The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #176

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    Oh, I like that - FM7 over G7. Or even AbM7 over G7. That was one of Benson's favorite moves.
    I meant the maj 7 note, not the chord.

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  3. #177

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    Quote Originally Posted by princeplanet
    I meant the maj 7 note, not the chord.
    It works. Here you are, twice in the 1st bar :-)


  4. #178

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reg
    So is the discussion really about voice leading or harmony, sounds more like voice leading and voicings. Which is cool.

    Christian... the G triad over C is just a voicing... depending on the reference, simple reference can be roots.

    The 4th is also just a voicing or voice leading issue, what's implied, camouflaged or even deceptive. Your modern harmony world sounds like it's controlled by your traditional ears. Ionianism. Pretty hard to get into modern harmony using traditional guidelines.
    Ionian, stop with the faux Greek, man, just call it the flippin' major scale.

    Yeah maybe... I can see that. There's a lot of stuff in my playing that's under development. But then..hmm.

    Basically I'm listening to stuff. Getting used to sounds.

    So I started off thinking like an idiot - there was functional changes playing, and then Trane and Wayne came along and lo! Chord scales. Well, it's more complicated. Even the stuff that is very CST seeming has other stuff going on... CST is kind of, well, basic.

    Most musicians these days of course have learned CST and talk about things in fairly straightforward terms, here's what I do with a melodic minor mode etc. Some guys pend a lot of time simply expressing chord scales on changes. Kurt does a lot of this, for instance.

    In general I have absolutely no problem understanding what they are talking about in masterclasses and so on, so I think have a decent grasp of the theory. it’s usually pretty straightforward, but the application is usually the hard bit.

    I don't always understand what you are talking about (I'm getting bits and pieces) so I've come to the conclusion you have your own way of looking at it...
    Last edited by christianm77; 11-20-2019 at 05:06 PM.

  5. #179

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    That would definitely help :-)
    Help what, who? Do you feel you want help? I don’t think so.

    I use this place as a sounding board for my own musings sometimes, but so does everyone else... also Prince asked me what I learned about modern harmony, so there you go. (Bet he’s sorry now.)

    It’s better to do it in playing. Then people can ask if they like what it is you do.

    It also relates to this video which may be clearer about one specific point in the above.


  6. #180

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    Quote Originally Posted by princeplanet
    I'm trying to keep up as we keep diverting, but this statement reminds me of a personal epiphany several years back where the T/D thing for me became maj6 vs Dom9, which was further reduced to m7 vs m6. This can cover all of functional harmony except alt dom, which is of course simply m6 a tritone away.

    Works for me anyway....
    You’ll keep dragging it back to functional changes and Reg will keep accusing me of Ionanism, which afaik is prohibited in the book of Leviticus. I think it also leads to chafing and poor eyesight.

    But yes. That is a thing. You know who taught me that? Charlie Christian. Well Barry, too. Although he wouldn’t put it that way...

  7. #181

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    LOL... the point of using Ionian is that one way of expanding harmony is using modal concepts. Part of just saying major puts you in traditional functional harmony mode or blinders, or classical whatever you would like to call . Do you have a set of groves and all the standard music theory and harmony books. I can start giving references if that would like. Part of understanding harmony is being able to use it, expand, don't just copy, actually create using the concepts, yada yada.

    The other thing most master classes are... well just that... classes for students. I'm not trying to knock your knowledge, actually I enjoy all your posts... your playing... hell your a good lookin chap, anyway, back in the late 70's I remember scoring a film, was called The Masters, martial arts and ballet, weird film, the director and producer wanted very contemporary music, so I used very modern harmony.... I used modal harmony and jazz rhythmic feels... sections had actual choices of what to play. With film you just need targets, film targets and back then you actually went in studio and recorded with reference film for sessions ... so conducted etc... not much of a budget... my point is modern harmony... generally gets away from Major, (better) because if you don't you could be the only one hearing it aw modern.... shi*** I need to head off to another gig.

    I'll check in later and try and find some old scores with modern harmony.... I also have some very modern jazz tunes... from my younger days, when I was more into to that music, as well as was the audiences.

  8. #182

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    It works. Here you are, twice in the 1st bar :-)

    Yes, well, when it comes to "anything against anything", Hubbard be the man...

  9. #183

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    This thread will be 6 years old in a few weeks.

    Has harmony become even more modern since it started?

    I couldn't follow a lot of the discussion. Insufficient academic background, I guess.

