Wonderful bio on George Russell and reminding people of his interconnectedness with the innovators within jazz during the 40's and 50's. My Dad was born in 1919 and as well as an educated jazz musician was always hosting dinners and evenings. So I grew up listening to many amazing players. In 1965, at age 10, while learning guitar from Lightnin' Hopkins and other blues records, I became fascinated with my Dad's copies of Jazz in the Space age and Lydian Chromatic Concept. I was lucky enough to really study these things at music school in Boston during my teens and with Mick Goodrick and Charlie Banacos. But it was George Russell and Bill Evens/Jim Hall Undercurrent album that started me into my Dad's jazz world even more than Miles Davis modal exploration. Thank You for your excellent "Critical Review". Your excellence and good understanding is shining forth!
Thank you for taking the time to provide education on this topic. George Russell‘s work is an important part of the body of music theory. There’s a lo t of wisdom and hard work and bodied in this book. It’s not the ultimate truth, but it is one very talented person’s truth, and is helpful to musicians of any genre if they have the discipline to read the book.
Good stuff. People can be pretty shallow when they talk about this stuff. You can’t really separate a musicians approach to playing or writing from their own musical history.
Ok, I'm only five minutes in but I already have to thank you for doing this because it means even more when you're giving some bio of him from birth, which means when you mean thorough, you mean thorough. I really appreciate this because, while I haven't looked obsessively extensively for LCC info it's been lacking and I felt the same way when Beato and Neely gave pretty much nil info on it. I also sensed like they didn't really know. I was so disappointed after having the expectation that they'd at least just give some 101 examples for newbs to get a better understanding. You've already voiced the same disappointment and started from thee beginning and it looks like there's ~40+ minutes of material on this at this point so again, thank you very very much, I really appreciate it. 🤛🏽🤟🏽🙏🏽
Music harmony is a Fractal. George Russell had partially discovered this but had no way of knowing in his time also he only partial unlocks this knowledge. A Fractal has a infinite amount of detail and infinite ability to soon in or out all while being self similar .( infinite variations on a form Information vs chaos . To unlock the Fractal nature of music Is to learn to change field of view ( what scale you are looking at. ) For example the way we speak in terms if a KEY. Say the KEY of C major . It gives us the impression we are fully zoomed outward when we look at or think about a KEY. But it's not true .a KEY is a small music object NOT a large music object . This is demonstrated By zooming outward. If we take KEY ofC major CDEFGABC Look at the chords . Cmaj7 Dmin7 Emin7 Fmaj7 G7 Amin7 Bmin7b5 Cmaj7 You can See we have a major cadence Dmin7/ G7,/ Cmaj6/ And We have a minor cadence Bmin7b5/ E7/ Amin6 That's 6 out of 7 chords in the key of C major . The 2 cadences have 2 focal points . 1 at Cmaj 1 at Amin Then 6 out of 7 But that leaves 1 remaining chord right directly in the middle Fmaj7. So this is where the 2 cadences are located inside of . ii V I of Cmaj AS WELL AS ii V I OF Amin Take place INSIDE A container of F major That's all 7 chords in the KEY of C major. 1.Cmaj7 ( tonic 2.Dmin7 ( subdom 3Emin7 ( tonic 4.Fmaj7 ( subdom 5.G7 ( dom 6.Amin7 ( tonic 7Bmin7b5 ( dom All these are at rest if played above a ringing Fmaj7 chord in bass . ( any chord progression in the KEY of C major exists inside Flydian SO A key is a tiny object if you zoom out from key of C C major you see its entire contents unfold INSIDE an environment a larger area. THAT larger area is Flydian Or D Dorian. ( major ir minor flavor )
This unlocks the Fractal nature of music in terms of harmony. Horizontal harmony is looking at a zoomed in view and only a partial area. Dmin7) G7) Cmaj7) See can even see we zoomed into to 4 note chords . But a 4 note chord is zoomed in. We want to zoom out to see a full field of view ( 7 note chords and above ) Fmaj13#11 is not a 4 note chord ( zoomed in) it is a 7 note chord ( zoomed out ) Well how do you take the idea of a 7 note chord and use it? Its simple, you start with a key ( just like we got used to thinking ) Create a progression Bmin7b5/ E7/ Amin6/ Amin6/ Dmin7/ G7/ Cmaj6/ Cmaj6/ Play this harmony with licks riffs lines melodies . Next step Gave a Fmaj spread triad in the bass ringing out the entire duration. Now we have the while thing represents a zoomed out field of view . ( except 1 problem ) It's all in slow motion because we have a Fmaj13#11 ringing out that entire time. So you can either speed up the tempo so that you can now add other extended chords also . Ir you can alternate between Lydian and Dorian. The above progression works just as well having DFA in the bass too . So what we found our is 2 main extended harmony shapes a major Flydian And a minor D Dorian. How they work is C msjor progressions A minor progressions are inside of F lydian and D Dorian. All at unity . This is your introduction into the Fractal nature of music . Think in terms of 7 note chords for a while. ( extended harmony ) Not cropped in shrunken 4 note chord progressions. ( 4 note chords and their progressions exist INSIDE a 7 note chord )
Its important to be able to reuse your material in several contexts. Just as we use triad pairs technique to express extended harmony this is another playing and conceptual approach. It only takes understanding that the way we play 4 note chords is going be different than the way we play 7 note chords. Think of a major triad. CEG Well what 4 and 5 note harmony does C triad represent? Its ambiguous, because the triad is missing that information. CEG can be C6 CEGA C7 CEGBb Cmaj7 CEGB Etc. When you extended the harmony you are getting a more specific and complex sound. Cmaj13#11 CEGBDF#A Is much more specific than CEG But we can see what makes a 7 note chord work. Take Flydian as Fmaj13#11 FACEGBD Inside of it we can see Dmin7/ G7/ Cmaj6 Exists. And because this is true we can use existing material we have developed over time which represents that cadence .
