Conclusión

Equivalent to figures of speech, formulas are especially prominent in bebop, which is often performed at race-track tempos in which formulas help facilitate rapid release. Improvisation is usually largely comprised of things the improviser has said before, of what at a given moment in

performance he chooses to say and what is left out—out of the thousands of things that he could have said. The question then becomes which version of the formula is the paradigm, since when a wind player needs to breathe, for example, the formula will have to be modified.

In this and many other ways, one formula evolves into many—however related. In spite of our systematic practice of idioms in every key as a basic praxis, in the heat of performance they find a great many unique ways of coalescing, the end of one becoming the beginning of another, for instance.

This is especially true of all the traditional rhythms from which all African-American music is derived. Create your own licks from the learned formulas below.

Circle of Fifths

Harmonic Formulas ~ Some Preliminaries

In playing chords on the guitar, it is important to understand voice leading, which involves minimizing movement between chords. The upper part of the chord is grouped together as a single unit with minimal

movement between the chords, while the bass line moves independently, predominately employing leaps:

ii7 V7 I∆ Cadence

Since the ii7 V7 I∆ cadence is the most ubiquitous harmonic cliché in tonal music, frequently even occurring in several keys in a single passage, jazz practitioners work this out in its various forms in all keys and rhythmic feels.

Triads are rarely used in jazz, in favor of the richer 7^th, 9^th, 11^th, and 13^th chords. A seventh chord can be placed in root position, first inversion with the third in the bass, second inversion with the fifth in the bass, or in third inversion with the seventh in the bass:

Seventh chords in close voicing require long stretches for the left hand, especially when inverted.

Due to this limitation most guitarists use semi-open, or drop two

voicings. To create a drop two voicing from a 4-way close voicing, drop the second voice from the lead down an octave:

Inversions of seventh chords become far more user-friendly for the guitar when using drop two:

So expedient for the guitar is the drop two voicing that we will begin by focusing on specific examples of both first and second inversion drop two cadences.

Drop Two Major ii7 V7 I∆

It is not our intention here to supply an anthology of all possible guitar voicings and comping rhythms—or of all possible cadences.² Rather, we shall take the most common, and learn how to use them in specific practical musical solutions. We shall introduce two inversions of drop two guitar voicings in both major and minor modes, as well as a few more modern voicings for the blues, bossa nova and funk. Finally, we include modal planing of first inversion triads and three-note diatonic quartal voicings.

Most of the time we avoid sounding the chord roots in the lowest guitar voice, since to do so both interferes with the function of the bassist, but also tends to ground the chords, having the effect of impeding the forward

motion of the rhythmic groove, especially in swing feel. On the other hand, in Latin, funk, and other even-eighth-note feels in which melodic ostinato bass lines are prevalent, octave doubling can sometimes actually enhance the bassist’s line.

Altered to iiø, V7-9 i7(6/69), the ii7 V7 I∆ cadence works in the same way in minor keys. It is not uncommon to combine major and minor cadences, for example, the minor iiø, V7 resolving to major I∆, and major version of ii7 V7 resolving to the minor key i7.

2 See Appendix 2 for an extensive list of harmonic clichés, to which you can adapt and apply all of the same voicings found in this book.

Rhythmic Accompaniment Styles

Accompaniment creation (comping) is a sophisticated art unto itself, in which steady metronomic time and idiomatic rhythmic vocabulary are essential to the jazz guitarist. An accompanist provides harmonic and

rhythmic support for both the melody and the soloists. To create interesting accompaniments, the guitarist should think of the upper notes in the chords as a counter melody to the soloists’ lines. Most important, however, are the basic jazz rhythmic styles as they are used in comping, which shall be our focus.

Transcription is the best way to extend your comping vocabulary. Take your three favorite guitarists and compare how each comps on similar

tunes—a bossa, for example—at the same tempo. Pretend you recorded each track many years ago and you've forgotten what happened. Take note of what surprises you, what you wouldn't have done. Figure out why it works.

Learn the entire comp—at least by just singing or tapping the rhythms out.

Principles you will discover include:

1. Withhold your forces: Don't comp on the head in the same way as you would the solo sections. Play fewer attacks, and place more of them on the beat than off. Use the compositional elements in your accompaniment, as Herbie Hancock does best.

2. While the head is often about creating tension with hits, the

developmental sections (solos) should level off and swing with fewer

interruptions. It should also make you dance. Use rhythmic repetition in your accompaniments. It has to be felt physically in order to be effective. Since lines should not become redundant, sounding as filler to keep it all going, allow them to breathe.

3. Support the soloist in a variety of ways as he builds towards a climax.

Basic Swing Comp Rhythm

The most basic swing comp in accompanying improvisations is

comprised of short chord punctuations rather than long sustained chords, an approach that promotes swing by creating a yin and yang between the accompanist’s anticipations and the bassist’s quarter-note walking on every beat. This arrangement swings without crowding the soloist.

Written

Played

Applied

For variety, place an occasional chord on the beat instead of anticipating it—but not too often, or the hypnotic swing groove will be lost.³

3 For pedagogical reasons we do not vary the pattern in these pages: This basic comping skill begins by learning to control the consistent placement of these anticipations. Moreover, beginners almost always over-vary this pattern to the point that the effect is ruined, before having learned to control the placement of these pecks.

In the pages below we have the basic major and minor cadences for you to learn in all keys, applied to the rhythm above. In addition, we will learn paradigm versions of all their related root progressions, as we will do also in the chapter on blues forms which follows.

