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60 chord system?

#22
I wonder if you could reach sixty chords built around the note X, eg. X, X7, Xm7, Xmaj7, Xsus, X9, Xmaj9, Xm9, etc...

Mind you, I'm not sure such a system would really help, especially when you start considering all the different inversions of each chord (and notes which are optional) and how they fit in context. Perhaps a project for someone towards the mathematical end of the spectrum?

Wulf
 
#24
Well - the very first Jazz tune I learned - Autumn Leaves - has half-diminished chords and virtually every Bossa Nova tune I've ever played!!
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Not just 9 in jazz old bean, I made our keys player omit a 5th from his voicing of a minor chord so I could play a b5th in one of our songs :)
 
#25
Originally posted by wulf
I wonder if you could reach sixty chords built around the note X, eg. X, X7, Xm7, Xmaj7, Xsus, X9, Xmaj9, Xm9, etc...
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Easily - if you pick up any Sher "Real Book" - (lead sheets for Jazz tunes) they have a page near the front, which lists all the chord symbols and shows you what notes are in them - this only shows C versions and has well over 60 - it has 11 rows and sometimes 8 or 9 chords on each row!!
 
#26
I believe he might be saying that things like half-diminished are variations on other chords. Half diminished is actually m7b5, so it's a variation on a m7 chord.
 
#28
I found an old discussion at rec.music; this is what someone who has evidently used Mehegan's 60 chord system had to say about it:

"Well, I'm a guitarist, but I have used (quite some time ago) the first mehegan book titled "Tonal and rhythmic Principals". He teaches what he calls the "60 chord system" i.e 5 chord types (maj7, dom7, min7, min7-5, dim7) times twelve keys equals 60 chords. And covers the (basic) scales and arpeggios used to play over them, and quite frankly works this material to death, playing them in eight notes, triplets, sixteenth notes, etc."
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#29
Thanks for that. Turock. I kind of suspected it was something like that. Rich Appleman of Berklee has a book called "Chord Studies for Electric Bass." It takes chords through fifteen "structures" of major, minor, dominant seven, minor seven, minor seven flat five and diminished seven. That would give you NINETY chords to work with. It takes tremendous drive, dedication and motivation to work through the Appleman book, though I have no doubt it is worth every second spent.
 
#31
Originally posted by aristotle chang
that sounds like what i had heard of before turok. thanks. should be a good thing to practice. though im not familiar with minor7-5 chords...
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A minor seven, flat five chord has another name, the half-diminished. Not only does it have a minor third and a minor seventh degree, it also has a flatted fifth. A C minor seven, flat five chord is often written C-7b5. It can also be written with a C followed by a circle with a slash through it.

This chord is often associated with the Locrian mode.
 
#33
A permutative chord system? What's the point? Is this a reading exercise, or some sort of harmonic knowledge thing?

As I see it, a C triad could be Ionian, dominant, a drone underlying a harmony of [C Db E G G# B C], whatever. Yonder sixty chord system isn't going to tell you what the harmony of that triad is, knowing the tune and having the knowledge to figure it out is. Or maybe the keyboard player, if you're desperate.

Personally, I'd much rather be able to pick the key change in Autumn Leaves ( ;) ) just from looking at the chart, than run into the F#m7b5 and think "boy, I've played over that chord in triplets *and* sixteenths!"

IMHO, learning and analysing sixty tunes would teach you a lot more. Mind you, if it's a reading thing that's a little different.
 

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