Bill Evans Fretboard Shortcuts

**jordanklemons** · 10-11-2023, 04:55 PM

I don't know about you fellas... but I grew up with what Freud would have called "piano envy." I got bored with the stock jazz guitar chords pretty quickly and struggled to find the orchestral sound I was looking for using drop chords or chord scale patterns.

For me the breakthrough came when I temporarily stepped away from the fretboard and studied piano for a year. I SUCK at piano. No muscle memory. But learning to see how they use triads and the fundamentals was mind blowing - and then learning to translate their harmonic construction method AND what that method means for improvising - was huge for me.

I put together an overview of what I learned and a few of the ways I use these ideas...

**rpjazzguitar** · 10-12-2023, 01:30 PM

One question which occurs to me is how to get this concept under your fingers.

How many shell voicings are we going to use in the left hand and how many triads in the right?

Shell voicings would need to include multiple chord types, major, 7th, m7, m6, m7b5, not sure which others.

Triads would have to include maj, min, dim, aug, others?

So, multiply it out, and that's a lot of combinations. And, you'd have to get them under your fingers in multiple places on the neck.

And, then, you'd have to apply them to songs and different playing situations. I'm already wondering how to use it in comping along with a pianist without creating mud.

Of course, pianists do this, so it can't be impossible. Although being able to easily play a shell in one hand and a triad in the other does make it easier.

**bediles** · 10-12-2023, 02:11 PM

Just learn a couple of your favorites no need to reinvent your chord methodology.

Imin over a dom7
bVImaj over dom7
bVIImaj over min
Are pretty cool. Experiment with the inversion of the triad to find those gems.

The doms have several sonorities depending on the root note (tritone sub etc etc)

**RyanM** · 10-12-2023, 03:39 PM

Those are some awesome voicings in that video

**Peter C** · 10-12-2023, 06:51 PM

If I had wanted to play piano, I would have learned to do so by now!

Anyway, putting aside Freud's misguided phallocentric ruminations, and the fact that back in the day, a keyboardist such as Jan Hammer went out of his way to clarify that there was "no electric guitar" (sheesh!) on his (actually very fine) "First Seven Days" solo album, there are some cool ideas here, so thanks for that!

**Jimmy blue note** · 10-13-2023, 12:15 AM

Really great expansion of the harmonic toolbox! Thanks Jordan!

**jordanklemons** · 10-13-2023, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar

One question which occurs to me is how to get this concept under your fingers.

How many shell voicings are we going to use in the left hand and how many triads in the right?

Shell voicings would need to include multiple chord types, major, 7th, m7, m6, m7b5, not sure which others.

Triads would have to include maj, min, dim, aug, others?

So, multiply it out, and that's a lot of combinations. And, you'd have to get them under your fingers in multiple places on the neck.

And, then, you'd have to apply them to songs and different playing situations. I'm already wondering how to use it in comping along with a pianist without creating mud.

Of course, pianists do this, so it can't be impossible. Although being able to easily play a shell in one hand and a triad in the other does make it easier.

A similar question could be asked of the standard chord-scale approach...

You need every mode of the diatonic major scale, harmonic minor, melodic minor, the diminished/octatonic scale, all the traditional major, minor, and dominant bebop scales, pentatonic scales, blues scales, etc... in all 5-7 positions preferred by the individual to cover the fretboard...

Plus every inversion of every arpeggio type for each string set and position...

Plus every inversion of every possible drop 2 and drop 3 chords (and other potential chord constructions) mapped through every string set with every potential chord sub grasped...

And then all of that applied to standards.
And in a way that not only shows intellectual fluency, but musicality.

That's why I love the advice Bill gives in that clip from the video.
"You can't take the whole thing... and to approximate the whole thing in a vague way gives one the feeling that they more or less touch the thing, but in this way you just lead yourself toward confusion."
And his recommended antidote is to come back to the most elementary fundamentals of the music and to learn to be playful with them... to use them to make music. And then to grow with them.

After almost a decade of looking at, practicing, and teaching based on this construction idea I've found two things to be the case.

