Looking for Quartal Harmony Jazz Blues/Blues applications

[gersdal]

Will,
Worked a bit more on your voicings, and modified them to fit me :-). I started with the "So what" quartal voicings in D Dorian, which also is good in G-mixolydian. Then worked my way into some decent voicings that I would have "accepted" in a blues in G. Added in a proposal for a D-altered in the end. Comments?

[WillMbCdn5]

Hi

great to see you are exploring the quartal voicings - notes stacked in fourths applied through scale based intervals ideas - I have to be honest I am very much a theory challenged player but love the tonal landscape and ambiguity that quartal voicings offer. That said I think they they are best applied to my ear in conjunction with other ideas rather than a landscape on their own. While I see problems thinking this way I do see that some of the voicings are common to other ways of looking at things. My own way of trying to incorporate the idea has been to see the quartal voicings as upper /lower approach to subs within basic jazz blues structures.

Will

[Lionelsax]

Quartal harmony on tonal sounds weird but if you add a bass (I'm talking about the instrument not the note) it really sounds great.
On modal, it's probably the best use.

[gersdal]

Quartal harmony on tonal sounds weird but if you add a bass (I'm talking about the instrument not the note) it really sounds great.
On modal, it's probably the best use.

Yes. And a blues is rather modal.

[Lionelsax]

Yes. And a blues is rather modal.

I IV I I
IV IV I VI
II V I V

Is it modal for you ?

But I understand what you mean, blues can be everything.

[gersdal]

I IV I I
IV IV I VI
II V I V

Is it modal for you ?

But I understand what you mean, blues can be everything.

I IV I I
IV IV I VI
II V I V
is not modal, but it is not a blues

First of all in a blues they are not major chords, they are all dominant chords. A theory analysis of a blues have been done many times in different ways, and I've seen V7/IV - V7/bVII - etc as analysis. For me quite meaningless versions of forcing a blues into functional harmony. A simple: I mixo - IV mixo - I mixo - I altered etc is just as good IMHO :-) Anyway, if I should try to play modal chords over a blues I would try to think that way.

[christianm77]

Quarrel voicings work great - perhaps best - with pentatonics. Can't remember if that's been mentioned.

[Lionelsax]

Well, you can play a lonely chord on a basic blues, I said very basic, three dominant chords.
On a basic C blues just DGCF, it will sound good all over the chord progression.
I write it in tabs for those who don't know what I'm talking about.

x x 0 0 1 1
x 5 5 5 6 x
10 10 10 10 x x

On C7 (9 5 R 4)
On F7 (6 9 5 R)
On G7 (5 R 4 7)

Not really original but you can get an idea.

A month ago, I would have said, it is not easy, but quartal harmony is the simplest thing to play on guitar.

[Lionelsax]

Well, I think for the blues, it is not the best application.

Basic blues on bass
Quartal chords on guitar

[edh]

Thanks for the PDF Lionelsax