The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    This thread will be a 16 week thread to use Standard forms (projects) written by Howard Roberts and published within his Super Chops book.
    In this thread though, I will be using the project forms, which are based on incorporating harmonic syntax loosely on Standard forms, not to develop speed and kinesthetic strength, but rather to look at techniques of harmonic re-interpretation.
    For some, these are "advanced techniques" but for the player who's achieved a good ear, hand, linear and harmonic feel for standards, this is one way of opening up the topic "How do I develop a more sophisticated vocabulary and how do I apply some of these ideas to standards?"
    I will be looking at:
    Non functional harmony
    Symmetrical Scales
    Chromatic triads over bass notes
    Quatral harmony
    Mick Goodrick's expansive Almanacs of Voice Leading

    just for starters.
    Is there anyone in this forum who is at this point in their playing where a thread like this would be of interest? I would consider it a given that for the duration of this thread, there'd need to be a regular practice of these ideas and it's the contributions of the forum members that makes something like this a success.
    For seasoned players with a large bag of harmonic concepts, please, I'd love to have you present your own experience on how you came to use the things you do, what helps you hear, what you think is essential. Perspective is So important to the advancing guitarist.

    Each week, I'll post a new Project and explain some concepts that we can internalize and use over the form. We work for a week and then I post another one the following week.
    Takers? Questions? Suggestions?
    I'd like this to be a troll free thread, open minds for the expanding ears.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Great ideas David. i would like to give this a go.
    cheers!

  4. #3
    Let's take a song form loosely based on the chordal movement of the ballad Angel Eyes.
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-screen-shot-2021-09-21-8-16-57-am-png
    It's in the key of D minor here, so the primary orientation will be on the VI- chord here on the map of the fingerboard.
    This map is a RELATIVE orientation, which means it's not specific to any key and applies to all keys. Everything, everywhere, all at once. Use it or not, I'll refer to it when I'm talking to harmonic movement because this is the way I see the guitar.
    You find the key by knowing the locations of all your tonics. In this case, D minor you know is on the fifth fret, fifth string, so you'd find the VI chord on the fifth string on the map, there's the fifth fret. (If it were C major, the I would be the fifth string, and that'd be your third fret, etc)
    This is just a visual aid I find helpful in seeing the whole guitar by eye, and learning to associate these changes by ear.
    Here are the changes I'll throw out for this week
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-epson027-jpg
    I'm going to follow the Howard Roberts Super Chops format in so far as to suggest you start each session by warming up and picking a tempo that you'd like to work with. Since this is a ballad, I'd pick a ballad tempo or something that would allow you to negotiate changes at the speed of thought. If you want to work on a linear concept, I'd recommend you record your own backing track for 10 minutes, and use this as the basis for that day's work so you practice in 10 minute segments with a 5 minute relax and reflect time in between.

    If you're working with harmonic ideas, I'd suggest you put down a bass line track with broken 2's, wherein you're thinking as a bass player putting down bass notes in half notes.

    If you're working on solo ideas, chord solo in an unaccompanied format, this is a great format for that too, just keep in mind that in working with a song form, the goal is to respect a living tempo throughout. You can figure out how to keep your time honest.

    I find that in a musical situation, a sense of breath and breathing really keeps my thought process inspired, propelled and swinging. To this end one of the first steps of my getting to know a tune is to know, feel and hear the tonal areas and how they inform the tune. Here's a rough highlighting of the tonal areas of this project as I hear them. Yours may be different, but the goal here is to internalize the tune, get it off book and know where your going by ear. (This is by no means a given or an easy process until you can do it, but once your ear is driving, it'll be the guiding force for ever.)
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-epson028-jpg
    Dominant chords and their own systems provide a sense of movement. The more effectively you can handle the active nature of dominant chords to guide the ear to a harmonic point, the more three dimensional your phrases and solo will be.
    There are many types of dominant lines, all of which have their own sound and feel. To have a second nature relationship with dominant chords is the best way to impart movement, drama, intention and propulsion into a tune.
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-epson029-jpg
    The dialogue between movement and statement, or verb and noun, or adjective and subject, shadow and object is what distinguishes a solo that has intention from mere reading scales and arpeggios into a set of written chord symbols.
    This thread is about the vocabulary of form and how we can create an advanced lexicon (harmonic and linear) in our ears and fingers, and applying them to a given form.
    Here's the way I hear the conversation between dominant and tonic:
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-epson030-jpg
    This is how our exploration of song form can be deconstructed and reconstructed.

