dhbailey wrote:
A-NO-NE Music wrote:
Carl Dershem / 2007/01/11 / 12:17 AM wrote:
These make sense. I really wish more people could/would agree pon
standard ways to notate chords!
Jazz theory is still young, and you will see a few different ways.
However, there is always one best explanation. Only one, which
explanation is most logical. I have spent years to establish so I can
give that best explanation consistently in my classes (boy I miss
teaching classes :-).
But in the end, when we stand on stage, who grooves harder wins :-)
I often get similar questions from my students over various issues of
music theory, usually the questions first arise with the use of double
sharps or double flats or when they learn about enharmonic notes.
I explain that there can't be a single way to notate anything (in this
discussion, chords) because there's always more than one way to arrive
at the same solution.
I then ask the student's parents names -- for this message I'll just
call the student Tom, the father George and the mother Sue and their
last name Smith.
I point out that a person could call the student Tom Smith, or George's
son or Sue's son. Three very different ways to name (define) the
student, all of them correct, all of them naming the very same
individual but with very different perspectives.
The same goes for combinations of notes which we call chords. To try to
force a standard way to notate a chord is to remove the various possible
ways of arriving at that chord or the various situations that chord
might be used in.
While there's some validity to that outlook, within a tonal center and
key signature, there are ways that work better, and ways that, while
interesting in theory and intellectually fascinating, are more opaque to
those whose primary focus is *playing the music*.
If you're in the key of "X", and have a chord that begins on step "Y",
and contains certain intervals, there might be several different ways of
describing it, but finding a clear way of describing it that is
accessible and understandable to everyone is a reasonable goal.
Thus, seeing "A+7-9" is less useful than seeing "A +7 (b9)", and "A7 (b9
b13)". Especially during a gig, with bad lighting.
Clarity is almost always preferable to finding the most 'interesting'
definition.
But what do I know? I've only been doing this for 40 years. :)
cd
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