music is movement not chords

[diverse379]

When we look at a song book or fake book lead sheet

we see chords which implies vertical structure
which will and can work. in getting the basic song down but dont stop there.

 when you look at how jazz was taught back bef0re we were born
it was taught melodically
classical music also began first with melody

our western music comes from a combination of
classical and african idioms


so why do we now tend to focus on chords
instead of melodic movement

it seems that in the traditional theory schools
the 2 5 1 is taught
first as the basic frame work.
or perhaps classical schools teach 1 4 5 as the basic framework

but when you go to a good conservatory such as Aaron Copeland.
 
they at least teach you figured bass and counterpoint training.
choral writing

which is when you first begin to see how music classical music was written linearly

the first jazz writers who came from Europe knew figured bass
so they wrote using this concept.

figured bass is more exacting than the typical chord chart
although modern chord chart writers
will include slash chords and poly chords

but even these do not really help the player get exact

True Figured bass provides you with the exact inversion. as well as added outside melodic treatment
so that your chordal movement flows melodically from left to right.

if you want to hear a master at this stuff check out Barry Harris
listen to his treatment of londenderry Air
he also has instructional Dvds
you can check out some of his concepts as taught by him on youtube

if you really want to learn beautiful movement
the type of movement we as Gospel keyboardist strive for

do yourself a favor and check out any one of the four mehegan books

you should get book one if you dont know anything about the number system

when you play through these examples you can hear a lot of movement

if you go to soundcloud
and type
churchplayer379
and listen to Teddy Wilson practice

you will hear my ATTEMPT
at playing one of these figured bass examples

I do a poor job but you can hear how the melodic movement is captured.

for more information on what I am talking about
check out Barry HArris

he was doing all these movements way before Gospel cats picked up on it.
and he still has the real theory and science behind how it all works

and he teaches improvisation before theory.

but his improvistation is chordally structured
so that by the time you get to the harmony
you already have a strong melodic foundation and will naturally begin making the chords move linearly

if this information is interesting
please comment so that I know that I am not wasting my time

[jonesl78]

Great post as usual!  I'l check out some your recommendations.

In regards to music structure as it relates to notation, I have always broken music into three categories: Chord chart, Lead sheet, and the sheet music with both clefs. You must be a pretty smart guy because the only people that mention figured bass are college academia personnel.

 

[diverse379]

Thanks for your reply

I studied figured bass in the Mehegan books

and found it really helps with playing and learning gospel and transposing.

I did a little when i was in conservatory.

But dropped out in my second year.