So lately, I’ve been working my way through a course. I have discovered over the years, that, when I’m working on an online course, I will blast through it and learn the material. When I get done with the course, I can play the material. Looking back, however, sometimes I don’t take the time to really learn the ins and outs of the material.
I decided I’m going to try to change that a bit a little on the course I’m currently working. Then again, I almost have to. I’m not calling it a jazz course, but it’s definitely more in that vein. Given where I bought the course and what they primarily teach, I think the rest of the world would call it jazz.n In fact, if you saw my last post about online teachers, I’m actually working a couple of courses simultaneously. One is from the jazz guitar website I mentioned, and the other is a course that Griff (from BGU) started me into when we were doing private lessons and I told him I would like to put a little Larry Carlton into my playing.
Here’s what I’m currently trying to wrap my head around. It’s something that Griff and I talked through at least a couple of times. I feel like I understand it in my head, but I can’t get it to go into my fingers and musical vocabulary. It’s the theory of things.
I’ve always been a pretty black and white person. 1+1=2. C comes after B which comes after A. That kind of thing. Then, in my playing, I run across something like this. Take a look at the pic below. What chord is that?
Now here’s why Griff and I had the discussions. In the course I’m working through now, it shows that same chord in 2 different places. However, in one place it calls it a Dm11. In the other it calls it a C 6/9. It’s the same notes, so how can it have more than 1 name? Inner me is screaming.
It’s context.
That’s what Griff tried to pound into me. I knew he’s right, but I can’t seem to get it past my head to where I truly understand it. Conceptually, I guess it’s like James being called Jim, Jimmy, Jimbo, J-dawg, Junior, Bubba, or whatever folks happen to call him. Same guy, different names depending on context. One reason I’ve always liked music is because it’s very ordered. Like math. 1+1 always equals 2. Instead of 10, it repeats after 7. Structure is its thing. Until it’s not and you hit something like this.
Half the problem with the example I give, however, is that both instances of the chord are in the same song. That’s where the context of the chord gets important. And, weirdly, they’re both in a ii, V, I progression. If they weren’t, I may not’ve noticed them. In on spot, it starts the progression and ends it with a C Maj7. When it comes back around, it starts with a Dm7 instead, and then uses this chord to end it.
That’s where my head explodes a little bit. As a guitar player, I often fall back on the pattern I played or the fingering of the chord to say what I did. Since it’s the same notes, I’m going to play that chord the same way everytime. But, if somebody asked me what I was playing, is my brain going to be quick enough to recognize it as the ii and call it a Dm11 or am I just going to look at the key of the song being in C and that fingering being a C 6/9 and call it that even if that’s not the function it’s playing?
That’s the kind of thing I hope to be able to do one day. Until then, if you’re every playing with me and ask me what a weird chord is, I may call it the wrong thing. To be so simple and straight forward, music is awfully complicated sometimes.