You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Root, Shell, Pretty

Episode Date: March 22, 2019

Today, Peter and Adam go on a deeper dive over a popular recent blog post.The ending theme song for today's episode is "Bye-Ya" as performed by Jim Reid. To get your music featured on You'll Hear It, send an MP3 recording of your music to [e-mail]'s episode is sponsored by the Oxford American. The Oxford American is a magazine dedicated to documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. Its award-winning annual music issue comes with a CD sampler and digital download - a must-have for any serious music fan. Recent issues have featured Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, John Cage, and John Cage. Visit https://www.oxfordamerican.org/yhi today for a special subscription discount!Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Peter. Yep. What's the prettiest note? Um, D. I'm Adam M. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you.

Coming at you. And today's episode of the You'll Hear It's podcast is sponsored by the Oxford American. The Oxford American is a magazine dedicated to documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. It's award-winning annual music issue comes with a CD sampler and digital download. It's a must-have for any serious music fan. Recent issues have featured neither Simone. Bolognaz, John Cage and John Coltrane, visit Oxfordamerican.org slash YHI today.

That's Oxfordamerican.org. Forward slash YHI as, and you'll hear it, and you get a great deal with that little code there. That's right. Jump on that because it's not happening forever. No. They are our charter sponsors, and this is a charter offer, my friend.

And they've been awesome. And I've so enjoyed having the magazine around the office, having it at home and checking out all the amazing writing about one of the most important cultural touchstones that is so relevant to us and to, I think, our listeners. So it's been awesome. And Adam, you've been looking smarter. And I just realized I could probably attribute that to your close association with the

Oxford American. You're reading it. The way you hold your coffee. Your whole continents is. Pinkies up. Pinkies up. It's just smarter. And big shout out to Oxford American for sending us these.

What happened to your hat? Did you get one too? I only wear these wool hats. Waldo hat. Yeah. But only up until like July or August. Okay, God. You know, I'm not really a hat guy.

but for Oxford American today, I definitely am. Cool. What are we talking about today? Today we are talking about something that we call root shell pretty. Root Shell Pretty. By the way, D, that's a great choice. That is a pretty note. I mean, you kind of caught me off guard with that question.

I'm like, I don't want to go C because C is so like plain, but I don't want to be all like, be sharp. Yeah, no, no, D is a very beautiful note. But Root Shell Pretty. So you wrote a great blog post a couple weeks ago called Five Easy Jazz Piano Cords that sound great. Now that is a heck of a title there, buddy. Well, I don't want to oversell it,

but I don't want to undersell it. Five easy jazz piano chords that sound great. We're going to include the link to the blog. It actually is a really good blog. We talk about this concept, Root Shell Pretty. I think we've talked about this concept for years, but you finally named it Root Shell Pretty. I thought you named it.

Well, I kind of like solidified that, but you were like, Root Shell Pretty. That's what we're calling it. Maybe I came up with that, but you came up with that, but you came up the concept of, I mean, I'm always talking about root and shell, not just me, obviously, a lot of people, but I kind of said that, well, if we base on the root shell, and you were like, yeah, and then we add some pretty notes. I was like, oh, snap, there it is.

I didn't invent this by any means. This is used by a lot of, a lot of jazz pianists, and, and, but it's so easy to see a good voicing if you have the root and shell in your left hand and you add some pretty notes in the right hand. Yeah. So anyway, so we released this blog post, it's been pretty popular so far. It's gotten a lot of traction, and then we got it. And it's on, I don't know if we've talked about this enough or even if we've mentioned it because it's been a little bit of a soft launch, I would say. We have a new blog that accompanies

that you'll hear at podcast. Yeah, you'll hear at dot com is now podcast slash blog and there's honestly way too much good information we're giving away for free up there. It's so cool to have. Should we start taking stuff down? We probably should have. Or at least like putting up some kind of paywall.

Did anybody do that besides the New York Times anymore? I don't think so. Because it doesn't work. But anyway, go check it out on our blog. There's so much good stuff, including root shell pretty that's you'll hear it dot com will also include a link here in the description but we started getting some questions about it to kind of go deeper so this one is from mike and mike says hey guys i'm a saxophoneist working on improving my understanding of harmony at the piano good on you mike yep the episodes on

voicings have helped me uh start advancing beyond octaves in the left root third fifth seventh in the right boo but as i try to implement the root shell pretty style for example i'm never sure what specific extensions to use. It seems like the shell is almost always strictly defined by the chord major, minor, dominant. But how should I decide between the flat, natural sharp ninth, 11th, and or 13th? I'm guessing voice leading has a lot to do with it. But are there any particular rules or guidelines to determine which of those extensions to use and how to alter them? Keep up the great work. Appreciate the lessons and advice. Seven stars. That's an important part of it. Of course. That's how you get your question on the podcast. This is a great question.

