Theory & Impro Help: Jazz-up this little song

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RiceBag

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Dear friends,

I thank all for the good help afforded elsewhere, and I am improving/correcting my old, self-imposed ways of playing.

I've went to various web-pages, in particular some videos on Jazz lessons, but since I play by ear songs that I like or know, I find that practically I know no Jazz songs, although I enjoy what I hear. Songs like Satin Doll, that I found on the web, are too unfamiliar to me.

A way that works for me is to start with simple songs that I am familiar with.

So, could some one please Jazz-up this little song, which I will then practice till I get it? Then, I'm sure I will improve by trying other songs I know.

If more than one reply, great! That way I will check them all out, no matter how advanced they be. I mean to learn, and do count on persistance.

It's about things like sevenths, and diminished chords,
or other substitutions.

==========================
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
--------------------------------
C F C
Twinkle, twinkle little star.

F C G C
How I wonder what you are.

C F C G
Up above the world so high,

C F C G
Like a diamond in the sky.

C F C
Twinkle, twinkle little star.

F C G C
How I wonder what you are.
=========================

Bowing in appreciation already.
 
Always up for a challenge, here's my little effort:
I've notated it with one chord per syllable.

==========================
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
--------------------------------
Cmaj7, Cmaj7/B, Am9, G dim7, Fmaj7, B7b9 b5, Cmaj7,
Twinkle, twinkle little star.

Dm7, Eb dim7(9), Em7, A7b9, Dm7b5, G7b9, C6,
How I wonder what you are.

Cmaj9, Cmaj9, Dm7, Dm7, Em7, D9b13/F#, G9, (Db9),
Up above the world so high,

A7sus, A7sus, Eb69, Eb69, D9b13, D9b13, Db9
Like a diamond in the sky.

Cmaj7, Ab9, Fmaj9, B9b13, Bbmaj9, Bbmaj9/F, Ebmaj7,
Twinkle, twinkle little star.

Dm7b5, Gm7b5/Db, C6, Db dim7, Dm7b5, G7b9, Abmaj7....
(resolving to).....C69.
How I wonder what you are.
=========================

It might not be the simplest of arrangements but I wanted to demonstrate some variety where possible. In short, all I've done is experiment with chords which contain the melody note, whilst listening for interesting movement in the bass notes or between the chords. It's then just coloured with whatever extensions I felt worked best.

Have a go for yourself and I'm sure you'll learn a lot more. 😉
 
Dear Colin,

Thank you so much!

Yes, this I am sure will help me vary/improve my understanding and playing of this song. Certainly I will manage to relate it to other things I know.

Your explanation is clear and to the point, but providing an mp3 is really icing on the cake!

I am humbled and greatfull for your philanthropy, which is also evident in your website and activity, both admirable and highly commendable.

With ears pointing to the floor in appreciation,

Rice Bag.




😉
 
I got it all downloaded and have been over it a few times.

I will eventually try it also in the guitar, in which I have an even larger dilemma of not knowing (for not ever caring-to), where the notes are. But I'm resolving some of that too.

That's one thing I like about the piano, which is probably much easier for that. I am also researching about saxophones, but that's way over myself right now.

I know that music is like escalating a mountain, but the peak raises as one moves up, or lowers if one declines.

As to your developing further, please do, even if it sounds great already to me.

Furthermore, if you ever get the mp3 to be a MIDI file that you wish to share, where one can play it, evenn in different scale key, vary the tempo, AND see the keys being struck, that'd be, I feel very useful to many of us.

Lacking a musical teacher due to the situation, MIDI is, for me, an outstanding didactic tool.

Many thanks, again. 🙂
 
Of course, yes a MIDI file would be useful for some. Give me a moment and I'll sort that out.

Thanks for your comments Sam. I was tempted to leave the ending hanging on the Ab maj7 but it would be difficult to sleep after hearing that! 😛
 
Colin, I think that I would like to take this opportunity to say WOW!!!

I have been watching this thread develop, and I have to say that I think you deserve an award for selfless effort for a fellow roomie
Not only have you jazzed up the said piece, you recorded it as well.! But that was not enough for you. Oh no... You answered the request of Mr Ricebag and produced the score on PDF file and produced the MIDI as well........ 8) 8) 8)

If only there we more people like you on this planet....Life would be so much better
Thank you for your efforts 😉
 
I am overwhelmed with Colin's kindness as well!

I just saved (as a treasure) these two more gems, and have already played the MIDI through the old MU-100 synth.

Gosh, it felt like a miracle in telekinesis to hear Colin play right here! 😱

If spirits can fly, this must be it, indeed.

Thanks so much Colin, and every one. 🙂
 
Just out of interest colin, why did you use an AbMaj7 at the end? I've never heard of that substitution but I noticed it sounded sweet when i listened to it. Also thanks for the Score, ill try and voice the chords for the guitar when I get time
 
Late night Sam? 🙂

Ab Maj7 = Nothing more than it sounded good to me, Sam - the same as all the other chords really. :S It had the final melody note in the chord, so I tried it quite early on in my noodlings and decided that was how I wanted to end. It was then just a case of trying to make the final few chords lead into it.

I'm aware of certain substitutions but most of the time I just use my ears and play around with anything that 'could' be used. This method tends to lead me into 'happy accidents' more often than using only my theoretical knowledge, which would probably have me sticking to II-V-I progressions all the time.

I'd still be interested to hear what anyone else comes up with. There must be any number of ways you could re-harmonise this tune.
 
Good effort Sam. Just goes to show how many options there are.

