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Jazzy Piano Chords


Dave Klein

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It's time...............😀

 

Stevie Wonder was on a world tour and was playing his first gig in Tokyo. The place was absolutely packed to the rafters. In a bid to break the ice with his new audience he asked if anyone would like him to play a request. A little old Japanese man jumped out of his front row seat and shouts "Play a Jazz chord! Play a jazz chord!"

Amazed that this guy knew about the jazz influences in Stevie's varied career, the blind impresario started to play an E minor scale and then went into a difficult jazz melody. When he finished the whole place went wild. The little old man jumped up again and shouted "No, no, play a Jazz chord, play a Jazz chord!"

Although a little annoyed by this, being the professional that he is, Stevie dived straight into a jazz improvisation with his band around the B flat minor chord and really tore the place apart. The crowd went wild with this impromptu show of his technical expertise. However, the little old man jumped up again. "No, no, no! Play a Jazz chord, play a jazz chord!"

Stevie was by now really annoyed that this guy didn't seem to appreciate his playing ability, so said to him from the stage "OK wise guy, you get up here and do it!"

The little old man climbed up onto the stage, took hold of the mike and started to sing..........

 

"A jazz chord to say I ruv you…"

Edited by paulo
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I've never figured out what a jazz chord is. I've played a lot of jazz and some of the chords are just plain old major chords (which we treat as major 6ths most of the time).  I've played 7ths, M7ths, M9, 7b9, 7#9, mM7 in pop music and jazz.

I think jazz is an attitude, and the difference between jazz and other kinds of music is something that is difficult to define in words. But as Louis Armstrong reportedly said when he was asked what jazz is, "If you don't know, don't mess with it."

Play any chord in a jazz song and in a jazz style and it's a jazz chord.

Insights and incites by Notes

 

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Remember, when improvising, and you play something wrong, next time around do it again. That way people think it's just an outside choice that you meant to play, and not a mistake.

Also remember, when improvising,  whenever you play a wrong note, you are only a half step away from a right one.

Insights and incites by Notes

 

 

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Have you seen Stevie Wonder's new piano?

Neither has he.

What do you call a tennis match between Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles?

Endless love.

Stevie Wonder walked into a bar....then a chair...then a table.

 

Stevie Wonder rings Tiger Woods and says  "how do you fancy a round of golf"

Tiger says "I didn't think you would be able to play Stevie".

Stevie explains how he had a caddy put a device in each hole that emits a constant high pitched tone and he can tune an earpiece into, which tells him the direction and distance to it.

Tiger says "you have to understand Stevie I am a pro golfer, it will be too much of a mismatch".

Stevie says" OK well tell you what, a million dollars says I win or are you chicken".

Tiger says "OK done, when do you want to play?"

Stevie says "any night this week".

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St. Peter in Heaven is checking ID’s. He asks a man, “What did you do on Earth?”

The man says, “I was a doctor.”

St. Peter says, “Okay, go right through those pearly gates. Next! What did you do on Earth?”

“I was a school teacher.”

“Go right through those pearly gates. Next! And what did you do on Earth?”

“I was a musician.”

“Go around the side, up the freight elevator, through the kitchen…..”

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What’s the difference between a rock guitarist and a jazz guitarist?

The rock guitarist plays 3 chords for 1,000 people, the jazz guitarists plays 1,000 chords for 3 people.

-----------------------------------


What do you call someone wearing a "Make Jazz Great Again" hat?

A Trumpet Supporter

 

Insights, incites, and a little silliness by Notes

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On 1/26/2021 at 6:11 PM, Notes_Norton said:

I've never figured out what a jazz chord is. I've played a lot of jazz and some of the chords are just plain old major chords (which we treat as major 6ths most of the time).  I've played 7ths, M7ths, M9, 7b9, 7#9, mM7 in pop music and jazz.

 

 

I think it's a "jazz chord" when it has a second in it, up top somewhere, and you call it a ninth.

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41 minutes ago, emeraldsoul said:

I think it's a "jazz chord" when it has a second in it, up top somewhere, and you call it a ninth.

Hmm, I've played ninths in rock, pop and blues and occasionally in a country song. I guess that means there is a lot more jazz out there than I thought. I've played a John Coltrane song that had nothing but triad chords in it. So without a 9th, is 'Trane not jazz anymore?

People sometimes also call archtop electric guitars "jazz boxes", but one of the most iconic solid body guitars ever made, the Les Paul was made to be a jazz guitar, and I've heard plenty of rock played on an archtop electric.

Jazz is group improvisation, but so is rock, country, blues, and dozens of other pop music genres.

To me jazz isn't the chords, jazz isn't the instrument, and jazz isn't anything but the player and his/her method of interpreting the music.

Insights and incites by Notes

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There's two types of jazz:

- An artistic expression and way of thinking sort of against the grain with conventional music tropes.

- A bunch of music theory you learn in a school that teaches you how to become an arrogant musician that acts smug towards people that don't have the knowledge you have.

One of them is very popular. Guess which one.

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What Bruno said ^^^

Those who are arrogant and smug in any genre of music forget that what we are doing is supposed to be fun. We are supposed to be playing, and that's why what we do is called "PLAYing music". When I hire musicians, attitude is more important than technical chops.

School can teach you technique, but it can't teach you talent (soul, it factor, or whatever you call what turns the notes into music) There are people who have monster theory chops and consistently come up with jazz that moves the listener's soul. I'm thinking Stan Getz, Jimmy Smith, and Stanley Turrentine to name just a few. It's melody, not just scales and arpeggios.

There are others who can play all the right notes over all the right chords and many technically competent but uninspired music. I won't mention any names here, but I have a couple in mind.

It's best if you have the soul and the technique, but I'd rather listen to one with the soul and less technique than someone playing a lot of empty notes. And that goes in all genres of music, not only jazz.

And what makes jazz is not so much what you are playing when you are improvising, but how you are playing.

Insights and incites by Notes

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22 hours ago, RobertWS said:

While it's true there are categories of music, in today's world, there is infinite blending of genres.

In Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, just one song, there is Theater, Jazz, German opera, Italian Opera, Rock, Classical, Ballad...

And at least a dozen rock/pop songs 'borrowed' melodies from famous classical composers like Bach, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Gliere and others.

A lot of contemporary country music is so rock n roll that I don't call it country anymore, instead I just call it Nashville. Music.

A lot of music called jazz today is simply instrumental rock n roll. A lot of rock leans towards jazz.

Genres are for people who sell music. The lines between the genres are definitely blurred.

But IMO there is no such thing as a jazz chord.

Insights and incites by Notes

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On 1/30/2021 at 12:18 PM, Notes_Norton said:

There are others who can play all the right notes over all the right chords and many technically competent but uninspired music. I won't mention any names here, but I have a couple in mind.

I can remember one which was tried to play for Level 42 but couldn't fit. He also refused to pay open strings.

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