The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    People’s exhibit 1, from this morning. These are first notes of the morning with no warmup or preparation. Do you hear this as a through-composed albeit spontaneous piece of music? Or is it more like some random meandering, mindless licks and bits? Is there form and structure, direction, thematic development? Obviously I welcome conversation on this topic, but also happy enough if you even bother to give a listen with open ears.

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  3. #2

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    It is a composition that keeps moving forward without directly referencing the previous content. The general vibe, your natural sense of phrase structure and organic flow from one segment to the next unites the composition.It is multi-sectioned and not so much of the variety that I can walk away singing a hook of the song but I can live with that. There is a musical life outside of 32 bar song form. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

  4. #3

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    Mark,
    I have a question, do you play live concerts?
    Best
    Kris

  5. #4

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    I don't think I have the competence to make any judgement, but I enjoyed listening, and I freely admit I can't come close to your abilities. Thanks for posting, I needed something to take me away from the extreme heat today.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by kris
    Mark,
    I have a question, do you play live concerts?
    Best
    Kris
    . Well, I did prepandemic. I was doing around 100 gigs a year mostly trios and quartets. I’ve only done one gig in two and a half years and don’t plan to start anytime soon. Curios to know why you ask? I do mentally imagine performing for an audience when I do these in my home studio.
    Last edited by Mark Kleinhaut; 09-23-2022 at 11:58 AM.

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by bako
    It is a composition that keeps moving forward without directly referencing the previous content. The general vibe, your natural sense of phrase structure and organic flow from one segment to the next unites the composition.It is multi-sectioned and not so much of the variety that I can walk away singing a hook of the song but I can live with that. There is a musical life outside of 32 bar song form. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
    Bako nails it with admirable economy and precision. Kudos all around!

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Kleinhaut
    Do you hear this as a through-composed albeit spontaneous piece of music?
    Yes.

    Or is it more like some random meandering, mindless licks and bits?
    No.

    Is there form and structure, direction, thematic development?
    Yes, because what unites it is the mood, which is constant.

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1

    Yes, because what unites it is the mood, which is constant.
    ah, so, mood cohesion can in your assessment replace the conventional notion of form (32 bars or otherwise) along with ideas like sonata song form used in many jazz performances where the melody is stated at the beginning and end with loops of form grounded improvisation in between (gross simplification, I know).

  10. #9

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    Composition vs. improvisation, the line gets blurred especially for the more skilled improvisers. Spontaneous composition is most often the domain of piano players, thinking of Keith Jarret.

    For me, I can give it a yes to being a composition. (I wish I could do that on both piano and guitar. But, my music comes together in slow motion).

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Kleinhaut
    ah, so, mood cohesion can in your assessment replace the conventional notion of form (32 bars or otherwise) along with ideas like sonata song form used in many jazz performances where the melody is stated at the beginning and end with loops of form grounded improvisation in between (gross simplification, I know).
    Yes. If it weren't so then it might very well amount to a series of unconnected, or only vaguely connected, fragments. But that never happens, the mood is sustained throughout.

    A lot of classical music can ramble, even if it starts with a theme. It sort of washes over you, which some people like (but I don't). Your piece reminds me of some Tarkovsky movies, like Mirror, that appear to wander yet are strangely cohesive.

    It's also the quality of your melodic playing that's worth mentioning. Were it less skilled the effect wouldn't be as powerful as it is.

    If I have one comment it's that the listener may find it hard to sustain the intensity needed to listen for a long time. Less is more may be applicable to the length of these kinds of mood pieces. One should feel uplifted, not exhausted :-)

    (But I know you were playing for yourself and not, say, being recorded as a performance so the length is understandable).

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1

    If I have one comment it's that the listener may find it hard to sustain the intensity needed to listen for a long time. Less is more may be applicable to the length of these kinds of mood pieces. One should feel uplifted, not exhausted :-)

    (But I know you were playing for yourself and not, say, being recorded as a performance so the length is understandable).
    I appreciate all of your comments. Thank you so much! Funny thing is I did actually mind the length for exactly the reasons you raise. I’m aware of the difficulty this music can pose to listeners, though it can also be allowed to wash over you too, who can as noted can be enjoyable to some. Perhaps non musicians. Anyway, right where this one ends, I was really thinking I can keep going but ended there to allow for resting.

