Re: Almanac Of Guitar Voice Leading Pdf
Corette Guitreau
It is perhaps American jazz guitarist Ben Monder who knows the Almanacs the best. Ben has devoured the 3 volumes and has even written a long solo guitar piece which is based on the content found inside the Almanacs.
Volume 1 of the 3 volume almanac voice-leading series was published in 2000 and the initial private run of books was quickly snapped up by Berklee College of Music students who were all fascinated, perplexed and stunned by the contents.
Starting with the D major triad you move each note of that D major triad up to the next note in the D major scale. This results in an E minor triads. When we move all the notes of the Em triad to the next notes of the D major scale we get a F# minor triad. We do this with every triad in the scale.
Voice-leading is the principle of using the least movement. Starting with a triad, or chord, you move to the next chord by the least distance possible. Preferably we will try to keep as many of the notes of the previous chord in the new chord.
Whereas intervallic voice-leading diagram shows the intervals in horizontal movement the functional voice-leading diagram shows how the intervals, or the voicings of the triad or chord, in a vertical way.
In volume three he says that you might fool people into thinking that you know something by making up terms and that you could fool them into thinking that you know something by NOT explaining what these terms mean.
A great benefit of writing your own material using the almanacs is that it allows you to find your own unique voice on the guitar (in our opinion this is the most important thing that you can do on the guitar but more on this in future blog posts).
As described above the Goodrick almanacs are basically only voicings put into cycles. You can play them as written which many people on Youtube seem to do but, of course, the idea is to make music with both the voicings and the cycles.
Using basic chords a ii/V/I in the key of C major would be Dm7 / G7 / Cmaj7 which is a vanilla change. You can spice this up with, for example, a cycle 2 on the Dm7 Chord. Now the progression would look like this.
Obviously the relative chord method is the same as playing 7th chord triads as Gmaj7 is spelled G B D F# and Bm7 is spelled B D F# A. Since we are playing the F# B and D notes the name of these triads is interchangeable (You could also call it a D6 no 5 triad amongst other things).
Voice leading on guitar is the art of leading the individual notes of a chord in an economical way. The term comes from chorale music, where composers would literally be leading the voices of the choir through a progression.
Of course, there's always more than you could be doing. Ideally, you should be able to "voice lead" in between all the chords in tunes you know. Go through your repertoire and use voice leading as an exercise. Any two chords in a row can be analyzed like the Dm7 - G7 above...
Now, I said above that "you should" have the ability to use perfect voice leading all the time. But, it doesn't mean that you would always play like that while performing. It's not necessarily desirable all of the time ... but the big picture idea is that at least you can if (or when) you have to, in musical contexts.
II-V-I Voice-leading Here are some common ways to voice-lead II-V-I progressions. Notice that the V7 chord may be altered in the major key II-V-I. The V7 chord is usually altered in the minor key II-V-I.
Voicing/Arpeggio/Scale Here is an integrated approach to learning chord voicings, arpeggios, and scales on the guitar fretboard. There are two PDF files; one with the chord roots on the 5th string, and another with the roots on the 6th string.
Voicing/Arpeggio/Bebop Scale These sheets offer a fretboard overview of how to get started with metrically aligned chord-scales. In bebop scales, an extra chromatic passing tone is added in order to keep chord tones on the downbeat and passing tones on the upbeat when playing in 8th notes or 16thnotes.
Eight Ways to Practice Diatonic Intervals These excercises help develop familiarity with scales that is very important for improvisation. The variations with chromatic approaches are especially helpful.
Self-discovery is an integral part of meaningful learning, so enjoy the process. If you work with this material for a while, you inevitably discover that your mistakes lead to the most interesting musical outcomes. Prepare yourself to recognize these important moments, and to take advantage of them when they arise.
While working with these materials last summer, I played alternating-constant-structure seventh chords in drop 2 and 4 voicings (see example 2). I stumbled on a way to create the illusion that chords, with roots moving in thirds and sixths (cycles 3 and 6), seemed to have more motion than they actually do (see examples 3A to 3C).
