Jazz Progression

[Guest]

Hi All,
So I have had this issue with my playing for quite a while where I have been very unsatisfied with how I’m developing. I have a rough idea as to what I need to do, which involves exploring different genres and techniques.One of the genres being Jazz – which is a genre that I’ve always pushed to one side. Though I’m probably thinking that may have been a mistake, and might dedicate my practices to jazz playing and theory for a few months. I have the knowledge to work things out on my own, like for example I’m learning about Dorian #4 at the moment, but my issue is, applying theory to practice, and practicing shapes and scales efficiently. Any advice from strict jazz players (or anyone else) would be helpful. I think I have hit this wall we all commonly meet every now and again. Originally, my issue was with improvisation, but I feel that as I spent so much time recording jamming tracks involving 12 bar blues, im not really learning much and feel I’ve done all I could for the moment involving blues., and wish to seek different approaches and techniques to spice my playing and technique up. I think Jazz in particular would help me with the ‘Right note and the right time’ approach.

 

[idssdi]

Well 12 bar blues is rthe great just as long as you know the cor notes that go with it.
As for jazz, you really need to know which scale works over which chords and which color tones you can use. For example if you have D|C you can use Dm mixolydian and if you give to the next chord your will probably have to use a different scale! You really have to use a lot of theory knowledge to do the jazz solo stuff (like reaĺly). And with theory I Mean the scales and color tones that work over which chord.

 

[Guest]

Hi Ids, I definitely see what you’re saying. But I’m just trying to look for an efficient way to bringing it all together and applying it to my playing. I know lots of scales, chords and my practice is based around CAGED. I know Jazz isn’t easy, but just generally interested in how Jazz players approach such a difficult genre and playing what they hear in their head. I guess I’m struggling to find the right words to form the right question, in this case my I might revise my thoughts and ask again at a later time lol.

 

[Syn Gates]

Hey Ben, Jazz Blues is a great introduction to jazz but it also contains the deepest harmony in the world if you go down the Jazz Blues wormhole giving you incredible knowledge you can apply to thousands of other non-blues Jazz tunes. It’s got jazz, it’s got II V I’s, it’s got turnarounds(I VI ii V), it has Chromaticism and much more.
The key is to take the time to go through the infinite ways to “Reharmonize” the chords and chord progressions.
Here are a few starting with basic 12 bar Blues
Basic |F7 | | | |Bb7 | |F7 |D alt |G-7 |C7 |F7 D7alt.|G-7 C7|
Jazz basic |F7 |Bb7 |F7 |C-7 F7|Bb7 |Bo7 |F7 |A-7 D7|G-7 |C7 |F7 D7alt.|G-7 D7alt.|
Charlie Parker Blues based on “Blues For Alice” @= half diminished/minor7 b5
|FMaj7 |[email protected] A7 |D-7 G7|C-7 F7|Bb7 |Bb-7 Eb7|A-7 D7|Ab-7 Db7|G-7 |C7 |F7 D7 |G-7 C7
Coltrane changes from his tune “Countdown”
|F7 Eb7|[email protected] G7alt|C-7 Eb7|AbMaj7 B7|Bb7 |Eb7 |A-7 D7|Bb-7 Eb7alt|Ab-7 |Db7 |F/c Db/c |Absus4/c C7alt.|
…and this is just the beginning. You can play these arpeggios and chords at any time and I emplore you to. You don’t have to call out “Bird” or “Coltrane” changes to play them, just go for it, you will add character and depth to the jam and experienced players will know what you’re up to.
Of course, it’s best to be completely familiar with anything you’re doing in a live setting, the more complicated this stuff is the longer it takes to commit to brain and muscle memory so get familiar with the “sound” of these changes. Record all of these for backing tracks and just listen to the changes at first as if you were listening to something on the radio. Then start singing over them.
Take it extremely slow and then once you have them down, seek out other Reharmonizations and even create your own. Every chord has a substitution or lead in chord.
This is 10 lifetimes worth of philosophy in just a few short paragraphs so don’t get discouraged, have fun!

 

[Jak Angelescu]

I just literally copied, pasted and saved this whole forum.

 

[Guest]

Hi Syn, thank you so kindly for your message!
In regards to reharmonisation, do you mean chord inversions, and how these inversions may work as extensions? could we go a little bit further and say for example; we are in the key of B harmonic minor and we are playing over BMm7 a Daug triad, do we get a reharmonisation because its like an extension? Is that what reharmonisation is? With the example given, over an F7 chord, if we root from the 5th, do we get some sort of minor 3rd natural 6 arpeggio? Or are we keeping the root in mind at all times? But then the question in my head is how does the Bb7 affect the scale or arpeggios I’m playing?! haha! Its put me in this thought process where I keep falling deeper and deeper!
Im hoping that I am walking to the right direction, like I said I know lots of scales and chords, but this slightly goes beyond me a bit! So apologies if I’m talking a bit of crap, but I think having this bit cleared up will help in my practice!
I’ll certainly take on board and put into practice what you have suggested though! Thank you so much again.

