The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    Do you hear much MM on Miles' solo? It's been years since I transcribed it, but I remember very few instances of C#'s (or D naturals on the Eb-) and mostly in passing, at that.
    There's not a huge amount of it, but he uses it as an ascending line early on in the solo. Of course you could just hear it as a lower neighbour tone, which is how it's being used.

    Actually thinking about it - I would suggest that for the melodic minor to be really used in soloing, the 7th would not be resolved upwards by half step.

    It's only then that the harmonic sound is really heard - does that sound right to you?

    (Otherwise everytime a musician plays a #4 going in to the 5 on a minor chord we have to talk about them playing the Dorian #4 scale or something... )

    Anyway, here is Wes on Nica's Dream, because a) it's awesome and b) it gives a nice sense of what Wes does over these chords that are usually given as min(maj7) in Realbooks. He uses b7 and 7 freely, at least to my ears.


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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

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    Clear and concise presentation (for the curious, like me ).

    Very useful for arranging, imo - otherwise a hiding to nothing (as you needn't have a nomenclature to create a framework for hearing, organising and applying the sounds when improvising).

  4. #28

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    I actually think modal interchange is fairly simple although, like everything else, it can be complicated. If you see a non-diatonic chord - or two - in amongst the diatonic stuff it's obviously come from some other key.

    For example, if (instead of the usual Am7 - Dm7 - G7 - CM7) you see | Am7 | Fm7 | Bb7 | CM7 | obviously those two middle chords are not diatonic to C major - they come from Eb major. That's not very complicated.

    If you see | Am7 | Dm7b5 | G7 |CM7 | then they come from C harmonic minor... etc etc. So you know what to play over them.

    The problem, of course, is spotting the appropriate key. Knowing all the possible chords from all the possible keys is a bit of a call.

    In the simple example | Am7 | Dm7 | G7 | CM7 | that Dm7 - G7 could also come from C melodic minor, which could be used to solo over those two chords.

    MI is not modulation, however, as when the bridge or other part of the tune definitely goes into another key, like 'All The Things You Are' has five definite keys (and possibly some minor stuff too). Nevertheless the principle is the same and that can be recognised.

    NOTE: Incidentally, a lot of the time you can just recognise that those odd chords are substitutions for the usual 2-5 and keep playing the key you're in. Try it, it's not ineffective.

    This music stuff can be hell. I don't know why I do it :-)

  5. #29

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    NOTE: Incidentally, a lot of the time you can just recognise that those odd chords are substitutions for the usual 2-5 and keep playing the key you're in. Try it, it's not ineffective.
    As we're doing it, that can also be done in reverse. Say the chords are Dm7 - G7. You could solo over them using Fm7 - Bb7 or another MI idea as a basis. That works too.

  6. #30

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    Modal interchange is so incredibly common in Western music that it should perhaps be thought an essential feature, not an exotic technique.

    I once read a classical harmony textbook that said we shouldn't think of there being a major or minor key - but that major and minor all together - parallel & relative.

    Gjerdingen talks about scale mutations - for example, due to features of the old Guidonian solfege system, so that we have parallel major, lydian and mixolydian modes (as we would call them in jazzland.) He argues to the musicians of Bach & Mozart's eras, these wouldn't have been thought of as modulations but rather elements of the same tonality. The use of a II7 chord (as we would understand it) was taught as an basic harmonisation of the major scale - we would today understand it as a secondary dominant, but back in the day it was merely a mutation of the basic scale that sounded elegant and stylish. The same for the bVI7 chord in minor.

    One of the most colourful modal colours in this era of music is the so called Neapolitan sixth chord, which is not the only Phyrigian flavoured chord in the music of that era.

    All these features are present in jazz standards and lines.

    Charlie Parker's harmony is very rich in major/minor interchange.

  7. #31

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    Practical use of Modal Interchange-modes-c-copy-jpg
    Attached Images Attached Images Practical use of Modal Interchange-modes-c-jpg 
    Last edited by Stevebol; 09-04-2017 at 07:34 AM.

  8. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by Stevebol
    Practical use of Modal Interchange-modes-c-copy-jpg
    By the way, there's an implication in other posts that the above is too much or something, and of course it is. But that's not really the point. It's like anything else . You learn one bit at a time. Find one chord sub you like, and work it in over a week or so.

    Dismissing the whole thing with the idea that "you can't think of that entire chart at once" is missing the point. We mostly learn things one sound at a time, or one phrase at a time etc. That doesn't mean it didn't have a larger context in the beginning.

  9. #33

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    I think a very simple example is Green Dolphin Street, i.e. starts with 2 bars Eb major then 2 bars Eb minor.
    You deserve a prize for giving the most lucid and simplest example of modal interchange. In tech speak the song goes from Ionian to Aeolian at the beginning.

  10. #34

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    BTW, not all scale mutations are modal interchanges... The aug6 example was actually pretty off topic for the thread (sorry I'm a divergent thinker)... BUT - you could see it as locrian chord if that floats your boat.

