I take any standard jazz tune ( this week its Moon River) and I play nothing but the 3rd and 7th of each chord. It ends up being a pile 4ths and 5ths. I play them every where I can find them on the neck. After I'm comfortable playing them in at least 3 different ways I start adding the root notes (and sometimes the flat 5 equivalent). After I'm comfortable with the triads I start adding the melody notes to the top of the chord.

I write the names of the 3rds and 7ths next to the chord symbol on the chart (C major=E and B).

After I start getting a tune together I play along in BIAB and start memorizing it and screwing around with scales.

I started doing this as a way of playing jazz on an 8 string Rickenbacher a while back and I've found that it really helps open up the way I look at the C neck on my D10.

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Bob
My Website

In this "forware motion" idea he talks about instead of thinking of the "one" as the start of each phrase, instead thinking of it as the last beat of the previous measure. Interesting concept that goes all the way back to Bach. There is an interactive web site that you can hear all of the ideas in the book played. He starts in a place where the last note of (for instance) an arpegio ends on the first beat of the next measure. We do it all the time by starting a grace note on "four and" then propelled into the first beat of the next measure. He just makes you aware of it and has exercises where you start a lot earlier. Cool stuff

[This message was edited by W Franco on 25 July 2005 at 11:05 AM.]

I'm getting gigs with jazz guys and on stage I feel like I'm visiting France and all I know how to do ask where the bathrooom is and smile allot. I need some more vocabulary !

I've played many different types of music in my life, but the one type of music that remains a passion is Jazz. Most types of music I play I find more fun to play than to listen to. For instance, I play Bluegrass on my Dobro, and I enjoy playing it when I can, but I find it difficult to listen to for any extended time.

I can spend hours lost in two-note movement; I admire people who can apply pianistic thinking to guitars (six-string too), but to me that can sort of mask the steel's strength of slipping and sliding.

[This message was edited by David Mason on 26 July 2005 at 04:13 AM.]

Am7-----E7b9----Am7----A7b9-----Dm7
Fly-----Me------To-----The----- Moon
.
Em7------Am7-----D9
And------Let----Me
.
Dm7-------G7-------------Gm7-C7-C#m7b5-F#7b9
Play--a---mong----The----Stars
.
Fmaj7---Em7-----Dm7------Cmaj7
Let-----Me------See------What
.
Bm7b5------------F7---------
Spring----Is----Like-------On
.
Fm7-------Bb7-----------Am7
Jup--it---er----And-----Mars

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Jeff's Jazz

[This message was edited by Jeff Lampert on 26 July 2005 at 07:55 AM.]

Thanks Jeff for the chord arrangment on Fly me to the Moon. That is one of my favorites I play every week.I'm going to copy and paste that one. I will put it to good use very soon.

[This message was edited by W Franco on 26 July 2005 at 09:35 AM.]

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Jeff's Jazz

[This message was edited by Jeff Lampert on 27 July 2005 at 06:05 AM.]

I have a lot of links stored on my compouter for web-sites on jazz harmony. Here are a couple. You have to search around them but they all have useful info on chord subs, IMO.

http://guitar-masters.com/Subst/
http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moneychords/substitutions.html
http://www.thereelscore.com/PortfolioStuff/PDFFiles/QuickJazzTheoryRefFinal.pdf

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Jeff's Jazz

[This message was edited by Jeff Lampert on 27 July 2005 at 06:23 AM.]

quote:

---

...I play nothing but the 3rd and 7th of each chord. It ends up being a pile 4ths and 5ths.

---

So you see, you know more chords than you think you know, if you know what I mean

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http://www.johnmcgann.com
Info for musicians, transcribers, technique tips and fun stuff. Joaquin Murphey transcription book, Rhythm Tuneup DVD and more...

Here's something that I lifted from a Mandolin Cafe thread about Tiny Moore......

quote:

---

I spent some time with Tiny in the 1980s--
He didn't really play straight rhythm on the mandolin,
just an occasional 2 string 3rd/7ths line.

---

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Bob
My Website

[This message was edited by Bob Hoffnar on 11 August 2005 at 06:19 AM.]

Of course, if one finds a really useful 3/7 that fits with a lot of other things one does, and the 'right' additional notes are not in the copedent, perhaps it's possible to change something so that they are. Perhaps a slant, perhaps a change in copedent. My take about music in general is that a 'good' note is not usually far away from the note that you're at. The ability to remap the pedal steel at will is one of its most fascinating features (and perhaps one of its biggest traps).

In my first study of jazz guitar, the first thing we did was discuss 3rds and 7ths, and tritones, as the fundamental building blocks of jazz chords. We then proceeded to find them all over the neck, and listened to how guys like Charlie Christian, Barney Kessel, Kenny Burrell, and Wes Montgomery used them.

I'm just starting to focus on jazz on steel, but on guitar, I agree with Bob about thinning out the chords on the gig. While other people are playing complex chords, rhythmic comping duties usually sound better with simplified versions. I usually use 3-note "Freddie Green-style" chords, but often 2-note figures work fine also.

If you play guitar, you might find these two books useful - they're not too difficult and have a lot of useful info, which might be translated by a guitar player to steel:

"Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar" by Arnie Berle, AMSCO Publications

"Guitar Fingerboard Harmony" by Edward F. McGuire, Mel Bay Publications.