trouble dealing with changes

Larry Smithee · Heavyweight Member Joined: 11 Nov 2001 Posts: 4399

Hi,
I am currently trying to learn to play the changes to Thad Jones' "Three And One" tune. Thing is this tune should be a piece of cake to play, but for me it's nothing but trouble. I'm fumbleing all over myself. And the part that's really messing me up is that second 4 bars...you know, where the changes go briefly around the circle of 5ths beginning on A7, D7, G7, ending with C7 before it moves to that little blues sounding 4 bars beginning on FMaj followed by a turn around back to the beginning FMaj. If any of you can give me some advice I would much love to hear from you.
Larry Smithee

Martin · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2002 10:01 pm Post subject:

Larry,

whenever I come across a set of changes I have a hard time with, I try to find a way to get over them with as little notes as possible to get a feeling where the chord progression is going.
The easiest way would be to find the "lowest common denominator", i. e. a note which fits all of the chords. In your case, this could be a D or a G or... Hold it, play it staccato, toy around with the phrasing - you get the idea.
Or you find a nice simple melody which fits - in your case, for instance, C# (A7), C (D7), B (G7), Bb (C7) - easy to play and sounds like you´ve completely mastered the changes.
Once you are more familiar with the progression, you can use these notes as starting points for more elaborate statements.
Remember: Don´t rush, take your time, less is more, don´t be afraid to take rests, yada yada yada

.
"Only play what you hear." - Art Farmer (I think...)
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All the best

Martin
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"I have found that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played." - Arvo Pärt

Pedro · Heavyweight Member Joined: 26 Nov 2001 Posts: 539

Great post and suggestions Martin! One other thing that I often do when confronted with this issue is that I will sometimes embelish or otherwise toy around with restating a part of the "Head" and perhaps accompany that with use of space. Can't tell you how many times this has saved me!

mistrad37 · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2002 11:37 am Post subject:

Once when you get the notes that are somewhat constant throughout the changes throw in a little chromaticism. No matter what note you are on, you can make your lick sound really cool by going DOWN on the chromatic scale to the root or third of the next chord.

Larry Smithee · Heavyweight Member Joined: 11 Nov 2001 Posts: 4399

Thanks guys. I'm working your ideas out. I've got a jazz recital comming up soon. Thanks again for the help. I also posed the question to one of our music faculty who said another possiblility is that where the progression goes A7, D7, G7, C7...to use a tri-tone substitution on everyother chord. Therefore the progression becomes Eb7, D7, Db7, C7, or A7, Ab7, G7, F#7. This combined with the original porgression really opens up some possibilities.
Larry Smithee

Quadruple C · Heavyweight Member Joined: 28 Nov 2001 Posts: 1448

[ This Message was edited by: Quadruple C on 2003-09-29 14:14 ]

I Jazz 24 7 · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2002 7:01 pm Post subject:

The A7, D7, G7, C7 is just a set of two-fives. The first set (A7-D7) is in G and the second set (G7-C7) is in F. (usually a two-five goes minor to major but i don't think it has to, but i could be wrong) Generally you can play the one over the two-five. So if you aproach it as two bars of G7 and then two bars of F7 it should sound good. As you begin to mature in your solos you may want to start outlining those chords better. I don't know your ability so i couldn't really tell you what the best route would be. Hope this helps somewhat.

Brad
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"when it sounds good it IS good" - Duke Ellington