Help on Kirk Macdonald tune...

davidAaronCarte · #1 02-04-2009, 06:42 PM

Sorry about all the posts lately, been one of those weeks
So I have to know the tune Four Shades of Light off of Kirk Macdonald's latest release for class
I've got a lead sheet, but I'm absolutely stumped
I play a lot of standards, so the form is kind of out of left field to me
Here are the changes:

Eb^7 |D13sus |Db^7+5 |C13sus |
Ab^7 |G13sus |Gb^7+5 |F7susE7sus|
Eb-7 |D7alt |C#-7 |Csplit |
Ab7sus |G7alt |F#-7 |F-7 Bb7 |
A^7 |Absus |G^7+5 |F#sus |
C#/D |C#sus |C^7+5 |B7sus Bb7sus
A-7 |Ab7alt |G-7 |F#split |
D13sus |Db7alt |C-7 |B-7 E7 :|

Sorry about the formating, I hope you can read it

Any ideas on how to make one's way through this bad boy? I'm at a loss, maybe I'm missing something

**Mark Wilson** · #2 02-04-2009, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidAaronCarte

Eb^7 |D13sus |Db^7+5 |C13sus |
Ab^7 |G13sus |Gb^7+5 |F7susE7sus|
Eb-7 |D7alt |C#-7 |Csplit |
Ab7sus |G7alt |F#-7 |F-7 Bb7 |
A^7 |Absus |G^7+5 |F#sus |
C#/D |C#sus |C^7+5 |B7sus Bb7sus
A-7 |Ab7alt |G-7 |F#split |
D13sus |Db7alt |C-7 |B-7 E7 :|

You're at Humber?
So am I! What year/program are you in?

Anyway, the whole tune is using Tritone subs.

You can treat every other chord as a V.
So the first 4 bars would be Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, ya dig?

The whole tune does that. The only thing is the C#/D, which is really just a Ddim(major7).

Hope that helps!
Send me a message if you have questions!

davidAaronCarte · #3 02-04-2009, 08:54 PM

heh I totally didn't catch that
I got really hung up over seeing so many sus chords that I forgot that they can function like a dominant
I'm actually a second year at York - I'm in Lorne Lofsky's workshop and he got the chart from Kirk

**Mark Wilson** · #4 02-04-2009, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidAaronCarte

heh I totally didn't catch that
I got really hung up over seeing so many sus chords that I forgot that they can function like a dominant
I'm actually a second year at York - I'm in Lorne Lofsky's workshop and he got the chart from Kirk

Ohh nice.
Yea, I usually miss things like that. I only caught onto it because I don't like jazz much

Is york back in now? Or are they still on strike?

mattfong · #5 02-04-2009, 10:25 PM

As far as I know York is back. Check it out, it's like a Toronto music schools thread... I'm at U of T.

David, do you know a drummer at York who's last name is Dennis? His brother is at U of T with me, in first year.

davidAaronCarte · #6 02-05-2009, 06:01 AM

Yup, York went back this week
Matt - I know Simon really well, he's the drummer on all the tunes on my MySpace ahah
I've met Adrean (Adrian?) a few times too actually - he turned up at a gig I did with Simon on Sunday night

mattfong · #7 02-05-2009, 08:17 AM

Yeah I play with Adrian a lot, he's a great guitarist. Hey I heard you guys made like 90 bucks each from tips that night. That's insane!

davidAaronCarte · #8 02-05-2009, 12:38 PM

Ahah yeah it was a great night
We pulled in $258 - $85 from the bar and the rest was folks tippin' generous
I'm back there on St. Patrick's day, but I have no idea what band to bring

So back to the chart
I'm now not so sold on tritone subs
Since the 3 isn't really a chord tone in a sus chord, there isn't a tritone in it either

TomSauter · #9 02-05-2009, 02:57 PM

Yeah I don't think the tritone subs are a good idea on this tune. During the solos it's likely that some folks would go to that, but the composer wrote them as 13sus chords for a reason. If it just said D7 then you could probably assume that Ab7 would be ok, but it looks like each chord was written with a specific sound/voicing/bass note in mind. By the way, it sounds fine to play the 3rd on a sus chord, it's just not in the voicing.

The form is pretty simple, the first 16 bars and the 2nd 16 bars are almost the same thing, just in different keys. Also measures 1-4 and 5-8 are also the same thing, just a 4th apart. Same for 17-20 and 21-24.

I'm not sure what exactly you're having trouble with, so I'll just guess... There's a few ways to think about the chords, for a D13sus it's common for people to think Cmaj7/D, and you can also think of it as A dorian or D mixolydian, they're all the same thing but you may play differently if you think about the chord in different ways. There's a couple common ways to play Dbmaj#5, one is to use the Db lydian augmented scale, which is the same as Bb melodic minor. In my opinion the cooler way to approach this chord is to use the augmented scale, which you can think of as a Db triad, F triad, and A triad.

Eb- and D7alt are very similar, just something to be aware of. I'm not sure what the composer means by Csplit. Like someone else said, C#/D is just D diminished, but it implies a specific voicing. I've also heard people play F# harmonic minor over this chord, or C#maj7/Dmaj7.

davidAaronCarte · #10 02-06-2009, 08:58 AM

It's starting to come together better, went a little better yesterday now that the horns have the melody down
It's a strange little tune, and the harmony is basicaly the same for all the sections - the second half is just transposed a tritone
Csplit was me, that's just shorthand for C-7b5
I'm not used to stringing so many... particular chords together and making it swing hard
Just have to get used to it