Leavitt and C6 question.

Johnny Rojas · From: Houston, Texas, USA

Hey, I've played C6 for a while now, and I have pretty good grasp on it, and I've been messing with the Leavitt tuning for a couple of weeks and I have a question about both. One of my favorite harmonies is the minor 6, and I haven't figured out how to do this on either tuning without using slants. Am I not seeing something or is there a way to do it on either tuning? If not, is there another tuning where you can? This question is driving me crazy. Any thoughts?

Johnny

Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

Well, you probably know as much as me. The only place I know you can do it without a slant is on the Joaquin Murphy C6/A7 tuning. From top to bottom GECAGEC#B. The B is pitched a half step below the third string. The minore 6 chord is on the bottom 4 strings.

Johnny Rojas · From: Houston, Texas, USA

Thanks for the Joaquin Murphy tuning (I need to try it soon), but I just realized where it is! Leavitt is C# E G Bb C D: E-G-Bb-D is Gm6. How did I not see that? It's been a rough day...

Johnny

Stephan Miller · From: Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

You can also get it by retuning your C6-- drop the 4th string G to F#, and the 5th string E to D, and you have D9....strings 1-4 give you Am6. Here's a fine example of the D9 tuning-- "Jazzin' the Strings".
http://www.hsga.org/new_design/DougSmith.htm

Mike Ihde · From: Boston, MA

One of the beauties of the Leavitt tuning is that so many chords have other names. If you just look at the open strings you can play all of these chords (not all full chords but enough notes to get the right sound)
C9, C#dim7, Ebmaj7, Eb6, Gm, Gm6, Em7b5, C7b9, F#7b9, A7b9, Eb7b9, C, Em7, A7, A7#9, A7sus4, Gsus4.
That's all I could find off the top of my head. Not bad huh!

Johnny Rojas · From: Houston, Texas, USA

Stephan,

That D9 tuning is intriguing. I'll definitely have to try it out. I don't think I've seen it before. I'm playing mainly swing jazz on the steel so any of these jazz oriented tunings are fascinating to me.

Mike,

I got your "Different Slant" book this week, and I've been charting out all the chords in there, as well as trying to deconstruct the single note lines, and I'm having the best time doing it. I love the Leavitt tuning; thanks for sharing your arrangements with everyone.

By the way, I just joined the forum, and it has already been a huge help to me. Thanks to everyone for their help.

Johnny

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Johnny Rojas · From: Houston, Texas, USA

"Johnny Rojas wrote:
Thanks for the Joaquin Murphy tuning (I need to try it soon), but I just realized where it is! Leavitt is C# E G Bb C D: E-G-Bb-D is Gm6. How did I not see that? It's been a rough day...

Johnny

Wouldn't you want the 6th on top for a Gm6? I'd call that chord Em7b5. That's why I didn't mention it."

Not necessarily. Em7b5 can be used as a substitution for Gm6, and vice versa. Playing the voicing with the E on the bottom gives it a different flavor than it would with the E on top. It just depends on the tune and how you want it to sound. In this case, I'm working out the tune "Summertime" in Am; I usually play this on guitar and the 6 on the bottom gives it a deep, plodding tension that really drives the song. So it all depends on what you're trying to do.

By the way, here is a cool website on the master of voicings with the extensions on the bottom Smile

:

http://www.freddiegreen.org/

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I guess it depends on what the bass player is playing.

Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

I have some background in classical theory. The way they look at it, Em7b5 and Gm6 are enharmonic chords. What a classical anylist would call the chord would depend on the context. That is, where the chord comes from and where it goes to. It also might depend on what key signiture is being defined. In this particular case, it could only be either F or Dm. But if we chose two other enharmonic chords, more than one key might be possible. Context is what defines function. Function is what defines the chord. There would definitely be many situations in which either name could be justified.
The modern practice of calling the chord by its bass note is to tell you what the bass note is supposed to be in the absence of other notation.

Bryan Bradfield · From: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

Sorry - duplicate posting.

Bryan Bradfield · From: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

Mike Ihde · From: Boston, MA

A chord over a bass note is written for the bass player as well as the rhythm guitar or piano. A typical progression like C, G/B, Am, Am/G tells everybody what's going on. The guitar and piano don't have to play the descending bass line but it's there if they want to. It's also used to force the players to use a specific voicing. If someone wrote G9sus4 the writer may not get the sound he wanted, but if he writes F/G (the sound he wanted in the first place) he's assured of getting the correct voicing. With so many chords having alternate names it's important to write the chord symbol to represent the voicing you want. Saying Em7b5 when you really wanted Gm6 would be a problem. In the old fake books, they often called a chord dim.7 when it should have been called a Dom.7b9.

Bryan Bradfield · From: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

Mike - I understand now. My set lists have included tunes such as "Mr Bojangles", and "Ashokan Farewell", so I know what you mean about having to specify a moving bass line beneath a chord, or beneath a progression of chords.

Forum Index > Steel Without Pedals		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: