Jazz Scales And Chords - An Introduction To Chord/Scale Relationships

Let’s face it. Jazz guitar can be pretty damn daunting and confusing if you’re new to it. I know when I first started playing jazz I felt totally overwhelmed. There seemed to be millions of guitar scales that I needed to learn. And I was very confused about what scales to use over what chords. Maybe you can relate to this.

So what’s the answer? How can you stop this feeling of overwhelm? The answer is simply this…

Focus!

That is exactly what we’ll do in this guitar lesson. We’ll take a look at three extremely common chords in jazz guitar, and then look at what scales to play over each chord. We’ll then look at a few chord progressions that use those common chords. This will help tie together everything you learn in a very practical way.

Please check out the table below…

I know it probably looks a bit scary, so let’s explain what it means…

The Jazz Chords: A Very Quick Overview

In the left-hand column of the table I have written down three incredibly common jazz chords…

• Major Seventh
• Dominant Seventh
• Minor Seventh

It is vital that you know at least a few ways of playing each of these three types of chords. If you don’t yet know them, please go out and get a chord book today. Yup…they are THAT important.

Notice that underneath each chord name I have written its musical spelling. These spellings tell you how to construct the chord from the major scale. If you don’t know the major scale, and you don’t understand the musical spelling stuff, then I recommend signing up for this free guitar scale mini-course.

The Jazz Scales: A Very Quick Overview

In the right-hand column of the table I have written three useful scales that work over each chord. There are MANY jazz guitar scales that you could use over each chord, but remember what we said earlier?

Focus!

We’re not going to worry about all the possiblities. Let’s just focus on a few scales for each chord…

So to break it down…

• Over Major Seventh chords you can use…
  • The Major Scale
  • The Major Pentatonic Scale
  • The Lydian Mode
•  Over Dominant Seventh chords you can use…
  • The Mixolydian Mode
  • The Major Pentatonic Scale
  • The Lydian Dominant Scale
•  Over Minor Seventh Chords you can use…
  • The Dorian Mode
  • The Minor Pentatonic Scale
  • The Minor Blues Scale 

Of the scales above, the three you should learn first for jazz guitar are…

• The Major Scale (works over Major Seventh chords)
• The Mixolydian Mode (works over Dominant Seventh chords)
• The Dorian Mode (works over Minor Seventh chords)

Putting It Into Practice: Using The Scales Over A Jazz Chord Progression

Please take a look at the chords progression below…

This is a ridicuously common chord progression in jazz. (Jazz geeks would call it a major II-V-I progression in the key of C). So what scales would we use over each chord?

If we refer to the table at the beginning of this guitar lesson…

• Over the Dmin7 chord you could use one of the following scales…
  • D Dorian Mode
  • D Minor Pentatonic Scale
  • D Minor Blues Scale
• Over the Gdom7 chord you could use…
  • G Mixolydian Mode
  • G Major Pentatonic Scale
  • G Lydian Mode
• Over the Cmaj7 chord you could use…
  • C Major Scale
  • C Major Pentatonic Scale
  • C Lydian Mode

I highly recommend that you learn the D Dorian Mode, G Mixolydian Mode and C Major scale first. Once you’ve mastered these three, then you may want to start learning the other scales. Keep in mind that you should ideally learn each scale over the entire fretboard. So be prepared for some serious practice.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now it’s time for some homework.

Below are two more jazz chord progressions. For each one, please write down what jazz guitar scales you could use over each chord. Use the table at the beginning of this lesson to help you.

Jazz Chord Progression 1: Major II-V-I progression in the key of F

Jazz Chord Progression 2: Major II-V-I progression in the key of G

Phew…we’ve covered a LOT. I hope you enjoyed this guitar lesson! To get maximum results I recommend recording the chord progressions and then practice soloing over them. There’s no point knowing theory if you can’t put it into practice.

Work hard at this stuff, and I’ll see you next time!

If you would like some help in internalizing guitar scales for jazz, then please check out the Guitar Scale Mastery membership website. I reveal my step-by-step approach to memorizing and mastering guitar scales. It’s definitely not for lazy bums, but if you’re prepared to practice hard I think you could find it very helpful.