  13. #12

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    My little take is that it is like the soundtrack to a movie. I could easily picture something like a desert, with camera going from scene to scene. At times, I might see a flower bloom, at other times, I might sea and insect getting stalked by some sort of lizard, and the next "mood" you capture would reveal if the insect got away, or if it faced a gnarly death.

    So for what it is worth, it takes me on a journey. When I am in the mood for this type of engaging voyage, it is great to listen too and keeps me guessing, and maybe that keeps me listening longer. Your increase notes at times, while at others times you just hold the note. Your chords present different moods, teasing at times, and leading at other times, or just dropping everything for a moment. I don't really detect much structure, but I am no expert. You are just going along as you feel, like a poet.

    It is a different kind of music enjoyment for me, and if full of little surprises. Maybe I have watched too many movies, lol!

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by AlsoRan
    My little take is that it is like the soundtrack to a movie. I could easily picture something like a desert, with camera going from scene to scene. At times, I might see a flower bloom, at other times, I might sea and insect getting stalked by some sort of lizard, and the next "mood" you capture would reveal if the insect got away, or if it faced a gnarly death.

    So for what it is worth, it takes me on a journey. When I am in the mood for this type of engaging voyage, it is great to listen too and keeps me guessing, and maybe that keeps me listening longer. Your increase notes at times, while at others times you just hold the note. Your chords present different moods, teasing at times, and leading at other times, or just dropping everything for a moment. I don't really detect much structure, but I am no expert. You are just going along as you feel, like a poet.

    It is a different kind of music enjoyment for me, and if full of little surprises. Maybe I have watched too many movies, lol!
    I guess what I do has been call cinematic before, which I don’t mind one bit. It’s likely in part that this is because movies do often have these in and out kind of soundtrack that operates subliminally. Dialog and sound effects get interspersed all together. Anyway, we’re sort of used to open ended mood music in that context so the category seems natural. I like your comment about this feeling like the music conjuring some images- but the other way around.

  15. #14

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    Hey Mark... love it. Without analytical listening. Your sound is beautiful, your vid is really cool and adds to the music.

    Your vid skills are really evolving. I only checked it out once... but sounds like steady I- and V's or more like
    A B A C A D etc... where all the "A"s function as the tonic and the other sections sound like different versions of V or dominant type of function. I guess you could even hear the sections between the "A's as a Subdominant function, where there is always more room to expand, or move in other directions with relationships to the E-, seem like generally Natural Min.

    Disclaimer... It's really difficult for me to hear spontaneously... It's my problem... just to hard wired. I mean one can play free and let a composition or playing just happen or react to something. But after the performance it becomes a form. Not bad or wrong etc..

    Anyway... still really enjoyed your playing. Your style is really becoming a sound. thanks Reg

  16. #15

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    It sounds like a score to me. A score to a movie I’d want to see.

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Kleinhaut


    People’s exhibit 1, from this morning. These are first notes of the morning with no warmup or preparation. Do you hear this as a through-composed albeit spontaneous piece of music? Or is it more like some random meandering, mindless licks and bits? Is there form and structure, direction, thematic development? Obviously I welcome conversation on this topic, but also happy enough if you even bother to give a listen with open ears.
    Do you notice any patterns in the tempos of your improvisations? Building a “pure” improvisation like this seems like a contemplative or meditative process with a deliberate focus on the here and now—listening to what was just played and allowing that to determine where the song goes next. Does this invite or even demand slow or medium tempos that allow ideas and themes to build over time? Have you ever jumped in with guns blazing at, say, 180 bpm, and if so, how does the process differ, and how do you feel about the results?

  18. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Kleinhaut
    . Well, I did prepandemic. I was doing around 100 gigs a year mostly trios and quartets. I’ve only done one gig in two and a half years and don’t plan to start anytime soon. Curios to know why you ask? I do mentally imagine performing for an audience when I do these in my home studio.
    I am asking because I would be curious about the audience's reaction to the difficult stuff you play solo.
    Here on the forum there are only guitarists who know what they want - at least it is such an impression.
    At concerts there are usually ordinary people - music lovers, let's say.
    Great music performed by you is a kind of mystery to me.
    Best
    Kris
    ps.
    A two-hour concert would be a great challenge for the performer and the listening audience.
    Last edited by kris; 09-24-2022 at 04:09 AM.

