Chord Patterns

[pauln]

A 251 using Joe's affection for high E string pedal tones.
My apologies in advance for doing this in F# major's six
sharp key, wanted to avoid double digit fret numbers to
keep the schema format looking even and easy to read.

G#m9 -> C#(13) -> F#maj7

three strings, all rootless
x x x 8 7 6
x x x 4 6 6
x x x 6 6 6

four strings
x x 9 8 7 6 rootless, unless you call it Bmaj7
x x 3 4 6 6 rootless
x x 4 6 6 6

And here is the same thing up in the double digit frets...

x 14 13 11 11 x
x 8 9 8 11 x
x 9 11 10 11 x

[Bop Head]

I always like to experiment with shell-voicing accompagniment trying to give it more color through substitution even if playing four-to-the-bar instead of just strumming the same chord repeatedly. This morning I came up with this:

For e.g. | G7 / / / | C7 / / / | F7 ~ play

x(10)9(10)xx

x868xx

7x68xx

9x9(10)xx

8x89xx

continue either with this well known walk-up

(10)x(10)(10)xx

(11)x(10)(11)xx

(12)x(10)(12)xx

resolving to

(13)x(13)(14)xx

or walk down

7x67xx

6x55xx

3x23xx

resolving to

1x12xx

[pauln]

I always like to experiment with shell-voicing accompaniment trying to give it more color...

Me too, I swim in it...

Harmonized major scale is diatonic

G Am Bm C D Em F#dim G

If we use jazz sounds, we may get something like this:

Diatonic root movement
3 x 2 2 3 x
5 x 5 5 5 x
7 x 7 7 7 x
8 x 7 7 8 x
10 x 10 11 12 x
12 x 12 12 12 x
14 x 13 14 15 x
15 14 14 14 15 x

If we try this again but adjust to insert chords to make it chromatic:

Chromatic Root movements
(directions have differences)

3 x 2 2 3 x
4 x 3 4 3 x
5 x 5 5 5 x
6 x 5 6 7 x
7 x 7 7 7 x
8 x 7 7 8 x
9 x 9 9 8 x
10 x 10 12 12 x
11 x 11 12 12 x
12 x 12 12 12 x
13 x 12 13 12 x
14 x 14 14 15 x
15 14 14 14 15 x

15 14 14 14 15 x
14 x 13 14 15 x
13 x 13 12 12 x
12 x 12 13 13 x
11 x 11 12 12 x
10 x 10 11 12 x
9 x 9 9 8 x
8 x 7 7 8 x
7 x 7 7 7 x
6 x 5 6 7 x
5 x 5 5 5 x
4 x 4 5 5 x
3 x 2 2 3 x

Then we can remove chords to result in whole tone root movement:

3 x 2 2 3 x
5 x 5 5 5 x
7 x 7 7 7 x
9 x 9 9 8 x
11 x 11 12 12 x
13 x 12 13 12 x
15 14 14 14 15 x

First five sound like "And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak"

I think the usual way for that is more like this:

3 x 2 2 3 x
5 x 5 5 5 x
6 x 5 6 7 x
7 x 5 7 8 x
x 6 7 6 7 7

but we can force it to be whole tone root steps with slight modifications to support the melody line...

3 x 2 2 3 x
5 x 5 5 5 x
7 x 7 7 7 x
9 8 9 9 10 x
11 10 11 11 12 x

In spite of those last two being 7b13#9 chords moving in parallel, they work for this melody line, especially if you insert

10 x 10 9 9 x

before going to the 7 x 7 7 7 x that starts the walk back down...

[Bop Head]

A diminished can smoothly connect the dominants of one “Family of Four Dominants”

x5546x

x5646x

x5636x

x5646x

x4646x

x5646x

x5645x


It can also connect a dominant to the minor sixth chord representing its tritone’s rootless ninth chord e.g.

x8978x

x8979x

x8989x

which might resolve to two minor seventh chords representing a major chord that are chromatically connected by another diminished

x7978x

x7868x

x7758x

[Reg]

cool... so I just got back in town...

Maybe a melody or lead line on top. (swingin)

G7 chord Pattern

X 10 10 10 10 12 8th
X X 15 14 12 15 8th
X 10 10 10 10 12 8th
10 X 10 10 10 10 8th
X 8 9 9 8 X 8th
X 8 9 9 8 X 8th
...........................1/4 rest
-------------------------------
C7 CP

8 X 8 9 10 10 8th
X 13 14 14 15 15 8th
X X 8 9 10 10 8th
X 10 8 10 11 X 8th
X 7 8 7 8 X 8th
X 7 8 7 8 X 8th
........................... 1/4 rest

Another G7 Chord pattern but 2 bars and expanded to get to Target of C7 ... Blues thing

I'll start posting these would be simple Blues Chord Patterns using....

