C maj 7
The ii-V-I is just the final 3 chords of this complete Cycle Of Fifths
chord progression.
Note: Occasionally in jazz you will get to hear a complete Cycle
Of Fifths - like in the B section to ‘Take 5’ for example. However the
Cycle Of Fifths can sound a bit basic and a bit predictable - you can
kind of hear where the music’s going to go - and it also sounds
pretty Diatonic - since all of the chords are built from notes in one
key (at least the roots of the chords are all taken from the same
scale) and again, in Jazz we like to change key often because it
creates a sophisticated sound - so playing a complete Cycle Of Fifths
isn’t appealing to most Jazz composers. So instead you tend to just
get the ii-V-I played in a range of keys.
Don’t Take chord symbols 100%
Literally:
When starting out in jazz, it’s common for musicians to take chord
symbols 100% literally (by that I mean the chord symbols that are
written above the melody line, like ‘F7’, ‘Cm7’ etc). It’s common to
think that the chord symbol must state every single note that’s being
played in the chord voicing (I used to be very literal when comparing
the chord symbols above the music with the chords that were
notated in the arrangements).
However, if an arranger specifies every single chord extension in the
chord symbols, then the music starts looking very complicated
quickly - like this:
So to keep the music looking tidy and quick to read, it’s normal just
to state chords as 7th chords - rather than always listing ‘#9’ ‘b13’
‘#11’ for every single chord - like this:
24
So take chord symbols with a pinch of salt - usually the pianist
understands that the chord symbols aren’t specifying all of the nitty
gritty details. Rather they’re just specifying the underlying 7th chord,
and then the performer has the freedom to add 9ths, 11ths and
13ths as they wish.
For the chord progressions in this book, I’ve gone with a middle
ground approach:
• Sometimes I specify all of the extensions for you - generally I do
this for the really nice voicings.
• Other times I keep it simple and just write chords as 7th chords -
so I might write ‘Dm7’ (even though it’s voiced as a D minor 9
chord), or I’ll write ‘G7’ (even though there’s a 9th and 13th
added).
And when you play a Jazz standard, you have the freedom to add
your own chord extensions - so when the music says ‘C min 7’ I’ll
nearly always play it as a C min 9 chord (just by adding D to my
voicing). And the same goes for all 7th chords - I’ll generally add a
9th (for maj 7 and V7 chords too). And for V7 chords, that’s where
you can really go to town and add all sorts of chord extensions, as
well as flattening and sharpening them - so numbers like b9 #9 #11
b13 are only really seen on V7 chords. You wouldn’t usually add these
to a major 7 or minor 7 chord.
‘4’ vs ’11’:
When playing the progressions, you might notice that sometimes I
write ‘#4’ (e.g. C maj 7 #4), and sometimes I write ‘#11’ (e.g.
C7#11).

Now both of these numbers refer to the same note. So over a C
chord #4 and #11 both mean to add an F# to your chord voicing.
However, there’s a semi-rule that I follow when deciding how to spell
this note:
Instead of playing G7, we’re going to transpose the V7 chord a
tritone away (either up or down, because both directions bring you
to the same note - Db). And now we’ll build the same V7 chord but
from Db instead - like this:

• For major 7 chords I spell this note as #4

• For V7 chords I spell this note as #11
And for minor 7 chords, I’ll also spell this note as an 11th -
however you’re not likely to encounter a #11 over a minor 7 chord -
it’s only normal to play a natural 11th above a minor 7 chord, and
when this happens I also use the number ‘11’ - so I’ll write ‘C min
11’ (and not ‘C min 4’).
So that’s the ‘rule’ that most arrangers follow - ‘11’ for minor 7
chords, ‘#11’ for V7 chords, and ‘#4’ for major 7 chords.
Tritone Substitution:
Try playing these 2 progressions and see how much more
sophisticated the Tritone Substitution version sounds.
Now you can apply this technique to ANY ii-V-I you encounter in
jazz. Just spot the ii-V-I’s from the chord symbols, and then transpose
the V7 chord a tritone away.
And there’s actually a quicker way to think about this - instead of
counting up or down a tritone, just notice that the root notes of the
3 chords move down chromatically in half-steps - D - Db - C:

One reharmonization technique that I use in a lot of the Jazz

Progressions is ‘Tritone Substitution’. Tritone Substitution is applied
to the V7 chord of a ii-V-I progression, and it creates a much more
sophisticated sounding ii-V-I.

So let’s take a ii-V-I in C major scale to demonstrate:

(D - Db - C)

25
So all you need to do is play the ii chord as normal (D min 7), then
move the bass note down a half-step and build a V7 chord (Db7), and
then move it down another half-step to play the I chord (C maj 7).
This is the way I think about Tritone Substitution and it actually
makes it EASIER to play than the original ii-V-I which involves
jumping by 4ths and 5ths.

And Tritone Substitution works for both major ii-V-I’s, and minor ii-
V-i’s. So for a minor ii-V-i in C minor you’d start with this:

And you’d change it to this:

Practice Tip: Choose a Jazz standard that you know well

and have sheet music for. Play through the song and every time you
see a ii-V-I in the chord symbols, transpose the V7 chord a tritone
away - or more simply just play a chromatic bassline going down in half-
steps, and build a V7 chord from the b2nd.

