A Chord-Scale Approach to Automatic Jazz Improvisation
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Jazz Harmony Primer General stuff There are two main types of harmony found in modern Western music: 1) Modal 2) Functional Modal harmony generally involves a static drone, riff or chord over which you have melodies with notes chosen from various scales. It’s common in rock, modern jazz and electronic dance music. It predates functional harmony, too. In some types of modal music – for example in jazz - you get different modes/chord scale sounds over the course of a piece. Chords and melodies can be drawn from these scales. This kind of harmony is suited to the guitar due to its open strings and retuning possibilities. We see the guitar take over as a songwriting instrument at about the same time as the modes become popular in pop music. Loop based music also encourages this kind of harmony. It has become very common in all areas of music since the late 20th century under the influence of rock and folk music, composers like Steve Reich, modal jazz pioneered by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and influences from India, the Middle East and pre-classical Western music. Functional harmony is a development of the kind of harmony used by Bach and Mozart. Jazz up to around 1960 was primarily based on this kind of harmony, and jazz improvisation was concerned with the improvising over songs written by the classically trained songwriters and film composers of the era. These composers all played the piano, so in a sense functional harmony is piano harmony. It’s not really guitar shaped. When I talk about functional harmony I’ll mostly be talking about ways we can improvise and compose on pre-existing jazz standards rather than making up new progressions. -
Riemann's Functional Framework for Extended Jazz Harmony James
Riemann’s Functional Framework for Extended Jazz Harmony James McGowan The I or tonic chord is the only chord which gives the feeling of complete rest or relaxation. Since the I chord acts as the point of rest there is generated in the other chords a feeling of tension or restlessness. The other chords therefore must 1 eventually return to the tonic chord if a feeling of relaxation is desired. Invoking several musical metaphors, Ricigliano’s comment could apply equally well to the tension and release of any tonal music, not only jazz. Indeed, such metaphors serve as essential points of departure for some extended treatises in music theory.2 Andrew Jaffe further associates “tonic,” “stability,” and “consonance,” when he states: “Two terms used to refer to the extremes of harmonic stability and instability within an individual chord or a chord progression are dissonance and consonance.”3 One should acknowledge, however, that to the non-jazz reader, reference to “tonic chord” implicitly means triad. This is not the case for Ricigliano, Jaffe, or numerous other writers of pedagogical jazz theory.4 Rather, in complete indifference to, ignorance of, or reaction against the common-practice principle that only triads or 1 Ricigliano 1967, 21. 2 A prime example, Berry applies the metaphor of “motion” to explore “Formal processes and element-actions of growth and decline” within different musical domains, in diverse stylistic contexts. Berry 1976, 6 (also see 111–2). An important precedent for Berry’s work in the metaphoric dynamism of harmony and other parameters is found in the writings of Kurth – particularly in his conceptions of “sensuous” and “energetic” harmony. -
RCM Clarinet Syllabus / 2014 Edition
FHMPRT396_Clarinet_Syllabi_RCM Strings Syllabi 14-05-22 2:23 PM Page 3 Cla rinet SYLLABUS EDITION Message from the President The Royal Conservatory of Music was founded in 1886 with the idea that a single institution could bind the people of a nation together with the common thread of shared musical experience. More than a century later, we continue to build and expand on this vision. Today, The Royal Conservatory is recognized in communities across North America for outstanding service to students, teachers, and parents, as well as strict adherence to high academic standards through a variety of activities—teaching, examining, publishing, research, and community outreach. Our students and teachers benefit from a curriculum based on more than 125 years of commitment to the highest pedagogical objectives. The strength of the curriculum is reinforced by the distinguished College of Examiners—a group of fine musicians and teachers who have been carefully selected from across Canada, the United States, and abroad for their demonstrated skill and professionalism. A rigorous examiner apprenticeship program, combined with regular evaluation procedures, ensures consistency and an examination experience of the highest quality for candidates. As you pursue your studies or teach others, you become not only an important partner with The Royal Conservatory in the development of creativity, discipline, and goal- setting, but also an active participant, experiencing the transcendent qualities of music itself. In a society where our day-to-day lives can become rote and routine, the human need to find self-fulfillment and to engage in creative activity has never been more necessary. The Royal Conservatory will continue to be an active partner and supporter in your musical journey of self-expression and self-discovery. -
