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Gospel Instruments => Gospel Keyboard / Piano => Topic started by: diverse379 on May 27, 2006, 09:06:09 AM
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This style was taught to me about four years ago, but I never really paid it any attention until yesterday. I was talking to a friend and I mentioned the name Jaki Byard who I used to study with and Enos Payne who I also studied with.
Anyway the two teachers were somewhat connected because Jaki taught Enos; and although Enos had an entirely different system of playing, he later on, at my insistence, began to develop this system for me especially to play hymns and solo piano.At the time I had issues with him as a person and maybe that is why I did not receive what he had given me but I was working on it yesterday using, "God bless the Child" and the sound is very full, very rich and very connected.
This style works very well on slow to mid tempo ballads; It may work on fast tempo songs but I am not sure because I never tried it.
As I begin to type this thing, I am realizing that you have to have command over a lot of techniques so this may not be for the beginner; but hey, make a stab at it I will give you Jaki's system first and my modified Teddy Wilson system. This style is the combination of Jaki Byard; my adaptation of the Teddy wilson system and the melodic treatment of Enos Payne.
Jakei Byard System of 10ths
maj7 Root maj7 10th== C B E
minor 7 Root b7 b3 C Bb Eb
dom7 Root b7 3 C Bb E
min7 b5 Root b7 b3 C Bb Eb
Dim7 root bb7 b3 C A Eb
Whenever you see a chord chart and you see a chord symbol you use one of these in your left hand
Teddy wilson System and a little of Tatum. What happens when you see in gospel slash chords well then you use these systems the tenths can be played in inversions:
Maj7/3 3 Root fifth E C G
maj7/5 5, root third sevnth G, C E B
The same treatment with the minor and dominant chords
Now that we have explored what to do most of the time with the left hand, lets add Enos Payne's system of left hand
Maj7 root 7 or root 3
dom7 root b7 or root 3
min7 root b7 or root b3
dim7 root bb7 or root b3
This is more in line with current jazz methodology
diverse 379
I have noticed that sometimes fifth shells can be used octave fifth octave as well as ninth shells
for example what about this slash chord
C/Bb meaning a C chord over Bb
In my left hand I can notate it two ways:
b7th 9 or b7 root= Bb D (a tenth up) or Bb C (a ninth up)
ninth intervals
Maj7 root ninth C D
dom7 root ninth
min7 root ninth
Now I have explored the left hand systems of my two teachers plus the simplified system of teddy wilson and my added system of ninths which are easier to reach and can be used on the more difficult keys Db B Ab Eb D A
These keys are harder to reach using tenths. It may take a while to be able to utilize this left hand system, so in the beginning, just play single note melody against the left hand to get used to playing them.
Right hand treatment
This is where it gets really interesting. Enos was weird; he did not like Sus chords and he rarely played the nine on a minor chord and he opted not to use the 13 on many of his dominant chords. I think this was my issue with him; but as I go through his style that he created, it has such a beautiful sound and often, when you see one of the alterations, it is usually contained in the melody.
The right hand system is as follows:
All chords are built on the third You can even expand it to build on the fifth. The key here is to make sure the melody is king
Cmajor 7 minor 7 played on the third-- Emin7
Cmin7 major played on the b3 Eb triad
C7 diminished or half diminiished played on the 3 Edim or Eminb5
C-7b5 min7 built on the b3 Ebmin
What makes the system beautiful is you place the melody as your top note and add the right hand chord built on the third underneath until you run out of notes becaue your lefthand chord is in the way. This probably seems pretty difficult but believe me it is not as hard as you think. Take a chord chart and begin to go through these chords you will be surprised at how it sounds
I will use "Amazing Grace" as an example
Use your melody as a guide; remember "melody is king" so you must keep the melody note on top at all times and the chord symbol is underneath. The time signature is in 6/8 time so each measure gets 6 beats. The first chord symbol is the seven chord you will use many times you will not be able to fit the whole four note chord because the melody note will take up one note in your right hand and you have to build down to the left hand shell you are using.The second chord symbol is the left hand voicing you learned above from Jaki or Teddy or Enos and that is pretty much all there is to it.
I am going to notate this in standard notation rather then the left hand right hand style we usually use here on LGM because it is easier to apply it to other sheet music and fake books if I do it he way you will see it in books.
|Amin7/Fmaj | Ebmaj7/C-7 Adim/F7 | Dmin/Bbmaj |Bdim/Fdim | Amin/C,F | Amin/Dmin7 |
Bbmaj7/G-7 | Edim/ C7 |
I hope this makes sense to you I wrote it out like this intentionally because if you like jazz you will either have already learned how to build chords off of symbols and if you dont then you need to learn.
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diverse,
you sooo smart. Thanks for this!
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Diversi, you are the truth. thanks :)
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thanks a lot for that post...may God continue to reward you