This months winner is What is This Thing Called Love?
Arrangement
HEAD
SOLOS x 3
HEAD
Music:
Play along:
What is This Thing Called Love Play Along MP3.mp3
Have fun and I look forward to hearing you all!
This months winner is What is This Thing Called Love?
Arrangement
HEAD
SOLOS x 3
HEAD
Music:
Play along:
What is This Thing Called Love Play Along MP3.mp3
Have fun and I look forward to hearing you all!
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Pete Martin
www.PeteMartin.info
Jazz and Bluegrass instruction books, videos, articles, transcriptions, improvisation, ergonomics, free recordings, private lessons
www.WoodAndStringsBand.com
Jazz trio
www.AppleValleyWranglers.net
Western Swing music
Cool, thanks Pete! Do you have suggestions for the b5, alt, and + chords?
I'm not Pete.
But what do you mean by suggestions? How to play and finger the chords? What do do when soloing? What scales to use?
I suggest making sure of all the chord forms and the arpeggios; this will give you the guide tones.
If you are not used to music with altered chords - the flat 5's, augmented, etc. - then these are essential sounds to learn for jazz.
And these chords have those jazzy "flatted 5ths". Well, not the augmented chords. In this tune, almost all the m7b5 chords and altered chords are just variations of basic ii-V progressions.
Playing over all types of ii-V's are another essential for jazz playing.
So in the opening measure, the Gm7b5 is just a ii chord from F minor That's just the first 4 measures. But F minor is not the tonic, C major is.
So we get a Dm7b5 to G alt (and I always ask, what is altered) to C. tonic.
BTW, I tend to use a G aug7 to get to a C.
Last 4 measures we get the Db7, which is almost a G7b5, another type of altered G chord, and that is another sub for the ii chord.
And so on....
Do you have a complete mandolin chord chart anywhere?
one example - many mandolin chord charts lack the altered chords and such not used in roots music.
The m7b5 chords are also usable as m6th chords:
Gm7b5 = G Bb Db F
Bb Db F G = Bbm6
Also, I prefer other forms of many chords than on this chart.
Last edited by DavidKOS; Mar-31-2018 at 11:17am.
This may not be helpful to many here, but I can't help posting a link to this 1951 performance of a bebop tune called Hot House, based on What is this Thing Called Love. It's one of many examples of adaptations of standards made by jazz musicians for jazz band use-- and also maybe the only live footage of Charlie Parker at work. A great paraphrase tune (by Tadd Dameron), and some terrific playing by Bird and Diz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v17sC9ki6s
(For fun, try singing the original Cole Porter tune while listening.)
Thanks for the chart David.
By the way "alt" means an altered dominant seventh chord. Alter the 9th and 5th. A full alt chord is
1 b9 #9 3 b5 #5 7. Most players, even pianists will not play all these, just some.
G7 alt try this voicing: G4 D3 A4 E6 Third, flat seven, flat five, sharp nine
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Pete Martin
www.PeteMartin.info
Jazz and Bluegrass instruction books, videos, articles, transcriptions, improvisation, ergonomics, free recordings, private lessons
www.WoodAndStringsBand.com
Jazz trio
www.AppleValleyWranglers.net
Western Swing music
Very true.
And one reason as a classically trained composer (my degree was not jazz performance but theory/comp) I have issues with the generic term "alt" chord.
I think one should specify if the chord has a flat or augmented 5th; both, plus a 3rd, would get into tone cluster voicings! Not to mention the flat and sharp 9ths..and then there's the #11.
So figuring out what "alt" notes you want to use is indeed an issue in jazz. I tend to augment 5ths leading into the tonic chord - but like b5's on the ii chords in turnarounds. In minor I love using the V7b9 chord, too.
Joe Pass liked to think in terms of the simplest chords possible. I like that approach - particularly on mandolin, where the instrument is much better for playing horn-like lines than trying to get pianistic chords all the time.
"G7 alt try this voicing: G4 D3 A4 E6 Third, flat seven, flat five, sharp nine"
hey is that a G7alt or a Db13? yes
I have a go-to form now for the 13 chord, as well as the alt7 and #9, and they're all the same notes.
4-3-1-x is Db13, also G7alt, and also G7#9. It's my favorite close-voiced "Make a jazz noise here" chord shape.
But I wouldn't actually use it in the April tune, it seems excessive to throw in the alt, unless it is jazz guys' way of thinking about an augmented chord along with a dominant 7. The melody is playing only the raised D#.
How about these voicings?:
G-7 b5........0-3-4-x (6-5-8-x alternate voicing)
C7..............3-2-3-x (5-8-7-x )
F-...............1-3-3-x (5-6-8-x)
D-7 b5........7-6-3-x (7-6-8-x)
G7 alt.........0-1-2-x (8-9-8-x)
Cmaj7........5-2-2-x (5-9-7-x)
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You bring up a point that I have about many "modern" jazz players.
If you throw in altered and substitute chords all the time, they lose their freshness. I prefer to stay as close to the book changes as possible,and like you, pay attention to the melody to get clues about which notes are important in the so-called "altered" chords.