PDF Download Jazz Keyboard Harmony Ebook Free Download
JAZZ KEYBOARD HARMONY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Phil Degreg | 248 pages | 01 Feb 2015 | Jamey Aebersold Jazz | 9781562240691 | English | United States Jazz Keyboard Harmony PDF Book This item will be shipped through the Global Shipping Program and includes international tracking. This item will ship to Germany , but the seller has not specified shipping options. If, for example, the book has it in the key of C, just move everything up a whole step and you've got it D. You had 12 years of classical lessons but don't know all 12 key signatures? No, show me a free preview title. Also provided are songs written out for both hands, which utilize the techniques and voicings just learned. Other topics include ii-V-I progressions, dominant chord cycles, "Rhythm Changes," Giant Steps substitutions, thinking in modes, non-diatonic progressions and much more. I'd like to eventually be able to comp jazz and play gospel piano. The 8 best jazz chord progressions With that out of the way, here are the eight best jazz chord progressions to learn as a beginner. Additional Information. Favorite Jazz for Piano Solo - Arr. Return policy. Get this from a library! The included play-along CD allows you to practice the piano exercises in the book with bass and drum accompaniment. The method progresses step by step from 2-voice to 7-voice chord structures with fourths and upper-structure triads. The minor two five one is like the major, except that the chords come from the minor scale. You therefore will be totally capable of including the resulting advanced harmonic concepts into your performances, compositions and arrangements with confidence, success and ease. -
The Piano Improvisations of Chick Corea: an Analytical Study
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1996 The iP ano Improvisations of Chick Corea: An Analytical Study. Daniel Alan Duke Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Duke, Daniel Alan, "The iP ano Improvisations of Chick Corea: An Analytical Study." (1996). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6334. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6334 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the te d directly fi-om the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. -
Intro to Jazz Harmony
Intro to Jazz Harmony Lots of terminology and methods are shared between jazz and (small-c) classical music. Some of the most important differences are: Seventh Chords. Though triads can be used, in most styles of jazz, especially from 1920-1970, every chord will be a seventh chord. We will focus on the four most common types of seventh chords: 1. major 7, abbreviated M7 (Root - Major 3rd - Perfect 5th - Major 7th) 2. dominant 7, abbreviated just 7 (Root - Major 3rd - Perfect 5th - Minor 7th), 3. minor 7, abbreviated m7 (Root - Minor 3rd - Perfect 5th - Minor 7th) 4. half diminished 7 or minor 7 flat 5, abbreviated m7b5 (Root - Minor 3rd - diminished 5th - Minor 7th) Chord Extensions. One defining feature of jazz harmony is the use of chord tones higher than a 7th, which are referred to as "chord extensions." These add color or tension to a chord but do not alter its basic function. If we keep adding thirds above a chord's 7th, we can get a 9th, 11th, and 13th. Just as the default 7th chord identified by the symbol "7" is a dominant 7th chord, the default interval of the 9th is major, the 11th is perfect, and the 13th is major, and all imply a dominant 7th chord underneath unless they specify otherwise. Thus for example a G9 would be G-B-D-F-A: the G-B-D-F dominant 7, plus the major 9th above the root. For our purposes in class we will only deal with the most common chord extensions: the 9, the 13, and the b9 (with a minor 9th). -
Jazz Woodwind Syllabus
