Mike's Music Musings

I discovered this turnaround while learning "In a Mellow Tone."  The last two bars of the form turn around to the first chord of the form (Bb7), or Ab6 G7/Gb7 F7/Bb7.  The first chord of the turnaround Ab6 is the trickiest.  I first noticed it is the bVII of I, but then I saw that an Ab6 triad is also part of a Bb9 chord, meaning Ab6 is closely related to the I in a I-VI-ii-V turnaround. So far so good.  G7 is the VI of Bb7, so that is straightforward.  Gb7 is just a tritone substitution of the ii of Bb7, Db7.  And F7 is the V of Bb7. This sounds cool on its own, you get a moving chromatic descending line from the Ab to the F.  But I thought what if you pedal the Ab?  How does that change/reharmonize the chord qualities?  You'd get Ab6->G7b9->Gb9->F7#9->Bb7.  Pretty cool! If you want to add in one more cool concept, play a rootless F7#9 and keep the shape identical but move everything down a half step...you get Bb13...

I'm learning that the key tp interesting playing is to explore not a single concept at a time, but two or three concepts at once.  The concepts can be harmonic or rhythmic.  An example of playing multiple concepts at once could be playing triad pairs in a hemiola rhythm (while standing on your head).  Below I have created a chord turnaround lick which combines a pedal point and descending chromatic line.  The result is a cool effect where you get the sound of both movement and stability in the line, while the chords are reharmonized along the way. I came upon this tonight as I was relearning the head to "Autumn Leaves." It was once of the first I learned and I have since forgot how to play it (also I wanted to jam on it because it is currently fall).  I came upon the turnaround and wondered if I would approach it in a new way after my Rhythm Changes harmonization study (see previous blog post).  I created a chord turnaround which combines a middle peda...

This post describes a helpful exercise over rhythm changes to discover chord harmonization options and soloing strategies. I started with a new teacher recently who told me about a practice routine which he considers a “desert island exercise.”  In other words, if you were stuck on a desert island, this exercise could yield a lifetime's worth of discovery, learning, and improvement.  The exercise, over rhythm changes, has you start on any note and ascend or descend chromatically, harmonizing chords as you go along.  In addition to discovering various options for chord harmonization, one can use the underlying chord architecture as a basis for improvising a line which has some net linear movement up or down.   For my first try, I started harmonizing chords from C and ascending chromatically.  You can see the movement in the top note of each chord below. You start off with a Bb major 9th chord.  Everything is pretty straightforwa...

Here are two chord turnaround licks from my favorite jazz guitarist, Ed Bickert, on my favorite of his recordings, "I'm Old Fashioned."  Both use an upper pedal point and smooth, linear descending chromatic patterns. The first lick is straightforward.  The first chord is Am7, which contains the upper pedal of F  The next chord is an Ab7, the tritone substitution of D7 (the VI of F).  The ii-V uses G7 instead of Gm7 and C7b9 for C7.  In the lick, Bickert uses F as an upper pedal point combined with the 3rd and 7th of each chord.  Fully harmonized this sounds as Am7#5, Ab13, G7, and C7b9.  You can easily observe the 3rd and 7th descending chromatically from Ab7 through G7 to C7.  This continuity sounds logical to the ear and is the reason why G7 sounds good substituted for Gm7 (on a functional level you're treating G as the V of C instead of the ii of F).  This descending chromatic pattern, combined with the static F upper pedal point, mak...