In 2-5-1's, remember, the first time we did it we had a minor to a dominant seventh and a 1. We did it in Bb major. We had Bb, D, Eb, and G. For the C minor, we went up to the F. We had A, D, Eb, and G. Remember, we just did #9's, that voicing also works a fifth below. It needs to be flatted, so you are going to make that fifth smaller. That's the fifth and that makes it smaller to bring the note towards the F. That's the tritone below. Again, there is the C minor 7 to the F. I move down to the B just to remind you that this same voicing works, and then we went to Bb major 7, A, C, D and F.
Now, I want to go over a scale that works over the minor 7 first. Then will go over the dominant seventh and then we will go over the major seventh. For the minor seven, you can always go take the seventh or you can go a whole step down, which means, find the Bb and you can play the major scale. Now, we kind of know it works because this 2-5 takes you into Bb.
But that's not always the case; you might see a c minor 7 for 2 bars. You might then want to play an F dominant seventh for 2 bars. Without having that Bb major 7 to tell you, we'll play Bb; it's going to work all the way through. You've got to know that for a C minor 7, go ahead and go down to that seventh and play a major scale. The major scale for this key would be Bb, C, D, Eb, let's cross under to the F, G, A and Bb.
Let's go ahead and use some jazz eighth notes. We haven't heard the rhythm section in a while here. We are going to swing those eighth notes. Remember, 1, a 2, a 3, a 4, a 2, a 3, 4, a 1, 2 and here we go, and 1, a 2, a 3, a 4, a 1, 2, 3, a 4. Let's try one more time; 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, a 3, 4. Let's try it without the rhythm section. This is really how it will sound though when you start soloing because you will be swinging your eighth notes. I want to change my C minor voicing to the 3, 5, 7, 9 or to Ab, G, Bb, and D, from early on in the DVD here.
One good thing about learning these things as you don't need to play them all. In tempo you can play them out of tempo, until you want to play something in tempo, and really just work on understanding the notes here. Again, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A, and Bb. Remember, all notes in any major scale are related the same way. If you have trouble, always go to C.
From C to C is a C major scale. You can take a look and see how all of those notes are related and put it into another key. If you see F minor 7 and you go, "James didn't cover F minor 7," remember, you can always go a whole step down to the seventh to play a major scale off of that. Here is a 3, 5, 7, 9 chord or the minor chord for a minor 7 in F. I said go down a whole step to the Eb and play a major scale. If you can't get that major scale, start from C, figure it out. We know we have got a whole step, a whole step, a half step, a whole step, a whole step, a whole step and then a half step.
That's just to show you, you can absolutely do this stuff in other keys and go ahead and choose some. Let's go ahead and do it one more time in C minor. This is the last time I am going to say, if you have a minor seven chord, go a whole step down and play a major scale; either voicing or whatever you want, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A, Bb.
Guys, great job on this. I hope you are having fun. This is really a time of discovery for you. I really enjoy teaching this part of things. This was very fun for me and I am really happy to share these tips with you. If I had something like this, it really would have cut down on my time learning all these voicings, the scales that go over the top, the upper structure and then some of the altered chords. They have diminished chord and the #9 chord.
Now, this isn't supposed to come to you, necessarily as usually, as doing something is just a 3-7 voicing over the blues. If you have seen the beginner video on the Jazz series, this does take practice. So, you will have to do a little bit of this on your own. However, this DVD is really going to go ahead and cut your time down. Don't be afraid to go back and review some of these voicings.
If you see something on another key and you are having trouble, go back, take a look, move it around. Also, remember, if you have got one voicing for a dominant seventh, you have got them all. You can go ahead and move him around in half steps, until you get them in your hand well and in your muscle memory. Pretty soon, believe it or not, these things are going to become automatic.H447
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