The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Last month we gingerly dipped our toes into how to deal with the ii-V sequence. This month we expand our palette with more on how to deal specifically with dominant chords.

    After a bit of theory and handy tips about substitutions, GF gives us a few nice lines in the style of Charlie Christian.

    Following that, we've got a 12-bar blues solo to grapple with, and then we're free to explore what we've learned over the progression!

    Let's do this.
    Fewell's Melodic Approach - Ch. 4 (Dominants & Blues)-batman-thumb-jpg

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  3. #2

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    I've also started an index thread to help people find the relevant thread for each chapter:

    Fewell's Melodic Approach - Index Thread

    Any idea on how to make that a sticky? (Mark?)

  4. #3

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    Thanks Jay!

  5. #4

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    Glad you guys are keeping this going.
    Last month was pretty much a lost cause for me.
    Got a call this morning that my worst fears have come to pass: a "few" patients in the rehab where my mom (90) is have tested positive for the coronavirus. This doesn't mean she will be infected with it but it's hard not to worry about it. And at her age, my God....

    I play every day but my concentration is poor. (On the bright side, my picking has improved.)
    Maybe starting a new chapter will make things easier. We shall see.

  6. #5

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    Fingers crossed your mother avoids the virus, Mark. It's pretty horrible not to be able to go and see one's folks. Mine are in lockdown (both late eighties) and though I had a conversation with my mother from several yards away when I dropped off some supplies for them, I didn't get to see or speak to my dad at all.

    I'm looking forward to getting to this chapter, but I'll be bringing up the rear. My plan at the moment is to find some tunes with lots of minor chords and spend some time really getting the initial shapes, and then the triad shapes under my fingers. I'm rather hoping that the work done so far will make this less onerous than I fear it will be.

    Derek

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
    Got a call this morning that my worst fears have come to pass: a "few" patients in the rehab where my mom (90) is have tested positive for the coronavirus. This doesn't mean she will be infected with it but it's hard not to worry about it. And at her age, my God....

    Quote Originally Posted by digger
    Mine are in lockdown (both late eighties)

    Derek
    Fingers crossed for both of your parents, Mark and Derek! (and of course everybody else's)


    Quote Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
    I play every day but my concentration is poor.
    Same here with me...

  8. #7

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    Thanks Jay. I'm in. While I have not posted many videos, I have been working on the material each day. Cheers.

  9. #8

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    I've been in this chapter for a bit now. It's a short chapter, but it's also been a little tougher to wrap my head around.

    What I've boiled it down to is this: You play a minor triad a 5th higher than the Dom7 chord.

    So C7, play a Gmin triad. D7 - Amin triad. And so forth. I do get it's more involved than that, like starting from the 3rd is a m7b5 triad as he teaches, etc. Please correct me, or expound on that if you want.

    What's been bugging me, is his example solo is nice, but he didn't mark out what triads he is using. Maybe he's intentionally left that for us to figure out? I'm going to do just that here someday soon, so I'll try to post that for anyone else who is struggling with that as well.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bahnzo
    What I've boiled it down to is this: You play a minor triad a 5th higher than the Dom7 chord.

    So C7, play a Gmin triad. D7 - Amin triad. And so forth. I do get it's more involved than that, like starting from the 3rd is a m7b5 triad as he teaches, etc. Please correct me, or expound on that if you want.
    Yeah, I think that's the gist of it, and moving that b7 in the minor to the 6 to get the 3rd of the dominant. I personally don't find the m7b5 sub particularly helpful; it's just not how my brain works. I actually go the other way: For a m7b5 I sub a minor starting from the 3rd.

    What's been bugging me, is his example solo is nice, but he didn't mark out what triads he is using. Maybe he's intentionally left that for us to figure out? I'm going to do just that here someday soon, so I'll try to post that for anyone else who is struggling with that as well.
    I think you nailed it. This is another instance of GF subtly asking us to do a bit of homework. I think someone could make it through the book just playing through each exercise, but man, if you dig a bit deeper this thing is a goldmine.

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jehu
    This is another instance of GF subtly asking us to do a bit of homework. I think someone could make it through the book just playing through each exercise, but man, if you dig a bit deeper this thing is a goldmine.
    This book is definitely a goldmine. It's a whole new way of looking at things I never considered.

