Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Get some blues in ya 2, 5, Ones!



Here is a 'normal' kind of ii V I
...incorporating blue notes/passing notes on the 'downbeat'.

The downbeat can be considered the moment where the chord lands.
Which might in fact be an off beat,
but - if the chords are implying a polyrhythm, then it's a down beat in that rhythm.

In the D-7 chord the Eb and the F# sound fine - because it's a definite jazz lick in C.
So straight away the ear hears the blues and the key of C -- and the chord being a ii chord.

Note on the turn around chord A7 the last note is Ab in the phrase.
Here is a classic example of making the chords fit the melody.
I just wanted to play Ab at the end. And then realised that that's fine; of course the A7 could be Eb7 and to me a seven chord with 4th in the melody is very bluesy.

PS. This is easy to get your head around in C. But if you do it in E and A, B, F#, Db etc -- then you will really be properly mastering you ii V ones. You have to learn how to play bluesy on ii V ones in all keys.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Seven chord



Learn 13, 9, #11 Chords in 12 keys

(but DON'T play them like that when comping for singers or Dale Barlow!) (Elliott Dalgleish - ok)

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

What is a jazzy chord?



What Makes a Jazz Chord Jazzy.
Cmaj w a B is very jazzy
it is c maj seven

if you add some black notes the chord thus becomes even more jazzy.
A little bit like a C seven chord.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Friday, September 3, 2010

The diminished scale is so CUTE!

It’s got so many little goodies for us.
The diminished scale can be 4 different 7 chords right? You know that right?

Check out this voicing going:
Classic 13b9 voicing, half diminished shape, ctfnv, hds, ctfnv, hds, ctfnv, hds...



magnificent melodic ramifications.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Minor Scales

Here are some scales I made up. Sure, they probably already exist somewhere else. But actually - discovered them from some seven-note chords I had stumbled across and scribbled down. For me these are new parent scales.

Except for the Egyptian scale. Got that from Miles's autobiography.

Experiment with using them with seven chords - like you might use a Gmin or Dbmin scale for C7 .. ... ....

blue print is IONIC scale
- means flat [b]
+ means sharp [#]

PS Tasmanian scale is -2, -3

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Cool scale for a Seven chord

Hi everyone! all of my three followers!!! And you if you are new.

Block chords are great.
use a major scaled w an added flat six

slight variation i came up w recently is - instead of having that natural six, make it a 7. for Seven chords
so
in C: [descending] C B Bb Ab G F E D C

great way to use the humble 7 chord voicing. (do drop two or whatever, can spread all sorts of ways)

NOW --- this above mentioned scale, for G7.
nice
was telling Fred from CSIRO yesterday about it when we caught up in the street as you SO do in Hobart.
It's all cute and majory and all seven sus ish up top ...and then down around the 9ths is all dark with flat and sharp nines Ab, Bb.

Thanks for reading
love you. Tom.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

2 things: a beautiful bitter sweet drop-2 voicing, and playing in the cracks.

Today i would like to talk about two things:

1)
i was playing Sweet Georgia Brown the other day in G. Using drop-2 voicing variations which ROCK!!! ..and this is so cute i love it: [the sixth note+chord of the 2nd group of 4 bars, it's "A7" right?] - but first, coming up to that note; voicing the melody in classic Eminor style drop-2 voicings {for A7} E, F#, G, E | B (with, from top down, F#, D#, G underneath) === THEN:

G [is the melody note, top voice of a] root position C major triad over F# {all around middle C on the piano} *

next chord; from top down: C#, F, D, G#. (let the chord hang while the melody moved to B) ...etc..

* this voicing sounds sweetest in this key, this position i reckon.

---

2)
The other thing i wanted to mention was: The beauty of how you can play any 'wrong' note in the cracks ..if it's in the melody you want to play. You don't even have to juggle the harmony around it or get too adventurous with quasi reharmonising, but just don't play the chord at that moment that the note happens. i just noticed the other day i do this all the time; just hadn't been so conscious of it before. And the thing i really noticed was how brief a moment in time it can be. Grinds are cool too and all. But this is really tasty. Consonant but can be kooky. Sure; usually the melody you improvise will inspire all sorts of variations of movements and changes in bass lines, chords and/or counter melodies/moving inner voices. (solo piano)

thank you very much for listening and caring.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

spread clusters - learning the language in all keys

Tim Jones told me Why don't you just keep a diary of musical things you come across and/or practice.

I have been working on the non jazz keys so to speak. That many fumble on. A, E, B and F#
Play a jazz blues in these keys for hours
been lovin it!

1) 13 #9 w natural 9 above ("16") -- pretty consonant;

Last night i was getting into this cluster spread; a little more crunchy, still nice and very practical:
2) root, sharp 4, 3rd ("10") ..7 and 11 up higher
So in C: C, F#, E, Bb, F.
= C7

so this morning i thought ok let's move between these functional consonant clusters as an exercise in all keys.

in C;
F# moving down in quavers, to F, to E - against top note moving in quaver triplets: F, to E, to Eb, to D - while the middle note moves in crotchets: E to Eb.