7/17/2019 Improv Chords

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Wild Hare Music School 4/6/14

On the subject of improvisation:

"Freedom in jazz improvisation comes from understanding structure. When people listen to jazz, they oftenbelieve that the soloist is “doing whatever they want.” f fact, as e!perienced improvisers will tell you, the soloistis rarely “doing whatever they want”. n improvisational soloist is always following a complicated set of rules

and being creative within the conte!t of those rules.

#ecognizing the rules and structure in different art forms can be challenging. can remember times in classwhen showed students famous artwor$ to illustrate points. %n many occasions, students &ve wor$ed with haveloo$ed at the wor$s of 'icasso and said “ could paint that.” 'erhaps they could( )he wor$ of 'icasso, li$e allgreat artists, must be ta$en in conte!t. t one point in his life, 'icasso chose to do simple geometric drawings.*espite the fact that he spent the early part of his life developing incredible painting techni+ue by copying thegreat masters, in the end, he chose to create much simpler art. )he greatness of his wor$ is viewed in theconte!t in which this choice was made. ould a child copy a 'icasso( -es. Would it be an important artwor$(o. )he structure underlying the art adds value to the wor$.

)he same can be said when young students first hear the music of jazz improvisational greats. %ften, when mystudents first hear /ohn oltrane, they are overwhelmed at the comple!ity of what they hear. )hey can hear

emotion and stylistic depth in his playing but fail to recognize the harmonic and rhythmic comple!ity of his wor$.When they try to emulate oltrane, they focus on the technical aspect of his playing. )hey learn an importantlesson. opying lic$s will not ma$e you a great improviser. %nly by learning how to use the lic$s within animprovisational melodic structure, can an improviser move from repetition to communication."

0 1rian / 2ane 

Decipherin !hord S"mbols

Here is a common chord symbol, diagrammed to show its elements:

 The root indicates just that: which note of the chromatic scale is the root (i.e. the main note, or the bass

note) of the chord.

The next part of the symbol indicates the quality of the chord. There are many symbols to define the

quality (major, minor, dominant, augmented, diminished, halfdiminished), including, in some cases,different symbols for the same quality.

The next number shows the extensions used on a chord. !lassical harmony often uses only the basictriad, while ja"" harmony ma#es greater use of the upper extensions ($th, %th, &&th, &'th). f no

extension is shown, it is assumed that the chord is a major triad.

inally, any alterations to the chord are indicated (usually within parentheses, to ma#e them easier toidentify). These alterations include raising or lowering a chord tone by half step (indicated by a sharp

or a flat, respecti*ely), and can also indicate that a gi*en nonchord tone should be added (+add +), or

that a chord tone should be omitted (+no 'rd+). -ultiple alterations may be indicated within one chordsymbol (+b%/&&).