Chord-scale system

Last updated July 03, 2024

The chord-scale system is a method of matching, from a list of possible chords, a list of possible scales.^[2] The system has been widely used since the 1970s.^[3]

However, the majority of older players used the chord tone/chord arpeggio method. The system is an example of the difference between the treatment of dissonance in jazz and classical harmony: "Classical treats all notes that don't belong to the chord ... as potential dissonances to be resolved. ... Non-classical harmony just tells you which note in the scale to [potentially] avoid ... meaning that all the others are okay".^[4]

The chord-scale system may be compared with other common methods of improvisation, first, the older traditional chord tone/chord arpeggio method, and where one scale on one root note is used throughout all chords in a progression (for example the blues scale on A for all chords of the blues progression: A⁷ E⁷ D⁷). In contrast, in the chord-scale system, a different scale is used for each chord in the progression (for example mixolydian scales on A, E, and D for chords A⁷, E⁷, and D⁷, respectively).^[5] Improvisation approaches may be mixed, such as using "the blues approach" for a section of a progression and using the chord-scale system for the rest.^[6]

The scales commonly used today consist of the seven modes of the diatonic scale, the seven modes of the melodic minor scale, the diminished scales, the whole-tone scale, and pentatonic and bebop scales.^[7] In the example below featuring C^7♯11 and C lydian dominant every note of the scale may be considered a chord tone^[7] while in the example above featuring A⁷ and A mixolydian the scale is thought of as a 'filling in' of the steps that are missing between members of the chord.^[5] Students now typically learn as many as twenty-one scales, which may be compared with the four scales commonly used in jazz in the 1940s (major, minor, mixolydian, and blues) and the two later added by bebop (diminished and whole-tone) to the tonal resources of jazz.^[8]

Originating with George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1959),^[8] the chord-scale system is now the "most widely used method for teaching jazz improvisation in college".^[9] This approach is found in instructional books including Jerry Bergonzi's Inside Improvisation series^[10] and characterized by the highly influential^[9]Play-A-Long series by Jamey Aebersold.^[2] Aebersold's materials, and their orientation to learning by applying theory over backing tracks, also provided the first known publication of the blues scale in the 1970 revision of Volume 1 ^[11] There are differences of approach within the system. For example, Russell associated the C major chord with the lydian scale, while teachers including John Mehegan, David Baker, and Mark Levine teach the major scale as the best match for a C major chord.^[8]

Miles Davis's Lydian Chromatic Concept-influenced first modal jazz album Kind of Blue , is often given as an example of chord-scale relationships in practice.^[12]

The chord-scale system provides familiarity with typical chord progressions, technical facility from practicing scales and chord arpeggios, and generally succeeds in reducing "clams", or notes heard as mistakes (through providing note-choice possibilities for the chords of progressions), and building "chops", or virtuosity.^[13] Disadvantages include the exclusion of non-chord tones characteristic of bop and free styles, the "in-between" sounds featured in the blues, and consideration of directionality created between the interaction of a solo and a chord progression: "The disadvantages of this system may become clear when students begin to question why their own playing does not sound like such outstanding linear-oriented players as Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt or Johnny Griffin (or, for that matter, the freer jazz stylists)":^[13]

The chord-scale method's 'vertical' approach ... is 'static,' offering little assistance in generating musical direction through the movement of chords. Hence the importance of knowing the older chord tone approach. But ... Swing- and bop-era songforms operate teleologically with regard to harmony. Highly regarded soloists in those styles typically imply the movements of chords ... either by creating lines that voice-lead smoothly from one chord to another or by confounding the harmony pull through anticipating or delaying harmonic resolution.^[14]

Essential considerations of a style such as Charlie Parker's, including "rhythm, phrase shape and length, dynamics, and tone color," as well as "passing tones, appoggiatura, and 'blue notes'" are unaddressed.^[14] This appears to have led educators to emphasize a specific repertoire of pieces most appropriate to the chord-scale system, such as John Coltrane's "Giant Steps", while excluding others, such as Coltrane's later styles of composition, and producing generations of "pattern" players among college-educated musicians.^[14]

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The term blues scale refers to several different scales with differing numbers of pitches and related characteristics. A blues scale is often formed by the addition of an out-of-key "blue note" to an existing scale, notably the flat fifth addition to the minor pentatonic scale. However, the heptatonic blues scale can be considered a major scale with altered intervals.

