Substitutions: Star Eyes From: "John F. Hyde" Here's the standard changes for this standard. | Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 | | Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7 || | Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 | | Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7F7 || | Bbma7 | Bbma7 | Bb-7 | Eb7 | | Abma7 | Abma7 | Gm7b5 | C7 || | Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 | | Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7 | | Fma7 | Eb7 D7 | G-7 C7 | Fma6 || It's basically an ABAA tune with a 4 bar tag at the end. The A sections are interesting in that they go through 3 tonal centers; F, Eb, and G. One of my ideas to start with on this tune was to sub by quality. In other words, Tonic chords are I, III, VI: Sub-dominant II, IV: Dominant V and VII. Chords within each category can be substituted. Here's the first 8: | A-7 Abo7 | G-7 Eb7 | D-7 B7 | Bbsus7 Bb7E7 | | Ebmaj7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gmaj7 | Db7 C7F#7 || The D-7 in the 3rd bar is a good ex. of sub. by quality. (VI for I) The A-7 in the 1st bar could be thought of as a sub by quality but actually will sound like your basic III, VI, II, V progression. Bars 9 - 16: | B-7b5 Bbo7 F6/A Abo7 | G-7 Db7 C7 Gb7 | Db7/B F6/C | Bbsus7 B7 Bb7Bo7 | | C-7 | D7b9sus C-7 B7 | Bbmaj7 | Db7 C7 B7 || Ouch! I hope that's not too hard to read. Bar 9 is actually seen most often as an ending; Starts on the #IV and goes down chromatically, in bar 10 I felt like I had to keep the chord per beat motion going so I threw in some tritone subs, bar 11 is a classical cadence that Duke used alot, I'm sure Reed knows the name of it; voice it from the top G,Db,Ab,F,B to F,D,A,F,C. The C-7 in 13 is an example of sub by quality. Da bridge: | A-7b5 Ab7 G-7 Gb7 | Fm7 B7 Bb7 Bo7 | C-7 F7 | Bb-7 Eb7A7 | | Abmaj7 Dbma7 | Gb7 F7 | E7us2 | Eb7 C7 Eb7/Bb || Did I mention that I'm thinking of this tune as a ballad? I really like the C-7 in bar 19 and the preceding 2 bars are pretty much setting that chord up. I expand the melody in beat 3 and 4 of bar 21, 8th note to quarters so the melody extends into 22. us in bar 23 means F#triad over E7. You can sub dominant chords min. 3rds apart which is what I'm doing in 24, in diminished harmony the C7, Eb7, Gb7, and A7 would all use the same half/whole diminished scale so the chords are interchangeable as long as the voicing you use is from that scale. Last 12 (in the thank God category!) | A-7 Abo7 | G-7 Eb7 | D-7 B7 | Bbsus7 Bb7E7 | | C-7 C-7/Bb | Am7b5 D7Ab7 | Gmaj7 | Db7 C7 | | F7 E7 | Eb7 D7 | Db7 C7 | B7us#IV || Well, there you go, please go easy on me Reed :-0 I realize that there are too many chords, I also realize that I play to many notes, someone told me a long time ago that musicians get paid by the note and I'm applying that theory to reharm. :-) [end john] reed: Anyone that doesnt want my opinion about their subs just need omit my name from the mail. It seems like you are asking my opinion. I played looked through your subs and I don't have time to write a complete reply today but basically your subs suffer from the same problems that Franks on Bluesette had. You have some nice sounds, some interesting ideas, but they don't form a coherent and convincing reharmonization primarily because the bass line makes no sense. Your discussion with frank on his last subs for bluesette make me think that you too are being a bit too intellectual in your approach. You have compelling intellectual reasons to believe that certain things will work so you convince your ear of that. Here is something to do. Play the melody with your bass line (the bass notes of the chords you gave) and tell me if it sounds good. The bass line is one of the notes in the chords you have so if the bass line doesnt sound good neither will the substitutions (in general). [later...] I think I can explain what I see as problems with your changes in a more or less objective manner. I'm just going to focus on the first eight bars for now. I can't promise when I'll get to the rest. Before doing this I want to state a basic rule of reharmonization. You have to end up at certain essential chords or else you usually just tear the fabric of the song apart. Someone like Bill Evans or Art Tatum was a master at figuring out where these places are and devising all