Jazz harmony

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Dominant seventh chord on C: C7 About this sound Play (helpinfo).
Jazz harmony is the theory and practice of how chords are used in jazz music. Ja
zz bears certain similarities to other practices in the tradition of Western har
mony, such as many chord progressions, and the incorporation of the major and mi
nor scales as a basis for chordal construction. In jazz, chords are often arrang
ed vertically in major or minor thirds, although stacked fourths are also quite
common.[1] Also, jazz music tends to favor certain harmonic progressions and inc
ludes the addition of tensions, intervals such as 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths to chor
ds. Additionally, scales unique to style are used as the basis of many harmonic
elements found in jazz. Jazz harmony is notable for the use of seventh chords as
the basic harmonic unit more often than triads, as in classical music.[2] In th
e words of Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha, "7th chords provide the building
blocks of jazz harmony."[2]
The piano and guitar are the two instruments that typically provide harmony for
a jazz group. Players of these instruments deal with harmony in a real-time, flo
wing improvisational context as a matter of course. This is one of the greatest
challenges in jazz.
In a big-band context, the harmony is the basis for horn material, melodic count
erpoint, and so on. The improvising soloist is expected to have a complete knowl
edge of the basics of harmony, as well as their own unique approach to chords an
d their relationship to scales. A personal style is composed of these building b
locks and a rhythmic concept.
Jazz composers use harmony as a basic stylistic element as well. Open, modal har
mony is characteristic of the music of McCoy Tyner, whereas rapidly shifting key
centers is a hallmark of the middle period of John Coltrane's writing. Horace S
ilver, Clare Fischer, Dave Brubeck, and Bill Evans are pianists whose compositio
ns are more typical of the chord-rich style associated with pianist-composers. J
oe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Wayne Shorter and Benny Golson are non-pianists who al
so have a strong sense of the role of harmony in compositional structure and moo
d. These composers (including also Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus, who recor
ded infrequently as pianists) have musicianship grounded in chords at the piano,
even though they are not performing keyboardists.
The authentic cadence (V-I) is the most important one in both classical and jazz
harmony, though in jazz it more often follows a ii/II chord serving as predomin
ant. To cite Rawlins and Bahha, as above: "The ii-V-I [progression] provides the
cornerstone of jazz harmony"[2]
The ii-V-I (About this sound Play ii-V-I (helpinfo)) may appear differently in ma
jor or minor keys, m7-dom-maj7 or m7?5-dom?9-minor.[3]
Other central features of jazz harmony are diatonic and non-diatonic reharmoniza
tions, the addition of the V7(sus4) chord as a dominant and non-dominant functio
ning chord, major/minor interchange, blues harmony, secondary dominants, extende
d dominants, deceptive resolution, related ii-V7 chords, direct modulations, the
use of contrafacts, common chord modulations, and dominant chord modulations us
ing ii-V progressions.
Bebop or "straight-ahead" jazz, in which only certain of all possible extensions
and alterations are used, is distinguished from free, avant-garde, or modern ja
zz harmony.[2]
Contents [hide]
1
Chord symbols

2
Melodic minor scale
3
See also
4
Further reading
5
Sources
Chord symbols[edit]
Analytic practice in Jazz recognizes four basic chord types, plus diminished sev
enth chords. The four basic chord types are major, minor, minor-major, and domin
ant. When written in a jazz chart, these chords may have alterations specified i
n parentheses after the chord symbol. An altered note is a note which is a devia
tion from the canonical chord tone.
There is variety in the chord symbols used in jazz notation. A jazz musician mus
t have facility in the alternate notation styles which are used. The following c
hord symbol examples use C as a root tone for example purposes.
Equivalent symbols
Chord tones in example key
Name
Audio
C?, CM7, Cmaj7
C E G B
major seventh chord
About this sound
Play (helpinfo)
C7
C E G B?
dominant seventh chord About this sound
Play (helpinfo)
C-7, Cm7
C E? G B?
minor seventh chord
About th
is sound Play (helpinfo)
C-?7, CmM7, C?
C E? G B
minor/major seventh chord
About this sound Play (helpinfo)
C, Cm7?5, C-7?5
C E? G? B?
half-diminished seventh chord
About this sound Play (helpinfo)
Co7, Cdim7
C E? G? Bdouble flat
fully diminished 7th cho
rd
About this sound Play (helpinfo)
Csus7
C F G B?
dominant or minor suspended 4th chord
About this sound Play (helpinfo)
Most jazz chord symbols designate four notes. Each typically has a "role" as roo
t, third, fifth, or seventh, although they may be severely altered and possibly
use an enharmonic spelling which masks this underlying identity. For example, ja
zz harmony theoretician Jim Knapp has suggested that the ?9 and even the ?9 alte
rations are functioning in the root role.
The jazz chord naming system is as deterministic as the composer wishes it to be
. A general rule of thumb is that chord alterations are included in a chart only
when the alteration appears in the melody or is crucial to essence of the compo
sition. Skilled improvisers are able to supply an idiomatic, highly altered harm
onic vocabulary even when written chord symbols contain no alterations.
It is possible to specify chords with more than four notes. For example, the cho
rd C-?9 contains the notes (C E? G B D).