I recently ran a poll on the home page of this site, asking readers if they would be interested in learning how to arrange for small groups and big bands. The response was an overwhelming “YES”, so I thought I would look into some tools that would allow me to make some videos and help you guys learn some jazz arranging and composition skills – using bite sized informational videos that I can make right at my desktop.

While in high school, I was fortunate enough to take 2 years of music theory, with my senior year being an independent study class where I basically worked out of a college theory book. I then ended up getting a college degree in music theory too. No big deal there, except for the fact that I often forget how many things there are to learn BEFORE you can actually sit down to write a chart. A good knowledge of music theory, and especially jazz theory is essential before attempting to write voicings, reharmonize tunes, etc.

Below is a simple video that will help you learn your major and minor chords. I used this technique all the time to teach my piano students how to quickly learn major and minor chords (in all keys) and it always worked like a charm. It is simple and just takes a few minutes.

Obviously, this video is for people who are just starting out with this stuff, but I wanted to start simple and experiment a little with the “white board” you will see in the video. I also have a little keyboard hooked up that runs into my computer to produce the sounds.

If you are a total newbie at harmony and music theory, this video should help you learn what is really the most basic foundation for jazz harmony – major and minor chords.

If you have any questions, please leave them by making a comment below. I’m working on making a bunch of these short videos that will cover from simple to complex jazz theory.

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