Clif, Whattapost! Thanks, Rick --- In jazz_guitar@..., "jazzclif" <jurupari@a...> wrote: --- In jazz_guitar@..., "Rick_Poll"
<richardipollack@y...> wrote:
Thanks for the reply.
I'd like to explore this a bit further.
Can you name the notes as fast if the name of the chord was
F#7b9,#11,nat13-here's when you need to open your eyes to look
at the fingerboard! Well, I'm faster in some keys than others, but I can name them
pretty
quickly, and once I get the names in mind, I can find the notes
anywhere on the fretboard with any finger. I didn't learn this by
practicing fingering patterns. I wonder, are the fingering
patterns limiting at all, or can you find any note, anywhere, with any finger?
If you have scale fingerings that cover the entire fretboard, and
CAGED gives you that up front, then you need to be aware of the
self- referencing this provides you.
Knowing nashville numbering is what makes the most sense to me. It's simple and you can read it off a cocktail napkin in a dingy niteclub if you need an emergency chart when the singer can only do Lush Life in B.
If you meld the numerical, notational, tactile, auditory and visual
input, you'll be at home in any playing situation.
It takes time, but each needs to complement the other, and you'll be able to play in your mind without needing a guitar. It takes time,
lots of it but if you want it you'll get it. No joke.
Also it's easier than you're making it. Fortunately, in horseshoes, hand grenades and jazz, close counts. :o) I'll try to explain that a little below..
Memorize the scales using degree numbers. E.G. altered 1, b9,
#9, 3, > #11, b13, b7 Its like memorizing phone numbers.
I'm trying to understand how this works. If you see, say, Gb7alt,
what do you think and what do you reach for? What if the chord is
Db7#11b9? It wouldn't really make any difference.
There's not a whole lot of need to read Db7#11b9 all that
literally, since to jazz musicians, they'll treat it like a Db7 with altered
upper structure and take liberties with precisely WHICH altered
structure they're gonna play anyway.
If you just get to Db7 or Db9 it's going to tell you whether or not the upper structure's altered. Here's how to cut to the chase more
quickly:
If you see 9 without a # or b in front of it, it will have no more
alteration than #11.
Moreover, it will be at 2, 4 or accidental to the key, or it will be a much more consonant and pre bop or non jazz piece, and the dominant 9ths will be over scale tones, and may be treated like mixolydian
modes. you'll get this kind of thing in musics other than jazz,
mostly.
If an X7 notation, where X is any root note has a # or b anywhere
after the X7 part of the notation on a tone other than 11, then the alterations will include at your option, the # and b 5, # and b9 and the 13.
Or look for the root and seventh and see if the 9 is preceded by a b or # sign. If it is, it's an alt chord and you don't need to go over anything else.
You can get that together by scanning the chart for ten seconds
usually.
This is almost always true, way over 99%, in almost any kind of music you're likely to encounter, but it's not generally acknowledged this way.
I'm not pushing my approach, but for the sake of discussion, here
it
is. If I see Gb7 alt, I think "melodic minor a half step up". I know
that Gmelmin is the key of C except for Bb and F# (like thinking all
white keys except ...) and I can play those notes anywhere with
fingerings made up on the fly.
If I see Db7#11b9, there's going to be a short delay because I don't
have the notes automatic in Db. So if you see Db7 and any # or b signs, just consider it an altered
chord, Db alt.
You won't go wrong if you have a lot of grips for Db7 with
alterations so the upper structure's under your hands too.
If it is, you're going to be making inside voice leadings with those tones soon enough, so you might as well view any kind of perverted
dominant sharp or flat anything as being an altered chord, and any
dominant 9th as being its tritone sub, to revert back to an earlier
thread.
Rick, I wanted to reinforce the idea that as a polyphonic
instrumentalist who can cough up a reference chord anytime he wants
to, the drudgery of trying to parse out the scale into dorians and
mixolydians to play a vanilla 2-5-1 is pointless. If you can only
blow one note at a time, it makes sense, but you can ref the chord at will so the flavor of the mode will be more pervasive in your inner
ear.