kinds of clever tricks for arriving at the proper place at the proper time. The basic problem is like I initially said. You have made local bass motion solutions but essentially they dont fit together. In this case what I'll show is that you start a very strong cadence and then take off in a totally different direction in an unconvincing fashion. At 02:29 PM 10/8/96 -0400, you wrote: >Here's the standard changes for this standard. > >| Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 | >| Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7 || >| Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 | >| Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7F7 || >| Bbma7 | Bbma7 | Bb-7 | Eb7 | >| Abma7 | Abma7 | Gm7b5 | C7 || >| Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 | >| Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7 | >| Fma7 | Eb7 D7 | G-7 C7 | Fma6 || > >It's basically an ABAA tune with a 4 bar tag at the end. The A sections are >interesting in that they go through 3 tonal centers; F, Eb, and G. One of >my ideas to start with on this tune was to sub by quality. In other words, >Tonic chords are I, III, VI: Sub-dominant II, IV: Dominant V and VII. >Chords within each category can be substituted. Here's the first 8: > >| A-7 Abo7 | G-7 Eb7 | D-7 B7 | Bbsus7 Bb7E7 | >| Ebmaj7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gmaj7 | Db7 C7F#7 || > What happens here is you start off with a very nice move which I assure you I will be using sometimes in the future when I play this tune. That is: Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7 I use this on so many tunes and I don't know why I never thought of trying it here. Now you've set up a very strong cadence with the bass line. The bass line is heading towards F already very strongly and its going to get there by passing through Gb or C. If you play the notest A Ab G you should hear that it's going that way. (Its just a tritone sub of A D G ). So at this point we have already locked ourselves into: Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7 ? | Fmaj7 So how to get to the F. An obvious way is: Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7 C7 | Fmaj7 or Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7 Gb7 | Fmaj7 Well Bill Evans would probably do something like: Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7,Db9#11 C9sus, C13b9| Fmaj7 Now Art Tatum might have tried your Eb7 but he would know that he has to be at Fmaj7 by bar 3. Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7 Eb7,D7,Db7,C7 | Fmaj7 | The chromatic line from Eb7 is eighth note harmony. or possibly: Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7,E7 Eb7,D7,Db7,C7 | Fmaj7 | >The D-7 in the 3rd bar is a good ex. of sub. by quality. (VI for I) The A-7 >in the 1st bar could be thought of as a sub by quality but actually will >sound like your basic III, VI, II, V progression. Bars 9 - 16: The Dmi7 is trying to replace the F which is a very strong chord and an important part of the progression. If you want that sound, you have to figure out someway to set it up more convincingly. In other words the whole progression from beat one has to be moving towards the Dmi7 in some very strong way. And even if you suceeded, now you have a really weak cadence to the next important chord which is Ebmaj7. Frankly the Dmi7 is an example of what I would call an intellectual chord choice. Well it's VI for I but so what. If you want to convince me that this will work here you have to precede it with a very convincing progression. Just Eb7 to Dmi7 doesnt make it. The Db7 to C7 in bar eight is nice and is precisely what Bill Evans used for his blowing changes on Star Eyes. [end reed] From: "Win Hinkle" : FYI below is what a bassplayer like myself might do to the changes below. I'd add pedal points on the first eight to give more rhythmic interest in the traditionally Latin sections - for the head only. I'd play the bridge straight ahead. > >| Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 | | C pedal ......................................... > >| Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7 || Bb ped .............. Ab.| G ped ................. etc. This gives the pianist and/or horn player the freedom to do more linear things with the changes and the drummer a little more space to exert himself. [end Star Eyes]