Thank you for taking the time to share this. It resonates deeply with how I intuitively perceive musical harmony. Only recently I’ve been conceptualizing individual chords, sections of chords and chord progressions as sound objects and it has been really helpful for my composition practice. As I get more into it, I find that using the harmonic series as a building block for musical organization is a gift that keeps on giving and truly a fractal phenomenon.
@@unoaotroa hi my friend. there is an incredible discovery in harmony and the fractal nature is wonderful. ill share a couple things for you to try out . form perspective of Function harmony or Tonal music language ( v7 /I) (music in a key) and picking the key of C major. the Tonic function is represented by Cmaj13#11 C..E..G..B..D..F#.A R..3..5..7..9.11.13 we can take the Maj6 C6 CEGA and combine it with a wholetone higher D6 DF#AB c6 + d6 = Cmaj13#11 so here is excersise for you. begin with drop2 voicings for each inversion of C6 CEGA CEGA becomes drop2 GCEA EGAC becomes drop2 AEGC GACE becomes drop2 CGAE ACEG becomes drop2 EACG now we have 4 inversions per octave of playable voicings. next create the D6 of the same thing just a whole tone higher. have each note of the D6 drop2 voicings resolve down a wholetone and you can create stacks of melody which spell the CMaj13#11 ( tonic function in the key of c major ) for Tonal music language functional harmony so we have D6 + C6 = Cmaj13#11 however, if we take c6 and raise a halfstep we get Db6 ( which spells G7 dominant function) this excersise map out the Db6 drop2 voicings( 4 inversions per octave) and resolve each note down a halfstep to C6 in order to spell ( V7 /1) in key of Cmajor ( dominant / tonic) ( this expands outward also for Modal music language , polytonal music lanugae and Atonal music language.
You know how Rhythm has " playing through the bar lines" Well harmony has an equivalent in terms of having progressions nested inside of a 7 note chord . Playing a progression of say Bmin7b5/ E7b9/ Amin6/Anin6/ Dmin7/ G7b5/ Cmaj6/Cmaj6/ Over top of a steadily ringing Fmaj7 triad in the deep bass. So it spelling out a 7 note chord BUT, you using your previous existing material you know as a means of essentially playing a 7 note chord but in very musical way . It's like super imposition. So the idea is horizontal harmony nested inside of Vertical harmony . Of course kind of blue does it Coltrane does it all over . It's the harmony equivalent of rhythms " playing through the bar line" Essentially doing with a music fractal . Where no matter how much you zoom in or out of the music or is self similar .
Playing 7 note chords can seem a bit difficult compared to our normal 4 note chord progressions . But you can and should use your preferred existing vocabulary to do so . Nesting the cadences Cmajor cadence and A minor cadence inside a Fmajor chord for example. You can nest entire standards inside a 7 note chord. Like rhythm changes nested inside a steady ringing Eb major chord. This is what LCC is about a wider zoomed out view of harmony .( while still using all the progressions you know ) Take a standards key signature and play a major chord in the deep bass a fifth below the whole thing
This series of videos about Russell is incredible, thank you for putting them together. I can't for part 4!
Wonderful bio on George Russell and reminding people of his interconnectedness with the innovators within jazz during the 40's and 50's. My Dad was born in 1919 and as well as an educated jazz musician was always hosting dinners and evenings. So I grew up listening to many amazing players. In 1965, at age 10, while learning guitar from Lightnin' Hopkins and other blues records, I became fascinated with my Dad's copies of Jazz in the Space age and Lydian Chromatic Concept. I was lucky enough to really study these things at music school in Boston during my teens and with Mick Goodrick and Charlie Banacos. But it was George Russell and Bill Evens/Jim Hall Undercurrent album that started me into my Dad's jazz world even more than Miles Davis modal exploration. Thank You for your excellent "Critical Review". Your excellence and good understanding is shining forth!
