The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #51

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    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    BTW it's an obvious point but I think part of the reason why m7 weakens or neutralises the minor colour is that while m6 and m(maj7) are more complex tonalities and don't contain a major triad:

    Am6 = A bass + C 'Lydian' triad (1 3 #4)
    Am(maj7) = A bass + C Augmented triad (1 3 #5)

    Am7 contains a major triad

    Am7 = A bass + C major triad

    Which tends to draw the ear.
    Good point. As I've mentioned here before, Chuck Wayne classified chords in that manner with the major triad taking aural precedence over all others.

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  3. #52

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    I think the move from tonics being written in charts first as 6 and later 7s more often is just the charts being stupid. Major 6 is probably the most restful tonic jazz chord. In minor it sounds dissonant.

    As far as the use.. you have to figure out which tones suit your use the most. For major, obviously a triad will sound the most restful but major 6 is pretty restful as well, even 6/9. Major 7 and major 9 sound more angular but work well for the tonic and still aren't too dissonant. It's when you add alterations that things really start sounding weird for the tonic chord.

    Minor is more difficult. The only chord that really sounds authoritatively restful is a triad. Minor 6 and minor major 7 chords are both extremely dissonant, although they do imply a tonic chord. Minor 7 sounds jazzy and is mellow and restful but 'can' imply a subdominant or 2 chord. So it's really up to you which you think will work best for the tonic. I usually use minor 7 the most then a minor triad and last minor 6 or minor major 7 because they sound all spooky and I don't need to be sounding spooky constantly.

  4. #53

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    Yeah it’s a specific sound. I think charts are often careless about this.

    One doesn’t have to necessarily go to the history of the music; some are more interested in this than others, but part of becoming a musician is becoming sensitised to details and nuances in the music.

    (And if you develop your ears the history is then just a matter of listening to the music.)

    One should really be able to tell the difference in quality between a minor chord with and without a minor seventh... and many beautiful minor voicings don’t have a seventh or a sixth at all. The minor add9 voicing that was a favourite of Bill Evans and so on....

    They all sound different. I think if anything the minor key is more this way than the major.

    One of the reasons I dislike modern jazz theory is that it suggests all chords within a given chord/scale are interchangeable, and that isn’t true. Different chords - even different voicings and inversions of the same chord - have a very different emotional effect.

  5. #54

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    Quote Originally Posted by PMB
    Two, in fact. The original has Bm6 moving up a tone to C#m6 that acts like a dominant (F#9/C#). Far preferable to the min7-based faux-funky modal vamps wheeled out behind well-meaning chanteuses.
    yes, the moving 6ths in Gershwin's original are the "hook".

  6. #55

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    Spring of 1953