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Exercise
— switch — The Cycle Shells with Color Rootless Voicings Bud Powell Left Hand The Turnaround Tritone Substitution Reharm the V Diatonic Sevenths Secondary Turnaround Minor ii–V–i Minor ii-V-i with ♭9 Minor Turnaround Diatonic 7ths in Minor Backdoor Progression Twelve-Bar Blues Minor Blues Bird Blues Blues Stride LH Blues Walking Bass Rhythm Changes Boogie Blues Shuffle Rhythm Changes Bridge Blues Rootless (Evans) Coltrane Changes Blues Pedal Point Standard Intro Blues Block Chords Two-Handed Comping Blues Freddie Green Charleston Comping Bebop Blues Comp Freddie Green Comping Blues Guide Tones Walking Bass Charleston Blues Tritone-Sub Walking Bass Bud Powell Blues Drop Two Two-Handed Modern Blues Stride Bass Stride with Melody Quartal Voicings Upper Structure Triads Hybrid Voicings Kenny Barron Voicing Sus Chord Vamp The Mu Chord Maiden Voyage Chord 4-Way Close Pedal Point Lydian Vamp Phrygian Vamp Bossa Nova Guide Tones Bebop Scale Dominant Bebop Dorian Bebop Bebop Minor The Enclosure ii-V-I Lick Pentatonic Patterns Plain Locrian Melodic Minor Dorian ♭2 Lydian Augmented Lydian Dominant Mixolydian ♭6 Locrian ♮2 Altered Scale Harmonic Minor Phrygian Dominant Half-Whole Diminished Whole-Tone Scale Minor Blues Major Blues Aeolian (Natural Minor) Dorian Mode Ionian (Major) Lydian Mode Minor Pentatonic Mixolydian Mode Phrygian Mode Whole-Half Diminished
(MED. SWING ♩=80 )
8
Jazz Piano · Scale Harmonisation
Diatonic Sevenths
All seven 7-chord qualities of the major scale, every key
Play exercise
Stack thirds on every degree of the major scale and you get
seven 7-chords: maj7, m7, m7, maj7, 7, m7, m7♭5 .
Those qualities are fixed; they're built into the scale. Knowing
them in every key is how you stop sight-reading and start hearing
function.
Each chord here is a full root-position seventh chord
— root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th — climbing the scale one diatonic step
at a time. The seventh sits on top of every chord, so you can see
and hear exactly what makes each one a seventh (and how the vii⁷♭5's
flat 5 sets it apart from the vi⁷).
Quality pattern Imaj · ii · iii · IVmaj · V⁷ · vi · vii∅
Voicing Full root-position 7th chord (1-3-5-7), stepwise up the scale.
Jump to
C F B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B E A D G
A
m
7
G
7
3
2
1
O
O
O
2
1
X
O
O
O
B
ø
X
X
17fr
D
m
7
2
1
1
X
X
O
3
2
1
X
X
O
C
3
2
X
O
O
O
F
E
m
7
2
O
O
O
O
O
D
m
7
C
7
3
2
4
1
O
O
2
1
1
X
X
O
E
ø
X
X
10fr
G
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
3fr
F
3
2
1
X
X
O
1
3
2
4
X
X
B
2
1
X
O
O
O
A
m
7
F
7
1
3
1
2
1
1
G
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
3fr
X
X
15fr
A
ø
1
3
1
2
1
X
3fr
C
m
7
1
3
2
4
X
X
B
E
2
1
1
X
X
O
1
2
3
4
X
X
D
m
7
C
m
7
1
2
1
3
1
X
B
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
3fr
X
X
8fr
D
ø
1
3
1
1
1
1
F
m
7
1
2
3
4
X
X
E
A
1
1
1
3
X
X
1
3
1
1
1
1
3fr
G
m
7
F
m
7
1
3
2
4
X
X
E
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
X
X
13fr
G
ø
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
1
1
1
3
X
X
A
D
4
3
1
1
1
X
1
3
1
2
1
X
3fr
C
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
1
3
1
2
1
1
4fr
A
7
B
m
7
X
X
18fr
C
ø
E
m
7
1
2
3
4
X
X
4
3
1
1
1
X
D
4
3
2
1
X
X
G
1
3
1
1
1
1
F
m
7
1
2
3
4
X
X
2
3
1
4
X
X
D
7
E
m
7
X
X
11fr
F
ø
A
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
4fr
4
3
2
1
X
X
G
X
X
6fr
C
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
4fr
1
3
1
2
1
1
F
7
G
m
7
X
X
16fr
A
ø
4
2
1
X
O
O
C
m
7
1
3
2
4
X
X
B
E
3
1
2
O
O
X
1
2
3
4
X
X
D
m
7
4
2
1
X
O
O
2
1
3
4
X
O
B
7
C
m
7
X
X
9fr
D
ø
1
3
1
1
1
1
F
m
7
3
1
2
O
O
X
E
A
2
1
3
X
O
O
1
3
1
1
1
1
4fr
G
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
2
1
O
O
O
O
E
7
F
m
7
X
X
14fr
G
ø
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
2
1
3
X
O
O
A
D
1
2
3
X
X
O
4
2
1
X
O
O
C
m
7
A
7
1
3
X
O
O
O
B
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
X
X
7fr
C
ø
2
O
O
O
O
O
E
m
7
1
2
3
X
X
O
D
G
F
m
7
4
3
2
1
X
X
2fr
1
3
1
1
1
1
E
m
7
D
7
2
1
3
X
X
O
2
O
O
O
O
O
F
ø
X
X
12fr
A
m
7
2
1
X
O
O
O
3
2
X
O
O
O
G
4
3
2
1
X
X
2fr
C
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
The Daily Drill
Know the qualities
4 min Pick one key and say each chord quality out loud as you play it: "major seven, minor seven, minor seven, major seven, seven, minor seven, half-dim." The pattern is the same in every major key — that's the point. 8 min Cycle four keys at a time, ♩ = 60. Don't sprint. 4 min Play the ii⁷, V⁷, Imaj7 from the diatonic series in succession — that's the ii–V–I you already know, just framed as "chords 2, 5, 1 of the scale." 4 min Reverse direction: play the chords descending (vii⁰ down to I). Same shape moving down by step. The seventh is the character note In a triad the 5th adds little colour; in a seventh chord the 7th is what gives the chord its jazz identity — major-7 vs dominant-7 vs minor-7 all hinge on that top note. Playing the full root-position chords (rather than a two-note shell) puts the seventh in plain view on every degree, and makes the vi⁷ (m7) versus vii⁷♭5 distinction audible: they share the same 3rd and 7th, but the vii chord's flatted 5th — now present in the voicing — is what turns it half-diminished.
Seven chords, one shape, twelve keys. The whole scale, on the keyboard, in your hands.