Bird Blues - How to play and Understand the Chords
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- Опубликовано: 25 апр 2018
- Bird Blues or Parker Blues is one of the most important Chord Progressions if you want to understand bebop. Charlie Parkers reharmonization of the 12 bar form is both an insight in how Bebop players love playing moving chords and also an insight on how reharmonization and chord progressions were going to change after bebop.
In this video I am going to show you 2 sets of voicings to play the Parker Blues and also discuss how the progression works compared to a normal 12 bar jazz blues.
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What songs do you know that use this progression? (and what did you think about the Solar question) 🙂
at 9:09 I could hear the Solar melody. Also, the chromatic ii-Vs sound like Solar for obvious reason! But I don't know much about this type of blues form so not 100% sure. But does resemble a Solar
Ok, Thanks! Good to know I am not completely crazy :)
Strangely enough, I think the pop song
I think, strangely enough, that the pop song “Nothing from Nothing” by Billy Preston many years ago follows a sort of Bird blues schematic. I hope that’s the right title.
Jens Larsen I’m quite certain the Justin Bieber song “Baby baby baby oh baby baby baby oh baby baby baby” uses this progression... or is that the “1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1” progression...
It would be great if you did a video on soloing over these changes. Great lesson!
Thanks I will keep that in mind!
Great work Jens there seems millions of guitar tutorials these days but you were one of the first who resonated with me about 7 years ago and your analysis has helped and confirmed for me what we all should be doing cheers mate Obligardos
Jens thanks for all your knowledge that you share with us and the PDF which is very kind and it inspires lots of players and your lessons are greatly appreciated.
Thanks Doug! Glad you like it!
Oh my god you saved my ass Jens. We're playing this in my band and I have not been able to wrap my head around the changes. Thanks a ton!
You're very welcome! It's always great to hear that you can really put it to use!
I would like to see a video on soloing over this progression!
Thanks John! I will keep that in mind!
Me too!
I just came back to this, as usual there is a whole 'nother level at work, lots of material I missed the first time thru. Another very practical players lesson, Thank You...! 😎
Glad you like it, Donald!
Great one, crystal clear!
Thanks Nick!
Love your videos jens, learnt a lot of jazz from you, thanks man 😎
Happy to hear that! Keep at it and let me know if you have ideas for a video! 🙂
Great stuff! Thanks, Jens! Soloing-- yes.
Thank you Brad!
Been hoping you'd make a video about this. Would love to see a soloing video on this form as well.
Thanks Aryo! Glad to hear that! I will keep that in mind about the solo lesson!
Thanks Jens, very inspiring thoughts as always!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great lesson, so much information here it's scary. The charts standard/bird charts are fascinating, the first play of the drop 2voicings had a hint of "Moon River" in it... 😎. Thank You!
Thanks, Donald! Well, moon river is not the worst song to quote :)
!!! being able to squint and just barely see the 12 bar blues in Blues for Alice is literally what got me into jazz! So excited to watch this one!
Cool! Though I do feel somewhat under pressure, I hope it doesn't make you leave jazz again 🙂
The part at 7:02, w/ an analogy to your favorite biii dim (#iv inversion) is really fascinating.
I can definitely see it w/ Solar, especially in spirit! It uses the same v I trick to get to IV, and it has the same trait of "working backwards." It knows it wants to get to the D half diminished (filling a similar role to the A half dim in Equinox), and it gets there by some of the same ii-V chains.
Got a totally different harmonic rhythm, though, so I'm going to have to meditate on it.
Cool! Thanks Yes I can almost be defined as an inversion of a #IV dim chord 😄
Ok, so I am not completely nuts with the Solar thing :)
Sir, I want to thank you personally because this lesson was my request months ago! Great lesson! May be you can explain using quartal voicings on this beautiful progression some other time ;), many thankjs for your great effort!
Thank you! I don't know if I will get to quartal voicings on this, but a lot of the quartal voicing videos Ihave already done should really help you cover it already?🙂
Great lesson --thanks, Jens!
Thank you John! 🙂
Another great example and analysis! Thanks, Jens ;-)
Glad you like it Kenneth! 🙂
Hi Jens Great choice of Topic! Looking forward on you improvising with score maybe first chorus, without chorus without score for the patreons and also to show us the improvisation aspect, and maybe a longer longer longer lesson like 35 minutes to analyse your own solo when you played your 4th or 5th choruses the improv aspect starts be at hand more and more....you get my drill!!!!!
