CHORDAL MOVEMENTS. With working on the Patterns ....(Pros Jazz Phrases bk & CD, and for bassists: interval training - Elec. Bass Lines No. 3 book; guitarists: Jazz Guitar CD & Guide and Pros Jazz Phrases), also Standards I and II (Jazz comes from Standards), you can easily start getting into chordal movements (progressions) after you practice your chordal arpeggio notes to train your ears to hear, this really is not hard at all - take some time with chordal note arpeggios and youll be enjoying real music playing.... Just take a little at a time, a few chord changes at a time, like the common ii - V7 - I and the turnaround (I vi ii V7) and then you start to function in the real music world.....all good music functions chordally as any fine musician will tell you: More on the ii V7 I. As you know, this is the most common chord progression, hence why it even has its own category. When a chord changes to a MINOR chord, the chords are starting to move in this fashion usually, its all cyclic (study the CYCLE, most chords go in a Cycle for awhile, break a Cycle and start at another place on the Cycle - C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb(F#) B E A D G C - memorize this like the times table for most chord changes in Standards (and Jazz, Jazz comes from Standards). The minor chord could move anywhere, like for instance in the key of G, a chord can go from C to Cm and right back to G or down the chordal scale (in this case the G chordal scale, known as the immovable do, Solfeggio numbers go with this for transposition purposes) to a Bm, and the minor usually moves to the next cycle, probably the Bm then moves to an E7 (or an Em), and on towards the final resolution of ii V7 I (Am D7 to G). The ii V7 I or just ii V7 is called the movable do....it all depends upon what kind of chord it is (minor = is always considered a ii, 7th or 9th, 11th, 13th is considered a V7 and any major chord is considered a I chord in that sense)....hence a Dbm7 to Gb9 resolving to B (Cb) is a ii V7 I in the key of G or any key. There could be a lot of ii V7s. Like in Body and Soul, jazz musicians changed the original chords around (key of Db) to Fm to B7 (ii to V7) and Em to A7 (another ii to V7) and finally to Ebm7 (a ii) but instead of the Ebm7 going on the cycle to Ab7 (as it does much of the time, the commonest chord progression ii V7 I), in this tune, it modulated up to F7 (a V7) and went to Bbm (the i of the previous V7, but remember a MINOR chord is always considered a ii chord in its movement) and the Bbm (ii now) went on to Ebm (the i of Bbm - cyclic, but this too being a minor chord, then its changed into a ii, getting ready to do the ii V7 I thing) Ebm to Ab7 to Db. So there could be ii V7 or a ii to another minor on the cycle ii to v, but the chords being minor you constantly consider it a ii chord in the chordal progressions where-ever it falls, no big deal but then you get more of a handle on the chordal movements, and your ear finally does take over. The chord changing to a minor chord is more of an indication of a movement of ii to V7 (and maybe resolving to the I chord, the final major chord). The identifying thing, once you get the handle on the slide-rule chordal movements of ii V7 I chordal movements (or just the ii to the V whether the V is actually a V7 or a minor chord, a ii (minor chord) can go anywhere, but usually it goes to the most common chord progression of ii V7 I, pure cyclic in movements), you start to hear the chordal movements everywhere and can successfully anticipate where the chords of ANY particular (especially a Standard) tune is going to. There are some other jumps that are hard to hear, because the chord will jump to a iii or a vi (from the chord before it). These are both minor chords related to the I chord (Cmaj7 is Em7 -- without the C -- and C6 is Am7) -- those are hard to hear at first, you have to guess (is it a iii or a vi chord?), like in Stella By Starlight, and when the chords move out of the chordal scale key, like a Cmaj7 to an Ab13 or up to Ebmaj7 or some other non-chordal-scale chord, but you get used to hearing the chords move like that (especially after identifying the above, the ii V7 I, and the movement to the iii or vi minor chords), your ear then takes over very well and you get used to hearing these particular chordal movements. And so youre not easily surprised at chords in tunes unless they are totally crazily going nowhere in particular, which does happen occasionally, but usually there is great logic in tune-writing as to where chords are going to, easily obtainable by practicing a lot of chordal tone arpeggios too to train your ear and good interval studies (like my Elec. Bass Lines No. 3), and pattern studies books like the Oliver Nelson Sax Patterns book (however this is in the treble, trouble clef). When you get through my Pros Jazz Phrases book and the Standards I tape w/corrected Real Book charts, the next step is the Joe Pass Guitar Style for guitar players (Joe Pass is in the Jazz Improv For Bass for bassists) -- Ive used the transcriptions of Bird (Charlie Parker) for some teaching but find them unhandy to get across the Jazz improv. His lines move smoothly for a short time, then in the heat of passionate playing, theres a lot of notes that are both hard to read (or just plain wrong transcribing - theres tons of errata in the Parker stuff) plus the fingerings on elec. bass are just prohibitive. The continuity of Joes lines for bass (in my book, Jazz Improv For Bass great, chordal connection lines as well as the steps of how to use back-cycling, chord subs, stacked triads etc.) are just amazing and very instructive as to uses of sub-chords, moving chord patterns around (progressions), and for instant practice of getting used to the use of lines for sub-chords as connecting patterns in-between. Of course Joe Pass is not your usual guitarist but uses the sax patterns, the subtle uses for inuendos of chordal triads, stacked of course, chordal substitutes -- Joe was a master of continuity of soloing and his finer transcribed lines (no mistakes here too Ive found, I made sure hes very well-transcribed) are