After moving through the full chromatic cycle as an exercise, I limited movement to only four major key centers with these eight chords: Db and Fm, Ab and Cm, Eb and Gm, Bb and Dm. At that point, I decided that the progression needed to move away from constant structures, so I experimented with how and when to break the pattern. Since the chord qualities I used alternated between major and minor, the logical place to escape was on the min7 chord, which I treated as a IImin7 to modulate to a new key (see example 4).
Naturally, I began to look for new ways to incorporate the idea of thirds throughout the exercise beyond simply using the root motion of cycles 3 and 6. Among the patterns I explored were key centers separated by thirds and melodic fragments that used intervals of thirds. Soon a tune formed, and the idea of a three-part, 24-bar form evolved. To further shape the piece, it was time to open myself to inspiration.
Some time ago, I rediscovered this Bud Powell tune and enjoyed figuring out the voicings on the break section. For me, the subtle difference between the voice-led sound of the diminished chord, or inverted secondary dominant, and the more typical circle of fifths root motion in the cadences from D7 to Gm and G7 to Cm is quintessential Bud Powell.
In measure 17 of the last A section (see example 7), the third occurrence of drop 2 and 4 voicings reverses the root motion by using cycle 6. With the use of two hybrid chords (called triad-over-bass note, or TBN I and II chords, in the voice-leading books), I added a bit of nuance and color. These can also be viewed as incomplete seventh chords because of the missing third.
This lesson is an effort to share some of the processes involved in the long-term absorption of materials and the influence they exert on your composition and improvisation. For those who feel overwhelmed by the amount of work involved to learn this material, realize that you have the rest of your life to explore, refine, and liberate your music from the confines of your head and heart. Enjoy the self-teaching process, and get started now!
Mitch Haupers is an Associate Professor of Core Curriculum and Performance Studies. He and Professor Mick Goodrick will present summer workshops on the Mr Goodchord materials with emphasis on voice-leading, rhythm, composition, and improvisation. Visit www.mrgoodchord.com for details.
The guitar world lost a master teacher and player this week. Tributes to Mick are all over facebook. He taught so many people the art of jazz guitar that you might say there is no other teacher in our lifetime that has had a deeper influence. Here is a profile I wrote for Jazz Times in 2018 that pulls back the curtain a bit.
There was a golden age for jazz guitar in the mid 1970's, when new blueprints were being created by Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Mike Stern, and others. The foundation was still Jim Hall and Wes Montgomery, but the times called for different aesthetics. A new crop of players arrived in Boston all of whom would reshape the landscape- and they shared the same mentor, Mick Goodrick.
Mick has taught a remarkable number of prominent guitarists, such as Wolfgang Muthspiel, Lionel Lueke, Nir Felder, Lage Lund, Julian Lage, and Stern, and inspired many, many more. Today's guitar music wouldn't be the same without him. Now seventy two, thousands of students later (including this writer), Goodrick has been an eminence since the late 60's, most of that time on the faculty at Berklee. He is beloved by pupils and colleagues in ways that few jazz guitar teachers have ever been.
Julian Lage, who worked with Mick for two and a half years, says, "He had an extraordinary way of unpacking my problems by listening attentively and then offering organic and often surprising solutions. There was no limit to what he wanted to share. I owe an enormous part of my way of looking at the instrument to him."
Goodrick's signature contribution has been his attention to chord structures, harmony, and comping. "For the most part," he says, "I think I got hired because of my comping. And that's one of the things I still encourage of my students. If you can make someone sound good, maybe they'll hire you again. The person who is comping," he says, "has the best job. That person is really the head of the rhythm section, the liaison between bass and drums and the soloist. Plus we also get to solo."
Mick illustrates this point with a story. A well known drummer was on the bandstand with a bassist that displeased him. The music felt locked in, tepid. All of a sudden Chick Corea (a master accompaniest) showed up and asked if he could sit in. The moment Chick started playing the music caught fire. His comping lit the rhythm section up.
Goodrick's many books, such as The Almanac of Guitar Voice Leading and Creative Chordal Harmony for the Guitar, are exhaustive studies in voicings, the work of a scientist, a completist, where every last solution to a given problem is considered and annotated. He has also brought his meticulous attention to rhythmic cells and strategies for opening up the fretboard in soloing. The books are a monumental achievement.
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