You know, we have, first of all, nothing is off limits when it comes to pretty notes or whatever. If you can make it work and it works for... Oh, yeah, things are off limits. The ugly notes. Of course. But there are some... They're not strict guidelines, but there are some guidelines, and it usually has to do with what is the quality of the chord. Yeah.

Right? There are some sort of rules, quote unquote, that are generally followed or at least help you to get a sound when you don't know what you're doing. Well, I think the only really strict rule that doesn't have an exception, at least, is that it sounds good. That's right. I mean, and that sounds, you know, obvious, but for some reason, it isn't because some people approach these kind of basic voicings, I think, a little too theoretically. And a little bit too much from that root position. So you have to understand the concept of the theory of it first and play these things in root position. What happens is you're starting from a place where it's not a very pleasing, jazzy sound. I never thought I would say pleasing jazzy sound, but now there I said it, you know. But I mean, really just something. that sounds good. Something can be simple and basic and sound good. We're big believers in that and so I think when we started coming

up with this concept, and we're definitely gearing this towards beginners. I think it's really good for reviewing too and building up some voicing and being able to hear something. Good for non-pianists too. Very good for non-pianists for you vocalists, for you instrumentalists, for you drummers out there that want to

you know, you know a little bit of basic piano but you want to play some stuff that sounds good. That's out, you know, you know, why, and so when we started looking at these, this other information available on the so-called internet. So-called internet. Or I should say, this so-called information available. The internet's pretty well established at this point, bro. Right.

Well, some so-called good information, which there was very little. It's always explaining, you know, what these chords are. Like, who cares, really? I mean, yeah, of course, it's interesting to know that. But we come more from the place of, like, let's give something that's easy that you can play very much, you know, right from the beginning that sounds good. And is useful. And is useful, right.

And another principle to this, Mike, that I will say that is you always preach this, which I think is very important, is a voicing doesn't exist in a vacuum. Can I get an amen from the congregation? You know what I mean? The context of what happened before and what's happening after for every single voicing is super important. And we get into that, like in the, at the bottom of the block post, this is very beginner level. Yeah. But we did want to hit on that. And so with the little, um, the how to practice section, we do some kind of voice leading stuff.

But I think at the beginning, you know, you're just trying to go for a good chord. Right. On for each of these different types. Just to get this sound. Well, let's start with a major chord. Okay. So here's the example of how the context matters. The major chord is a one chord.

Yeah. A good root shell pretty voicing is you have the root and shell in the left hand. That's C, E, and B. And an easy pretty voicing. especially if it's the one is D and G. Right. Exactly. I like it.

But let's say that same chord is in the context in the key of G. Right? That works to have that G on top. But instead of having the fifth on top, no, we're going to still say on the C major 7, but now we're in the key of G. So now the C is not a 1, it's a 4. Okay, got it.

You can add very easily the F sharp on top, the sharp 11, right? So go from G to that, from G major 7. to that same key sounds really, really good. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So having that sharp, I mean, you could use it as a tonic chord, too, as a 1-2,

but it's more in context that sharp 11 fits perfectly as a 4-cord as that Lydian sound. So that's what I'm talking about, Mike, when I talk about context, and that's one clue that you could have. You know, that F-sharp is in the key of G. Right. So if it's a 4-cord in the major 7, feel free to use that sharp 11 most of the time.

Right. You know, if it's a one chord, it's a little trickier, not trickier, but it's more. of a, I'm making a strong decision about this. Right, maybe the melody or something with the improv or somebody's playing something that. Yeah. So let's go back to what we listed as chord one, which is actually that one.

Yep. Yep. In the blog post, you know, major seventh, and root, shell, pretty. I think, you know, some of the things that we can think about are if we were to play, I mean, this is basically a C major nine. We put C major seven because we didn't want to get too fussy

about the extensions yet. Yep. But if you think about root position it's a little bit I mean it's I mean do we ever play that no it's not an interesting voicing no so it's a disinterested voicing you would say I mean it's as basic as you can get but it's so I mean it's so close to this

in fact all we're doing is moving the G up but what a different sound though it's completely different yeah and I think because you've got the you know if you do want to dig into some of the theory I think it's more useful to think about like why it sounds good you got this G major triad first inversion at the top of it. Yeah.