Now for Tritone Substitution to sound REALLY good you have to

apply some more interesting voicings to the chords - like these ones:
Tweaking the melody notes:
When applying Tritone Substitution you’ll often need to tweak a few
of the melody notes to fit with the new scale that’s implied by the
new bII7 chord. Normally I’ll play the Lydian-Dominant scale over
this bII7 chord - so first of all here’s C Lydian-Dominant scale:

26

(C D E F# G A Bb)
So for a ii-V-I in C major, I’d play C major scale over both D min 7
and C maj 7 chords, but for the Db7 in the middle I’d switch to
playing notes from Db Lydian-Dominant scale instead:
(Db Eb F G Ab Bb Cb)
So that means that that if you’re playing a jazz standard and you apply
Tritone Substitution to a ii-V-I, then you need to check which melody
notes are being played over the V7 chord and tweak them up or
down a half-step to fit with this new scale. Here are some examples:
• Let’s say that the original V7 chord is G7 and there’s a D in the
melody. Well if you change G7 to Db7, then you’ll also need to
change D to Db in the melody.
• If there’s an A in the melody over the same G7 chord, then you’ll
need to change it to Ab to fit with the new Db7 chord.
• If there’s an E in the melody over the G7 chord, then you’ll need
to change it to Eb to fit with the new Db7 chord - and so on.
27
• Whereas if there’s an F in the melody over the G7 chord, then
you won’t need to change it when you play Db7 - because F is
found in both scales - it’s found in C Major Scale and it’s also
found in Db Lydian-Dominant - so this note doesn’t need to be
tweaked.
When tweaking notes, you’ll probably have an intuitive feeling
whether to sharpen or flatten the note - it can work both ways - but
if you’re not sure just try out both options and see which sounds
best. In either case you’ll only ever need to move the note by a half-
step in either direction.
And lastly, Tritone Substitution doesn’t need all 3 chords of a ii-V-I to
work - you can just play the last 2 chords (e.g. Db7 - C min 7) - the ii
chord isn’t essential, and often in jazz we’ll just play the bII7 resolving
to the i chord.
When I’m composing, I’ll often use Tritone Substitution to precede
an important chord. Say that I want to get from C minor 7 to F
minor 7 - I could precede F minor 7 with a Gb7 chord (I’m just
counting up a half-step and building a V7 chord).
Take a look at Progression #18 for example - here I want to get
from F min 9 to C min 9 - so I precede C min 9 with a Db7 chord -
again just by counting up a half-step from my ‘target chord’ (C min 9)
and building a V7 chord:
So look out for my use of Tritone Substitution in the jazz
progressions (especially in progressions 11, 12 and 13) - and you’ll
see me using V7 chords that resolve down a half-step to minor 7 and
major 7 chords.
Making a simple melody from
your voicings:
Another technique you’ll see me us in the Jazz progressions is to
take the top note of a chord voicing, and to turn it into a simple
melody - just by moving it down a whole-step.
For example if I have a C minor 9 voicing (C Eb G Bb D) then I’ll
play D as the top note at first, but then I’ll move it down to C for
the 2nd beat - like this:
I think this works best when the chord’s top note is the 9th
(moving down to the root) or sometimes the 6th (moving down to
the 5th).
So look out for me using this ‘top note melody’ technique in the Jazz
Progressions (see Progressions 15 and 18), and you can also use this
technique yourself in all of your playing - just take any chord voicing
and try moving the top note down a note to create some
movement.
28
What Scale should I play?
I also want to show you how to know what scale to play over any
chord. This is a common question I get, and it used to confuse me
when I first started. It’s common to buy a book on jazz and for the
author just to tell you ‘play this scale’ for minor 7 chords, or major 7
chords, and so on. But I prefer to actually show you how to figure
out what scale you should play on your own.
First of all, there’s never just one scale you can play - for any given
chord, there’s at least 2 or 3 scales that you could play - all of which
would sound consonant (right notes) but each would have a different
‘Tonal Color’ (mood).
It also depends on the style of Jazz that you’re playing:
Anytime you’re playing a Blues based progression, I would
recommend playing predominantly the Blues scale.
So if you take a look at Progressions #9 and #10 - although these
are taken from the Latin section of this book, these are actually
based around a 12 Bar Blues progression.
Here are the chords to a 12 Bar Blues in C minor:
C min 7 - C min 7 - C min 7 - C min 7
F min 7 - F min 7 - C min 7 - C min 7
G min 7 - F min 7 - C min 7 - C min 7
Most blues music resembles this pattern in some way - but usually
not exactly like this. So it’s common for blues to at least start out
with a C min 7 (of the i chord in whichever key the music’s in) and
to play it for about 4 bars - and then it’s common to go to the iv
chord (F min 7) for a couple of bars. It’s also common to hear a v - iv
- i (G min 7 - F min 7 - C min 7) somewhere toward the end.

