Research Paper Year 4

Arjun Desai

Jazz and Contemporary Music

29 September 2019

Tools to expand vocabulary

The basis for this research paper is to explore staple harmonic and rhythmic

knowledge through a different lens. This will allow for exploring new avenues in devel-

oping ideas and themes.

In the first part we will observe a set of chords as a collection of intervals.

For example:

A major 9 (no fifth) chord voiced as follows : Root, Major Third, Major 7th, Major 9th.

i.e a C major 9 comprises of C,E,B,D.

In order to expand our knowledge of these 4 set of notes, they can be viewed in rela-

tion to all 12 possible bass notes.

Research Paper Year 4

Root note Chord Tones Possible chord

type

C Root 3 7 9 Maj9

Db b9 11 Root b3 Phrygian

D 9 #11 b9 3 N/A

Eb b3 5 9 11 Min 11

E 3 b13 b3 b5 Altered Dom

F 11 13 3 5 Sus

Gb b5 b7 11 b13 Half Diminished

G 5 7 #11 13 Lydian, Maj7#11

Ab b13 R 5 b7 Aeolian

A 13 b9 b13 7 N/A

Bb b7 9 13 R Sus

B 7 m3 b7 b9 N/A

From the table we can observe how a few of these are not applicable in a useable

context but several are.

One such deduction from this table after analysis would be:

In order to achieve a minor 7th b5 sound, a maj9 structure a tritone away would be

employed.

Expanding on this concept:

Over a iim7b5 - V7alt - Imin7 progression in the key of C i.e

Dm7b5 - G7alt - Cmin 7 the following structures would be used :

Abmaj9 - Bmaj9 - Ebmaj9

Research Paper Year 4

It is important to note that these sounds might not provide all the information to the

harmony. For example an altered sound obtained using this method doesn’t contain the

b7 which is an important guide tone. This does obscure the harmony at times and

should be used so with taste.

The above material has been derived from various sources and the aim is to re-

fine and develop a sort of system/ guide to formalise this knowledge. The sources

cited are : Romain Pilon, Mark Turner and Lage Lund for the above information.

The final paper will be organised and displayed more systematically for ease of

reading.