You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Tune Breakdown: "Dolphin Dance" (Part 2)

Episode Date: November 11, 2020

It's another live edition of You'll Hear It where Peter and Adam take your questions. Today, Peter and Adam continue their breakdown of "Dolphin Dance."Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Wednesday's Open Studio Live Events:1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)3:00 PM - Edu Ribeiro + Keita Ogawa | Drum Conversations + Q&A on YouTube5:00 PM - Helio Alves Quartet - Live @ Smalls (sign up here to watch!)For the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

So this is a great, this is a great exercise, I think, in, and I'm not sure how Harvey would think about composing this, but, you know, using this motif of, right here in this next section, right, for C minor 7, to that A-flat 7, sharp 11, where the sharp 11 is the melody note. And then the next phrase is the same phrase melodically, not rhythmically, but the same sort of melodic shape. direction in shape of that.

Right. And we moved to an A minor 11 with that D. Again, so you went from ending the phrase with a D and an A flat 7 sharp 11 to a D and an A minor 11. And I love this thing. Like play those just back and forth. Same D in the melody and the two chords. Yeah. This is what I'm talking about.

Like really get to get to know what those sound like and how they resolve and don't resolve. And like that's the magic when you can play around with that. And then we go to G major. Now we've really switched keys. Yes. We haven't really, even on the susses and going to the ear and even on here, we're not really out of like the realm of E flat major. Right. And then three flats, four flats for A flat, very, very closely related, right?

Yeah, for sure. But then here, you know, after we. Yep. And then he does this little, which I think is, that might be the best part of the tune. Were you about to say, were you about to say you think that's the B's knees? I was. So, again, so you saw G major. And let's just talk real good there because we moved through that fast.

But the reason, remember we were talking about playing the different chords and finding where the resolutions and where the voice leading goes? Just think about that G major from where we just were. E flat major, G major, A flat major. Yeah. Right? Now, this is a recurring thing with Herb. If you look at, and maybe we'll do that in a couple of weeks, you know. is great.

Tell me a bedtime story. Right. So Herbie loves moving between these sharp and flat keys. Very unrelated major seven chords. You know, you should have got double bo, b. So they were moving down in major thirds, B major to G major, to E major, to C major, sharp 11. Totally. But they all have a common note, right?

Right. Which is the melody. So here we've got some of those kind of same tendencies. these places where the harmony will reveal itself as you're playing through the melody or as you're soloing at that point of the form that are very much a revelation, like a harmonic. I always think about like, you know, you've ever seen the sunrise? You're usually just going to bed around that. You're just passing out, right?

No, but, you know, the sunrise is like right when the sun comes above the horizon, right then. It's like, you know, and you can almost feel the warmth. Yeah, yeah. And so to me, that's like, that can be shifting between these major, because the, the, the, quality of the chord is the same. It's a major. It's an optimistic sound, but you're going from very unrelated keys. Once you can tap into that, a lot of this stuff starts to just kind of come to you and become easy, I think. That's right. And he does it right again, right away, right? So he's on this new major. And then, so he uses that melody note, which is the major seven, the F-sharp

and G should become a G-flat of an A-flat minor seven. And then check it out what he does with the melody here. Oh, you think that's where it's going, right? No, sir. That might be how you and I would have done it. You think, oh, it's a 2-5 to G-flat, right? And the melody indicates that, but he's going to take us back to the realm of E-flat major. Yes.

With his F-minor 11. It's a nice place to be. It's a nice place to be. And then right back to C-minor, right? So we're already now back straight up. Right. And actually, you know, in A-flat minor-7, that's already close

to the key of E flat, right? That's borrowing from the relative minor of E flat major. He could have done that too. He could have gone right to E flat. Thankfully he didn't. So it's just so brilliant there. And then right back to it. And because we're right... Right back to it. And now we're riding back to the G major.

Goes back to the G major. These are themes. Harmony is like colors that you're playing with, the composer plays with and gives to you as you're improvising to go through and paint with them as you. you will, but you know that that's going to be coming up at that time. You can play around with it. You can shift in and out of it. But that's there for you. So I think the three themes that are recurring already, and we're just getting to kind of the bridge. This is the bridge, right? Is that what you call it? I don't know if there is a bridge.

Yeah, not a traditional, but we're in the middle of the tune. But you've got the major and the relative minor, the E-flat major, that. Then you've got the A-flat, one to four, you know, that kind of playing around. And then you've got this very unrelated sharp key juxtapose within the order between either the E flat or the A flat or the C minor, which is the G major. So it's almost like everything's leading up now. That's why it feels like it's the bridge, like it's G major time, which we're going to go to in the next measure, right? Yeah. And now it starts playing with the G major, just like we were playing with the E flat, going from one, you know, to a sauce up to the, like you're going to go.

So it's like, so this seems like it should go back to the park for the summer festival. So you've already planted that seed in the listener's mind and spirit, not in a creepy AI kind of way, Elon Musk, into your brain, but you've planted it in a way, you know. So now we're on this G pedal for four bars, right? Yeah. We start with the major seven and then a little suss. Yeah, just like on the E flat, remember.

Right, and now he's going to go even more airy, even more spacey, a little A7. Now, do you think of that as A over G or G major 6-9 sharp 11? I think of it as an A try and over G more than anything. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And then F, back to the suss. Yeah.

Right. And so, and melodically here, too, what's happening, he just rides this all the way down. Yep. Okay, what is that? Damu du ba. Oh, yeah, E. E minor 11, right? Right.