So if you look at Progressions #9 and #10 you’ll see that these
resemble a 12 Bar Blues:
And if I was writing a melody or soloing over this type of
progression, then I’d use C minor Blues Scale:
And in fact in the Notated Solo to Progression #10 - I do indeed use
notes from C Minor Blues Scale for the most part.
C minor Blues Scale would also sound great over the Jazz
Progressions Part III (#18 - 21). Because anytime you have a
29
sustained i chord (C min 7) the Blues Scale will keep things sounding
interesting - it has both a clashing sound (when you play the Blue
Note - Gb) but it’s also very singable - because it has the Pentatonic
Scale in it (Eb F G Bb C are the notes of Eb Pentatonic Scale). And if
you remember back to the Pop Chord section, I said that Pentatonic
melodies are very memorable and easy for everyone to sing back -
even non-musicians.
So the Blues Scale is always a good choice for this type of Blues
influenced music.
The other scale that I’d consider playing over a Blues based chord
progression would be the Dorian scale - so over C min 7 you could
also play C Dorian Scale:
And again you’ll see me playing some of this scale in my notated
solos. The main note I’ll aim for in this scale is the 9th (D) and I’ll
tend to arpeggiate the notes of Eb maj 7 in my solo (Eb G Bb D):
But what about for non-Blues based Jazz music - for example if you
wanted to play a solo over any traditional sounding Jazz Standard in a
real book - how would you know which scales to use then?
Well chord and scale are always related, and you can figure out And now see which scale you end up with:
which scale you should play just by looking at the chord symbol
(that’s right, you don’t even have to search the internet or see what
scale a book says you should play - you can actually figure it out by
yourself).

Here’s the formula I like to use:

• Look at the chord symbol (e.g. ‘C7’).

• Put the chordal tones in your scale - that means the root, 3rd, 5th And it’s common for me to play C Dorian Scale over minor 7
chords.
and 7th (so for C7 we’d start with C E G Bb).

Questions:
• Now add a whole-step to the root, 3rd and 5th - and that gives
you your scale (so add D F# A)
Use this method to figure out which scales to play over the following
So let’s try this out - say that your chord symbol is ‘C min 7’ and you chords:
want to know which scale to play over it:
1. Which scale would you play over C major 7?
• Start with the chordal tones - ‘C min 7’ has C Eb G Bb - so our
scale has to agree on these notes.
2. Which scale would you play over C7?

3. Which scale would you play over C minor 7 b5?

• Next let’s add a whole-step to the root, 3rd and 5th:

C + whole-step = D
Eb + whole-step = F
G + whole-step = A

30
 Usually the major 7 and minor 7 chords are straightforward when it

Answers: comes to scales (just use the chordal tones + whole-step approach
above, or the Blues Scale).
1. C D E F# G A B (known as C Lydian scale) However when it comes to V7 chords - this is the place for exotic
Chordal tones = C E G B scales and exotic chord extensions (b9 #9 #11 etc) - and the reason
for this is that it creates an ‘in - out - in’ type of sound for every ii - V
Then add a whole-step = D F# A - I. So the ii and I chord stay fairly basic, but then for the V7 chord
you create an ‘out of key’ type of sound - either by using the Altered
Scale or several others - which I covered in this video:
2. C D E F# G A Bb (known as C Lydian-Dominant scale)
Chordal tones = C E G Bb Click here to watch my ‘4 Exotic V7 Scales’ video on YouTube
Then add a whole-step = D F# A And following that I have a whole chapter dedicated to jazz piano
scales and improv techniques in my Jazz Theory Explained ebook:
3. C D Eb F Gb Ab Bb (known as C Half-Diminished scale) Click here for full details and to download ‘Jazz Theory Explained’

Chordal tones = C Eb Gb Bb
Then add a whole-step = D F Ab

This is the approach I take most of the time when choosing which
scales to use for a melody or improv. And even though it’s a simple
formula - the scales that you produce sound sophisticated and
professional. I mean look at the scales above - we ended up with the
Lydian, the Dorian, The Lydian-Dominant, and the Half-Diminished
scales - those are all pretty advanced scales which you don’t often
hear outside jazz. So don’t think that this is some beginner trick - it’s
what a lot of professionals use.

As I said, there are other scales you can use - there’s never just one
scale for any type of chord. I suggest you start with the approach
above, but once you get good at this.

31
Cuban Montunos:
In Progressions #22-24 I share some of my favorite Montuno
patterns. ‘Montunos’ are a feature of Cuban music styles, like Salsa -
they’re a way to play chords to interesting rhythms, and they’re an
interesting texture to add to your playing.
Montunos are played loudly and fairly high up the keyboard (because
Salsa music is loud and the piano has to play loudly and double its
notes in octaves just to be heard).
How montunos work:
Montunos work best when applied to Cycle of Fifth chord
progressions, like the ii-V-I (remember ‘Cycle of Fifths’ means a
progression where each chord resolves down a 5th).
To write your own Montunos there’s a specific way of voicing the
chords, and a specific way that each voicing moves to the next chord
in the Cycle Of Fifths.
So let’s apply a Montuno to a series of ii-V’s (just as I’ve done in
progression #22). We’ll start with the first ii-V in the key of C major.

Latin Jazz vs swing Jazz: D min 7 - G7

Latin Jazz has mostly the same HARMONY as traditional American
Jazz - meaning that it’s still based around ii-V-I’s, and the scales you’d
play in Latin Jazz are the same scales you’d play in traditional Swing
Jazz. The main difference between Latin Jazz styles (like Cuban Salsa
and Brazilian Bossa Nova) is their RHYTHM:
Montunos work by breaking the chord voicing into 2 parts - there’s
an outer octave, and then there’s 2 inner voices. The outer
octave and the inner voices play one at a time, alternating between
each other - so the two parts never play at the same time.

So whereas traditional American Jazz is played to a swing rhythm, in The outer octave starts on the 7th of the minor 7 chord - so for
Latin Jazz the music is played in ‘straight time’ (which means there’s D min 7 the outer octave plays the 7th (C):
no swing - you just play the rhythms exactly as they’re written).

