From our free, Jazz Guitar Lessons Daily Series: Lesson 48
Wednesday - ii V Is and Tunes
3/17/21
This week we’ve been talking about the maj7 ‘arpeggio’ - or as we would say in melodic triads, a major triad + tension 7. In yesterday’s lesson we practiced the (G)/7 quadratonic both with the tension 7 resolving up to the G root note - creating the pure major sound, as well as reversing the roles and letting the G root note resolve down into the tension 7 - creating the major 7 sound.
Same notes. Very different emotions.
Pure major gives that classic, traditional, bright and happy sound that we expect when we think about a major chord or a major scale. Major 7 is not bright or happy at all. It’s actually tugs on the heart strings and can even seem rather sad and remorseful.
Often times in the real book, the changes will say Maj7 when the melody doesn’t really support that sound. In those instances the harmony should really read some like a 6 chord. However, in the famous jazz standard, Misty, we see a perfect example of a classic, authentic use of the major 7 sound. When the pick up notes resolve us into measure one, the melody drops down to a D note - the major 7th - over the EbMaj7 chord. This is the classic clue that we’re dealing with a legitimate major 7 chord and not a pure major or an Eb6 chord.
In today’s lesson we are going to see that tiny, subtle moment as a miniature etude and learn something from it. It’s showing us how to effectively squeeze as much emotion as possible out of a Maj7 chord melodically, without running chord tones and arpeggiating it. And what it’s showing us is the same thing we discussed in yesterday’s lesson… that the major 7th of a Maj7 chord is actually a more stable resolution note than the chord’s root note.
Check out the short etude I wrote to simplify this, help you hear it, and see how it fits over the first few chords from Misty’s chord progression - from the EbMaj7 chord up through the AbMaj7 chord. The idea is that over the EbMaj7...
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