BTW, I rarely heard of altered chords in my classical theory studies. My teachers used the actual name of the specific chord.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_chord
"In jazz, the term altered chord, notated as an alt chord (e.g. G7alt About this sound Play (help·info)), refers to a dominant chord, in which neither the fifth nor the ninth appears unaltered[22]—namely, where the 5th and the 9th are raised or lowered by a single semitone, or omitted. Altered chords are thus constructed using the following notes, some of which may be omitted:
root (typically omitted by comping chord-playing instrumentalists)
3rd
♭5th and/or ♯5th (the ♭5th is often expressed as ♯11)
♭7th
♭9th and/or ♯9th
♭13th
Altered chords may include both a flattened and sharpened form of the altered fifth or ninth, e.g. G7(♭5♯5♭9); however, it is more common to use only one such alteration per tone, e.g. G7(♭5♭9), G7(♭5♯9), G7(♯5♭9), or G7(♯5♯9). in practice, many fake books do not specify all the alterations; the chord is typically just labelled as G7alt, and the alteration of 9ths, 11ths and 13ths is left to the artistic discretion of the comping musician. The use of chords labeled "G7alt" can create challenges in jazz ensembles where more than one chordal instrument are playing chords (e.g., a large band with an electric guitar player and a Hammond organ player), because the guitarist might interpret a G7alt chord as containing a ♭9 and ♭13, whereas the organ player may interpret the same chord as containing a ♯9 and a ♮13; "
Anyway, like Lydian mode, altered chords are a spice, and in my opinion highly overused by many modern jazz players. Spices are nice, but they are not the main dish.
Thanks for that, David. From a slightly different angle:
Chord symbols tell the chord player(s) in the band not so much which notes to play as which not to play. For G7#5, you don't need to play the D#, just don't play D natural. Etc., etc. So for G7alt, don't play the diatonic 5th or 9th (or 13th). In fact you could play almost any combination of the "allowed" notes, using any number of notes (F-B is usually the starting point). Where that chord name appears, either Db or D# should sound right, but D natural will sound like a mistake. As always, much depends on voice leading from one chord to the next.
We used to hear the expression "diminished/whole-tone scale" for the series G-Ab-Bb-Bnat-Db-Eb-F-G (starts like diminished, ends like whole-tone). This gives the full palette for "G7alt". Different arrangements of those notes can go by many names: G7b5, G7+5, G7b9, G7+9 (better called G7b10), G7b9#11, etc. Pianists are apt to play handfuls of notes; guitarists and mandolinists are likely to use a tasteful combination of three or four.
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Pete Martin
www.PeteMartin.info
Jazz and Bluegrass instruction books, videos, articles, transcriptions, improvisation, ergonomics, free recordings, private lessons
www.WoodAndStringsBand.com
Jazz trio
www.AppleValleyWranglers.net
Western Swing music
Yeah, Don, nice to see you here!
David brings up a very valid point with two or more chording instruments comping together. You MUST listen to each other and play complementary to each other. Often having one "main" chording instrument, while the others play "off" that sound can work very well.
In Jazz there is nothing wrong with "taking a stroll" (not playing) for a period of time. Space is your friend, make sure you give enough to your fellow players.
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Pete Martin
www.PeteMartin.info
Jazz and Bluegrass instruction books, videos, articles, transcriptions, improvisation, ergonomics, free recordings, private lessons
www.WoodAndStringsBand.com
Jazz trio
www.AppleValleyWranglers.net
Western Swing music
Agreed, so there is a natural limit on density. But in any case, the given chord name only gives an array of usable notes, with no obligation to play any of them. Most often the person comping is supplying the inner voices in a texture that already involves a lower bass line and a higher melody line. So in up-tempo jazz, guitarists and even pianists often stick to three-note voicings and avoid doubling the other parts.
And as Pete says, it's OK not to play at all. When I saw Thelonious Monk at Monterey long ago, I was impressed with how much time he spent standing next to the piano dancing while Charlie Rouse soloed.
Hi Bruce, I bet that Monk show was great! I don't think anyone would be as impressed by me dancing next to my mandolin, but as you and Pete emphasized rests can make what you do play more impactful and better.
Last edited by Lawrence Fullenkamp; Apr-02-2018 at 8:16pm.
Yes, seeing Monk was a real treat. The Gerald Wilson Band was on the same show, with Joe Pass on guitar, and Dizzy Gillespie sat in with them.
Another master of space and silence was Count Basie at the piano. I spent an evening around that same time watching the Basie Band play a dance at the Ali Baba Ballroom. Sonny Payne was on drums. Wow!
Dancing next to your mandolin, eh? Hmm, could turn into one of those Youtube challenges.
To bring things back on topic a bit, here's a nice straight treatment of our April tune...
Range is also an issue - the mandolin is a soprano instrument, a half step lower than a soprano saxophone. On a tune like this I would play both chords and singlestring lines differently on the mandolin and the guitar - more inside the basic chords in the latter case.
On record I have three versions of this tune; they're all available on Spotify, and I think they illustrate some very different approaches to this song. There's the gypsy jazz version by Austrian violinist Benjamin Schmid, the laid back bluesy version by Sidney Bechet (in Db, I believe), and the hardbop (?) version by the Roach-Brown quintet.
I'm not really a jazzer, but I do improvise, and I very rarely think scales. To me it's more about the chords, and how to approach them. I may play through the chords and their extensions (13ths, ninths, etc.), scalewise, or arpeggiowise; around the chord notes, and past them (wholetone scale, dim scale, etc.) in various combinations and permutations.
Another nice version by Nat Cole, in the same key as the notation provided above. Great guitar work here, and of course great piano.
All my life I wanted to be somebody, now I realize I should have been more specific.
All my life I wanted to be somebody, now I realize I should have been more specific.
Well I agree, but it wasn't "my approach" - it was the approach of players like Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington and gang, Goodman and the other swing bands, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, etc.
Even Trane played more from arpeggios than mode/scales, although he was the turning point.
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