Swing music generally sounds fun and light-hearted, whereas straight

rhythms sound more serious. Personally I prefer playing jazz in
straight time, so that’s why I really love playing Latin Jazz styles
(especially Bossa Nova). And the good news is that you can play any
Jazz song with either rhythm - swing time or straight time. So it’s
common for me to play a traditional song (like ‘Misty’ for example)
in a Bossa Nova style - which means I’ll ignore the ‘swing’ tempo
marking and I’ll play everything to straight eighth-notes instead.
And once the outer octave has played, the inner voices then play the
chord’s 3rd and 5th (F and A).

32
Then the chord changes to G7, and the outer octave descends a
half-step to play the V7 chord’s 3rd (B):
Question:
How would you voice the following 2 chords if you were playing a
Montuno (i.e. which notes would you play?):

C min 7 - F7

Meanwhile the inner voices stay on the same 2 notes (F and A),
except these 2 notes are now the 7th and 9th of G7.

And then this pattern repeats over and over - the outer octave
keeps moving down in half-steps (C - B - Bb - A - Ab - G etc) -
Answer:
So for the C min 7 chord, the outer octave starts on the 7th (Bb),
alternating between the 7th and the 3rd of each chord. And the
and when the chord changes to F7 it will move down a half-step to A
inner voices start on the 3rd and 5th, and stay the same for the
(the 3rd of F7).
next V7 chord (becoming the 7th and 9th). Then they reset to the
next chord’s 3rd and 5th, then they stay the same for the next V7
Meanwhile, the inner voices will start on the 3rd and 5th of C min 7
chord - like this:
(Eb and G), and when the chord changes to F7 these will stay the
same, becoming the 7th and 9th of F7:

It’s quite a distinctive feeling in your hands to play - first the outer
fingers move (thumb and little finger), then the inner fingers move (2
and 3) - and this keeps alternating.

33
 track (or with your band) which already has the bass line in it - like
To see this in action take a look at progressions #22 and #23. You’ll this:
notice that the outer octave descends step, alternating between 7th,
and 3rd of the chords:

And you’ll see that the inner voices start on the 3rd and 5th of the
first chord, and then stay in place for the next chord.
But remember, this pattern only works when the chord progression
is some sort of Cycle Of Fifths - where each chord resolves down a
5th.
In the left hand you’ll only need to play the bottom note of the
Montuno’s outer octave part, because the right hand is already
playing what would be the left hand’s top note.
And if your left hand isn’t as good as your right, just play the right
hand louder, and you’ll still be able to create a confident sounding
Montuno performance.
PRACTICE CHALLENGE: To ingrain this, I want you to
write a Montuno to the following progression:

THE CUBAN BASS LINE: Dm7 - G7 - Cm7 - F7 - Bbm7 - Eb7 - Abm7 - Db7
For the bass line, there’s a specific Cuban rhythm that we play to.
Usually the chords change every 2 beats, in which case the bass line (keep repeating this ii-V pattern - then check your answer by looking at by
will play the root of each chord - but sometimes you’ll get a chord Progression #22)
that’s sustained for a full 4 beats, in which case the bass line will play
root and then the 5th of the chord.

Playing the bass line to this rhythm is quite challenging, especially

when the right hand’s playing the Montunos above - it took me a
while to learn to play both hands together (to practice this, play each
hand separately first, and then put them together SLOWLY and
gradually speed up).

But if playing both hands is too hard, you can just double the right
hand’s Montuno in the left hand, and then play this to the backing

34
 • ‘Free Tempo endings’: These are the fun type of ending -
Jazz Piano Endings: when the song’s tempo breaks down into a free space where you
can play more or less whatever you want, and you don’t have to
The end of a jazz song is a special time - especially for piano players. play strictly to the song’s beat anymore. These endings are most
It’s a time when we get to show off our favorite chord voicings and appropriate for slower and more thoughtful Jazz songs (anything
scales, and to end with something that sounds sophisticated. that isn’t upbeat and loud). Here’s a ‘free tempo ending’ I wrote to
the end of my Jazz arrangement to ‘Greensleeves’ - the first 2 bars
As a composer, I like to think that there are 2 types of ending: are still in the song’s normal tempo, but once we hit the C maj 7
#4 chord, the tempo breaks down and I just play a dreamy
• ‘short endings’: When the music ends loudly with a short sounding ascending arpeggio of a C maj 7 #4 chord:
high chord. These aren’t something I look forward to playing, but
for some pieces it’s only appropriate to keep the ending short and
sweet (usually for upbeat loud pieces). Here’s a ‘short ending’ I
used to end my Jazz piano arrangement of ‘O Christmas Tree’ -
notice that the trumpet plays a few high notes, while the piano
plays some accented chords (a ii-V-I in which key?), and then the
whole piece ends abruptly on a loud stab of the final chord:

Also taken from the Jazz Tutorial Christmas Collection.

And these are the type of endings I’ve included in this book - ‘Free
Tempo Endings’ (obviously ‘short endings’ wouldn’t make it into this
book!)

How to write a Jazz Piano ending:

Here are my guidelines to help you write your own ‘Free Tempo
Endings’:
(Answer: Fm7 - Bb7 - Eb maj 7 are a ii-V-I in the key of Eb major)

This excerpt is taken from my Jazz Tutorial Christmas Collection. • hold down the pedal: Whatever you play for your ending,
you’ll usually start by holding down the sustain pedal and keeping
it down for the entire ending - you’ll add more and more notes to
the mix, and each one will be sustained with the pedal.

