Learning jazz on the C neck trick

[Ian Kerr]

Hi to all.I'm a new member and this is my first post.I hope I can add something of value to an already interesting and informative post.
I've just picked up a book published by Ekay music,Bedford Hills, N.Y.It's written by Jazz pianist Andy LaVerne and it's called "Handbook of Chord Substitution."Half of the book is text wherein the author explains various methods (about 16) to create your own substitute chords and reharmonizations.This is done very clearly and precisely with large numbers of short examples using bass and treble clefs.
The second part of the book contains the music where the various methods are applied.The pattern for each standard is the original sheet music followed by two Andy LaVerne arrangements ,the second of which is more complicated than the first.The standards in the book are Cherokee ,Darn that Dream,Exactly like You, Back Home Again In Indiana, Moonglow, My Melancholy Baby, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Picnic, Solitude , and Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams.
I could find no date of publication in the book so I don't know how long it's been available on the market.I suspect it's fairly recent otherwise you guys in the U.S.A. would have known of it.
I've found most of the voicings given by the author are directly applicable to the Steel Guitar(Lap,Pedal E9,C6) particularly the right hand harmonizations.It depends on your tuning as to what you can add in the bass.The book certainly shows (for me anyway) a new way to interpret fairly common harmonizations (like CFA,BEG#,DF#A)in terms of maj7+4,-9,-5,+11.
The book(89pages) sells for $29.95 here in Australia so I guess about $20.U.S.It's going to take me a while to work through the book and apply the thinking to steel but I'm enjoying it.

Regards,
Ian Kerr

[Ron Castle]

The only thing I find problematic about using the two note method of learning tunes is that
when you progress to filling out the chords with 3 or 4 notes you find that some of the positions where you have been playing the 2 notes, you can't get the additional members of the chords.
A very good guitarist- a student of Jim Hall- once told me if you want to learn chord movement and great voicing you need to play a minimum of 3 notes. I found that advice to be
very true when tackling tunes with 9th - 11ths
and sometimes even just 7ths. By adding a 3rd note, be it root 9th 5th- whatever, you are better set up to find all the additional members of the chords.
Of course you can find scale notes and and even two notes all over the neck, which is fine, but these 'pockets' may not necessarily
be good positions to fill out the chord.
This is just my observation and may reflect my lack of abilities on psg but I sort of hold to the 3 note theory when trying to develope what
guitarists call 'chord soloing' ( what a piano player would just call 'playing the tune'.

[Bob Hoffnar]

Ron,
What I have been doing is is starting out with the 2 notes and then adding the 3rd note (and 4th). By just looking at the basic intervals first I am bumping into some great voicing options I might not have found otherwise. Also its helping me to be aware what is going on with chords.
With a bunch of the bands I end up on stage with there are plenty of musicians doing all sorts of stuff. Its often important that I thin out my chords so as not to have the music turn into mud. The 2 note thing is really just a starting point to help get my head around how jazz changes work. But it has already come in handy on the bandstand.

------------------
Bob
My Website




<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Bob Hoffnar on 11 August 2005 at 06:19 AM.]</p></FONT>

[Dave Mudgett]

Ron's right that one will not always find the third note one is looking for in a tritone position, but Bob's point is important - see what you do find. This fits in with ideas from the very useful book "Conceptual Blockbusting", which is applicable to any creative endeavor. This also begs the 'glass half-full' vs. 'glass half-empty' analogy.

Of course, if one finds a really useful 3/7 that fits with a lot of other things one does, and the 'right' additional notes are not in the copedent, perhaps it's possible to change something so that they are. Perhaps a slant, perhaps a change in copedent. My take about music in general is that a 'good' note is not usually far away from the note that you're at. The ability to remap the pedal steel at will is one of its most fascinating features (and perhaps one of its biggest traps).

In my first study of jazz guitar, the first thing we did was discuss 3rds and 7ths, and tritones, as the fundamental building blocks of jazz chords. We then proceeded to find them all over the neck, and listened to how guys like Charlie Christian, Barney Kessel, Kenny Burrell, and Wes Montgomery used them.

I'm just starting to focus on jazz on steel, but on guitar, I agree with Bob about thinning out the chords on the gig. While other people are playing complex chords, rhythmic comping duties usually sound better with simplified versions. I usually use 3-note "Freddie Green-style" chords, but often 2-note figures work fine also.

If you play guitar, you might find these two books useful - they're not too difficult and have a lot of useful info, which might be translated by a guitar player to steel:

"Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar" by Arnie Berle, AMSCO Publications

"Guitar Fingerboard Harmony" by Edward F. McGuire, Mel Bay Publications.

Over the years, I've run into a bunch of Ed's former students, I wish I'd had the opportunity.