Why Can You Play the Same Notes Over Cm7 and EbMaj7? One Shape, Two Chords
Drop the root from Cm7 and an EbMaj7 triad is left — which is why the vocabulary you built two bars earlier still works. Upper structures, the chromatic slide into Bbm, and the common tone line turn one shape into a whole chorus.
Jazz Guitar Upper Structures: How a Dominant Chord Borrows the Next Chord’s Sound
The altered, dominant-function sound on a jazz blues comes from one move: voice the target chord's upper structure a half-step above and slide it down. Here's the logic — and how George Benson used it.
Pull Triad Pairs Out of a Diminished ChordJazz Guitar Upper Structures: How to
A single diminished shape hides a whole family of triad pairs. Replace each diminished chord tone with the whole-step tension above it and major triads fall out — ready to chain into altered-dominant lines, as on Stella by Starlight.
Jazz Guitar Upper Structures: How Shell Voicings Become Rootless Upper-Structure Voicings
Upper structures aren't a separate subject — they grow out of shell voicings. Drop the root from a 1-3-7 shell, raise the guide tones into tensions, and you're already playing upper-structure, rootless voicings.
Jazz Guitar Upper Structures: Why the Altered Sound Is Just a Half-Step Triad
The altered scale terrifies a lot of advanced jazz guitarists because it looks like a different theory subject. It is not. It is a single upper-structure decision: play the minor triad a half-step above your dominant chord, and you have already produced the entire altered sound. Here is how to wire that into your II–V–I.