Practice Resolutions - Goals For The New Year

[brent.h]

1. Work on my 'Louis Armstrong rhythms' (the 12 claves).

2. I created a system that combines Freddie Green's shell voicings, Barry Harris' Family of Dominants, and Chuck Wayne's arpeggio fingering to play alterations on dominant chords. Quite 'shapes' heavy, so it's very much in the spirit of Charlie Christian. So I plan to use the shapes to help me internalise the sound of bII7 against V7, vii-6 against V7, etc. (I think I'm starting to find my own voice in playing jazz.)

I should add that one of the forum's threads here by rpjazzguitar really inspired me to dig really deep into the sound and players I liked instead of chasing 'more' and 'new'.

3. I've yet to figure out a system of learning Prez asymmetrical phrasing. It's mostly just experimentation and written out stuff at this point. I'd like to develop a rhythmic system.

[TF]

I will practice with these words in mind:

"Find out what it is you do that people like, and do more of that." Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

[MarkRhodes]

This year, I did something different.
In early November, I counted up the days left in the year.
58.
I started a journal that will run through 1 January.
(Today is Day 57)
I had one big thing to work on (-mechanical) and a couple smaller, related ones.
And by god, I'm gonna make it!

This seems a better approach for me: rather than picking a day to start, I pick a day to end.

[AllanAllen]

This year, I did something different.
In early November, I counted up the days left in the year.
58.
I started a journal that will run through 1 January.
(Today is Day 57)
I had one big thing to work on (-mechanical) and a couple smaller, related ones.
And by god, I'm gonna make it!

This seems a better approach for me: rather than picking a day to start, I pick a day to end.

Like that Ellington aphorism “I don’t need time, I just need a deadline”

[Jimmy blue note]

I love my practice time. The goals and methodologies are constantly changing but the core is always the same: To expand the harmonic possibilities of my solo playing, in single lines and in harmonic groupings.
This year I want to discover a chord a day. Really unpack it. Apply it and bring that chord to a place where it has a practical and aesthetic function by the end of the day.
I might come across a chord from previous encounters, something that was an interesting "mistake" and I'll jot it down and put it into a notebook I've reserved and titled "Chord discoveries 2026".
Then sometime during the practice session of the day I'll look at it, expand it, revoice it, find it on different strings, voice lead it, find application in an intervallic cycle (a la Goodrick cycle) and create a harmonic passage within a standard so I can really use it.
For example today I found C, E, B, C#... So my goal might be to see what these notes do to create a melodic voice led flow. Now the easiest thing would be to resolve this to a B Major chord, but what does that b9 interval do when it's seen as part of an E chord? A B chord? How about a rootless function? How about dropping a voice out an octave? What about a flow of three chords of which this is a pivot chord? How about two dyads, a C B followed by an E C#?
These are sounds that are not there by accident (pun) but can be quantified for ready use when creating alternatives to predictable progressions.

This is a really good ear training exercise for me, a way for me to hear internal voice movement, a way to embrace chords as dynamic voice led combinations, a way to free myself from "grab" oriented chords, and a way to expand the useful range of intervals.

It's my hope that with this daily discipline, I can know intervals I don't often use or have been indoctrinated into shunning (a 5th and a #5 in the same chord) and create a vocabulary of MOVEMENT and not merely chords.

Remembering always: If it doesn't swing, I'm not there yet.

[Mick-7]

I wouldn't call a collection of 3 semitones; B, C & C# + E, a "chord," I'd put that in the tone cluster category, as it will have very limited application, perhaps use it as an occasional spice - it's quite dissonant.

[Jimmy blue note]

I wouldn't call a collection of 3 semitones; B, C & C# + E, a "chord," I'd put that in the tone cluster category, as it will have very limited application, perhaps use it as an occasional spice - it's quite dissonant.

Within one tradition, a chord is based on tertiary harmony. But others, simultaneous notes in non triadic form are chords. Persichetti and Schillinger were both theorists that opened up harmony to non triadic situations.
Call it what you will, it's the music that can be created and the practical function that puts these sounds to aesthetic use as dynamic rather than static entities that's of use to me.
If the art of passing notes can be quantified with the ease and potency of a drop 2 voicing, it matter little to me whether if follows in Bach's tradition (excepting Art of Fugue) or Schoenberg's Harmony.
If this study can open my ears to redefining the restrictions of Harmony by definition, and open up an aesthetic so I can create harmonic flow with a different articulation of emotional expression, that'll be a satisfying end to my New Year's resolution.
There was a time when I didn't "get" Bartok. Now it's music to my ears.
I don't want to steal anything from Béla but if I can shake his hand in my explorations and command a new definition between traditional consonance and dissonance, I'll be a player I can't even imagine by the end of the year.
That's all I can hope for.