II V's
Dom subs related II-'s and Sus chords
Dom Sub V's and same
Diatonic Subs and same
And use of Blue Notes and eventually MM

[Bop Head]

Like so often I was fumbling around with ’Round Midnight today and came up with these grips for the beginning of the A section:

x 6 8 5 7 x

x 5 5 4 6 x

x 4 4 3 4 x

x 3 4 2 4 x

x x 4 4 4 6

x x 3 4 3 4

x 6 8 5 7 x

8 x 8 8 7 x

7 x 7 7 7 x

7 x 6 7 6 x

6 x 6 6 6 x

etc.


Nothing unusual except for the second chord.

I am interested how the chord scale theory people interpret that chord.

[Reg]

Muddy

[pauln]

Not a CST dude, but... maybe...

The second chord is a G dominant seventh with its fifth on the bottom, so second inversion G73 or G7/D

The G7 is the III of Eb, so the second chord would be III73

The D on the bottom makes it sound like Dm6th, so vii6sus4

Not sure...???

[rpjazzguitar]

D G B F spells G7.

The chord before it is Eb Bb C Gb, which could be considered a rootless Ab9.

That would make it Ab9 to G7, a half step movement.

Or you could name it as Ebm6 or Cm7b5. Whatever you call it, I think there's a half step movement sound. Nice chords.

[Bop Head]

[…] D G B F spells G7.

The chord before it is Eb Bb C Gb, which could be considered a rootless Ab9.

That would make it Ab9 to G7, a half step movement.

Or you could name it as Ebm6 or Cm7b5. Whatever you call it, I think there's a half step movement sound. […]

I had not thought about Eb–6 (the tune is in Eb minor except for some places where it switches to Eb major) being a rootless Ab7/9, the tritone sub of G7’s V. The next step is Eb–7/Db = Gb6 so G7 is itself a tritone subbed dominant (some people even go G7 to Gb7).

The more often I experiment with the tune, the more I think Monk was a master of playing with that sort of ambiguity and RM is a study in that. And he played it a little different every time he recorded it.

[…] Nice chords.

Thanks, but except for dominant 7th on the major 3rd in a minor key, the rest is very standard, distilled from listening to a lot of different versions (with the help of different fake books and Monk transcriptions).

[I saw Mary Lou Williams quoted once saying Monk’s original changes were much simpler. My guess is that
| Eb– Eb–/D Eb–/Db / | Co / Ab–7 Db7 | Eb–6 ~
comes from
| Eb– / Gb6/Db (resp. Eb–7/Db) / | B7 / Bb7 / | Eb– ~
But that is just a speculation to be verified maybe in the Library of Congress’ copyright department? DC anyone?]

[Bop Head]

Muddy

While I found it Monk-ish LOL you dissapoint me a little. I was expecting something like “G7 is a dominant borrowed from C harmonic minor which is the relative minor key of Eb major which is the parallel major key of Eb minor” LOL.

[PMB]

I saw Mary Lou Williams quoted once saying Monk’s original changes were much simpler. My guess is that
| Eb– Eb–/D Eb–/Db / | Co / Ab–7 Db7 | Eb–6 ~
comes from
| Eb– / Gb6/Db (resp. Eb–7/Db) / | B7 / Bb7 / | Eb– ~
But that is just a speculation to be verified maybe in the Library of Congress’ copyright department? DC anyone?]

Here's a possible answer - the first recording of Monk playing 'Round Midnight posted earlier this week by Loren Schoenberg. It's a private solo piano performance from 1944 and predates the recording that same year by Cootie Williams and his Orchestra. The descending chromatic movement in the bass seems to have been there right from the start but as Monk supposedly wrote the tune many years before it was recorded, we may never really know:

[Bop Head]

Here's a possible answer - the first recording of Monk playing 'Round Midnight posted earlier this week by Loren Schoenberg. It's a private solo piano performance from 1944 and predates the recording that same year by Cootie Williams and his Orchestra. The descending chromatic movement in the bass seems to have been there right from the start but as Monk supposedly wrote the tune many years before it was recorded, we may never really know:

Wow, that is great, thanks a lot for that. I know the Cootie Williams version and the Dizzy version and Monk’s first recording on Blue Note but that one is great news.

[Bop Head]

Whole tone stuff with chromatic passing chords

Let’s say you have a Bb7/b5

6 x 6 7 x x

x 7 6 7 x x

play

x x 6 7 7 6

x x 7 6 6 7

x x 6 5 5 6

x x 5 6 6 5

x x 4 5 5 4

x x 5 4 4 5

x x 4 3 3 4

x x 3 4 4 3

x x 2 3 3 2

(you could start anywhere on an “on”-chord and go down — or up — ad infinitum resp. until you reach an end of the neck)

[pauln]

A method for exploring quartal chords

There are families of quartal forms, but for this example I will just use one of them that is formed like this:

x f f f f+1 x

Using C major we may harmonize this chord using the B string voice

x0001x
x2223x
x4445x
x5556x
x7778x
x99910x
x11111112x
x12121213x

same thing here showing the C scale on the B string

x000Cx
x222Dx
x444Ex
x555Fx
x777Gx
x999Ax
x111111Bx
x121212Cx

How do these relate (sound like, support, or substitute) with the C major chord? Try them out, and where there may be question about the sound, check it more closely by playing two notes per string (where possible) using the notes from the C major, and the upper (or lower) from the quartal, like this:

