The 7 Levels of Jazz Harmony
4,650,969
Published 2019-08-30
There are 7 levels of Jazz Harmony, and we'll explore each of them through reharmonizing the chorus of one of my favorite tunes from 2019 - Lizzo's Juice. Thanks to Jae Soto for singing!
OUTRO TRACK (Dilla Beat + Intonalist Harmony)
adamneelymusic.bandcamp.com/track/it-aint-my-fault
Level 1 - "Bell Pepper" - II-V’s and other basic tonal movements
Level 2 - "Poblano Pepper" - Sub V’s and other stuff
Level 3 - "Jalepeño Pepper" - Crazy chromatic extensions
Level 4 - "Piri Piri Pepper"- Constant Structures and Pedal Point
Level 5 - "Habenero Pepper"- Free non-functional harmony
Level 6 - "Ghost Pepper"- Liberated Dissonance
Level 7 - "???" - Xenharmony
These 7 levels aren't meant to be exhaustive in terms of the harmonic techniques of jazz musicians - there really are way too many to get into for a single YouTube video - but they can be useful as a general guide to the FEELING of different kinds of harmonic ideas. As an added bonus, they're roughly in chronological order in terms of when each level occurred on the timeline of jazz history, although no single musician was ever working so formally.
Jae Soto (singer)
youtube.com/jaesotomusic
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All Comments (21)
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Which is your level of preferred spice? Can you handle level 6 ghost pepper?
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you know your playin hardcore jazz when the chords look like wifi passwords
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So what youre telling me is that LoFi hiphop is the highest level of jazz we can ever achieve?
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My 12 year old self randomly stacking notes in finale was really just liberated dissonance.
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*bangs head on piano* there we have some level 6 jazz
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the scooby gang remove the mask of 7th level of jazz harmony : "it was lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to all along !"
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Non jazz musicians: That shit sounds horrible Jazz musicians: now we’re gettin spicy
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I love level 6 purely because of how ANGRY the chords sound, the fact that Adam describes these intervals as "At War" is fantastic.
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"Level 2 is where i stop thank you. After that it starts to just become dissonant noise instead of pleasing harmonies." - from the classical pianist
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Me:*headbutts piano* Adam: "level 8 jazz right there"
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I can believe Adam Neely made this whole video just to make lofi hip hop
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After 4 years of studying music theory i finally understand every chord and how they function harmonically within each chord progression in level 3 and below. I feel better than I’ve had in months
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Just enrolled into jazz school after 18 years of classical violin and having my entire world I knew about harmony destroyed by my compulsory piano teacher in the first lesson was a life changing experience. Rootless voicings, and all that stuff just opened my eyes about how wrong I was thinking regarding harmonization and how little they teach you just to get by in classical training. Not even properly a week into it, barely grasping the basics of 12 bar jazz-blues and here I am thinking there is so much more to learn and I already learned more than I ever could in a traditional classical environment, because all of this would be considered 20th century and ‘contemporary music’ by their standards. Revisiting this video just enforced my feelings about it. You don’t ‘need’ a fifth, you don’t ‘need’ a root, you don’t practically need anything as long as it’s implied in context or as long as what’s being played points to the general direction of the implied harmony. Thank you for the video, Adam, it’s still a banger.
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adam: "So let's take a look at this Bbminormajor7overFmaj7overC#5..." me: "okay"
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Ok so when jazz artist play notes out of the chords they’re “playing liberated dissonance” and “doing non functional harmony” but when I do it I’m “playing the wrong notes” and “not qualified for the band”
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First level of jazz harmonization: pleasant music, smooth chords Sixth level of jazz harmonization: INFERNAL CHORDS THAT WOULD DRIVE ANYONE CRAZY
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When I hear jazz harmony to this degree, it reminds me of an old friend who always overused olive oil when she made Italian food Just because you have a whole bottle of the stuff, doesn’t mean it needs a whole bottle of the stuff Love the channel Adam, love the content, and I love hearing what I don’t like so I better understand what I do like 💜
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Me: Plays 33 cents out of tune Section leader: Push in, you’re flat Me: I have achieved xenharmonism
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Jazz student: Do you want me to play in the key of C or G? Jazz teacher: Yes
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This singer is amazing. I love her voice.