 

[idssdi]

I didn’the very an answer ready for you so I used Google. Reharmonization is takinG the existing melody line and altering the harmonyear which accompanies it.
This is literally copied from wikipedia:
A melodic tone can often be harmonized in a variety of different ways. For example, an E might be harmonized with an E major chord (E – G♯ – B). In this case, the melodic tone is acting as the root of the chord. That same E might be harmonized with a C major chord (C – E – G), making it the third of the chord. This concept extends to ninths (E would act as the 9th if harmonized with a Dm7 chord – D – F – A – C – E), ♯fifths (E would act as ♯5 on an A♭ augmented chord – A♭ – C – E), and a wide array of other options.
Typically however, reharmonizations involve not just a single melody note, but a melodic line. As a result, there are often several melodic tones which might occur over a harmony, and all of these must be considered when reharmonizing.
For example, if a melody composed of E♭ – F and G was originally harmonized with E♭maj7, choosing D7 as the reharmonization chord might not be the best choice, since each melodic tone would create semitone or minor 9th dissonance with chord members of the supporting harmony. Experienced arrangers might decide to use these kinds of highly dissonant chords when reharmonizing, however handling this dissonance requires a good ear and a deep understanding of harmony.
Jazz reharmonization Edit
In jazz, the term is typically used to refer to the process of reharmonizing some or all of a tune, whereby an existing melody is refitted with a new chord progression. Jazz musicians often take the melody from a well-known standard and alter the changes to make the tune sound more contemporary or progressive. Art Tatum was a pioneer of reharmonization, and later on John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Bill Evans were among the first to seriously explore its possibilities, and since then the technique has become an essential tool for the jazz musician and jazz arranger.
There’s also some stuff on substitution there. Basically reharmonization is exactly what the name says it is. Altering the underlying harmony.

 

[Syn Gates]

So inversions are a very basic form of substitution which helps when you REALLY love the chord but you may want the bass line or the movement of the chord/harmony to do something more than just switch to whatever position the next basic chord is located. You can spend a lifetime on that which includes, but isn’t limited to, contrapuntal harmony or counterpoint. Bach certainly did.
Basically if you look at the Jazz Blues examples, you’ll see with some experience that there is a lot of modulation or key changes happening and a lot of the notes in each chord aren’t contained naturally in any of the basic 12 bar blues chords. These chords or progressions within the progression “function” in different ways.
Take Charlie Parkers blues: He immediately starts off by changing the quality of the first chord from dominant 7 to major . Thats a pretty bold move right there. The next measure is where he cleverly adds a “ii V i” to get to D minor which is the beginning of a “Turnaround” jazz progression in Bb, our new perceived tonal center which was formerly the IV of the original key, F. Basically he picked a landing spot in which he wanted to keep the original Bb7 at measure 5 and decided to build a shit ton of tension to get to that original chord. Why that chord? Because that’s where the official chord change to the IV in blues occurs.
So what he decided to do was fuck with the I chord a little by raising the 7th and then creating an adventure to get to the next “official” chord change.
Now some cats will hold NO chord sacred and substitute/reharmonize any part of the song at any time.
Also, you can change the quality of any chord you wish. Take a ii V I progression. You can take your ii chord lets say Dminor7 in the key of C which diatonically contains the notes of the Dorian mode, and lets say, make it Phrygian. YES, flat the 2(9) and the 6(13) in D minor and your all good, you just want to make sure the subsequent two chords of the ii V I(the V and I) sound cohesive. Maybe that means you use the Tritone sub of the V which would be Db. That means you could play an inversion of that, let’s say Fminor7b5. Now you have Dminorb9b13- Fminor7b5- to the I chord which you can fuck up as well. I don’t usually alter the 3rd of the one but you can certainly make it a dominant 7 chord(which you could also do to the ii and V chords which is common practice in Jazz) but lets stick with the Maj 7 and just alter the 5th of the chord. Let’s raise it up a half step. Now your chord progression is Dminor7b9b13- Fminor7b5- Cmaj7#5(augmented). You could also use the tritone substitution for your two chord which would be G#. Now your ii V I looks like this, G#7(you can alter if you wish(b9 b5), Fminor7b5, Cmaj7b5(lydian)(yes i lowered the 5th for this example).
Again, this is 10 lifetimes worth of work in just these few paragraphs alone so try to be inspired, not overwhelmed and remember, it’s better to know 1 or 2 of these concepts REALLY well rather that 20 of em badly. Take it slow and be thorough. The crux of your practice should be spent on one or two concepts but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a detour and check out other stuff, you definitely should as it helps to explore and fall in love with new ideas. BUT, put them on the list and stay on track.
I don’t feel like spell checking all of this so forgive any errors. Have fun!

 

[idssdi]

This is great Syn! I couldn’t find any spelling errors and if they are there I make them all the time anyway so I don’t mind

 

[Guest]

Cheers Syn, this will definitely help in my practice, and I hope that in a month or so I’m posting videos with this advice in mind. You’ve answered my question perfectly cheers!