Practicing Dominant Cycles to Become a Better Jazz Guitarist

When I was a student at McGill University, we had to complete three major juries in order to graduate with our degrees in jazz performance.

All of these juries had the usual tunes, scales, transcriptions and studies, but they also had one section that at the time I hated, but later was glad that I practiced, Dominant Cycles. Dominant Cycles are when we take Dominant 7th chords and practice them through the Cycle of 5ths. his helps us learn our 7th chords and their related scales and arpeggios, a !ery common and important sound in ja"", but it also introduces us to the Cycle, which is also found in many standard ja"" chord progressions, and therefore are a must know progression when learning how to play jazz guitar. #or those who are unfamiliar with the Cycle of 5ths, here is how it would like starting on C with each note in the cycle being a 7th chord.

C7 $ #7 $ %b7 $ &b7 $ Ab7 $ Db7 $ 'b7 $ %7 $ &7 $ A7 $ D7 $ '7 $ C7

(o, each new chord is a )th higher, or 5th lower *hence the name+, than the pre!ious chord, allowing us to practice any concept in all ,- keys and forcing us to jump around the neck of the guitar rather than just mo!e our hands up chromatically to the ne.t key. /e can use this cycle to practice anything, but today we will use it to work on Dominant 7th chords. /e0ll do this in two ways, using
ominant 7th !rpeggios and impro!ising.

/hen practicing arpeggios in the Cycle of 5ths, we ha!e se!eral options to approach each chord, here are some of my fa!orites, each is done with one, two and1or three2octa!e arpeggios.

!ll !scending !ll escending escending

"ne !scending the ne#t "ne

escending the ne#t !scending

3ot a lot of !ariety, but enough to get you seeing the arpeggios for the bottom up and the top down. #or today, pick one of these and then play through each chord in the Dominant Cycle. (tart slowing and then increase the tempo until it is too fast. If you ha!e time, run two or more of these approaches through the cycle. It0s a great way to build techni4ue, get Dominant 7th chords in our ears and learn the cycle at the same time. 5ou can also use impro!isation to work on Dominant Cycles. Instead of running up and down arpeggios for each chord, you can solo o!er them using one or more techni4ues. #or today, since we0re focusing on arpeggios, try soloing o!er each chord using only its related arpeggios. %ut, for future practice you could use $e%op &cales, licks, Mi#olydian &cales, !ltered &cales etc. Anything that you can think of that can be used o!er a 7th chord, you can run through Dominant Cycles. 6ere are the different chord lengths that I had to demonstrate, and hence practiced, at 7c'ill.

Check them out, each offers a different challenge and each brings out a different approach from your playing.

' $ars (er )hord * $ars (er )hord + $ars (er )hord , $ar (er )hord + $eats (er )hord

8racticing Dominant Cycles is a great way to learn the neck, becoming familiar with an important chord progression found in many tunes such as 9hythm Changes and :;ordu,< and get the sound of 7th chords in our ears.

I like to do the cycle up from the =th, to the 5th, to the )th, to the >rd string roots and then jumping to the 5th root for the ne.t chord and so on to stay in position. 6ere0s what I mean, the numbers are strings for the roots C$= #$5 %b $ ) &b $ > Ab $ 5 Db $ ) 'b $ > %$) &$> A$5 D$) '$> (o you keep it all around the ?th to ,- fret area, the :honey spot< of the guitar where e!erything fits nicely under your hands.