Jazz Theory Index

A first-principles wiki of jazz music theory: what each concept is, why it exists musically, what it sounds like, and where to hear it on record. 309 interlinked notes organized into eight categories and four tiers (1 = start here, 4 = advanced/specialist).

Start Here (guided path)

If you’re new, read these in order — each one builds on the last:

1. The Major Scale — the reference ruler everything else is measured against
2. Half Steps and Whole Steps and Intervals — the raw distances music is made of
3. Triads → Seventh Chords — stacking notes into the chords jazz actually uses
4. Scale Degrees and Diatonic Harmony — the seven chords every key gives you for free
5. Tension and Release — the engine underneath all harmony
6. The ii-V-I Progression — jazz’s single most important chord move
7. Guide Tones — the two notes that carry every progression
8. Swing Feel and Syncopation — the rhythmic ground everything sits on
9. The 12-Bar Blues — the form jazz grew out of
10. Chord-Scale Theory — the map from chords to melody, and the gateway to improvisation

From there, follow the links wherever your ear leads — that’s the point of the vault.

Foundations

Pitch, intervals, scales, chords, and notation — the raw materials.

Tier 1: Accidentals · Chord Extensions · Chord Inversions · Chord Symbols · Chord Tones · Consonance and Dissonance · Diatonic Harmony · Diminished Seventh Chord · Dominant Resolution · Dominant Seventh Chord · Dorian Mode · Enharmonic Equivalence · Half Steps and Whole Steps · Half-Diminished Chord · Interval Inversion · Intervals · Key Signatures · Lead Sheets · Lydian Mode · Major Seventh Chord · Minor Seventh Chord · Mixolydian Mode · Modes of the Major Scale · Parallel and Relative Keys · Pitch and the Chromatic Scale · Roman Numeral Analysis · Scale Degrees · Seventh Chords · Sixth Chords · Suspended Chords · Tension and Release · The Circle of Fifths · The Harmonic Minor Scale · The Leading Tone · The Major Scale · The Melodic Minor Scale · The Natural Minor Scale · The Tritone · Tonality and Key Centers · Transposition · Triads

Tier 2: Chord Alterations · Compound Intervals · Jazz Notation Conventions · Locrian Mode · Minor-Major Seventh Chord · Phrygian Mode · Slash Chords · Tertian Harmony · The Augmented Triad · The Overtone Series

Tier 3: Tetrachords · Tuning and Equal Temperament

Harmony

Functional harmony, the ii-V-I, substitutions, reharmonization, blues and minor-key harmony.

Tier 2: Blues Harmony · Cadences in Jazz · Functional Harmony · Harmonic Rhythm · Minor Blues · Minor Key Harmony · Modal Interchange · Modulation · Passing Diminished Chords · Root Motion · Secondary Dominants · The Altered Dominant · The Augmented Major Seventh Chord · The ii-V-I Progression · The Minor ii-V-i · The Minor iv Chord · Tonicization · Tritone Substitution · Turnarounds

Tier 3: Analyzing a Standard · Available Tensions · Bird Blues · Chord Substitution · Chromatic Approach Chords · Deceptive Resolution · Descending Bass Line Progressions · Diminished Chord Functions · Extended Dominants and Backcycling · Harmonic Sequence · Line Cliche · Modal Harmony · Non-Functional Dominant Chords · Parallel Motion and Planing · Passing Chords · Pedal Point · Quartal Harmony · Reharmonization · The Augmented Dominant · The Backdoor ii-V · The Related ii Chord · The V7sus4 Chord

Tier 4: Chromatic Mediants · Coltrane Changes · Constant Structure · Negative Harmony

Chord-Scale Theory

Matching scales to chords: bebop scales, melodic minor applications, symmetric scales, pentatonics.

Tier 2: Avoid Notes · Bebop Scales · Chord-Scale Theory · Pentatonic Scales · The Blues Scale

Tier 3: Dominant Scale Choices · Lydian Augmented Scale · Lydian Dominant · Melodic Minor Applications · Minor Chord Scale Choices · Mixolydian Flat 6 · Pentatonics in Improvisation · Phrygian Dominant Scale · The Altered Scale · The Diminished Scale · Whole Tone Scale

Tier 4: Augmented Scale · Harmonic Major Scale · Locrian Natural 2 · Lydian Chromatic Concept · The Barry Harris Sixth Diminished Scale · Triad Pairs

Melody & Improvisation

Guide tones, approach devices, motivic development, vocabulary, and playing inside vs. outside the changes.

Tier 2: Approach Notes · Blue Notes · Call and Response · Chord Tone Soloing · Enclosures · Guide Tone Lines · Guide Tones · Jazz Vocabulary as Language · Motivic Development · Passing Tones and Neighbor Tones · Phrasing and Space · Playing the Changes · Riffs · Scat Singing · Target Notes · The Break · Trading Fours · Transcription · Voice Leading

Tier 3: Bass Soloing · Bebop Melodic Language · Building a Solo · Chromaticism in Jazz · Composing a Jazz Melody · Digital Patterns · Double-Time Lines · ii-V-I Vocabulary · Melodic Paraphrase · Melodic Sequence · Modal Improvisation · Octave Soloing · Over-the-Barline Phrasing · Quotation in Jazz Solos · Vocalese

Tier 4: Free Improvisation · Harmonic Superimposition · Intervallic Improvisation · Playing Outside · Sheets of Sound · Side-Slipping

Rhythm

Swing feel, syncopation, comping, polyrhythm, metric modulation, and Latin/Afro-Cuban feels.