35

• Ascending works best: For my endings I will ascend up
the keyboard in one way or another (sometimes for my intros
I’ll descend downwards into the song, but ascending works best
for endings).
• Arpeggio or scale: For my endings I will either
arpeggiate the final chord, e.g. C Eb G A C. OR I will run up the
scale in step, e.g. C D Eb F G A B. And oftentimes I’ll play a
combination of both - first an arpeggio of the chord voicing,
starting somewhere around middle C. And then as I get higher up
the keyboard I’ll switch to playing a scale in step - like this:
This combination works well because in the midrange it tends to
sound muddy if you play up the scale in step - so that’s why I start
with an arpeggio for the midrange (because it sounds cleaner), and
then I switch to playing a scale in step for the high range where each
note can be heard clearly.
Ending Scales:
You have the freedom to choose which scale you’re going to build
your ending from (and usually you’ll stick to one scale for the final
chord, and you’ll play an ascending flourish of notes from that scale -
but you wouldn’t normally change scale on the ending chord).
36
The scale you play will be decided by the chord you’re ending on - so
a C minor 7 chord would imply a C dorian scale, or a C major 7
chord would imply a C Lydian scale (remember the scale rule from
earlier? Just build your scale from the chordal tones of the chord - 1
3 5 7 - and then add a whole-step above the 1 3 5).
Your ending chord / scale DOESN’T have to be the root chord of
the song’s home key. So a song that was in C minor doesn’t
necessarily have to end on a C minor chord - although often it will.
However I think that you should keep the root note of your ending
chord the same as the song’s root note - so if the song was in C
minor, keep C as the root note for your ending chord - but feel free
to try playing all types of C chord as a reharmonization - C maj 7, C
maj 7 #4, C7, C7#11, C min 7, C min 6, C min maj 7, etc.
But with that said, there are a couple of chords and scales that I
particularly like to use for my jazz piano endings:
•C maj 7 #4 + the lydian Scale: For a major sounding
ending I’ll build my ending flourish from the notes of the Lydian
scale (which is the major scale with a #4):
(C D E F# G A B)
This scale creates a bright and dreamy sound - like a cold sunny
morning in Spring. And to accompany this scale, you would play a C
major 7 #4 chord - which you could voice like this:
C G D E B F#
And I used this Lydian sound in Progression #29: And you’ll notice that I used an ascending C min 6/9 sound in
Progressions #25 and #28:

• C min 6 + the melodic Minor: And for a minor sounding Block Chords:
ending I’ll usually build my ending flourish from the notes of the You’ll also notice that in Progression #30 I’ve used a ‘Block Chord’
Melodic Minor Scale (which is the minor scale but with a technique. Block Chords creates a very dated sound (again a Film
major 6th and 7th: Noir type of sound) and it’s easy to do:

Just find a melody that moves in step (or write one) - then double it
an octave below. And finally, play as many of the chordal tones as you
can fit in-between the octave.

So in Progression #30 I started by writing a simple melody in C

(C D Eb F G A B) Melodic Minor Scale - playing B A B C D C B A G. And then I filled in
as many of the chordal tones from C minor 6 as I could fit - so these
This scale has a very Film Noir sound - it was used a lot by Bernard would be C Eb G A and sometimes D:
Herrmann in the Hitchcock films, like the soundtrack to ‘Vertigo’. I
think this scale sounds its best when used at the end of a song - it’s
fairly rare to hear this scale played within a piece, but quite common
to hear it for the ending.

And to accompany this scale you would play a C minor 6 chord (C

Eb G A), or a C minor major 7 chord (C Eb G B) maybe with a
9th added to either one - and you could voice this chord like this:

C Eb A D G B

37
You can certainly try applying this Block Chord technique to a
melody that doesn’t move by step - so one that jumps by 3rds and
4ths. However it doesn’t work very well - the Block Chord sound
works best on melodies that run up or down the scale in step.
And Block Chords can be used in any section of a song - not just an
ending.
Here’s one more example from my Christmas Collection - where in
my Jazz arrangement to ‘The First Noel’ I used a Block Chord
pattern for the first 2 bars of every verse:
And if the chords change while you’re still playing Block Chords,
that’s fine - just change the inner voices to the new chord’s chordal
tones when the chord changes - just as you normally would when
playing chords.
And lastly, Block Chords take some practice. I’m not able to play
Block Chords without practicing them first. Every melody is different
so it’s unlikely you’d ever be prepared enough to play Block Chords
on the spot to something. So instead, you’ll have to decide on a small
section that you’re going to play Block Chords for and then rehearse
it by playing it slowly many times.

They’re also very mentally draining to play (especially if the music is

fast) so I only play Block chords for 2 bars max.

All I did was find a part of the melody that moves in step, then I
doubled the melody down an octave, and finally I crammed in as
many of the chordal tones from the chord symbols that I could fit.

Practice Tip:
Take a Jazz Standard that you already know. Look through the
melody to find a section that moves by step (most melodies have
some step movement somewhere). Now try applying this Block
Chord technique to that section:

1. Double the melody down an octave

2. Fill in as many of the chordal tones in-between (based on

whatever the chord symbol is)

38
modern sounds:
There’s still a few contemporary sounds I want to share with you in
A few of my personal favorites are C minor and D major, C minor
and E major, C minor and F# major:

this ebook - and although the 30 Chord Progressions don’t use

these techniques, I’d like you to know about them and to explore
them at the piano.

