So I’ve been learning to play a bit of Lenny by SRV and it’s turned me onto a bit of a jazz interest. So I’ve checked out autumn leaves as a standard and thought I’d try and make some sense of it.
I’ve read a few tabs and stumbled onto this lesson. I’m yet to pick up the guitar just trying to make some sense of it before I try and learn it.
So the lesson is here.
http://pickupjazz.com/autumn-leavesFirst bit i’m struggling with conceptually is its in Gmail or Emin. I know the notes are the same but the root isn’t. So does that mean I can choose an inflection of major or minor? How do I find home? I mean it’s either going back to G or back to E isn’t it?
It then tells me I can use E Aolien all over it. Ok so that’s like an extended pentatonic with colour notes that fit the key right? - which is either Gmaj or Emin.
Then each chord has its own scale. This is twisting my melon. So that’s trying to describe each chord as having a penta with a different set of colour notes? Is that right?
Where does a bedroom blues box blaster start with this stuff?
Comments
I'm not very good with theory myself, but if that video doesn't answer your question I'm sure someone around here will happily give you some advice
So at the most basic level you could noodle all day long in E minor penta. On the V chord (which is B MAJOR - this is often done, to have a major V even in a minor piece), you can raise or squeeze the 7th of your E minor penta up from D to D#, but actually you don’t need to, it will sound fine with a normal D note over the B major chord so long as you don’t linger on it for too long. To explore the melodic opportunities further you could play along with the internal changes and reinforce / emphasise certain chords and notes - that’s jazzing.
(Eva Cassidy plays it in A minor; Eric Clapton plays it in B minor)
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
OMG that is unbelievable. Justin is totally wrong in this, which is astonishing. The version he’s describing is in E minor, but he points to the sharp and concludes it’s in G major, which is bonkers, and very unusual for him to be so wrong. He calls the E a vi! It’s a i.
The first 3 chords are not a ii-V-I (well they are a ii-V-i but they are not THE ii-V-i). The first chord is the iv minor of the song, and yes the initial progression of iv-VII-III is a temporary ii-V-I in the relative major, which creates a lighter mood, but the whole passage is still in E minor all the way through - it doesn’t hop from key to key like he says - and it resolves on the E at the end of each stanza. Yes, it is a back-cycling progression that cycles through the circle of 5ths (but anticlockwise, ie it’s a circle of 4ths, apart from the aug4 jump to F#), so it has a number of mini cadences but the ultimate ii-V-i is the actual primary resolution of F# -> B -> E minor at the end.
The progression has been used in a million other pieces including:
- Still got the Blues
- Emporte Moi
- Europa
- Nordrach
- Y Volvere
- the MASH theme tune
- All the Things You Are
- the Pink Panther castle/moat scene
- Hello (Lionel Ritchie)
and to an extent:
- Parisienne Walkways
- I Will Survive
- Burn (the middle 8)
They’re all in the minor key. Nobody has ever thought Still got the Blues was in C major!
Weird.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
So is my thinking that in the original link where the chords are described as modes that is describing where the underlying chords are adding new tones to explore with the underlying E minor tonality remaining?
On the final i chord, the E minor, you play E minor, or “E Aeolian” if you want to call it that. On the first chord, the iv chord, the A minor, you also play E minor, because you’re still in E minor.
Yes you could say “Now I will play a scale that is temporarily in the mode of A dorian, which has the same notes as E minor, and is the “4th mode of Aeolian”” but you’d be mad to, because your brain isn’t supposed to suddenly switch to A, just because an A minor triad is being played. You’re still “in E minor”.
And then it goes to the D, and then to that G. At this point, just where Justin Sandercoe is saying you’ve arrived home :-O yes you could say, “Right, now I am temporarily in G major for this one chord, therefore I must play G Ionian”, but it’s just another of many chords in the harmonic progression, so remember the E minor home you’re heading towards and press on. You might emphasise the G note for effect, but don’t think you’ve arrived home yet, or the flow will falter and stumble. Or you might emphasise the B note on that G chord (which is the major 3rd of G but also happens to be the perfect 5th of E). But again don’t forget you’re weaving a meandering path of tuneful notes that eventually land on E.
MOST OF ALL, Melody > Modes. Don’t think in scales. Little children have been making up tunes that work over harmonic progressions for hundreds of years without knowing what scales they’re based on. The language is meant to wait in the wings till the tune is ready, to follow up behind the tune with names and explanations; the tune isn’t supposed to be constructed and assembled bottom-up like a house, using letters of the alphabet like bricks. Try and get your guitar strings to sound the tunes that are in your head and that your heart wants to hear.
