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Four Note Jazz Chord Inversions.
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So far you've played your
jazz chords in root position.
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In other words,
you've played the root as the lowest note,
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then added the third, fifth and seventh.
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CM7, Dm7, Em7, FM7, root,
third, fifth, seventh.
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If you remember that you learned to play
inversions in the right hand, so you had
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the root chord, first, third, fifth,
and then you played a middle inversion.
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That's first, third, and the fifth below.
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Then we played the backwards inversion,
first, third,
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fifth in a backwards direction.
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You can do the same thing
with these left hand chords.
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Now, in popular style, you usually
need the root note at the bottom,
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to give the definite overall tone.
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But with jazz chords,
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the uncertain tonality of the inverted
chords adds to the jazz sound.
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So, let's look at C major seventh.
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You've been playing root,
third, fifth, seventh.
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But you can play these four notes
in three other combinations.
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To help you memorize them I'll again
use the words middle or backwards.
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So C major 7 root position is C, E, G, B.
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I'm gonna play it up here just so
you'll be able to see it more clearly.
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C, E, G, B.
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Call this 1, 3, 5, 7.
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[SOUND] Okay.
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[SOUND] Let's try C major
7 middle inversion.
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So play a middle C chord.
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[SOUND] All right.
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[SOUND] And then add the 7th.
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So there is the 7.
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[MUSIC]
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You can also call this five,
seven, one, three inversion.
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[SOUND] Now let's try a C major
seven backwards inversion.
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So play a backwards C chord.
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[SOUND] And add in the seventh.
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[SOUND] Okay.
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We can also call this a three
five seven one inversion.
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And a final inversion is seven
one three five inversion,
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where you play the seven
as the lowest note.
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So seven one three five.
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[MUSIC]
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Okay.
OK, seven, one, three, five.
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Sounds very muddy if you go too low,
so that's why I'm playing it up here.
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[MUSIC]
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Mostly we'll be playing either
root position [SOUND] or
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the middle inversion, okay,
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the five, seven five, seven, one, three.
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[SOUND] Now on the next page
is The Caterpillar Jazz Walk.
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We're going to make use of these
inversions to play a very common cycle of
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fifths progression that's used in
countless jazz songs and standards.
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So it's back to the cycle of fifths
that we've used many times now.
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So.
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[MUSIC]
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C, F Major 7, B diminished 7,
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E minor 7, A minor 7, D minor 7,
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G7, back to C major seven.
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Remember the sequence B E A D,
use the word bead.
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And then a D G C F so
C F B E A D G C F B E A D G C F.
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C F major seven, A diminished,
E minor, A minor, D minor, G, C.
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Now you can see that
that jumps about a lot.
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And it's a bit discordant,
the way I'm playing it there.
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So we're going to use inversions to make
it all fit together much more smoothly.
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So let's begin with the C major seventh
middle inversion, up at middle C.
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Okay.
So you find C middle,
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add the seventh, okay?
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So that's C major seven,
middle inversion with the left hand.
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Five, seven, one, three.
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[SOUND] Now in the cycle,
the next chord in the cycle after C is F.
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Okay, B, E, A, D, G, C, F, F Major 7.
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So, here is where
the caterpillar check comes in.
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If you're playing C major 7 middle, and
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you simply drop the bottom
two notes down one note each,
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you'll find you're magically
on the chord of F major 7.
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[SOUND] The next chord in the cycle okay,
B E A D G C F B.
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So it's B diminished.
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This is technically B half diminished
seven but don't worry about that for now.
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And if use the caterpillar trick,
we this time drop the top two notes down.
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One note each to the left, and
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we're magically on the chord of B
half diminished 7 middle Inversion.
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[SOUND] So there's B, drop those two down.
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[MUSIC]
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B diminished middle, add a 7.
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Okay?
We started on CM7 middle,
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we drop the bottom two notes down,
and we got FM7 root position.
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Then we drop the top two notes down,
and we got Bdim7 middle inversion.
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[SOUND] And if we drop the bottom two
notes of the B diminished we end up with
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the next chord in the cycle.
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E minor 7 root position.
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[MUSIC]
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So can you see why I call
it the caterpillar walk?
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[SOUND] Caterpillar walk's by
squashing up and extending out again.
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Squashing up, standing out again,
squishing up.
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So that's what we've been doing.
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[MUSIC]
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After Em7 root position,
we again drop the top two notes down.
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We get Am7 Middle inversion.
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Then we drop the bottom two notes again,
and we get the next chord in the cycle.
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D minor seven.
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[MUSIC]
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Drop the top two notes again.
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We've got G7 Middle inversion.
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G7 middle 7.
And finally,
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drop the bottom two notes down.
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We're back
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[MUSIC]
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C major seven.
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Look at it in motion C major 7, F major 7,
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B half diminished 7, E minor 7, A minor 7,
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D minor 7, G7, C Major 7,
just like a caterpillar.
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[MUSIC]
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And that's a very,
very popular progression in jazz.