Post 324: CHORDS - THOUGHT-PROVOKING STUFF FROM A GUEST WRITER

Following my own ramblings and speculations about chords, I have received this contribution from the traditional jazz pianist Chris Reilley.

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Chris writes: -

In my case learning about chords started when I took an interest in playing Boogie Woogie, so the chord shapes in that case were fairly simple first-inversion major triad shapes. From then on it was only a matter of making slight amendments to the chords for the simplest of Jazz Tunes to be able to play Traditional and New Orleans Jazz tunes.

In recent years I have found that some tunes suggest the use of much more complicated chords – some of which are almost impossible to play with the left hand only. I am referring to those chords that require a span of more than one octave or more than the use of five notes in the chord.

I bought a Chord Chart Book in the 1950s which showed all of the most common chord shapes in use and since then I have referred to this and to a book commonly known as the “French Chord Book”. Both of these list the details of a number of different chords some of which either require the use of six fingers or for the chord to be missing a note (usually the root). This is because the chord would normally be played as a split bar with the root being played on the first and third beats and the chord (less the "Root") on the second and fourth beats.

One interesting point made in the Chord Chart Book regarding “Inversions” is the suggestion that chords played on the Piano should ideally be centred over middle C in order to get the fullest sound. This means that some chords should not necessarily be played in the first inversion but maybe in either second or third inversions to obtain the fullest sound.

There is no doubt that some chords use the same notes as other chords in a different key but in a different inversion; this can be confusing and the only way I know to resolve this issue is to make sure that the chord used is in the same key as the tune (unless there is intended to be a change of key at that point).

Another point in chord use is to take into account the unfortunate limitations of some instruments like for example the Banjo and Guitar which in many cases only have four strings.

I have been asked to play “eleventh” or “thirteenth” chords in certain places in tunes and when I have looked at the melody I usually have found that the notes of the “eleventh” or “thirteenth” are actually in the melody. Now as I want to be able to use my right hand for improvisation and harmonic accompaniment, I excuse myself of that task by playing all the notes except the “eleventh” or “thirteenth” notes of the chord and let the melody instruments sound that.

To add to the above there is also the interesting use of Lead-in notes and Chords (e.g. the Dominant Seventh or Augmented Fifth) and the final Chords (e.g. Dominant Seventh, Major Seventh or Major Sixth as well as chordal sequences) being the most common. Also in some tunes there appears what is commonly called the “magic” Chord (in the key of Bb there might appear the chord of Db prior to playing an Eb chord). In the case of the well-known Boogie Woogie composer Jimmy Yancy, he used to finish many of his tunes with a bar or two in a totally different Key.

I hope you find this interesting.

Cheers,

Chris.

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Thanks, Chris. I certainly did. You have made some points that had not occurred to me before.

Post 309: THE NOWHERE CHORD AND THE CLAPHAM JUNCTION CHORD

Listening to Wabash Blues, I was reminded that what 'makes' this tune is the 13th bar (measure), where we suddenly land on a note and chord that sound alien but are in fact just right.

Don't know what I mean? Well, hear what happens at 30 - 32 seconds into this video (click on to view) and again (more conspicuously) from 1 minute 42 seconds to 1 minute 44 seconds.

Checking it out, I found it's the chord on the flattened 6th of the key in which the tune is played. So, if you are playing in C, the flattened 6th would be the chord of Ab. If you're playing in F, it would be the chord of Db:

And so on.

The flattened 6th is a chord that rarely appears in our music but, whenever it pops up, it creates a special effect.

I discussed this with my friend Ralph Hunt and he told me that among banjo players such as himself it is known as the 'Nowhere Chord'. That sounded really interesting. Did it mean the chord that led nowhere? Did it mean the chord that seemed to come from nowhere? Unfortunately the explanation was much more mundane: it came from the tune 'Out of Nowhere', in which the chord plays a prominent part.

