[edhotmail]

Chord keys came up in a guitar class I was in for about two weeks, but I dropped it because of work. But before I left, the professor gave me a paper with the title chord keys. They were:

The Harmonized C chord scale:
Cmaj7 Dm7 Em7 Fmaj7 G7 Am7 Bm7b5(half diminished) then the octave Cmaj7

The Harmonized F chord scale:
Fmaj7 Gm7 Am7 Bbmaj7 C7 Dm7 Em7b5(half diminished) then the octave Fmaj7

Are there are any other types of chord scales?

Which how do I use them for Jazz improvisation? (I'm a noob of 3 years)

I was wondering if a certain chords work best with a certain type of scale.

Which scale is right for each part of a progression?

ex.)

Autumn Leaves (in Bb?)
Cm7 F7 Bbmaj7 Ebmaj7 Am7b5 A7b9 Gm7 (2x)

Am7b5 D7b9 Gm7 (1x)

Cm7 F7 Bbmaj7 Ebmaj Am7b5 D7b9 Gm7 C7 Fm7 Bb7 Ebmaj7 Am7b5 D7b9 Gm7

lol I found a whole bunch of Jazz Standards at Jazz Chord Charts - Real Book its the Real Book online! FREE!
anyways...
This might seem like much to most beginners, but to me this particular Jazz standard is always the same and boring sometimes.

Is there any particular scale to improvise as I play this?
Which scale for which chord? (is that possible)

I would like to thank anyone who could shed some light on my questions.

Thank You!! I'm new to this community, this is great!!

[Fretsource]

Yes there are more than just those two. There's one for every major and minor key. They all follow the same system, (chords built from successive thirds of the major or minor scales) so if you know one, you can know them all.

How to use them in Jazz improvisation, I'll leave to some of our impressively knowledgeable jazzers here.

As for scales, don't go changing scales on every chord. Focus on the chord tones of the current chord and use them as anchor points that you know will always sound good. If you don't know how to find the chord tones, then I would recommend you learn that before bothering with scales (other than the major scale, which you need to know in order to know the chord tones. The minor scales should be understood too).

[Kirk Lorange]

Hi edhotmail ... have a look at the CAGED lesson I posted here a while back. What it shows are all the chord tones for C major. If you were to improvise over a plain old C major chord, all those notes would be the strongest to use as the main melody notes of your improvisation. That's not to say that you would stick exclusively to them (unless you wanted to) but they're the strongest.

The principle I have just described is how most jazz players approach melody. So it's not scales so much as chord tones that they use to create their melodic phrase. In the case of C, you're playing around with just 3 (1-3-5); if the chord were C9th, however, you'd have 5 to play around with (1-3-5-b7-9), so you can see that jazz, which uses a lot of extended chords, is a rich source of chord tones, since each chord in the progression presents a new array of possibilities.

Have a look at two lessons of mine:

The Power of Chord Tones
The Power of Chord Tones 2

You should see and hear in these that this approach works. Of course, since chords come from scales, you could first learn all the scales/modes, figure out which belong with which chords, eliminate the non-chord tones mentally from the patterns and have the same batches of notes to choose from, but why waste all that mental energy? Since you need to know the chords anyway, why not just leave it at that? You'll learn all those scales and modes by default via the chords.

The trick is being able to see chords as fretboard-long arrays of notes. As daunting as that may sound, it's not that hard to do. You just need to know how to look at the fretboard.

[Black&Blue]

So Kirk,are you saying that you just regard the tune as a string of chords, and don't even think about the home key or modulations or any of that stuff? I think if I was not thinking of those sort of landmarks I would get lost.

[Kirk Lorange]

Hi B&B.

No, I'm acutely aware of the key and which chords are which (as in I ii iii IV etc) ... that gives me the information I need to add other tones (as passing tones) but that really becomes something you just hear after a while.

So I'm thinking about a few things, but never scales or modes.

[starsailor]

Originally Posted by Kirk Lorange

Hi B&B.

No, I'm acutely aware of the key and which chords are which (as in I ii iii IV etc) ... that gives me the information I need to add other tones (as passing tones) but that really becomes something you just hear after a while.

So I'm thinking about a few things, but never scales or
modes.

Thanks for the links to the lessons Kirk and the clarity of the teaching.

I don't really want to get too deep into theory and I have spent part of my practice time just focusing on Chords and I am learning to understand the tones, once I broke out of the first and second fret syndrome, the possibilities seemed endless, If I carry on as I am, will I able to become a reasonable standard of guitar player without delving too deep into Scales and modes?

Best Wishes

Chris

[knight46]

Excellent question Starsailor, I have been wondering the same thing. Not sure how deep to get into theory.

[Kirk Lorange]

As I say, starsailor ... I know nothing of modes or scales other than what they are. It was only recently that I learned about all the Greek names. I never think of them or practice them or use them. The only time they come to mind is answering questions like these on forums. I've been what I consider to be a reasonable standard of player for quite a while now, enough so that I've earned my living from it for the last 35 years or so.

Knowing chords, how they stretch from one end of the fretboard to the other, having a good ear (and trusting it) and experimenting with it all are the main ingredients to my mind.

[Stratrat]

What Kirk is too modest to mention is that PlaneTalk does an excellent job of teaching these concepts in an extremely easy to understand manner.

[starsailor]

Originally Posted by Kirk Lorange

As I say, starsailor ... I know nothing of modes or scales other than what they are. It was only recently that I learned about all the Greek names. I never think of them or practice them or use them. The only time they come to mind is answering questions like these on forums. I've been what I consider to be a reasonable standard of player for quite a while now, enough so that I've earned my living from it for the last 35 years or so.

Knowing chords, how they stretch from one end of the fretboard to the other, having a good ear (and trusting it) and experimenting with it all are the main ingredients to my mind.

Thanks for your reply Kirk, sorry I made you repeat yourself a bit, I like those sentiments and admire your Modesty, thanks for giving us all the chance to share your considerable knowledge

[Kirk Lorange]

That's what I'm here for, starsailor, and thanks Stratrat. I'm always a little reluctant to blow my trumpet too loudly, but yes, I did take quite a long time coming up with the PlaneTalk way of explaining it all and showing how it relates to the fretboard. It's a great investment.