Altered dominants I'm most likely to find?

[alez]

Hi All,

 

I'm making a start with standards and I've found that I'm familiar with the majority of chords used in charts, good! From the chords found so far, the ones I'm less familiar with are altered dominants, so far I've found V7b5 in "Summertime", V7#5#9 in "Blue Bossa" and V7b9 in "My Funny Valentine".

 

I think I understand how they work more or less but, since these altered dominants seem to be very common, I'd like to practice some arpeggio routines on the most common at least, to get used to them.

 

My question is, which ones do you think I'm most likely to find all the time as I continue looking at easy jazz tunes? In other words, which ones should I prepare myself to face beforehand?

 

Cheers,

 

Alex

[Chris Lenk]

 

 

These shapes should probably cover most of what you'll run into. The chords in order are A7b5, A7#5, A7b9, A7#9, D7b9, D7#9, D7#5#9, D9b5.

 

For the A7b9 you want to get the bass with your thumb, or you could just leave it out and play the top, which is basically a Bb diminished. Pretty much the same chord. Note in each case the bottom 3 notes, 1 3 b7, give you the dominant chord and the strings give you the altered tones, except in the A7#9 where the b7 is doubled on the B string. So experiment with different combinations of altered tones.

[red|dragon]

Usually the altered dominant chord is followed by it's (I).

*Check this out: Play the Melodic Minor up a half step from the root of the altered dominant chord.

Example: A7alt to Dmin you would play Bb m.m.

*You might also want to check out the Alternate7/ Diminished connection which basically says when you see an alterted chord.

Example: Play G7b9 and then play Ab diminished, B dim Ddim and f dim. So in essence you could play F diminished on a G7b9 chord.

Oh, and if you didn't know when someone says altered or when you see an altered chord in the real book (if you dont have a real book get one) they are all basically the same. You will see b9 #9 b5 and #5 which are all altered tones.

But it does get kind of complicated...

I don't even think diminished because it's not diminished to me. So whenever I see a diminished chord I automatically think of the dom7b9. I mean what the hell is diminished anyways. People always get caught up playing that stupid 1 4 1 4 1 4 diminished thing, and thats what it sounds like 1 4 14 14 1 4. bleh... so remember this:

You can use the diminished scale to play V I major but you CANNOT use the diminished scale to play v i minor. But you can use the diminished arpeggio for both.

For further instruction on the altered7/diminished theory check out Al Di Meola's REH Instructional Video.

For further instruction on the "melodic minor scale" or just playing chromatically check out Jimmy Bruno's 2 video set. I think it's like $100. I copied mine from my guitar teacher. It is a must for all jazzers. A must. I don't use the scale shapes he uses though, but everything else theory wise and technique wise on that video is excellent.

Another song to play around with - Blue in Green. Beautiful melody and check out that A7alt chord! See what Miles and Bill play on it.

Peace. Don't think to hard about all of it...

I'd like to hear what joenovice has to say about this topic. Yo Joe!

[alez]

Thank you for the useful replies, guys.

Chris, I study trumpet so I tend to not favour any particular keys but practice all 12, that said I think the qualities or colours of the A and D chords you mention are what I was asking for, good!

BTW the other day I realized that V7#5 is a diatonic chord in minor I don't think this is very revealing, it looks to me like the point of altering the V is to provide additional tension with "outside" chords, but anyway.

Cheers,

Alex