PolyChords
‘Polytonal’ or ‘Bitonal’ music is a modern composition technique
(twentieth century onwards). It’s when there’s more than one key And you can play with the voicings / inversions / octave range that
signature playing at once - perhaps there’s a C minor chord being you play these chords in:
played low down, and a melody that uses notes from E major scale
higher up.

So ‘Bitonal’ refers to music that has 2 different scales playing at the

same time. Whereas ‘Polytonal’ just means ‘more than one’ - so there
could be 2 or 3 scales playing at once.

However in my experience, it’s hard enough getting 2 scales to

sound good together so I don’t generally venture into 3 scales - but
it’s possible.
Here’s what I want you to do - go to the piano and in your left hand
play a C minor chord (an octave below middle C).
Then in your right hand I want you to start playing different major /
minor triads, built from all 12 notes (there’s only 24 major and minor
chords to try out).
As you go through the combinations, make note of any chords you
particularly like by writing them down on paper (always have paper
and pencil by your piano).
Once you’ve gone through all the possibilities played over a C minor
chord, now change the left hand’s chord to C major - and go through
all possible major / minor chords in the right hand.
And once you’ve done that, you could try combining 7th chords - so
play a C minor 7 chord in your left, and try out different types of 7th
chord in your right hand - you could start with minor 7th chords in
the right, but you could also try major 7th chords and V7 chords too.
The key to staying organized as you search through every possibility
is to make sure that your left hand chord stays built from C -
otherwise there’ll be no way of knowing which chords you’ve tried
and which you haven’t tried yet.

39
Bitonal chords like these (a.k.a. ‘Polychords’) have an interesting / Again this can be an interesting sound to use in your compositions.

intellectual sound - and they’re used mostly in Film Music. My
favorite example in a film soundtrack would be in the Matrix
soundtrack - where the composer Don Davis wrote a REALLY
interesting score which features a Bitonal chord played in the brass -
one chord crescendos (gets louder) as the other chord diminuendos
(gets quieter) and the 2 chords go back and forth like this. There’s
also several other Bitonal textures throughout the soundtrack:

Click here to listen to the opening Polychord in The Matrix

Pedal notes:
Another interesting sound is when you hold down a bass note (C) -
and then you change the chords in your right hand while keeping the
bass note sustained.

When the bass note stays put on a note, and the upper parts detach
and continue to play their own chords, this is known as a ‘Pedal’ -
and the sustained bass note is a ‘Pedal Note’.

It’s an interesting sound to hold down C in the bass, and to play

through a series of major and minor chords in the right hand, almost
at random - like this (personally I like the sound of major chords
built from ‘random’ root notes):

40
HOW TO write YOUR OWN
C min - F min
C min - Eb maj

CHORD PROGRESSIONS: C min - Db min

C min - Ab maj
Before we end this book, I want to show you how to discover your
own chord progressions. So here are my guidelines for you to find C min - Ab min
your own chord progressions (it’s pretty simple, but there are a few …and so on.
important steps that make a huge difference):
Just keep blasting through all the different possibilities quickly. It’s up
• Start From C: Stick to the same root note for your chord to you if you want to stay within one key (in which case just stick to
the chords within the key you’re in - using the 7 chords from C
searching - either start from C major, or C minor. This is very
major scale, or the 7 chords from C minor scale). Or if you want to
important - I want you to start every progression in the home key
modulate then widen your search to all 12 major chords and all 12
of C major (if you’re exploring major sounding progressions) and
minor chords.
C minor (if you’re exploring minor sounding progressions). This
doesn’t mean you have to stay in the key of C major or C minor -
Once you’re happy with the first 2 chords in your progression, move
you can use chords outside those keys (any chord in fact), but it’s
on to the 3rd chord - play through the first 2 chords which are now
important that you start from C every time. This will allow you to
fixed in place and start blasting through all possibilities for the 3rd
learn quickly and to compare all of your chord progressions with
chord - major and minor chords built from any of the 12 notes. And
each other - because they’ll all be lined up in your brain to start
once you’re happy with the 3rd chord, lock that in place and move
from C. And it will also help you remember what you’ve tried
onto the 4th chord - play the first 3 chords and then try out all
already, and what you haven’t tried - whereas if you start a
possibilities for the 4th chord - and so on.
progression in a different key each time you have no idea what
you’ve tried so far. So line everything up to start from C -
sometimes C major and sometimes C minor. • Use Your Ear: In the beginning it’s fine just to try out all of
the possibilities - by playing every chord you can think of and
• One Chord At A Time: To write a chord progression seeing how it sounds. Pretty quickly you’ll start noticing how
chords sound and which chords tend to work best. However you
you have to work on one chord at a time. So you have your first
might also start to notice that you can HEAR a certain chord in
chord (C maj or C min) - and now it’s just a case of trying out
your imagination - you can hear how you want the progression to
many different chords for the 2nd chord in your progression - try
go, and in that case you can start searching for the chord that
the following:
matches the sound in your head. This might still mean you need to
try out all 12 major chords and all 12 minor chords until you find
C min - D min
it, but usually you find it within about 10 tries.
C min - Db maj