Faking out D major, again. There's no 2.5 that really is true here except for the one minor 25. Right. the beginning. But just a note on the melodic theme of this, notice how every single motif is repeated from the top. Right? He does it twice. And then better do it again. And every time he does it again, he messes with it. New theme here. Yep. Better do it again.

You extend the melody up. Yeah. Keep going up. Now this is a true two five there. Going into the bridge. Going to the bridge. We'll call it the bridge. New theme. better repeat it F over G G30 Suss A whole step down Better repeat it Better repeat it again Check it out here

Wait let's stop right before we get there Because I just want to say one So we're going to start the next section We'll be there So check it out That's it's such a great journey Through the harmony and how it relates to the melody One other element I want is to show you

That's important to bring out in the melody And to be able to use as you're improvising is the rhythmic placement of the melody So we're talking about shape of the melody, moving it down, and how it relates to the harmony. But I love this juxtaposition of. So that's in anticipation. The syncopation is like one, two, stupidity, ah, and a four, right? One, two, three, four, uh, for where the sort of target note of the melody is.

And then, and then, wait, so we go, wait, wait a, it's a hard one to just piece together. The same thing there. Now, same thing. But now the syncopation, we go, Bob, Bob, it's not on the upbeats, it's on the downbeat. So there's kind of a resolution for sure.

And a connection, but a great symmetry by doing it like that. So the obvious way to do it would have been to be like, booby-how. You know, you keep doing that. But so again,

so he's repeating something also that he's done earlier, right? Syncopated, what? Yeah. So he's hearkening back to that with third time. Right? Third time, he's getting out of the syncopation game. He's giving you a big solid, uh-uh, uh.

Yeah. And then back to the syncopation. Block chord, a little Herbie block chord there, right? And that's the only passing chord in this whole tune. D minor going to that D-flat or C-sharp minor. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great stuff.

So let's go back to that. So that's E-flat, 13-sharp 11. So we've got like some tension in there mainly because, not just because it's a dominant chord, although that always is sort of the foundation for a possibility, unless you're in sort of a bluesy situation of there being some...

Yeah. So, but you've also got that sharp 11, but it's like with the melody and again, rhythmically, it's so... And you said about the only passing chord, interesting thing about that. So you got kind of like an e-sus and then a D minor, I believe, right?

Very unusual as a passing chord. Well, but it's going to that C-sharp minor. Right. So very usual, that's what I meant. Yeah, yeah. But that's such a great, it's not like, um, uh,

where is it. Like E minor to D minor to D minor to D flat minor. That would be a lot more boring than E sus to D minor. And then where the, where the melody notes are. Yeah. So you're on the root. Then you're on the minor third.

And then you're on the minor 11. So you're forced into that minor 11. Yeah, this is just classic. contrary motion between root and melody, right? Yep. Gorgians would be proud. I don't even know what that means. I don't even know if those are people or not.

I'd like to see the cordy. Wouldn't we all check out cordy? Oh. What? It only works with me. See, the problem with the cordy is, yeah, I got to unplug all of us and get you going. I mean, we could do it right now, but it just takes a minute.

No, we're going to have you do it. When we need to show some. So actually, show them those three chords on Cordy. Yeah, so we have our E7s. E7s, right? Yep. You can see it here. I'll just do some simple voicings.

And then how about a little... Wait, play that as an E13. No, no, no, E13 Suss 4. Yeah. I like that sound, but it's... Play that and then play the one you were with just the 9th and now the 13th. It's a fairly different sound, you know.

Yeah, so this basically has here an F-sharp minor 7. Yeah. Or an A-tri. Right. An A triad over that. Could do that. Could not. And then for our D, I would do something like that.

I like that, yeah, like a minor 11. Minor 11. I'm not going to do too many like fifths or you could crunch it up here with the 13 in there. There's not a really good place for the 9, right? Because if it's here, then you got that. That's too crunchy, I think, for this move. What about? What does you see?

What about just? I know that's breaking some rules. What is it? So C, yeah, C, D. Yep. That, I don't know. Yeah, I think that one works just not as a great stationary chord, but as a transitional, but between where we're coming to work.

Yeah. And you're doubling the seventh, which I don't normally recommend, but I don't know, to me it somehow kind of works. I mean, you could do all fourths here. Double the 11, too. You know what I mean? Go just. Because you're going here.

Because we're going to third. Yeah, then you're going third, fourths, into thirds, which is fun. Probably something like that, but the whole sequence would be like... Yeah, I like it. And then this is just... B minor, A minor. Right, you can think of it as B minor 9, A minor 9 over E.

And then a half step down. And then this, and then we already talked about our little double diminished thing. And then... Is that what you're saying? Yeah, actually, I would say... You know what I think it is? So you got the first one... Oh, no, no.

So the A-flat and the E diminished? Yeah. I wish I could see it, but I can't. I'm sorry. And then if you move up to D-flat diminished and A-diminish, so you're going, you know what I'm saying? That's triads, diminish triads, I should say. D-flat diminished tried and A-diminished triad.

Still over the E-flat. And then that's what Herbie Hancock plays. At least I heard him play it once. Let's play it again. Okay. I want to play. I was too, we were too frustrated with trying to set our stuff up. Take that cordy that got.

dang cordy out of there. I don't like that. You don't like that. Yeah. Cool. So, wow. We jumped right into it. We still got our check-ins and our segments and our hellos and everything.

Let's play one more time, though, on the way out. Bop-shapoo-bop-bop-bop-b-block chord. Then he goes straight into the casino for gambling time. There it is. All right. I like this. So I like the tune breakdown. a lot. Let us know if you like this tune breakdown thing. We're going to up our game here too.