Here's the cut to the chase.
The 4th tone of the scale cannot be in the tonic chord if you want it to be truly at rest. However it can but does not have to be in a
diatonic chord of tension, 2m7 4maj7 5d7 7m7b5 - these chords all
have the 4th tone of the scale, and it's what makes them tense.
Changing just the 4th tone of the scale to #4 or 3 and changing the root to 1 3 or 6 will cause a tense chord to resolve and be at rest.
If you consider that 2=5 and therefore 5=2, all you have to do to
make a sensible line out of the scale tones is make sure that if
you're using tone 4 of the scale in the 2=5 episode, you DON'T hang
on the tone when you go to 1.
If you pay attention to that simple protocol, you don't need to think of the modes since the 'rest' mode of the major scale with no 4 will substitute for both rest chords (1maj7 3m7 and 6m7)and their modes
AND the tension chords and their modes as well, since not playing a
4th isn't a bad sound in a tension chord.
and the entire scale including the 4th tone is good over 2=5.
So you can simply remember to avoid the 4th tone on the rest chords, 1 3 and 6 and either keep avoiding it or add the 4 on 2 4 5 and 7
chords and your lines will behave right.
It's up to you to make 'em purty, though, so working on making
melodies out of scale tones is a good pursuit, especially if you know how to manage the 'tension tone', the 4th degree of the scale of the key you're in.
But you should really internalize the sound of the church modes to
make this complete.
I'm pretty sure the best way to do this is to play modal vamps and
blow your brains out over them until it's set in your mind.
These vamps will give you chord subs just from the diatonic seventh
chords, like set up a vamp of Dm11 for a dorian mode in 0 sharps and flats, and against a D bass drone, ALL the diatonic chords will sound good and like a progression, and like Whipping post from the Allman
brothers and cool stuff like that.
And all the C scale notes will sound good. A Cmaj7 arpeggio will
sound good. A Dminor6 arp will sound good. An Fmaj7#11 arp will
sound good. Any combo of white keys on the piano will sound good and like the mode so long as you have that D droning on underneath it all.
When it's there, or whenever you want to try someting else, go to E
phrygian and absorb the spanish flavor of it all, and same with the
mixolydian, which sounds good on a lot of one chord latin or blues
vamps. Give them all that consideration on a regular basis and
you'll be able to sniff 'em out in any kind of music very quickly.
Get the real modal playing going on on the most basic level, bass
drone against lines and chords of the mode and NO ACCIDENTALS AT
FIRST and it will be a very short period before they are thoroughly
internalized and ready to wear.
For altered chords, you know that time after time, the same
dominant chords are going to show up in the same place regardless of song, so it makes sense to learn how to handle the chord and address where
they will show up.
If you can't find yourself hooking that up with altered
scale 'modes', there's no need anyway unless you know it helps you
play.
If you already know to move up half a step from a dominant and
establish a melodic minor root and tonality *as a function* of
playing a dominant, there's no need for any names, just the ability
to get that sound down so you know it.
and pretty much play as if the chord was a G7. The G B D and F will be #11, b7, b9 and 3. To be honest, at that point, my thought process
will break down and I'll just go by ear. Where I'd like to get is to
be able to think of all the notes in Db13 and alter the fifth and
ninth on the fly. I can already do that in most other keys. You can do it automatically if you revert to the scale you know,
but to complete the process it would be a good idea to play around with
the altered grips and the scale tones at the same time until you see hear and feel them as all part of the same harmonic process.
Is that approach any harder to learn?
Rick
To me it's easier because you're doing it by ear, dealing with the
identical principle, just on another fret, and only using the scale
to check your work.
I play much better by ear than by any other type of process, so the
faster I can put some bit of tonal organization inside my head, the
faster I'll hear it and pull it out when I need it.
For people who don't roll that way, something else might be better,
but if you hear it and trust your hearing, use it, and you'll be able to figure out why it works eventually.
Clif Kuplen
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