George Benson's "Secret of the 2 Chords" 

What's your biggest takeaway from this lesson? Do you like this approach? Let me know in the comments! 👇

"There are elements within an instrument’s architecture that initiate a continuous source of valuable information. For the guitar, there are two. The first is the major third interval, and the second is the minor third interval. Once we view their repetitive information, they begin to appear as a series of automatic functions." -Pat Martino

This concept is the biggest mic drop in jazz education since Joe Pass said he thinks of II-V as simply V. I have a feeling it’s going to make a huge difference for me. Thanks Chase as always for making excellent videos!

Great lesson. Yes, please do the Pat Martino one! Thank you!

Excellent clear and incisive. I believe Joe Pass said jazz wasa series of 2 5's and the 2 is the same as the 5 (as you point out here) so during fast changes just play the 5. Best advice I ever heard.

Play what you already know and expand to other tonalities. The Juice Chase!!! Always thought best to hear it from the senior student no matter the discipline. Generally way easier to comprehend. Many thanks

Great info chase! I must say after studying Pat Martino and Barry Harrys, I like to simplify and not think about too much! What I’ve discovered works for me is translating pieces of language to all keys and areas of the guitar and having them connect as I hear them in my head, then no thinking just playing ideas! Great video!

Thanks. Very clear, and I like the pace you're teaching at. Not too fast and not too slow.

Brother Chase... thank you for this lesson and breakdown and keeping your word that you would do the lesson if there was enough interest as I remember it. Will have to hit repeat several times to let it soak in. Have a good one!!!

I'm a huge Benson fan and I Love this concept. Thank you very much Maestro

Omg it does make it easier to approach the solos without thinking about all chords .. I was using the ii-V as a minor line or dominant line already but this theory helps simplify it more

Thank you so much for this fantastic follow up. Stellar content.

Excellent description Chase and presented in a way that anyone can grasp the concept, way to go!

Thanks for breaking this down!!!

Great lesson, thanks.

Chase, this was a gift. I have been needing to open my eyes and see these relationships for soloing. Many thanks.

Very well presented. Much to think about and enjoy here. Great!

Great Lesson..Thank you Chase

Excellent. So clear. Category 1 I, iii, vi and category 2. ii, iv, V, vii. A certain GB 'expert' would take about 267 hour to try to do this and imo wouldn't suceed.

So helpful! Thanks man 💡

Thanks Chase this rocks!

great lesson

Hey chase. I love this video. Yes to the Pat Martino breakdown

This is gold,thank you teacher for sharing your knowledge 🤝

I’m a blues guy, working at putting greener comping (!) into my playing. I really connected with your chat on playing the octaves and adding the inside notes- fuller is better as EC and JB both say. The rest is grandma’s Christmas gravy and I’m gonna dive in with this- and your lessons- regularly. Thanks, this is a score!❤

Mind Blowing！！！！！THANKS bro

Thanks you so much!!! This is really enlightening!! And indeed I can now see lots of examples…like in the Affirmation solo he is using a lot this concept

Thanks a lot Chase ; and I'm ready for a lesson with Pat Martino . With pleasure

Excellent lesson and video. I think of it as tonic versus not-tonic. There is a lot potentially going on in that not tonic category, but like chase said, it contains the fourth degree of the key, or the flat seven of the dominant chord.

..Chase, Victor logging in from NY, where it’s super windy but sunny 🌞..I think this is one of your best tutorials, an important concept explained in a simple way that is not overwhelming, nice man..I tried some variations of my own on the third line, more of an eighth note line rather than the 16th note burst type that GB loves to fire over a static chord vamp..

Excellent! I'm starting to try this approach on different tunes. YES on a Pat Martino lesson, by the way.

15 minutes to sound less crummy! I’ll take that deal!

Collection of info: into the chords containing E are major, chords containing F etc Am7 inverted is C6 Dm7 inverted is F6 Em7 inverted is G6 G6 has less dominant effect without the b7, but it still does have dominant function V I Chords with F have at least subdominant function (G7 and technically Bdim having dominant function, Fmaj7 and Dm7 subdominant) Bm7b5 is G9 without the root. Bdim is the upper part of G7

Yes, please do the Martino thing. Is it Parental Forms? I think I understand that pretty well.

I was actually there that night Benson sat in with Robben. It was at a club in New York called Mikell's in the late eighties. It was Robber's band,,he played there a lot at that time. It was a nice surprise, they also played Billy's Bounce. The band that night was Dr Lonnie Smith, Chris Hunter, Zev Kats and I forget who the drummer was. Some of the other people that played there with Robben was the drummer Mike Clark and an amazing tenor player named Bob Malach. Mikell's unfortunately is long gone.

