lesson with Lord Sorasen

alright, we're going to start with some basic important harmonic studies until we reach a point where we might call it complicated..

lord sorasen, i don't know how familiar you are with jazz, since i haven't met you in person and jazz is one of those languages in which you can only judge by jamming with the other person..

i would like to start with basic diatonic knowledge and take it from there..

we'll take a chord progression:

C maj, Em Dm G, Cm F, Bb Maj, Dm, Cm F, Bb

first of all... we modulated to the key of Bb, and we used Dm in the key of C and the key of Bb because, based on harmonic structure, the chord belongs to both keys.. (pivot chords or however you learned it in college)

but the catch for us, composers and performers, is to make music out of it.. so, if we start writing a motif, or pattern, or scale, or whatever passing tool, we'll come to a point in which the chords are no longer major or minor but seventh, ninth, etc.. these are called "extended chords"... at least in the jazz world..

so the same progression with 7th's and 9th's could look more like this:

C maj7, Em7 Dm7 G7#9, Cm7 F7, Bb Maj7, Dm(b9), Cm7 F7, Bb Maj7

why did we add a #9 to G?.. well, it's optional, it could have been just a G7, but i added that #9, cause i knew we were going to the key of Bb.. so i wanted to imply that the Bb was coming.. but how can we do it?, randomly?, nope.. as soon as I saw the C minor, it was the best chance for me to make emphasis of the Bb that is the 7th degree of C minor in which in this case is working as the dorian mode of Bb.. or second mode.. however you want to call it..

so, adding a #9 to the dominant chord is allowed.. but it's up to the composer if he/she wants to tell the listener that the piece is about to modulate.. that is what we call in music "COLOR"..

sometimes we can even imply we're going to a key but we don't resolve the chords, or we don't go where the ear wants us to.. but we'll cover that later..

notice i also used Dm7 in the key of C (which would have had a 9th if we stay in C) but i then used it as a Dm7 (b9)... and i did that to imply that since we are now in the key of Bb, that D minor is the phrygian mode (or 3rd degree) of the scale....

as I said.. is up to the composer...

music is abstract anyways, right? :whistling:

so, you can see where we're going..

assignment for you is..

write down a chord progression of a tune you like (could be jazz, rock, pop, or whatever you like).. try to choose something tonal or diatonic.. don't bring in Schoenberg cause i will not come back to this forum anymore :toothygrin:

once you have chosen a "SHORT" chord progression.. write down a melody using quarter and/or 8th notes... and over each note, justify what function implies in the chord..

for example, you could write the notes, if in the key of C, for the chord G = G, B, D, F, A, C, and their function would be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11

let me know if this is too confusing or too easy, or too complicated...

otherwise, i expect the lesson soon :thumbsup:

and notice.. the reason why most people would add a #9 to G7 is because the following chord is Cm which could have that Bb... but, that's not what we're doing here.. we're looking at the whole.. the phrase... otherwise, we could have used G7 resolving to Cm with a major 7th (harmonic minor scale)... instead we look at the big picture and see clearly there's a Bb that fits in at least half of the chord progression.