(1)
It creates elegant, gorgeous harmony and improvisation about as close to immediately as could be possible.
My teacher Stefon who showed me this stuff had me playing some of the deepest voicings and improvised phrases over tunes within about three months. On the piano. An instrument which I have near zero facility on. My recognition of the speed at which this process can lead to musical clarity and precision has only been reinforced over the last seven years of teaching it... as I constantly hear back from players within a few days to a few months of starting that they can't believe how much their musicianship is growing. I had one gigging and teaching pro tell me he grew more in the first two years exploring this stuff than he did in the previous 40. Another guy studied at GIT with Howard Roberts and Scott Henderson, but even after 35 years of doing the chord scale thing felt like his playing liked the clarity and precision he wanted... until about a month after digging into the triad concepts.

(2)
For those who are interested in attaining the unachievable journey of mastering all of the information and options you listed out (as would be the case for the standard chord-scale jazz theory 101 process)... there are multiple lifetimes worth of ideas and sounds that could be explored, all of which will be built with these two, simple structures - giving us more head space to not get stuck overthinking, more freedom to just be, and a less cluttered view of the fretboard. With the additional benefit that everything is growing from these sweet spot notes as the seed... giving a consistency to our sound and our musical voice.

For musicians who dig the Bill Evans/Jim Hall/Rosenwinkel vibe, see the potential of the sounds available using this method, and are interested in going beyond the mapping part of the journey... my recommendation is generally to focus on learning one - and only one - triad/shell relationship. Learn a couple of harmonic techniques (like the three I use in the ii V i example in the video) and learn to improvise using the triad as the starting point. That can usually happen within a few weeks to a month. Once that clicks, build that one option up to about five. Once you have a couple of dominant options, a major, a minor, and maybe a half diminished... you will have added a new dimension to your playing with a level of consistency and command that probably felt out of reach previously.

This can often happen within 6-12 months. At that point you can apply this to almost any playing situation and you might be more than happy and satisfied. Or you might decide you want to dig deeper into each of those five triad options (triad pairs, bebop scales, dyads, etc). Or you might decide you want to add more triad options. Or who knows? It's up to the musician at that point. But for those intrigued by the idea... keep Bill's advice in mind. Don't get lost overthinking and trying to map out a way to take in the whole thing at once. It can't be done. Stay with the most elementary thing, pick one idea, and get it into your playing. Focus on being authentic, real, and playful... making music. Then move on.

This should be true of the learning process regardless of what method we're using. I just love the simplicity and perfection that triads offer.

**jordanklemons** · 10-13-2023, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by bediles

Just learn a couple of your favorites no need to reinvent your chord methodology.

Imin over a dom7
bVImaj over dom7
bVIImaj over min
Are pretty cool. Experiment with the inversion of the triad to find those gems.

The doms have several sonorities depending on the root note (tritone sub etc etc)

Exactly ^

We don't need every option of everything. We just need a few options to revolutionize our entire sound.

I became obsessed with this stuff as soon as Stefon Harris showed me what he was doing... as I LOVE his playing and couldn't get over the intellectual simplicity he was relying on to attain his playing. BUT I had 25 years worth of muscle memory and vocabulary already in my fingers... so I was mainly just adding in new voicings and melody frameworks into my pre-existing playing.

A year later I got sick and lost the ability to play. I had to relearn. I decided then to go from just learning a few new favorite sounds and gaining harmonic and melodic precision mixed into the other chord scale theory ideas that were 2nd nature to me... to "screw the chord scale theory approach, I'm going all in on the triad/shell approach and re-constructing my playing from the ground up based on that concept.

Losing the ability to play and needing to relearn sucked. Obviously.
It was also the best thing that ever happened to my playing.

**jordanklemons** · 10-13-2023, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by RyanM

Those are some awesome voicings in that video

Thanks Ryan... glad you dig it!

**jordanklemons** · 10-13-2023, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by Peter C

If I had wanted to play piano, I would have learned to do so by now!

Anyway, putting aside Freud's misguided phallocentric ruminations, and the fact that back in the day, a keyboardist such as Jan Hammer went out of his way to clarify that there was "no electric guitar" (sheesh!) on his (actually very fine) "First Seven Days" solo album, there are some cool ideas here, so thanks for that!

Thanks Mr PC... glad you dug the ideas