4. DESARROLLO SOCIAL
4.3 Promover una cultura de paz y deporte
As you may have noticed, this is not a method book nor a complete book. It’s a starting point from wich you can derive virtually all the useful information needed to play genuine jazz guitar. Chords are about movement and I will not have enough space to cover this matter deeply. Learn the basic material and apply movement to your chordal playing by yourself.
As a point of departure in “ moving with chords ”, I suggest you learn chords by progressions or scales. Learning unrelated chords from a book can be time consuming and useless in the end. If you find that one chord sounds good by itself, make an effort to incorporate it somewhere amongst a progression. It will stick to you all life long.
I also encourage you to look at the most basic element of harmony: triads (3-notes chords), their inversions and possible guitar voicings (closed, spread). They’re the building blocks of music. If you have patience, learn easy classical guitar pieces as well (you can play them on the electric guitar). They cover the triads and are already “ arranged ” for you; you just have to play them! Get this sound in your ears, centuries of guitar compositions can’t be wrong!
The Basic(est) Voicing
The simplest voicings for jazz have three notes. I call them 1-3-7 (or 1-7-3) chords.
The tonic (or root) and the two other important tones : the third and the seventh. The root gives us the tonality (the key it’s in), the third gives us the modality (major or minor) and the seventh gives us the quality (natural or minor seventh). The natural fifth is not played since it’s the most “ empty ” chord tone in the chord. There’s is a total of four chords quality to learn and they each have two possible “ shapes ”.
1. Maj7 (1-3-7 and 1-7-3)
2. Dom7 (1-3-b7 and 1-b7-3)
3. MinMaj7 (1-b3-7 and 1-7-b3)
4. Min7 (1-b3-b7 and 1-b7-b3)
The 1-3-7 and 1-7-3 voicings provide a simple yet solid harmonic foundation if played in the right register. I almost exclusively play them with the root on the 6th or 5th string; the “ bass like ” definition is lost if they’re higher. It is recommended NOT to play this kind of voicing when playing with a bassist; the frequencies will clash. [See “ String Transference ” in Resources to learn how to transfer the above diagrams to “ root on the fifth string ”.]
Listen to Track 17 to get an idea how this voicing sounds.
Diatonic, Sixth-Diminished…drop it…
The other most common “ jazz voicings ” are drop-2 and drop-3. They are organised to sound good and be relatively easy for the hand to grab. As I stated earlier: learn them in progressions and they will stay with you.
Drop-2’s have 3 possible starting points, while drop-3’s have only two :
• Drop-2 voicings encompass four adjacent strings.
(played on three different sets of strings : 6543, 5432, 4321)
• Drop-3 are constituted of the lowest note, a string skip, and three adjacent strings.
(played with the lowest note on the sixth or on the fifth string thus : 6 432, 5 321) I find the drop-2’s sound “ muddy ” with the string set 6543. The examples will therefore have the drop-3’s as the voicing with the lowest notes. Drop-3’s tend to have a clearer definition in lower register; that’s because of the string skip. It’s up to you (again) to look for the other possibilities! Think of different string sets to start on (string transference);
inversions; open strings; omitting or adding notes; RH arpeggiation; etc.
Play the examples of track 18 and 19 and make sure you hear the difference between the progressions : **Learn descending as well!**
1. Diatonic (they belong to a major or minor scale)
2. 6th/diminished (they outline major or minor bebop scales (See Chapter 1.2) and are literally just two chords alternating in a “ tension-release… ” pattern)
[For a clear explanation of the 6th chords alternating with diminished chords, please consult the book “ The Barry Harris Harmonic Method for Guitar ” by Alan Kingstone and the Barry Harris Workshop DVD’s; they’re the simplest, straight-to-the-point references in that area.
Personally, I find it is better to get them in your ears and fingers before trying to understand the theory. [The least of theory information you can get before learning them is mentioned above.]
As always, derive other fingerings (string transference) and expand them as much as
Modern Sounding
To get a “ hipper ” sound some guitar players use chords build from the interval of a fourth. Some of them are very easy to play since the guitar is tuned in fourths !!! (Chords are usually based on the interval of a third…wich is less guitar-friendly)
A no-name chord made of
“ stacked ” fourths
“ I’ve been through the desert on a chord with no name… ”
The “ chords in fourths ” are usually referred to as “ quartal ”. Learn the following 4-notes quartal voicings from track 20. There is no chord name since it is only the scale. The interval of a fourth “ distorts ” the true nature of each chord somehow.
The inversions sound even cooler because they contain the interval of a second (step or half-step). They’re yours to discover (start with 3-notes quartal voicings if you wish to derive inversions).
Here again, use your imagination and enrich the basics in your own way. Think of different string sets to start on (string transference), play it in minor, use inversions, open strings, omitting or adding notes, RH fingering patterns for arpeggiation; etc.
Movement And Leading the Voices
There is always one or more notes that could be moving at any moment in any chord ; you need to find them! Finding what stays the same and what is moving when the chord changes is called voice leading. For example, if playing Dm7 (D F A C) to G7 (G B D F), D and F stay the same; C goes to B, A goes to G.
