Y

HARMONY AND THEORY

YEAR ONE - SEMESTER ONE

©MALCOLM EDMONSTONE FOR MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY JAZZ 1

CYCLE (OR CIRCLE) OF FIFTHS

In Western Harmony, the most important Interval in terms ofHarmony is the Fifth. On the most basic level, think of a perfectcadence, e.g. G to C. The Interval between these notes is a Fifth,and the direction of the movement is Downwards, towards theTonic (C in this case).

The CYCLE OF FIFTHS is a helpful and convenient way to find outwhich notes approach a chosen tonic. In jazz harmony, the Cycleoften goes beyond just V – I, so it is very useful to be able to take astaring point and be able to go 4 (or more) stages away, using thecycle.

You may find it useful to know that you can find the Relative Minorof a key by travelling 90 degrees clockwise – a handy shortcut!

HARMONY AND THEORY



CHORDS AND CHORD SYMBOLS

As a jazz musician it is necessary to have a solid understanding ofCHORDS. However, when starting out they can seem rathercomplicated – there are so many different types, and some lookextremely complicated. Fortunately, there are a group of COMMON

CHORDS that form the basis for many of the more complex ones, sothink of it like cooking – what we will look at now is like the Onion,Garlic, Celery and Carrot of a stew or soup, and the exotic spicesand cream will come later on!

MAJOR 7 DOMINANT 7 MINOR 7 HALF-DIM. 7These are the four chord types that you will come across mostfrequently whilst playing jazz – they are all written in C so you cansee the difference between them, but you will find them in manydifferent keys!

Play through the chords – either on the piano – or, if you play awind or brass instrument, play them from bottom to top. Do younotice how each chord sounds darker than the last?

A Chord Symbol consists of two parts – the Root and the Quality.The bottom note of any chord (above, C) is called the Root. Thiswill always be a Letter, expressing a Note Name.

The symbol tells us the QUALITY, meaning the sound and characterof the chord. Here are a few more chord types you may comeacross:

7 sus 7 FLAT 9 Minor 6 diminished 7

Don’t worry too much about learning all this informationimmediately, it’s a lifetime’s work that your tutor will guide youthrough!

HARMONY AND THEORY



AN INTRODUCTION TO MODES I, V AND II

Mention the word ‘Modes’ to someone and often the first reactionis … panic! However, it may come as a surprise to you that youhave been using Modes since your very first music lesson, so youare well ahead of the game!

In the most basic terms, a mode is a scale.

Play or sing the first line of the opposite page – does it remind youof anything?

There’s good news and bad news…the good news being that youalready know your IONIAN modes – for this is another name forthe MAJOR SCALE!

The bad news is that there are a few other modes commonly usedin Jazz which you now have to learn! But you can learn them aspart of your warm-up or scale practise – after all, if you alreadyknow your Major Scales (or IONIAN modes as we now call them!)then it will be good for both the brain and the fingers to have somenew scales. And remember…we are actually going to use thesescales to improvise with.

Now play or sing the second scale, the MIXOLYDIAN mode. Don’tget put off by the long and complicated name…think to yourself,how does it differ from the scale above? How many notes aredifferent, and are they raised or lowered?

You will find that only ONE NOTE is changed…the 7th is flattened– other than this, all the notes are the same as they were forIONIAN.

So, in short – MIXOLYDIAN is IONIAN with a FLAT 7th.

For now, there’s one more scale that we should be familiar with –it’s on the bottom line, and is called DORIAN.

Ask yourself the same questions. It turns out that DORIAN haseverything of the previous mode but the 3rd is now flattened,making it minor.

Therefore, DORIAN is IONIAN with a FLAT 7th and a FLAT 3rd.

HARMONY AND THEORY



AN INTRODUCTION TO MODES (CONT.)

Eventually, you will learn to think of these scales in their nativeform…which means that you will just think F DORIAN…F G Ab BbC D Eb F. But whilst you are starting out, it makes a great deal ofsense to use your knowledge of the major scale…sorry, IONIAN, toderive these new modes.

HARMONY AND THEORY



CHORD SCALE RELATIONSHIPS

In Jazz Music we deal with SCALES and CHORDS every day – andwhat we are aiming for is to be given a chord and know the scale,or to be given a scale and work out the chord. As we learned earlierthere are many different CHORD SYMBOLS, but the important thingto remember is that EACH SYMBOL REPRESENTS A SCALE.

Let’s look again at the three MODES we learned:

The CHORD SYMBOL for each mode is TRANSPOSABLE, so the symbolused above for CMajor7 (C followed by a triangle) can be used afterany ROOT to describe the IONIAN MODE based on that note.

A 7 following the root always means MIXOLYDIAN – remember?IONIAN with a FLAT 7TH.

