Table Of Content

Duke Ellington FOR FINGERSTYLE So Am | Duke Ellington FOR FINGERSTYLE GUITAR ty Steve Hancoff TABLE OF CONTENTS AWFUL SAD COME SUNDAY .... DAY DREAM DROP ME OFF IN HARLEM MISSISSIPPI MOAN MISTY MORNING MOVE OVER REFLECTIONS IND . RENT PARTY BLUES . BLUES OF TI VAGABOND . LAMENT FOR A LOSTLOVE ........ = 86. RE 10 wall Introduction A Note About Chords, So much of the charm snd intelligence of Duke Ellington's music lies in how he moves harmonically inoment to motent, chowd to chord, because there isa consuinus, logical vonnection between exch note and some other note, Thess connections speak to Ellington’ brilliance as an arranger because they often tend to be at the same time both unique and. aller revculing themsolves, obvious snd natural sounding, ‘To me, this is the mark of real genius. They therefore challenge the guitar arranger wo be mindful of ‘sing a similar logic in translating this music to the guitar have always loved playing around with chords. When | fist stared playing the yuitar and would coms actoss a cormplicated chord, say C745 49) or some such, T remember feeling intimidated, not knowing what the chord was about, So L want to demystify that part of chord theory for you sould you so need. hope that writing a few thoughts about chard theory may ant only help you Kear. how lo play these pieces more eusly but abso help you to be able to incorporate the ideas into your playing as you work cout other music. Two Kinds of Chords First, for the purposes of larity and simplicity, let's say thore are only two kinds of chords: tonic and dominant. The subjective difference becween them js This: When you hear a tonie chord, the ear eomnlortubly comes fo rest and the music comes to completion. When you hear a daminanc chord though, the ear wants co move ansay frown i, nol be Lelt hanging there. ‘The objective difference between them is this: A tonée chord as within it no two nates whose ‘efationship iy a Sth; the dominant chord has within it two notes (or four notes, and so on) thal do have a relationship of absth. In [act il was the dissonance ofthis kS relationship that, betiove it or not, impelled ths medioval Catholic Chureh actually ta han the bth ferval, It wa known then as “The Dov’ Iutsrval” and you sure won't e hearing it in Gregorian chants! Chord Extensions ‘The € Seale Extended 103 8 7 9 ose 8 OB CDEFGABCDDDRF G@ G GA AC chord, which is-a major tonic trad, is mate of the notes CEG. or 1 3 5, and eam be said to be extended by adding other uotes to it. These notes ure called extensions bocanse you have added some note or notes beyond the C E.G, or 1 3 5, triad, ‘The mumbets that follow the chords root name denote what olher notes are fo be sounded. Say you add the note B, which isa 7th away from the root C. Since chords ave namned after Uheir farthest extension, you would therefare call it C Major 7. (By conveution, the ward “major” in a chord sigailies the presence of the major 7uh, hence Cmnaj7). Among the notes C FG anc! B, there arc no 55 relationships; it js therefore a tonic chord Now, take the chord C FG and Bs (instesd of B), The notes E and B> have the relationship of a 5, and Bb is the /7Uh wone away from C. Therefore, ches is a dominmt chord, and its name is C7. Nomenclature—The Names of Chords E and Bb ure three whole steps apart (-F4-Gi-A4-Bl); that relationship is called a tritone. Using the tritone like « pivot—that space or relationship around which a chord revalves you can harmonize with any nores your iwayinulion can conjure up. That is, you can construct all of your dominant chords turound Ihe trtone. The resultant name of the chord will basically depend on whieh nates are added, So. say you want to add the notes Gt (because that's the melody note at that moment) and > {because you foe! that creates a pleasing harmony); you have added 1 45 and a 29 to an existing C7 chord. Ic is Ghorefore known ax C7(25, }9), In it there are CE G, the major triad; Bh, che b71h, which, because of its relationship to K, defines the chord as dominant: Ge, Une #5; Db thc 9th, That makes six nates, but because a 45 is called for, usually the natural Sth, G, is abandoned. (Allhough look at measure § in “Day Drcam" for an exception to this rule.) Al five of these remaining notes may or may not be available ac the same time on a guitar. Well, just because a chon can he constructed out ofall of these notes docs not mean fat your car wants to hear them all at the same time Remembering that rules are made to be broken, snd that Duke himself probably broke more rules than ‘myboidy hore isthe general rule: You need the 3rd and 7th (H! and I) tg define the dominance of the chord. You need the 5 and 19 because they are called for explicitly. You now have a manageable fou note chord: E, Bl, Gl and Dr. You might play it like this. CES 9 oma i 131s Now, look at "Day