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Kurt's Use Of Harmonic Minor Over Maj7 Chords (47 posts)

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Harmonic Minor Scale

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Maj7th chords

Started 1 year ago by bingefeller

Latest reply from JPMike

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Hi guys,
i read on another forum that Kurt uses the 6th mode of the Harmonic Minor scale over maj7th chords.
bingefeller

Does anyone know if he really does use this, or is it just a rumour? Also, can someone point me in the direction of what this

Member

sounds like in a recorded setting?

POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

... You can actually youse maj7#11 or vice veras ( use harmonic minor during this/these chords ).
I don't know about or if it is even a' rumor ' that he may do this.
I have been surprised that it isn't stated more often in books or why teachers kinda wince and say '...yeah , you can , but...'
Floatingbridge
Member

without a clear reason why I'm being dissuaded from doing it and moving on to other things to talk about and play...( it's
been a consistent response ).
Seems like personal taste and convention come in to play ( ... Because it is legal) .
Put the chord ( or a harmonic minor bassline ) through a loop and check it out.
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

flat 6th degree of harmonic minor over major7 chord- yes! turns it into a one diminished chord which is a suspension of
major. so you can use it as a suspension and then resolve.

kurtisrosenwinkel
Administrator
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

C major7
E harmonic minor
B/C
kurtisrosenwinkel
Administrator

B7b9
you can think of c major as B7b9 going to Eor you can think of C major as A-, and then use E7b9 to A-. thinking this way creates cadence in your lines even as you are
playing over a static chord.
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

A reply from Kurt himself! Thank you so much, this has made my day. :)

bingefeller
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

Awesome!
Now just imagine if this turned into a regular column of "Ask Kurt" (about harmonic and melodic concepts) **hint hint**
arewolfe
Member

04/10/2013 14:56

Kurt's Use Of Harmonic Minor Over Maj7 Chords The Kurt Rosenwi...

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http://www.kurtrosenwinkel.com/forum/topic/kurts-use-of-harmonic-mi...

POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

cool, ill have to practice my harmonic minor more and remember this.

patfarlow
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

ask away

kurtisrosenwinkel
Administrator
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

did you practice your legato alot?, its very smooth.

patfarlow
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

also would you mind talking about the intro to "a life unfolds" on the remedy?
its one of the most beautiful pices ever
patfarlow
Member

is it all improv? did you write it out first?

thanks very much
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

This is sort of a lazy man's question, because the answers are there for me if I just transcribe some of the licks, but...
I listened to "Backup" from the 2011 Jarasum Jazz Festival. Your solo started off bluesy and progressed to more interesting
lines. Since a blues is one of the simplest templates for reharming, what are some less-obvious ideas you could use over the
arewolfe

changes (aside from putting a II-V before a chord change, or a tritone sub of the II-V before a chord change... i.e. F#-7 to

Member

B7 to Bb7)?
Also, are there any records you recommend checking out for comping? I suck at comping. I listened to the gigs with Joel
Frahm at Smalls and your comping was killer.
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

A lot of questions come to my mind:

Have you found a 'building block' of musical sentence that gives weight and depth to its sound? I'm looking of it as a kind of
system for building melodic lines within the phrase. The idea is to make it sound like a phrase and not like a stream of
add4

notes.. not sure if it's clear, but i hear that in your playing more than in a lot of other people's so i'm asking away.

Member

I've been looking for answers to this question for a long time. I think some answers are in the use of triads or pieces of them
in the phrase. Sometimes not diatonic triads, only with one or two notes of the scale/chord i'm thinking of.
Are you using other minor scales over a major sound? i've been using that a few times and was struck by how it reminded
me of a kind of sound i associate with your playing, so i'm curious about the other uses of melodic minor and harmonic minor
on a major context too.
Passing chords : how do you build them, from what material? at the moment i'm working on diatonic substitutions and really
dig the sound of that, i imagine that i could approach the subs from the previous and next degrees, and also tonicise them
using V or sub Vs.
i'm thinking about the kind of arrangement you made on these foolish things on that masterclass that leaked on this forum.
maybe give a list of the chords of a part of this arrangement with the thinking behind them?
maybe give some examples of superimpositions of a chord over another one that you often use/like/worked on?
still have a lot of other questions in mind .. hope these will have some answers already.
Thanks in advance anyway!
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

^^ In regards to passing chords, I transcribed some of "These Foolish Things" from that clinic. It seemed like approaching a
chord from a half step above, the passing chord was usually a dominant. And approaching from a half step below the passing

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chord was a diminished chord. Is that the idea?

arewolfe
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

arewolfe, any chance you could post that transcription? I remember first hearing that piece and being absolutely floored.
kurt is killing with this stride exercise thing, i could listen to him play like that all day long

fakejake
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

kurt, i would love to know what happens with your eyes when you're playing.
i almost got a a cramp in my eyelids when i first saw that. looks really cool though, i have to admit.

fakejake
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

^^ In regards to passing chords, I transcribed some of "These Foolish Things" from that clinic. It seemed like approaching a
chord from a half step above, the passing chord was usually a dominant. And approaching from a half step below the passing
chord was a diminished chord. Is that the idea?
kurtisrosenwinkel

yes, thats the idea. check out using a dominant b5 chord from a half step below- its an expression of V7 whole tone, with

Administrator

nice deceptive root motion.

POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

i practiced alot to acheive a legato technique. theres alot to it.

speaking of legato, i am going to hear allan holdsworth tonight! in fact, i gota go now.
cheers all
kurtisrosenwinkel
Administrator

kurt
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

Kurt your legatto thing is unbealivable - very hard to do that without distortion! You shouldn't have opened the door, I bet
you will have millions of questions here, I can even imagine guys registering in the forum just to ask you stuff :)
I would like to ask you what do you consider it was more important to you to achieve the level you have achieved; I know
jorgemg1984

you did some transcribing, spent a lot of time searching for your sound / voice and using your voice in improvistion, also

Member

practicing tons of scale patterns and doing lots of jams in NY and also doing the "continuous scale exercises" to get better at
modulations (these are the ones I know from clinics / interviews, I assume you practiced lots of other things)
What would you say it was the most decisive of all (if there's one of course)? I assume it's also about being obsessive...
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

Would you, if you don't mind, name one or two of your favorite painters, one or two books that you really liked or that
inspired you, and one or two "classical" composers/compositions that you particulary love? Thanks for being here with us
fans.
Gia5
Member

Cheers.
G.
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

i practiced alot to acheive a legato technique. theres alot to it.

patfarlow
Member

Mr. Kurt Rosenwinkel, are you willing to expound this statement? what did you do to practice it? will you ever maybe write a
theory book?
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

Hi Kurt, are most of your voicings derived from drop2, 3, 4 2-3 and 2-4?

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Kurt's Use Of Harmonic Minor Over Maj7 Chords The Kurt Rosenwi...

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http://www.kurtrosenwinkel.com/forum/topic/kurts-use-of-harmonic-mi...

What I mean is - do you just learn these stock voicings first, then alter them as you want to? For example, flatten the 5th to
get b5 chord
Thanks a lot
monk
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

Firstly, I am flattered that Kurt with his busy schedule to answer on some of the questions asked here. Some people seem
very demanding and expect thorough and definitive answers from Kurt.
Well my question:
yaclaus
Member

How do you approach time and how have you practiced time?
best from Claus
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

Hey Jorge, I took your email address from another thread and sent you what I have... not the actual voicings (haven't
scanned those yet) but just the chord symbols from one part where Kurt is slowly playing a chord on each beat and
discussing the concept of "strong beat, weak beat."
arewolfe
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

arewolf, did you mean jorge or jake? i checked but haven't received anything, maybe you could send it to me as well?
my email is imonlyfakingit@googlemail.com
thanks a lot!!
fakejake
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

He send it to me instead jake, already send an e-mail back telling him that!

jorgemg1984
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

cheers!

fakejake
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

Haha... oops. My bad. Re-sent to fakejake.

arewolfe
Member
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

also would you mind talking about the intro to "a life unfolds" on the remedy?
its one of the most beautiful pices ever
kurtisrosenwinkel
Administrator

is it all improv? did you write it out first?

that intro is all improvised. i was dealing with some triadic motifs at the time that appear in it. the opening thing is just open
triads going through the cycle of fourths. then theres some othe cycle of fourth stuff amongst alot of free improvisation...
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

This is sort of a lazy man's question, because the answers are there for me if I just transcribe some of the licks, but...
I listened to "Backup" from the 2011 Jarasum Jazz Festival. Your solo started off bluesy and progressed to more interesting
lines. Since a blues is one of the simplest templates for reharming, what are some less-obvious ideas you could use over the

04/10/2013 14:56

Kurt's Use Of Harmonic Minor Over Maj7 Chords The Kurt Rosenwi...

5 di 5

http://www.kurtrosenwinkel.com/forum/topic/kurts-use-of-harmonic-mi...

kurtisrosenwinkel

changes (aside from putting a II-V before a chord change, or a tritone sub of the II-V before a chord change... i.e. F#-7 to

Administrator

B7 to Bb7)?
try cadences- progressions that go different places. you could think of these as ways to construct your lines, or ways to
improvise chordally...the trick is practicing in time and figuring out ways to resolve to the important chords of the blues so
that it makes sense. but everything inbetween can be explored in many ways. this is one of them.
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

Have you found a 'building block' of musical sentence that gives weight and depth to its sound? I'm looking of it as a kind of
system for building melodic lines within the phrase. The idea is to make it sound like a phrase and not like a stream of
notes.. not sure if it's clear, but i hear that in your playing more than in a lot of other people's so i'm asking away.
kurtisrosenwinkel
Administrator

I've been looking for answers to this question for a long time. I think some answers are in the use of triads or pieces of them
in the phrase. Sometimes not diatonic triads, only with one or two notes of the scale/chord i'm thinking of.
Are you using other minor scales over a major sound? i've been using that a few times and was struck by how it reminded
me of a kind of sound i associate with your playing, so i'm curious about the other uses of melodic minor and harmonic minor
on a major context too.
Passing chords : how do you build them, from what material? at the moment i'm working on diatonic substitutions and really
dig the sound of that, i imagine that i could approach the subs from the previous and next degrees, and also tonicise them
using V or sub Vs.
see above
see above
see above
POSTED 1 YEAR AGO #

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