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When jazz guitar players are not performing a solo guitar arrangement, they often find themselves comping for other players. Comping is an extremely important skill for jazz guitarists to learn, as you act as direct support for the instruments that are soloing. And, some of the most important decisions you can make are which chord “colors” to use. How you color a chord is the harmony you prove to best support the vocalist or soloist.

In his Jazz Chord Colors edition of Take 5, Frank Vignola dives into the chord extensions and harmony you can use to become the best accompanist for the band.

Here are three video jazz guitar chord lessons from the course. For the full course, check out Frank Vignola’s Take 5: Jazz Chord Colors on TrueFire!

Jazz Guitar Lesson -Take 5: Jazz Chord Colors – Level 5: Overview


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In this Level 5 study, I’m going to up the level and use the chord progression to the classic song, “Cherokee”, with real bass and drums in an up tempo swing bop groove. I go over the progression, then utilize everything we’ve been studying in the previous 4 studies. This is where we put it all together, and it’s a lot of fun!

Jazz Guitar Lesson -Take 5: Jazz Chord Colors – Level 5: Performance


Download the tab & notation for this jazz guitar chord lesson

Here, I’ll perform this one at tempo so you can get a feel for how it sounds up to speed.

Jazz Guitar Lesson -Take 5: Jazz Chord Colors – Level 5: Breakdown


Download the tab & notation for this jazz guitar chord lesson

Now, I’ll break this down section by section.

Digging these free video jazz guitar chord lessons? Check out Frank Vignola’s Take 5: Jazz Chord Colors.