This
is another piece chosen by me. I found it in the library of the Sussex
Jazz Orchestra. Ian Hamer used to work with Kenny Wheeler and acquired a
number of his big band scores for the SJO (thanks to Patrick for
archiving all this material). And Steve (Lawless) kindly put the Dave
Holland version in the Dropbox.
Like
many of Kenny Wheeler's compositions it has a simple melody (highly
motivic - each phrase sits clearly in its own key centre) and a complex
chord structure (often non-functional harmony).
Both
the Dave Holland version and Kenny Wheeler's big band score present the
melody with a single instrument playing freely, out of time ('colla
voce'). The tempo is established in the last few bars of the melody
statement. This can be an interesting way to start a piece. The
individual playing the melody takes responsibility for setting the tempo
(no one needs to do a count in). I invited some of you to do this in
the session. Why not try this approach in your own group with a piece
you already know well (a standard perhaps?) Check out the attached mp3
clip of Carl Fontana playing Soon - same idea, different style.
Rhythm
and comping - this piece is a jazz waltz and is intended to go quite
fast. During our session I encouraged our rhythm section to explore
playing '1 in a bar' (= dotted minims), '2 in a bar' (= dotted
crotchets), as well as walking '3 in bar' (= crotchets). I also
suggested a more percussive approach to playing the chords to help the
time and feel. Simplifying the sequence by missing some chords out would
be possible but risky, the sequence could easily lose its shape. Stuart
suggested playing simpler voicings (leaving out some of the tension
notes) - more on voicings below.
Improvising
- the task of improvising over this chord sequence is challenging.
There are times for 'jumping in' and 'having a go' (particularly if it's
on a gig and you have no other choice!) but at other times you may wish
to take a more organised approach. If so, you should consider all the
elements that make the task challenging:
1 the time signature is 3/4 (which may be less familiar than 4/4) - try playing on the chord sequence in 4/4
2 the tempo is quite fast - try playing at a slower tempo
3 the harmonic rhythm is quite fast (ie chords change each bar) - make the chords last longer (2 or even 4 bars per chord)
4 some
of the chords may be unfamiliar (or there may be an usual scale you
wish to explore) - work on just the one chord or scale, perhaps playing
out of time to begin with
5 some
sequences of chords may be unfamiliar - improvise on shorter sections,
perhaps as a loop (as we did in our session on the first 2 bars of this
piece)
Harmony
and melody - these elements are seamlessly combined in this piece but
to create new melodies over such a complex chord sequence is a
challenge. Harmony is a vertical element, melody is a horizontal
element. 'Ear players' work horizontally, trying to create good melodic
lines (sometimes at the expense of chordal detail). Chordal players
(piano, guitar etc) have to think vertically in order to create
voicings. Finding good voicings for a piece like this is very important.
A
voicing for a chord is usually created using the chord tones (root,
third, fifth, seven) plus tension notes (eg ninth, eleventh,
thirteenth). Tension notes may be specified or implied by the chord
symbol, or they may be chosen in addition to the notated information
just because 'they sound good'. A chord voicing does not usually have
all the chord tones and all the tension notes as it sounds too dense (a
seven note voicing will sound very thick). It is common to leave some
notes out. Generally the third and seventh need to be included (but not
always!)
Another
way of creating a voicing is to work from a scale (usually seven notes)
which must be chosen for the given chord. There are many factors which
may determine this choice - the melody, the prevailing key centre,
surrounding chords, style of the composition, style of the composer, and
the final arbiter should be your ear. More on this another week ...
Some scales contain notes which are not always suitable for voicings. The scale of C major ( C D E F G A B C ) might be chosen for the chord C∆. Any notes from the scale could be used to make a voicing but the fourth note (F
) can make the chord sound 'wrong' (or not like C∆ ). Such notes are
called 'avoid' notes (I prefer to call them 'be careful' notes). They
are fine when used melodically but may be unsuitable when used
harmonically.
The
major scale and many of its modes contain 'avoid' notes (although jazz
theoreticians hotly dispute some of them!) More on this another month …
By
contrast, in the melodic minor and all of its modes there are no
'avoid' notes. These means any notes from these scales can be used to
create voicings.
Kenny Wheeler often uses melodic minor harmony in his compositions as well as other scale sources.
Below is my own scale analysis of the chords in The Sweet Yakity Waltz. Where there are a number of choices I have tried to offer the most likely or stylistically appropriate.
The
attached pdfs called "SYW Voicings" (in C, Bb and Eb) have typical
voicings for these chords and they are all derived from the scale
choices below.
SCALE ANALYSIS of The Sweet Yakity Waltz
bar1 Gm∆ G melodic minor
bar2 Em7b5 E locrian natural2 (6th mode of G melodic minor)
bar3 Fm9/Bb Bb mixolydian (5th mode of Eb major)
bar4 A7#5b9 A altered (7th mode of Bb melodic minor)
bar5 Dm13 D dorian (2nd mode of C major)
bar6 Bm11 B dorian (2nd mode of A major)
bar7 Am∆ A melodic minor
bar8 Am9/G A dorian (2nd mode of G major)
(I've ignored bass note in this context)
bar9 F#m7b5 F# locrian natural2 (6th mode of A melodic minor)
bar10 F∆#11 F lydian (4th mode of C major)
bar11 Em∆#11 E melodic minor #4 (4th mode of B harmonic major*)
(or E lydian b3!)
bar12 Dm11 D dorian (2nd mode of C major)
Why not have a go on your own at the remaining bars? Or sit back and enjoy a nice glass of wine like I'm doing right now . . .
* B harmonic major is B C# D# E F# G A# B
fifth mode is E F# G A# B C# D# E
The harmonic major is constructed as follows: 1 2 3 4 5 b6 7 8
(ie major scale with a flat six). Like the other 'parent' scales
(namely: major, melodic minor and harmonic minor) the harmonic major has
a further 6 modes. So, we now have four parent scales which form a
symmetric pattern (or paradigm) - check out the third and sixth of each
scale.
major (3 6) | melodic minor (b3 6)
harmonic major (3 b6) | harmonic minor (b3 b6)
This
gives us a grand total of 28 scales (4 x 7). All of these scales
contain 7 notes and while some have 2 and others 3 semitone intervals,
these are always separated by larger intervals (ie 2 semitones never
occur next to each other within a scale). The matter of the semitones is
particular significant when creating voicings. More on this in another
lifetime ...
