Kategorie: Articles

Blues of Hope

How does a jazz musician comfort people? Right, he plays the blues! Last year’s autumn was full of bad news. So many friends or their relatives were in hospital. Some died. I wrote this blues. A blues is sad, by definition, but it always contains a grain of hope, otherwise we would not play it. I changed the chords a bit to make it cheerfuller. The I and the IV chords are major. The blue notes only appear on the offbeat. There is no tritone. The rhythm is inspired by the LJS 101 rhythm course. I have always wanted to record it on the saxophone, but could not make it. So here it is as a computer version from MuseScore. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!

 

Blues_of_Hope_Eb       Blues_of_Hope_C       Blues_of_Hope_Bb

 

Tip for reharmonizing

Claim:

Within each of these three groups the chords are interchangeable:

Group 1: C7b9, Eb7b9, F#7b9, A7b9, Edim, Gdim, Bbdim, C#dim

Group 2: Db7b9, E7b9, G7b9, Bb7b9, Fdim, G#dim, Bdim, Ddim

Group 3: D7b9, F7b9, Ab7b9, B7b9, F#dim, Adim, Cdim, Ebdim

Proof:

(Without restrictions only for group 1)

C7b9: C E G Bb Db

Eb7b9: Eb G Bb Db E

F#7b9: F# A# C# E G

A7b9: A C# E G A#

Edim: E G Bb Db

Gdim: G Bb Db E

Bbdim: Bb Db E G

C#dim: C# E G A#

The diminished chords are all made up of the same notes. The dominant seventh chords with the flat nine have common tones with the diminished chords, only the root differs. When replaced, the different root can be viewed as an altered tone that increases tension. With a dominant seventh chord, this tension is desired and is usually subsequently resolved by a major or minor chord.

Remarks:

The idea for this comes from the course “Jazz Theory Unlocked” on jazzadvice(dot)com. I think the knowledge is older. I have formulated them in detail here in mathematical style.

All chords above can be used as dominant chords. You can leave out the b9. C7, Eb7, Gb7 and A7 are also interchangeable.

If you have a dominant, such as G7, you only need to go one semitone step higher for G#dim.

The interchangeable chords can be found by working in minor thirds (3 semitone steps).

These substitutions can be made in the major-ii-V-I progression.

In the minor ii-V-i progression, the V is often altered and b9 is an alteration. So this tip is good for that too.

I think this insight is useful when comping, composing and soloing.

 

Shuteen Erdenebaatar

I want to recommend the album “Rising Sun” by the Shuteen Erdenebaatar Quartet. She comes from Mongolia and studied jazz piano and jazz composition in Munich/Germany. I think she is as talented as Joey Alexander. The album contains many hymns to life. My favorite track is the melancholic piano solo piece “Summer Haze.”

Sifting Gold

“You have to sift the gold!” Jazz coach Brent Vaartstra says to his students. You have to decide for yourself which advice or course is best for you at the moment. What you want to put the most effort into improving now. Many things may still be too difficult, need more time or can only be achieved in small steps.

Since 2007 I have been making more music again, on saxophone, piano and clarinet. Sometimes I have more time, sometimes other things are more important. That’s life. I’m glad I’m doing ear training. I’m not very far along yet, but at least I can recognize intervals. In Darmstadt I played in workshop bands, in Paderborn I currently have time for saxophone lessons.

The question is whether well-placed tones can solve problems. Probably not directly, but you feel more relaxed and optimistic, which is certainly helpful. Art makes our world more beautiful.

Jazz Theory

I would like to recommend two courses to you because I believe that as a musician your life will be easier if you have studied the basics of music theory. Do you want to know what tones make up the chords and scales? What chord progressions are common in jazz?

There is the “Zero to Improv” course on learnjazzstandards(dot)com, which is a great way to get started. The “Jazz Theory Unlocked” course on jazzadvice(dot)com helped me understand the elements of a jazz composition. The chapter on the use of diminished chords was also enlightening.

These two courses helped me further.

The Music of Jürgen Wuchner

Recently, a German book on Jürgen Wuchner and his compositions was published by Wolke Verlag, edited by Monika Schießer-Wuchner:

Serendipity. Jürgen Wuchners Kompositionen

Click on the link and scroll down the page. You see “Bb- und Eb-Stimmen zum freien Download”. If you click on that field, you get the sheet music for Bb and Eb instruments.

I hesitated to make this free download public. I recommend buying the book so the publisher and the authors get their fair share. Even if you do not speak German, there is the sheet music for C instruments. I am writing this article to help proliferate Jürgen Wuchner’s music.

 

The Beginner’s Blues Accelerator

It is just a proposal inspired by the Jazz Blues Accelerator on LJS (learnjazzstandards(dot)com). This small accelerator has three steps:

1. Play the roots of the chords of a blues in all 12 keys.

2. Know the blues scale in 12 keys.

3. Improvise over the blues scale in 12 keys.

Some explanations:

1. Take a blues in C and play half notes:

C C F F C C C C

F F F# F# C C A A

D D G G C C G G

For bar 8 to bar 11 it is good to know the circle of 4ths, aka “the cycle.”

Then do the same for a blues in F, and so on.

2. The blues scale is the minor pentatonic with the tritone. For example:

C Eb F F# G Bb

Find it in the other 11 keys.

3. As a piano player, play the roots of the chords with the left hand, with the right hand improvise over the blues scale.

As a horn player, create a play-along, e. g. with Band in a Box or iReal Pro.

The chords are

C7 F7 C7 C7

F7 F#dim C7 A7

Dm7 G7 C7 G7

(one chord per bar)

 

Sunny Side

Joyful songs are important, particularly in difficult times. I wrote a contrafact over the harmonies of “On the sunny side of the street” and memorized it. I recorded it with the soprano saxophone and Band in a Box.

The lead sheets:

Sunny_Side_Contrafact-C    Sunny_Side_Contrafact-Bb    Sunny_Side_Contrafact-Eb

 

Richard Feynman

When I was doing particle physics, Richard Feynman was my hero. Not only did he introduce Feynman diagrams which made high energy physics so much clearer, but also did he have a lot of humour. During a hard time I read his book  Surely you‘re joking, Mr. Feynman! and I found it wonderful what a curious, intelligent character can live to see. Later I read the biography by Jagdish Mehra The Beat of a Different Drum. The title refers to Feynman’s passion for drumming and his originality. In an epitaph he was called a physicist’s physicist. Some people may have thought he was arrogant. But let us be honest, by far most people overestimate their intelligence 😉