The led us to wonder what other tunes we could think of in which the listeners are hit at some point with the chord on the flattened 6th. In five minutes we came up with these:

Bye Bye Blues (on the word 'blues': you can hear it, can't you?)

Come Back Sweet Papa (very emphatically in the Verse)
I Never Knew What a Girl Could Do (both in the verse and in the main theme)

Love Songs of the Nile
Oriental Strut (in the main theme)

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

Marie (30th bar)

Mama's Gone, Goodbye (Mama's gone, Mama's gone goodbye)

My Melancholy Baby (in the second half of each of the first two bars):

San (it makes the Chorus truly distinctive)
Sorry (bars 3 & 4, for example)
Golden Leaf Strut (bars 25 and 26)

Henry Kiel reminds me that four more are:
Alabama Jubilee (in both Verse and Chorus)
Angry
Black and Blue (Middle Eight)
Dancing With Tears in My Eyes

But no doubt you will tell me there are more......

And while we're on the subject of these strange named chords, did you know there is one called 'The Clapham Junction Chord'? I learned about it from The Oxford Companion to Music. It is the chord of the 7th diminished. For example, in the key of C, it would contain B, D, F, and Ab.

Why Clapham Junction? Because that is a railway station in South London from which routes branch off in many directions. In the same way, when you play this chord, you can modulate into any one of several different chords to follow it.

Post 299: MORE CHORD SUBSTITUTION AND SIMPLIFICATION

I have previously mentioned that you can sometimes simplify matters by playing a basic triad major chord instead of the minor 7th of the note three semitones below it.

For example, play C major triad instead of A minor 7th. (Nobody will notice!)

Banjo-playing friends have since reminded me of two more similar tricks. One friend said 'Because we have four strings, we often play partial chords, as the full chord pattern on each inversion would stretch fingers beyond human limits at times'.

TRICK ONE

The music calls for a Diminished Chord. Instead, play the 7th of the chord one semitone below it. But LEAVE OUT THE BOTTOM NOTE. For example, for F diminished, play E7th (but leaving out the E at the bottom). It works.

For C diminished, play B7th without the B;

For F# diminished, play F7th without the F, etc.

TRICK TWO

The music calls for a Minor 7th with flattened fifth (sometimes called the 'half-diminished' chord). Instead, play the Minor 6th based on the note three semitones above.

For example,

For Cm7-5, play Ebm6;

For Dm7-5, play Fm6;

For Gm7-5, play Bbm6;

etc.

Tricks. But you will get away with them.

Post 142: A HAUNTING MELODY - 'LAURA' AND DAVID RASKIN

Some tunes are described as ‘haunting melodies’; and I have been wondering what gives a tune a ‘haunting’ quality.

I think the answer is that is has to be the kind of tune that defies expectations and yet – after being heard a few times – implants itself in our minds.

A prime example of a haunting tune is Laura, composed by David Raskin in 1945.

For ease of discussion, let’s consider it in the key of C. The first thing we notice is that the opening bar involves the extremely unlikely combination of A, B and C. (A minor the harmony, B the note being played, C the key [and the chord we might normally expect]).

Having started in that weird way, the tune continues in the same vein. In its 32 bars, it gets through an astonishing range of chords. No matter how simple the version of chords you try to use, you are unlikely to get away without using at least Am7 (sometimes with flattened 5th), D7, G, Gdim, Gm7, C7, F7, Fdim, Fm7 (sometimes with flattened 5th), Bb7, Eb major 7, Eb7, Em7, Bm, E7, G7, and C (C - the home chord - surprisingly being used only with the final note).

How’s that for a tune of 32 bars? Can you think of any other popular song with such changes? No wonder the tune is VERY rarely attempted: it’s too difficult! It is almost as if Raskin set himself the task of writing a tune that used pretty well every possible chord in the chromatic scale.

Strangely, though, you find the chord changes – as you work through each sixteen bars – are based subtly on the familiar circle of 5ths – starting with A (in the form of minor 7th rather than usual 7th).