I particularly liked lines 4 and 5, though I would perhaps have avoided landing on a root chord at the end of a line, as you kind of expect a cadence there. You could turn it round though and use that last chord as a modulation into another key.

Try this, just for fun:
Bb/C (or C7sus) as the last chord in line 4, followed F Maj9, which then leads nicely into your Bb13?

Just a thought. A useful exercise though, isn't it? 🙂
 
Hi again dea fiends,

And Sam, thank you vey much for your vesion, which I will study and compare.

Due to my lack of musica formality (no actual education there), it can take me a while to make meaning of some things, for I do strive for that.

In paticular I do find the MIDI most useful, for I can freeze the view and then chord them myself with my little keyboard, right into some softwares I use, both to play and learn.

There may be some sllight differences from Colin mp3 to the MIDI, but they are irrelevant to me, for I am after the basics.

As to the ending on Colins MIDI, and in generral to what I have been gatheiring on Jazz voicings, the actual perceived sound has a lot to do often with a single note at the right place, and a bass note can modify the chord in a subtle way.

In the MIDI, I believe Colin plays left hand single bass notes, and 4 tone chords with the right.

For the ending chord, when I voice in my little keyboard ONLY the right hand, my software here says it's an A7sus4 chord, which sounds great by itself.

But when adding the bass note , a C, the overall chord is read as an Am7(11), which also sounds great.

However, I know from having used this software, and others, that sometimes they can vary/differ, but for me all of this not of much matter, due to my beginner level into jazz voicings.

As to versions of arranging this particular melody, I read that Mozart made three variations on this theme, whereby some think he composed the original. Surely a known fact to most of you, but for me all this bits of sotry uphold my not small wish to learn, even if little.

It takes me a long time to go over these things, also, because with just two new chord sequences I spent lots of hours as I play them over things with which I am familiar, and, indeed, it's another thing, vey very nice, and enjoyable.

I love what I would call the 'ambiguity' of Jazz chords. It also seems to me that it actually helps a vocalist in his singing, because they are 'tolerant' and accomodating, rather than the usual strict conventional chords I find in songs, and have been used to for so long.

All this is very interesting and valuable to me.

Thanks a lot, geat good people.
 
Yes, don't take those software generated chord readouts/translations too literally RB. The last chord is indeed voiced as an A7sus in the right hand but the C in the bass changes this to C69 (a C major triad (C,E,G) with both a 6th (the A) and 9th (the D) added).

All the notes are the same as those contained in Am7(11) and indeed it could be seen as a first inversion of that chord but it's usually easier to describe chords by their root (bass) note where possible.

But I guess that's precisely why some chords can sound so ambiguous - because they could equally be other chords (which use the same notes) in a different voicing.

You will also find later on that, especially in modal jazz, the voicings become even more ambiguous. Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and others very often voice chords built on 4ths. So a Dm7 might be voiced as: D,G,C in the left hand and E,A,D in the right - I love that sound and you can move it around (up or down a tone or semitone) whilst comping in that key - instant jazz!

Thelonious Monk is another one of my heroes, who would often just play C and C# (a semitone apart) and call it C# Maj7 - to hell with all the other notes! Deliciously simple - quirky but fabulous. 8)
 
You will also find later on that, especially in modal jazz, the voicings become even more ambiguous. Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and others very often voice chords built on 4ths. So a Dm7 might be voiced as: D,G,C in the left hand and E,A,D in the right - I love that sound and you can move it around (up or down a tone or semitone) whilst comping in that key - instant jazz!
-Colin-
----------------

Amen to the above, dear Colin!

What a coincidence. I have been almost non-stop for days reseaching jazz (after being motivated by you all here).

I did find what you say about fourths relating so nicely and conveniently to Jazz chord playing, and so just got happily familiar with this and have been studying this ideas all day long today, and it's got me hooked.

It's about, I gather, sharing a chord between the left and right hands, based on keys 5 semitones away from each other, with some rather clear exceptions. Now the right hand usually builds down, and the left hand often abbreviates chords. That is much of the type of sound I kept hearing and could never figure out untill a few days ago (only a pinch, of course). Those 4th chords are really beautiful!

Also, I am going to hook a sustain pedal to my keyboard, for I now see how important it is to emphasize chord changes linking them with a single bass note, for instance.

By the way, the mp3 piano sound is great. Based on the MIDI legend, it'd be a Bosendorfer? Sampled or real?

Congrats and thanks!
 
ye, what your saying about 4th's is bascially quartal chords.

I find it interesting how they only came about in the 50's cool jazz era as a reaction to bebop. They were mainly used to give a "spread out" sound and are great to improvise over.
 
Hi dear Sam,

and thanks for the information. It does seem to me that the chord, as you say, spreads out, and kind of leads to the melody. Very often not like I would play it, in my old, yet to ovecome, limited way, but in ways that do sound very nice, often hard for me to believe.

I also congratulate you on your current endevor of formal musical education and wish you great achievements. I am sure the joy is already there, from reading your messages.

Also, Colin, I don't have ears really to identify piano models, It's just that the mp3 sounds so much better than what I hear on my setups, and also, as said, the MIDI file does have a legend within the file says "Bosendorfer". I can't even spell the name if it was not for copy/paste.

I have read about them, though, that they are of the best, and that's why I asked if that was it or a sample.

But the info on what software you used, is good to know. I can't justify it, but other readers may care. It really sounds great, regardless of what it is, though.

Best wishes to everyone. 🙂
 
Also, Colin, I don't have ears really to identify piano models...the MIDI file does have a legend within the file says "Bosendorfer". I can't even spell the name if it was not for copy/paste.
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Haha, I missed that! :laugh:
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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