  19. #18

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    I hope all of us do something like this when we practice. I do; usually for about the first 30 minutes, letting musical ideas emerge naturally from intuition, exploration, and discovery. Mine tend to be slow and contemplative and feel like remembering a dream, where the various parts remembered are staggered through time and not in the order they occurred, and as they reveal themselves I am surprised and pause to examine them and sort them out.
    I think what you have done is a similar intuition, exploration, and discovery approach, except yours has very high "production-values" (elements that are enhanced to increase audience appeal) - you aren't breaking composition to investigate emergent surprises, but keeping the mood consistent, integrating any investigations into the mood and flow of subsequent ideas, producing a more coherent "cinematic" presentation as mentioned by a few.

  20. #19

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    Open form or cyclic form are the main differences for me. Most ensemble jazz improvisations are nominally the latter, so the latter what I have the most experience with. The former is interesting to me atm.

    (not that you can’t compose quote extended music in a cyclic form cough cough Goldberg variations cough cough.)

    If one wants to improvise in classical sonata form say - there’s probably a bit of planning one needs to do until the form becomes second nature. But isn’t that always true?

    One obvious one is transposing themes and motives into different tonalities and modalities, which come to think of it is bloody helpful for cyclic jazz improvisation too.

    i often feel jazz is open form straining against cyclic, and that’s partly what makes interesting, like a polyrhythm against strict time.

  21. #20

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    Sounds great to me! My vote: spontaneous composition. It's absolutely a real thing. I've done it many times. It may start with "meandering" or known licks, etc... but if you pay attention, they can lead you somewhere new. There's more to music than math and formulas and expectations. Actually, expectations are creativity's enemy, IMO.

    That is the only way we get the Bill Frisell's and Jim Campilongo's and Julian Lage's of the world. Because what they play, THEY came up with, it came from somewhere other than thinking "I think I'll use chromaticism here, and then do a quarter-bend there...". Music is magic. The greats let it be so.

    Play what you feel. You did. It's wonderful.

  22. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by wzpgsr
    Do you notice any patterns in the tempos of your improvisations? Building a “pure” improvisation like this seems like a contemplative or meditative process with a deliberate focus on the here and now—listening to what was just played and allowing that to determine where the song goes next. Does this invite or even demand slow or medium tempos that allow ideas and themes to build over time? Have you ever jumped in with guns blazing at, say, 180 bpm, and if so, how does the process differ, and how do you feel about the results?
    great question and challenge. Tomorrow morning I’m going to do a guns blazing start and see what happens. I think I’ve done that before though can’t recall the specific occasion. I suppose the slow start to the gathering storm feels more organic way to approach simply because so much if this is more about the listening than the actual playing. Also, I do these really early in the morning.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by kris
    I am asking because I would be curious about the audience's reaction to the difficult stuff you play solo.
    Here on the forum there are only guitarists who know what they want - at least it is such an impression.
    At concerts there are usually ordinary people - music lovers, let's say.
    Great music performed by you is a kind of mystery to me.
    Best
    Kris
    ps.
    A two-hour concert would be a great challenge for the performer and the listening audience.
    my experience has been that doing this style of playing is easier live because an attentive audience stimulates the adventure and adds to the energy. Mistakes are more readily forgiven and forgotten as the the now moment always takes priority. You have to read the room, but I find that a good concert timing is to play for 45 minutes, take an intermission and come back for a 30 minute set. If the crowd wants more they’ll tell you.

  24. #23

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    People’s exhibit 1, from this morning :
    • through-composed albeit spontaneous piece of music? yes
    • is it more like some random meandering, mindless licks and bits? no
    • is there form and structure, direction, thematic development? yes

    Some of the structure and direction comes from what I like to call proclivities or strategies. AKA style.

    I enjoy what Christian calls 'open form' music. One form device that works is a simple theme or short head that comes back from time to time. Makes it more palatable to the civilians, if that's any concern. Like Miles and Wayne - Fall - Nefertiti.

    It can be the first little foray of improvisation, if you like it enough and can remember it. People like to hear something they recognize from earlier in the piece. And it nicely breaks the somewhat overused Head>Improv>Head thing.

    You do that in a way using techniques like the harmonics. Works the same but in a more abstract way.

    Anyways, and as always, I enjoy your playing. Looking forward to the Blazing Saddles version :-)

  25. #24

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    Just wanted to add that the video is looking really good too!

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by ccroft


    Anyways, and as always, I enjoy your playing. Looking forward to the Blazing Saddles version :-)
    Well now, I have a title for it. Thanks