Jazz Guitar Lessons : Blog - Jazz Guitar Lessons

Most traditional harmony is taught through tertian harmony — the construction of chords by stacking thirds. Major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads all emerge from this principle. This exercise proposes a different viewpoint: instead of building chords upward in thirds, we construct them through stacked diatonic sixths. At first glance, the resulting structures seem ...

Music is built from patterns, and one of the most fascinating kinds of patterns is symmetry. A symmetrical scale is a scale whose notes follow a repeating and balanced interval structure. Unlike major and minor scales, symmetrical scales often sound mysterious, dreamy, tense, or futuristic because they do not strongly point to one “home” note. In this lesson, we will explo...

The Dorian mode is one of the most widely used scales in jazz, blues, funk, and rock guitar. Its minor sound combined with a major 6th gives it a smooth and melodic character that works perfectly over minor chords. In this lesson, you’ll learn how the Dorian mode is built and how to use it in your solos.