Most of the backing tracks on Aebersold's Volume 2 Nothin' But Blues are fairly straightforward, though very jazzy, blues with only a few chord substitutions in the V IV transition area that can mostly be ignored by a harp soloist using the blues scale. The second track titled Modal Blues is a bit less clear to me. The I chord is C7. Bars 5 and 6 use an Eb. This IV chord position is usually my indicator of which harp to play in second position. Of course usually in C an F harp would be used. I don't own an Eb harp so was wondering if it would be more suitable than F in this situation? Thanks!
Bars 1-4 are C7, bars 5-6 are Eb7, bars 7-8 are C7, bar 9 is D7+9, bar 10 is G7+9 and bars 11-12 are C7. So the last 4 bars are a form of II V I to the turnaround.
Just because the four chord is substituted doesn't change the key of the song. You are playing in C since the one chord is C7. In second position, that's indeed an F harp.
Would these changes better suit playing in another position? That's a good question and it depends on you. But if you arr relying on what the four chord is to pick your harp, that doesn't work if you are sticking to second position and the chord has been subbed. ----------
An F harp will serve here -- if you don´t, like I, find them a bit squeky. Myself I´d probably use a Bb (3 pos).
An Eb harp will give you 4 pos; could be a bit troublesome with the root note a double bend in the first octave, DD3. Perhaps no bigger problem if you´re "advanced" but otherwise i wouldn´t recommend.
Andrew's point about the IV substitution not changing the key of the song was my disconnect. The F harp sounds fine over the Eb IV chord. At the same time I like the concept Frank mentions about switching to an Ab harp for the Eb bars. Just need more money, an extra pair of hands and possibly more internal computing power. Thanks to all for clarifying this for me. By the way, the last track in this collection is called Bird's Blues. Lots of chords, typically Charlie Parker, but the standard 12 bar can be seen lurking underneath and it's very happy to have usual second position harp soloing overtop. Overall effect is jazzy but most of the work is done by the chords and bass.
Last Edited by on Jan 13, 2013 7:25 AM
I actually find his second position playing fits the jazz backing track really well.
It may seem complicated but he really breaks it down to make sense. While I don't think 11th position (G harp played in the key of F) is something you want right now, you can see how he maps some really key blues licks in second position to a different key harp in 11th. You can do the same with third position.
Maybe you can try taking a Bb harp as Martin suggests and play a lick on your F harp and make it sound the same on the Bb. The root note in the one draw and the four draw in third position instead of being the 2 draw and 6 blow. ----------
Without getting too far into the deep end of the theory pool it's interesting that the notes of the substitute IV Eb7 are the same as the V chord's root, b3 and b5.
To think of this progression as C7 major blues moving up to Eb7 may be just off center.
It is modal....hinting back to Miles Davis' new direction in music (Kinda Blue milestone, etc).
The Modal C chord is more in a minor direction - for instance, one voicing (of many) for this modal "C" on a piano (spelled out from low to high) might read "C, F, Bb, Eb, G".
Notice that in this voicing, no tritone relationship exists. This is one argument against this C as being a dominant 7 chord.
If you have a keyboard handy, go sit down and play the "C, F" with your left hand in the octave below middle "C" and your right hand play the "Bb, Eb, G" surrounding middle "C". Play both hands together and listen to the chord voicing as it hangs in the air. It has a specific "color".
To get a little deeper into this and also to approach it from a different perspective, think of the right hand as playing an Eb chord in 3rd inversion while the left hand is really defining a Csus (C, F) - the interval of a fourth.
The sound of this voicing kinda floats in the air and doesn't suggest a movement towards another tonal center (as a C7 gives tension and pulls one towards resolution of an F chord).
This is Modal....chord without movement towards or away from anything else. Miles experimented with this direction, as even this one simple chord outlined above can just float or exist on its own for many measures.
This created a new challenge for jazz musicians at that time who were used to working off of changes of the chord to find ideas. As a matter of fact, be-bop musicians had gone in the direction of injecting lots of changes per measure, sometimes a change per each beat and playing off the different chords.
Without the changes, musicians had to approach soloing in a new way....how do you keep your musical ideas interesting without using the changes as a basis (or crutch) to keep moving forward. Most found that they quickly ran out of ideas using this old mind set and longed for the chord to change so they could continue.
It forced them to try new directions in creativity.
To those of you with a little more advanced musical interest in this arena, go back and play the "C" voicing as outlined above.
Now, move each note outlined for both hands up consistently one whole step (left hand plays "D, G" while right hand is now playing an F chord in second inversion).
Next, go back to the original voicing. It becomes real easy as you realize that you can, in a sense, lock your fingers in position and just move both hands back and forth one whole step.
Listen to the sonic effect. It's really the same "C" chord, but now you have a bit more interest and movement going on.
If you have a bass player or access to creating low "C" drone note to play constantly, keep the Low "C" going on the bass while you alternate these two voicings above it - once again, listening to the effect and colors.
Now....after you've moved both hands up a whole step, keep them locked and go up another 1/2 step.
Once you get it and stop freaking out about playing a wrong note, relax and play these three voicings up and down over that droning "C" in the bass.
This is your entry into Modal Jazz (or Modal Blues as Abersold calls it). Getting the sound into your head.
The choice of notes you may use to solo within this "sound" is almost limitless, but since you gotta start somewhere, the half-diminished (half tone/whole tone scale starting on "C") approach works great.
Last Edited by on Jan 13, 2013 1:14 PM
Now, when Abersold moves up to the Eb, just move the same voicings you are getting used to playing up a minor third and repeat that movement.
The turn around on D and G play with the alternating of a -9 and a +9 voicing for each chord, almost to the point that you can't really define it exactly by one or the other. This is how modal jazz works. It breaks a lot of the preconceived notions of how music worked up till that point....
Heady stuff, indeed, but strangely attractive and addictive to those wishing to move into a new universe of possibilities. ---------- The Iceman
Last Edited by on Jan 13, 2013 9:19 AM
If that half-diminished scale is a bit beyond your comprehension at this point (after all, it contains that "major 3rd note played over a quasi-minor chord" stuff that was discussed in another thread), you can also find another scale with fewer notes that also works great.
It is a simple major diatonic scale.
"Now, which note do you assign to the tonic" you may asketh.
Sayeth The Iceman, "It is simply one whole step below the key (at any given time for this particular modal starting point).
In this example, the first 4 measures are based on "C", so your tonic for this particular scale would be "Bb", a whole step below C.
Another perspective is that this same scale can be thought of as a C minor scale for the 1st half with a C7 chord for the second half. Lower end has the minor third, upper half has the dominant seventh.
In this case, you would just use as your tonic that original "C" used for the first four measures of this example.
Both approaches lead to exactly the same note sequence.
It doesn't matter which one you choose, so go for the one that is easiest for you to comprehend.
This is the way music works.
I like to think of a scale as notes that are strung together with their own sequence of half and whole notes.
If you imagine them like pearls on a string that is hung from the ceiling like a mobile, it doesn't matter if you look at them from below, above, or from any angle. The notes are exactly the same, but you may describe them from any vantage point you choose.
In music theory, the more ways you can look at the same sequence of notes from different angles and understand your view, no matter from where you start, you begin to build a larger understanding of how all this stuff is put together. ---------- The Iceman
Last Edited by on Jan 14, 2013 4:41 AM
I didn't download from that site that I showed the link to...I just used it to free listen to a snippet of the song being discussed so I would be on the same page as the original poster.
All I needed was a once through of the progression to know what was on the cut.
Hope my link wasn't a suggestion that people should download from this site.... ---------- The Iceman
