Tonalities
There are essentially seven tonalities or chord families:
From Major tonal center [ @-7 | %7 | !M ]
-
Minor
(subdominant) :
@-7 -
D-, D-7, D-9, D-11, D-13, etc -
Dominant
:
%7 -
G7, G7(SUS), G7(s11), G9, G13, etc -
Major
(tonic) :
!M -
C, C6, C6/9, CM7, CM7(s11), CM9, CM13, etc
From Minor tonal center [ @-7(b5) | %7(ALT) | !m ]
-
-7(b5) akaø "half-diminished" (subdominant) :@-7(b5) -
B-7(b5), B-9(b5), B-11(b5), etc -
7(ALT)
(altered dominant) :
%7(ALT) -
E7(ALT), E7+, E7(s11), E7(b9), E7(b9SUS), E7(b13), etc -
m (tonic minor) :!m -
A-, A-6, A-6/9, Am, Am7, etc
From Passing Chord Dominant [ !M | b@º7 | @-7 ]
-
º7 (diminished) :b@º7 -
Dbº, D¢º7, D¢º7(M7), A7(b9)/Cs etc -
7(s11) (tritone sub) :b@7(s11) -
Db7(s11) , etc
Chords of the same family are largely interchangeable (depending on context).
i.e. any type of Major chord variation can fulfill the tonality for any Major chord symbol.
This means you only need to learn seven chords to start playing any tune!
For guitar, I suggest learning one shape each on an E & A string root for better
navigation on the neck.
That's 14 chord shapes to have easy access to the fretboard on any jazz
standard!
A great exercise to get into this is to practice major and minor 2-5-1 cadences described above.