[merolish]

Jazz guitarist here, and yes. One of the nice things about the instrument is that a relatively small number of forms for chords and scales are transposable up and down the fretboard, so once you burn the usual patterns into your head (iim7-V7-IM7, etc.) reading a new sheet usually doesn't take too much work.

Most pop music is even simpler, as illustrated by Axis of Awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I

[boston_clone]

Have you explored Barry Harris and his diminished sixth approach to jazz? I'm still clawing through it, but it seems to simplify the amount of chords you play to only 2 and then defines what variations will consistently sound good.

[asimpletune]

Yeah, diminished 6th system basically “fixes” classical music theory IMO. Like, classical music theory has to bend over backwards describing very common and pleasant groupings of chords (think Debussy), but in BH stuff, by adding an extra note to the major scale, now all of that stuff is not only easy to explain it’s in fact very natural. What I like especially about it is how all the very diatonic stuff ends up being slight outliers (ie “borrowing” notes from neighboring diminished chords), while the combination of maj6 + dim is the standard. It creates very pleasing sounds.

[tonystride]

I haven't looked into this yet but is the added note you are talking about like the added note of the Major bebop scale between Sol & La? Or is it the sharp Fa of the Lydian sound?

[asimpletune]

Yeah, you add a sharp between the 5th and 6th scale degrees, making for 8 notes in total. Then if your harmonize that scale by playing every other note, you end up with alternating inversions of the root maj6 and the diminished chord.

[tonystride]

This is the theory behind drop 2 voicings is it not? Being that as you alternate b/w Maj & dim voicings you copy the top note of the RH in the LH, I like to add a chromatic flourish to the LH note and it gives you a very George Shearing sound.

But wait there's more! Not only does this function harmonically, it also functions melodically. The added scale tone makes it so that a chord tone ends up on every down beat when playing in eighth notes. I've actually found that it doesn't matter where you add that extra scale note, you can do it all the way up and down the piano anywhere you like as long as you get chord tones where you want them.

[merolish]

It looks like it's the major bebop scale, yes.

[tonystride]

Never done a deep dive on BH but I'm very aware of him. It's funny how theory can seek to reduce down so much, the positive and the negative. Kinda like Shankerian, except I would be much more interested in what BH has to say since Shanker was such an terrible person.

[boston_clone]

I haven't been able to find much of him teaching directly outside of this series from the Lincoln Jazz Institute [0].

However, this person has compiled a thorough overview of the underpinnings [1], provided you can ignore the diminished quality of the first few videos.

This foray into jazz actually chewed up a ton of my quarantine free time, for better or worse :)

[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8JJncSUdUU [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdtOj-qz8AM&list=PLjtr-OF8R4...

[spekcular]

There is an entire chapter, about 20 pages, on Harris's theories in Berkman's The Jazz Harmony Book. It's probably the best harmony book I've ever read because it's extremely down to earth and focuses on worked examples.

If you want videos, there's also this playlist from the billgrahammusic youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQgBnh9vUgI&list=PLxxPdgDHUa....

[tonystride]

welp looks like I've filled my 2021 theory quota with a single HN post!

[tonystride]

This is why I love HN, thank you for these links! As someone who grew up listening to crappy compressed CDs of early jazz recordings I can easily look past the poor video quality.

[seanhunter]

I think you're talking about "Schenkerian" analysis, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenkerian_analysis

[tonystride]

yep that's it sorry for the sp, reckless typing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[farisjarrah]

Trombone also works in a similar way with the slide positions and overtone series. In fact, experienced trombonists will refer to transposing licks up or down the slide or overtone series as fretting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v0C2nqVSlE