And m7 following the root means DORIAN, which adds a FLAT 3RD.

Over the following pages you will find these three modes, completewith CHORD SYMBOL and MODE NAME in all 12 keys. Don’t panic –just take it at your own pace. Maybe stick with one key for a fewdays until you can do it from memory, then move on.

Rome wasn’t built in a day!

HARMONY AND THEORY



SCALE SYLLABUS

HARMONY AND THEORY



SCALE SYLLABUS (CONT.)

HARMONY AND THEORY




HARMONY AND THEORY




HARMONY AND THEORY




HARMONY AND THEORY




HARMONY AND THEORY



THE LYDIAN MODE – MODE IV

Here’s one more mode for now – a really great colour and mostuseful for playing on Major 7th chords.

If the perfect fifth is the most prevalent interval in music, let’s seewhat happens if we stack perfect fifths upon a given tonic, in thiscase, C:

Notice how everything is familiar – until the last note – we expectan F Natural because we are so conditioned to the Major Scale. Buthow does the F-sharp sound? It’s really sweet sounding, verybright, and very consonant. Now try the same series of notes withan F Natural at the end – not so good!

So if we make this stack into a scale we get:

This is called C Lydian, of course here we’ve used C as the tonic,but we could have used anything – the characteristics of the Lydianmode are the same, no matter what the tonic may be.

So we can describe it best as a MAJOR SCALE with a SHARPENED 4TH.This is a nice, easy way to get to know your Lydian modes – justraise the 4th of your major scale, which you have been playing sincetime began!In jazz, we use the Lydian Mode often on a Tonic Major Chord,Chord I in a Major Key. Because of the sweetness of the sound it’ssomething you can choose to do as an improviser without tellingthe band before – it’s very common and people will expect it.

HARMONY AND THEORY



THE II-V-I OR THE JAZZ PERFECT CADENCE

You will be aware of CADENCES from your studies of Classical Music– the most famous of which being the PERFECT CADENCE. This is themost used harmonic device of all and its purpose is to TAKE US

HOME.

Jazz musicians favour CHORD SYMBOLS over the Roman Numeralsused in CLASSICAL HARMONY (and the above example) so a Jazzmusician would label the same music like this:

Remember, Chord Symbols are in TWO PARTS – the LETTER is theROOT and the SYMBOL tells us the QUALITY.

HARMONY AND THEORY



THE II-V-I OR THE JAZZ PERFECT CADENCE (CONT.)

This example is in the key of C Major. When music is entirely inone key, where there are no accidentals, we call this DIATONIC. Thissounds terribly complicated but all it means is that all the notes areWITHIN THE KEY, in this instance, the key of C Major.

In DIATONIC music, the type of Chord can be found by building achord using only notes from the home key.

So how do we build a chord? It’s very simple.

In the same way that a Scale is a series of 2nds (TONES AND SEMI-TONES) which start on a given root and take their quality (sharp orflat) from the KEY SIGNATURE:

(REMEMBER: C MAJOR HAS NO KEY SIGNATURE!)

A Chord is constructed by doing the same thing only using theinterval of a 3rd. Doing so upon the tonic note (in this case, C)makes a Major 7th Chord:

A Major 7 chord has a Major 3rd and a Major 7th.

Building a chord on the Tonic of ANY MAJOR SCALE gives the samechord. Only the ROOT changes, the QUALITY remains the same.

This is the Chord that accompanies our IONIAN scale from earlier.

HARMONY AND THEORY




Let’s see what happens when we build a chord on ‘G’, but USING

THE NOTES OF C MAJOR:

This tells us that our V chord, in this case “G” is a DOMINANT

SEVENTH, giving the symbol G7. This type of chord has a Major 3rd

but this time a Minor 7th.

This is the Chord that accompanies our MIXOLYDIAN scale fromearlier.

When it comes to HARMONY, jazz musicians have been traditionallyinclined to push the boundaries. From the dawn of jazz, theharmony has been a very distinctive part of the music, and afterRHYTHM, the element that makes jazz music most distinctive.

So this is what happened:

If CHORD V goes to CHORD I then what goes to CHORD V?

In this progression, we still need to get to C Major7, and we willland on it in exactly the same place as above.

HARMONY AND THEORY




Furthermore we will still get there via Chord V (G7).

But instead of 2 bars of G7 then two bars of C Major7, let’s findanother chord to go in the first bar, thus taking us ONE STAGE

FURTHER away from our HOME KEY.

Let’s think back to the CYCLE OF FIFTHS. We already worked outthat Harmony Cadences naturally by moving DOWNWARDS in 5ths(or UPWARDS in 4ths, as the Americans say – the result is thesame).

Let’s walk it through – if G7 goes to Cmajor7, then it would makesense to find the chord which is a FIFTH UP from G7 – count up, G,A, B, C, D!