I think this is going to be a big deal for me. Thank-you, Chase.

Great! Was already doing a lot of this, not knowing it was a thing. B-7b5 is always D- and so is G7.. Typically, I think of G7b9 and E7b9 as the same. Sort of G#diminished. Usually 4 chord is 1 chord minor for me. Thank you. Definitely interested in the Pat Martino switch all to minor. Still trying to figure it out. I have a lot to learn on this one.

Very nice to know how Benson looks at it...i normaly think the same concept except on some resolutions such as 2-5-1 i think Of 4-7-1 FMaj7;Bm7b5;CMaj7 and sometimes instead of thinking on the Bm7b5 as the 5, i do Db79#11

Thanks for the real nice lesson, Chase...I would love to see you do a lesson of the late Pat Martino's guitar playing. Been a big fan of his ever since I first heard his live recording of Sunny many years ago.

Great ideas. Is there a specific course on benson in your Academy? Can't wait x Pat Martino one

Great stuff! I know some of this but not all, so definitely will explore. Would love to get some sense of Pat Martino's approach that I can actually understand. 😄

Great lesson Chase 👍🎸 I've been working on this 2 chord appeoach for awhile, still have so far to go. Would love to see a video on Pat Matino's minor approach too. I have his book on minor activity lines, really enjoy these concepts! Best to you brother!

I like this approach a lot - thank you. This seems to be about reducing things to either tonic or dominant/subdominant. I would be interested to understand how this fits with Pat Martino converting everything to minor; and also Joe Pass saying he only thinks in terms of major, minor and dominant chords. They all sound similar but slightly different.

Non è facile spiegare certi concetti in maniera così semplice ed esaustiva. È una dote ammirevole.

I think i might be able to grasp this, I'm close, thanks,,,,,,by the way, excellent,well played

Wow, when I was young, I worked my ass off with the Charlie Parker songbook - but I never could use it for improvising. This helps me out. But: one main secret of Benson from my humble oppinion: he knows always exactly where he is in the tune, because he's listening while playing. he's so incredible musically. He can sing what he's playing.

Always interesting to compare the differences between the greats. For example, Barry Harris says "think V over II-V" rather than II and emphasizes that Em7 and Am7 are not the same chord so that we can bring out that difference in our improvisations. Neither is wrong - they've obviously both produced great art with their respective methods - just different. And it's good for developing musicians (i.e., all of us) to have different ways to think about music.

Would also like hear about Pat Martino’s approach. Thanks

Great 👍 🎉🍻

Wow, awesome way to look at things! When I was a beginner, my dad told me "just play any note in the scale and it'll work", which got me pretty far. Then I started trying to connect 3rds and 7ths, superimposing pentatonics, etc. but it's hard to do all that computation on the spot. This looks way easier! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for this explanation. Reminds me of tonicization. I think a lot of people get lost in improvisation because they overcomplicate it. To me as far as note choice it's more a process of elimination.

playing through changes with shaun baxter cover this too. It starts at 1:22 melodic minor scale choices. A lesson on Baxter's melodic scale choices would be great! thanx

I've just had a think about this trying to relate it to Barry Harris important arpeggios on the dominant, in this case G7. The important arpeggios are root (Gmaj), 5th (Dmin) and b7 (Fmaj). So what about the Bm7b5? That's Barrys 6th on the 5th, which is Dmin6, which Bm7b5 is an inversion of. So Benson and Barry are thinking the same thing in terms of putting G7, Dmin7,Fmaj7 and Bm7b5 together as the "minor totality" within the diatonic (C maj). Awesome vid - thanks!

Thanks for sharing knowledge. This is how we change the world for better. That guy insulting you should be collaborating with younger cats like you instead of claiming he’s the only one who can teach this. In an era where you can find everything on internet it’s a shame to know somebody is talking Sh… about others educators. Rick Beato has helped millions of people without take anyone down. Keep the great job you’re doing. Here there’s a new subscriber! 🎉🎉🎉

This video is going to blow up!!! I appreciate your explanation, btw. I've heard one other person attempt to explain it. But his program is way too expensive and his accent is too hard to understand. So, thank you!

I am wondering how the corollary for this 2 chord system would work in minor keys. With Am as the relative minor of C Major, the F note which would be the landing note for Em (III chord in C major) does not seem to be the same treatment as the F note is in the Em (V chord in Am) but would not be in the E7 (typical minor key Am V chord).