CHAPTER 4 BLUES

The blues has been an essential element of jazz since its inception, sometime at the beginning of the 19^th century. Blues tunes can take many different forms, the most common of which is the 12-bar blues (found both in major and minor keys). There are also 16, 24, and 32-bar blues—and blues ballads as well. Summertime, for example, is a minor 16-bar blues;

Watermelon Man is a major 24-bar blues; Angel Eyes, You Don't Know What Love Is, and Willow Weep for Me are all minor key 32-bar blues ballads. I've got Rhythm and Confirmation are 32-bar blues, but with common tonal bridges.

In the traditional 12-bar blues the lyrics follows an AAB form: a 4-bar statement (A) that is repeated (A), followed by a different, concluding, statement (B). The basic progression involves movement from I to IV, back to I; and then IV, V (or V, IV), back to I. The 24-bar blues is usually an augmentation of the 12-bar type, with each measure occupying two measures instead of one. In the case of Watermelon Man, the V7-IV7

progression in measures 9-10 is played three times instead of once. Sevenths were added as blue notes, rather than for their dominant functions. By using this basic formula as a template and substituting other chords that function in similar fashion, or by adding additional secondary cadences, you can easily find alternatives to this, but a blues progression will still most often at least suggest the basic I, IV, V form.

Beyond these, there are no empirical rules. Many blues melodies contain blue notes (b3, b5, b7), such as Summertime (a minor 16-bar blues with b5 in the melody), but not necessarily. Overall, there is a mood of sadness or

hardship—but not defeat or self pity; and if the melody doesn’t specifically contain blue notes, it usually nonetheless lends itself to their application in improvisation. There are often chords in the chord progression that contain or suggest blue notes, such as the added sevenths to the basic progression cited above, or the Ab7 appearing in the key of C or C minor, suggesting the b3 and b5 blue notes (as we will find later in the Equinox-type minor blues.

In the post bop period (1950s), one procedure was to do a 12-bar blues as an AABA form, using a common blues progression for the A sections, while inserting a tonal bridge to add relief from the blues in the middle of each chorus.

Twelve-Bar Blues

The twelve-bar blues is still perhaps the most common form in jazz today, and the kinds of things one plays on a blues are the same as what practitioners do on jazz standards. As stated above, the most basic blues uses only three European chords, those built on scale degrees I, IV, and V. While I functions as a tonic chord (T) at rest, IV active subdominant (SD), and most active is V dominant (D). The chords most commonly take the form of seventh chords, such as C7, F7, and G7, but the sevenths function as blue notes, rather than as part of the tritone, the characteristic augmented fourth (flatted fifth) interval between the seventh and third that defines the D function.

Below is the most basic traditional 12-bar blues. If you know it well, it is relatively easy to adapt to other forms.

Jazz Blues

The jazz blues will most often employ more than the three basic chords, with substitutions either replacing or enhancing the original blues chords.

These substitutions are usually related to the original chords. Common chord substitutes are secondary ii7 V7 I∆ cadences, passing diminished chords, and turnarounds such as I vi ii V, which is a cliché cadential device used to smoothly return to the first chord at the tune’s beginning.

When you play a blues in a jam session today, the progression below will most likely be used—or something close to it. It is this major blues

progression that we assume in this chapter:

In the example above, the C7 in m.1 is the I chord; but rather than remaining on I in m.2 as we did in the basic blues above, this example moves to F7, IV. M.3 returns to I, and in m.4 we find a secondary cadence, ii7/IV7 V/IV7, instead of remaining on I∆.

The F7 in m.5 is IV7, while F#o7 (#IVo7) in m.6 serves as a passing chord, connecting F7 to C7/G. On the C7/G in m.7, the 5^th of the chord (G) is in the bass instead of the root. Since the G bass is the 5^th of the C7, this constitutes a second inversion. Another secondary cadence, ii7/II to V7/V7,

can be found in mm.8-9. Count up the scale from D to find the ii7 V7 I∆

progression. In mm.11-12 the I vi ii V progression acts as a turnaround to the I chord.

We will also learn a few variant ways of voicing the chords of these same cadences. We will not, however, attempt to offer an anthology of voicing possibilities. Instead we shall focus on essential three and four-note voicings with no roots on bottom, often substituting 9 for 1, 13 for 5, or 11 for 3. In actual practice, added tensions and color notes in chord voicings need not be specified in their notation, since their interpretation is usually left to the individual player’s discretion.

The Minor Jazz Blues

As with the major blues, there are many variants. In this chapter we shall learn the ubiquitous minor blues form below:

Notice that, like the major blues, the minor blues is still based on I, IV, and V. As with the essential cadences, both versions retain these basic chords, only in a different version. As we observed with minor cadences, to the ii7 is typically added a flatted fifth, while the V7 gains a flatted ninth.

The tonic and subdominant become minor seventh chords (i7 and iv7), and the ii7-5 often replaces the iv7 chord in measure 5.

We will also learn the now standard minor blues form of John Coltrane’s Equinox, which is a basic I, IV, V blues, only in minor. Instead of the typical minor cadence in measures 9-10, it employs (in C minor) Ab7 to G7, in which the Ab7 substitutes for Dm7-5.

For the most common major and minor blues, we will also learn specific riff-style comps, in which the chords are played in swing rhythm with somewhat varied repetitious four-measure sustained rhythmic phrases.

CHAPTER 5 BOSSA COMPING

While the even eighth-note feel of the Brazilian samba, from which the North American Bossa Nova developed, is most often played in cut time (2/4 or 2/2 meter), the bossa nova is in common time (4/4 meter), and is usually performed at a moderate tempo. We shall now apply to the cadences covered earlier the two most basic Brazilian comping rhythms of this style, each with its most common variant in which each two-measure rhythmic pattern is displaced,.

CHAPTER 6