Solving Jazz Chords with Four Shapes

Ever look at a jazz chord chart and feel like you’re trying to solve an algebra equation instead of playing music?

Watch this weeks' free lesson and download free PDF here

In this lesson, we break down jazz harmony into a simple, 4-step framework. You don’t need a massive chord dictionary or thousands of complicated fingerings—by learning how to manipulate individual voices within just four movable chord shapes, you can build virtually any jazz chord across the fretboard from scratch.

Using the standard ’Tis Autumn (If you're unfamiliar with the song you can learn the basics in this lesson from a couple weeks ago) as our roadmap, we’ll strip away complex extensions, map movable roots, modify qualities (major, minor, dominant), and finally reintroduce colorful alterations (9ths, 11ths, 13ths) so you can make your own musical choices on the ukulele.

This month on the Magic Ukulele Club we've been doing a deep dive into this tune in a series of seven lessons learning the Nat King Cole rendition of this fabulous song. Next month we're going to go back to the early days of jazz and lear Tea for Two. Join us to put all these chord skills to use.