    There are so many ways of understanding music. For instance, the standard minor MI insertion (as ragman calls it, which sounds a bit upsetting to me, but I'll go with it) is to use these chords in major:

    IIm7b5 - 2 4 b6 1
    V7b9 - 5 7 2 4 b6
    IVm6 - 4 b6 1 2
    VIIo7 - 7 2 4 b6
    bVII7 - b7 2 4 b6

    Notice, how none of these chords include the third of the key. In fact for all but one the only non major note is the b6. So we have a number of interpretations available

    1. Major/minor modal interchange - the traditional view. Swap major for parallel minor.
    2. Scale mutation - flat the 6 (and 7)
    3. Which leads to... the Harmonic Major and in the last case the Mix7b6.
    4. The Barry Harris Maj6-dim which covers all these chords except the last. Basically - instead of changing the 6 to a b6, add it into the scale. This has the added bonus of giving you relative minor as well.

    The first can be a problem as in fact melodies on these chords quite often feature the major third. Days of Wine and Roses is a case in point. A on Bbm in F. So if it can't be a major/minor modal interchange.

    Soloing wise? Depends. You can just play on the basic chords, which is what Barry Harris kind of teaches. #11 etc, not important.
    Last edited by christianm77; 09-05-2017 at 08:32 AM.

  11. #35

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    Fmin6 is nice over a Dmin or Dmin7b5 ii chord sometimes

    Dunno what you call it ?

    Modal interchange , substitution , up a min third
    Sounds nice tho

  12. #36

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    Quote Originally Posted by pingu
    Fmin6 is nice over a Dmin or Dmin7b5 ii chord sometimes

    Dunno what you call it ?

    Modal interchange , substitution , up a min third
    Sounds nice tho
    I think it's called Dm7b5 being the same chord as Fm6? :-D

    If you play it on Dm you could call it modal interchange to C minor.

  13. #37

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    Definitions.....

    What is a key? A key center? A key signature? A tonal center? A tonal area? Centricity? Pitch collection?

    A key signature indicates a starting reference of seven notes.
    What about the rest of these?

    It so happens that music will often transcend the pitch content of a single scale.
    Traditionally this is not automatically considered indicative of a modulation.
    A modulation in that mindset is confirmed by a cadence to the new harmonic area.
    The appearance of a few chords that did nothing to shift the tonal center were considered "borrowed".
    While the appearance of such chords might compel the composer/improvisor to integrate additional notes,
    the tonal center remains unchanged. Every 7 note scale will share no less than two common tones with every
    other 7 note scale. Some scale pairs will have just a single note differential.

    Modal interchange is one possible framework to understand/generate harmonic partnerships drawn
    from multiple scale sources. Use it or ignore it. It is not a law of nature. People made this stuff up.
    Choose or create whatever vantage point best serves your personal creative path.
    The music matters, the methods less so.

  14. #38

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    Another great video presentation (with examples that are right up my street):

  15. #39

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    very good video....thanks for posting!

  16. #40

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    Anybody serious about bebop needs to master major/minor modal interchange. It's kind of the most important thing. More important than tritone subs or altered harmony.

    I'm aware I'm repeating myself... But it might be worth thinking about the parallel minor and major as the same tonality.
    Last edited by christianm77; 09-29-2017 at 09:24 AM.

  17. #41

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    That's a good channel, BTW. I like this video


  18. #42

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    So yea... Modal Interchange is just a term, so is borrowing, but they both have references from which the basic guidelines of use or understandings come from.

    Borrowing is from functional harmony.... which has one set of guideline which define what notes create function. How notes react together and which notes control the movement, which creates the Function. Function is just a term for defining different types of chord movement.

    Functional Harmony... is just Tonic, Dominant and subdominant movement, based on Major or Ionian guidelines.

    Borrowing.... uses basic Relative and Parallel relationships from which to have access to different chord movement... But the basic reference, the guidelines for function, how notes react and which notes control the movement remain the same. Major, Ionian.

    Modal interchanges opens more doors for expanding the basic Borrowing practice, and also opens possibilities for having different notes control function. Using Modal concepts. Different from Schoenberg's Structural Functions of Harmony, which still uses Maj/Min functional harmony as Reference.

    It really doesn't mean anything... but the results are different. Example can be comping. Most guitarist can somewhat use inversions of chords to help create chordal movement and create lead lines. But that results in very vanilla and boring comping. All the interesting notes become embellishment etc...Eventually your able to use lead lines or different melodic lines on top of Chord Patterns. Chord Patterns when applied with Modal Interchange principals, expand the possibilities of Function. The lead line and inner voices and even the lowest note can all become independent contrapuntal parts. You can expand functional harmony... with organization.

    Much like many use subs to expand the access to more chords etc. and the basic organization is the use of Subs. Generally you would use some type of organization for how you use the subs... Adding Modal Interchange to use of Subs can expand single chord subs to becoming Chord Patterns, and access to Melodic Minor which helps Blue Notes or Blue note lines or licks to be voiced with different Chords with different functional movement.

    Don't bother to really try and understand Model Interchange if you don't understand Functional harmony. Would be like trying to spell without knowing what letters are.

    I know my post are unorganized and difficult to really get much out of.....but I'm always open to discussions etc...
    Another note.... Generally when your performing jazz.... your using everything, everything is going on all the time. Modal Interchange is always going on... even when your not using it. Years ago I would say record yourself soloing over a tune. Then take that solo and create harmony below each note.... so instead of one chord with a bunch of improvised notes above. Have a different chord for each note...
    and then try having a bunch of improvised chords under each note.

    You'll begin to at least be able to hear and see how organized chordal movement happens...or not.