Mel Bay's Mandolin Sessions | Ted Eschliman - Jazz Mandology

Reharmonization Secrets Part 2

Taking even less "harm" out of Reharm…

In the last episode…

If you haven't already read the latest issue of Jazz Mandology, it would be a good idea now, or some of this might not make as much sense to you. You can catch it here: http://mandolinsessions.com/feb06/jazz.html .

Recall, our goal here is to undrape the mystical robes of reharmonizing simple tunes, and discover some repeatable "tricks" of the trade.

We should point out that the techniques looked at so far are not readily native to simple solo mandolin. Matter of fact, some of the harmonic progressions may be a bit difficult to communicate on our four double-course instrument, without somebody filling out the voices, particularly in the bass register. Still, your ear should develop some sense of the bigger harmonic picture, especially if your goal is to develop some chord-melody technique.

Don't feel the need to voice ALL the notes of the chord; you can pick out the important ones (the 3^rd, the 7^th, or the color chord extension). Even a simple two part harmony can still be effective in communicating the progression. Once you do unravel this "condensation" of voicings in one key, you'll be able to repeat them in other keys, as well!

What I learned in School…

The five tricks we introduced last issue:

Add a preceding Dominant chord.
Add a preceding Dominant, precede that with a Dominant Preparation chord or chords.
Include a (Diatonic) Turnaround.
Include a Circle of 5ths Turnaround.
Embellish with Tritone Substitution Turnaround.

These are really the most basic, but let's continue on with the song and have fun with a few more ideas as we continue into the middle of the Joni Mitchell classic, "Both Sides Now" at the chorus:

Vanilla. Let's add some chocolate 'n nuts… This is about as "vanilla" as you can get in a folk song. Notice, you don't even have the dominant chord (D7) anywhere in this 4 measures. You could even get away with playing this all as a G chord, eliminating the (subdominant) C chord. We'll fix that with a little diatonic "Walk up" progression trickery:

What do we mean by "Walk up?" Look at the root note of the first four chords, G, A, B, and C. These are consecutive notes of the G Major Scale, and if you spelled triads with them, you'd stick to a diatonic, or chords that stay within this key of G major. You can wander up (and down) with these chords all day long when music calls for a long stretch of one chord. It gives you a sense of "passing," of motion, without leaving the tonal center of G.

There are a couple of ways we can look at the alteration of the last two measures. One would be a virtual circle of fifths, although you can't really call it that since the Bm7 and Am7 are minor functions and don't function as dominant chords, more aptly, we are going to see two different Dominant Prep/Dominant examples. As we said in our previous article, think backwards from the destination; notice the Am7 D7 are the 'ii V7' chords in the key of G. Also notice preceding the Am7 is yet another 'ii V7' in which Bm7 andE7 set up the Am7.

So in essence, we aren't just preceding a dominant with a dominant, were preceding a dominant prep/dominant with another dominant prep/dominant. You wouldn't know this, had you not gone to the end of the phrase and analyzed backward!

Let's do another trick in the last two measures. Frankly, we did this because it sounded cool. We can't stop there, because if we want to understand WHY it's cool, it's a help to roll up our "shade tree mechanic" sleeves and rattle around under the hood a bit:

WARNING: More theory ahead:

Theory causes "brain freeze" for some musicians, cringing at the thought they might get lost in some kind of complicated analytical, unproductive mumbo jumbo. This is unfortunate because if one really wants to be able to repeat something that marvelously stirs the muse, it's helpful to get a grip on what it is. If Music Theory frightens you, skip the next paragraph, but do so at the risk of not being able to reproduce something you like within the framework of another song.

Note the CMaj7 is not that much of a stretch from the Am7. Three of the notes of the two chords are even the same, C, E, G. But where does that F9 come from? It's the V7 chord of Bb, which shares the same key signature of Gminor, so we are hinting at a brief tonal center shift that you can either think of as Bb Major, or simply a third away. It doesn't matter which it is, it sounds good, so we'll use it!

Composers and songwriters create, many differ in the amount of cognitive effort versus spontaneous creativity. However they arrive at the result, the creative process is moot. The idea is to understand the result and why it works, so you can repeat it. Sometimes you'll see several reasons why something works, and that's the beauty of the arts. Enjoy it, don't fear it!

Let's continue…

The above original chords are a pleasant use of basic harmonic vocabulary quite common in folk music. The 'ii V7' in the last two measures, and chords stay comfortably within the key. But as Chef Emeril Lagasse would say, "Let's kick it up a notch!"

Calling in the sub…

We're taking the Tip #5 from the previous issue by inserting a tritone substitution turnaround in the EbMaj7 and AbMaj7 (compared to Bm7 and Em7). Note how conveniently the D and G of the melody fit. We throw in a spicy F9 between the Am7 and Dsus4 (D7) for reasons outlined earlier, and we have a nice little altered version without throwing the listener completely off base. (Pun intended…)

Let's end it all. (Sort of...)

Something you'll find jazzers really enjoy doing is setting up "vamp" sections. This allows some flexible, indefinitely extended improvising, as well as a brief departure from the basic form. What we've added here is not only a harmonic idea, but a (syncopated) rhythmic nugget, as well. The rest of the ensemble will want to hit this simultaneously as rhythmic "band chords," driving this motif, establishing it as its own entity within the song. It gives contrast from the original song, but also unifies the band, allowing the soloist to be spontaneous, free, and expressive.

Note this is also potentially something to start the tune off as an Intro. Use this to both start and end, you end up with your own signature version of the song.

Sometimes you'll see several reasons why something works, and that's the beauty of the arts. Enjoy it, don't fear it!

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