Thank you for taking the time to provide education on this topic. George Russell‘s work is an important part of the body of music theory. There’s a lo t of wisdom and hard work and bodied in this book. It’s not the ultimate truth, but it is one very talented person’s truth, and is helpful to musicians of any genre if they have the discipline to read the book.
Good stuff. People can be pretty shallow when they talk about this stuff. You can’t really separate a musicians approach to playing or writing from their own musical history.
Ok, I'm only five minutes in but I already have to thank you for doing this because it means even more when you're giving some bio of him from birth, which means when you mean thorough, you mean thorough. I really appreciate this because, while I haven't looked obsessively extensively for LCC info it's been lacking and I felt the same way when Beato and Neely gave pretty much nil info on it. I also sensed like they didn't really know. I was so disappointed after having the expectation that they'd at least just give some 101 examples for newbs to get a better understanding. You've already voiced the same disappointment and started from thee beginning and it looks like there's ~40+ minutes of material on this at this point so again, thank you very very much, I really appreciate it. 🤛🏽🤟🏽🙏🏽
Thank you so much, this is not only well researched, but BBC tier entertainment
I' ve still got the book and the sliding charts..
Can you please tell me what's the music from intro?
ruclips.net/video/CHTWozfCszM/видео.html
This is a great channel.. really enjoy your vids Andy
i think adam has taken this video down i can’t find it anywhere
Great video! Thank you!
Music harmony is a Fractal.
George Russell had partially discovered this but had no way of knowing in his time also he only partial unlocks this knowledge.
A Fractal has a infinite amount of detail and infinite ability to soon in or out all while being self similar .( infinite variations on a form
Information vs chaos .
To unlock the Fractal nature of music Is to learn to change field of view ( what scale you are looking at. )
For example the way we speak in terms if a KEY. Say the KEY of C major .
It gives us the impression we are fully zoomed outward when we look at or think about a KEY.
But it's not true .a KEY is a small music object NOT a large music object .
This is demonstrated
By zooming outward.
If we take KEY ofC major
CDEFGABC
Look at the chords .
Cmaj7
Dmin7
Emin7
Fmaj7
G7
Amin7
Bmin7b5
Cmaj7
You can
See we have a major cadence
Dmin7/ G7,/ Cmaj6/
And
We have a minor cadence
Bmin7b5/ E7/ Amin6
That's 6 out of 7 chords in the key of C major .
The 2 cadences have 2 focal points .
1 at Cmaj
1 at Amin
Then 6 out of 7
But that leaves 1 remaining chord right directly in the middle
Fmaj7.
So this is where the 2 cadences are located inside of .
ii V I of Cmaj
AS WELL AS
ii V I OF Amin
Take place INSIDE
A container of F major
That's all 7 chords in the KEY of C major.
1.Cmaj7 ( tonic
2.Dmin7 ( subdom
3Emin7 ( tonic
4.Fmaj7 ( subdom
5.G7 ( dom
6.Amin7 ( tonic
7Bmin7b5 ( dom
All these are at rest if played above a ringing Fmaj7 chord in bass .
( any chord progression in the KEY of C major exists inside Flydian
SO A key is a tiny object if you zoom out from key of C C major you see its entire contents unfold INSIDE an environment a larger area. THAT larger area is Flydian
Or D Dorian.
( major ir minor flavor )
This unlocks the Fractal nature of music in terms of harmony.
Horizontal harmony is looking at a zoomed in view and only a partial area.
Dmin7) G7) Cmaj7)
See can even see we zoomed into to 4 note chords . But a 4 note chord is zoomed in.
We want to zoom out to see a full field of view ( 7 note chords and above )
Fmaj13#11 is not a 4 note chord ( zoomed in) it is a 7 note chord ( zoomed out )
Well how do you take the idea of a 7 note chord and use it?
Its simple, you start with a key
( just like we got used to thinking )
Create a progression
Bmin7b5/ E7/ Amin6/ Amin6/
Dmin7/ G7/ Cmaj6/ Cmaj6/
Play this harmony with licks riffs lines melodies .
Next step
Gave a Fmaj spread triad in the bass ringing out the entire duration.
Now we have the while thing represents a zoomed out field of view .
( except 1 problem )
It's all in slow motion because we have a Fmaj13#11 ringing out that entire time.
So you can either speed up the tempo so that you can now add other extended chords also .
Ir you can alternate between Lydian and Dorian.
The above progression works just as well having DFA in the bass too .