Please! Make the Martino version of this. Thanks

Chase, this is easily one the most important lessons on the internet, great for rhythm changes, even song writing. I stumbled on this early 20O1, never looked back. If you are flexible with the “chord tone down beat” rule, play your first line over G13. F Lydian or B Locrian, D Dorian all work over G13. Lots of choices. You can borrow any diatonic mode fingering and use on those diatonic changes( I know you know this stuff). Great lesson! Thanks

recently watched Rick Beato's interview with Mr. Benson, which was great, but all the things they talked about were higher level and stories. To have some nuts and bolts is great. It totally makes sense that his approach would be clean as a whistle. It seems that the way music is talked about is antiquated, the concepts are usually quite simple, but the necessity to translate in language is the problem. It may be that the great players simply have greater facility in circumventing that bottleneck by speaking the language of music natively, which is why they sometimes seem frustrated when attempting to communicate those simple concepts to a lay person. I remember a Danny Gatton video where he basically just said something like, "if you want to play you got to figure it out", when talking about what notes work over what chords when stepping out of the diatonic center. That was some tough love.

Hi Chase. Great video. I found your explanation of this Benson concept very easy to follow. Is there any variation to this concept in minor keys? Especially on the V chord in Am for example? E7 doesn't seem to relate well to the Bm7b5, Dm, F or G category. I may be missing something. Your help is appreciated. Thanks.

In "Stella By Stralight" play Dminor over Bbmaj7,Aminor over Fmaj7.All the major7 chords convert into up 3rd minor that might Pat Martino's substituion ideas?

Fantastic lesson bro!!👍🎩👍 The explanation of the improv throughout the changes, was awesome. Great job!! Hey, if you don't mind. Can you please slow those benson lines down a bit. Lol😂 So we can see exactly whats happenning there. One at your regular tempo, then one slower. Thanks.

Quite interesting!! Pat Martino, do it!

I just pretty much think Minor (a la Pat Martino) but struggle on Major chords a bit and have to make alterations. This I think solves the problem. Many (many) thanks. 😊

Good lesson Chase. Thank you. As well as a Pat Martino - reduce everything to minor - lesson, could you also do Barry Harris lesson as a comparison? Even better if you could do them side by side - compare and contrast the two approaches.

In a progression the Dm7, Fmaj7, G7 and Bm7b5 chords will also create "movement" in relation to Cmaj7 (played before or after Cmaj7) for the same reason...Dm7, Fmaj7, G7 and Bm7b5 contain the 4 of Cmaj7 (the unresolved interval in C Ionian which is the F note.) Cmaj7, Em7 and Am7 do not have the F note and are therefore "resolved" to Cmaj7 which provide "rest." This realization opens up many harmonic doors.

Stella: putting in brain so when you says we arent getting into too much theory and said take the g minor up a minor third, then this A7altered is gonna be the tri tone V of the Ab thus the Bb min cat. right?

Pat Martino Vid.. Yes Please!

Do you give in person lessons? Im in South Florida

How do you address non diatonic substitutions then? If Am (6th) suddenly becomes A do you treat that as a new Major Category in the key of A temporarily? Or perhaps as the F#m category since it is likely a secondary dominant? Does this formula only fit diatonics and you need to adjust the diatonic key to fit the formula? I like the approach. Genius really the whole downbeat thing.

Peter Ferrell?

When you say "line" are you meaning the major played over the root chord? I feel I am missing something.

🙌🙌🙌

You’re great at this, Chase. I hope you’re getting decently paid for it!

Fantastic! Great lesson very clear! Chase, you are a great teacher and tremendous good to all jazz enthusiasts and though I’ve not seen Peter Farrell’s attack on you, it seems to me that he is probably upset and jealous that his teaching might not be as good as yours and want to destroy you. My suggestion is to pay no mind to him and to keep doing what you’re doing!

may i ask what your education is? i haven’t heard this expressed so well - thanks!

Yo make a video about the pat martino method

Opening music “I’ve never been in love before “?

I will try this out and see what happens.

Secret or not - I don't care. It all makes perfect sense (for reasons I can't explain, but you can!) Thanks!

