Block chord
Block chords are notated chords or votes in the octave below the melody to build a four-part harmonized melody. Playing the piano is also called locked -hands style (joined hands), because right and left hands each chord it goes often over four voices, share and run it parallel in the same direction. Block chords with a oktavversetzt doubled melody are often used to support swinging melody lines so that they can stand out from the rhythmic background. As the developer of the block chord playing, the pianist Milt Buckner applies. An early master of this technique was the pianist George Shearing, who lent her his name: " Shearing voicing ".
Block chords you will find concise in the game of Red Garland and Bobby Timmons, varied with Phineas Newborn Jr. and Lennie Tristano, who maintains strong block chords alternating with his typical " linear " style.
Brass sections in big bands, typically in the swing can be performed in block chords, so the late Count Basie Orchestra and Thad Jones.
Methodology
- General block chord (Generic block chord ). It is played as described above.
- Doubled melody ( Double melody, usually called Shearing Voicing ) with an additional fifth voice, the melody doubled an octave lower
- Tiefoktavieren the second voice ( Drop 2, strictly speaking, not a block chord more ), the second vote, counted from the top, is played an octave lower ( dropped ). This results in a much clearer sound since high dissonance disappear.
If the melody note is already a chord tone of the underlying chord, also own chord tones are used for the remaining three votes.
The technique is suitable for diatonic ( nichtchromatische ) melodies and used diminished chords for chord strange notes of the melody. If the melody note is interpreted as a passing tone, the harmony with a reduced or a chromatically shifted chord is formed. Before forming the harmonies, triads can be added to sixth chords, but this is not a hard rule.
In principle, the whole diatonic scale can be harmonized with a sixth chord. For the simple basic principle, therefore, a simple triad is extended to the sixth chord, then you already have four chord own notes of the scale. You can take more complicated, such as maj7, maj7 add 9, etc. The diminished chord takes over the function of the dominant rather than the simple chords, so (the second line in the first example below) has function in harmony with the flow I - V - I - V - I ... That's why you can use it also altered dominants and even the second stage, minor chords in between push until you get the harmonious running bIII - II - V - I is replaced. The bIII chord - reduced or not - it substituted the VI chord ( the sixth stage chord ). One then has a VI - II - V - I turnaround. This is however already is an extension of the technique described here. The sound selection, the two chords I and II dim, Barry Harris used in any other way for his bebop scale.
Another of his block chords famous pianist Red Garland was, the seven - to eight-part block chords used by many times a particular chord in the left hand ( low tones) mitschlug rhythmically while he doubled the melody of the octave in the right; often he built in between a one to two other notes. This is not a virtuoso variation, but it can sound good anyway. In the recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, there are some beautiful examples of this.
Even for young jazz pianists (eg Geoff Keezer ) it is now the standard to harmonize the melody with chords parallel. In this case, one or more octaves distance may also be left between the low and high chord.
Examples
Here is an example of harmonization of a C major scale in block chords. The example uses three diminished chords with the melody notes D, F and H. In the second line of diminished chord comes on to gis. This results in a rhythmically balanced harmonization of this key, and two additional melodious usable halftones by using all four diminished chords:
The next example shows how a melody in F is made in block chords, each used by one of the three methods described above:
Variants
Mark Levine proposes to change before the drop -2 voicings of Diminished. He raised the third tone from the top by a whole tone, which falls with in the same whole-tone scale half. This can be under control by the ear (so you get Durterzen in a minor key, but the diminished chord brings a sub- second) break up and enrich the characteristic Reduces sound.
Bobby Timmons brings the Diminished in changing the chords in the left hand, while he may have the melody in the right hand much easier and improvise on Blue scales with flatted fifth, the rub in most simple form with the allfällig occurring diminished chords.