[Dixielandjazz] Fw: Discrepancies in Tune Chords

[Bruce Stangeland]

Phil,

I agree with your thoughts about chords.
I used to play with a group in El Cerrito, California called "The Gateswingers", with
Bob Mielke on trombone.

He once told me to play simple chords in order to leave room for the other musicians.

When working on sheet music I sometimes find what I think are errors in the chords, and change them in my lead sheets.

Bruce

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Message: 9
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2018 04:02:30 -0500
From: "philwilking"<philwilking at cox.net>
To: "DIXIELAND JAZZ Mailing List"<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Fw:  Discrepancies in Tune Chords
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I play tenor banjo, mostly chords.

When I want to work up a lead sheet, I try to find the earliest published
version of the piano/vocal sheet music I can and use the chords of the piano
part. I assume that a tune by Irving Berlin published by the Irving Berlin
Music Publishing Company very probably has the piano playing the chords Mr.
Berlin intended and I want to use them. Ditto for Ray Henderson, ditto for
the von Tilzers, Harold Arlen, McHugh and Fields, Walter Donaldson, Harry
Warren, etc.

Very rarely, it will happen that changes in the original chords have become
standard and may even sound better than the originals. "China Boy" is an
example. The original chords for bars 27 and 28 of the chorus, "keep" of
"while their watch I keep," are one bar each of G9 and Bbm. Almost everyone
uses a two bar glissando on an Fdim there.

Sheet music from the 1930's and later frequently has chord names or guitar
diagrams about the vocal line, but these always should be checked against
the piano part.

One last point: Frequently, especially in more recent tunes, the chord
specified over the staff will be something no practical person would touch.
It may even be in the piano part. Bb9-flat 11-flat 13, or some such, under a
melody C. Phooey: let the rhythm section pay Bb7, the melody C is the 9, and
let the flat 11 and flat 13 stay in the college classroom. This is
traditional or dixieland jazz, not some be-bop theory class.

Does my prejudice against dissonance for its own sake show?

Phil Wilking - K5MZF
www.nolabanjo.com

Those who would exchange freedom for security
deserve neither freedom nor security.

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