So what we found our is 2 main extended harmony shapes a major Flydian
And a minor D Dorian.
How they work is C msjor progressions A minor progressions are inside of F lydian and D Dorian.
All at unity .
This is your introduction into the Fractal nature of music .
Think in terms of 7 note chords for a while.
( extended harmony )
Not cropped in shrunken 4 note chord progressions.
( 4 note chords and their progressions exist INSIDE a 7 note chord )
Its important to be able to reuse your material in several contexts.
Just as we use triad pairs technique to express extended harmony this is another playing and conceptual approach.
It only takes understanding that the way we play 4 note chords is going be different than the way we play 7 note chords.
Think of a major triad.
CEG
Well what 4 and 5 note harmony does C triad represent?
Its ambiguous, because the triad is missing that information.
CEG can be
C6 CEGA
C7 CEGBb
Cmaj7 CEGB
Etc.
When you extended the harmony you are getting a more specific and complex sound.
Cmaj13#11
CEGBDF#A
Is much more specific than CEG
But we can see what makes a 7 note chord work.
Take Flydian as Fmaj13#11
FACEGBD
Inside of it we can see Dmin7/ G7/ Cmaj6
Exists. And because this is true we can use existing material we have developed over time which represents that cadence .
Thank you for taking the time to share this. It resonates deeply with how I intuitively perceive musical harmony. Only recently I’ve been conceptualizing individual chords, sections of chords and chord progressions as sound objects and it has been really helpful for my composition practice.
As I get more into it, I find that using the harmonic series as a building block for musical organization is a gift that keeps on giving and truly a fractal phenomenon.
@@unoaotroa
hi my friend.
there is an incredible discovery in harmony and the fractal nature is wonderful.
ill share a couple things for you to try out .
form perspective of Function harmony or Tonal music language ( v7 /I)
(music in a key) and picking the key of C major.
the Tonic function is represented by Cmaj13#11
C..E..G..B..D..F#.A
R..3..5..7..9.11.13
we can take the Maj6 C6 CEGA
and combine it with a wholetone higher D6
DF#AB
c6 + d6 = Cmaj13#11
so here is excersise for you.
begin with drop2 voicings for each inversion of C6 CEGA
CEGA becomes drop2 GCEA
EGAC becomes drop2 AEGC
GACE becomes drop2 CGAE
ACEG becomes drop2 EACG
now we have 4 inversions per octave of playable voicings.
next create the D6 of the same thing just a whole tone higher.
have each note of the D6 drop2 voicings
resolve down a wholetone and you can create stacks of melody which spell the CMaj13#11 ( tonic function in the key of c major )
for Tonal music language functional harmony
so we have D6 + C6 = Cmaj13#11
however, if we take c6 and raise a halfstep we get Db6 ( which spells G7 dominant function)
this excersise map out the Db6 drop2 voicings( 4 inversions per octave) and resolve each note down a halfstep to C6 in order to spell
( V7 /1) in key of Cmajor
( dominant / tonic)
( this expands outward also for Modal music language , polytonal music lanugae and Atonal music language.
Thank you so much for this video
Very well researched 👍
strange rick beato hasnt got a good video on this up on his channel, he claims to have been a student of Russell’s for years.
Interesting, thanks. By the way, Sheffield accent?
Please please what is the opening music
It’s Similau by Artie Shaw
You know how Rhythm has " playing through the bar lines"
Well harmony has an equivalent in terms of having progressions nested inside of a 7 note chord .
Playing a progression of say
Bmin7b5/ E7b9/ Amin6/Anin6/
Dmin7/ G7b5/ Cmaj6/Cmaj6/
Over top of a steadily ringing Fmaj7 triad in the deep bass.
So it spelling out a 7 note chord
BUT, you using your previous existing material you know as a means of essentially playing a 7 note chord but in very musical way .
It's like super imposition.
So the idea is horizontal harmony nested inside of Vertical harmony .
Of course kind of blue does it Coltrane does it all over .
It's the harmony equivalent of rhythms " playing through the bar line"
Essentially doing with a music fractal .
Where no matter how much you zoom in or out of the music or is self similar .
thank you for that profuse knowledge you share and the great job done here
Playing 7 note chords can seem a bit difficult compared to our normal 4 note chord progressions .
But you can and should use your preferred existing vocabulary to do so .
Nesting the cadences Cmajor cadence and A minor cadence inside a Fmajor chord for example.
You can nest entire standards inside a 7 note chord. Like rhythm changes nested inside a steady ringing Eb major chord.
This is what LCC is about a wider zoomed out view of harmony .( while still using all the progressions you know )
Take a standards key signature and play a major chord in the deep bass a fifth below the whole thing
i would say that if a person doesn't know who george russell is, then they obviously don't know enough about art farmer and bill evans.