Jazz Guitar Upper Structures: How a Dominant Chord Borrows the Next Chord’s Sound
On jazz guitar, the "altered" or dominant-function sound over a dominant 7th chord comes from one elegant move: voice the upper structure of the chord you're resolving to, a half-step above, and let it slide down into the target. In an F blues, the F7 in bar four isn't merely the tonic — it's pushing toward the B♭7 in bar five, so you grab B♭7's upper-structure voicing a half-step up and resolve it. This is how Junewon Choi teaches dominant harmony in the online jazz guitar lessons at VoiceLid Jazz Guitar, and it's the same architecture behind the fast, vocal lines of players like George Benson. Here's the full logic.
What is an upper structure on a dominant chord?
An upper structure is the part of the chord above the guide tones — the triad or pair of notes that carries the color (9, ♯9, ♯11, 13) while the 3rd and 7th carry the function. On guitar, Junewon teaches dominant chords this way from the start: take the 3rd and 7th of F7, drop the 7th an octave so it sits as a guide-tone pair, then add the 6th (13) and root above to get a rich, rootless F7 voicing. You're no longer thinking "F7 shape" — you're thinking "guide tones plus a structure on top," which is exactly what lets you swap colors freely.
How does the half-step trick create dominant function?
Dominant function means the chord wants to resolve, and you can manufacture that pull by borrowing the destination. The move is simple: take the upper-structure voicing of the target chord and play it a half-step above the target, on the dominant that's resolving to it. That half-step-above voicing slides down by a semitone into the target and the ear hears a strong, almost altered resolution. In an F blues, you play toward B♭7 by voicing B♭7's structure a half-step up on the F7; in a B♭ blues the shapes shift but the principle is identical — the I chord borrows the IV chord's voicing from a half-step above.
Which dominant chords actually have dominant function in a blues?
This is the nuance most players miss: in a 12-bar blues every chord is a dominant 7th, but not every one has dominant function. You can only apply altered tensions and chromatic resolution where the harmony is genuinely pushing forward. The clearest spots:
Bar 4 → bar 5 — the I7 resolving to the IV7 is the first true dominant-function moment in the form.
The turnaround (bars 11–12) back to the I.
The V chord in bar 9 resolving toward the IV/I.
Everywhere else, the I7 is closer to a tonic and over-altering it just sounds wrong. For a full treatment of how upper-structure triads stack and resolve, the Bridge Series walks through exactly how they connect to chord function.
How did George Benson use this?
Benson's blistering "horo-rok" lines aren't random speed — Junewon breaks them into three ingredients: triad, chord tone, and approach. The "approach" isn't only chromatic enclosure; it's larger structures aimed at a target — a triad a fifth away built to launch toward the goal chord, or Charlie Parker's trick of stepping ii–V shapes chromatically toward a destination. Benson superimposes those triads and arpeggios, drops blues inflections on top, and the result sounds enormous because every line is going somewhere specific. For a worked example, see Dissecting a George Benson Line: Playing B♭maj7 Over C7.
How do I practice upper structures so they're usable?
Build them slowly and tie every one to a resolution:
Voice each dominant as guide tones plus an upper structure, rootless.
For each dominant-function spot, find the target chord's voicing a half-step above and practice the slide down.
Add one tension at a time (13, then ♯9, then ♯11) and listen to how the color changes.
Only then bring in approach ideas — fifth-away triads and chromatic ii–V shapes pointed at the target.
For another angle on superimposing triads over a single chord, read Unlocking 'The Girl from Ipanema': Upper Structure Triads & Superimposition.
Want to hear where this language ultimately leads on the fretboard? Wes' Insight at VoiceLid Jazz Guitar breaks down how the masters turn these structures into singing, diagonal lines.
About the Author
Junewon Choi is a Berklee-trained jazz guitarist and the founder of VoiceLid Jazz Guitar, an online education platform teaching jazz harmony and improvisation through the Functional Diagonal Approach (FDA) — a chord-first method built on voice-leading rather than scale boxes.
Wes' Insight — Wes Montgomery's fretboard logic, in lesson form
Fundamental 1: Wes Diagonal System — the FDA from the ground up