Jazz Woodwind Syllabus Flute, Clarinet & Saxophone Grade exams 2017–2022 Important information Changes from the previous syllabus Repertoire lists for all instruments have been updated. Own composition requirements have been revised. Aural test parameters have been revised, and new specimen tests publications are available. Improvisation test requirements have changed, and new preparation materials are available on our website. Impression information Candidates should refer to trinitycollege.com/woodwind to ensure that they are using the latest impression of the syllabus. Digital assessment: Digital Grades and Diplomas To provide even more choice and flexibility in how Trinity’s regulated qualifications can be achieved, digital assessment is available for all our classical, jazz and Rock & Pop graded exams, as well as for ATCL and LTCL music performance diplomas. This enables candidates to record their exam at a place and time of their choice and then submit the video recording via our online platform to be assessed by our expert examiners. The exams have the same academic rigour as our face-to-face exams, and candidates gain full recognition for their achievements, with the same certificate and UCAS points awarded as for the face-to-face exams. Find out more at trinitycollege.com/dgd photo: Zute Lightfoot, clarinet courtesy of Yamaha Music London Jazz Woodwind Syllabus Flute, Clarinet & Saxophone Graded exams 2017–2022 Trinity College London trinitycollege.com Charity number England & Wales: 1014792 Charity number Scotland: SC049143 Patron: HRH The Duke of Kent KG Chief Executive: Sarah Kemp Copyright © 2016 Trinity College London Published by Trinity College London Online edition, March 2021 Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... -
Psychoacoustic Foundations of Contextual Harmonic Stability in Jazz Piano Voicings
Journal of Jazz Studies vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 156–191 (Fall 2011) Psychoacoustic Foundations Of Contextual Harmonic Stability In Jazz Piano Voicings James McGowan Considerable harmonic variation of both chord types and specific voicings is available to the jazz pianist, even when playing stable, tonic-functioned chords. Of course non-tonic chords also accommodate extensive harmonic variety, but they generally cannot provide structural stability beyond the musical surface. Many instances of tonic chords, however, also provide little or no sense of structural repose when found in the middle of a phrase or subjected to some other kind of “dissonance.” The inclusion of the word “stable” is therefore important, because while many sources are implicitly aware of the fundamental differences between stable and unstable chords, little significant work explicitly accounts for an impro- vising pianist’s harmonic options as associated specifically with harmonic stability— or harmonic “consonance”—in tonal jazz. The ramifications are profound, as the very question of what constitutes a stable tonic sonority in jazz suggests that underlying precepts of tonality function differ- ently in improvised jazz and common-practice music. While some jazz pedagogical publications attempt to account for the diverse chord types and specific voicings employed as tonic chords, these sources have not provided a distinct conceptual framework that explains what criteria link these harmonic options. Some music theorists, meanwhile, have provided valuable analytical models to account for the sense of resolution to stable harmonic entities. These models, however, are largely designed for “classical” music and are problematic in that they tend to explain pervasive non-triadic harmonies as aberrant in some way.1 1 Representative sources that address “classical” models of jazz harmony include Steve Larson, Analyzing Jazz: A Schenkerian Approach, Harmonologia: studies in music theory, no. -
Unbound Jazz: Composing and Performing in a Multi- Cultural Tonality
Unbound Jazz: Composing and Performing in a Multi- Cultural Tonality By Carlo Estolano Commentaries for the PhD folio of compositions University of York Music December 2017 2 3 Unbound Jazz: Composing and Performing in a Multi-Cultural Tonality Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of a PhD degree in Music at The University of York, December 2018 by Carlo Estolano. Abstract This folio is conceived to propose and demonstrate music realisation of original compositions throughout the employment of elements of mainly two distinct sources: a selection from the wide palette of Brazilian folk styles that have improvisation as a strong element, which is internationally acknowledged as Brazilian Jazz; and its intersections with a certain style of European Jazz represented by artists notable by their keenness to combine elements from distinct musical genres with their Classical background, such as Ralph Towner, Jan Garbarek, John Abercrombie, Eberhard Weber, Kenny Wheeler, Terje Rypdal, Keith Jarrett to name a few. Both Brazilian and European approaches to Jazz seem to share processes of appropriation of foreign musical languages, as well as utilising characteristic features of their own traditions. Another common ground is their relation with some elements and procedures of classical music. The methodology to accomplish an organized collection of musical material was to divide them in five major influences, part of them by composers and part by genres notable by having evolved through absorbing elements from distinct cultural sources. In five projects, fifteen original compositions are provided along with their recorded and/or filmed performances and commentaries about the compositional aspects, concerningthe style or composer focused on. -
Woodwind Grades Syllabus
