In Lesson 2 of my Building Jazz Guitar Vocabulary series, we're applying the same philosophy from our melodic vocabulary lesson to harmony: instead of collecting dozens of isolated chord shapes, we'll take a small group of useful voicings and learn them deeply.

We'll look at major 7th, minor 7th, and dominant 7th voicings, explore the important notes inside each chord, and practice finding these sounds in different locations on the guitar.

More importantly, we'll begin thinking about chords as musical relationships rather than isolated shapes. This will set us up for the next lesson, where we'll connect these voicings through a ii–V–I–VI progression and explore voice leading.

In this lesson:

• Building a small, practical chord vocabulary

• Major 7th, minor 7th, and dominant 7th voicings

• Understanding the 3rd and 7th

• Learning voicings on different string sets

• Hearing the difference between chord qualities

• Transposing your voicings to different keys

• Preparing the voicings for ii–V–I–VI progressions