So let’s check – D DROPS A FIFTH down to G, which DROPS A FIFTH

down to C.

The CYCLE OF FIFTHS to the rescue!

All we need do now is find out what type of D Chord it will be. We’lluse the same type of investigation we used earlier…of course,USING THE NOTES OF C MAJOR:

This time, the Chord has a Minor 3rd and a Minor 7th. The Chord,therefore has the label m7.

This is the Chord that accompanies our DORIAN scale fromearlier.

Finally, let’s put the whole thing together, making a II-V-I, thecornerstone of jazz harmony:

HARMONY AND THEORY




So there it is, our Jazz Perfect Cadence. The trick is to begin to spotthis Chord Progression in different keys.

What we’ve been through is a relatively long explanation of eachstage, but here are the main points to remember:

• It is called a Major II-V-I because it takes us to a MAJOR KEY

• II is always a minor 7 chord (symbol is ‘m7’)• V is always a dominant 7 chord (symbol is ‘7’)• I is always a major 7 chord (symbol is ‘∆’)

The most important thing about a II – V – I, however, is that onceyou have identified it, you can Improvise over the WHOLE

PROGRESSION using the scale given to you by the I Chord –therefore, in the example above, you can use C Major for the wholeprogression.

HARMONY AND THEORY



GUIDE TONES

Look at the notes in the right hand of the above example – whichdegrees of the Chord are they? In each case, they are the 3rd and 7th

– and these are vital to the improviser. In fact, the 5th, which isparamount in Classical Harmony, takes a back seat here, andwhilst it still sounds fine, it is the 7th that combines with the 3rd togive us the true sound of the jazz chord.

Together, the 3rd and the 7th are known as GUIDE TONES. You takethe name literally – these notes Guide you through the Harmony.As they are such important parts of the Chord, they provide anexcellent ‘line’ that you can improvise around. Let’s look at anexample (the GUIDE TONES are marked with a * above):

Now try making up your own solo, using the notes of C Major,using the GUIDE TONES to help you through the chords.

This technique is something that will assist you no matter howchromatic or dissonant the harmony becomes as you advance inyour jazz studies – the 3rd and 7th will always be the mostdescriptive and vital parts of the chord.

HARMONY AND THEORY



THE MINOR II-V-I – A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Although harmonically more advanced, the principle of a II-V-Iwhich takes us to a Minor Key is largely the same as for the MajorII-V-I.

It’s helpful to think of harmony as ‘AREAS’ or ‘CENTRES’ ofTONALITY. So rather than having a different solution for everysingle chord, we begin to see progression that tell us ‘Play in onekey for four bars, then another key for four bars’, which reallyhelps to demystify the subject!

Minor II-V-Is are quite easy to spot as the chords look really ratherodd!

As you can see, there are some new Chord Types here.

The Chord in the first bar is called half diminished, and can also bewritten Am7b5 (A minor 7, flat 5). It is similar to the m7 Chord in aMajor II-V-I.

The Chord in the second bar is a dominant chord, similar to the 7chord in a major II-V-I, but this time has a flattened 9th.

The I Chord here is simply minor, as this is the key we are going to.

We’re not going to go too far into the theory here – it’s somethingyou can think about over time and approach your tutor for somepractical explanation – but there is one really nice shortcut fortackling these chords.

HARMONY AND THEORY



THE MINOR II-V-I – A BRIEF INTRODUCTION (CONT.)

For a Minor II-V-I, you can use the HARMONIC MINOR of the Keyyou are approaching.

So because we’re heading to G Minor, we can use the G HARMONIC

MINOR scale to get there. Notice that you don’t have to start on G –or the first beat of the bar – after working out a few ground rules,the main thing about improvising is to be CREATIVE and makeMUSIC!

HARMONY AND THEORY



LANGUAGE AND VOCABULARY

One of the key areas of study as a jazz musician is to develop yourVOCABULARY. In the same way that learning a new languageinvolves learning the rules of grammar, sentence structure as wellas the translation of words, so the competent jazz musician musthave a grounding in the style before he or she may become fluent.

You can equate going on holiday and having a really good go atcommunicating, despite having no formal language – using mimes,or English words and gestures, to a jazz musician who has all theenthusiasm for improvising but with little content – the music maystill be great, just as you end up with what you ordered at therestaurant in France, but there is a far more elegant and controlledmanner of playing, and that is to fuse this energy with knowledge.

It is a lifetime’s work to assemble your own vocabulary as a jazzmusician – it involves an endless thirst for TRANSCRIPTION. But toget started, here are a couple of phrases that work well atdescribing Major and Minor II-V-Is. They are transposed aroundthe keys ready for practise!

HARMONY AND THEORY



HARMONY AND THEORY



Y

Documents