Vocabulary, Voice and the Fingerboard

Circle of Fifths

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🎵 THEORY🎼 HARMONYKEYS

The Circle of Fifths is one of the most useful maps in all of music. In this lesson we walk through how it is built, why each step moves by a fifth, and how it instantly shows you the sharps and flats in every key. The embedded diagram lets you see all twelve keys at a glance, and by the end you will be able to use the circle to find key signatures, build chord progressions, and navigate around the fretboard with far more confidence.

What You’ll Work On: Reading the Circle of Fifths in both directions, memorizing the order of sharps and flats, and connecting each key to its relative minor. You will learn how clockwise motion adds sharps while counter-clockwise motion adds flats, and how neighboring keys share most of their notes, which is what makes smooth modulation and common chord progressions possible.

Practice Tips: Say the keys out loud around the circle, clockwise then counter-clockwise, until the order is automatic. Then pick any key and practice its I–IV–V chords on the guitar, since those chords are always direct neighbors on the circle. Finish by working a ii–V–I in three different keys, using the circle to find each chord quickly.

Rhythm & Have You Met Miss Jones Livestream June 4 2026

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🎸 Rhythm & Timing💼 Member Livestream🎹 Subdivision & Jazz Standards📅 June 4, 2026

In this office-hour member livestream, Jim digs into rhythm and timing—how to feel, count, and subdivide tricky rhythms—before launching into a crash course on the jazz standard “Have You Met Miss Jones?” and its famously tricky bridge.

About This Livestream

The session opens with a practical look at two contrasting rhythms and how to internalize them by subdividing against a steady grid, comparing triplet feels to sixteenth notes so you can place notes accurately in swing and 6/8 settings. From there, Jim turns to “Have You Met Miss Jones?”, walking through the changes, the Coltrane-style bridge movement, chord-melody pointers, and how knowing your 2-5-1 voicings in all positions plus the right altered tensions makes the hardest section playable.

How to Get the Most Out of This Session

Use the chapter markers in the video player to jump to the topics most relevant to your practice. Keep your instrument nearby and pause often to try the ideas in context — Practice subdividing each rhythm against a steady count so you can feel where triplets and sixteenths land. Drill your 2-5 and 5-1 voicings in all five fingering positions so you can stay in one area of the neck through the bridge. On the dominant chords, experiment with lowering the 9 (flat-9) and borrowing from harmonic minor and harmonic major to get the altered tensions the changes want..

Chapters

  • 00:00 Welcome & Office Hour Updates
  • 01:15 Two Contrasting Rhythms Explained
  • 02:11 Subdividing: Counting & Feeling the Grid
  • 05:02 Practicing Rhythms on a Single Note
  • 06:27 Triplet Rhythm vs. 16th Notes
  • 10:02 Where Swing & 6/8 Feels Land
  • 11:44 Intro to “Have You Met Miss Jones?”
  • 13:44 Playing Through the Changes
  • 15:07 The Bridge & Coltrane Changes
  • 19:00 Chord Melody Tips & Chord Tones
  • 21:54 Working the Bridge: 2-5s in All Positions
  • 24:04 Altered Tensions & Scale Choices

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Doxy – Comping and Shell Voicings June 2 2026

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🎸 Comping💼 Tuesday Livestream🎹 Shell Voicings & Voice Leading📅 June 2, 2026

In this Tuesday livestream we focus on comping — building shell voicings and using voice leading to move smoothly through a tune built almost entirely on dominant seventh chords. You’ll learn how a handful of essential chord tones can guide your ear through the changes and free up your comping and single-line playing alike.

About This Livestream

We start with shell voicings — just the root, third, and seventh of each chord — and look at how voice leading lets those essential tones move by the smallest possible distance from chord to chord. From there we cover practical comping technique, including muting the bass line and a hybrid/thumb approach in the style of Joe Pass, then walk the dominant chords of the tune and explore a higher set of voicings. We dig into the second half of the form with its diminished and tritone-substitution sounds, summarize the tritone-sub concept, and pull up a circle-of-fifths visualizer to map each chord against its parent key. The session closes by extending the shell voicings with color tones like the sharp nine and sharp five to start building a more expressive, bluesy vocabulary.

How to Get the Most Out of This Session

Use the chapter markers in the video player to jump to the topics most relevant to your practice. Keep your instrument nearby and pause often to try the ideas in context — start with the bare root–third–seventh shells and add color tones only once they feel solid, watch how the third and seventh move between chords, and practice the comping technique slowly so the voice leading stays smooth.

Chapters

  • 00:00 Welcome & Today’s Topic: Comping
  • 02:33 Shell Voicings Explained (Root, 3rd, 7th)
  • 04:42 Voice Leading Through the Changes
  • 07:12 Muting, Hybrid Picking & Joe Pass Comping
  • 08:07 Walking the Dominant Chords
  • 10:51 A Different Voicing Approach (Higher Inversions)
  • 13:57 The Second Half & Diminished Chords
  • 18:03 Summary: Tritone Substitution
  • 21:25 The Circle of Fifths Visualizer
  • 24:11 Mapping the Changes on the Circle
  • 26:52 Extending Shell Voicings (Sharp 9, Sharp 5)
  • 30:14 Wrap-Up & Sign-Off

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Doxy Chord Changes Livestream May 28 2026

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🎸 Doxy💼 Member Livestream🎹 Jazz Improvisation📅 May 28, 2026

In this member livestream we dig into Sonny Rollins’ classic “Doxy” — a short-form, B-flat tune packed with constantly moving dominant seventh chords. We walk the changes, build chord-melody voicings, and explore practical ways to solo through the progression.

About This Livestream

We start by mapping out the harmony of “Doxy,” comparing the Real Book changes against the recordings and settling on a working set of changes. From there we look at how to harmonize the melody with rich voicings — including a B-flat 13, a rootless B7♯11, and first-inversion dominant shapes — and how to navigate the bridge. We then enter the changes into iReal Pro and play through them, before turning to a soloing approach built on Mixolydian modes, dominant arpeggios, and tritone substitution. The session wraps with a walkthrough of the in-progress FretPrints app, including the circle-of-fifths visualizer and upcoming features like four-note groups, triads, and triad pairs.

How to Get the Most Out of This Session

Use the chapter markers in the video player to jump to the topics most relevant to your practice. Keep your instrument nearby and pause often to try the ideas in context — know your circle of fifths cold, practice the dominant arpeggios and Mixolydian shapes one chord at a time, and try the chord-melody voicings slowly before bringing them up to tempo.

Chapters

  • 00:00 Welcome & Today’s Topic: Doxy
  • 01:50 The “Doxy” Chord Changes (First Half)
  • 04:00 The Bridge & Second Half Changes
  • 09:00 Chord Voicings & Harmonizing the Melody
  • 13:50 Checking the Real Book & Phrasing
  • 16:00 Entering the Changes in iReal Pro
  • 18:10 Playing Through the Changes
  • 19:00 Soloing: Mixolydian & Tritone Subs
  • 22:20 FretPrints App: Circle of Fifths Walkthrough
  • 26:00 Bridge Analysis in the App
  • 28:45 App Roadmap & Upcoming Features
  • 30:08 Wrap-Up & Sign-Off

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