Acoustic Guitar Central: Ken Hatfield

8/1/09 11:16 AM

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Ken Hatfield
By Adam Perlmutter

The nylon-string jazz guitarist discusses the importance of learning to play in every key. With audio.

Tune Up Ken Hatfield, along with Ralph Towner, Gene Bertoncini, and the late Charlie Byrd, is one of a small handful of jazz musicians to have made the nylon-string guitar his primary instrument. While not the most well known, Hatfielda 2006 winner of the ASCAP Foundations Vanguard Awardis among the most adventurous of this group. Hatfields strikingly original compositions shine as much as his brilliant technique, and he can be found playing everything from chamber works for classical guitar to duets for guitar/dobro and guitar/mandolin (on the album String Theory , where he plays all of the stringed instruments) to Brazilian folk music and post-bop jazz. Hatfield is also a brilliant educator, as is evident from his Mel Bay book Jazz and the Classical Guitar: Theory and Application . His most recent project, tudes for Solo Guitar in 24 Keys, came about as a pedagogical exercise. Hatfield wanted to teach his students the benefit of learning to play in all keysmost importantly, those considered inhospitable to guitaristsas well as introduce them to a wide range of musical forms. Hatfields 24 tudes, which are available as both a CD and a sheet-music folio, are as pleasurable to listen to as they are to play. I recently sat down with the guitarist in New York City to find out more about the ideas behind the studies. What are some of the benefits of being able to play in all 12 keys? HATFIELD The real richness in our harmonic system comes from the fact that there are shared materials amongst all keys. An Am chord for example, could be iii in the key of F, vi in the key of C, or ii in the key of G. Knowing all of the keys helps people realize these relationships, allowing them to travel fluidly between keys when composing or improvising. My old counterpoint teacher, Paul Caputo, used to liken it to walking into a large hall with hundreds of doors on either side: depending upon which door you open, you can go in and have a different little harmonic adventure. Its important to know not just what chords different keys have in common, but which notes different chords have in common, too. Heres a four-bar vamp [ Example 1 ] I use in a tune of mine called Mero [from Phoenix Rising ]. The chords have a lot of common tones; the high Ewhich is the root of Emaj7, the fifth of Am9, the ninth of Dmaj9, and the seventh of Fmaj7/Ghelps hold the whole deal together. And while the vamp is in E major, the last chord of the progression, Fmaj7/G, is designed to set up the pieces seemingly distant overall key, C major. [Fmaj7/G can also be seen as a G dominant
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Acoustic Guitar Central: Ken Hatfield

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chord, which functions as the V of a C chord.]

Audio: Example 1 The chord progression in your composition Demain, from The Surrealist Table, is another excellent example of the harmonic fluidity that can come from an awareness of the relationships between all keys. Can you break it down? HATFIELD The main body of the tune is a slightly unusual two-chord vamp in Db major: Dbmaj9 to Abm9 [Example 2 ]. Eventually it works its way to F major [Example 3 ], and the vamp is sequenced through different keys. In each sequence, a major chord [Fmaj9, for example] is followed by a minor chord [Cm7] that takes the fifth of the major chord [C] as its root. The next major chord [Dmaj9] is built on a root a half step below the preceding minor chords third [Eb]. The sequence continues until it arrives at Ebm9, which is the ii of the original tonicthe Dbmaj7 chord. I then use a Dmaj7 to get from the Ebm7 to the Dbmaj7. This Dmaj7 thus functions as what classical theorists call a Neapolitan chord, with the bass and melody moving in contrary motion.

Audio: Example 2 Audio: Example 3

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In tudes for Solo Guitar in 24 Keys , you address form as much as tonality. HATFIELD Classical guitarists are often confused as to what jazz musicians do when they improvise, and while most blues and rock musicians do improvise to some degree, they get nervous when the chord structures or musical forms become more complex. So, I wanted to expose people to forms they might be unfamiliar with; to that end there are some Brazilian settings, some AABA tunes, some fugues, and so on. I liken it to a basketball game: the coach doesnt have to tell you who to pass the basketball toyou look on the court and see whos open. Similarly, when you develop a sensibility about whats going on in improvisational music with regard to the form as well as content, youre quick to react intelligently to what is happening in the music, and youve got the facility to express that reaction. Some of our readers might be unfamiliar with a fugue. Can you explain how one works? HATFIELD When writing, a lot of guitarists will start with chords and then compose a melody to fit the harmony. But its the other way around with a fugue, which is a contrapuntal form. The harmony results from the confluence of two or more melodic lines that appear in some form of imitation of each other. For example, lets take the basic theme from tude 11 in Bb Major [Example 4 ]. After the theme is stated, it moves on while another voice responds with similar material: the upper voice here [upstemmed notes of Example 5 ] mirrors the theme. The theme started with an ascending fifth, from Bb to F, then went down a third, to D; oppositely the response starts on an F, goes down a fifth, to Bb, then goes up a third, to D.

Audio: Example 4 Audio: Example 5

LICK OF THE MONTH Heres a vamp similar to one in tude 17 in Ab Minor, Hatfield says. Its based on a Brazilian rhythm called maxixe and can be used to begin or end a tune. On the Eb7#9 chord, a quick bit of tritone substitutionreplacing the root note, Eb, with the note Amakes for an interesting chord substitution, in essence converting the Eb7#9 into an A13.

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Audio: Lick of the Month

Photo credit, top, Ken Korsh Ken Hatfield's Guitars and Gear Acoustic Guitar: Buscarino Ken Hatfield nylon-string model with a lattice-braced spruce double top, rosewood sides, and a carved rosewood back. Amplification: Richard McClish (RMC) hexaphonic pickups with active Poly-Drive electronics. Radial JDV Super DI. Earthworks QTC40 (QTC1) high-definition microphone. Hatfield usually plays through the house PA, otherwise with either an Acoustic Image Focus head and Buscarino Chameleon speaker or an AER Compact 60 amp. Strings: Luthier Concert Gold. Accessory: Janssen Guitarest.

Ken Hatfield's Guitars and Gear This article also appears in Acoustic Guitar, Issue #201

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