Re: "beautiful love"

reed ( (no email) )
Fri, 04 Jul 1997 07:26:47 -0700

At 05:45 PM 7/3/97 PDT, you wrote:
>Reed,
>
> I've read your answer. It's not confusing, on the contrary, it
>is very clear. You have no idea of how much I respect your opinions and
>thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. I live in a small town in
>the mountains (Argentina) and there isn't a jazz teacher living here,
>not even one. I love jazz. So you can imagine what this list means to
>me.
>
> I became interested in understanding the harmonic structure of
>tunes because I wanted to follow your advice on improvising over large
>key centers. I've seen your post on "Beatiful love". I think all the
>chords are functioning in the key of D minor. I see no modulations here
>( please correct me if I'm wrong). So I guess I can use D harmonic minor
>to improvise all over the song. (Maybe D aeolian too, as I see the note
>C natural many times in the melody).
>
Yes, it's basically in D minor and does go to F at one point (which is
the relative major).

However, this is assuming you use the original changes. If you use
my reharmonization it will get a bit more complicated.

The main thing to do is to find a melody that works over the chords.
If you do that you will see that you are playing essentially in
D minor.

You could also try playing notes from a D minor scale against the chords
and use your ear to adjust when there would be a conflict.

TO do this, you have to play very simply so that enough of your
attention is still available to hear the band as well as what
you are playing and how it goes with the band.

Leave lots of space.

> There is something I don' t understand. That is, when you made
>the substitution of G7 # 4 for B7 in the last four bars of the song.
>I've thought about it but I can't understand why it works. Is there an
>explanation?
>
> So, in the key of D minor you are using the progression :
>
> ... / G7 #4 / Bb7 . . . instead of ... B7/ Bb 7 ...
>
> that is IV 7 - bVI 7 instead of VI7 - bVI 7
>
> Is this a common substitution (IV 7 for VI 7 ) in minor
>keys?
>

There are so many possibilities for this tune.

The G7#11 idea is kind of a deceptive cadence. Its just a ii/V7,
i.e. Dm7->G7 or you could think of it as a IV7 chord as you stated.
It's more or less a detour, and then things get back on track with
the Bb7 chord.

It's not a subsitution for B7.

Reharmonizing is like taking a trip. You have to get to various
places but sometimes you take a little detour and in any case
there is some freedom as to how you get from place to place
(which roads you take etc).

Sometimes tunes take little harmonic detours which result in
some harmonic discontinuities. For example the tune "Well Be
Together Again".

The key to effective reharmonization is getting to the "essential
chords" of the tune.

When I'm soloing on this tune, I sometimes play for the last 4 of the
second 16 bars:

Dm B7 | Bb7 A7 | G7#11 | |

This is another kind of deceptive cadence. It helps to have this
chord in place of Dm because the two A sections are almost the same
and it's easy for the band to get turned around. Having this different
bass note here provides a synchronization point for the band.

Also Dm6 (maj7 ) is essentially the same of G7#11 because of the
jazz minor mode interchangeability. It's just a bass note difference.

reed

>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
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Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com