On Mar 23, 9:13 pm, "Steve Latham" <llat...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Should I, or Should I not, include extensions in the chord symbol if
they
> are found in the melody?
>
> For example, in 3/4, I have an upward arpeggio of B-D-A, with the first
two
> notes as 8ths, thus making the A a half note for the remaining two
beats.
>
> If this is over a GMaj7 chord, should I put GMaj7, or GMaj9?
I had asked this question of Joey before he put his head under the
sand and Kill filed me. It was one of the problems that I had with the
universality of the Jazz UC that he (had not) described. It is an
im****tant question and certainly needs to be addressed if the Jazz UC
is to be acknowledged as to its analytical value. It is also related
to a question that I have touched on about extensions that are
included in the Fake Book charts that appear to be only present in the
melody and even then as a Non harmonic tone.
Thus, my answer is the same as it would be in Classical. It would
depend on the context. If the tones in question are considered non
harmonic tones, then no they should not be in the symbol. If they can
be justified as part of the harmonic structure, then they should be
included and the chord in question would be a Gmaj9 if not a Gmaj7.
Most likely you will get the answer of Gmaj9 because that is what
seems to be done in most cases as the tone is long enough to justify
it being a part of the harmony. If however in a continuation of the
melody it proves to be a non harmonic tone, then maybe not. The nice
thing about jazz, however, is that the piano or guitar player has the
option of playing either way or even as a different choice altogether
as he sees fit.
>
> Additionally, is there any shortcut notation for a changing bass under a
> sustained chord?
>
> Suppose I have E9 to E9/G# - does anyone write " /G#" just to show the
bass
> motion, or do they typically put E9 E9/G#?
This I have seen enough in lead sheets to say that if the G# is
generally not to be added to the chord (as if the progression was E E/
G# E/G etc) but since you put the E9 in root position on the first
chord, and your intention would be to have this E9 sonority throughout
the passage then you should not drop the 9 solely on the fact that the
bass moves. But you would not add the 9 just because it was in the
bass line.
>
> Finally, what's the standard for something like A/G? Is it better to put
> A7/G or will A/G cause people to not voice the 7th in the chord?
This would depend on several factors. Assuming that this is a
different case from the example above, this would mean, to me, to be
an A C# E in the upper structure with a G in the bass. Usually when
you see this notation in jazz, the Chord aspect of he symbol is more
than a triad. If the context was not clear when I read this notation,
I would look at the Bass note (G) and see if he had any functional
implications although I don't see any implications from this isolated
chord. A Gmin7/C C7 would imply that these two chords were sharing
the same bass note and may be interchanged at will as their combined
function was to go to F.
All of these questions are the types of things that I had hoped Joey
would have answered when I was pressing him for ways that the JazzUC
could be used for analysis. These questions are not really that
im****tant to the Jazz player when he is reading a lead sheet and they
are answered if they are part of a composed score for the music so it
is not the most im****tant detail of the Jazz idiom. It is usually
answered by the group mentality of the improvised genre or the score
of the written genre in the Jazz idiom.
The lack of a useful way of notating these concepts, however, is
crucial if the JazzUC is to be considered compatible with other genres
of music. I believe that it was asserted that the JazzUC was capable
of analyzing music in the Classical world, and if these concepts are
not addressed, then the JUC could not completely be backward
compatible. Of course, if your examples were from a transcribed jazz
tune or from a written big band chart (or combo chart) then they could
of course be accounted for and understood using the UC/LC RN quite
easily.
LJS
>
> TIA,
> Steve
|