And then you've also got... I was going to say two-fourth, but you only got one. That's okay. You got a perfect fourth on top, which is fun. But the idea with this is that... You know, you start learning these

in different keys, maybe. Yeah. Is that going to kill them? No. It's not going to kill them at all. But maybe we should talk about options, too. What are usually the pretty notes? Okay.

You know what I mean? On a major chord? We didn't give them a lot of options in the blog post. He's asking for more to go deeper, right? Oh, got you. So in general, the pretty notes could be the fifth, the ninth, the 11th, and the 13th. Yep.

Right? Those are options on every chord and just the context matters then after that, flatting and sharping, whatever. And we'll get into that a little bit. But that's, I just wanted to make sure that was said. So no matter what you do, if you do root and shell, which is the shell is the third and seventh, root and the third and seventh in the left hand, you can add a combination of any of those voicing. Yeah. Or any of those extensions.

5th, 9, 11, or 13. Yeah, and I think that the, you know, the biggest thing that gets you away from the very basic, still five-note voicings is what we're talking about, is the question of if you're going to, like everything that we delineated in this blog post, I believe, is root and shell in the left hand with the root on the bottom.

Yeah. So it's all within an octave. There's no tense or anything I don't think we had. No. So that really establishes that all your pretty notes are going to be in the right hand. That's right. But if you want to start looking at some things

that conceptually are not that much more complicated. Just think about the shell being inverted. And even if you're not doing it in one hand, so you're going to go root and shell between the two hands. So you got B and E. And then you could take those same two notes you were using the fifth and the ninth and we're spreading it out more, right? Yeah.

That's a nice sound too. Also, if you thought the fifth was boring, you could do the 13th. So you have a C major 13th. Common voicing. Yeah, yeah. And that's like a 6-9, right? No, that's a 13th.

That's a 13th. Because there's the 7th. Ah, you're right. I was just testing you. You passed. I was testing myself. I failed. So if I didn't have the 7th, that would be 6-9.

Exactly. Really? I never do that. So, yeah. You've literally never do that. You haven't obviously read my whole blog post on available at you'll hear atcom on the 6-9 chord. No, I guess I should. So the 6-9.

Andrew, make a note for me to read that, please. Thank you. I'll tell you about it later. 6-9 is used when the melody is usually the root, and you don't want to have that clash of a seventh somewhere below it. Okay, perfect example. See, I did not know the theory behind it, but I knew the difference of the sound, and I would use it.

So I think that's the important thing. It's fun to know the theory if you want to geek out on that, no problem. You don't really need that. But, yeah, the main thing is able to hear the difference and be able to apply them to the correct musical situation. Minor 7 cores. What are our options? What are the context?

So that's chord number two, right? The major and the minor are actually pretty easy, because there's only certain things that sound good. And we just came up with one because we wanted to simplify and isolate here. The You'll hear on podcast here at Open Studio. It's been a theme from the beginning. Here in our lives.

Yep. With my chores at home, I like to simplify and isolate. I was just telling my wife that. She's like, can you do this, this? I was like, no. I have to simplify and isolate. I isolate one thing for me to do today. I'm going to take the garbage out and I'm going to go.

Right. Recycling tomorrow. Okay. So for the minor seventh, we could have done really the same thing. Just just. Could have. Yeah. Could do. But we wanted to start to look at some other options.

So we went root shell in the left hand. Yeah. C, E flat, B flat in this case. And then the ninth. And then for the top pretty note, we went. Yeah, 11th. 11th. Root shell pretty. You know what one of my favorite is, even prettier?

Add the 13th on top of this. Oh, come on. Is that even legal? That's pretty. That's pretty. So here I think you really start to hear that B-flat major triad. This is root position. And then...

And we were dog. logging out, you know, root position major seventh, but when you have them stacked on top, what is that different context? What did Jeff Kieser's funky stacks of hipness? That's right. That's exactly what that is. This is a basic version of that. That's good.

Okay, so now we're on to dominant courts. Now, options abound. Yes. And why is that? Because dominant chords are there to create tension. Exactly. And so the way that you can, one way that you can add tension, well, there's an inherent tension to them because they're unstable wanting to kind of move somewhere usually except for maybe

in the blues context but the way to add to add tension is by adding alterations that's right so they want feel like they want to lead somewhere i'm glad you brought up the blues context yeah so in general mike in a blues context if you're playing a b flat blues you're not going to go in with the first chord b flat seven flat nine no that's not happening i mean you can make that work but it's my mama don't told me. Not going to happen. You want to just do a straight 7-913 situation.

