---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
David Fedoruk <address@hidden>
Date: Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: Lilypond and Jazz chords
To: "Carl D. Sorensen" <
address@hidden>
Hello:
I've seen a number of people talking about the "right" way to name chords used in jazz. The problem is that there is no one right way currently.
Jazz chords come under the classification of performance practice, passed down from teacher to student and from musican to musician over the decades. It is only an approxamation of what chords are actually played.
You can make all the methods and naming schemes you want but in the end, what counts is what jazz musicans themselves are using.
My breif encounters with one person currenty working in the business with a piano jazz trio has told me that he has problems with almost all the current schemes.
The problems all have to do with cllarity and readability. Chord symbols which stretch out horizontally are aproblem because when there are multiple chord changes per bar or changes per beat, it is all but impossible to read beause of the collisions.
The closest to readabilty from the scores or publications I brought with me that day was the ones called "The New Real Book". IT is continuing series of fake books with tunes that are well researched as to which chords are actuallyused. Often the arrangements are ones which the best jazz musicans themselves used.
The system these books use is based upon "Standard chord System Notation" by Brandt and Roemer. The Real series are all well documented in the front of the book with charts and explanations.
However my jazz musican still had quibbles because he thought that the interval alterations should be in a column right beside the chord name. Also that any bass notes should be written as a staight line under the chord name.
That said, it is his opinion, it may carry more weight because he is actually a playing musician.
Remember also that these chord symbols were originally not typeset, but were always hand written into scores by the arrangers. They had their own shorthand.
Another example is Bill Evans "PeriScope" which he scribbled on a small menu from the Village Vanguard.
Perhaps the most we can hope for is a system which is easy enough to manipulate at our level that we can make them look as we wish them to look.
As a pianist who sometimes has to read these lead sheets, my impressions whenI'm at the keyboard are vastly different from when I am simply reading the score. em7flat5 writtin with the flat symbol means more to me when I'nm att the keyboard than a circle with a slash through it. I actually think about only the note I have to alter and not the whole chord. In many cases its just a move of a semitone.
So, my opinion on how these chords should be written has changed as I've had to use them at my instrument. My jazzz musician with the piano jazz trio had never seen the triangle symbol used at all. He said he wouldn't have a clue what to play if he saw that.
We aren't dealing with something for which we have hundreds of years of written and printed scores from which to figure out the "Right" way ... we have only what musicians are doing currently.
The original BerkLee Real Fake book is no longer available, nor are some of the others. These fake books have to have thousands of clearances to be ablel to put these books together as they are and be able to be legally sold.
Since Jazz is actually now taught in some colleges and universities that may be a source of information. I think that today I willl visit my local music store and see how manyh different chord symbol systems I can find.
One comment about the bass notes indicated under the chord name.. apparently it has implications for others who would see that as ann indication of polytonal music. I hadn't heard of that. However, after I've spent a few hours looking through the books I have at home the one thing I did ntoivce was that I had trouble figuring out which was the chord and which was the bass note. Perhaps a soloution is to make that bass note indication smaller than the main chord and still bold it, like the main chord is now. That would make it distiguishable from the chord name and also keep it as distinct from all the other alterations.
Several tunes I found had three altered base nsotes in a row. After playing the tune,, I understood why those notes were indicated, they were really necessary, but they cluttered the score far to much, They could have been made clearer than they were. If I had to sight read that score it would definitely throw me off.
The thing I've come to understand about this problem is that there just isn't a single right answer. There are many systems and Lilypond cannot impliment them all. I think the best solution is to impliment a scheme by which we can tweak the Lilypond system to look and work the way we need it to look.
I'll probably think of more things to say but I think I've said enough for now. My request now, is for flexibility and ease of making the changes I want.
This whole area of notation of Jazz is comparitively new, and undoubtedly will bring up differences of opinion. But one thing I've found is that Jazz is nto that much different that my classical training has taught me. There arealll those altered notes and chromatic chords but all those chords occur in classical music, they just aren't talked about in the same way that jazz musicans do.
cheers,
davidf
--
David Fedoruk
B.Mus. UBC,1986
Certificate in Internet Systems Administration, UBC, 2003
http://recordjackethistorian.wordpress.com
"Music is enough for one's life time, but one life time is not enough for music" Sergei Rachmaninov