One of his methods that intrigued me involves giving another chord tone
besides the root the weight of a tonal centre.....a sort of tonicization of
another chord tone. Eg. On a G7 try treating B as if it's the tonal
centre....B Lyd/G7.....B Ion/G7.
One technique that I like to use is to superimpose an alternate progression
that has the chord of the moment as a target for resolution. Eg. On Am7 as
Im7 try outlining B7>E7>Am7 or F7>Bb7>Am7.
This type of thinking can be made to sound tonal and melodic but it is
really a polytonal technique applied, in jazz usually, over a tonal form
(ie. tune). I believe this technique is called "pan tonality".
All these pan tonal techniques have as a prerequisite to their effective
execution the ability to outline a primary harmonic centre in the first
place. The same methods (ie. arpeggios, passing tones, auxilliaries,
appoggiaturas, cambiatas etc.) that are usually used to enforce and
embelish a harmonic centre are used to accent the superimposed centre.
One hip substitution that I've seen some guys advocate (Mick Goodrick in
his great book "The Advancing Guitarist" for one) is substituting a Maj7#5
chord for a Dom7. I guess it's one way of harmonizing the maj7 as if it
were a chord tone in it's own right. Does anybody else on this list use
this substitute very often?
Regards
J. M. Goldstein
Guitarist/Composer/Teacher
joegold@idirect.com
Checkout: http://www.icom.ca/~freeflt/
Death?....Never!....Not While I'm alive!