Mastering Jazz Guitar Voicings

You already know plenty of chords. The problem is that they're a list. Each one is a separate shape, and between one and the next your hand jumps around the neck. This book doesn't give you more shapes: it turns the ones you have into a system.

Mastering Jazz Guitar Voicings is an 8-week program, 20 minutes a day, that turns jazz guitar voicings into muscle memory and meaningful comping across the whole fretboard. The core idea fits in one line: one shape, three one-fret rules. From maj7 to 7, lower the seventh; from 7 to m7, lower the third; from m7 to m7b5, lower the fifth. And when the bass drops a fifth, the next chord is in the same area.

The four phases

• The skeleton: shells and guide tones. The 48 chords of the cycle in under two minutes and a whole blues in two voices.
• Four voices: rootless voicings (shapes A and B) and drop 2. The ii-V-I in all 12 keys without leaving a five-fret area.
• The whole neck: drop 2 with the top note chosen, anticipation and drop 3. A melody in the top voice and the same ii-V-I in three registers.
• Modern color: upper structures, fourth voicings and a whole standard comped with a voicing plan.

What's inside

• A fixed four-block daily routine: shape map, change drill, harmonic circuit and creative constraint.
• A Trial by Fire every week, with a clear pass criterion: you don't move on until you pass it.
• 70 backing tracks with double bass and drums, no piano on purpose: you supply the harmony. Accessed by QR code, with every practice track in three tempos.
• Chord diagrams showing the function of every note, standard notation and tablature.
• Appendices: master table chord type × family, the shapes on C, the three one-fret rules family by family, a bank of drills and constraints, an 8-week log and the eight Trials by Fire.

For guitarists who already play some jazz chords and want to comp a standard without their hand jumping around the neck. The theory is in Jazz Guitar Comping, by the same author, cited section by section wherever each week needs it; here, it gets trained.

Stop memorizing chords. Start connecting them.