Tier 1: Backbeat · Swing Feel · Syncopation · Time Signatures and Meter

Tier 2: Bossa Nova · Brushes · Comping · Comping Rhythms · Ghost Notes · Jazz Waltz · Rhythmic Anticipation · Rubato · Shuffle Feel · The Charleston Rhythm · The Clave · The Rhythm Section · The Ride Cymbal Pattern · Two-Feel and Four-Feel · Walking Bass Lines

Tier 3: Afro-Cuban 6-8 Feel · Baiao and the Nordestino Scale · Beat Placement · Cascara Pattern · Double-Time and Half-Time Feels · Drum Kicks and Setups · Drum Soloing · Interactive Comping · Montuno · Odd Meters in Jazz · Polyrhythm · Rhythmic Displacement · Samba · Second Line · Songo · Stop-Time · Vocal Jazz Phrasing and Time Feel

Tier 4: Arco Bass in Jazz · Broken Time · Flamenco Compas · Maracatu · Metric Modulation

Voicings & Arranging

Shells, rootless voicings, drop 2, quartal voicings, block chords, and big-band writing.

Tier 2: Chord Voicings · Drop 2 Voicings · Rootless Voicings · Shell Voicings

Tier 3: Backgrounds and Riffs · Big Band Arranging · Block Chords · Chord Melody · Countermelodies · Drop 3 Voicings · Four-Way Close · Freddie Green Style · Harmonizing a Melody · Head Arrangements · Intros and Endings · Mutes and Brass Color · Quartal Voicings · Quintal Voicings · Shout Chorus · Spread Voicings · The So What Voicing · Upper Structure Triads · Vocal Group Harmony · Voicing for Small-Group Horns

Tier 4: Cluster Voicings · Cross-Sectional Voicing · Polychords

Form & Repertoire

Song forms, blues and rhythm changes, standards as vehicles, plus close readings of canonical tunes.

Tier 1: The 12-Bar Blues

Tier 2: AABA Form · ABAC Form · Building a Repertoire · Fake Books and The Real Book · Great American Songbook · Jazz Standards as Vehicles · Learning a Tune by Ear · Rhythm Changes · Song Forms in Jazz · The Bridge · The Chorus

Tier 3: A Night in Tunisia · All of Me · All the Things You Are · Alone Together · Autumn Leaves · Blue Bossa · Blue Monk · Body and Soul · Cherokee · Confirmation · Contrafacts · Donna Lee · Footprints · Giant Steps · Have You Met Miss Jones · How High the Moon · I Got Rhythm · Lush Life · Maiden Voyage · My Funny Valentine · Naima · On Green Dolphin Street · Round Midnight · Satin Doll · So What · Solar · Someday My Prince Will Come · St. Thomas · Stella by Starlight · Sweet Georgia Brown · Tag Endings · Take the A Train · The Verse · Tune Up · Vamps and Ostinatos · Well You Needn’t

Styles & History as Theory

Each era as a theoretical lens: what changed harmonically and rhythmically from early jazz through bebop, modal, free, and fusion.

A century of jazz styles

Early Jazz1917–1920sNew Orleans collective improvisation — three horns in counterpoint over a two-beat pulse

Swing1935–1946big bands, riff-based sectional arranging, four-feel rhythm section

Bebopearly 1940svirtuosic small-combo art music — fast changes, extended and altered chords

Cool Jazz1949–1950sbebop's harmony at lower temperature — written counterpoint, relaxed feel

Hard Bop1954–mid-1960sbebop rejoined with blues, gospel, and a backbeat

Modal Jazzlate 1950sharmonic rhythm slowed to a crawl — one mode for eight or sixteen bars

Free Jazzfrom 1959fixed progressions, meter, and form stripped away; melody and group listening take over

Post-Bop1963–1970harmony chosen for color, not function, over a time-no-changes rhythm section

Jazz Fusionfrom 1969post-bop harmony over rock and funk straight-eighth grooves

Tier 1: The Blues

Tier 2: Bebop · Early Jazz · Jam Session Etiquette · Stride Piano · The Swing Era

Tier 3: A Love Supreme · Afrobeat and Jazz · Choro · Cool Jazz · ECM Sound and European Jazz · Flamenco Jazz · Gypsy Jazz · Hard Bop · Latin Jazz · Modal Jazz · Neo-Bop and the Young Lions · Soul Jazz · South African Jazz · Spiritual Jazz · The Shape of Jazz to Come

Tier 4: AACM and the Chicago Avant-Garde · Contemporary Jazz Harmony · Free Jazz · Indo-Jazz Fusion · Jazz Fusion · M-Base · Music Business Basics for Jazz Musicians · Post-Bop · The Danzon and Cha-Cha-Cha · Third Stream · Timba · Time No Changes

Gaps

None — the original 246-note build and the 63-note gap-analysis expansion both completed in full; no notes failed.

Future additions

Concepts discovered during writing that fall outside the approved backlog are noted here rather than added as notes.