Jazz Chord Symbols Explained (Chart Included) (2024)

In this guide, we are going to talk about chords, specifically, how toread jazz chord symbols from the perspective of a saxophone player.

Most the chord symbols guides I've seen are from a guitar player, orpiano player perpectives. These instruments can play several notes atthe same time whereas a saxophone is a one note instrument.

Single note players such as saxophones or trumpets think about chordsa little differently.

If you are a saxophone player, you are most likely working on jazzimprovization. This is the guide you need to understand chord and chordsymbols in jazz.

Let's dive right in.

What is a Chord?

Let's start a beginning by defining what a chord actually is:

A chord is a condensed version of a scale. What we do is take out themost important notes in a scale and use them to create a harmonicstructure.

To demonstrate a chord, we are going to use the key of C. We're going tostart off with the c major scale. the notes of the C Major scale are C,D, E, F, G, A, B, and C.

Here's a comprehensive note-by-note guide of all major scales andtheir fingering charts on the saxophone foryour reference.

And, we're gradually going to change that one note at a time as we gothrough each of the chords that we are going to cover in this guide.

The Chords

In this section, we are going to talk about the chords that you run intowhe you start playing chord charts with lead sheets.

#1 — Major Triad

The first chord that we are going to talk about is a major triad. Atriad means three notes. A major triad means the 1^st,3^rd, and 5^th degree of a major scale.

Degrees is a way of indicating position.

So, in the C Major scale, the triad is C, E and G. If you look atthis, you can see that you are skipping every other note.

On the saxophone, you will play the C, E, G and then go for the C oneoctave above.

C Saxophone Fingering Chart

E Saxophone Fingering Chart

G Saxophone Fingering Chart

C Saxophone Fingering Chart

As single note players, that's how we outline a chord, we play theroot, we go up to the root and then back down to the root.

The root, of course, is the scale that the major triad is based on.

And, that's pretty much what a major triad is.

#2 — Major 7^th Chord

But since this is a saxophone player's guide and most likely they areworking on jazz improvization, we are going to take this to the nextlevel because that is what you're going to see when looking at jazzcharts.

A major 7^th adds the 7^th degree to a majortriad.

Instead of just 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th wehave the 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th and the7^th degree of a major scale.

B Saxophone Fingering Chart

So in the case of the C Major scale, it would be C, E, G, B and C. Thisis now a C Major 7^th Chord.

The Chord Symbols

Now that we have the chords, we need to know when we are supposed toplay them. And the way we know that is through chord symbols.

Chord symbols can be a little diffult to read because there is notnecessarily a standard of how to write every chord.

Most chord symbols will have a couple of different ways you can writethem that all mean the same thing.

How Chord Symbols Are Written

For the C Major 7^th Chord, for instance, the two most commonways you're going to see it written.

Method #1 — Cmaj⁷

The first way is as Cmaj⁷.

In Cmaj⁷, C indicates the scale that you're going to play.maj⁷ tells you that it has a major 7^th.

C denotes the root.

C means a chord is based on the C scale, G means the chord is based onthe G scale, and so on, and so forth. Whatever that large letter is,that's the scale you're working with.

maj⁷ denotes the quality of the chord.

So far, the only quality that we've covered is major 7^th.Aswe learn different suffixes, we will change the notes that we play basedon the quality that the chord symbol is telling us.

I know that might sound confusing, but as we build up these chords, itwill make perfect sense.

Method #2 — C^△7

The second, which is my favorite, way is as C^△7.

When we see a triangle, that just means it a major 7^th chord.

Now that we know exactly what our C Major 7^th chord is, andhow it's written in chord symbols, we are going to take this specificchord and make small changes to turn it into other chords.

#3 — Dominant 7^th Chord

The first change we are going to make is flatten the 7^th.

Our notes now become C, E, G, and B_♭.

B_♭ Saxophone Fingering Chart

Main fingerings (3):

Alternate fingerings (2):

That is a C dominant 7^th chord.

The Dominant 7^th Chord Symbol

You'll see it written as C⁷ chord. That means flat 7.

What is confusing here is the symbol C⁷ which you thinkwould mean to play the seventh degree of the major scale, but itactually means to play a flat seventh. Just to backtrack that would beC^△7 without the flat.

#4 — Minor 7^th Chord

The next thing we are going to do is turn this major chord into a minorchord. You've probably heard of major and minor before, you may not knowthe difference between them.

Here is a comprehensive note-by-note guide to all the minor scales onthe saxophone with fingering charts for yourreference.

A minor just means that the 3^rd, 6^th and7^th degree of the scale is lower — so you have a flat3^rd, 6^th and 7^th.

The minor 7^th chord from this scale is, that is the1^st, 3^rd, 5^th, and 7^thdegrees, are C, E_♭, G, B_♭.

E_♭ Saxophone Fingering Chart

So instead of the E natural in the major scale, we have an E_♭and instead of a B natural we have a B_♭ we had earlier.

The Minor 7^th Chord Symbol

This is written as C^_7.

The "^_" tells you that we are working with a minor scale,and we already know that seven means that it's a 7^th chord.

What we've covered so far are the most common chords that you're goingto run into.

We are going to go over two more but the main chords you'll come across,especially when you first start reading chord charts, are those ones.

#5 — Diminished Chord

The next chord we are going to talk about is the diminished chord. Whatis confusing about the diminished chord is that there are two differentkinds:

Type #1 — Half Diminished Chord

We are going to start with the half diminished chord because it onlymakes one change from our minor 7^th chord. And then afterthat we'll do fully diminished.

With the half diminished chord, we have a flat 3^rd, flat5^th and a flat 7^th. Its's a minor 7^thchord with a flat 5^th.

So the notes for the C half diminished chord become C, E_♭,G_♭, B_♭, and C.

G_♭ Saxophone Fingering chart

Main fingering (1):

Alternate fingering (1):

The Half Diminished Chord Symbols

There are two ways of writing half diminished chord.

Method #1 — C^ø7

The first chord symbol for a C half diminished is C^ø7 — a Cwith a circle and line through the circle.

Method #2 — C^_7♭5

The second chord symbol for a C half diminished is C^_7♭5.This is the way you'll see it written very often in lead sheets.

Same idea here, the ^♭5 tells you it's a flat 5^th.

Type #2 — Fully Diminished Chord

The last chord that we are going to talk about is the fully diminishedchord, which is similar to the half diminished chord, except it has adouble flat 7^th, on top of the flat 5^th.

I know, a little crazy.

So the notes of a C fully diminished are C, E_♭,G_♭, B_♭♭.

If you lower a B you get a B_♭, and if you again lowerB_♭, you get an A. The A is the 6^th degree ofthe major scale but we still call it a double flat.

B_♭♭ (A) Saxophone Fingering chart

The Fully Diminished Chord Symbol

The chord symbol for C fully diminished is C^o.

Let's put these chords in a chart and include some other variations.

The Complete Jazz Chord Symbols Chart

Chart Notes

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