Other than making transcriptions for horn players, it’s good to chart pieces in two ways, one with the bottom staff in treble clef for guitarists, vibes players and others, while the charts with bass clef are for bass players and pianists and musicians who work with grand staff.
In an effort to produce chord symbols to guide an improvising soloist and still accurately represent the written figure, traditional chord symbols, extended chord symbols and modal symbols are used.
The following thoughts are on Ex.1 & 1A notated below (at bottom of page):
In the first bar the chord symbol Dmin6,9 is simply taken from the notes present. It could have a modal name, i.e., D dor or D mel min, but either (and many other harmonies) contain the chord tones yet add different colors. So in this case you want to leave the modal and/or linear choice to the soloists. In other cases you may want to be more specific in terms of the whole modal color.
The next bar has a modal symbol, C lyd#9. Generally this means that even though all seven notes of the mode are not present in the figure, they are implied and are important to the over-all color. Comping (improvising an ac-comp-animent other than the written figure) can consist of any voicings derived from the mode itself.
C lyd#9 – C Lydian with the second/ninth raised a half step, the sixth mode of the Harmonic Minor System – consists of a Cmaj7 chord with #9, #11 and 13. Voicings from this mode have a distinctive color. The improviser can certainly play outside this mode, but it is always in relation to this specific heptatonic color.
Copyright © 1993-2010 Jack DeSalvo
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