The first step in moving chords into one another is to learn to play inversions of the chords you already know. After that you can figure out the most economical (less voice movement) way to go from one chord to another. (If you only know the root position, it will feel as if you are “ jumping around ”.)
Since we’ve already played inversions of drop-2 and drop-3 voicings in Track 19, I invite you to go back and investigate! Here’s a written example of SOME possibilities.
Track 21 is for demonstration purposes only, I hope it inspires you to use the basic voicings above in creative ways. I tried to cram as much chordal concepts as possible so it would not sound like a “ piece of music ”. Just listen to it to find more possibilities for YOUR OWN playing (drop-2 and drop-3, voice leading, quartal, rhythms, etc.).
Eventually, you can be playing many lines more or less independently over any chord progression. Study counterpoint, harmony and play Bach; it’s worth the effort, trust me.
(That’s a well kept secret too)
Chord Melody
Chord-wise, the ultimate goal for jazz guitarists is to play melody AND harmony at the same time. It’s trying to be like a pianist : left hand comping and right hand soloing. This kind of playing on the guitar is often referred to as chord melody. I’m not a huge fan of definite terminology so let’s put it that way : to accompany YOUR OWN linear playing with YOUR OWN chordal playing.
This is where you put together ALL the preceding (…and following) material in this book.
Playing in a jazz guitar trio (guitar-bass-drums) is demanding; you are providing the melodies AND the harmonic support all by yourself! Playing solo jazz guitar is even more challenging and rewarding because YOU are the band!!!
At least 80% of the gigs I played in the last five years were in trio format. This is where the guitarist’s musicality comes out to shine. The two main aspects of chord playing obviously come into play when we look at any “ chord melody ” situation : rubato and with tempo.
Rubato
Playing rubato, as explained earlier, is very delicate; I find it is used mainly for song beginnings and endings (in a guitar trio). Doing a solo guitar intro is the prime example and it is possible to play a lot (and I mean a whole lot) of stuff in that context. As an exercise, play the melody of standards you know “ out of time ” (rubato). After each phrase, answer to the melody you just played with a few chords. You can go nuts and harmonize the melody sometimes, paraphrase it, reharmonize (change the chords), improvise lines between phrases or simply “ go somewhere else ” with the tune. You are the boss. Listen to the recorded example (Track 22), my goal was to be clear (“ I am playing THIS particular tune ”) yet be spontaneous, creative and most of all, genuine.
In time
In the recorded example (Track 22), you can notice I am setting the tempo before I actually play the melody in time. This is a good habit to develop since it is going to help the musicians you play with; they will know where you are.
Playing the melody in time with accompaniment (or “ chord melody ”) is probably the most challenging aspect of the guitar. You need harmony and melody but your are limited (only four fingers on the left hand, six notes allowed to ring at the same time and a maximum range of two, two and a half octaves if you are lucky etc.) Let me tell you something : that’s the beauty of it. Dealing with your instrument’s limitation is a gift not a curse. If it feels like hell to you then pickup the piano or the saxophone (you’ll be cursed even more!!!).
So in playing in time, a “ chord melody ” style melody, keep in mind that it doesn’t need to be full all the time. Don’t always harmonize using the “ chord shapes ” you know, you’ll sound like an idiot. Play the melody, accompany it : add some color (sometimes one or two notes is all you need), use counterpoint (attack the melody, then the other notes), articulate (legato/staccato), arpeggiate when playing chords (right hand), use rhythms wisely. Check out classical guitar pieces, they use all the above concepts.
I find it is better to think of “ chord melody ” as “ arranging for six strings ”; this is where spending time with your favorite standards is valuable. Play the melody and compliment it in your own way (compose a chord melody if you wish); the work you put will eventually show up in different areas of your playing (such as improvising, playing rubato (!!!), comping, composing, etc.)
Honestly, this is where I wish I had spent more time when I was younger. You don’t realize it until you get called to do that trio gig (or that solo gig…that scared me!) and the only thing you can play is AMAZING guitar solos…all single notes! (“ Playing like a drunk penguin ”) Finally, I believe every guitar player should aim to be in that “ mode ” (of accompanying oneself) most of the time. When well executed, it feels and sounds like a pianist
“ punctuating ” their lines. This must be done when playing the tune’s “ head ” as well as when improvising. (Please don’t fall in this trap : “ I will play the melody of the song harmonized in 4-note block voicings and then improvise single notes for fifteen minutes… ”)
There’s Always (way) More!
Working on chords and harmonic fluidity is always important for jazz guitarists. People hire use for harmonic support most of the time. I covered the basics that will let you grow the fastest but you need to find “ your own stuff ”, like in everything else. Keep expanding your harmonic palette (voicings, counterpoint, chord melody, rubato/in time, etc.) and you’ll feel your whole playing conception (and perception) change! Some more suggestions/reminders :
• Comping is harmonizing an improvised line (the top note of your chord)
• Application of the material (voicings) in this book is endless (for example, you can add extensions, create substitutions, superimpose chords, etc…) and it is your task to find out what’s hot and what’s not. Experience will tell you.
• Compose and practice “ chord melodies ” (ex.: intro to a song, entire tune)
• Think of “ in time VERSUS rubato ”