Monday, 13 February 2017

Music in Theory; Functionality of Rootless Chords

This is the third post in a series of specific posts where I just talk about my passion for music theory, different exercises and things that i've thought up that may shed light on something or somethings that musicians are either struggling with or else it's a completely new subject to them or opens a completely different door to them musically.
If I can inspire my fellow musicians as much as they inspire me, then I can die happy.
so here goes.
Lesson 3 in the aptly named: Music in Theory


Functionality of Rootless Chords

Voicing?

Ok so, before I go diving head first into everything about rootless chords, there is one small term that I want to shed light on so that no one gets lost or confused and that is the term 'voicing' or 'chord voicing' and what is meant by it.
If we take a simple triad chord for example, C major, nice and simple. we know the notes of the C major chord are the root, C, the major third, E and the perfect 5th, G.
The term chord voicing refers to how those notes are arranged, which notes are at the bottom, which are doubled up etc.
For Example; CGCE, GCE, CGECEG are all different voicings of the C Major chord.

With that basic shit out of the way lets bang on to craziness. Mwuhahaha.

Rootless Chord Voicings

Rootless Chord voicings, sometimes referred to as Bill Evans chord voicings since he was a pioneer of the inventive interpretation of harmony that gave way for rootless chords, are effectively a chord without the root.
The End.
Bye - Bye.

I'm kidding. There is slightly more to it than that. Primarily, a Rootless chord will be a variation or an alteration in flavor of a chord, Usually a chord with a 7th degree in it, such as a Dominant 7, Major 7 or Minor 7, as opposed to a triad.

Bill Evans, being absolutely rad with his mad harmony

The root is removed from the chord, and an additional degree is added, usually the 9th, 11th or 13th.
A simple example would be, say we have a G min7 chord. The notes of which are G, Bb, D and F.
I want to remove the root and add the 9th of G min7; which then gives me Bb, D, F and A, which is our rootless chord.

Rootless chords arent particularly jarring in sound, some inversions of the chord will be more than others, but with the lack of a root, the chord does have a sense of ominousness or ambiguity to it.

If you are good with your chord theory you probably would have noticed that Bb, D, F and A are also the notes of Bb maj7.
likewise, if we start with  a G min7 b5 chord, the notes Bb, Db, F and A are also common to a Bb min maj7 chord.
Therefore, by removing the root, you are allowing the chord to evolve into something else momentarily, which serves as variation for the tonal quality of the chord you are playing.

The Key is harmony.
When the Bass is playing the root of a G min7, and the guitarist plays Bb, D, F and A it can sound bomb as fuck.

Other uses of the rootless chord rule is of course for soloing and improvisation. you may choose to apply a rootless voicing over a 251 progression.

I prepared an example of a Funk lick played over a rootless G dominant 9 chord which you can find below:


The ambiguity of the chord voicing comes across in the note choice, in this case using the Major 3rd, flat 7th, major 9th and Perfect 5th. (it also includes an odd passing note which is the major 6th).




If you'd like to check out better uses of rootless chord voicings, my best recommendation would be listening to Bill Evans' work.
Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961) by the Bill Evans is renowned for being one of the best live jazz albums of all time, and features the late great Scott LaFaro on Bass duties. 









Monday, 6 February 2017

Music in theory; a Question of Polymeters

This is the second in a new series of specific posts where I just talk about music theory, different exercises and things that i've thought up that may shed light on something or somethings that musicians are either struggling with or else it's a completely new subject to them or opens a completely different door to them musically.
If I can inspire my fellow musicians as much as they inspire me, then I can die happy.
so here goes.
Lesson 2 in the aptly named: Music in Theory


A Question of Polymeters

ok so last time I covered a lot about polyrhythms and kind of explained what they are in a nutshell.
We decided that, a polyrhythm is effectively different rhythms happening in the same bar, they are simultaneous and line up, starting and finishing at the same time.
A polymeter however is when different instruments play in different meters and come in and out of synchronization with eachother.

Today we're going to look at how that works.

Once again, i've prepared a sample track. I'd advise clicking the link below and getting the track into your ears before we progress any further.

https://soundcloud.com/craig-mccomish/a-study-in-audiosynthesis-polymeter/s-Ti4uC

Description

Ok so, for the first section, we hear 10 bars of a 3/4 rhythm at a tempo of 150 bpm .
This is the first rhythm we need to worry about and the beats we hear are "1, 2, (and) 3" with an accent on beat 1.
Simple, straight forward. Uncomplicated.

After those 10 bars, we hear a second rhythm. the Tempo is still static, 150bpm but the meter has now extended to hold two additional beats, becoming a 5/4 meter. The beats we are hearing are "1,2,3,4,5" with an accent on beat 1 and a second accent on beat 4.

