Tim Lerch's Chord Dictionary vs Robert Conti's Assembly Line

[Tal_175]

Judging by the descriptions it seems like these books are based on the same concept. They both provide a chord vocabulary organization based on the top voice, that is one voicing for each chord type per melody note. Is that correct?

[tbeltrans]

Yes, that is true. However, what Conti's Assembly Line prepares your for is to work with "The Formula" in which you are matching up chord forms with a melody notes while using tools he teaches to determine what chords will be used to create ever-changing harmony. In other words, there is much more to Conti's "story".

This doesn't diminish Tim Lerch's book, but while there are similarities in the beginning with Conti's approach, Conti continues showing all you can do once you have those basics of matching a chord form to a melody note down (i.e. that is the beginning, not the meal).

I have Tim's book too, but haven't done much with it so far. Tim Lerch certainly has quite a bit more material available from Truefire and from his site that is actually quite good. But where Conti shines is that he has a step by step logical approach beginning to end where everything builds on what came before. I think Conti would have been a good engineer because he has a very logical, linear mind.

Tony

[Tal_175]

Yes, that is true. However, what Conti's Assembly Line prepares your for is to work with "The Formula" in which you are matching up chord forms with a melody notes while using tools he teaches to determine what chords will be used to create ever-changing harmony. In other words, there is much more to Conti's "story".

This doesn't diminish Tim Lerch's book, but while there are similarities in the beginning with Conti's approach, Conti continues showing all you can do once you have those basics of matching a chord form to a melody note down (i.e. that is the beginning, not the meal).

I have Tim's book too, but haven't done much with it so far. Tim Lerch certainly has quite a bit more material available from Truefire and from his site that is actually quite good. But where Conti shines is that he has a step by step logical approach beginning to end where everything builds on what came before. I think Conti would have been a good engineer because he has a very logical, linear mind.

Tony

Thanks. I have Conti's "The Formula" book. Over the years I think I have developed a decent chord vocabulary. Besides, other than the note names, I use intervallic relationships to navigate the fretboard which helps me to build new chord voicings on the fly (at least in the woodshed). So, I suppose I don't have much to gain from Conti's "Assembly line" book. But I do like the Formula book for working on reharmonizations.

I'm curious about one thing though. I read in the description of the Assembly Line that there are voicings for each chord type that cover every scale and chromatic note. So does that mean he doesn't treat the so called "avoid notes" or chromatic passing notes in a special way? I mean, say, does he have voicings of Cmaj with an F on top or a Db on top? Or does he borrow different chords for these more clashy top notes?

If I harmonize such notes, my preference is to use a passing chord which could be diatonic, diminished or dominant of sorts.

[tbeltrans]

For the 'F' melody note, he uses D minor. He uses various chords such as augmented, etc. They all work. At the back of Assembly Line, he provides several alternative forms for most of the chords used in the book.

Throughout the Assembly Line book, he only uses one form for each melody note. That way, he eliminates any guesswork so that there is only one "right" answer for each musical situation. To me, this makes perfect sense because when working from a book without a "live" teacher, it is all too easy to get lost in the weeds trying to figure out what the author wants. Conti eliminates that. I have seen some folks disparage his approach (this was years ago...in more recent years, folks seem to have become more accepting of his approach), but for self-teaching, especially until the student understands the mechanics he is trying to convey, I can't think of a better approach.

In "The Formula", there are many solutions to a given situation, but by that time, you are expected to have gone through "Assembly Line" and be able to quickly put together a chord melody from a fakebook (i.e. the "Assembly Line" approach). Also, by the time you get to "The Formula", you have been playing all the chord forms used and therefore can focus on the subject matter instead of trying to get your fingers around the chord forms. This is an example of how Conti's material builds on what came before.

Tony