dak6659
Verified buyer
06/08/26
I just started this course. So far my understanding of how to move the baseline with the harmonized melody has improved exponentially. Tim is a Master and I have purchased many of his courses.
Solo Jazz Pathways: Harmonic Enhancement
Interactive Video Masterclass on Jazz Guitar Harmony
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Tim Lerch
Educator
Genres
About this course
In Tim Lerch’s Chordal Improv edition of Solo Jazz Pathways, you focused on the melodic aspect of improvising when playing solo jazz guitar. In this Enhanced Harmony edition, you’ll focus on a variety of approaches for enriching the harmony of the underlying chord changes while keeping the melody intact and singing.
To illustrate how dramatically these approaches will enhance your arrangements, you’ll work with simple songs that have traditionally been played with very basic chords and rhythms.
”We’ll start with a primer where we’ll play through a simple two-chord progression and melody line. I’ll show you 16 different enhanced harmony approaches.
And then we’ll explore a series of harmonic enhancements through five well-known songs. For each, I’ll first show you a simple solo jazz arrangement built around the melody to serve as your harmonic foundation.
I will show you a variety of powerful approaches to help you orchestrate more colorful and sophisticated harmony - each of which you can also apply to virtually any other songs in your repertoire.”
Tim kicks the course off with Red River Valley. Next, you’ll dive into that classic gospel favorite, Amazing Grace, and then drill down on Star Harmony, a harmonic adventure on a tune we all remember from our childhood.
You’ll learn to play the traditional Irish song Danny Boy. And finally an exploration of an accompanying approach - because Tim will sing one: the Gershwin classic, Lady Be Good.
Tim will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Grab your guitar and travel down the “solo jazz pathway” with Tim Lerch!
To illustrate how dramatically these approaches will enhance your arrangements, you’ll work with simple songs that have traditionally been played with very basic chords and rhythms.
”We’ll start with a primer where we’ll play through a simple two-chord progression and melody line. I’ll show you 16 different enhanced harmony approaches.
And then we’ll explore a series of harmonic enhancements through five well-known songs. For each, I’ll first show you a simple solo jazz arrangement built around the melody to serve as your harmonic foundation.
I will show you a variety of powerful approaches to help you orchestrate more colorful and sophisticated harmony - each of which you can also apply to virtually any other songs in your repertoire.”
Tim kicks the course off with Red River Valley. Next, you’ll dive into that classic gospel favorite, Amazing Grace, and then drill down on Star Harmony, a harmonic adventure on a tune we all remember from our childhood.
You’ll learn to play the traditional Irish song Danny Boy. And finally an exploration of an accompanying approach - because Tim will sing one: the Gershwin classic, Lady Be Good.
Tim will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Grab your guitar and travel down the “solo jazz pathway” with Tim Lerch!
What you'll learn
- Create a reharmonized version of Danny Boy with enhanced chord movement
- Apply leading tone diminished chords as passing chords
- Integrate melody notes into chord voicings
- Substitute chords using diatonic and tritone relationships
- Understand when to separate chord learning from melody integration
Release date: 09/14/2020 • 1h 53m runtime
Sample lessons
Oh, Lady Be Good!
Overview
Oh, Lady Be Good!: Version 1 Basic
Performance
Oh, Lady Be Good!: Version 1 Basic
Breakdown
Oh, Lady Be Good!: Version 2 Enhanced
Demonstration
What's included
39 lessons • 16 charts
Solo Jazz Pathways: Harmonic Enhancement
Hi, I'm Tim Lerch. Welcome to the Harmonic Enhancement edition of Solo Jazz Pathways.
In the Chordal Improv edition, we focused on the melodic aspect of improvising when playing solo jazz guitar.
In this Harmonic Enhancement edition, we'll focus on a variety of approaches for enriching the harmony of the underlying chord changes while keeping the melody intact and singing.
To illustrate how dramatically these approaches will enhance your arrangements, we'll work with simple songs that have traditionally been played with very basic chords and rhythms.