impeccable exercises to get your fingerings moving right to what you finally want to use for improvisation -- the connections between the hands and ears can be easily made with these transcribed Joe Pass solos. He was the master, no doubt about that, and recognized by such by so many great musicians out there, not necessarily guitarists, as he wasnt a guitaristic type player, he could have been a horn player. Unfortunately, not many know how to teach real jazz soloing and/or comping. But, the notes are there on your neck, anyone can learn these skills IF...they have the right self-help tutors. For the ultimate in Jazz Improv, be sure to get the Jazz Improv Soloing DVD Course which shows all these on guitar, and especially good for bassists too, as much reference is made to the lower strings (bass strings) and is easy to understand, having the chords separated in their categories, but also a chapter on how to anticipate chord changes, and connect the dots. Music is in both the treble clef (for guitar and other lead instruments) and bass clef for bassists and trombone. The Jazz Improv Soloing DVD Course also needs the book Pros Jazz Phrases, Treble clef book and CD - if you play bass, you will need the Pros Jazz Phrases, Bass Clef book and CD. The Manual explains more of the process of getting your soloing together, its the only thing of its kind and works well to help you understand it as you excel in your soloing. Recommended and endorsed by many VIPs in the music business and educational fields. Carol Kaye carolkaye/catalog/ For Standards & Jazz self-help recommended products (see carolkaye/catalog), Id highly recommend to use in this order for Bass: Bass DVD Course, Jazz Bass CD & Guide, Elec. Bass Lines No. 3 (for intervals and good note-reading practice), Pros Jazz Phrases (all these need good reading abilities, see Music Reading DVD w/Manual) book and CD, Standards I and II, Jazz Improv For Bass book and CD, Jazz Improv Soloing DVD Course (includes bass and treble clef music and charts. For Guitar: Jazz Guitar CD & Guide, Joe Pass Guitar Chords, Pros Jazz Phrases book and CD Treble, Jazz Improv Soloing DVD Course (includes treble and bass clef music & charts), Joe Pass Guitar Style book and CD from Carol Kaye: Yes I teach - mainly on Skype. See Catalog. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PS. When asking top pros, people could get the wrong idea about how to learn. First of all, most top professionals do not teach, or if they do its not much, theyre busy doing gigs and concerts, and touring...after all, theyre busy working their live playing (and that business), not teaching much....Ive forever had communications with people who say well my idol so-and-so always said to learn by playing the records and learn the transcriptions ....or......so-and-so who I love to hear play, says to learn note-scales and on and on and on....what the top pros say about how to learn music. Usually, they dont teach or hardly teach because theyre busy working....or....what would you expect them to say? I dont know ??...No, theyre going to try to say something helpful to their fans, even tho its been YEARS since they were in your shoes and forgot how they did it. Also, mostly they probably learned by doing if theyre rock musicians, and as for jazz greats, how many of those have the time to be FULL-TIME teachers? You dont learn to teach by only teaching a few part-time students at all...you learn to teach by teaching literally 1,000s of students over a period of 20-30-40 years of constant teaching. Sometimes the FINEST of teachers are not the best of players at all....and vice-versa. Top pros dont want to disappoint their fans with their answers....and some really believe that its transcriptions (no you learn how to COPY! not to innovate soloing), or note-scales (kill your ears, definitely NOT the way to learn how to innovate jazz solos but you use them as traveling notes....and then have to learn how to do that as most traveling notes are chromatic!)....Biggies like Joe Pass were rare exceptions, he knew the talk: Triad, chordal notes, substitute chords...but very few pros know what to say when fans ask them. Sure you can pick up some licks from transcriptions but mostly, transcriptions are poorly written and a waste of time. So why spend money to learn 1-2 licks? Why not get your ears together to able to get them off the radio yourself? Thats how good the CHORDAL ways of learning are....learning chordal progressions, the way modern music FUNCTIONS and the choice of chordal notes you use for soloing not only trains your ears (note-scales KILL your natural ears)....but with this easy knowledge, you learn MUSIC period! It was all taught this way all through the 1940s and 1950s and into the 1960s when jazz started to die and those teachers kept teaching into the 1970s and 80s some too but today? Theyre gone, retired if still alive....yes some younger teachers did learn from them...I personally taught over 5,000 one-on-one and 10s of 1,000s through the over 500 seminars I gave all over the USA....but...I didnt teach jazz (after the 1950s) until mid 1980s as youd starve if you played jazz back then....I taught the styles that they made money with and have been teaching jazz now since 1990s and its amazing how fast they learn and can play gigs within weeks, months at most...thats how great the chordal education works as its always worked! Dont fall for those myths ... do it the right way, you save money (and your sanity of trying to put this silly scale OVER this chord, and that xqadiekfencxoaw mode over that chord......you dont put anything over a chord, you PLAY THE CHORD! Ive taught bass since 1968-69, and jazz guitar since 1949 - still producing educational products, doing documentary interviews, a little studio work, teaching in-person, as well as mainly Skype lessons - all styles of bass, and jazz guitar lessons on Skype - its amazing how fast everyone learns on Skype, we have fun too! See Catalog and Drop-Down Menu for the various products and Skype lessons (paid by PayPal or mail-in ck/mo is fine too).
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 04:57:13 +0000