Practice Log: tonal gravity, 2-5-1s, bebop scale

I continue to believe that it’s the basics that matter. Below:

• practicing root motion in 4th/5ths
• 2-5-1s + bebop scale

Tonal gravity

To review:

• Gravity: up a 4th, down a 5th
• Against gravity: up a 5th, down a 4th

To practice gravity, use an 8-beat loop, 2 times over 4 chords. As always, in every key.

The left hand will move across 4 roots according to gravity and get back to where it started. The right hand plays 3rd and 7th of the quality indicated below, using voice leading:

LH (root ):  R ↑P4 ↑P4 ↑P4 // e.g., G C F B♭
RH (3 + 7): m7   7  m7   7 // quality of 3rds and 7ths

Then, from where you ended:

LH (root ): ↓m3 ↓P5 ↑P4 ↓P5 // e.g., G C F B♭
RH (3 + 7):  m7   7  m7   7 // quality of 3rds and 7ths

Then, another ↓m3 gets you back to where you started.

• Harmonic analysis in a major key:

  • This turns out to be the iii VI⁷ ii V⁷ (where the R above is the root of the iii).
  • Alternate: the root motion also suggests 6 2 5 1 a la rhythm changes.

• Harmonic analysis in a minor key:

  • Incidentally, the classic Gato Barbieri Fiesta starts with something like Dm7 G7 Emsusadd9 A7♭9, which is the above pattern “transposed, in time, two chords” – if we start the pattern on the 3rd chord (root=E) we get the same pattern. And Fiesta is, I think, in d minor. So we could see it as i IV⁷ ii V⁷ (Fiesta sequence; above, it would be ii V⁷ i IV⁷ — though not as catchy, I imagine it’s used in countless songs).

Fiesta (continued)

Actually, for Fiesta, listening a bit more critically, it’s tough to get those sounds on the piano exactly, since they come from a guitar.

Here’s what I’m hearing now (always root in the bass, but it’s absent during the intro):

Dm: 3 4 7 9 5 // this suggests a "minor 11"-ish sus chord
G⁷: 7 1 3 5 // not really essential
Em: 3 4 7 9 11 // this is core to the sound, along with the Dm; now melody is the 11th
A⁷: // almost an afterthought; resolution of 4-3 suspention only at ends of phrases

So it kind of becomes a groove on the 2 “minor 11 sus” type of chords (I’ve run into the 3 4 7 9 M2 P4 M3 voicing quite a bit.. interesting to reinforce how it’s a minor sus voicing here). This is pretty advanced stuff! Definitely off the deep end, but interesting to see the complexity.

Still another way to look at it: instead consider just the two dominant 7 chords essential, then everything hinges on the 2 inner voices’ resolution of the 4-3 and 6-5 suspensions. For the resolution on the second one, there is the option to go to the alt chord by resolving to ♯5 rather than to the 5.

Intervals measured in gravity (i.e. how far of a movement away from a note)

I wonder if every harmonic motion can be thought of as “across some number of 4ths or 5ths”. Obviously it can, but is it worth it?

Something like this:

• To get descending intervals 1) rename “up” to “down”; 2) rename “with” to “against” 3) rename “against” to “with”.
• Again, “with gravity” means up 4ths/down 5ths; “against gravity” means down 4ths/up 5ths.
• One can imagine that there would be value in finding symmetries in such a way.

I imagine Coltrane’s Giant Steps might offer some insight on this question; as Eric Nisenson wrote on page 86 of The Making of Kind of Blue, it signaled the culmination of the bebop era, and by extension of conventional harmony in Jazz, thereby having some measure of equivalence to the era of Mahler -> Schoenberg:

At the time of Kind of Blue, Coltrane felt that he had not yet brought his obsession with conventional harmony to its ultimate point. With the tune “Giant Steps” he did so, and now the bebop era had finally come to its close.

2-5-1s in the left hand with bebop scale in the right hand

Any voicing will do.

Descending bebop (mixolydian) scale built on either (same, different ways of thinking):

• 4th/11th of the 2 chord
• 5th of the 1 chord

e.g., e A7 D + 1 7♯ 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (descending) and 1 1♯ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (ascending)

These are the bebop dominant scale and bebop major scale, respectively (source).

In the example above, to be most precise, I’m playing the “descending A bebop dominant scale” and the “ascending D bebop major scale starting on A”. The “descending D bebop major scale” also sounds completely fine over a 2-5-1.