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I've been working through a massive laundry list of enclosure patterns in Richie Zellon's online course. Some enclosures sound great and I hear them used quite a bit in actual jazz performance. Some of them, however, I either don't hear, or haven't heard yet, or have trouble finding a use for them. I am talking about stuff like when the root is enclosed by a chromatic above and below, or the b7 with a chromatic above and below. It's hard to make it sound bad when you enclose the 3 with a chromatic above and below and I hear this all the time in jazz and other genres. Are there specific rhythmic or melodic contexts where less “musical” enclosures might be used with some success? I am still developing my ear, but I don’t think I hear a lot of these sorts of enclosures actually in use in the bebop idiom.
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10-31-2016 11:09 AM
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Tempo, phrasing, and what beat you're landing on the strong note will make a difference.
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I should probably note that I am using these at the moment in very vanilla blues changes, with no harmonic subs.
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Try this little exercise-- play an arpeggio ascending over a change, then on the way back down, use one of these chromatic enclosures to target a specific note. It's a good way of getting the sound in your ears, because hearing the arpeggio puts the harmony in your head, and then the chromaticism gives you the tensions against it.
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I always start with chromatic LN, diatonic UN.
b2 - 7 - 1
Is common in bop.
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What's LN and UN?
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lower neighbour, upper neighbour.
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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Lower and upper neighbor --non chromatic non chord tones -e.g. 2nd 4ths 6ths Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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Ii thought b2 - 7 - 1 would be a chromatic UN and a diatonic LN? Or am I not understanding the lingo? Originally Posted by christianm77
Last edited by Bobby Marshall; 10-31-2016 at 01:42 PM.
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Yes, I hear the LN and UN enclosures all over the place in bop, and when I play them they sound good. I don't hear the less musical enclosures, or else I never notice them.
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I will do that, thanks. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Also, they don't sound terrible starting an ascending arpeggio when used in the common bop send off of an eighth note into a triplet. Like:
Ba bop-pa-dah
b2 7 1 3
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It's a common exception. Originally Posted by Bobby Marshall
Cos I' a weirdo I always think of a LN a semitone below even when it's in key. So - this thing
E F A C E - the E is to my mind a chromatic LN, even though it's in the key, and actually also in the arpeggio.
Just the way I hear it.
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Chromatic lower and diatonic upper would be Originally Posted by christianm77
2 (diatonic UN) 7 (chromatic LN) 1 (target)
b2 is chromatic UN unless phrygian or locrian mode right?
Just want to understand.
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i don't deal with enclosures anymore; I've paid my debt to society, and I'm a law abiding citizen now.
i didn't do it, anyway.
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Ah, I though we were gettin' political again for a minute...thanks for clearing that up. Originally Posted by grahambop
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Yes. Originally Posted by Bobby Marshall
In general I here the b2-7-1 as the result of a phrygian cadence (bII7 I) or tritone substitute of V7 (same thing)
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Misunderstandings with neighbours are all too common.
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yeah, and then you wind up in enclosures for a few years... Originally Posted by grahambop
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This post really confused me Christian! Originally Posted by christianm77
Should you have written:
7-2-1 ?
If your written description is anything to go by?
Just trying to understand, your use of the b2 in the example threw me.
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Why is a particular enclosure "less musical"?
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I've sent people to this video before for a great mini-lesson on getting started with enclosures / approach tones. Sheryl demonstrates them over a blues.
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b2-7-1 is an exception to the general rule. Originally Posted by 55bar
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Yes but didn't your description say you always like to start with a chromatic "lower" note? Originally Posted by christianm77
The example you gave starts on a non diatonic Upper neighbour right?
Please don't take this as me a pedant
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That is why it's an exception to the general rule diatonic upper neighbour, chromatic lower neighbour. Originally Posted by 55bar
Yes but didn't your description say you always like to start with a chromatic "lower" note?
The example you gave starts on a non diatonic Upper neighbour right?
Please don't take this as me a pedant
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BTW When I say chromatic LN, I suppose I really mean one semitone below. In classical music, this pattern has been used for centuries - listen to Mozart etc. Obviously Mozart loved his chromatic lower neighbours.
Now I don't necessarily like to start with a LN. I think that's more a case of my not being clear.
These things can be in any permutation. A standard jazz pattern is this one:
2 1 7 1 4 3 #2 3 | 6 5 #4 5 2 1 7 1 |
In the case of this b2 thingy, it crops up in bop (I'm sure it comes up in other styles of music too) - for example in Little Willie Leaps and Segment... Slightly more exotic /altered sound.
Another extremely common enclosure is found when dealing with minor dominants with a scale. The enclosure of the third is on an E7b9 in the key of C is A G G# - nothing unusual - but the alteration of the key to get the G# of the E7b9 is made with the enclosure, if that makes any sense. This ties in with the Barry Harris stuff on how to play a minor ii-V.Last edited by christianm77; 11-01-2016 at 06:41 AM.
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Also it's very important that neighbours can be used rhythmically, right?
You can have
1 note - chord tone
2 notes - chord tone + 1 neighbour
3 notes - chord tone + 2 neighbours
4 notes - chord tone + 3 neighbours
In the last case, we use diatonic upper and lower neighbours with a chromatic where possible. As always with these things, the notes we choose are less important than their rhythmic emphasis. Anyway
C major chord -
B D Db C D F D# E
So we have a 4 + 4 rhythm.
Combinations of these different 'cells' can make for interesting rhythms in lines.
Notice how our example above makes this a bit more rhythmically interesting by putting the dissonant notes on the beat. But it's not the case that the consonant notes are always accented. In fact, that would be boring. So there's a sort of harmonic rhythm of dissonance resolution and an accented rhythm working against each other.
This is a development BTW of classical practices - it's just that in jazz we get a lot more rhythmically complex.
Take a 3+3+2 rhythm in eights.
7 2 1 4 #2 3 #4 5
There are so many possibilities. It always makes me laugh when people say improvisation using chord tones is limited. But, you want scales? Well sure. This pattern uses a dotted quarter rhythm on a C major scale. It's a lower neighbour tone before a third. In this case we have a 2+1 pattern.
B C E C# D F D# E G E F A etc
Now the last thing - forward motion (Hal Galper). It's good to play pick ups into the beat, so your enclosures will start before the beat. Not always, but it will sound loads better for many things - 'the more upbeats you have the more the music will swing.'
B D Db | C D F D# E etc
This BTW is what I mean by bebop and traditional jazz language having rhythm 'built in' - CST modes don't, which is both an opportunity and a challenge.Last edited by christianm77; 11-01-2016 at 06:59 AM.
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