Jazz harmony

Jazz harmony is the harmonic idiom or harmonies used in jazz. Jazz harmony is a part of Western harmonic practice and similarities between jazz harmony and traditional harmony include; notational techniques (the musical staff, clefs, accidentals etc.), many chord progressions, and the incorporation of many musical scales. Also, jazz harmony stacks major or minor thirds in a similar fashion compared to traditional harmonycite web |title=Stacking Thirds |publisher=How To Play Blues Guitar |date=2008-09-29 |accessdate=2008-10-06 |url=http://how-to-play-blues-guitar.com/jazz-theory/jazz-and-blues-stacking-3rds/] . In jazz harmony, however, certain harmonic progressions are favored and additional tensions are added to chords. Additionally, scales unique to style are used as the basis of many harmonic elements found in jazz. The biggest difference may be the use of seventh chords as the basic harmonic unit more often than triads as in classical music.

In jazz, chord construction is similar to traditional harmony but includes the wider use of 7th chords as well as chords containing compound intervals. Also, the principles of voice leading, the practice of smoothly moving individual notes of one chord to another, are considerably different from traditional harmony.

The piano and guitar are the two instruments which typically provide harmony for a jazz group. Players of these instruments deal with harmony in a real-time, flowing improvisational context as a matter of course. It is one of the biggest challenges in jazz.

In a big-band context, the harmony is the basis for the writing for the horns, along with melodic counterpoint, etc. The improvising soloist is expected to have a complete knowledge of the basics of harmony, as well as their own unique approach to chords, and their relationship to scales. A style of one's own is made from these building blocks, along with a rhythmic concept.

Jazz composers use harmony as a basic stylistic element as well. Open, modal harmony is characteristic of the music of McCoy Tyner, whereas rapidly shifting key centers is a hallmark of the middle period of John Coltrane's writing. Note that the saxophonist wrote all the chords, and the piano player wrote vamps. Horace Silver, Clare Fischer, Dave Brubeck, and Bill Evans are pianists whose compositions are more typical of the chord-rich style associated with pianist-composers. Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charles Mingus, are non-pianists who also have a strong sense of the role of harmony in compositional structure and mood. These composers have a musicianship grounded in chords at the piano, even if they are not performing keyboardists.

The authentic cadence (V-I) is the most important in classical harmony and is also the most important in jazz, though sophisticated through its following a ii/II chord serving as subdominant:

II-V-I audio|Ii-V-I without subV.ogg|Play ii-V-I may appear differently in major or minor keys, "m7"-"dom"-"maj7" or "m7b5"-"domb9"-"minor" [Spitzer, Peter (2001). "Jazz Theory Handbook", p.30. Mel Bay Publications. ISBN 0786653280.] .

The harmonic and Roman numeral analyses of chord progressions are also different. Also included in jazz harmony are diatonic and non-diationic reharmonizations, the addition of the V7(sus4) chord as a dominant and non-dominant functioning chord, major/minor interchange, blues harmony, secondary dominants, extended dominants, deceptive resolution, related II-V7 chords, direct modulations, pivot chord modulations, and dominant chord modulations.

Bebop or "straight-ahead" jazz harmony, in which only certain of all possible extensions and alterations are used, is distinguished from free, avant-garde, or modern jazz harmony.

Chord symbols

Jazz harmony recoginizes four basic chord types, plus diminished seventh chords. The four basic chord types are "major seventh", "minor seventh", "half-diminished"--which is also known as "minor seventh flat five", and "dominant." When written in a jazz "chart", these chords may have "alterations" specified in parentheses after the chord symbol. An altered note is a note which is a deviation from the canonical chord tone.

There is variety in the chord symbols used in jazz notation. A jazz musician must have facility in the alternate notation styles which are used. The following chord symbol examples use C as a root tone for example purposes.

ee also

*Altered chord
*Tritone substitution

Further reading

Nettles, Barrie & Graf, Richard (1997). "The Chord Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony". Advance Music, ISBN: 389221056X

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