Jazz harmony. Jazz Fundamentals

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Jazz harmony is one of the fundamental components that help the performer develop professionally and contribute to his formation in jazz music. It implies the harmonization of the melody itself, the bass line, the deciphering of the chord "digits".

The purpose of jazz harmony is similar to classical. This is, first of all, the harmonization of the melody based on the unified general logical rules of the genre. At the same time, jazz is also based on improvisation, so knowing the basics of harmony will add new shades and touches to the improviser's style.

It is a composer's sketch, an idea that does not require additional interpretations and chord designations. For the piano part in the music of Chick Corea, Bob James, Joe Sample, this presentation of the material is quite common.

The concept of harmony in jazz

The harmonic structures of the chord in the course of the evolutionary development of jazz harmony gradually became more complicated. At first it was triads, seventh chords, then - 5-6 voice chords.

Representing chords as numeric and alphabetic symbols is very similar to how harpsichord players play socalled digital bass in the days of the Viennese classics. When writing out the bass in the part of the instrument, the number-letter chord designation was indicated on top. The rest was supplemented by musicians in a jazz orchestra, who adhere to a certain style that does not contradict the author's idea. Such parts basically correspond to accompaniment instruments - harpsichord, piano. In pop-jazz pieces, the same harmonic progression is similar.

Jazz Harmony is the theory and practice of how chords are used in jazz music. Jazz has certain similarities with other practices in the Western harmony tradition, such as chord progressions and the use of major and minor scales as the basis for chord construction.

Musical instruments

Piano and guitar are two instruments that usually provide harmony for a jazz band. Of course, performers are dealing with real-time harmony in an improvisational context. This is one of the biggest problems in jazz.

Improvisation is one of the most frequently cited and fundamental aspects of jazz performance practice in music, and for good reason. Jazz musicians do most of their work spontaneously, allowing their environment to influence what they play. Details of timbre, rhythm, even which notes to play and when, are left to the individual performer, and vary from performance to performance to a much greater degree than in classical music, rock, andvirtually any other Western tradition.

During jazz improvisation, the soloist is expected to have a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of harmony, as well as his own unique approach to chords and their relationship to scales. Personal style is made up of these building blocks and the rhythm concept.

Harmony and melody form a very important partnership. In a jazz song, harmony works on several levels:

1. A guitarist or pianist plays chords - combinations of notes that harmonize with each other in different ways.
2. A singer or saxophonist adds a melody over chords. So the melody harmonizes with the chords.
3. The bassist leads his line of music along the chords and main melody, adding another level of harmony.

Jazz harmony on the guitar has no differences with other instruments, but it will not be able to play classic blues chords, boxed scales and pentatonic scales. To master the skills of harmony on the guitar, the musician needs to strengthen his knowledge of jazz theory, which is quite peculiar and in some ways does not agree with the generally accepted one.

Jazz musicians

Jazz artists also use harmony as their main stylistic element. Open stepped harmonies are characteristic of McCoy Tyner's music, while rapidly changing tonal centers have become a major feature of John Coltrane's middle period.

Horace Silver, Claire Fisher, David Brubecki, Bill Evans arepianists whose compositions are most typical of the chord-heavy style associated with jazz piano harmony.

Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Wayne Shorter and Benny Golson are not pianists, but they clearly understand the role of harmony in the compositional structure and mood of a melody. These composers (including Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus, who have infrequently recorded as pianists) have a musicality based on piano chords, even if they don't use keyboards in performance.

Jazz singing

In jazz vocals, the key position is occupied by an impeccable sense of rhythm and harmony, the mobility of the voice. A jazz vocalist must feel the construction of the melody. His task is to show his vision of the melodic theme without departing from the main harmony, modifying it at his own discretion. At present, jazz and pop vocals are quite closely related to each other, since there are many elements of jazz in popular pop music. A powerful voice with a wide working range, a highly developed melodic and harmonic ear distinguish a professional jazz vocalist.

The practice of playing a musical instrument is an excellent method for developing harmonic hearing and thinking. The musician needs to work through standard harmonic sequences in various keys and analyze all the harmonic material.

Letter symbols

Base for jazzharmony is served by the major-minor scale and the European functional system. Any jazz improviser needs to understand and understand the notation that is used in harmony. Letters, numbers and signs are used to name chords.

Capital Latin letters indicate:

1. Major triad, which is built from the given sound.
2. If written with a number or a sign - the main tone (accept) of the chord.

A small m next to a capital letter indicates that the chord is minor.

Abbreviations

The abbreviation maj or the letter M indicates that a major seventh is added to a major triad.

The abbreviation dim means a diminished seventh chord.

