Upper Structures for Major & Minor Chords
In this lesson we’re going to talk about applying upper structures to major and minor chords. You can find a link below to this cheat sheet that details the type of chord, the scale degree to build the triad off and also the extensions and alterations that are achieved.
In the past lessons on upper structures, we just looked at dominant upper structures. For example, over C7 we can play a major triad built from the #5 to get an altered #5-#9 sound. Or we can play a major triad off the #11 to get a #11 – b9 sound. We also looked at adding these upper structures to a 251 progression.
If you don’t understand this theory, I would recommend watching the introduction to upper structures lesson. Applying upper structures to dominant chords is the most important and useful application so I would advise that you learn dominant upper structures first.
That being said, you can also achieve some really interesting sounds by applying upper structure triads to major and minor chords.
Related Lessons
In this lesson we explore some advanced applications of upper structure triads in context of jazz standards we have covered.
Learning and memorising all of the upper structure triads is a daunting task! This lesson introduces the upper structure cheat sheet.
Upper structure triads are complex sounding altered dominant chords. They will add texture and sophistication to your playing.
Practice Tips
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Print off the major/minor upper structure cheat sheet.
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By visualising the chord in two separate parts, it will give you access to a winder variety of voicings for the same chord.
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You can manipulate a simple voicing by inverting and doubling notes of the upper structure.
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Try harmonising a melody line of a jazz standard using major and minor upper structures. First analyse the notes in the meldoy, and then try and match them to the chord tones in the upper structure of the chord.
- You can invert a single upper structure and also mix multiple upper structures to get the correct tone at the top of the voicings.