    I've been back playing the guitar for, I dunno, just over a year maybe..and one of the things I've learned the most from is transcribing lines and then understanding why they played what they did. I don't think GF's blues in this chapter is all that complicated, he's just following chords and using his method for the most part. He's just really accomplished at it, is all.

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bahnzo
    I don't think GF's blues in this chapter is all that complicated, he's just following chords and using his method for the most part.
    Absolutely, and I think that's his point. At its heart it's really just a (relatively) simple approach for generating singable content.


    He's just really accomplished at it, is all.
    Fewell was more than a textbook author; he walked the walk. He was the real deal. If you seek out some of his recorded material you won't tend to hear a lot of fireworks, but solid, confident, and incredibly relatable communication of melodic ideas, which I believe is what we're all after in the end.

    Then we can augment that with dive bombs and two-hand tapping if we want.

  13. #12

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    I like the solo in chapter 4. Good lines, some familiar. But when I ask myself, "how would I follow this chorus? What would I play?" I don't have a good answer. (The only answer is really "sh*t I already know.") I like this material. Very playable. But I really haven't integrated the approach into my own playing. But I'm old enough to realize that's okay: these things take time. I'm glad I'm working on this. Yet it still feels like a totally separate compartment from my playing the rest of the day. ;o)

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jehu
    Then we can augment that with dive bombs and two-hand tapping if we want.
    Is that what all those Bigsby's I see are for?

  15. #14

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    Mark, I’m with you exactly. There is nothing wrong with the solo he offers, although I’ve played it so much I’m dreaming of that arpeggio from the 6 of the minor triad (3rd of the Dominant).

    My problem is when I try to create lines from the minor on the V it doesn’t sound in the least like the blues. There is no grit, no growl, in that sound. All I hear is Dorian. Perhaps I have listened to too much T Bone Walker and too little Charlie Christian, but I just can’t seem to massage this into something musical and bluesy.

    I’m not complaining. We will see where I’m at after a month of daily practice. But for now it isn’t nearly as natural and exciting as chapter 3 was. It’s why I stopped here when I first bought the book.

    PS: For the theorist among you, I can’t help but notice people playing a minor triad over the Dominant (not it’s V) even over a major blues. GF doesn’t mention that. I don’t think it counts as a “sister” minor to the V in the Barry Harris system. It undoubtedly sounds good. What’s that about?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

  16. #15

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    I had a sneaky look at Ch. 4, as I have a cunning plan: my approach to get these shapes under my fingers by applying the minor and majors shapes to songs can be enhanced by applying the dominant formula too. That way, even without going through chapter four properly I'm gaining a tiny bit of benefit.

    So, correct me if I'm wrong (please!) but I see the melodic approach works, very simplistically, like this:

    Minor Chord - play the GF minor triads as is
    Major Chord - play the GF minor triads starting on the 6th of the Major chord you are on
    Dominant Chord - play the GF minor triads starting on the 5th of the Dominant chord you are on

    So, in theory, I can practice almost any songs using the basic shapes we learned in Ch.2 (which is where I still am). For example, the first four bars of All Of Me could be approached in the GF Melodic fashion as follows (full stops are just for spacing)

    | C Maj7 .....| E7..... | A7 ....... | Dmin7 .......|

    Am Triads ... Bm Triads ....Em Triads..... Dm Triads

    Is my logic correct?
    Derek

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by digger
    I had a sneaky look at Ch. 4, as I have a cunning plan: my approach to get these shapes under my fingers by applying the minor and majors shapes to songs can be enhanced by applying the dominant formula too. That way, even without going through chapter four properly I'm gaining a tiny bit of benefit.

    So, correct me if I'm wrong (please!) but I see the melodic approach works, very simplistically, like this:

    Minor Chord - play the GF minor triads as is
    Major Chord - play the GF minor triads starting on the 6th of the Major chord you are on
    Dominant Chord - play the GF minor triads starting on the 5th of the Dominant chord you are on

    So, in theory, I can practice almost any songs using the basic shapes we learned in Ch.2 (which is where I still am). For example, the first four bars of All Of Me could be approached in the GF Melodic fashion as follows (full stops are just for spacing)

    | C Maj7 .....| E7..... | A7 ....... | Dmin7 .......|

    Am Triads ... Bm Triads ....Em Triads..... Dm Triads

    Is my logic correct?
    Derek

    Yes - I think that's what GF has been teaching us so far but for variety and to connect the changes fluently think of also using the extensions of the minor triads, like using Em triad over Cmaj7 and Am7 triad over Dmin7 for example. I think that's where GF wants us to go.

