The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by JakeAcci
    Jordan this looks absolutely amazing - if not in its current stage then as it (hopefully) develops. Will definitely be purchasing this and tinkering around with it at some point. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this resource. Exhaustive things like this can be great not only for our own musicianship, but as teaching tools with students as well. I do a lot of stuff with my students using this site: https://www.iwasdoingallright.com/to...aining/online/ and some of them get really into it. Apps and games are very valuable in this day and age when it can be hard to just focus and create your own structure.
    Thanks Jake. Neat looking site. I only had a minute to check it out... but I'll probably spend a little more time at it in the future.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

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    Hey Jordan,

    I have not studied with him. But he did a master class at my school some years ago. He went through all the chords that stacking different 3rds would create. Unfortunately I lost the list I wrote out and I am trying to remember what the exact method he uses.

    I remember him speaking about not just hearing the chords but internalizing how the chord made you feel to help identify any chord.

    Also that scales are introduced slowly beginning with just 4 pitches and adding tones as one gains a certain level of comfort with each note. I can't remember his method for this either. If you have any insight with that, that would be great.

    Do you really feel like you have to start all over with the way you look at harmony? I don't remember him doing away with traditional ii-V-I type terminology, but I could be wrong of course.

  4. #28
    Yeah, I would consider that having 'studied' with him... in the sense that you attended a masterclass and got inside his method... even if you forgot some of it.

    First, I don't feel that anyone (myself included) HAS to do anything. I think it all depends on what we want as musicians and artists. The tradition is very important to me on a deep level... so I spend time with it. But the tradition includes not just the jazz tradition of the last few decades, but also the classical tradition from the last few centuries (I'm currently reading a book about the practical guide to harmony by Tchaikovsky), and the artistic tradition of learning from the past and others, and then innovating and finding ways to do things in one's own way.

    I've struggled a bit with Stefon's approach because I love what it brings to the table and how its affected my ears and my playing... and I can't figure out (as both a student and a teacher) if it's better to use it before studying the traditional approach and theory as a means to build up into that stuff... because it can start so simply, but can be built up into the most advanced and complex harmonic landscapes using that simplicity... or if it should be held off on until someone has spent years struggling to get the traditional stuff down first... or if it should be done simultaneously in parallel. I just don't know... and I suppose there's just no answer to that.

    That said, when I find something I fall in love with on a deep level... it's in my nature to jump in head first without questioning any of it. That's what I did with Stefon's approach. I did study with him, but I actually went off on my own and just started exploring and testing things and seeing what I could find beyond what we ever talked about... but based on the ideas we'd spoken about.

    But yeah, he doesn't get rid of anything as far as traditional theory goes. He just makes all of it better I suppose. One could learn traditional ii V I type theory and then build upon that stuff with his ideas... or one could start with his simpler ideas to get a handle on things, and then build up into ii V Is, and then continue building until they reached more advanced applications (Bill Evans style playing), and could definitely build into more modern sounds that leave ii V I's behind. It's kind of all there.

    As for the starting point with the harmony, it's all about sitting at the piano, picking a chord type, and testing all 12 notes against that chord type to see if it sounds harmonious to you. If so, you jot it down. Once you have all the notes that sound harmonious you can use them to find all the triads that work in harmony with that chord type and begin trying to internalize the sound.

    The scales you're right about. It's all about the 4 note mini structures that can be built up into a scale. So you start with the basic triad and just add a 4th note to create tension and try improvising with that note until you can hear and feel it.


  5. #29

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    I downloaded Harmony Cloud just about today July 12, 2019. This app is an aberration of all my work with relative chords this past few years, but in a good way. While I painstakingly spent time feverishly extracted all the relative chords of the songs to play on Sunday at church. This app was already out just basking at the Apple App Store in 2015, while I needed this app back in 2018 and from even before. While transcribing chords from actual music is still King, this app Harmony Cloud, sort of give you that efficient pathway of mastering relative chords in a comprehensive manner. I wish I found this app many years ago. goddammit!!!

    However, to end with a good note...All that painstaking work that I did with relative chords was not a waste. If I listen to a tune on the radio in 2019, I can recognize 60-70% of the relative chords in most tunes (the primary chords -I,IV,V - a lock). The other 30% that I don't recognize are chords that are still foreign in my current harmonic vocabulary. This app Harmony Cloud can help with my weak points with relative chords.