What is a + 4 chord

[Reg]

Hey Mr. B. The ear is the #1 tool, sure should be.....but many haven't taken the time to teach theirs ears to hear. And it's an on going education...
I'm not implying that what somewhat might hear as cool could be not so cool, but it's pretty amazing when you become aware of different musical concepts and how they influences how your ears hear. I'm just reflecting of my to many years involved in music and how my ears have changed.
I played a showcase gig last night, was subbing for regular keyboard player, all original cool tunes, had to read and only had short sound check to get dialed. But this one tune had a bunch of 8bar grooves with little pedal like ties... about half way through the tune I finally start to hear the his concept...he was using this simple 1/2 step melodic motif and moving it around different changes from Melodic Minors... sometimes changing the actual key and sometime changing the melodic motif in same MM, different modal feel from same MM key. The head was blazing...(tune was around 260) so at first was hard to hear harmonic concept. My point is I'm not sure at what point I became able to hear this level of harmonic construction or organization, but I know it isn't instinctive and my ears had to be taught to even be aware of what was going on. Reg

[ronjazz]

The original Real Book is good for learning how to find the right changes and the right bass motion, as Fake Book 1 was, since there are so many mistakes that correcting them will lead to a very clear understanding of harmonic motion, in the diatonic sense, anyway.

[TommyD]

I think that this thread has taken a tumble into a deep well - at least for me - and I beg leave to pull us up into daylight again.
I think what happened with Jamey Aebersold was that while they were preparing the music-minus-one accompaniment, the pianist played a chord that sounded just right - possible a chord that he had been playing in similar contexts for years - and Jamey said, "What is that chord? I have to write them down as we go, here, for use in the books." The pianist probably said, "Yeah, I know what you mean, Jim. I've always called this one 'E7 plus 4'. To which Aebersold likely replied, "Hey, works for me! Sounds great, too!"
And that, my friends, is why you can never take the word of saxophone players who try to play piano.

Speaking of music minus one, when he was a little boy my son commented that when I played along with music-minus-one it was still music minus one. How's that for a bratty fifth-grader? (He later went on to play all the Goldberg Variations up to tempo on piano, so I guess I forgive him.)
Tommy_