What makes it sound so ‘haunting’ is that the chords are not the conventional 7ths. Minors, diminisheds and major 7ths are preferred to normal 7ths and the melody note often adds a 9th to the chord, as indeed on the very first note.

Also, the second half copies the first only for 8 bars and then – although keeping the rhythmic pattern of the first sixteen bars, introduces a slightly different upward arpeggio and harmony.

FIRST SIXTEEN ENDING:

SECOND SIXTEEN ENDING:

You will not be surprised to hear that Raskin (who died in 2004) was a classically-trained composer. The son of an orchestral conductor, he studied composition at the University of Pennsylvania and later was tutored by Arnold Schoenberg. Raskin wrote over 100 film scores. Laura was based on the theme for the 1944 film of the same name. Lyrics for it were provided by the great Johnny Mercer.

Post 80: DIMINISHED CHORDS

You can sail through most traditional jazz tunes without ever coming across a diminished chord. Some tunes are even playable using only the three-chord trick.

However, I am fond of hearing diminished chords because they almost always inject a spot of drama, contrast and excitement. At the very least they add colour.

For example, in Have You Met Miss Jones?, I love the diminished that accompanies the word Jones, and therefore appears in the first, second and final eights. Another dramatic one occurs five bars from the end of The Very Thought Of You, where the melody leaps to its final high note, accompanied of course by the diminished.

And that good old jazz band favourite The World is Waiting for the Sunrise has a striking diminished throughout bars 3 and 4, and again through bars 19 and 20.

But the most dramatic and noticeable uses of the diminished occur in cascading arpeggio form. Sometimes this can be left to an improviser in a 'break' (such as bars 13 and 14 of the first theme of Fidgety Feet) but more obviously it is part of the written tune, such as the beginning of the second theme of Blame It On The Blues (climbing up the arpeggio ladder):

The first theme of Memphis Shake depends for its effect on its two opening bars being based on the diminished chord of the tonic.

There is another thrilling example in the third and fourth bars from the end of the second theme in Ostrich Walk. After three bars of breaks, the melody glisses down through the diminished version of the tonic chord, leading into a bar of Dominant 7th and then the Tonic.

And most famous of all is the terrific Louis Armstrong Introduction to Dippermouth Blues, which cascades down through the diminished:

Post 40: WE'LL GATHER LILACS

'Which are the twenty loveliest songs that have ever been written?' That's the kind of question sometimes asked in magazines.

One song that would be a serious contender for inclusion is We'll Gather Lilacs In The Spring Again. Its words and music both came from the pen of Ivor Novello, who wrote it for his 1945 stage musical Perchance to Dream. Like so many popular songs from musicals, it soon acquired a life of its own.

Ivor Novello

One reason why it caught on is that it has a simple but lovely 4-bar phrase whose rhythm and shape is constantly repeated, though at various pitches. There is not even a middle eight to divert our attention from it. Here it is at the opening of the chorus.

The song also has words that suggest the simple joys of a loving couple coming together again at the end of a long parting - such as was happening in 1945, when the Second World War ended. How wonderful it will be once again to gather lilacs and to walk hand-in-hand down a country lane. The very thought of such pleasures evokes tears of joy.

But the greatest secret of this beautiful song is its harmony.

CLICK HERE for a delightful performance. It is sung in the key of G and includes the Verse as well as the more famous Chorus.

In particular, it uses so many minor chords to suggest the feeling of nostalgia and the pain of separation, while the major chords suggest the joy of coming together again.

Here are the words of the chorus. I have underlined every word during which a minor chord is played.

We'll gather lilacs in the Spring again

And walk together down an English lane

Until our hearts have learned to sing again

When you come home once more.

And in the evening by the firelight's glow

You'll hold me close and never let me go.

Your eyes will tell me all I need to know

When you come home once more.

What a large proportion of the song has minor harmonies! In the Key of F, they happen to be D minor, Bb minor, C minor (this one specially effective against lane and me go), G minor 7th and A minor.