Solo on the Bird blues. Sounds awesome.
Great Thanks Thomas!
I was watching another video where the guy was basically changing scales for every Chord to solo...Like F7(Fmixo)Bb(Bbmixo)..And so on... it seemed over complicated,and unnecessary..It made me think of the way you break things down in a more efficient way...so here I am!
That's gold! Very, very informational. Thank you, Sir!
Thank you very much! Where did you come across this video? (if you don't mind me asking)
No problem. I searched specifically for "Bird Blues" - structure, analyse, etc. and came across your lesson.
Ok! That is always good to know 🙂
Are The Best Jens
Thank you !
You're welcome!
Thanks!
Glad you like it 🙂
Yes, please do a lesson on soloing over a Bird blues. Also, it would be great if you could do a lesson on the studio version of “L’il Darling” by Joe Pass, especially the long chord phrases he played between the melody notes. Many thanks!
Thanks Tim! The L'il Darling you are talking about is on Intercontinental? I guess I could try and do something with that :)
At the website you have diagrams of A7+ for A7, Dm9 for Dm7, G13 for G7, a number of 9th chords in place of 7 chords, and a D7#9 for D7.
Indeed. In jazz the one playing the chords is free to interpret the chord symbol and add the extensions and alterations that fits how he or she is playing. For that reason I usually try to stick with the chord type and not specify the extensions like 9 or b9.
Does that help? 🙂
Great video - very practical and helpful. I am still in the early stages of my jazz playing so maybe I'm completely wrong but is it correct to say that Wes Montgomery uses these kind of progressions a lot? I'm thinking of four on six and west coast blues in particular. I also think a video on soloing over such a progression would be really helpful. Thanks very much for this. There is an excellent video on youtube of Louis Stewart playing Bluesette with Mundell Lowe in Ireland in the 80s and his melodic fluency (Louis) through all those changes is breathtaking.
Thanks Conor! West Coast Blues has the chromatic II V's but not the first 4 bars, so in that way it is related. I think you will find more tunes that have that and then for the rest are more normal blues progressions. Chi Chi is another one.
Solar I associate a little bit with Confirmation..but as well with the A-part of Aftrenoon in Paris(downward :"Fall" of major7th chords as a modal prototype if you unthink or thinkaway the II V's...if you get my drift? like impressions of course m7 are possible to substitute on the biiI BY maj 7 chords|Wes MontgomeryGeorge Benson approach)
Thanks a lot. Very helpful. Would the tune we wrote for this sequence be of any interest? More important, a big Yes Please to the suggested piece on soloing
Well I was more looking for classic jazz recordings 🙂 but why not?
Jens you are the best theacher and the best player nonetheless. Why don't you write a book/ method? I would totally buy it. i'm learning so much from you.
P. S would you come to play a gig in Italy? What would be your cachet?
Sorry if my English is what it is
✌️
Thank you very much Simone! I am writing a book. It isn't exactly a method but you can check it out when it is done.
I would love to come to Italy to play 🙂 One of the few places in Europe I never played actually.
Your videos are still a bit hard for me to follow but I learn so much thank you.
Thank you! Did you check out some of the videos in this playlist? ruclips.net/video/PyHXN3Vxhz4/видео.html
Jens Larsen I started working on it a few days ago :)
That's great! You can always ask on a video :)
How about Cookin' by Clifford Brown? great tune
Interesting! I'll have to listen to that Thanks :)
Hi Jens. I love your videos and this one got me wondering: if you are jamming and call out a regular 12 bar blues, could you play the Parker changes to add interest to your guitar comping or would it mess around with the harmony other people are playing? Thanks!
Great question! I want to read the response as well :)
Well, I guess you can in your solo, but behind somebody else I wouldn't unless they do that in their solo.
The chromatic II V's are quite common to throw in there in your solo, I do that quite often.
+Jens Larsen awesome thanks! that makes sense. And thanks for all the efforts you make to share your knowledge.
Dear Jens thanks a lot , as usual great lesson. I have a small dilemma by the way; like you say in this video sometimes we
should think a section of chord progression like a single part (in other words non need to follow the changes when improvise..) but I see in your lessons and analysis you tend to follow the changes (single chords), even when they change fast..or i might have misunderstood...thanks! (can be a topic for a lesson?)
