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Question on chords from Coltrane's My Favorite Things


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Posted

I was wondering if anybody can help me figure out the two chords that Tyner plays during about 0:10 of the album version. There are two chords that he plays and he repeats them throughout the song. I've spend a good amount of time trying to figure them out and I'm not sure of what they are. I think the first is an Em9 but I'm not sure. If you have any idea what these chords are I would love to know.

Posted

He's alternating between an Em7 and an F#m7 chord, using these voicings:

 

x-7-7-7-8-7

 

x-9-9-9-10-9

 

 

Alternately, you could play them like this without the 4th:

 

x-7-9-7-8-7

 

x-9-11-9-10-9

 

 

However, McCoy's big thing has always been voicings stacked in fourths, so the first set of voicings is more characteristic.

 

Also characteristic of McCoy is switching between those two chords on a minor 7th chord. When the chart says "Em7" and the overall sound is E dorian, it's common to switch between Em7 and F#m7 (or Em11 and F#m11 like above) to highlight more of the notes from E dorian. The parallel nature of this lick (both chords being the same voicing) is really what makes it work so well. The same chords are used on the head for "So What," an album that features Coltrane (though McCoy doesn't play on it).

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Posted

What Popard wrote is generally correct, it's basically Emin | F#min.

 

Modal jazz usually refers to a song structure, in which you have fewer chords then say, bebop. This gives the players more freedom as they're not limited to hitting a chord change ever bar or so. The Sound of Music version of My Favorite Things isn't modal, and when Coltrane plays the melody they follow the changes pretty much the way they are in the original version. But the solos are basically just one big section of Emin, then a section of Emaj, then back to Emin.

 

So when you have a big section of just a single chord it can get a little repetitive. So these guys add other chords. Here the basic vamp is Emin | F#min, but if you think about it it's basically the same as Emin | A7, which you can think of as a ii-V, and is the building block of jazz. Anyway, basically you can play off any chord in the key. If you're thinking E dorian (which Emin - F#min would suggest) then it's the key of D. So you can play off any chord from the key of D. And from there you can add chords from different keys. This is why modal jazz gives you so much freedom as a player. You can do the same thing in a bebop tune, but there's generally not as much space to do it in.

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Posted

What Popard wrote is generally correct, it's basically Emin | F#min.


Modal jazz usually refers to a song structure, in which you have fewer chords then say, bebop. This gives the players more freedom as they're not limited to hitting a chord change ever bar or so. The Sound of Music version of My Favorite Things isn't modal, and when Coltrane plays the melody they follow the changes pretty much the way they are in the original version. But the solos are basically just one big section of Emin, then a section of Emaj, then back to Emin.


So when you have a big section of just a single chord it can get a little repetitive. So these guys add other chords. Here the basic vamp is Emin | F#min, but if you think about it it's basically the same as Emin | A7, which you can think of as a ii-V, and is the building block of jazz. Anyway, basically you can play off any chord in the key. If you're thinking E dorian (which Emin - F#min would suggest) then it's the key of D. So you can play off any chord from the key of D. And from there you can add chords from different keys. This is why modal jazz gives you so much freedom as a player. You can do the same thing in a bebop tune, but there's generally not as much space to do it in.

 

 

Great explanation.:thu:

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