Improvising Jazz by Jerry Coker

Author:Jerry Coker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

6

Further Study of Chord Types

Up to this point, we have used only three types of chord structures, the M7, the m7, and the 7 chords. Frequently, for the sake of variety or to harmonize melody notes which are not within one of the preceding chord structures, alternate chords are used. As will be pointed up in Chapter 10, there are three main functional categories of chords, and the three we have taken up so far are the most commonly used chords of each of the families.

In place of a M7, for example, a M6 chord may be substituted. The M6 chord is like the M7 in that it uses a major triad for the bottom three notes, but adds the sixth major scale degree instead of the seventh. A CM6, then, would be spelled C, E, G, A.

If the tune used in an improvisation is in a minor key, then it is necessary to learn a type of minor chord, especially to be used as a tonic minor chord, which differs in sound and construction from the m7 chord. There are two basic examples of this tonic minor sound, the m6 chord and a minor chord with a major seventh (interval), which we will call a m#7 or a m7 (depending on whether it is necessary to use a sharp sign or a natural sign to show how the seventh has been raised). A Cm6 chord would be spelled C, E, G, A, and the Cm7 would be spelled C, E, G, B (not B, as in the Cm7).

Sometimes a m7 chord may be replaced by a half-diminished seventh chord (ø7) which differs from the minor seventh chord only in that the fifth is lowered a half step. A Cø7 chord, instead of being spelled C, E, G, B (Cm7), is spelled C, E, G, B.

A C or a C+ may often be used in place of a C7; they are spelled C, E, G, B, and C, E, G#, B respectively, rather than C, E, G, B.

All the newly given alternate chords may be used in place of their given and more common chord family member (M7, m7, or 7) quite freely, sometimes depending upon the harmonization of a given melody. A summary of the families is given below.

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