Dream,” measure 26: Finaj? awGsR GIS ‘The melody note is D, and we are moving from I conic 9 G dominanl, D7 is the obvious, if bland, route. Ab7(45, °9) is a beautiful chord substitution. (I'L get to how you do that just a litle Ister.) Wal | ‘want to point out here is this: Onganiziny the notes is not the sole criterion for naming the vhord, IF it ‘were, Unis chord could just as easily be named 1D13(b5, #9). The nomenclalure in part dcrives from a chord’s fanction. In this instance. the feel is chromatic; therefore, [call it an A» dominanl chord moving (0 G, rather than D dominant whose [eel would be more like that af a secondary 7th Here is a very useful lournote chord and good illustration of this principle, i T214 ‘You can sec that, depending an where you arc coming from andor where you want t go, you can think of this chord as C945), L945), 27(-5), or GEO(ES). Try to take each one to ils respevtive tonic chord—E, im, Am, Bind hear how that sounds te you Inversions ‘Which notes vou use is not the only important consideration. There is also the question of what inversion (o play: Inversion means basically what note is on the boltom and what note is on the top. Or mare thoroughly. in whal order frum Jow to high do you play the notes, Or even more rigorously, haw much space is there betwen cach of the notes. After all a C und Db right noxt to cach other (measure 11 in “Come Sunday”) have an entirely different sound than €: and Dea whole Oth apart (aysin measure 8 in “Day Dream"): @-c C4785,b9) C7ES,b9 ]4fr, T itr. + ci i i 1 243 12 43 On the bottom is usually a nole that purposefully emerges from the note (or noles) before itself and lends to the nole (or notes) after itself. ‘That movement is called a bass line, and it tends to ground the chord o let you know where you arc. On the top is usualy the mefody note. The notes in the middle fe the chords ambience, the special flavor of the moment, by virme of how they fill in the harmonic spave between the top and the bottom or conneel the Wp 16 the bottom. The line thus described 1s the ‘immer movement, Now, if you were to add a C in the bass (in order thatthe root nole orient the chord) to our C74, 9) and play it as shown, you would produce a lovely dissonance between the C and the Dr. Just play this, and hear hiow you [eel fed on to some other next chord CHES 9) ‘The Next Chord assume most readers know that C7 tends 19 muve naturally to F or Fm, Previously L mentioned that notes lead to other notes, with Ellington very often chromutically. Let's take our C7(5, 9) and describe sovcral mellifluous and plausible alternatives for the next chord, Keop in mind that you need the melody ‘on top, you may or may not want the tonic on the bottom, and the notes in the middle move according to the inner logic of the harmonic structure of the piece. 1 2 a ‘ C7(45, 49) Fmé or FI3. or F6O Root © tender eo ‘ ® aE leadsto ¥ B F 17 Oh Ioadeto c cA a 1 Dy leadsto D D D 45 Gt leads to A A G C7H5,b9) Fm6 E3 F a aes ft Hy +t re tf f i i 21314 1312, 1 1234 1 234 ‘Taking a closer look at the movement of C7(65, 99) to Fm@: The tis a half-step belaw—called the leading Wu to—L, the new rool: the Bb slides up to C, the new Sth; the Dé raises to D, the new th, ‘which colons the minor triads and the GA, cho new minor 3rd rennin, only now it is called Ab lceause in Fim, @ is flat, Recanse lmé has only our notes, E dropped the movement of the root C, You ean double Up. if you wish, by going to F, the new riot, or staying put on C; the new Sth. Or you van even move up ta Dkr down to B nalural—all kinsls of possiblities tl inlroduce car-calching dissonance for the suke of cvoking specific emotion and finding fascinating resolutions, Aguin, one of the cent wltibutey Eat makes Duke Ellingion’s music so compelling was his commitment to the inner logia of the harmonic structures. In other words, everything makey sense; there ure no rinxlorn nots. How about €7(25, b9) co F13: the C goes to If uguin roal lo roots te Ks, the mew 47th: Bb to A, te new Sn: D> la D. the new 13th; and G= te G, the new 9th. Notice thar the A and the Fb in the F13 chord have the relationship ofS; therellre, we have # new dominant chord that calls out for its awa resolution, But say you want a tonie chord instead, Well, Ihe E> bocomes E, anid now you have F Major?, only with 69 added as further extensions, asin the last chord of “Day Dream.” ®=c Fmaj7($) Sf. Cis 1338 Vy illustrate just how abundant the possibilities are, here are a handfut of othor C7(¢5, b9) « F changes. Note Uhat these ure all more or loss first position chords, They by no means exhaust even first position possibiliti CHH5S.b9) Fmaj7§) junzsal am ie ¢: zt — Er) 234 1244 C9GSYBb FIVA CHES) F7 afr. 113i. _ G { I I 1214 14 1132 CHESVE FI3 C745) Fmaj76y/C icacz3] Ficann] aT) 3h nnn i at i 134 1234 1413 24 CxatsyGt — Fimaj7§V/A f Sir. fauna}