Woodwind Syllabus Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon, Saxophone & Recorder Graded exams 2017–2022 Important information Changes from the previous syllabus Repertoire lists for all instruments have been updated. Initial exams are now offered for flute and clarinet. New series of graded flute and clarinet books are available, containing selected repertoire for Initial to Grade 8. Technical work for oboe, bassoon and recorder has been revised, with changes to scales and arpeggios and new exercises for Grades 1–5. New technical work books are available. Own composition requirements have been revised. Aural test parameters have been revised, and new specimen tests publications are available. Improvisation test requirements have changed, and new preparation materials are available on our website. Impression information Candidates should refer to trinitycollege.com/woodwind to ensure that they are using the latest impression of the syllabus. Digital assessment: Digital Grades and Diplomas To provide even more choice and flexibility in how Trinity’s regulated qualifications can be achieved, digital assessment is available for all our classical, jazz and Rock & Pop graded exams, as well as for ATCL and LTCL music performance diplomas. This enables candidates to record their exam at a place and time of their choice and then submit the video recording via our online platform to be assessed by our expert examiners. The exams have the same academic rigour as our face-to-face exams, and candidates gain full recognition for their achievements, with -
Chord-Scale Networks in the Music and Improvisations of Wayne Shorter
Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic Volume 8 Issue 1 Article 7 April 2018 Chord-Scale Networks in the Music and Improvisations of Wayne Shorter Garrett Michaelsen University of Massachusetts, Lowell, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/gamut Recommended Citation Michaelsen, Garrett (2018) "Chord-Scale Networks in the Music and Improvisations of Wayne Shorter," Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic: Vol. 8 : Iss. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/gamut/vol8/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Volunteer, Open Access, Library Journals (VOL Journals), published in partnership with The University of Tennessee (UT) University Libraries. This article has been accepted for inclusion in Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic by an authorized editor. For more information, please visit https://trace.tennessee.edu/gamut. CHORD-SCALE NETWORKS IN THE MUSIC AND IMPROVISATIONS OF WAYNE SHORTER GARRETT MICHAELSEN ayne Shorter’s tune “E.S.P.,” first recorded on Miles Davis’s 1965 album of the same Wname , presents a number of fascinating challenges to harmonic analysis. Example 1 gives the tune’s lead sheet, which shows its melody and chord changes. In the first eight-bar phrase, the harmony moves at a slow, two-bar pace, sliding between chords with roots on E, F, and E beneath a repeating fourths-based melody that contracts to an A4–F4 major third in the last two bars. Shorter’s melody quite often emphasizes diatonic and chromatic ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths against the passing harmonies, thereby underscoring the importance of those extensions to the chords. -
Chord Scale Theory
IMPROCHART: USER GUIDE APPLICATIONS OF IMPROCHART CONTENTS 2 Introduction Improvising on a Chord The Chord Scale Theory Tensions Avoid Notes IMPROCHART – Improvisation Chart Explanations – Scales Explanations – Chords Conclusions © 2010 www.harmonicwheel.com INTRODUCTION 3 Improvisation exists since the beginning of the Music history. Nevertheless, nowadays its use has been practically reduced to Jazz. Improvisation generally consists in creating a melody suitable for a given chord progression. That is, a melody must be composed in such a way that it “fits” or “sounds well” with those chords. © 2010 www.harmonicwheel.com INTRODUCTION 4 The most common procedure for improvising consists of 2 Phases: 1) For each chord or group of chords we need know which scale or scales are suitable for improvising on them. 2) After choosing one of these scales, we have to form a melody with its notes. © 2010 www.harmonicwheel.com INTRODUCTION 5 For solving the Phase 1, an Improvsation Chart has been developed, called IMPROCHART TM , which automatically gives us all the scales related to a given chord. In this presentation, we will explain all its features and how to make the most of them. Regarding the Phase 2, we will explain the Tensions, which is a basic subject to make melody and harmony consistent to each other. © 2010 www.harmonicwheel.com INTRODUCTION 6 In another presentation, entitled “EXAMPLES ON IMPROVISATION”, we will show how to use IMPROCHART TM in some practical cases and will give more directions for Phase 2. On the other hand, let us remember that Music is an Art, so it is not constrained to strict rules.