41
• start with triads - add extensions later:
Depending on the type of music you’re interested in, you might
want to add chord extensions to your chords (7ths, 9ths, 11ths
etc). If you want to add extensions then I’d recommend writing
your progression first using just major / minor chords (certainly if
you’re new to writing chord progressions I recommending getting
the progression to sound right using just major and minor chords
first - but if you’re confident then you can go straight to using
7ths while trying out different chords). Once you’re finished and
you’re happy with the progression itself, it’s then an easy task to
start adding 7ths, 9ths, 11ths to the chords as a separate step.
Otherwise if you start your exploring by using 7ths, 9ths and
11ths, there are just so many possibilities that you could get stuck
for a long time on each chord. Personally, I prefer to write the
initial chords as quickly as possible, and then dress them up with
extensions and nice voicings afterwards.
or above) then I’ll use a closed voicing (C E G). Whereas if I’m
playing in the lower range (below middle C) I’ll play an open voicing -
C G E.
And the open voicing is quite a stretch so most people play this with
2 hands - root and 5th in the left, 3rd in the right.
And if you’re using extended chords, then there’s a lot of possibilities
- but try out more than one type of voicing. For example in
Progression #9 you’ll see that I’ve included 2 versions - the only
difference being the voicings (but the chords are exactly the same).
You’ll notice that both versions use the exact same notes in the
voicings, except I’ve inverted the right hand voicing. So I could either
voice the F minor 9 chord as Ab C Eb G played over F:

• Voicings:
This is a similar step to the one before - but there’s many ways to
voice each chord. So you should spend some time trying out
different ways to voice the chord progression.

If you’re playing basic 3 note major / minor chords, then there’s 2

main voicings I use - ‘closed’ and ‘open’.
Or I could invert the voicing (rearrange the order of the notes) and
A ‘Closed Voicing’ is when you play the notes the standard way - as play it as Eb G Ab C played over F:
C E G.

Whereas an ‘Open’ Voicing’ is when you spread out the notes - just
start on the root (C) - then skip the next note (E) and play G - then
skip the next note (C) and play E - giving you C G E.

This works on any major or minor chord - and the way I decide
which of these 2 voicings to use just depends on the range I’m
playing in. If I’m playing the chord higher up the keyboard (middle C

42
So whenever you have a good chord voicing, you can also try now have the chords so spend some time finding the best way to
inverting the notes (just by taking the same notes but starting them voice them.
from a different note higher up the chord).
• Rearrange the chords - try playing the chords from your
progression in a different order - sometimes this unlocks new
• Rearrange the chords: chord progressions that are even better than the original.

One other thing you can do AFTER you’ve written a great chord
progression, is to try playing those same chords in different
combinations. So if the chords sound good played in the first
combination (1 2 3 4), then the chances are that there’ll be other
combinations that sound good too, and sometimes better (e.g. 4 3 2
1, 2 1 3 4, 3 1 2 4, etc).

So whenever you find a progression that you like - either taken from
this book or on your own - try playing those chords in every other
combination that you can think of.

to summarize:
• Start from C every time (C maj or C min).
• Try out every chord possible - major and minor chords built from
all 12 notes.

• Work on one chord at a time - once happy, lock that chord in

place and move to the next chord.

• Use your ear - if you can hear a chord in your imagination, then
that chord exists - so try out all possible chords until you find it.

• Add extensions later - I like to find a progression that sounds

good with just major / minor chords first - then I’ll add extensions
afterwards.

• Experiment with different voicings - don’t just settle for the

voicings you used the first time you played the progression. You

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Technique tips
The chord progressions, riffs and solos in this book are also designed
to improve your technique.
People often ask me “what practice drills do you recommend to
improve piano technique” - and my answer is always the same -
“work on real pieces of music”.
Personally I’ve never done any specific practice drills for technique
other than scales and arpeggios. I loose interest quickly when
playing something I don’t enjoy the sound of, so apart from scales
and arpeggios (which I was forced to practice for my Classical piano
exams), all of my technique has developed from studying piano pieces
- especially Classical piano pieces.
When it comes to technique, I like Classical music (Bach, Mozart,
Beethoven) - since this type of music fits the criteria above, and in
many cases was actually composed to help the player improve their
technique. There’s also plenty of left hand practice - left hand
melodies, etc - which jazz music tends not to have (jazz mostly plays
chord voicings in the left, so the left hand isn’t pushed as much as
with Classical music).
I know a lot of my jazz readers won’t want to work on Classical
music in general, and that’s fine - the main point is to look for music
that has strict tempo, some scales and arpeggios built into it, and
that’s slightly ahead of where you’re currently at.
The normal way to practice playing in time is to play to a
metronome - start SLOWLY, and gradually speed up. I’ll discuss this
more in a bit.

Key Point: If you choose the right pieces then you have all the
drills you need built into the piece itself. There’s scales, there’s
arpeggios, there’s tricky sections that you have to play repeatedly,
there’s dynamics, there’s note articulations, there’s pedal practice,
and so on. So by working on real pieces of music - like the chord
progressions in this book - you are improving your technique at the
same time.

What do I mean by ‘the right pieces’? Well in particular you should

look for pieces that are a little bit ahead of where you’re currently at
- something that will challenge you to improve at least one aspect to
your playing (but not too far ahead either).