    When I think of "modern" I think "Wayne Shorter, not tin pan alley". When I'm fighting my way through a Shorter tune the challenge, for me anyway, is not about which scale to play over which chord. Rather, it's how to construct a melody that suits the changes. Analysis helps, but when I see something like Dbmaj7 Ebm7 Em7 Cm7 Dm7 Bbm7 A7alt Bbm7, I only get so far.

  10. #184

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    This thread will be 6 years old in a few weeks.

    Has harmony become even more modern since it started?

    I couldn't follow a lot of the discussion. Insufficient academic background, I guess.

    When I think of "modern" I think "Wayne Shorter, not tin pan alley". When I'm fighting my way through a Shorter tune the challenge, for me anyway, is not about which scale to play over which chord. Rather, it's how to construct a melody that suits the changes. Analysis helps, but when I see something like Dbmaj7 Ebm7 Em7 Cm7 Dm7 Bbm7 A7alt Bbm7, I only get so far.
    Depends from tune to tune.

    Speak no Evil... ok I need to remind myself on that I was looking at that tune, but study the way the melody moves there. Then listen to how Wayne handles it. Get away from the chart, the bass plus the melody defines the harmony here and it’s more logical than it looks.

    I’ve also often found with Wayne that the chord charts don’t help that much and are often inaccurate in any case... as miles put it Wayne is a real composer who writes bass lines and melodies, not chord charts...

    Like I say i can’t remember what exactly it was but I remember it was interesting.

    Rule 1 of Wayne - what does Wayne do?

    He has a way of getting elegantly though his own tunes, it’s usually the best way.

    Surprisingly many of his tunes are clever shit involving the blues. He often quotes or paraphrases the melody in his solos too.

    Of course you could spaff chord scales on them. But like you say, that’s not satisfying somehow.

  11. #185

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    Here’s a vid I did on deluge


  12. #186

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Depends from tune to tune.

    Speak no Evil... ok I need to remind myself on that I was looking at that tune, but study the way the melody moves there. Then listen to how Wayne handles it. Get away from the chart, the bass plus the melody defines the harmony here and it’s more logical than it looks.

    I’ve also often found with Wayne that the chord charts don’t help that much and are often inaccurate in any case... as miles put it Wayne is a real composer who writes bass lines and melodies, not chord charts...

    Like I say i can’t remember what exactly it was but I remember it was interesting.

    Rule 1 of Wayne - what does Wayne do?

    He has a way of getting elegantly though his own tunes, it’s usually the best way.

    Surprisingly many of his tunes are clever shit involving the blues. He often quotes or paraphrases the melody in his solos too.

    Of course you could spaff chord scales on them. But like you say, that’s not satisfying somehow.
    My analysis is that a lot of it is in Ab tonal center.

    When he gets to the two chords per bar section, the solos generally treat it like a 3 6 2 5. So that Em7 Cm7 Dm7 Bbm7 is played becomes, more or less, Em7 Eb6 Dm7 Db6. Then, for the Aalt Bbm7, I think Bbmelminor. What I hear on the recording is a lick and a lick a step lower, more or less.

    After that, it's a more obvious 3 6 2 5. The next chord has the root of the I in that 3 6 2 5 but it's Ebmaj7#9#11. Perhaps the kindest thing I can say about it is that it's playable on guitar. Then, we're back to Abmaj.

    So, the analysis doesn't have to go into outer space to find new theory, but you have to be flexible about the specifics of the harmony.

    As an aside, I tend not to focus on finding the exact scale where every note fits the harmony perfectly. If I'm going to be thinking that way at all, I just need to get close. I'm going to be trying to sing melody to myself anyway -- and I can adjust the truly rotten notes by a half step, on the fly.
    Last edited by rpjazzguitar; 11-25-2019 at 03:33 PM.

  13. #187

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    Shorter composed with blocks of music. Takes a groove, OK bass line with implied harmony, or even with existing harmony. Usually pretty straight... then adds melody. ( or reverse, start with melody etc... ). Then expands or changes the chords, using standard BS. He camouflages the simple harmony...That's generally why when you perform his tunes... you always have a very simple approach if you choose, and can have a few harmonic and melodic ideas going on at same time... Yea... lots of blues, melodic minor and modal interchange.

    So yea... its a minor blues, or at least implied. What might have been the starting reference or tune.
    Last edited by Reg; 11-25-2019 at 12:28 PM.