  5. #4
    So let's take a closer look at the nuts and bolts of actually applying the chords you know into a voice led progression that may sound different from anything you've done before.
    There are lots of voicing possibilities but let's stick to the familiar here. Drop 2.
    Now I've written these out so each of these 4 pages has ONE chord quality (M, min, 7, -7b5) and the 'grabs' across the 6 strings. This is knowledge you need to have without hesitation in order to smoothly apply cycle voice leading. If you don't know these chord shapes, you have them here. Learn them so you know where the ROOT is and which inversion each chord is in. In addition, knowing the location and sound relationship of each voice is something I dare say is a necessity.
    Major
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-screen-shot-2023-04-01-10-06-45-pm-png
    Dominant
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-screen-shot-2023-04-01-10-07-01-pm-png
    minor
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-screen-shot-2023-04-01-10-07-15-pm-png
    -7b5
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-screen-shot-2023-04-01-10-07-31-pm-png

    So if you take any family, let's say 1 5 7 3 you can play a harmonized scale by ascending up the fingerboard. The voices move in parallel.
    But if you look at the fingerboard map in post #3, you'll also notice that for any chord you begin on, you can find an ascending root very close by on a different string.
    Start in root position with I (root in Bass)
    you can then find II- with root in top (soprano) voice
    III is in Tenor voice,
    IV is in Alto voice
    and the pattern continues with
    V in the Bass voice...etc.
    In this way you can go UP the scale by going DOWN the fingerboard by sticking to similar string groupings.

  6. #5
    Cycle 6
    Let's use an example of a progression that we can then apply to the Angel Eyes progression.
    I'm going to use Cycle 6 because it's got so many common tones, it's like resolving chord tensions.
    Cycle 6 goes from
    I VI- IVMaj II- VII-7b5 V7 III- I VI-...etc
    This becomes interesting when seen on the fingerboard because the progression stays so tightly on a specific range of the neck due to the common tone movement.
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-screen-shot-2023-04-01-10-08-53-pm-png
    Here's the neck so you can map your own way
    Using HR Super Chops projects to develop advanced improvisational techniques-screen-shot-2023-04-01-10-08-25-pm-png

    Play around with cycle 6 until you can see the movement as it guides the chords in post #4.
    When you have the gist of this on your guitar, we'll see how segments of these cycles can be used to supplant a progression of a piece that essentially has 3 bars of a single minor chord, and how we might use cycles to learn new ways to play harmony on the fingerboard.

  7. #6

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    I’m in! Started SC 10 days ago to get some of my sloppiness under control, it’s been a few years since I have been in the shed. I’m getting bored quickly though (at the slower tempos) and started refreshing some old concepts while I worked on 1-A and currently 1-B. Since I am out of practice across the board, here are the things I am focusing on (in addition to clean picking).

    Minor 3rd related Major Triad subs over dominant chords G7 ? G, Bb, Db, E

    string skipping / octave displacement phrases

    specific Banacos embellishments, IE, pick ‘chromatic above, then chromatic below’ and try to use that embellishment on virtually every chord tone

    some basic substitutions (tritone sub, major triad a whole step up for 7#11 chords)

    diminshed scale on 7b9 chords

    wholetone on 7#5 and 7#11 (I know it’s not ‘correct’ on #11 but I do love it so)

    that’s what I’m thinking about in different choruses

    After 3 10 minute sessions I do an extra 10 min of dbl time playing because I am terrible at dbl time

  8. #7

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    Just started week 4 of super chops trying to incorporate all of these various elements. I have also started rewriting the charts with additional substitutions as reminders of what additional options I have.

