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Woody, that style of "layering" is most noticeable in Brad Mehldau's playing. Then on the last chorus he slows it down.

I asked my teacher about this once if there was some rule to stylizing a solo in this manner and he said, no. You could start hot and slow down as well. It's basically up to you. Some players don't even stick close the melody at all (like Coltrane).

But as a traditional way to tell a story, I think this is the typical buildup that seems to be a nice approach and if it works for Mehldau, I'm sure it can work for most of us...

Lesson 15 - Reharmonization 101 - Advanced

Reharmonization is a pretty complex topic and I myself cannot explain advanced areas of this. However, a basic understanding of reharmonization from the point of view of "Chord Substitution" is critical as it is done quite often in Jazz, particularly in both solo piano and combo playing.

The area we are going to discuss are chord substitutions where one is not playing away from the standard changes and thus this can be done even without pre-arrangement with the bass player.

Review of Dominant Rootless Voicings

As a starting point to the discussion to follow, we need to make sure that we all remember how to do a Dominant 7 unaltered rootless voicing. In jazz, as a starting point, one can automatically voice a chord like D7 as a rootless D7(9)(13). So this kind of voicing will have the following chord tones:

3, 13 (or 6), b7, 9

Depending on the register, this may also be played with another inversion as follows:

b7, 9, 3, 13

In AL, the Am7-D7 (ii-V) chord progression is played with this rootless voicing (note the voice leading -- only one note moves - bolded).

Am7 - G B C E (b7, 9, 3, 5)
D7 - F# B C E (3, 13, b7, 9)

First Baby Step to Reharms - ALT and Tritone Substitutions

For out little exercise here, we will now take the original ii-V progression in AL:
|Am7 D7 |

and we will change it now to:

|Am7 D7 Alt|


You are now seeing a new chord being discussed in this thread and that is an ALT (Altered) Chord. A chord is considered Altered when you start using tones that are not in scale. For example, D7 belongs to the G Scale (fifth degree of G), which has the notes G A B C D E F# G.

A fully altered chord will contain, b9, #9, #11, #5 and if this is added to the G scale, you basically have 11 tones. We are only missing the natural 7.

In practice, when you see ALT, you typically voice #9 and #5, and you do not play an unaltered 9, 11, 5, 13. If you include the b7 and the 3rd, the dominant Alt sound rings out. So again to restate, an ALT chord is often voiced as b7, 3, #5, #9.

Now your eyes are watering at this point with confusion to what is going on. But this will clear up in a second. To play an ALT Chord, Play the Rootless voicing (unaltered as described above) of the dominant Chord a Tritone interval (b5) away.

So for D7, play Ab7! Ab7 is voiced as:
Gb Bb C F ( b7 9, 3, 13 )

So D7Alt = Ab7.
This is a Tritone Substitution


Tritone Sub Examples

Here's more examples of Tritone Sub Intervals (substitute enharmonic spellings as needed).

C7 Alt = Gb7
Db7 Alt = G7
D7 Alt = Ab7
Eb7 Alt = A7
E7 Alt = Bb7
F7 Alt = B7
Gb7 Alt = C7
G7 Alt = Db7
Ab7 Alt = D7
A7 Alt = Eb7
Bb7Alt = E7
B7 Alt = F7

I would advise, as a practice exercise, to memorize all the dominant 7 rootless voicings in all 12 keys as it is used in many other circumstances. It will be used in another situation discussed below.


Second Baby Step to Reharms - Major/Minor Chords

Progressing now to our second example, let's review the minor ii-V-i portion of the AL chord progression, which as everyone remembers as

Fm7b5 - B7b9 - Em7 (ii V i )


Look at the Em7 chord specifically. Although it looks the same as a ii chord being a minor seventh chord, notice that it functions as a Tonic (or i minor).

To emphasize the tonic sound further, one could play the Em7 as a minor/major chord, i.e. as
Em7(maj). A major/minor chord is the same as a Major Seventh chord with a flatted 3rd. So it is composed of the following chord tones.

1, b3, 5, 7 (Natural). It also typically includes a natural 6 (13).

So how do we voice an Em7(Maj)?

A good voicing for a Maj/Min chord will include a
b3 and a 6. These two notes define the chord quality.

There is an easy way to voice this, once again, using one of the Dominant 7 unaltered voicings above.

It turns out that the rootless voicing for Em7(Maj) is A7. Simplified, a Major/Minor chord can be voiced by playing a Dom 7 chord a fourth away (Interval between E and A is a fourth in the scale).