Numbers

• 6 - major sixth added to major/minor triad;
• 7 - minor seventh added to major/minor triad;
• 9 - added big nona;
• 9maj - big nona added to the big major seventh chord;
• 9/6 - added big sex and nona;
• 11 - minor seventh/great nona/pure undecima added to major or minor triad;
• 13 - minor seventh/major nona/pure undecima/major terdcecima added to the triad.

The signs ♭ andto the right of the letter indicate the decrease / increase of the chord by a semitone and are called accidentals. They can also indicate a diminished/raised fifth, seventh, nona, undecima, or terdecima when placed near a numeral.

Chords

Usually chords injazz harmonies are placed vertically in major and minor thirds, although pure fourths are also common.

In classical harmony, the names of chords, usually considered in the context of mode, come from modal functions and degrees: dominant seventh chord (D7), quintsext chord of the second degree. Jazz operates in terms of root note. This means that the chord gets its name depending on the sound that was used in its construction: D minor seventh chord (Dm7), F major seventh chord (Fmaj7). At the same time, the name does not depend on the modal function.

Jazz music also supports certain harmonic progressions and includes intervals such as nones, undecimals, and terdecimals.

Seventh chords

Jazz harmony is different in that the use of seventh chords as the main harmonic unit is more common here than triads in mainly classical music.

In practice, four main groups of chords are usually common in jazz, and a small seventh chord is added to them. A seventh chord is a chord of 4 sounds that are arranged in thirds. One has a reduced seventh, three have a small seventh, three have a large seventh.

Basic seventh chords:

• minor;
• major;
• big minor;
• dominant.

The general rule of thumb is that altered chords are included when the alterations appear in the melody or are critical to the essence of the composition.

Chords cancontain more than 4 notes. For example, a C-sharp C9 chord includes C, E-flat, G, A, D.

These chords may have alterations shown in brackets after the chord symbol. There is a huge variety in the chord symbols used in jazz notation.

The jazz chord naming system is determined as the composer wishes.

Chord Symbol Chart

Symbol designation chord	Notes	Chord name
CΔ, CM7, Cmaj7	C E G B	Grand major seventh chord
C7	C E G B♭	Dominant seventh chord
C-7, Cm7	C E♭ G B♭	Small minor seventh chord
C-Δ7, CmM7, C⑦	C E♭ G B	Great minor seventh chord
C∅, Cm7♭5, C-7♭5	C E♭ G♭ B♭	Semi-reduced seventh chord
Co7, Cdim7	C E♭ G♭ B♭♭	Reduced seventh chord

Triton

Tritone, or tritone substitution - a technique found mainly in jazz harmony. In this case, one chord is replaced by another, located three tones higher or lower, while the functional meaning of such a chord is preserved.

Holding in chords

The basics of jazz include the concept of "delay", which came to jazz from classical harmony, but in classical it is how a melodic line is formed, and in jazz -how a chord is built. It lies in the fact that the fourth is used instead of the third of the chord, being, as it were, a “delayed”, unresolved sound into a third. The result is the formation of a new chord, which has its own alphanumeric designation. An example is the C9sus chord, which can be written more simply - C/Gm7.

Differences from classical harmony

There are many distinct jazz harmony features for dummies to help beginners get to grips with jazz practice.

1. Instead of triads (as in classical harmony), seventh chords and nonchords are the most common, and instead of seventh chords, undecimals and third decimals.
2. Alterations are often used, including conflicting alterations in the same chord.
3. A large number of dissonances: tritones, sevenths, nons, seconds. At the same time, dissonant intervals should not be drowned out by voices. You can arrange the chords so that the pianist's left hand part sounds in the predominance of the seventh. Deviations and modulations are used instead of tonality steps.
4. You can play moves in parallel intervals or whole chords, as parallel fourths, fifths, sevenths and decimals are quite common in jazz, especially in basses. Parallel sixth chords, seventh chords and nonchords will add a good sound.
5. Doubling chord tones as needed.
6. Melody may not contain chord sounds. Abstract passages will make the composition bolder and more interesting.
7. In jazz harmony, one of the most important roles is played bybass part, so the bass line should be expressive, melodious and drawn out. There you can add swing, grace notes, various performance techniques, such as staccato, when sounds are performed abruptly, or marcato. Swing will accentuate the melody by not playing the tones of a complex chord at the same time. Thus, the chord is perceived in part, which makes it possible to hear every feature of it.
8. Tremolo emphasizes the desired chord.
9. It is recommended to complement the chord with tones (sixths and quarts).

In classical harmony, the musician concentrates on how to convey the musical text according to the traditions of the classical school, without changing it. However, a jazz performer is in a continuous creative search in the field of harmony. Therein lies the fundamental difference. In jazz, each playing of musical material in the context of harmony has differences from the source material, but at the same time, it is not the melody itself that changes, but the harmony. In this case, the author's message does not change. The creativity and imagination of the musician provides a wide range of alternatives to such modifications.