Jazz Harmony

[Jason Flores]

Hey Sup Forums, thought it might be fun to get a thread going about harmony. Share tidbits of information, nothing too overwhelming. Short and sweet paragraphs that explain a concept. Idk if there will be any interest, let's see how Sup Forums y'all mofus are.

[Ayden Myers]

I'll start.

This a concept for improvising over a sus chord. I found it out of the Jazz Piano book by Mark Levine. Sounds kind of chick corea-y

So, Let's say we're soloing over 4 bars of G sus

We're going to impose altered right hand voicings over the vamp while our left hand keeps playing G as the root.

First measure - (F Ab B E)
Second measure - (Ab B D G)
Third measure - (B D F Bb)
Fourth measure - (D F Ab Db)

The shape is a diminished triad with a fourth stacked after the last note of the triad. Then you cycle this through minor 3rds. Pretty funky sound. Once you get it in G, try it in C, and F using the same logic.

[Gabriel Morris]

go on

I'll search it in the catalog later

[Zachary Phillips]

There are a lot of interesting patterns you can find in using the diminished scales over dominant chords. I like to do one using the interval of a descending M7.

So like over a C7alt you can start on the #9 and go

Eb E
C Db
A Bb
F# G

Basically making use of two different diminished chords. Add some crossrhythm and it's a nice modern sound.

[Carson Bell]

that's some sexy ish, my g. I just verified it on my keyboard. Sounds fucking future/sci-fi.

I use to hate soloing over dominant chords, especially on piano. It felt real limited and square when I was only using the mixolydian scale. However, after discovering chromatic leading , altered and sus chords. Dominant chords quickly grew to be a favorite sound

[Camden Parker]

I'm not informed on jazz theory but is that really a Gsus? I thought it would be G C D or G A D.

[Blake Wood]

the pic is a sus chord with the
root (G), the sus4 (C) the Dominant 7th (F) and the natural 9 (A), it's just leaving out the perfect fifth (D). And that's why we have this thread bro, ask any questions u want, imma be up for a few hours trying to make this thread god-tier jazz advice, and hopefully some dope ass sax player will come in here and wreck sum theory up to school all of us.

[Andrew Reed]

Yeah, dominant chords are by far the most fun. There are so many options for them. There's a whole world of diminished patterns you can get into. Here's another good one, ascending this time in groups of three notes

C Db F#
Eb E A
F# G C
A Bb Eb

So making use of the same two diminished chords just different grouping. You can also do that one descending. You can do it in triplets obviously but I like to do it in eighth notes so the groupings of three sound cool.

The other nice thing about diminished patterns is that there are only three of them. So that same pattern works for C Eb F# and A dominant chords.

[Dylan Adams]

Nice thread. I've been trying to get into jazz. Are there any theory sources online that you would recommend? Really appreciate it!

[Michael Stewart]

question for pianists:

How do I comp for other soloists? I feel like I just play the same chord voicings in boring rhythms the whole time.