[Dixielandjazz] European chord symbols

[Jim Kashishian]

Ain't Misbehavin'
http://www.massifjazz.com/images/aintmis.jpg


Craig, you've got it all wrong.  The "left-hand, right-hand" notation is not
for the bass.  It is dividing the measure up into half....the left hand side
of the slash being beats 1 & 2, and the right hand side are beats 3 & 4.

To clarify:  if you look at Ain't Misbehavin, the verse, bar one has a slash
from corner to corner with Eb being played on beats 1 & 2, and Bb9 being
played on 3 & 4.  Then on bar 15 of the verse, you have the measure divided
in three parts, the bigger top half being beats 1 & 2 with G being played,
and the A7 in the small bottom right half (beat 3) and D7 being played in
the last little square which is beat 4 of the measure.

Looks real childish, but it is a way of writing out chords very, very
quickly.  For those that memorize their chord changes, it would seem to be a
very "visual" way of putting it to memory.

Most of the chords in that collection are quite good, by the way, and if
your band follows them, you can't go wrong.  (Nasty bit is the chord players
don't get a hint as to what the melody is!)

By the way, as far as I know, that is a French way of writing & may have
been actually invented by the people that did those books.  It is not
European, as such.

Jim