It's a pity that there is such arrogance emanating from Peter Farrell regarding George Benson's method. Peter is now insulting you, calling you names and claiming that you are trying to teach something that you know absolutely nothing about, as if he is the only person on the planet that knows anything about the Benson method. He admits that it took him years to really "understand” what George meant when he said there are only “two chords” and now because you are sharing what you understand by George’s remark (after watching Rick Beato’s interview) he is criticizing you as if you are a novice regarding guitar instruction. Chase you are perfectly entitled to interpret Benson’s remark in any way you like. Thanks for freely sharing your interpretation and not charging us $250 to reveal some ambiguous nebulous “secret”. Peter’s lessons are generally unstructured, unfocussed and all over the place. But I suppose that is the way you have to “teach” and market you products if you want to keep people in the dark, creating the illusion that everything is “hidden” and a “secret”.

👍

2:50

But Fmaj7 has an E in it as well.

So the basic message is that over the “C major group” chords, you can play the same line over any of the chords, and the same logic applies to the “D minor group” chords??

Do pat martino

With greatest respect, that’s not how I see what the great man was referring to. When he said that, my response was yes, that’s what I do. I’m 70 with many thousands of gigs behind me: swing, Honky-Tonk, Soul, R&B. To me he was talking about chord solos, not single note solos. That cluster you quoted works over all the chords of the home key. The modes of that key all have those notes. Passive modes, I call them. They are the default fall back to all solos when home key chords prevail in the chart. In chord solos from double stops, triads, shells or drop chords, the ONLY rule is major or minor. All the rest is colour. (Remember, major loves minor, but minor will never tolerate major) Get that right in your chords in home key and everything will work. Get it wrong and you’ll clash. Simple as that. Thst being said, great chord solos can avoid the third and the minor chord: blues double stops do this all the time. George sang everything he played. He was never a left brainer, always a right brainer, always sung. Major, minor is the fundemental to how we hear music. All the rest is colour. He was, to me, saying something simple.

I could follow the logic until the last Example "stella by Stralight". If in a certain tune e.g. a Minor chord pops up and I can't immediately judge to which key center it beklongs, how can I determine if it falls into the major or minor category (except for obvious II-V's)? Sorry for the stupid question, but even after some research on the Benson 2 chord concept I couldn't find any other helpful source (and Peter Farrell was immediately out of scope. I do not support haters i social media. They are ruining our society)

I haven't watched yet. But my guess is the two chords are V dominant and I major

I've been trying to understand the secret of 2 chords by George Benson. But peter farell won't give you a clue on it. He'll want you to pay huge money for the book. and i never enjoyed Peter Farrell's teachings. Infact i stopped watching his videos cause I've never understood anything from his lessons. He'll like to keep you in the dark so you can purchase his books. I've searched the internet to know if there's any other teacher that have done a lesson on Benson's 2 chord secret, but i found none. Thank you Chase Madox for this lesson, and thanks to @rick beato for that interview, because that's what brought about this lesson.

I fail to see how any of this specifically applies to George Benson's style of playing (?).

You’re a smart guy Chase you should get a better turntable

I don't pay attention to what notes are on strong or weak beats. I just let my ear guide me when improvising a solo.

accidentally read the title as ""George Bush's Secret of the 2 Chords"💀💀💀

My Biggest take-away; I'm an idiot. -- Thanks

Arrêtez chacun sa Méthode j’ai beaucoup appris de Peter et de Chase.Vive la Musique.

I “stumbled upon” some similar concepts “decades ago” when I discover the “scale of thirds”, for example Key of C A C E G B D G B D F A C E Key of G E G B D F# A D F# A C E G B Key of F D F A C E G C E G Bb D F A The “scale of thirds” allowed me to easily see the relationships between: Key of C Am7-Cma7-Em7 G7-Bm7b5-Dm7-Fmaj7 Key of G Em7-Gma7-Bm7 D7-F#m7b5-Am7-Cmaj7 Key of F Dm7-Fma7-Am7 C7-Em7b5-Gm7-Bbmaj7 Perhaps this comment will help fellow “students of the guitar” see things in a fresh and interesting light!?

First

I know it’s royalty free but Chef John and RLM have that opening song on lockdown. “Hack Frauds!” Great vid tho.

Man, you are doing a great job with this channel, but this time I think you came out very uncollegial. Of course, the analysis of Benson's playing does not belong to anyone. If anything, the more people do it the better. But in this case you used the terms and principles of another teacher and RU-vidr, knowingly, I guess. It's also perfectly fine, but the minimum required as a colleague, I believe, is to give credit and even a reference to the person who invented and promotes this term and method. Even if he is a business competitor. And again, all this without taking away the great work you do on this channel, spreading the teaching of jazz to the masses.