JA-025 • Altered Harmony – Why and How (Jazz Guitar Lesson)
This lesson clarifies altered harmony and why and how we alter 7th chords. It’s a theory lesson and might just do your head in! 
Taught by Justin Sandercoe. Full support at the web site where you will find hundreds of lessons on a wide range of subjects, and all the scales and chords that you will ever need! There is a fantastic forum too to get help, no matter what the problem. And it is all really free, no bull. No sample lessons, no memberships. Just tons of fantastic lessons To get help with your lesson or song look up the number at the start of the video title (like ST-123 or whatever) on the Lesson Index page. www.justinguitar.com .
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Tagged with: Altered • Guitar • Harmony • JA025 • jazz • Lesson
Filed under: Jazz Guitar
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A flat… Melodic Minor……. (so austin powers)
what does he mean by “functioning”?
that made a lot of sense to me, fantastic for 251s, your doing a excellent deed to guitar players everywhere by really explaining how it works thoroughly. I had the altered scale down but i was having distress making chord progs to go with it. (But duh 251) had the same distress when i learned dorian, then i noticed D dorian shares the notes of Cmaj and then i thought 251 oh duh
I like how these thoughts make writing more systematic to me. Since I just learned what exact notes to alter, it makes experimenting and composing so much simpler.
thank you very much for this lesson . it’s simple to know with you. With a small demo how to use this scale on guitar was better.
fantastic lesson! really helps me learning the altered mode!!
YOU ROCK!!
You are a wonderful teacher, all the pieces are there! I’ve been using these chords for some time but always struggled with the theory. your perspective on this topic is simple to follow and immediately useful. 5 stars!
Typo on your site:
“The Altered Scale is the 7th mode of the melodic !!monir!! scale.”
Fantastic stuff here Justin
, I’ve just recently learned your videos, but I already learned things in small time.
Got a question, being a rock based player as much as I like jazz in all forms my final goal is to get into rock fusion (gambale, greg howe, govan) type of playing. I know these players are solid in their music theory too. What are the key differences to focus into? and will you ever go into covering fusion? fusion comping or lines. I found that fusion lessons are rare.
yeah, I was thinking of doing exactly that.
Hey spoddie, could you clarify what you mean in a video? I’m not following you. Thanks.
madeinph, I’m half way though my second music degree, a masters this time.
How many do you have?
wow… you are anwsering to comments… thats really awesome…
you can say that im huge fan of your’s and your music
i wanna thank you for your lessons… they are just perfect. i’ve been playing guitar a small over year and im doing some super progress(thanks to your lessons) so yeah… hopfully ill be doing my own music soon. thank you a lot.
get a degree in music first before making a stupid statement
I really don’t like this thought of playing scales with just a metronome, I don’t reckon it’s an appropriate approach to teaching this stuff.
Sorry, I’m making technical mistakes, I meant Fmaj7 but I was incorrect anyway. This all is simple when I’m sitting at a piano! and Youtube is not really a excellent way to discuss anything.
If you play a chord progression Dm Em G you make a Dorian sound, using a C major scale over that will enhance the Dorian sound,if you do it correctly of course. My context is the entire song, not just chords or scales. To my ears playing a scale without proper harmony support you’re not really playing Dorian mode.
Maybe not Wes, I’m not sure, not read enough… but most of the jazz cats know their theory REALLY well – many of the greatest, like Miles Davis, were Julliard grads!
I know fantastic jazz players who know theory, and fantastic players that don’t. Either transcribe your ass off or learn theory. Or even better… do both!
Wouldnt it be Lydian if you play C major over F7??
Yeah it would be Dorian over Dmin7, but usually you want to end your melody on strong notes like the root or fifth of the chord so there is no tension. Harmony and Melody need each other you couldnt play B Locrian over Dmin7 cause the B is an unstable note for the Dmin7 chord.
I reckon it is just a miissunderstanding we both mean basically the same ( at least i hope so ^^)
I was relating the Dorian to the major, hence ignoring the major 6th. You’re right, comparing it to the minor is right.
But my point is harmony. If you play the C major scale over the chords Dmin7 and F7 or just a bass, you’ve got Dorian mode.
Yeah youre right it is the characteristics intervalls that make it sound modal but if you dont play the root it has no point to relate to. In Dorian it wouldnt be the flat 3rd and the flat 7th cause this would be the same as Aolian. In Dorian it would be 3rd and major 6th otherwise it would sound aolian.
the flat 3rd relates to the root and so does the major 6th so it is vital to play the root,flat 3rd and major 6th to get Dorian feeling.
You’re not expessing yourself very well, I can’t work out what you mean.
You don’t have to play the root note to make the mode, in fact you can omit it completely. Modern music is based on harmony and it’s the characteristic notes that make it sound modal, eg in Dorian the flat 3rd and flat 7th, otherwise you’re playing music from the 10th century – which is really what a lot of bedroom guitarists do.
was wes montgomery thinking of all these theory things when he played? i dont reckon so.
I never said that i wanted a Locrian sound, i just said the mode is vital, it has to macht the chords, it would sound awfull if you would play B Lociran over a C Major Chord of course.
Why would you be playing a C major chord if you wanted a Locrian mode sound? Playing the Ionian root chord ie C major in this case, destroys the modal sound – you would have to play something like Csus4 or better just avoid C.
Not for a piano player. When you get more than 5 sharps or flats then you get those weird notes but they really word quite well, probably because scale practice is so thoroughly drilled into piano students. Cb is introduced in Gb (6flats).