 |
| |||||||
|
Welcome to the Jazz Guitar Forums. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us. |
 |
| | LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
#1
10-12-2011, 02:27 AM
| ||||
| ||||
 Harmonizing non chord tones Hello, So I was wondering how you approach harmonizing non-chord tones. Say you have a G maj 7 chord with the melody note of A. How would you harmonize that? Would you play an A minor 7? or a G major 9? I have also been told that the suggested chord doesn't have to be followed and I can make up my owned chord progression. I also saw on a youtube video once that all non-chord tones could be played with diminished chords. How do you approach harmonizing melody notes that are not part of the suggested chord?     |
|
#2
10-12-2011, 04:17 AM
| |||
| |||
| I'm not an advanced player (not yet  ) but IMHO that could depends on "where we are from" and "where are we going to" but this is what comes in mind at the first glance:--------------------5------------------------- --------------------5------------------------- --------------------4------------------------- --------------------4------------------------- --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- --------------------5------------------------- --------------------3------------------------- --------------------4------------------------- --------------------4------------------------- --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- --------------------5------------------------- --------------------7------------------------- --------------------7------------------------- --------------------5------------------------- --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- |
|
#3
10-12-2011, 07:22 AM
| |||
| |||
| Every chord in the key of G major can harmonize an A note. There are 7 Major scales with an A note (including G Major) Using these Major scales-----7 scales X 7 chords Some of these chords are the same on the level of a 7th chord but have differences within the full extension. If you include melodic minor, harmonic minor, harmonic major then that's 21 more scales to draw from. Diminished scales adds 2 more and whole tone 1, etc. Many chords are possible but context, the level of tension and movement desired tell me what not to use. |
|
#4
10-12-2011, 09:22 AM
| ||||
| ||||
| Not all non-chord tones can be subbed with diminished chords. Only some Dominant chord alterations, such as b9. I started this way, taking a voicing that has the root or 5th on top, and substitute the root or 5th with whichever non-chord tone is in the melody, closest to the note I'm going to sub. So if it's a 9th of some sort, I'll substitute the root on top, if it's a 4th, altered 5th, or 6th of some sort, then I'll substitute the 5th. To make it a bit better, I'd substitute whichever I didn't for the melody, and just add it as a chord alteration. So say I had a Amin7 with a B in the melody, I'd play this voicing x x 5 5 5 5, alter it to this for the melody x x 5 5 5 7, and then I could alter the E to a 4th or a 6th of some sort. |
|
#5
10-12-2011, 09:32 AM
| |||
| |||
| Quote:
Yes, Gmaj9 is the Gmaj7 with the A in the melody. That's one way to do it. You can also use any of the major type G chords (G6/9 for example). Am7 is a diatonic substitution, a kind of reharmonization. There are also almost limitless possibilities with reharmonizing a melody completely outside of the key of the "chord of the moment". I've seen the internet things where guys say this is "the way you do chord melody" and proceed to do all kinds of random things. Some say to find the melody note and reharmonize it with any diatonic chord containing that melody note. Some say to find any random chord (in or out of the key, regardless of quality)you could possibly think of that contains the melody note and just find something that sounds good. I personally think that's rubbish for beginners at CM. The masters of jazz know what they're doing when they reharmonize a melody. The above methods are more in the "poke and hope" method of learning to play CM. That's fine if you're just going for one arrangement, but if you want to be able to eventually do some of this stuff on the fly using just your ears and/or a lead sheet, you have to understand what's going on at a deeper level than that. I think you've got basic key areas for learning to play chord melody. 1) Harmonizing the melody with the standard changes. 2) Harmonizing the melody with some chord substitution based on the standard changes. 3) Reharmonizing the melody. In my mind, these are in order of importance and difficulty. At the very least you should learn to harmonize the basic changes. That means, as a CM beginner, asking "what are some basic ways to play a G major-type chord with A in the melody?". That's basic harmonization of a melody. It's an important skill for comping too. Why would you not want to be able to do that? Once you're down with that idea and feel good about it, learn some basic chord substitution. Jody Fisher's chord melody book and countless others are good for this. Substitute the ii for the V or the bII for the V (or the Am7 for Gmaj7 that you mentioned above), but it's still based on the standard changes and isn't completely random. The real players are doing these things on purpose, not by accident. Reharmonizing the melody is where, for portions of the tune, you leave the standard changes completely. Again, rather than just poke and hope at the fretboard, why not look at what the greats did with reharmonization and try to understand why it works? For learning basic CM where you just harmonize the melody, I like Robert Conti's Chord Melody Assembly Line. It's his beginner how-to book. For chord substitution, there are a lot of books. For myself, I learned chord substitution mostly from Mel Bay's Complete Jazz Guitar Method by Mike Christiansen, but you'll find also find it in books like Chord Chemistry and Jody Fisher's chord melody book. Robert Conti's The Formula has some chord substitution and also reharmonization ideas in it. Reharmonization is a different beast and is on a whole different level. Robert Conti's The Formula is a great starting point, but you have to understand that there's a lot more going on with his reharms than is apparent in his simple explanations. You've got to get some arrangements in your ears and fingers as well to really understand reharmonization and do it on the fly. His reharmonization ideas came from his transcribing Oscar Peterson and other bigs back in the day. If you want examples of reharms written out, Conti's chord melody arrangement books are good for that. Beyond that, play others' arrangements like Barry Gailbraith and transcribe some chord melody. Play the greats and get that in your fingers and ears rather than randomly just playing whatever you can come up with as an inexperienced CM player. I don't yet do reharmonization on the fly, but I understand, at some basic levels, how it works. What I can do is play chord melody from a real book, on the fly, at a decent intermediate level. I throw in altered chords and some substitutions on the fly as well. I don't know that I ever would have gotten there the "random" way. I really wasn't ever interested in working for a week on one elaborately reharmonized arrangement when I couldn't even play a basic arrangement from a leadsheet. Last edited by matt.guitarteacher : 10-12-2011 at 12:24 PM. |
|
#6
10-12-2011, 09:34 AM
| ||||
| ||||
| The first chord I'd consider is a G major sound with an A on top, or a Gmaj9. If that didn't please my ears, I'd look at where the song was heading next and base decisions on that--can I anticipate the next chord? Is it a long stretch of Gmajor and can I substitute another chord from that key? Don't overthink it either--go to the source--listen to a few versions and see what note the bass player plays when that A note pops up. Research is very important. You can't just "make up a chord progression." There is such a thing as "reharmonization," but a true reharm is pretty advanced, and while it is indeed "making up a new progression," there's a bit more to it...plus, you have to decide what should be changed and what shouldn't. |
|
#7
10-12-2011, 10:05 AM
| ||||
| ||||
| What's the song? |
|
#9
10-12-2011, 10:51 AM
| ||||
| ||||
| Isn't it though? |
|
#10
10-18-2011, 05:46 AM
| ||||
| ||||
| Many options - you can use the 'non- chord tone' in this case it's a 9th so you can use it with the G chord as stated above. Also backcycling in the cycle can help, ie approach the G with it's dominant D7, then A becomes the fifth |
|
#11
11-23-2011, 11:26 AM
| |||
| |||
| Quote:
regard |
Linear Mode