Listen to the intro of Still got the Blues; he’s playing a simple 4-note run up to a peak and back down again, then again a little lower, then again a little lower still, then arriving at rest. It’s sweet, it’s magical, and it couldn’t be simpler. And there’s not an Ionian or Dorian to be found.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
It’s a bit like you can’t point out a deviation from the rule before you state the rule. To lead with saying the song has a ii-V-i and resolves to G major, the supposed key of the song, and to mention E minor only in the closing minutes is what’s so bizarre.
Edit - and if I were really really pedantic, which I am, that ii-V-I is actually also slightly questionable, becuse although “alphabetically” it seems to be a ii-V-I, the lilt of the music doesn’t actually have a 251. A 251 cannot really have another chord in the 4th quarter of the progression (ie making it some sort of grotesque ii-V-I-IV). That makes no musical sense. If you must chop the progression down into little pieces, then it’s v-I, then a V-I a tone down, then a ii-V-i in E minor. Or a i-IV, I-IV, ii-V-i. That’s how the bars actually flow. Anyway as usual I’ve gone overboard on this. I was just surprised Justin’s explanation was so terrible.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
From a Rock/Pop perspective it's fine to look at it as just being in Em (apart from bars 27&28) and it's as straight forward as described.
But from a Jazz angle, it's a little trickier because it goes to the heart of how a great many jazz tunes are constructed, the chord qualities used and the approach to soloing. Autumn Leaves is one of the first jazz tunes people learn because, well... it's pretty much in one key (save bars 27&28). But despite it being in one key, there are harmonic devices being used that are intrinsic to the idiom and are vital to spot and get to grips with when moving onto much harder tunes.
I'm making a massive assumption here but I reckon it was initially a 4 bar major ii V I, then a 4 bar minor ii V i so...
Am7 D7 Gmaj7 Gmaj7 then F#m7b5 B7 Em7 Em7.
To create a stronger and smoother sense harmonic movement, that second bar of Gmaj7 is replaced with Cmaj7 (IV) which kind of acts as a pivot to the min ii V i. Play the tune, omitting the IV and it works just fine without it if a little clunky. That being said, jazz standards are littered with ii V I IV progressions too, it's a perfectly valid progression. What doesn't make sense is looking at Am7 D7 Gmaj7 Cmaj7 as a v-I and V-I a tone down?! I often need to improvise over tunes I've never seen and if I took that approach, I wouldn't get past the first two bars Being able to assimilate large amounts of info in this way makes things so much easier from an improv or a reharmonisation perspective, particularly with changes.
Now I agree it's in Em, but it just has a maj then min 251. Justin's explanation isn't terrible at all and is entirely in line with how jazz tunes are analysed which is to look for and group together as many ii-V/ii-V--I's as possible. If the OP wants to get into jazz harmony/theory this is the approach to take. Now, using one scale over these chords will work well and is great, but the idea of jazz is to follow the changes with arpeggios/scales/modes etc so that if the harmony is removed, the changes will still be heard melodically from the improviser (such as in that wonderful Julian Lage example). This creates strong melodic lines. At first you do have to think things through and go through a bit (lot!) of pain, unfortunately Jazz isn't easy.
Viz is describing this as melody>modes
Brad is describing the song as a series of ‘set piece’ changes. In fact he goes as far as to say Jazz is constructed about understanding those changes.
So! On to me actually learning it. I think I need to work on hearing the chords in a key.
So what does a 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 sound like.
Then when I can recognise a position in the key I need to understand the common ‘set pieces’ or progressions so I can pick them out.
Once I can identify those then I can start to look for common lead lines / approaches for each turn around.
Does that make sense as journey from a pentatonic bluesman to a jazz player following the chords changes?
What I think is really odd is his whole approach to the analysis. He doesn’t even play the tune. So we never hear the home note, or the fundamental 251 at the end, let alone the temporary one at the beginning. Then (to my mind) he speaks about the whole thing upside down and in the wrong key. He even calls the Em chord a vi! It is totally harmonically incorrect. It’s no wonder people get confused.
So I’m not going to argue any more, but I will offer an alternative harmonic analysis which I think is much more aural approach - based on how the music actually sounds - than an alphabetical one. Furthermore I think the arguments are presented in the right order, considering the piece as a whole before examining its parts. I freely admit this is classical-based not jazz-based - I’ve come to jazz only recently and always refer back to my classical roots - I can’t help it - but for anyone who’s interested, read the below carefully and go through the steps and you can’t go wrong
1) Listen to the main tune.
2) The very first thing to do is find the home:
What is the home note? The note of repose? Where does the song settle? What is the song “in”? Try and sing it. Did you sing an E note? Good.
3) The next thing is to identify the mood:
Is it in E major or E minor? Well it sounds sad, and if you listen carefully to the E chord it has a minor 3rd, so it’s in E minor.