A jazz scale is any musical scale used in jazz. Many "jazz scales" are common scales drawn from Western European classical music, including the diatonic, whole-tone, octatonic, and the modes of the ascending melodic minor. All of these scales were commonly used by late nineteenth and early twentieth-century composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, often in ways that directly anticipate jazz practice. Some jazz scales, such as the bebop scales, add additional chromatic passing tones to the familiar diatonic scales.

In music, a chord is a group of two or more notes played simultaneously, typically consisting of a root note, a third, and a fifth. Chords are the building blocks of harmony and form the harmonic foundation of a piece of music. They can be major, minor, diminished, augmented, or extended, depending on the intervals between the notes and their arrangement. Chords provide the harmonic support and coloration that accompany melodies and contribute to the overall sound and mood of a musical composition. For many practical and theoretical purposes, arpeggios and other types of broken chords may also be considered as chords in the right musical context.

Lead guitar is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featured guitar, which usually plays single-note-based lines or double-stops. In rock, heavy metal, blues, jazz, punk, fusion, some pop, and other music styles, lead guitar lines are often supported by a second guitarist who plays rhythm guitar, which consists of accompaniment chords and riffs.

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The tritone substitution is a common chord substitution found in both jazz and classical music. Where jazz is concerned, it was the precursor to more complex substitution patterns like Coltrane changes. Tritone substitutions are sometimes used in improvisation—often to create tension during a solo. Though examples of the tritone substitution, known in the classical world as an augmented sixth chord, can be found extensively in classical music since the Renaissance period, they were not heard until much later in jazz by musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in the 1940s, as well as Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge and Benny Goodman.

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Jazz improvisation is the spontaneous invention of melodic solo lines or accompaniment parts in a performance of jazz music. It is one of the defining elements of jazz. Improvisation is composing on the spot, when a singer or instrumentalist invents melodies and lines over a chord progression played by rhythm section instruments and accompanied by drums. Although blues, rock, and other genres use improvisation, it is done over relatively simple chord progressions which often remain in one key.

In music, harmonization is the chordal accompaniment to a line or melody: "Using chords and melodies together, making harmony by stacking scale tones as triads".

This is a glossary of jazz and popular music terms that are likely to be encountered in printed popular music songbooks, fake books and vocal scores, big band scores, jazz, and rock concert reviews, and album liner notes. This glossary includes terms for musical instruments, playing or singing techniques, amplifiers, effects units, sound reinforcement equipment, and recording gear and techniques which are widely used in jazz and popular music. Most of the terms are in English, but in some cases, terms from other languages are encountered.

In music, a passing chord is a chord that connects, or passes between, the notes of two diatonic chords. "Any chord that moves between one diatonic chord and another one nearby may be loosely termed a passing chord. A diatonic passing chord may be inserted into a pre-existing progression that moves by a major or minor third in order to create more movement." "'Inbetween chords' that help you get from one chord to another are called passing chords."

References

↑ Hatfield, Ken (2005). Jazz and the Classical Guitar Theory and Applications, p.121. ISBN 0-7866-7236-6.
1 2 Mervyn Cooke, David Horn (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Jazz , p.266. ISBN 0-521-66388-1.
↑ Spitzer, Peter (2001). Jazz theory handbook, p.115. ISBN 0-7866-5328-0.
↑ Humphries, Carl (2002). The Piano Handbook, p.126. ISBN 0-87930-727-7.
1 2 3 Reed, Scott (2002). Getting Into Guitar Improvising, p.30. ISBN 0-7866-6247-6.
↑ Reed (2002), p.32.
1 2 3 Spitzer (2001), p.43 and 115.
1 2 3 Cooke & Horn (2003), p.123.
1 2 Ake, David Andrew (2002). Jazz Cultures. p.122. ISBN 0-520-22889-8.
↑ "Jerry Bergonzi – books". Advance Music. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved Jul 1, 2009.
↑
- Thibeault, M. D. (2022). Aebersold’s Mediated Play-A-Long Pedagogy and the Invention of the Beginning Jazz Improvisation Student. Journal of Research in Music Education, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00224294211031894
↑ Cooke & Horn (2003), p.192.
1 2 Cooke, Horn (2003), p.267.
1 2 3 Ake (2002), p.126.

Chord-scale system

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