    I’m at 90bpm on day one of week 4 and the double time work at the end is getting really tough. thoughts on whether I should scale back the tempo for my double time work or just keep pushing where I’m at? Aside from the ideas/lines not being as great, I’m also noticing that my technique is getting sloppy during the double time run through.

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hartguitars
    Just started week 4 of super chops trying to incorporate all of these various elements. I have also started rewriting the charts with additional substitutions as reminders of what additional options I have.

    I’m at 90bpm on day one of week 4 and the double time work at the end is getting really tough. thoughts on whether I should scale back the tempo for my double time work or just keep pushing where I’m at? Aside from the ideas/lines not being as great, I’m also noticing that my technique is getting sloppy during the double time run through.
    I've found that for me there are two separate challenges. 1) Trying to come up with good lines and 2) developing more speed. I practice both slow and fast (for me) so that I practice both of these things.

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hartguitars
    Just started week 4 of super chops trying to incorporate all of these various elements. I have also started rewriting the charts with additional substitutions as reminders of what additional options I have.

    I’m at 90bpm on day one of week 4 and the double time work at the end is getting really tough. thoughts on whether I should scale back the tempo for my double time work or just keep pushing where I’m at? Aside from the ideas/lines not being as great, I’m also noticing that my technique is getting sloppy during the double time run through.

    Are you sure you are using the correct study group thread?

    The non-advanced 20 weeks Superchops study group is this thread below, we're on to week 14:
    20 weeks to a higher level of proficiency: Howard Roberts Super Chops one more time.

  11. #10

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    The other thread was what got me into the course, however I’m a fairly advanced player dusting off some rust. After the first few days I needed some additional challenges/restrictions, so I made this post:

    Howard Robert's Super DUPER Chops Question

    a couple days after that I saw this thread pop up, so it’s the one I have been using to mark my own progress.

  12. #11
    I'm just finding the time to come back to this group and thread. I want to look at different ideas to develop and ways to create ideas and concepts that are often the greatest obstacle to moving ahead and developing speed. On this thread we might stick with a piece for longer than a week but I'd like to introduce an idea a week, and use the projects given in the Roberts book so we have a common ground.

    So often the question comes up: How do I break out of the same melodic habits I have, or how do I shake off the repetitive practice assignments I have when I'm trying to be creative... or more broadly "What does being musical even mean?"
    So beyond the exercises and patterns, there is a world, a universe of ordering forces that go into making a piece of musical composition when it's time to solo.

    What is phrasing all about?
    So much of what we learn is about note choice and ordering. Sure, you need to know appropriate scales and the arpeggios that are the bone structure of our melodic creativity, but those are the trees. Phrasing is the grove that starts to create shape and character within the forest. Phrasing is relationship of the sounds we create and the spaces that give them meaning.
    A phrase has a beginning. A body of an idea. An ending.
    A phrase can be short. Two notes create the backbone of an entire symphony, listen to Beethoven's 5th. Starts with one short phrase that grounds everything. Listen to Sonny Rollins solo on St. Thomas: Rhythmic phrases with a minimum of notes. Space.
    A phrase can be long enough to make a statement, that means knowing the impact that your OPENING has. Where do you start in relation to the beat? Do the same notes change their meaning when you wait an eighth note rest? Start on beat 2? ...leave the first measure without playing? (Listen to Monk).
    Start on a strong note? Start on the same note as the song itself? Start by approaching a specific note you can hear but don't start off by playing...

    All these things have real meaning when you're composing.

    Exercise suggestion:
    Take a song form, like the Angel Eyes project here, and instead of thinking about scales and what specific obligations you have to the given harmony, hear a tonal area and make as many variations in phrase constructs thinking about phrase elements that begin your phrase and how you end. Pay attention to these things and see if you can make short phrases, longer phrases within a broad harmony like the one given in this piece.

    Let's see how this changes the way you hear yourself, and let's see how this changes what and how we play.

    Have fun.