Re: guide tones/analysis
Bert Ligon ( BLigon@mozart.music.sc.edu )
Fri, 13 Dec 1996 10:08:27 -0500
>Mike:
>
>At 10:06 AM 12/12/96 -0800, you wrote:
>><<snip>>
>>I would NEVER want to play an E over the Cm7 since The Eb gives the
>>chord it's minor quality. This seems independant of whether or not you
>>are progressing towards a Bb in the line. I tend to think in terms of
>>the appropriate chord tones for a given change embellished by chromatic
>>and scalar notes. I guess in a strange sense this is a guide tone mind
>>set where the guide tone is ANY of the relevant chord tones (or
>>extensions).
>>
>Why wouldnt you want to play an E note against a Cm7?
>
>I can tell you havent transcribed much (if at all).
>(Someone asked me , I think Jim kroger, along while back how it
>is that I claim I can tell if I'm listening on the radio if
>someone hasnt transcribed. One of the ways is that
>if I hear them play a Cm7 chord and never hear an E or B
>or ... against it.)
>
>If the next note after the E is an Eb or an F, depending on how
>you use it, you will be in very famous company playing that.
>
>For example, against Cm7, why not play:
>
>F E Eb F D C (eighth notes)
>
>or F E Eb G Bb D .
>
>or how about the common lick:
>
>F E Eb G D C
>
>I could write ten pages of nice sounding lines using the notes
>B, C#, E, F#, G# against a Cm7 chord.
>
>I could also pull out dozens of solos of famous players doing the
>same thing.
>
>Sometimes you can see these things in transcription books but there
>is nothing like spending several hours taking off those few notes
>to make you really think about what is going on.
>
>reed
>
There are some great lines using all twelve chromatic pitches that sound
wonderfully diatonic, tonal or "inside." That is because, as in your
example above, the chromatic tones lead to the chord tones or diatonic
tones. How about this Sonny Rollins apporach to Cm7:
C# D F E Eb, where Eb is on the beat with the eighth note pick-ups. Sure,
what could be worse than C# and E over a Cm7 chord, but the emphasis is on
the Eb, the chromaticism is resolved in traditional ways. Sit on that E
natural over Cm, and most of us will wonder if you've done your homework.
I have found very little random chromaticism in great solos.
_______________________________________
Bert Ligon
Director of Jazz Studies
_______________________________________
School of Music
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
Voice: (803) 777-6565
Fax: (803) 777-2151
bligon@mozart.sc.edu
_______________________________________