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Getting Into Jazz Mandolin
by Ted Eschliman

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Fresh Comp'n

Part 3: 'Swing Turnarounds'

by Ted Eschliman

Review

Recall, we've been looking at new ways to freshen up accompaniment in our last two sessions. If you haven't had a chance to read through them, now would be a good time to review our take on dressing up a one-chord minor modal section of a song with chord extensions by borrowing from the diatonic material (chords based on notes of the same key) Fresh Comp'n Part 1: Bottom of the (Minor) 9ths:, and review our August 2008 Fresh Comp'n Part 2: 'ii v7' chords.

Your Turn to Swing

You've probably heard the term "Turnarounds" before, but even if you haven't we're not going to take the time now to get into the music theory behind Turnaround progressions (we promise we will in the future, though...). For now we'll just simply say these are two sets of four chords that prepare a section, and in this case, the second (and subsequent) verses of the song.

Acoustic Music Camp

We recently had the privilege of hooking up with Bebop mandolin dynamo Paul Glasse at the Dallas, Texas Acoustic Music Camp, administrated by Banjo Sessions editor and Mel Bay author, Gerald Jones. You can read more about Paul here, and you might know of him because of his recent workshops at the Southern California Mandolin Symposium. What's important to note is his amazing pedigree, being the beneficiary of hands-on tutelage with three of the greatest swing mandolinist royalty on the planet, Jethro Burns, Tiny Moore, and Johnny Gimble. Through all the training, Glasse still has his own magnificent signature sound and is as proficient on his Monteleone A-body 8-string acoustic mandolin as he is on his signature model Stevens 5-string electric.

We were intrigued by some of the chord progressions he presented during the workshop, and of course... we had to steal them for this article. Even if you don't want to know the components of Secondary Dominants and chord substitutions, just playing these on your own mandolin can be a heap of fun. As we said, we'll tackle the concept and mechanics of building Turnaround progressions at a later date, just enjoy the sounds of these chords, and, as implored last time we met, try transposing these up and down a few frets into other keys.

Here is the first set, and they are in the key of C:

If you are curious about the theory thing, you might note the second chord, with its voicing C#, G, E, Bb can also be interpreted as a C# fully diminished 7th chord. It functions as a dominant (V) of the subsequent D minor chord, because it's either a rootless V chord (no A) or a vii chord in the key of D minor. You can also interpret the G13b9 with its voicing B, F, E, Ab, as a C#7(#9) tri-tone substitution, but again, we don’t want to be eggheads again just yet.

Just enjoy the sound.

The #9 is a particularly signature sound for Paul, and if you ever have the chance to attend one of his workshops, he can walk you through the rationale. Understand, most of us hear and enjoy the sound first; then we go back and analyze why it's cool so that it can be duplicated again. The above is a great progression to do this very thing!

It's a Personal Thing

One thing we should address here is the barre chord vs. the every-string every-finger approach to chording. Those of us who came from a guitar background probably think in terms of using that movable capo, the first finger, as the base for many chords. The above diagrams show a chord that can follow the 4-chord swing progression, a return to the home key of C, but notice we propose two different ways to finger the Cmaj7 chord. We've put a semi-transparent dot on the E string to show how you can grip the chord harder.

If you are a fiddler, you're probably more into the "every-string every finger" approach and use the first version. Another justification is finger size. Paul uses the first because he sports long, thin and flexible fingers, unlike the author whose short, stubby fingers perpetually fall back on the barre chord approach.

You can also apply this to the very first Cmaj7 chord in the progression. Note a full barre with the first finger versus using every finger. Which way is right? Let's just say neither is wrong. Use what works for your own playing style and finger/hand shape. Much of this may also be determined by context, chords that come before and come after.

Today you get an F...

Let's take the progression and transpose it to the key of F. These are some other juicy sounds. Play them through a few times; you might even break them up into pairs just to get used to the way they move from one to the next:

Again, the 2nd chord we labeled D7b9, spelled C, F#, Eb, A, could be called an F# fully diminished, F# being the vii of the key of G minor, or functioning as a rootless dominant (no D). The final chord C13b9, with G, E, Bb A could be a Gb7#9, a tri-tone substitution for the dominant C7.

But we said we weren't going to get into deep theory this session, didn't we?

Enjoy this special MySpace video of Paul Glasse (also "The" Gerald Jones) we captured at the recent August Acoustic Music Camp: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=40427623 Webmaster Code: Paul Glasse, Kim Platko, Robert Bowlin."Corrine Corrina"

Have you been enjoying the great resources at Mel Bay's Mandolin Sessions? If you're new here, be sure to click on the Back Issues button above. If you've been a regular, take the time to drop us a note with some feedback: a question for a future article, an observation about something that is helping your playing, or just let us know what part of the world you are. Some of you have already done this, and we are treasure it when you take the time. Contact us at http://jazzmando.com/contact_jazzmando.shtml , and of course drop in on the JazzMando.com website, for the latest "Tips and Tricks" and jazz mandolin-related news! If you have an RSS Reader, take advantage of our RSS feed feature!

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