Restating the AL Chord Progressions with Reharmonizations

So here's a revised AL Chord Progression

| Am7 Ab7 | GM7 CM7 |
| F#m7b5 B7 | A7* |

* (Note: it is incorrect to state A7 as the actual chord. I'm just putting it here to suggest the voicing so you can all picture it. The reason it is incorrect is that the associated scale is different)


I can also state this as:

| Am7 D7 Alt | GM7 CM7 |
| F#m7b5 B7 | Em7(Maj) |


What's important here is to automatically understand the progressions if you encounter it in some other tune. Typically when you see an V Alt chord, then there is a chromatic progression as follows:

ii-bII7-I which is a tritone substitution version of ii-V-I.


Second, when seeing minor ii-V-i's, you always have the opportunity to see if the tonic (i) chord can be substituted with an Em7(Maj), which really implies that it's ok to play the 6th and the natural seventh (and skip the b7 of the chord). A tune discussed in this thread before that can have this substitution is Solar.

Trick Question:

To see if you completely understand what's happening here, watch the following progression:

| Am7 Ab7 Alt | GM7 CM7 |
| F#m7b5 B7 | Em7 |

Note the bolded chord. What just happened here? Well, unfortunately, nothing. An Ab7 Alt is exactly the same chord tones as D7 so nothing changed.


Summary/Loose Ends

Substituting chords in a tune means that you also have to change the scale used in Solos to accomodate the new chords. This allows you to expand the tune melodically by making many more notes available.

The caveat is that while playing the melody (during the head), you have to be careful to not do a substitution where a melody note is in conflict with the substituted chord. Here, you need to keep an eye on the alterations (b9, #9, #11, #5) to make sure that there is no melody notes falling on the 9, 11, 13 (unaltered tones).

Voicing ALT is also sometimes as simple as seeing #5 in a chord. So any chord notated as in these examples are screaming ALT.

D7#5
D7#9
D7(b9)(b13)
D7(#9)(#5)
D7(#9)(b13)

If you see the above, your eyes should automatically assume ALT and you can voice using the Tritone Substitute. (I hope everyone sees that b13 and #5 are the same note and that #9 is the same as b3).

The other form of ALT is
D7 #11

This one is more of a Lydian dominant and it really means that the #11 should be voiced. And this is considered an exception even if it has an Altered note. Usually this is seen by itself and not often combined with other Altered tones (at least from what I've seen on the Tunes I've worked on).

I will say more about ALT chords later. I happen to be working on a tune right now called "Invitation" (Bronislaw Kaper - Same guy who wrote On Green Dolphin St).

This tune is chockful of ALT and Major/Minor chords and is like a giant Theory Lesson incorporated into one tune. Unfortunately, other aspects of ALT doesn't apply to Autumn Leaves. Suffice it to say that there are more fun details.

Ahh, advanced Jazz harmony . . my favourite!

The Tritone substitution is a most important feature of jazz harmony, and as pianists we can knock ourselves out with our meaty chord voicings - guitarist? eat your hearts out!

The tritone goes way back in our music history, it's one of Bach's creative tools, in fact, he was told not to utilize it so much. "Early music also forbade usage of the tritone, as its dissonance was associated with the devil, and composers often went to considerable lengths, via musica ficta, to avoid using it. In the newer triadic harmonic system, however, the tritone became permissible, as it could form part of a consonant, yet unstable, dominant seventh chord."
More about the tritone.

Ok, enough with the history lesson. The tritone resides right in the middle between an octave C - F# - C. Think of it as a fulcrum. The tritone is also the "dark", counter to the "light": the octave. It's also a mirror. Ehh ehh right?!??

Look at this:
The most important notes/tones in a chord is the third and it's colour tone: here a dominant 7th chord. Now look at the two chords, a tritone apart, they are a mirror of each other. That's the reason why it's such a powerful substitution!

Jazzwee - great stuff. Thank you for laying it out so clearly. It will be a nice addition to my Levine Jazz Piano book.

Chris - Hi! - How is Beatrice and how is daddyhood coming along? Do you have a new pic to post?

The Daddyhood is fine, daddy however is a bit tired, time is of the essence and I'm happy to own a Roland FP-7 and headphones. They are a gift from The Muses for night-time practising.

Beatrice is precious. Looks like she's singing along to daddy's music.

Night time practicing - aahhh - nothing like it! Three cheers for your Roland.

Chris, thanks for adding to the story! (and the visuals!)

Lesson 15 - Continued - More Theory about Tritones, etc.

