At 12:44 AM 12/11/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Reed,
>
>My definition of guide tones is the third and seventh of a chord. While I
>was at the Universiity of Southern California getting my Master's Degree in
>Performance Studio/Jazz Guitar, my teachers referred to them equally for
>harmonic voicing use as well as melodic. In other words, the Lenny Breau
>approach of playing two note voicings as a counterpoint to the melody fits in
>my definition of guide tones as well. I did not hear the phrase, "Shell
>voicings" until more recently. Guide tones to me simply mean the essential
>notes necessary to convey the chord's basic quality (the root of the chord
>being taken care of most often by the bassist).
>
Okay, that's interesting. You seemed to be talking about shell voicings
in that one paragraph and I guess you were.
I've always heard guide tones defined to mean their useage as
a device for building solos.
To me this in an important distinction because jazz musicians pretty
much universally use shell voicings but the use of guide tones
for improvising melodic lines to me is very controversial.
>Using the definition of melodic guide tones only, some examples I can come up
>with are the typical triadic blues riffs (in F for this example) which
>remain the same over the I7 chord as they do over the IV7 chord with the
>exception of the A (third of the I7) chord becoming Ab (b7 of the IV7) over
>the IV7 chord, this can be found on numerous Charlie Parker solos, a well
>known one is his solo on "Now's The Time" on Verve.
>
>As to whether they are conscious of their use of guide tones while soloing,
>all performing artists (dance,acting, music, etc.) seem to perform their
>best when it happens at a sub-conscious level. The musician becomes unaware
>of his/her instrument's techniques and physical environment and just
>"speaks" their ideas through their instrument. Often the performer is
>surprised at how quickly the time of the gig passes and is not able to tell
>anybody what was on his mind during any of the solos. When we drive our
>brain enters a similar state, waking us up in emergencies but mostly
>remaining in a relaxed state of awareness as we think of other things and our
>bodies react to the physical tasks of coordinating our foot and arm movements
>(how many people can remember every sign post on a familiar route they just
>drove?).
>
>My point is that practicing is when people think of guide tones, target
>notes, altered scales, outlines, fragmentation, augmentation,diminution, and
>other theoretical concepts. If they are practiced enough they become muscle
>memory just like major scales have to in the beginning. When soloing,
>conscious thoughts of those concepts just tend to get in the way and stop
>the natural flow of music. I think of guide tone practicing as something
>which helps me in learning a tune with difficult harmonies so I can get
>"inside" the chord changes, but I don't imagine they even enter my thoughts
>when I am on a gig.
>
I'm going to post some more things about guide tones in solos
tonight.
There is alot to this whole discussion.
Certainly at issue is even the definition of guide tones.
Bert has done alot of research on this that I havent read.
>From my point of view as far as from analyzing solo transcriptions,
guide tones just don't play any role in jazz solos and I can't see how
that approach could be useful.
However, what's useful to one person might not be for another and
it depends on the teacher and many other factors.
Of course, Bert has written a whole book with lots of examples and
samples from transcriptions that I havent read yet so I'm going to try
and have an open mind to all of this.
It might turn out that the disagreements have more to do with
definitions of terms.
reed
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