  14. #188

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    My analysis is that a lot of it is in Ab tonal center.

    When he gets to the two chords per bar section, the solos generally treat it like a 3 6 2 5. So that Em7 Cm7 Dm7 Bbm7 is played becomes, more or less, Em7 Eb6 Dm7 Db6. Then, for the Aalt Bbm7, I think Bbmelminor. What I hear on the recording is a lick and a lick a step lower, more or less.

    After that, it's a more obvious 3 6 2 5. The next chord has the root of the I in that 3 6 2 6 but it's Ebmaj7#9#11. Perhaps the kindest thing I can say about it is that it's playable on guitar. Then, we're back to Abmaj. b

    So, the analysis doesn't have to go into outer space to find new theory, but you have to be flexible about the specifics of the harmony.

    As an aside, I tend not to focus on finding the exact scale where every note fits the harmony perfectly. If I'm going to be thinking that way at all, I just need to get close. I'm going to be trying to sing melody to myself anyway -- and I can adjust the truly rotten notes by a half step, on the fly.
    Yes this is true. But you are still thinking about half the music I think?

    I looked at it today...

    He gives you the path in the melody. The easiest way to play the A. A template.

    Wayne shorter has a melodic gift. I don’t actually think is a harmonic improviser at all, at least not in the same as Herbie is. He doesn’t build chords up. The harmony is emergent from the melody + bass and the reason why the chords sound connected and not random. Miles said that of him.

    Real book charts and particularly the hated iReal do a very bad job of communicating this. The chord symbols do not quite reflect what is going on.

    I’ll give it to you

    Cm7 on Cm7 Dbmaj7(#11) - C minor blues etc

    The Em7 Cm7 Dm7 Bbm7 section with the melody notes should be thought of as fully extended m11ths. With the bass and melody alone, we have.

    D/E Bb/C C/D Ab/Bb

    Or more helpfully perhaps we could also say

    D/E Dm/C C/D Cm/Bb

    Or

    D Dm C Cm triads. Leave the bass something to do. They won’t be doing anything else on this tune lol.

    The main movement is from F#-F-E-Eb. It’s a line cliche. Pretty old school when you look at it that way.

    If you preserve that line when you play over the progression it will serve to connect the chords. It’s not the only way to do it, but it’s useful base. You won’t be scrambling around. And you won’t have to play too many notes to navigate the tune.

    Now listen to the solo. What does Wayne do?
    Last edited by christianm77; 11-25-2019 at 03:35 PM.

  15. #189

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    I forgot the A7b5.... that’s where you end up.

    It’s not necessary to spell out that and the Bbm11 too much, but you can have fun working that pedal tone. Herbie seems to move between thinking of that as an A altered thing and a ii v Bbm Eb7...

    From there on you can roll out more non chord tones, but it’s striking Hubbard uses a similar approach. Essentially they are paraphrasing the melodies a type of improvisation a 1920s player would have understood. I think sometimes as improvisers we feel the pressure to make up something totally new rather than working with the melodic material we have. I’m not sure where this expectation comes from...

    Which of course is not to say you can’t make up something new. But then i find the important thing on any of these tough tunes is to have something we can just play that’s nice and simple and build up from there.

    Of the solos Herbie’s is what we might think as the most chord scalic. He still makes a lot out of that feature in the melody though... the melody still in there.
    Last edited by christianm77; 11-25-2019 at 03:36 PM.

  16. #190

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    I forgot the A7b5.... that’s where you end up.

    It’s not necessary to spell out that and the Bbm11 too much, but you can have fun working that pedal tone. Herbie seems to move between thinking of that as an A altered thing and a ii v Bbm Eb7...


    Of the solos Herbie’s is what we might think as the most chord scalic. He still makes a lot out of that feature in the melody though... the melody still in there.
    With regard to Em7 Cm7 Dm7 Bbm7 ...

    I hear this as a variation of a 3 6 2 5. The Cm7 takes the place of an A7 and the Bbm7 takes the place of a G7.

    It has strong structure, down two, up one, down two.

    Why does the harmony work? Because Cm7 is C Eb G Bb. If there was an A in the bass, those notes would be the b7, #9, #11 and b9.
    Same argument for the Dm7.

    This is, in effect, Em7 A7alt Dm7 G7alt, give or take a b13.

    And, when I listen to the solos, that's what I hear in the logic of their phrases.

    The part I think of as Ab tonal center might reasonably be considered C phrygian. Not quite a minor blues to my ear, but I understand what Reg meant, I think.