Observe the original progression of AL (a snippet)

|Am7 D7 | GM7 CM7 |
|F#m7b5 B7b9 | Em7 |

Now let's do the substitutions as we discussed earlier.

| Am7 Ab7 | GM7 (CM7) |
| F#m7b5 F7b9 | Em(Maj) |

Whoa! Wait there's something new there. Wasn't that B7b9? Why is it F7b9 now? Well, we get to another theory item. The notes of F7b9 and B7b9 are the same. In fact, it is also the same as Ab7b9, and D7b9. The notes are C Eb Gb A. Make a note of this later as it will come in handy in the future. Dom7b9 chords can be moved a minor third in any direction (BTW two minor thirds = a tritone interval). The distance between B7b9 and F7b9 is a Tritone interval so here we have another form of Tritone Substitution.

You might ask, what is the purpose of changing B7b9 to F7b9 when they have the same notes?

| Am7 Ab7 | GM7 (CM7) |
| F#m7b5 F7b9 | Em(Maj) |

Skipping CM7 for a moment, what do you notice here? Well, if you're a bass player, you will immediately understand that performing tritone substitutions makes the bass notes chromatic in ii-V-I's. Here you will see the chromatic nature of Autumn Leaves, with a temporary respite at CM7.


So anytime you see any chromatic sequence of chords, you can start thinking of them as ii-V-I's, ending on a tonic chord.

(A chromatic progression like this is suggestive of a Circle of Fifths. So anytime you see a chromatic sequence, it is really a Circle of Fifths after having Tritone substitutions. In other words 2-5-1 becomes 2-2b-1. The circle of fifths diatonic progression is 4-7-3-6-2-5-1. After tritone substitution, it will appear as 4-4b-3-3b-2-2b-1).

While we're at it, I might as well close this with another substitution on paper:

| Am7 Ab7 | GM7 (CM7) |
| F#m7b5 F#o7 | Em(Maj) |

What's new here? Notice the B7b9 is gone now and it is replaced by F#o7 (F# Diminished Seventh). Actually there is nothing new here. F#o7 is exactly the same as F7b9. So the only difference is the root. In rootless voicings they are exactly the same thing.

And just to again make sure we see the whole picture, the following progressions have the same notes.

| Am7 Ab7 | GM7 (CM7) |
| F#m7b5 F#o7 | Em(Maj) |

| Am7 Ab7 | GM7 (CM7) |
| F#m7b5 Ao7 | Em(Maj) |

| Am7 Ab7 | GM7 (CM7) |
| F#m7b5 D#o7 | Em(Maj) |

| Am7 Ab7 | GM7 (CM7) |
| F#m7b5 Co7 | Em(Maj) |

Same rule applies to Diminished chords. Move them in minor third intervals in any direction and they will have the same notes. They are SYMMETRICAL CHORDS.

Now all the above substitutions are not really substitutions. They are just notation alterations. Unless the progression is modulating somewhere, the above notations just serve to confuse. Yes they mean the same thing but the purpose and functional harmony (ii-V-I) isn't obvious so for the purposes of AL, they are poor notations. However you will encounter these kinds of progressions in more complicated tunes where they will make more sense in the context of modulations.

Back to the 1st diminished example, when a chord starts off with a b7 interval as in F#m7b5 (or F#m7) and then is followed by a F# diminished chord, you will immediately recognize this as chromatic movement which once again will suggest a ii-V-I.

As you can see ii-V-I's in Jazz have a lot of permutations and combinations and all helping us to more possibilities through the use of Tritone substitutions.

BTW - This stuff is considered basic theory in Jazz. So learn it well. This is the stepping stone to more advanced harmony theory.

Chris, Baby Beatrice is getting big! She will constantly remind us of how old this thread is ...I forget, and I don't want to search back. How old is she now? This thread is 6 months old and she was born somewhere in the middle.

thank you all for those kind words. she'll be 3 months the 5th.

For those of you wanting to get deeper into this jazz thingie, I recommend having a look and listen through Chuck Israel's (former Bill Evans bassplayer) jazz online jazz arranging course. It's free, with score examples as well as audio. Just lesson 1 is worth a peak. Here.

(you need to have Flash installed; don't have it? Get it for free here )

Great link - Chris - It even has a forum for questions.

Jazzwee - Do you think we should put this link on the thread index? Between your Lesson 15 of basic jazz theory, and Chris' link, we have quite a tutorial here. Thank you both!

great new lesson, jazzwee...thanks. and thanks to Chris for his grace notes....

david

Ahh the dim chords. A plethora of substitutions.
Let's see if I can muddle this some more.
Basic:

Not so basic:


Same chords, different bass notes. Any dim-chord can be exchanged for any other dim-chord on that dim-chord. And that goes for the flat-nines too.