I also think you should focus on music that has strict tempo meet with a piano teacher, at least once:
(rather than pieces with free tempo, where you can get away from Most of my online teaching is focused on music theory, and this
having to play strictly in time - which is one of the main things we works well in video form. However one thing I can’t monitor is your
have to get good at). technique, and that’s why I suggest that you meet with a piano

44
teacher in person - even if it’s just for one lesson this month. If you
don’t meet with a piano teacher then you could start ingraining bad
technique and habits without knowing it. Whereas a piano teacher
will be able to spot these things straightaway - so I recommend
getting an outside opinion from a piano teacher.
But with that said, I can also tell you some of the common issues I
see in students:
1. Hand Position: Your hands should never be lower than
your fingers. Sometimes I notice students hanging their hands off the
piano keyboard, with their wrist lower than their fingers. Having your
hands too low will make playing the piano harder (like when you
need to move your thumb under your fingers to play up a scale - you
won’t have enough room for your thumb). It’s also harder to play
strictly in time when your hands are so low - and it could even lead
to a repetitive strain injury. So make sure that your hands are higher
than your fingers - like this:
You might have to adjust your piano seat to make sure that your
hands are at the right height - your forearms should be parallel with
the floor, and your hands should be roughly 2 inches above the notes
on the keyboard, and your fingers should be lower than your hands.
45
2. Rhythm / timing: Another common performance tip I
have for students is to focus on playing strictly in time. It’s common
for students to speed up and slow down freely - which is fine for
some types of music - but only AFTER you’ve learned to play strictly
in time first. So I recommend practicing to a metronome (or a
backing track if you have one). Start by playing SLOWLY - repeat the
section many times - and then gradually speed up over time. No one
goes straight into playing perfectly in time just by practicing playing
fast - you have to learn to play in time slowly first, and then speed it
up gradually.
3. Record Yourself: This is a real pro tip - I suggest that
you record yourself and then listen to the recording (this includes
recording yourself playing to the metronome). This will allow you to
spot where you need to improve, because what sounds good while
you’re playing, doesn’t always sound good when you’re the listener.
When you’re the listener you’re not being distracted by all the things
you have to do when playing (pedaling, keeping time, moving hands,
what’s coming next, etc) - as the listener, all you’re doing is listening -
so you’ll be a much better judge of how you sound.
Don’t worry about the fancy microphone image - a phone recording is fine.
Listening to yourself ‘on tape’ will give you INSTANT FEEDBACK - possible). It’s common for professional players to either play a note
and you don’t even have to be a piano teacher to spot your own as sustained as possible, or as short as possible - and
mistakes. Just ask yourself ‘how do I want this to sound?’, as well as nothing in-between. In every piece, certain notes should be played
‘what’s stopping me from sounding like that?’ How is my timing? sustained (most of the notes), and certain notes should be played
How are my dynamics? How are my note articulations? Am I clearing staccato (usually around 5% of the notes). Only rarely will I play any
the pedal at the exact same time that I’m playing the next chord? - notes that are half-way between long and short. So it’s good advice
questions like these. to create maximum contrast between these two sounds - either play
a note extremely long, or extremely short. And again, you can listen
4. Perform a bit faster: It’s common for students to play out for this in your recordings.
pieces a bit on the slow side. Again, this probably has something to
do with being so absorbed in playing the piece that you don’t notice
it - but to an outside listener, the music often sounds a bit slow (it’s
rare for someone to play too fast, but playing too slow is common).
So double-check how fast the piece is supposed to be - either by
setting your metronome to the correct pace (normally stated in the
sheet music), or with the ‘Best Chords In The World’ progressions
you can listen to my recordings to hear my intended tempo (using a
free online metronome or app is fine).

5. More Dynamic Range: Another suggestion I often make

to students is to ‘increase the range in your dynamics’. This means
that you should make the loud sections louder, and the quiet
sections quieter - rather than everything being the same middle-
loudness throughout. Dynamics are essential to keep the music
sounding fresh, as well as to create emotion - you have to
crescendo (get louder) in the right places, and diminuendo (get
quieter) in the right places. And this is something to listen out for
when you record yourself.

6. Note Articulations: And lastly, one of the biggest

differences between professional piano players and amateurs, is that
professionals pay close attention to their note articulations - they
decide beforehand which notes are to be played sustained (as long
as possible), and which notes to be played staccato (as short as

46
tHank you for reading!
Thank you for reading this book and supporting my online jazz
teaching with your purchase. I really hope you enjoyed this book and
the progressions in it, and I hope that it gives you plenty of new
sophisticated sounds for all your future playing.

I would really appreciate hearing what you think of this book / the
chord progressions / videos, and I’d love if you could send me a quick
voicemail message here (using your computer’s microphone):

Click here to let me know what you think / leave a testimonial

Hearing from you lets me know how I’m doing and is the only way
for me to improve my written teaching material (since there’s no
‘thumbs up’ button for an ebook, so I rely entirely on your feedback).
Plus it would make my day to hear from you!

I’m Julian Bradley, thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing
you in a new video soon!

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 Other Productions from Jazz Tutorial:

Jazz theory Explained: Once & For All

My jazz piano ebook: 100 pages of step by step guidance on jazz piano harmony. Fill in all gaps to your knowledge of jazz, learn everything you
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.

• Includes links to my best YouTube videos - so that you

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with other instruments!
• Video Lessons:10 jazz tutorial videos with a Christmas theme (all downloadable) - covering harmony, voicings and licks.
• Performance Review videos: For the first time ever, watch me review 8 student piano performances - I’ll give tips on technique,
expressing emotion, metronome practice and more.
• Email coaching: You’ll also receive weekly email lessons from me leading up to Christmas - showing you how to learn new music
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 - BEST CHORDS IN THE WORLD -

guidebook
how to learn harmony & improve your technique quickly

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