    A7#11 is A C# D# G.
    Bbm7 is Bb Db F Ab.

    They don't look that much alike, but A7alt comes out of Bbmelmin. I'll have to go back and listen to what they do over that change.



  17. #191

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    With regard to Em7 Cm7 Dm7 Bbm7 ...

    I hear this as a variation of a 3 6 2 5. The Cm7 takes the place of an A7 and the Bbm7 takes the place of a G7.

    It has strong structure, down two, up one, down two.

    Why does the harmony work? Because Cm7 is C Eb G Bb. If there was an A in the bass, those notes would be the b7, #9, #11 and b9.
    Same argument for the Dm7.

    This is, in effect, Em7 A7alt Dm7 G7alt, give or take a b13.

    And, when I listen to the solos, that's what I hear in the logic of their phrases.

    The part I think of as Ab tonal center might reasonably be considered C phrygian. Not quite a minor blues to my ear, but I understand what Reg meant, I think.

    A7#11 is A C# D# G.
    Bbm7 is Bb Db F Ab.

    They don't look that much alike, but A7alt comes out of Bbmelmin. I'll have to go back and listen to what they do over that change.


    Did you understand my post? I don’t know how well I explained it. I’ll do a video when I have time. It’s actually pretty simple and easy to play this tune when you grasp this triadic background.

    Often with fast non functional changes players take a simple route through it and then stretch on the more modal sections on Cm/Db and A7b5 Bbm7.... (Herbie treats the Cm as an open vamp and goes out on it later in his solo. He makes the most of the Cm Db change of the soloists. I think he simplifies the vamp at the end a little?

    your 3 6 2 5 thing sort of works theoretically, id need to try it to see if my bop lines would work there....

    An analogous situation is Song for Bilbao from Tales of the Hudson. Nobody would say that these players aren’t some of the best of the era, but they all circumvent the difficulty by employing a strategy. Quoting the melody, playing the chords and playing variations on the melody are all perfectly reasonable ways to do it. Any changes playing should probably be heavily focused on the simplest chord tones. Think Giant Steps.

    Rick seemed to think it had something do with them being major chords iirc, but tbh I often hear
    these kinds of strategies on fast hard changes.



    Stablemates is another one....
    Last edited by christianm77; 11-25-2019 at 07:57 PM.

  18. #192

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Did you understand my post? I don’t know how well I explained it. I’ll do a video when I have time. It’s actually pretty simple and easy to play this tune.
    I may have understood it. I played through it with the chords you suggested. Sounded good. Still sounds like a 3 6 2 5.

    In this view, for better or worse, you appreciate in some inchoate way that it's a 3 6 2 5 and use the usual techniques for navigating a 3 6 2 5. If you nail the Em7 and the Dm7, whatever melody you come up with is probably going to work. It may sound inside-outside-inside-outside, depending on what you come up with. If you choose to think of the second chord as A7alt (played over Cm7) you're probably going to hit some of the chord tones of Cm7 anyway C Eb G Bb vs A C# Eb F G Ab Bb C. And, that's what I thought I was hearing on the recording.

    This short passage can be analyzed different ways. Which is preferable depends, I should think, a great deal on the player's overall approach to soloing.

  19. #193

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    I may have understood it. I played through it with the chords you suggested. Sounded good. Still sounds like a 3 6 2 5.

    In this view, for better or worse, you appreciate in some inchoate way that it's a 3 6 2 5 and use the usual techniques for navigating a 3 6 2 5. If you nail the Em7 and the Dm7, whatever melody you come up with is probably going to work. It may sound inside-outside-inside-outside, depending on what you come up with. If you choose to think of the second chord as A7alt (played over Cm7) you're probably going to hit some of the chord tones of Cm7 anyway C Eb G Bb vs A C# Eb F G Ab Bb C. And, that's what I thought I was hearing on the recording.

    This short passage can be analyzed different ways. Which is preferable depends, I should think, a great deal on the player's overall approach to soloing.
    Does this approach help you solo on the tune? I’m unlikely to pick up a guitar today so I can’t try it for myself unfortunately. My feeling is that it would sound cool but might not cut to the core of that progression. Em9 A7b13 Dm9 G7b13 is better voice leading in this context.

