The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hey guys! I have a jazz trio (guitar, bass and drums) and I have been struggling a bit playing modal songs, (especially Footprints). Becuause of the abstract nature of modal playing, its really hard for me to set the color of a mode hamonically (when soloing) without another harmonic instrument helping out. ¿What advice would you guys give in soloing over modal songs when you are the only harmonic instrument? . Thanks in advance!

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  3. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by nicaguitar
    Hey guys! I have a jazz trio (guitar, bass and drums) and I have been struggling a bit playing modal songs, (especially Footprints). Becuause of the abstract nature of modal playing, its really hard for me to set the color of a mode hamonically (when soloing) without another harmonic instrument helping out. ¿What advice would you guys give in soloing over modal songs when you are the only harmonic instrument? . Thanks in advance!
    Footprints is a minor blues. I just approach it as such. Many versions of the tune have an "abstract" quality to them, but I think that comes mostly from people using "outside" techniques and quartal harmony to stretch the boundaries.


    John

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by John A.
    Footprints is a minor blues. I just approach it as such. Many versions of the tune have an "abstract" quality to them, but I think that comes mostly from people using "outside" techniques and quartal harmony to stretch the boundaries.


    John
    true, but I love to do all the quartal stuff in modal playing and sometimes I can´t help myself , but its pretty tough when your the only harmonic instrument. Thanks for the advice, I´ll try to treat it as a blues.

  5. #4

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    My trio quartet about to try this one also. I know I will struggle, don't know what quartel harmony is.

    We have been doing Impressions as well, someone suggested I add chords to my improve, that certainly gives it life, momentum, directional changes etc.

    Been transcribing Miles So What, as we all know it is truly stunning. There does not seem to be too much fancy stuff going on at all. What a story teller. I think he does Footprints also, will have to find it and dig in.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by gggomez
    Been transcribing Miles So What, as we all know it is truly stunning. There does not seem to be too much fancy stuff going on at all. What a story teller.
    Well said! Absolutely one of the coolest ways to solo on modal tunes is to focus on a melody instead of theoretical concepts. If you don't do it already, sing what you play. It's tricky at first, but eventually you'll make a connection where you can play what you sing, and eventually that evolves into playing what you hear in your head.

  7. #6

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    Barry Greene does a great video lesson on footprints (as well as dozens of other tunes).

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by gggomez
    My trio quartet about to try this one also. I know I will struggle, don't know what quartel harmony is.

    We have been doing Impressions as well, someone suggested I add chords to my improve, that certainly gives it life, momentum, directional changes etc.

    Been transcribing Miles So What, as we all know it is truly stunning. There does not seem to be too much fancy stuff going on at all. What a story teller. I think he does Footprints also, will have to find it and dig in.
    Quartal means building chords by stacking 4ths rather than 3rds. It's actually easier on guitar than buillding chords in 3rds. Barre the middle 4 strings with your index finger, and put your middle finger on the B string a half step up. Move that shape around, and voila! quartal harmony. The harmony in both So What (horn section + piano) and Impressions (bass and Piano) is quartal. The overall tonality of both of those tunes is dorian (modulating between D dorian and D# dorian). Stacks of 4ths starting on either D (DGCF) or E (EADG) are diatonic in D dorian (DEFGABC), ditto for A (ADGC) B (BEAD). You can also do stacks of 3 4ths (BEA, GCF).

    Getting back to Footprints (a Wayne Shorter tune that Miles Played with Shorter on "Miles Smiles"), use stacks of 4ths, but From C-dorian (CDEbABb) and F-dorian (FGAbBbCDEb) for the i and iv chords.

    You can do other stacks to introduce tension/dissonance, which is a huge part of McCoy Tyner's style that was picked up by lots of people (Mike Stern, bigly). It's easy to explore this without having to think about theory or positions or grips -- just stack 'em up and move 'em around, in whole steps, half steps, leaps, whatever sounds good.

    John
    Last edited by John A.; 12-13-2017 at 06:56 PM.

  9. #8
    Thanks for all the replys guys!!

    Enviado desde mi LG-H840 mediante Tapatalk

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by nicaguitar
    Hey guys! I have a jazz trio (guitar, bass and drums) and I have been struggling a bit playing modal songs, (especially Footprints). Becuause of the abstract nature of modal playing, its really hard for me to set the color of a mode hamonically (when soloing) without another harmonic instrument helping out. ¿What advice would you guys give in soloing over modal songs when you are the only harmonic instrument? . Thanks in advance!
    That's a really good question. I think in this case, Upper Structure triads are your friends... Bear in mind the bass player will often be outlining the bottom of the chord, so you have more freedom to explore the top of the chord.

