On 2009/10/03, at 5:35, dhbailey wrote:
Knowing of course that your expertise in these matters far exceeds mine, how exactly does any chord designation "force" anything on an improviser? And how does A-locrian differ from C-dorian (which I would expect to be played over Cmin(maj6)) other than in the starting note? Suggest, certainly, but force?
No, no. I used the word "force" on voicing, not available scale to the improviser.
Avoiding the 7th in voicing the chord, leaving the choice of b7 or natural7 to the improviser, how would that differ between the two chord designations? Would someone really add a Bb or a Bnat to the A-7(b5)? I guess they could add the 9th pretty easily, but so, too, could they add the Bb or Bnat in a Cmin(maj6)/A designation, couldn't they, since the A would be in the bass and thus farther away from where the Bb/Bnat would be voiced?
Unless you know the music well, you won't add 9th to Locrian chord. Once in a while, I hear pianist voices 9th to a Locrian chord when I am improvising, which really hurts me! Of course Herbie Hancock can do it and no one will even question that 9th :-)
It really seems to come down to how the people playing the particular song or playing in a particular school of jazz thought feel most comfortable about things rather than any hard-and-fast- nobody-would-do-that sort of rules.
My opinion is different. Just as notation is psychological (F flat is not E!), so is chord symbol. I sometime write something like F Maj7/ D. Even though the derived scale may be the same with D-9, it is a psychologically different chord. On the other hand, I write polyphonic chord such as D over C when I absolutely do not want to hear B in the voicing.
The Locrian chord is a Locrian chord. It has a tritone from the root. C-6/A is a tonic chord. They will give the different sense of function to the improviser. And I don't like the Locrian chord is called half diminished. The derived scale, the Locrian scale is far different from diminished scales, which is determined by the key of the moment, so is the function. So, why people call it a half diminished scale?
-- - Hiro Hiroaki Honshuku, A-NO-NE Music, Greater Boston http://a-no-ne.com http://anonemusic.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
