Jordan Sedwin Jazz History Patricia Julien 5/3/11 Analysis of A Growing Herb I wrote a growing Herb with two

things in mind. First, it has to be danceable, and second, it must reflect the ideas and stylistic elements used in songs by Herbie Hancock. While Herbie has many styles, the styles that I appreciate most of Herbies works are his simplicity and use of space. The melodies of his popular songs are all very simple, but they all have something thing to say and easily get stuck in peoples heads. The first thing I figured I needed when writing a Herbie-inspired song was a simple dominant7th chord progression. The first chord my fingers happened to land upon on my guitar was a C#7, so I went from there to an F#7. This progression starts at measure 17 in my piece. Here, I decided to make the song in the key of F# since C# is the dominant in the key of F#. F#M and C#M are closely related keys, however, so I figured that even though the song is in F#, it could feel like it was in C# at points since the F# could function as the V7/V (the V being C# in this case). This is the same progression as in Chameleon, though Herbie goes from Bb to Eb. I needed a rhythm for the chords and I really liked the rhythm to Maiden Voyage, so I took that rhythm and used it with the Chameleon-esque chord progression. I also took note of Herbies use of color tones in his chord choice, so I added a 13 to the F#7 and it sounded great. Since this was to be the fun and dance-y part of my piece, I wrote the melody in a rhythmic Chameleon style as well, hence the use of lots of rests and eighth notes and a somewhat major pentatonic feel with the notes being used.

The next part of the song I wrote, starting at measure 25, was inspired by the Chameleon bass line and the melody was inspired by the break down to Watermelon Man. In order to keep the dancey section of the song interesting and danceable, there must be some sort of break from the normal groove, but I really wanted a powerful driving bass, so i essentially just went up the blues scale but incorporated the use of chromaticism that is so infectious in Chameleon. The bridge to Watermelon Man contains an eighth note driven melody line that repeats itself but has a different ending the second time around and then the third time around has a break which leads back into the head of the tune. This is what inspired my melody. It is a powerful idea because by repeating the first part, it gives the listener something to familiar to enjoy, but by changing up some notes at the end, it still keeps the line interesting. Ideally, this piece will be played with a band with some horns, and most of the instruments will be playing the melody while the bass holds down the bass line. The parts sound great together, especially with the syncopation between the two lines in m.27. The last section I wrote was the first part of the song. This part was interesting to me because I actually used an F##m11 chord. I was definitely going for the spacier side of Herbie with this part, but not necessarily that spacey. Because of the airy/spacey qualities of it, I wanted to use the minor11 chord progression from Butterfly, which goes Fm11-Am11-Fm11-Dm11. My logic for starting the progression on D# was that it is the minor ii of the key of C#. Since the song feels like it is in C#, I figured this was a good choice. Then I ran into some issues, because the second chord is a major third away from the first in the progression, meaning it had to be F##... In the future, I may figure out a different way of notating it (i.e. C# G), but I wanted it to be clear that it came directly from the Butterfly progression. The same reasoning holds true for the B#m11 chord I used. The reasoning for the broken chord structure and rhythm in the bass

is really that I didnt want it to be too much like Herbie Hancock (it is an original composition, after all), so I threw something in that sounded good to me. I was honestly thinking Soulive because I wanted to keep this part groovy, even though the point is to be mellow and spacey. One of the great parts of Butterfly is the usage of space. Some notes are held out over several measures, and they dont quite resolve when one expects them to. Also, due to the simplicity and the long spacing of notes, the melody is very easy to pick up. By the second time through Butterfly I could already hum the whole melody. Thats very important for a song I think because it means that people can pick it up quick. While people who study music are willing to look in depth at a song to understand it, most people arent, and I think Herbie realizes this. Simplicity is a good thing, regardless of who appreciates it, but in order to have a successful song, it must appeal to the masses. Therefore, I chose to do something similar. I made use of the space by using mostly whole, half/dotted-half notes, with just a few quarter and eighth notes to connect the longer notes. I always was aware to try to keep it mostly step-wise. This is what Herbie did in Butterfly, and it allows the listener a more familiar listening experience so they can pick up on the melody quicker. One of my biggest inspirations is Jimi Hendrix and I have often thought about why people love him so much. It isnt just that he was innovative and a great guitarist; there are plenty of those. I think the biggest thing is that he held a simple groove that people could lock onto and get down to while he shredded on his axe and blew peoples minds. The riffs he wrote (for the most part) were simple, repetitive, and groovy. After we learned in class that one of Herbies influences was Hendrix, it opened my eyes to Herbies style a bit. In most of his compositions, a melodic idea is established, and while it may go somewhere else, it always comes back. When it does come back, it sounds great because whether or not it is expected, it

sounds familiar and good. This idea is similar to a band you like teasing a cover of a song. 9 times out of ten it will put a smile on your face because you recognize it and it sounds good, even if it isnt your favorite song. Because of this realization, I made an effort to come back to any of my established melodic phrases. The first and last phrase of part A of my composition are identical for this reason.