    So, for instance

    C dorian --> Cm, Bb, Gm, F, Dm (Going up into the upper structure.)

    But other material also works well... Lines based on quartals and intervallic stuff is cool... Just be careful from getting too notey. That stuff belongs more in the later part of a solo, perhaps.

    Here is another thing, that's taken me a long time to learn about trio playing. Ration your single lines especially at the top of a solo. Play a lot of chords - quartal chords for instance - and link those chords melodically via the top voice.

    Aim for at least a 50/50 balance of chords and single note lines. It's not the only way to do the trio thing (Pat Metheny is very single line oriented for instance) - but that's what I'd advise myself, as it were. Don't think of the two things as seperate but mix it up!
    Last edited by christianm77; 12-15-2017 at 06:53 PM.

  11. #10

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    Also, to bring out the colour of the mode, target and hear the characteristic note(s) the mode.

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by gggomez
    My trio quartet about to try this one also. I know I will struggle, don't know what quartel harmony is.
    Some examples of quartal chords.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  13. #12

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    Thanks graham bop ok understand. Have been doing a bit of this but will sit down and choose some favourites. Thanks again


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  14. #13

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    Yo Nica, which version of the changes are you playing?

  15. #14

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    Also the melody of that tune is really cool in how it relates to the chords - it’s a good shout to look into that.....

  16. #15

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    Thinking about the Footprints as it's written as a composition...

    Wayne was quite known for writing a very specific bass-line as well as a melody, and this is tune is a very obvious example.

    In the head, the bass very obviously outlines a 1-b3-5 triad, the melody on the other hand has more of a floating 'sus' quality.

    For instance, the b3 is not sounded over the Cm chord. We have b7, 1, 6/13, 5, 4/11 and 9 on Cm. There is a strong influence here of the Gm pentatonic.

    So, this should be as good an object lesson on how to create the modality of the piece using just melody against a bass-line, and might serve as a strong source for your improvisations.

    As for the turnaround - that depends on which version of the changes you play.

  17. #16

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    Listening to the Adams Apples version it sounds like they are playing D7 Db7 on the blowing from b9-10... The head changes are apparently

    | F#m9 B(+5, +9) | E7+9 A(+5, +9, +11) | (note: no 7 shown on the B or A chords)Peter Spitzer Music Blog: Those "Footprints" Changes

    The changes are in the book 'Footprints' apparently

  18. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Listening to the Adams Apples version it sounds like they are playing D7 Db7 on the blowing from b9-10... The head changes are apparently

    | F#m9 B(+5, +9) | E7+9 A(+5, +9, +11) | (note: no 7 shown on the B or A chords)Peter Spitzer Music Blog: Those "Footprints" Changes

    The changes are in the book 'Footprints' apparently
    Check out this version. It slides between major and minor blues. Bars 9 and 10, Spalding plays E on and Eb, which sound to me like the 5 of A and Ab. Honestly, I think the whole point of this tune is "play anything that signals 'blues' for the last 4".



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  19. #18

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    Did you read the link? That's basically what the fella says. But what Wayne originally wrote is interesting too.

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Did you read the link? That's basically what the fella says. But what Wayne originally wrote is interesting too.
    Me? Yes I read it, and it makes a lot of sense to me. I thought the duet with Spalding illustrated it well.

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  21. #20

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    I think it is D7 and Db7 on the Adam’s apple version for the blowing though? (To my ears) he doesn’t mention that.

  22. #21

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    I think it is D7 and Db7 on the Adam’s apple version for the blowing though? (To my ears) he doesn’t mention that.

  23. #22

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    It’s funny, these simple jam session tunes always turn out to be not so simple....

  24. #23

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    Hard to say...no guitar or instrument with me here at the moment, but listening, I'm definitely hearing Herbie playing 4 chords in the turnaround most of the time...Carter floats it a bit more...arrrgh, I'm going to have to try and transcribe piano from a BLUE NOTE record...shiiiit.

  25. #24

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    Of course there's this poorly recorded example, where I play literally anything on the turnaround...


    Certainly not the best example, but I think it gets the idea across.