Jean wrote:
OK, folks, I "lurk," and sometimes for years. But, as a "sort of
professional" Bass player (String Bass for a 16 piece "Big Band,"
and Eb Tuba for a
Dixieland Band) this topic of how to "write" chord symbols sure hits nerves.
However, my point is that WHY can't y'all agree on ONE name for each chord?
Why several names, regardless of your "musical point of view?"
Just hoping somehow, some way, the folks who arrange and publish and sell
arrangements for the more mundane music could make life on the stage
a lot easier
if they could manage to AGREE on ONE name for ONE chord.
Hi, Jean. I feel your pain!! Someone commented that jazz theory is
pretty young. I look at it a little differently.
Any living language is constantly changing, partly in response to
fashion changes, partly in response to fads, partly because words
fall out of use or take on new meanings, and partly because new
things happen and new words are needed to describe them.
The language of chord symbols is just such a living language. It
originated with the Tin Pan Alley music publishers, who wanted to
make their sheet music attractive to the largest public, so they
added either guitar boxes, ukulele boxes, or banjo boxes giving the
chord changes, but since they couldn't give all 3, they also added
chord symbols.
They were pretty crude in the years between, say 1900 and 1920 or
'30. The chords that turned up the most often--like major triads and
dominant 7ths--got the simplest symbols. And as pop music and jazz
gradually evolved and changed, new, more complex symbols had to be
adopted involving modifiers and extensions. Sometimes the harmonies
that were used were more complex than the available symbols. Richard
Rodgers' music is full of chord symbols that spell out the right hand
notes, but don't properly identify the chords because they ignore
what the bass notes have to say about the harmonies. (The old "is it
an added 6th chord or a minor 7th" question.) The fraction notation
didn't exist until songwriters like Burt Bacharach (and undoubtedly
jazz composers as well) started using chord structures like
subdominant chord over dominant bass note in the '60s. For years it
was common to write "add 9" when what you really wanted was "add 2"
without adding the 7th.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I AM NOT A JAZZ GUY, AND I
AM NOT A MUSIC THEORIST! With that said, however, I've been
arranging and using chord symbols for many years. My impression,
with Hiro's comments and those of others, is that they are indeed
moving farther and farther away from the basics, and trying to
specify every last aspect of a chord, which sort of inevitably calls
a LOT more attention to the extensions than to the basic chord.
A parallel can be drawn with the figured bass of the 17th and 18th
centuries. (This, by the way, is a no-longer-living language, but
one that served for generations to solve exactly the same problems
that were faced in 20th century pop and jazz.) They didn't really
NEED to cram so many figures in and try to give a number for every
single passing tone, but modern editors tend to do exactly that, and
for a good player it's simply overkill. I think that probably
describes the confusion you're complaining about, as well. A good
player just needs the basics, and his or her musicianship takes over
from there and the fingers create music that's MUCH better than I
could have written!
As David Bailey pointed out in his very well thought out response,
no, there isn't going to be any Academy of Chord Symbols to lay down
the law, because it's a living and changing language and too many
people would ignore it, as they properly should. So just use the
ears God gave you and play what belongs there without worrying about
the hyper-specialists and the things that turn them on. There are
always going to be chord changes that are ambiguous, and different
people are going to interpret them differently. And without that
freedom, music would be BORING!!!
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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