I’m no expert in music or jazz, just a happy amateur trying to learn new stuff and make sense of what I already know. So the following is simply an introduction on how I think about the topic. My personal mental map, if you will.
For this reason it’s helpful for you to read thought everything from beginning to end, even if you already know the difference between major and minor scales and chords, or how to play Cmaj13 “jazz style”. I’ve tried to explore the subject in logical steps, so that we can expand upon what we already know and start to see all the different relationships present in the music.
However, the following text assume that you already know how to read notation, at least on a very basic level, and how to play it on a keyboard. If you don’t already know that, please take time to learn it before continuing.