  18. #17

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    All of which highlights the challenge which is playing jazz. When faced with my four bars of All Of Me (well, all 32 bars) I first have to consider whether or not I want to play something based around the melody, maybe some rhythmic alterations or simple melodic alterations, or, if I decide otherwise, I might choose to play something based around the arpeggios or scales, or maybe try a little bluesy something, or do I think "melodic traids!" and decide that's the sound I want, whereupon I then have to do the conversion from maj / dom to the relevant triad, work out what notes that gives me and... oh hell, I've missed my chorus altogether :-)

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by digger
    do I think "melodic traids!" and decide that's the sound I want, whereupon I then have to do the conversion from maj / dom to the relevant triad, work out what notes that gives me and... oh hell, I've missed my chorus altogether :-)
    In my experience it comes with playing and playing and then playing some more - the sounds become deeply ingrained and the thinking part will disappear.

  20. #19

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    Things you probably already knew....

    While working on Figure 4.3: Phrase in the style of Charlie Christian (a phrase over a C7), I decided to try the phrase over a ii-V-I (Gm7-C7-Fmaj7). I really liked the resulting sound. I understand that whatever you play over the Minor 7th will work over the Dominant 7th and vice versa, but sometimes it is nice to see it in action.

    I plan on working on Exercise 4.1 today. Onward!

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by losaltosjoe
    Things you probably already knew....

    While working on Figure 4.3: Phrase in the style of Charlie Christian (a phrase over a C7), I decided to try the phrase over a ii-V-I (Gm7-C7-Fmaj7). I really liked the resulting sound. I understand that whatever you play over the Minor 7th will work over the Dominant 7th and vice versa, but sometimes it is nice to see it in action.

    I plan on working on Exercise 4.1 today. Onward!
    This is something GF will mention later in the book: playing over a ii - V a blues oriented player will just play the ii and a bebop player will emphasize the dominant sound.

    Couple of typos in the tabs for "Blues For Charlie": first chord is not F-7 but F 7 and: going from four and in bar 11 to the one in bar 12 should be played on the d string (f# to g).

  22. #21

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    Ok, here's my first take of Blues For Charlie. GF's chorus (for the most part) and then a couple more afterwards. I tried to use GF's triad ideas, but also kinda just fell back a bit on my own blues stuff.

    Oh...and I discovered afterwards that I maybe should've tuned my guitar. Heh, it wasn't bad, but it was a little ripe.


  23. #22

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    Good job, Bahnzo!

  24. #23

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    Okay, my first pass at the chapter 4 blues solo.
    I used Aebersold's vol 42 (Blues in all 12 Keys) play-along for the backing and play (once) the riffy head Jamey wrote for it.
    Then, Garrison's so. Part of it works and parts of it don't. But I need a marker to judge progress by later.
    Next, my solo. I had tried this a couple times before. It's not worked out but I had a few of the main ideas. As is my custom, I screw up on the spontaneous fills in-between the things I intend to play. (I've really got to stop doing that: "When in doubt, lay out!")
    The third and fourth choruses are from a Javon Jackson (sax) solo on "Billie's Bounce". There are things I really like about his solo. (One of them being that it is not light years beyond me.) But I should woodshed it again because I flub too many notes.
    Finally, the head out.

    Amp is set to the cleanest tone it provides. Love my Tele but I haven't yet found the most suitable sound for me to make with it using what equipment I now have.


  25. #24

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    Good work, Mark. You certainly laid down a marker for us all.

    I pulled my Telecaster out today, too. Lovely and easy to play after months on acoustics!

  26. #25

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    Nicely done, gents!

    Just a comment regarding not knowing what to play: Don't forget that all of the lines and materials from the previous chapters are fair game for trying out/adapting. Some might work and some might not, but that's part of the fun.