Analyzing

[grahambop]

I wanted to hear what that 1932 arrangement of Alone Together sounded like, but as I don't play the piano, I notated it in Musescore and played it back.

[Christian Miller]

I wanted to hear what that 1932 arrangement of Alone Together sounded like, but as I don't play the piano, I notated it in Musescore and played it back.

I’ll get onto to making a guitar arrangement. I think most of it works


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[grahambop]

Has a nice stride piano vibe I think, I didn’t really realise that just from looking at the score.

[ragman1]

Nice work, Graham. It think it sounds very 1932! Which is about 90 years ago.

I wonder if they'll still be playing, say, Rollins' version in 2115... and on what?

and I don't mean Jupiter

[Reg]

If OP is still around...

Musical Analysis is just resolution of a Musical Structure into simpler constituent musical elements.

The "musical structure" can be a tune or any musical composition, and with jazz, even the actual performance of a Tune. By that I mean when performing in a jazz style, it can be... standard practice to change the Analysis of a tune while playing.

There can be different Analysis of the same tune. Example... take a tune and change the style of performance.

A swing standard and perform the tune in a Latin style... The style can change what an Analysis implies…. Because of a different “Reference”

Analysis answers the questions of how and why the music works. ( at least follows the concept)

Analysis determines ...

1) What is the "Reference" for determining what are the...
2) "Relationships" of the elements of the music and the...
3) "Development" of those "Relationships" within the guidelines of the "Reference"

Basically the guidelines for how to musically organize how different...notes, chords, rhythms etc... react to each other in a musical structure, (tune) and why.

You determine the structural elements and the possible Functions, (reactions of elements to other elements) of those elements within a Tune.

The basic starting point is Maj/Min functional Harmony, Modern Modal functional Harmony expands on Maj/Min functional organization....

You can learn the language and basic concepts... but it can get complicated when trying to apply the language and concepts to actual performance.

With jazz you need to develop your ears and skills and learn to have.... multiple layers of analysis going on at the same time.


This is pretty geeky post... but analysis is very geeky.
David Berkman’s book… the Jazz Harmony Book is about as simple as you can get and still actually cover what you need to play in a jazz style. Which will allow you to learn how to make analysis of tunes. There is a shit load to learn.

[Reg]

Analysis or just playing and trial and error both work. The important thing is.... They both create standard References for playing tunes. We as jazz players hear and understand what another player is doing and what it implies.

Which is a Harmonic/melodic Reference or understanding of how...The tune, or part of a tune is being played or might be played.

More of the direction of how I use term Vanilla.... it is not so much that a tune is being played simple, more of just being played one way over and over.

Like Dim. relationships and Relative or parallel relationships. They all have limitations as to the possibilities.

The advantages of understanding different possible analysis are they easily expand and have established understandings with most tunes. With jazz players they imply and organize how to expand the changes and improv possibilities with existing patterns, Chord Patterns, melodic patterns... licks etc.. They help you get past just being in the moment.... they help you know where being in the moment may go etc...

[PMB]

Coming back to Stella, I hear that opening C#°7 as linked to the end of the tune. A similar example might be how the final ii-V (C#-7 F#7) of Giant Steps sets up the initial I (Bmaj7). With that in mind, the progression becomes Bbmaj7 C#°7 C-7 F7 and the °7 functions as a b3 diminished.

This once common move (I can immediately think of three songs from around 1930 where it's featured - Johnny Green's Out of Nowhere and Body & Soul, Gershwin's I Got Rhythm) was probably anachronistic by the early '40s and its death certificate was signed by the '70s when most of these transitional diminished chords were replaced by chromatically descending ii-Vs in the original Real Book.

[Christian Miller]

I would say it had a longer afterlife in the Bossa repertoire…


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[Reg]

Personally... using functional or expanded Diminished common chord patterns or just using as a reference etc... is great, but so is using other harmonic/melodic organizations for performing standards both old and new.

That's for most musicians what make analysis especially useful. Instead of just being able to hear and understand what a single chord can imply...or perform a tune the same way over and over... you become aware of what common Chord Patterns can imply etc... Which expands how to hear and perform most tunes. Just like transposing a tune to a different Key... changes the actual harmony and melody.... Changing the style or Harmonic References can also change the actual chords and how to expand what you play.

The other aspect... once you have performed tunes enough...you become aware of most of the common practice chord patterns as well as melodic licks that imply harmonic movement(s). As well as most reharms or different approaches to playing the same old tunes.

It is somewhat the difference between.... memorizing tunes or memorizing how and why tunes work and versions of etc..

Think of a simple 12 Bar Blues. the term Contrafact implied a new melody over a tunes chord progression.
Like How high the Moon and Orinthology , Donna Lee and Back Home In Indiana etc...

Anyway, there are millions with 12 bar blues. Think of How many ways there is to play the changes of a 12 bar Blues... Which is where I am going....

There are many ways to play the changes of most tunes.

[wolflen]

yes Reg..lots of ways to the 12 bar blues..

Ted Greene.com has many examples on the website..and I have found several nice Utubes of versions also