Now here we can get away with a little more rude position, Bob, huh? Except not on the key station. But play B-flat 713. Right? A little hipper. A little hipper. Man, it's hard to make the key station sign.

Exactly. Oh, boy. But, okay, so that's if it's a one chord. Now, what if the dominant chord is a 5-cord, which is what they're most often used as. Right. So they want to go somewhere. Now we're going to get, now we get to like chord four. Yeah. For instance, dominant seventh with the sharp 11. Right. Man, I love a dominant seven with a sharp 11. Where does that want to go? Or?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can be used as a dominant chord. Yep. Can be used also as a tonic chord. Can be used as a litian dominant, like a four. Yeah. Another thing is like these can, they don't have to always resolve to the one as a five. They can be like can resolve. to something with a little less tension. Yeah. Maybe on a blues, you know. There are also like a two chord. Like if you have like a, if you're in the key of the tube, yeah, yeah, yeah.

A flat, right? And you do the five of a five. Instead of a B flat minor seven, you can do a B flat seven sharp 11. It sounds great. Okay, so one rule as far as flat nine, sharp nine goes. I think flat nines are used more. And this is not hard and fast,

but flat nine is used more going towards a rule, hard and fast by its very nature. No, no, no. Okay. But in general. Okay. The flat nine sound can go to, and this is like a half-hole diminished sound, the flat-nine sound goes to a major chord.

Yeah. Right. And that sharp-9, flat-13, that altered sound goes more towards a minor chord. Right. Because it's more common tones. Yep. So that, I mean, that's, and again, you can do either to both because it's fine, but in general. Yeah.

Like if I see a B-flat-7, flat-9, like B-flat-13 flat-9, so I know that there's a G in there, that implies major. Because it's already at the major. Right. Now, if I see a B flat altered or B flat sharp 9 flat 13, because of that G flat and that D flat, that implies E flat minor. Like how I'm playing the notes as you say them? I appreciate that.

But you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. That implies that we're going somewhere else. When I think that perhaps you could think about one way to look at the exceptions to this rule would be when you don't want it to sound as expected. So we're talking about situations where, like what you just referred to as kind of a natural and maybe it keeps moving. But sometimes you want it to be. Yeah, whoa.

Yeah, yeah. But if you do that all the time, it just sounds ridiculous. But I'm saying just in general, those are the two kind of guidelines that people often use. So again, for Dominant 7, if it's a flat 9, major 13 kind of situation, right, it's usually going to a major, usually. If it's like an altered sound, it's used a lot in minor. So if you wanted to write, you know, if you're playing a tune like softly as in the morning sunrise, playing a D half diminished to a G13 flat nine, you know, with the E, it's not as common. Yeah.

Going to, going back to a C marker. Yeah, that would add in a different kind of tension, almost like an angular kind of grade. Because you're adding that major third to the situation, right? In the key of C minor, you're adding an E. Yeah, exactly. And you just want to be, and it would be the same thing if you went to the two. Right. Yeah, exactly. If you went to a Dorian sound on the D, it'd be the same kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. Good. All right, well, so thank you for the question, Mike, right?

Was that Mike? That was Mike. Mike. Hey, good job on the M-Auddy today, man. Man, you know what? These little keys feel like crap. KriZap, you know. But we do what we can. Check out the blog post that you'll hear at dot com. I just remember we actually did a little video on this, Five Easy Jazz. That's getting a little noise over on the YouTube. So there's a link, well, there's an embed. It's picking up traction. We're going to put a link to that. Andrew, put a link to the six-nine chord. just mail it to Peter.

Yeah. And just, yeah, exactly, please. And then, that's a joke. But the thing about this, too, is, No, it's not. Five Easy Jazz Piano Cords, it sounds great. The idea with this was that we would, we're really trying to be honest,

counteracts some of the garbage that's out here when people go to look for basic jazz piano courts. Man, and all they give them is. Stuff for beginners is so shoddy. Like, you don't have to be just starting out learning this and learn the crappy way of things. I know. I know. And our thing is like,

We want to meet you at the level you're at, but this stuff does not need to be that hard. You're not going to be, we can't teach you how to play like Herbie Hancock today, but we can teach you, I mean, Herbie Hancock plays this. He just goes and plays a bunch of other stuff too.

But I mean, Herbie Hancock does not play this. I mean, Gerrit does. Sorry. Herbie could play that. It would sound amazing. He'd figure out away.

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We weren't allowed to do that. Is this... do, but do, but de, da, da, da. Let's find out. Andrew, give it a go. You'll hear it.