    Theoretically I can see that the Wayne progression would make a nice sub for a turnaround. I would tend to see it more as Bm7 E7susb9 Am7 D7susb9

    Minor over dominant is a common sub for altered dominant though. Your thing would probably work. I’d need to try it, but tbh most things work if they are logical and resolve. Relating it to something familiar might help in the short term but might not help with the Wayne tunes that diverge further from functional tonality.

    Again I think my approach (or rather Jordan/Stephon Harris’s) really cuts through the bullshit.

    You can come up with systems that define 7 or more notes over each chord, but in practice this can be very clunky to use. It’s too much information all at once.

    It’s striking that the players on the recording really don’t make a meal of it. Another way of putting it is it’s interesting to me what they leave out of each cst pitch set. I mean in one sense it’s Dorian over each m7. Urgh.

    Very rarely am I in the position of wanting to deal with more that three or four notes over each chord in a fast non functional changes like this. ‘Probably’ hitting chord tones is not what I want, especially of course in a trio. I want to be able to outline the progression clearly and without fuss bearing in mind each chord sticks around for no more than 4 beats. And above all I want to play something rhythmically compelling and melodic. When I am comping I want clear voice leading.

    And as with say, Coltrane changes. Unlike a typical Tin Pan Alley standard where we can reharm and so on, the harmonic interest is kind of baked into the tune. Therefore it is not up to the soloist to create harmonic interest and it’s more important to play melodically and rhythmically to make these unusual fast written changes sound good. The ears need something to hang onto. All my transcriptions so far seem to bear this out.

    It makes sense right, Wayne is not as familiar as Blue Moon.... we don’t need to run variations on something unfamiliar. Well maybe for other jazz geeks.

    That’s an inverse approach. Trane started this right? So for instance we would use a Coltrane sub on a ii v I but the opposite can sound sort of ok, but doesn’t get to the heart of it.

    1 2 3 5 is often the approach used for Trane changes. Again in the Beato vid it’s notable how simple and how organised the examples sound. It’s just chord tones 90% of the time.

    *However* - in this case the melody is on the extensions not on the base triads as it is in Giant Steps and Bilbao. And these US melody notes are the ones they go for.

    So, I think everything you say is true, but I don’t think it gets to the essential economy of how the horn players solo on this tune. A lot of the creativity is in the rhythmic variations. Again if you spend any time at all listening to jazz from the pre war era this approach will be familiar. Think Johnny Hodges (Trane’s favourite)

    I’ll dig a little more into the exact note choices that the guys play on this progression but I take it you can hear the tunes melody over each of those sections in the solos?

    Anyway, I bring it up because it shows how modern harmony is not just one unified approach in a book. This way of thinking may not work for everything. (Although in my experience melodic triads are a very versatile and powerful tool that allow you to play basically any type of harmonic music.) I think to go, harmony until 1960 then modal/cst to the present day is a necessary simplification to teach basic ‘getting though the gig skills’ to 19 year olds.

    But I think ‘it’s the melody stupid’ is a great practical skill for young musicians that always works and requires no flipping pseudo Greek. Of course it requires you to actually know the tune and not be reading off your phone.

    Let’s do another Wayne tune!
    Last edited by christianm77; 11-26-2019 at 05:47 AM.

  20. #194

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Let’s do another Wayne tune!
    By all means. I need the practice on those tunes.

    What I thought I heard was navigation through 3 6 2 5 with melodic devices. I didn't try to figure out the notes. The thought about chord tones on the Em7 and Dm7 and random **** in between was my idea. Joking about random. Rather, any melodic idea that is anchored in the chord tones and maybe consonant extensions of the Em7 and Dm7. At least, that's what occurs to me while I'm typing this. I don't know if that's how I'd approach the tune in a band context.

    If something like that was slow enough, I'd figure I could nail each chord, if I had to, meaning I'd try to make up a melody out of chord tones and additional notes picked by ear.

    If the tune was really fast, I'd be looking for shortcuts. First thing I might try is playing the entire thing in Cmaj. Usually, that's a joke, but in this case it might actually work. Might not want to lean on E against Cm7, or D against Bbm7 but at a fast enough tempo it might work.

    It may be that a high-moderate tempo would be hardest. Too fast to make nailing each chord comfortably but slow enough that clams will be heard.

    How about Ana Maria?

  21. #195

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    By all means. I need the practice on those tunes.

    What I thought I heard was navigation through 3 6 2 5 with melodic devices. I didn't try to figure out the notes. The thought about chord tones on the Em7 and Dm7 and random **** in between was my idea. Joking about random. Rather, any melodic idea that is anchored in the chord tones and maybe consonant extensions of the Em7 and Dm7. At least, that's what occurs to me while I'm typing this. I don't know if that's how I'd approach the tune in a band context.

