Quote:
Originally posted by PhatBasstard
You're still missing my point on this. I didn't ever say you had to play it like the original composer did, but it's good to know his true compositional statement before you change it. |
Well yes, in general it's good to know what you're reharmonizing - but what has this really got to do with trying to use chord symbols that specify exact voicings?
I take your point about knowing the composer's original intention first - but I just think that this idea of trying to use chord symbols to indicate specific voicings is silly, because that's not what chord symbols are really designed to do. They indicate the content, but specific voicings, or indeed reharmonizations, are up to the player. This is one of the things that is great about Jazz... F7 could be written on the page, but two different pianists could use two very different voicings.
You're talking about using chord symbols to denote specific voicings - in what circumstances do you envisage this being necessary? If you've composed something you want your band to play, for example, would this be the sort of thing you're talking about? Maybe you've composed it on the piano, and you've come up with some very nice voicings that you feel are integral to the piece as you hear it. I don't blame you! But if you want your pianist to voice them that way - write them out on a staff. The art of voicing chords is a complex one, and you cannot convey enough information in a chord symbol, for this purpose.
One example would be where chords have notes in common. Here's a series of chords: Ab7 G7#5 F#13. Now, you may feel that the common note here (Eb/D#) is an important thing - it may be that when you composed it, you heard it with that note at the top, with descending dominant 7ths beneath them. Maybe you had the D#/Eb in octaves in the right hand, and a descending sequence of tritones on the left hand - Gb & C, F & B, E & A#.
Now there's no way, using chord symbols, to convey this. You could just rely on the pianist noticing the common D#/Eb and voicing it in a similar way, but you can't specify it. There's no way, using a chord symbol, to indicate which note is at the top of the voicing. Let alone any way to indicate it is to be played in octaves!
The typical solution would be writing out the voicing on the staff, and just putting the simple chord symbols Ab7 G7#5 F#13 above it. This way the pianist can see your intention, but also has chord symbols to indicate the harmony. Typically, what might happen is he'll play the written out voicings during the head, and then use his own voicings (if he wants to), and reharmonize (if he wants to) during solos. Or maybe you want him to use those written out voicings every time, in which case you could tell him, or indicate it on his chart.
Anyhow, the most you can get with chord symbols is some kind of half-way house. You could try to write more specific chord symbols to indicate more specific voicings, but there are plenty of simple yet effective voicing techniques (e.g. keeping the top note constant like that) that may be integral to the sound as you hear it - that you can't indicate that with chord symbols.
And if you try you may just end up with something that's confusing, and just obfuscates the meaning - e.g. your F#2sus4/E example.
If you're hearing specific voicings - and as a composer, I realise that you
do hear specific voicings - then notate them fully. However put chord symbols above the staff (ones that don't try to specify particular voicings). That way, when it's appropriate to vary the voicings or reharmonize, or whatever, the player has a slightly more general view of the harmony to work with.