So what scale do I play? The whole-tone half-tone:


Mix that scale and flat-nines you get:


Here\'s a pdf for your printing pleasure.

Barb, I added the Chuck Israels link to the index. That looks very promising. I haven't seen that before. I'm going to dive into that myself.

Chris, keep 'em coming! I appreciate the Finale support. (you're better at that than I am ).

Here it is, almost the end of the semester, and along I come, wandering into the classroom, trying to pretend I’m just a few minutes late, and secretly hoping there's no final exam!

Actually, I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to read through all the posts, but always found myself slipping further behind. Finally, I decided to compromise and just read the lessons, then join in the current discussions if possible.

So first of all, having collected the lessons and read through most of them, let me say THANKS, JAZZWEE, FOR THE GREAT BOOK!

One of the things that finally prompted me to join in here is that my lesson this week turns out to be Autumn Leaves. (I’ve been taking lessons from a jazz pianist - a lesson every other week - for about two years.) Ultimately, I hope to play it in a jam session in a jazz club, so when I practice a song, I also practice comping for a soloist and trading fours or eights with the drummer, using Band In A Box.

So here is a recording of me at the piano, playing Autumn Leaves, soloing for two choruses, comping for a computer generated vibe solo, then trading eights with a computer generated drum solo.

If anyone would care to listen, and give me any feedback, I will be most appreciative!

Thanks,

Ed

http://www.box.net/shared/frlihbbk80

Ed - That was such fun to listen to. Gee, you've been lurking about here and hiding all this good stuff from us.

I have a question about your comping chords. How are they voiced? I'm learning to comp for my husband who is a vibist. I'm using root 7 in the left hand and the 4 note closed voicing in my right hand.

Post more here. There are no final exams. Anyway, you've aced your first exam.

Hey Riddler! Welcome! Another LJP regular visiting us here. Great job on the recording.

And that vibe solo was computer generated? Amazing, that's some smart computer.

Since you joined us here let's offer you some tips to get you to the next level (Barb thinks of this as good news and bad news because of the work involved ).

First of all you're off to a good start and reflective of two years of good lessons. I can see that in your playing. Very smooth and clean playing so looks like you have the technical facility. Voicings sound great and by the time you get to the advanced lessons you'll sound even better.

Now I'm going to tell you what my teacher told me about this time in your jazz quest. I perceive that your LH is dominating your RH and affecting your solo choices. Since you're already good at recording, try recording the LH comping separately so you can focus on the RH and be thinking about the melodies.

Certainly you already have the basics so I will dispense with chord/scales and such things. But I can sense that the RH is tethered and cannot freely come up with a melody. Especially since you have an accompaniment already, see if you can focus on the RH.

I think you are already thinking of chord tones as you've stuck with them in your solo. I don't know if you're actually thinking of 1,3,5,7 on the downbeats or if you're just thinking of the original melody notes but the choices sound good. This may be time to introduce primary non-chord tones and neighbor tones on the upbeats. Listen to the vibe solo, it does a good job of that. This comes naturally if you think of melodies.

Now one area that we discuss very frequently in this thread is swing as every player encounters the same issue. Listening to it right now we have to add a few things to improve the swing. First, learn to drag the RH a little. You play right on top of the beat all the time and it will sound mechanical. Lay it back a little so you can feel it dragging the comping. This will make a big difference in the sound and it will seem more relaxed. BTW the computer Vibe solo drags very nicely back.

Try to play more legato on your eight notes and read all our swing discussion about accents on the upbeat. It's too even and needs forward propulsion from the imbalance in accent. In some cases (especially when playing the melody, the accent seems to be on the downbeat).

On the comping, when comping for another instrument (like the vibes in this case), I would soften it and not be too busy. Maybe comp only during quiet portions.

All these issues are expected for 2 years into this so you're in very good shape. What I admire is your complete understanding of the basics of voicings and even creativity in the block chords. You also exude confidence in your playing.

Start thinking about these few issues and hopefully you'll post again with the next iteration.

Please ask questions as needed. And keep reading. As I find that people have reached the advanced lessons, I get motivated to add more lessons.

Wow. Barb told me about this thread. I just read through this current page - wow! Riddler, great job, really enjoyed listening and I enjoyed Jazzwee's comments. Someone mentioned the lessons - are they in one place or do I need to go through all the pages 1 through the current page and pick them out?
Jazzwee, you're a natural teacher. And thanks Barb, for telling me about this thread. And thanks to Chris for the beautiful graphics.

xcal - You made it over here!!! You are now on your way to having great fun. Go to page 1 of this thread and you will see an index to each of the 15 lessons.