    If something like that was slow enough, I'd figure I could nail each chord, if I had to, meaning I'd try to make up a melody out of chord tones and additional notes picked by ear.

    If the tune was really fast, I'd be looking for shortcuts. First thing I might try is playing the entire thing in Cmaj. Usually, that's a joke, but in this case it might actually work. Might not want to lean on E against Cm7, or D against Bbm7 but at a fast enough tempo it might work.

    It may be that a high-moderate tempo would be hardest. Too fast to make nailing each chord comfortably but slow enough that clams will be heard.

    How about Ana Maria?
    Just playing Em7 and Dm7 might be necessary if in a duo. I think sus chords would be better though, slash chord voicings, like the ones I wrote above .

    C blues would work pretty well if you were using your ears.

    You know horns are hustlers and guitars (and pianos) are geeks. They play poker while we think it’s chess.... As a long serving nerd I find the hustling mentality more interesting and mysterious....

    OK Wayne’s a total nerd. But you get the idea?

    Ana Maria. Ok I don’t know that one, so will have to wait a couple of days. But I’m up for it!
    Last edited by christianm77; 11-26-2019 at 06:05 AM.

  22. #196

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    Here’s a thing I did about Beatrice but didn’t publish


  23. #197

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    Also if it helps, my terms

    Cm11 = chord up
    C Dorian = scale, 13 is avoid note
    Bb on Cm7 = top down (melody down)

    Three ways of thinking about the same cst pitch set. The difference is emphasis.

    The former relates to chord symbols, bass and basic voicings obviously... but we can get stuck down there as improvisers. But we all
    have to learn it.

    The middle often leads to sophomore noodling, but with sufficiently developed patterns, language and intervalloc approaches can be made to sound good.

    The latter relates to both what I think of as traditional chord subs and more advanced harmony so on and to me is more directly useful as a melodic improviser.

  24. #198

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    Maybe ESP... here's a vid I made for JGF 10 years ago... funny to hear old BS. I'm pretty sure I just made a quick backing track... Hip Hop... probable from playing a gig the night before. Anyway... I rarely rehearse for vids.... just make as quick as I can. On edge, loose, train wreck at any moment kind of thing. keep improve simple... repeat melodic material and create shapes with form.

    His tunes do open the modal and pentatonic doors... I'm In for all WS tunes...

  25. #199

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    Here's why Ethan Iverson thinks 1964 was an important year for Modern Jazz:

    A Look Back at 1964, a Pivotal Year in the Career of the Jazz Composer Wayne Shorter | The New Yorker

  26. #200

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    A list of Shorter Tunes... that I cover, or at least have transcribed and arranged


    Black Nile... with Lee Morgan 1964 Still played to much
    Wild Flower... with freddie, Still play this tune, arranged a big band version... just to moody
    Iris... with Miles 1965, fun ballad....
    Prince of Darkness.... usually play as up swing, burnin, great solo tune
    El Gaucho.... still fun tune, started playin back in late 60's
    Lester Left Town.... cool arranged tune, don't play that much anymore
    Maria Antoinette and Angola.... still fun, old school
    Speak no Evil
    Yes and No and
    Night Dreamer...cool 3/4
    the later stuff like,
    The Three Maria's were fun back in the 80's... those days are gone cool at bigger venues


    His tunes aren't that complicated... really, play them in real time. When you get past "expanding" functional harmony, with modal subs and think of many of his chord progressions as "Chord Patterns". Maybe... like a Pedal with chords.... Chord patterns become basically One functional reference.... Go through 15 or 20 of his tunes and you'll start to see and hear his most used chord patterns... or moving chords over a pedal.

    We could play and make analysis of Ana Maria.... it's just such a slow moving somewhat moody tune... the use of a Bossa is almost an oxymoron... play the melody forever, but why not. Spending a lot of time on one tune... misses a lot of what playing Shorter tunes is... (personal op). Modern harmony ... if you struggle getting through Shorter tunes, which are still pretty functional... expanded functional.... Maybe take a simple tune and make it harmonically modern.... even a simple Monk tune, Well You Needn't.... and try and use modern harmonic concepts.... or maybe some of Shorter's harmonic tricks of camouflaging function. Something to think about over the American excuse to take a holiday. (don't look at the real story).