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Though there are different kinds of harmonic motion.

And a lot of the time, the way chords move even suggests a kind of physical direction that things are moving. Up, down or sideways and so on. It, there's this suggestion there in the way the harmonies move. and each kind of resolution has its own recognizable characteristic. Let's just look for instance at the very common 5,1. [MUSIC] But what if we use the substitute dominant, it's almost the same thing. But we make E7 [SOUND]. See how different it sounds [SOUND]. There's a chromatic movement that happens. What about [SOUND]. That's even more easy to distinguish as being unique. That's chromatic motion from below, coming up into the one chord. So, each kind of chord movement suggests a unique identity. in fact, when I [MUSIC], I encounter, a chord movement that's going up, which is not nearly as common as chord resolutions that seem to go down, I usually try to bring that upward suggestion through in my playing. I might play a line [MUSIC] that goes up. on that harmony just to help the listener get the sense of its motion. So, there are a couple more kinds of movement and chord situations that the improviser will encounter that's important for you to know. one of these is called constant structure. In this case, the type of chord stays the same. It doesn't go from a dominant 7 to a 1 chord or to a minor this or whatever. They're all the same. Let's say this is a major 7 chord [MUSIC]. You can hear they are all major 7 chords, just changing place on the keyboard, but all the same type of chord. So the structure stays the same which is where the name comes from, constant structure. And the interesting thing about constant structure besides the fact that it has kind of a unique sound. Harmonically it doesn't sound like [MUSIC]. You know the kind of resolving changes

that we hear more commonly. But on constant structure because the chords are all identical, in this case all major 7 chords, any phrase. [MUSIC]. Any melodic phrase that you use on one chord you can play on, all the others, just by transposing to each new harmony, because the chords are going to be the same. Now related to, in some ways, the constant structure concept, is when chords move chromatically. [MUSIC] That's again a very recognizable kind of movement to our ears, to the listener's ear. chromatic movement is, you know, has its own character. And, and it is a k, it's a form of constant structure because you know the chords are all the same, in this case dominant 7 chords moving down. so you can do the same thing. Any phmelodic phrase can be repeated just by, moving it down a half-step and, and so on. But in addition, there's some, something to know about, this, the world of chromatics. This is one of my pieces of advice that I give the students all the time. And I have a saying, which is that, chromaticism is the improvisor's best friend. And I say that because, being able to play chromatically helps us smooth out rough sp, spots in our melodic lines. an example is, let's say we're playing on B flat 7. And we want to go, we want to go to the E flat on the beginning of the next chord on the E flat chord that we're leading into. And I want to, I'm picturing playing steady 8th notes, right up until that note. But what happens if I get close to it and I either got not enough notes or too many notes or whatever, what do I do? And that's where chromatic notes help me out because I don't want to get to that not early or late, I want it to be on the down beat. So I can turn it into a chromatic line. [MUSIC] You add chromatic notes, turn it into a chromatic line. As I approach the note, I want to land on it. So it helps me to land on the right beat, on with the strong note.

So we use chromatic notes that way, to help our improvising. We also use it, sometimes, just to add interest. let's say we're playing a long passage with only one chord. It's D minor. [MUSIC]. want to go on and on for 8 bars, something, may-, 16, 16 bars. Well, after a while our one scale starts to sound repetitive and boring. So if we can just add a few extra notes to break it up, to add some color. [MUSIC] All right. I'm still on the D minor, but adding some of these chromatic notes, adds more color, doesn't clash with the D minor, but it makes it a little more interesting. So it's another, thing that the chromatic, line does for us, that chromaticism does for us. It not only helps us smooth out our melodic lines. It also helps provide interest. So you will find as you get more experienced using chromaticism that it is a very useful tool. So, today we've looked at several ways to deal with harmony as an improviser. One is guidelines, guide tones and guidelines. Another is common scales where the cords all share a common scale. third, constant structure, where all the cords are the same type. And chromatic motion, where the cords are moving chromatically. Now, I'll be back in a minute and I will talk about our assignment this week.

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