4) Refer to the sheet music to check:
Can you remember how many sharps or flats E minor has? The easiest way to remember is to find the “relative major” of E minor, by counting up 3 semitones. You get to G major. Can you remember how many sharps G major has? One sharp. Look at the sheet music - it has one sharp. So you are correct - the song is in E minor.
5) Write down the harmonised E minor scale:
Em, F#dim, G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em
i ii(dim) III iv v VI VII i
6) Notate the song’s chord progression:
Am, D, G, C, F#dim, B, Em
iv VII III VI iidim V i
So it starts on the 4 chord? Correct.
That B (in bold) is B major. Shouldn’t it be B minor? Well yes, but minor pieces often break away from the rule of a minor v and have a major V instead. It makes for a better landing on the home note.
7) Listen to the beautiful progression at the end:
The last 3 chords form a minor 251. Being in a minor key, but with a major V, it’s a ii(dim)-V-i. The 251 creates a very settled ending. It is incredibly common in classical and jazz.
8) Notice another 251 - in a different key!
Look at the first 3 bars - A minor, D G. That is the iv-VII-III. Listen to them carefully. They actually make a temporary 251, because iv-VII-III has the same intervals as ii-V-I. You could even say that for an instant the piece is “in G major” and that this is a “251 in G”. The slower you play, the more the G is established, but ultimately the illusion is shattered and the G gives way to the E minor as the ultimate home.
9) You have now passed Grade 3 theory. Advance to Grade 4.
Now you’ve covered the basics, let’s look at some of the chords and their extensions in more detail ...
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Don’t get me wrong I’m in agreement with viz that melody trumps modes. Again it depends on context though. If it’s played as a slow ballad, I might explore a modal approach. If it’s a really quick tempo I’ll probably exclusively use chord tones. But having a little understanding of modes and chord tones can and will help you outline the changes in a clear way. My Dorian is the same as yours, it’s if and how we use them that counts.
Yeah that’s kind of what I’m saying. But I’m taking about Jazz of that era. These tunes we’re knocked out at a blistering rate and and the composers knew that these devices work. The landscape changed post Kind Of Blue and Giant Steps, but the concepts for learning the more modern stuff still applies. Pick some other tunes and see where you can spot maj/min ii V, V I and ii V I’s etc.
Definitely work on hearing the chords and the common progressions. This will help you hear where things change and where modulations happen. When there is a modulation it is most likely going to be a ii V of some sort e.g bars 27 to 29 of Autumn Leaves.
Absolutely, you need to learn/transcribe some jazz language and analyse that against the chords of any given song. That will really help develop your melodic content. These lines can be used over different tunes and after a while you’ll be able to manipulate them how you see fit without having to think too hard about it
I'm glad it opened a bit of debate, it's interesting seeing the points of view of more experienced players and how they approach things, so although it's not my thread, thanks to everyone for taking the time to provide so much information.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
He doesn't need to play the tune because this is just harmonic analysis, not melodic and this is the point. If I do a gig with no prior idea of the set and I get presented with charts I've never seen to solo over, I need to know what to play pretty much instantly and this approach works. That being said, we don't need to hear the tune to know that the tune works. It's pretty much just 3rds and 7ths. It's just as much an aural and mathematical thing, the two don't need to be mutually exclusive. Once one gets to grips with the maths, it totally becomes an aural thing (because thats what jazz is anyway). But any piece of music in any genre can be analysed without ever needing to listen to it.
He calls Em7 vi because he stating it is in the key of G and up until that point there is no reason not to think of it as a vi as jazz is mostly (not always mind...) approached from looking at the parent major key, in this case G. Justin addresses the Em7 from the 10min mark and adjusts it accordingly because of the harmony that precedes that chord.
If we're dealing with just the first 8 bars I don't disagree with anything you're saying. But where do bars 27 and 28 fit in? Taking this approach through trickier tunes like Stella or All The Things You Are will cause a lot of pain.
Coming from a classical background will be what is grinding your gears about it and that's understandable. But this is the jazz world and it's just how it's done for the most part. Yes, it is iv VII III VI ii V i but in jazz it just isn't, any 251 are located and thought of accordingly.
Only kidding
That’s fine.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
To play it all as E minor all through goes against that, and loses the beauty of the contrast. This is where theory can lose its value. No-one in the audience is going to consider whether your note choice is theoretically correct, but most of the audience will feel the transition of the emotions if you play this song with that contrast of Major to Minor in mind.
Henry Mancini uses the theme in A minor in the awesome Pink Panther moat scene. He uses both versions, the main theme starting on the i, and the 2nd theme starting on the iv. So you can solo along to it with Parisienne Walkways, and Still got the Blues!
Theme 1: i-iv-VII-III-VI-iidim-V7- (VI-V-VI-V) -i
Theme 2: iv-VII-III-VI-iidim-V7-i
https://youtu.be/_jOtVy3t7-Q
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.