Jazz Harmonica
This is a short piece I worked on for a jazz improvisation class. It's a 32 bar form, an AABA. It goes around three times.
The A section is 8 bars, and it goes Gm7(b5), C7(b9), F, F, Dmi7(b5), G7, C, C.
The B section is 8 bars, and it goes Cmi7, F7(b9), Bb, Bb, Ab7, Ab7, G7, G7.
I used a C harmonica for this. The trickiest chord was probably the Ab7, because it doesn't sound too good to hold the Ab and because an Eb (the fifth) is only available on the 8 blow bend.
It was fun. My timing was definitely late at some parts, but I'm overall happy with it.
Comments
Great first effort Marc. As
Great first effort Marc. As you've found, there's no faking jazz, it requires a knowledge of chords and the harmonica, and you're well on your way to digging into this cool style of music on the harmonica.Thank you for sharing.
Very Cool
Those are some fancy chords! I think I see the minor chords, but what do the (b5) & (b9) stand for after the 7 chords?
To the best of my admittedly
To the best of my admittedly limited knowledge:
b5 means that the band is playing a flat 5. b9 means the band is playing a flat 9.
Example:
A normal G7 would be GBDF.
A Gmi7 (b9) means that the band would play the G minor (G Bb D F) but they'd also throw in the flat 9 (Ab).
Dave, or anyone else, tell me if I'm wrong here. That's the way I played it the song, and I didn't encounter anything bad. But when I was playing through it the first couple times, I did find some bad notes. I just learned to avoid them.