Direct comparison of C major 81010988 to quartal x12121213x

2nd 7-13 G C
3rd 9-12 E G
4th 10-12 C D
5th 10-12 G A

Play the result ascending G A C D E G G C
Play and compare the C major chord and then this "scale" to evaluate how it sounds

Form an order in which these quartal chord degrees sound like (support or substitute) C major

Most
x000Cx (x121212Cx)
x777Gx (almost as strong as the one above - 87778x is C69)
x555Fx
x222Dx
x444Ex or x999Ax
x111111Bx
Least

Now take songs and test out these results

You could start using only one quartal form and one key to become familiar with the process, then keep the same form to build and examine the relative minor.
You might continue either keeping the same key and same quartal form, and harmonizing each string, or keeping the same key and switching to other quartal forms, etc.

There are some extraordinary things to discover with quartal chords in the contexts of both major and minor one-four-fives and two--five-ones!

[rpjazzguitar]

I use quartile voicings regularly. One lesson about them changed the way I comp.

Start with x2223x, that's B E A D, all within Cmajor.

Now, move it through the Cmajor scale. That is, move each note to the next note on the same string. So, for example, more the B to a C on the 5th string and the E to an F on the 4th string etc.

Now you have x3345x. That's a different grip.

And do it again to get x5556. That's the same grip as the first one. All but two of the 7 chords use this grip.

Eventually, you get to x 10 10 10 12 x which is the other oddball grip.

Now, use these chords to play on a modal Dm like in So What. Go from one to another, trying to make a simple melody with the top voice. It's a little McCoy-ish.

You can also do pretty much the same thing on a tune with, say, 8 beats of Cmajor. You would then consider x0001x as the tonic (sort of, you don't really have to) and move around in pretty much the same way.

What is interesting is that you can do pretty much the same thing for G7. You may prefer to lean on the voicings that have an F for playing over G7 (and the ones that don't have an F for playing over Cmaj7), but if you keep moving, focusing on that top note melody, it will work.

Next step, get the voicings memorized for the other 11 keys.

Then, flat the 3rd in the major scale and do the whole thing again for melodic minor. Now it's 4 grips instead of three but the 7 voicings are fully interchangeable, per Mark Levine who wrote that all MM chords are the same chord because there's no avoid note.

[pauln]

When first I began to use quartal chords, I just imagined
them as the "vague versions" of the popular forms. Now,
more branching of the harmonic tree, discovering quartal
versatile beauty - that no matter what the harmony, neck
position, etc., right there may be fingered quartal chords.

These are nice chords when accompanying because they
tend to "naturally" kind of stay out of the way of soloists.

[ChazFromCali]

re: O.P. - hip?
I don't know about that, but this one is pretty.

In C.... IV iv I

XX355X - F Maj.9
XX653X - F mi.6
XX243X - C Maj.9
XX221X - C6

Also of course, you can add the bass note on the 5th string if the mood strikes you; with sort of a Bossa thing going on. A cool variation/repeat on it is to keep my third (ring) finger down at all times to get a voice leading sound.

[Tal_175]

It looks like Tim Lerch has a new book out on this subject:

[pamosmusic]

It looks like Tim Lerch has a new book out on this subject:

I gots it

[pamosmusic]

I should elaborate. I bought this after Christmas. It is very cool … probably not quite the chord patterns vibe. More like chord melody licks. It’s very cool. Just maybe not quite this?

[Tal_175]

I should elaborate. I bought this after Christmas. It is very cool … probably not quite the chord patterns vibe. More like chord melody licks. It’s very cool. Just maybe not quite this?

You mean less comp-y more solo-y?

[pamosmusic]

You mean less comp-y more solo-y?

At least the beginning portions of it.

[garybaldy]

To me, sounding more sophisticated is essential in jazz, not really an effect. The BH techniques sound really elegant and add a huge amount of harmonic sophistication. Besides, you don't have to use it all the time or always go main chord, dim, inversion, dim, like the open studio exercise. Once you get the feel for it you can use it how you want or use it melodically. Guitar is tougher to grab chords than piano, so I'd absolutely modify the application to simpler bits for guitar - not always go 4 note inversion, 4 note dim forever.

You can use that argument against any device. If we didn't forcefully work advanced devices into our playing, we'd all be playing pentatonic rock. It takes practice and time to work devices into your playing that you'd be able to execute live or recording.

Listen to how advanced this guy's comping sounds with BH dim embellishment at 29:15. Is he killing himself to play it? No. Takes a bit of work tho.

This guy, Bill graham, is super cool! I found his channel during the covid lockdown. I made reams of hand written notes on this and many of his other vids. On the whole I understand most of it but putting it into practice is another matter!! Anyway when I got back to work the project was shelved. I need to make a concerted effort to get back into it.

[pamosmusic]

It looks like Tim Lerch has a new book out on this subject:

This thread popped back up and I read it through and feel I should clarify, because Tim Lerch is the bomb.

I really like this book and I think the concept is fantastic. Just meant that I don't quite think it's "chord patterns."

Then again, do any of us really know what those are?