Frank Vignola’s Next Steps Jazz (2013) – Truefire

Peanut butter and jelly. Laurel and Hardy. Pen and paper. Jazz standards and 2-5-1 progressions. They all go hand and hand together. The first three pairings are universally accepted, but only students of jazz would recognize just how true the fourth pairing is. Practically the entire jazz standard songbook is composed around 2-5-1 progressions. Learning how to comp and solo over the 2-5-1 is an essential rite of passage for ALL jazz guitarists.

Frank Vignola’s 1-2-3 Jazz Guitar introduced you to three moveable jazz chord forms (Major 7th, Minor 7th and Dominant 9th), three jazz rhythms (swing, latin and the Charleston) and three ways to jazz-up your single line melodies. Congrats, you’re ready to take your next step — comping 2-5-1 progressions!

In the first section of Next Steps Jazz: 2-5-1 Progressions, Frank expands your chord vocabulary with more movable jazz chord forms: Fifth-string-root forms for the Major 7th, Major 6/9, Minor 7th and Minor 9th chords, and sixth-string-root forms for the Dominant 13th and Dominant Flat 13th. These new forms add color to your jazz chord vocabulary and also equip you to play the 2-5-1 progressions in any key, anywhere on the fretboard.

The second section explains what a 2-5-1 progression is and Frank shows you how to craft and identify them in any key. You’ll learn how to use scale degrees from the major scale to build chords and progressions — no thick theory here! Frank then steps you through a series of overviews, playing examples and playalongs for both major and minor 2-5-1 progressions in the key of G and A minor.

Your new vocabulary of fifth-string-root chord forms is put to work in the third section as you play through several major and minor 2-5-1 progressions in the key of C, D minor, Eb and F minor. You put everything to work in the fourth and final section of the course. Frank presents three song applications, each in different keys and each with both a slow and at-tempo playalong.

You will play your way through the course applying everything you learn along the way immediately in a musical context. The resulting refined understanding of 2-5-1 progressions coupled with your new chord vocabulary will put hundreds of jazz standards at your fingertips.