[Jimmy blue note]

I wouldn't call a collection of 3 semitones; B, C & C# + E, a "chord," I'd put that in the tone cluster category, as it will have very limited application, perhaps use it as an occasional spice - it's quite dissonant.

A cluster can be spread. And voice led. Octave transposition can reveal unimagined aspects of these notes. That's why I would devote time to understand the inherent and unseen relationships of these notes.

[James W]

I am very fond of the following chord -

6
0
6
6
0
X

In other words, A major 9 flat 9.

It sounds lush - moral of the story, a cluster can sound lush if voiced a certain way. But cluster chords definitely have their role too.

[AllanAllen]

Isn’t B C C# E an C7(b9)?

seems like a chord to me

[Mick-7]

Isn’t B C C# E an C7(b9)?

seems like a chord to me

C7 would have a b7th (Bb), not a major 7th (B), so if you named it, it would be Cmaj.7b9, a chord name I've only seen in nightmares.

Mingus had a maj.7#9 vamp in one of his charts, Eb^7#9 > Db^7#9 (both chords in root position with 5th on top)

Eb^7#9 (or Cm9#11) | x-6-5-7-7-6 |

Easier to play with the #9th on top, like say:

Eb^7#9 | 6-6-5-7-7-x |

[James W]

Cmaj.7b9, a chord name I've only seen in nightmares.

Why nightmares?

[AllanAllen]

Oh yeah, you're right it's major7. I'm still bad at all these labels if I'm not near my guitar or a sheet of muisc. I was thinking about making flashcards of chords with their notes on the back, but, I dunno, seems more productive to run grips on my guitar.

ANYWAY...

x3243x resolves nicely to Cmajor x3223x

[Mick-7]

Why nightmares?

A tongue in cheek comment, however, B-C-C#-E is a sound I'd associate with horror movies, perhaps the scene in which the monster is murdering someone.

[mr. beaumont]

Lots more tunes.

[James W]

A tongue in cheek comment, however, B-C-C#-E is a sound I'd associate with horror movies, perhaps the scene in which the monster is murdering someone.

Depends very much on how it's voiced, as my example above illustrates.

[Mick-7]

Depends very much on how it's voiced, as my example above illustrates.

Your example was completely different: it's a conventional chord with a non-diatonic chord tone added.

Show me a voicing of the notes B-C-C#-E which is not very dissonant.

[Christian Miller]

I am very fond of the following chord -

6
0
6
6
0
X

In other words, A major 9 flat 9.

It sounds lush - moral of the story, a cluster can sound lush if voiced a certain way. But cluster chords definitely have their role too.

It's interesting how consonant these chords can sound

If you put the D# in as well it sounds even more consonant

6
4
6
6
0
x

[James W]

Your example was completely different: it's a conventional chord with a non-diatonic chord tone added.

Show me a voicing of the notes B-C-C#-E which is not very dissonant.

My voicing uses the notes G sharp - A - B flat - B. That's more of a cluster than your B - C - C sharp - E.

[James W]

It's interesting how consonant these chords can sound

If you put the D# in as well it sounds even more consonant

6
4
6
6
0
x

True but then you've lost the B, which was part of the cluster G sharp - A - B flat - B.

[Mick-7]

It's interesting how consonant these chords can sound

If you put the D# in as well it sounds even more consonant

6
4
6
6
0
x

Possible to keep it but hard to finger:

| 5-6-6-6-0-6 | - or maybe: | 0-6-6-6-0-6 |


P.S. - I think I'll keep this one: | 5-4-6-4-4-6 |

[Christian Miller]

True but then you've lost the B, which was part of the cluster G sharp - A - B flat - B.

True....

[Christian Miller]

Possible to keep it but hard to finger:

| 5-6-6-6-0-6 | - or maybe: | 0-6-6-6-0-6 |

A little moe dissonant though.

My voicing blends the Bb/A# into the D# which itself blends into the G# (a stack of perfect fifths). Whereas yours puts the tritone into a lower register below the seventh where it sounds more active.

All three voicings sound cool played in succession.

[JohnoL]

Like General Eisenhower I will proceed along a broad front.

[MarkRhodes]

Like that Ellington aphorism “I don’t need time, I just need a deadline”