Then, we hear both these rhythms playing at the same time. This is our Polymeter.

Both meters have the same tempo and start on the same beat; their respective beat 1.
This will of course mean, that the 3/4 rhythm will hit it's beat 1 again before the 5/4 rhythm.
So the second bar of 3/4 starts on beat 4 of the 5/4 meter.
The Meter's Movement is broken down below;



As you can see from the above diagram, both meters start on the same beat on the left hand side but then drift out of synchronization.
And towards the right hand side, we can see that the two rhythms have drifted back in sync.

Conclusion

We can now differentiate between a polyrhythm and a polymeter by remembering a simple rule.

Polyrhythm = Two Rhythms of different Tempo starting and finishing together in the same bar.
Polymeter = Two Rhythms of the same Tempo, starting together and drifting in and out of sync with eachother.

So, is there a simple way to figure out how many bars it will take for the two rhythms of a polymeter to drift back in sync?
There is.
Using simple maths, it will take the above rhythm of 3/4 and 5/4 exactly 15 beats to rectify itself.

3 by 5 = 15, which also means it will take exactly 3 bars of 5/4 for the rhythm to synchronize with the adjacent 3/4 rhythm, and
It will take exactly 5 bars of 3/4 for the rhythms to synchronise.

So simply put, you multiply the two meters together to find the number beats until the rhythms meet on beat 1.

As always guys I hope you found this helpful, Thanks for reading and let me know in the comments if there is anything you want me to cover next time.


Sunday, 5 February 2017

Music in Theory: 5/4 4/4 polyrhythmic exercise

I feel like this is going to be a new series of specific posts where I just talk about music theory, different exercises and things that i've thought up that may shed light on something or somethings that musicians are either struggling with or else it's a completely new subject to them or opens a completely different door to them musically. If I can inspire my fellow musicians as much as they inspire me, then I can die happy.
so here goes.
Lesson 1 in the aptly named: Music in Theory


The 5/4 4/4 Polyrhythmic Exercise


ok so first up. what is a polyrhythm? what is a polymeter? are they related? did they go to school together? are they sleeping together?

A polyrhythm is effectively different rhythms happening in the same bar, they are simultaneous and line up, starting and finishing at the same time. a polymeter however is when different instruments play in different meters and come in and out of synchronization with eachother.

We're only going to worry about polyrhythms right now though. so the exercise will consist of 2 rhythms that will start and finish with eachother just to show how a polyrhythm works.

before we progress, hit play on this link so you can listen to the track. I'll begin to break it down in the next section.


Description

ok so, the first 9 bars. 9 is a bit excessive, i'm sorry.
So, for 9 bars we just have our fictional drummer, lets call him Rupert, just setting a feel with the kick and the snare at a nice, balanced and slow tempo. No hi hats, just the kick on beat 1 and the snare hitting on beat 3

For the second set of 9 bars, we have a 5/4 feel, 5 crotchet beats in a bar. But the kick and snare do not change tempo. written as 5/4, the Kick is still on beat 1, but the snare hit has now shifted to the second 8th note, or the 'And' of beat 3. The hi hats are holding the 5/4 feel and landing on beat 2,3,4 and 5.

And finally, for the last set of 9 bars, Rupert kicks things up a notch, and the Hi hats speed up to a straight 8th feel in 4/4 again.
Since we've returned to 4/4 feel. the snare has reverted itself back to beat 3. The Kick and the snare have not changed tempo since the very beginning.

Conclusion

In Keeping the same tempo, the kick and the snare have slipped in and out of a different feel. although the second set of 9 bars feel and sound like they are 5/4. they can easily be written as 4/4 with the hi hats written as quintuplets (5 crotchet notes in the space of 4). Resulting in Rupert's funky polyrhythm.

Additional Notes & How this was achieved

For musicians and producers who wish to replicate the above polyrhythm track, or anyone who is just curious how to move a metronome from a 5/4 feel to a 4/4 feel while maintaining the same kick and snare position/tempo, the breakdown of the track is as follows:

The metronome I use doesnt allow subdivisions so for 5/4 and 4/4 respectively, if i want to use an 8th note feel I need to make them 10/8 and 8/8 respectively.
Starting with the 10/8 beat, the Kick is on beat 1 and the Snare holds out until beat 6. the tempo for this is 286bpm.
in order to convert the 10/8 @ 286bpm to a 4/4 feel, you divide the tempo by it's present meter and mutiply it by the one you wish to change it to.
So, 286 /5 = 57.2
multiply that by 4 and you have 228.8, so 229bpm is the metronome mark for the 4/4 section.

I hope you found this useful and as always, Thanks for reading and let me know in the comments if there is anything you want me to cover next time.