Thanks Andrea! You have it a bit wrong. I say that you should think of a II V as one thing, but not that you should ignore one of the chords. It's like spelling: you think about the word "Dog" and not the 3 letters D, O and G, but you don't leave out any of them. 🙂
Does that help?
Hi Jens ...thanks a lot ...clear!
Hi Jens. It would be amazing if you make a video about how to approach the chromatic ii-V's on bird blues when soloing. Greetings from Colombia :)
Ok. But what is actually difficult about them? If you know what is available on one then you also know the rest. I am not entirely sure what to talk about 🙂
@@JensLarsen maybe the chromatic movement while improvising sound kinda obvious sometimes. It would be interesting to know how you create lines that don’t necessarily go in the same direction of the harmony in this case.
@@saaaantiiiiiiiii ok. I would think that if you play a descending melody on one and an ascending melody on the next then that would get you pretty far. But I will think about it 🙂
you must be peeking over my shoulder when I'm getting tutored by the local jazz master guitarist in my community. this lesson is EXACTLY the kind of stuff we're working on. If you ever make it up to Central New York State, USA (it's quite beautiful up here this time of year), I'm sure we can get you some paying clinics at the local colleges. Think about it.
Thanks! That would be great to do, I do seem to think there are some issues with working permits for the US?
Hmm, I know there are very ugly changes going on at the national level with our minority "leadership", but I bet a nice talented man from Northern Europe like you wouldn't have any problems. Is it true you've heard there are problems for musicians traveling to "'Merica" for work/performance. god I hope not.
Oh yes, it is very tricky to get into the US as an artist. If you have an instrument you will be questioned at the airport. It's been like that for years and years.
Try to ask a Canadian jazz musician! They will probably blow a fuse 😄
Jens Larsen I’m fairly certain it isn’t that big of a deal... I don’t think Trump has a vendetta against European musicians Lol! As long as you get your forms filled out well in advance. Perhaps you’ve heard from someone who tried to get in at a moments notice... which is virtually impossible. Good luck, hope you can get here! Great lessons btw
Great job Jens...I like this format of pdf on the screen......On the top melody are the notes the roots of the cords if not when are they?....ron
Thanks Ron! The top note melody Gm7: 9,3,11 C7: b9, #9 Fmaj7: 5, D7(b9): 7, Gm7 5, C7: b9
Does that help?
some where I heard the top note is the root note of the cord?
In my comping? That's probably on a dom7th, but not in those 4 bars :)
thanks
Hi Jens could you do a Documentray/lesson-TutoriaMovie about Salute to JS Bach-Oscar Peterason a minor Rythm Change versus baroque Cadence with altered dominant in he bridge(F7 Gbmmaj)versus Geroge Benson approach of rehearm in a Rythm Change like this one?
Probably not 😂
As usual, another action-packed, theory-rich practical lesson by Jens! I've been working on Blues for Alice a long time, stealing little licks from it here and there in solos. Still, never really got why it was called "Blues" until to today.
A question though - regarding substituting altered forms of the dominant chords - in the first ii-V you go from E-7b5 to A7b9 (as a C# dim), but later in the final ii-V from G- to C7, you again use an altered form of the C7 with a b9 AND an aug5 (b6 you called it) ... So, are there guidelines for when you are choosing to alter the 5th and/or the 9th in these altered voicings, except other than they sound so righteous?
You mentioned there would be a playlist for the "Drop 2" voicings in your description - is that in there, because I'm not seeing it?
Ah that's cool!
I added the drop2 vocing playlist to the description :)
As for which extensions for the dominants: A dominant that resolves can be altered (as in the C7) but an A7 resolving to Dm sounds more natural if it has a b9 and a b13 because a 9 and a 13 would sound like it was going to a D major chord.
I think I talk about it here: ruclips.net/video/NEvBZTD-f6s/видео.html
I'm thinking about the wotakoi opening
Did the video on soloing over a Parker Blues happen? Still curious ;-)
No, sorry there was not really a lot of interest so I didn't make it.
Great lesson. To really internalize the progression, more info on bars 6-7-8 would be helpful.
The back cycling idea, (bars 1-2-3-4) the series of ii-Vs to the iV chord in bar 5 makes perfect sense.