We'll start with a primer where we'll play through a simple two-chord progression and melody line. I'll show you 16 different enhanced harmony approaches.
And then we'll explore a series of harmonic enhancements through five well-known songs. For each, I'll first show you a simple solo jazz arrangement built around the melody to serve as your harmonic foundation.
I'll then show you a variety of powerful approaches to help you orchestrate more colorful and sophisticated harmony - each of which you can also apply to virtually any other songs in your repertoire.
All of the key examples and performances are transcribed and you'll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire's learning tools.
You can also loop or slow down the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Are you ready to get started? Grab your guitar and join me on this journey down the solo jazz pathways.
In the Chordal Improv edition, we focused on the melodic aspect of improvising when playing solo jazz guitar.
In this Harmonic Enhancement edition, we'll focus on a variety of approaches for enriching the harmony of the underlying chord changes while keeping the melody intact and singing.
To illustrate how dramatically these approaches will enhance your arrangements, we'll work with simple songs that have traditionally been played with very basic chords and rhythms.
We'll start with a primer where we'll play through a simple two-chord progression and melody line. I'll show you 16 different enhanced harmony approaches.
And then we'll explore a series of harmonic enhancements through five well-known songs. For each, I'll first show you a simple solo jazz arrangement built around the melody to serve as your harmonic foundation.
I'll then show you a variety of powerful approaches to help you orchestrate more colorful and sophisticated harmony - each of which you can also apply to virtually any other songs in your repertoire.
All of the key examples and performances are transcribed and you'll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire's learning tools.
You can also loop or slow down the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Are you ready to get started? Grab your guitar and join me on this journey down the solo jazz pathways.
SECTION 1: Enhanced Harmony
It's really fun and often quite exciting to play fresh sounding harmonies to familiar songs. This course will explore some of the many ways to enhance the harmoniy while retaining the familiar melodies. Some examples are just simple use of color, for instance making a major triad into a major 7th or major 9th. Other examples can be rather surprising and leave the diatonic hamony all together. This is where it can get very advenbturous, You might not like it all but if you keep an open ears and mind you'll find lots of new ways to get around the harmony.
One-Five Study Part 1
This simple melody can be harmoninized in almost infinite ways. These 8 examples are just some of the possibilities!
One-Five Study Part 2
Continuing with more examples that become almost "cinematic" in their scope. It's always amazing to me how far away we can get from a simple I to V yet it still sounds beautiful.
SECTION 2: Enhanced Harmony Studies
In this section, we're going to start looking at the tunes - which is really what it's all about. We took simple tunes that you probably already know from your childhood, or from church or Americana for the course, such as "Amazing Grace" or "Danny Boy". We'll go through a simple version that's straightforward, then we do a more advanced version, and in some cases did a third version that's a reharmonization of the tune. Dig in and enjoy!
Red River Valley
Red River Valley will never be a hit again, that's not the point, but the progression is still a very important and common one even today. We explore ways to add harmonic interest and a bit of surprise as we progress through the variations.
Red River Valley: Version 1 Basic
Just about as simple as it gets. I and V with a little IV towards the end of the phrase. Make sure to "orchestrate" the song a bit in your own way and try to bring out the melody.
+ 32 more lessons
Reviews
18 results
bolso103
Verified buyer
11/19/25
Superb
Fantastic lessons, super clear!!
Christian J.
Verified buyer
12/09/24
Thanks Truefire and Tim Lerch for these excellent courses
jofo3
Verified buyer
12/08/24
Tim Lerch at his best!
Tim’s teaching style is remarkable…in keeping with his performance style.
sergisola
Verified buyer
07/17/24
Solo Jazz Pathways- Harmonic Enhancement
Tim Lerch has a very natural and organic way of teaching that really helps you to understand music. It's not about becoming a guitar hero, but rather a better musician and guitarist.Tim gives you different tools and approaches that you can use to be more creative. It's a very honest and well-thought course and, after having spent a long time studying licks, this course is having a healing effect on me and I'm really grateful for it. Thanks very much!
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