The iV- iVmin in bar 6 is also a common move. So I guess thinking of this as a ii chord explains the (relative) V (here Eb7) . But then for bars 7 - 8, I'm lost, other than just accepting it. :)
Any further info on this would be cool. I wonder do we know how the original musicians, Parker himself, conceived this, understood this? Thanks, keep up the good work
Thanks! The other two are really a reharmonized Fmaj7 and a chromatic passing chord (Abm). Parker loved parallel harmony, he uses this in Rhythm Changes very often as well 🙂
@@JensLarsen so you mean the Am7 is the reharm Fmaj7. We treat this as a ii chord, so play the V (D7). Then the Abm7 is simply a passing chord, but again treat it as a ii, so play the V (Db7)? Need to revise my reharm theory!
Actually, edit! Just watched the vid again. You say possible to think of it as a reharm #4dim chord, this would 'normally' be in bar 6. Here tho we use the alternative iVmin (2 beats) then it's V (2 beats) in bar 6. Bar 7 would normally be the I chord. So it is the I chord reharm (2 beats) it's V (2 beats) for bar 7.
In the vid you also mention Abdim reharm. to give the Abm7- Db7, not this as a passing chord. Confusingly, the Abdim = #4dim (Bdim)...think I'm more confused now, ha!
Yes, that is one of the ways to analyze it. And you will also often find (especially 20 years later) that only the II chords are played
@@JensLarsen thanks for super quick response. Do you have any recommended reading on this stuff?
That's another way to look at it. Reharmonizations of I #IV dim so F Abdim turning them into Am7 Abdim, then Am7 Abm7.
And finally (in good jazz tradition) turning everything into a II VI
Just play it and don't worry too much about it. The way it is harmonized you just have to play the II V's anyway :)
Jens did you finally made a course on soloing over this ?
Not yet, It's a lot of chords to fit into one lesson 😁
I find it interesting that you use your 4th finger instead of 3rd to play the m7 chord shape (with 2nd finger playing the root on the 6th string). How’d that come about? I play in a lot of duo situations w/o a bass player, and that would really limit me - preventing the using of 4th finger on the first string. Just curious.
I mostly play voicings with bass notes on situations where I play walking bass as well
Off topic, a video on soloing over well you needn't and jordu
Thanks for the suggestions! I will keep it in mind 🙂
maybe I am confusing Doujie with Another You as well, they sound similar to me
Well you hear Fmaj7 Eø A7 Dm7 (in all of those songs you mention) which is part of the Bird Blues so in that respect it isn't far fetched at all what you come up with. I like how you go for it, don't worry about getting it right 🙂
I’m probably going to fall off the limb again here but how wound you describe Sway” by Jesse Van Ruller a 24 bar loop? I hear the blues in there- though it is about as much of a stretch as you can get I call it a double blues with benefits lol
Ok. I only found a short preview, but that doesn't really sound like a Parker blues to me :)
Jens Larsen no you are correct I’m off topic slightly it is not a Bird blues. I was just brainstorming tunes that fit that category and that one I’ve always tried to fit into a “blues” category as a 24 bar loop with interesting changes was curious about your take on it. Anyway it is for another video as it’s off topic. Thanks for your videos and lessons they are fun and forcing me to think about jazz again...👍
No worries. Glad you like them and also that you know so many tunes, that's almost a lost art!
Confirmation;)
Is that 12 bars? 🤔
No, my bad, it's AABA, I got carried away with the progression! Undskyld Jens, flygter hurtigt op på fjellet og skammer mig;)
Haha! I actually thought you were just kidding 😄 Don't worry about it!
Chi Chi by Charlie Parker.
Ok, I thought that was only the IVm and chromatic II V's ? 🙂
Jens Larsen You may be right, I've been told that Chi Chi was a Bird blues. I may have been lied to.😂
Well, he did write it, so in that respect.... 😄
I think Chichi is a bird blues as well
That will depend on your definition of a bird blues, but it does not have the cadence to the VI in bar 2 and 3.
What about Larry Carlton ...
What about him?
Why didn't you write exactly what you were playing in the chord section as: D7#9 instead of D7 or A13 instead of A7?
In jazz the one playing the chords is free to interpret the chord symbol and add the extensions and alterations that fits how he or she is playing. For that reason I usually try to stick with the chord type and not specify the extensions like 9 or b9.
But when I'm soloing over the chord changes, if a b9 or a 9 is there i need to highlight that note in my solo to enhance the chord. If only 7 is written and I play a 9 or b9 will it not sound wrong?
No, it only sounds wrong if you play b9 and the chords are 9.
Thanks, helps a lot.