Hey Guys,
Staying in line with the Chords and Harmony idea this month I remembered I did a 3 part series on Upper Structure triads a while back.

Upper Structures are an easy way to achieve a rich harmonic sound.
Before (or after) going through the links below as a simple exercise for comping, lets pick a couple upper structures to practice playing with 4 mallets through all keys.

Lets start with a dominant chord. G7 and move to Cmaj7.
(Note you should play the root by itself before playing the upper structure so you can hear the upper structure against the root of the chord.)

I was practicing when my 11 y/o daughter came into my practice room with her flute to show me what she was working on. She has been playing for a year and is learning Amazing Grace. I asked her if she wanted to play a duet with me. I had to figure out an accompaniment quickly, from her music, without chords. I kept messing her up :-(, so I recorded my part first, then she overdubbed finger cymbals and then her flute.

I practiced a little more and rerecorded my solo arrangement, also attached.

Barry

I know there was a streaming of the concert from the Delaware workshop, but is it actually recorded that i could watch it somewhere?

Great stuff!!

Special thanks to Babu for giving me the 'faith' back to work on this second Etude! :o)

Here's a lesson on some chord progressions in Cm. Pdf attached. Also, look at the Check This Out. It's one of Dana's lessons on harmonizing the Cm bebop scale, and some of those concepts correspond to this lesson.

Behn

TRADUCCIÓN AL ESPAÑOL PARA ESTUDIANTES

Título: Acordes y Armonía - Progresiones menores por Behn Gillece

When Tony announced this month's chords and harmony topic there were some comments expressing interest in exploring ideas for comping for a vocalist.

When working with a singer I generally try to play a minimalist roll. I think of myself as the picture frame surrounding a beautiful painting. Play something that enhances the vocal without getting in the way or interfering with the voice. Less is more!

I've been thinking lots about the open/closed thing that Tony brought up again recently, and so I've come up with an exercise which I've been doing everyday this week. It's quite big... I can just about get through all the keys in a hour now, and it still makes my head hurt following it through and remembering which chord I'm on! But I really feel it's improving my knowledge of scales (just major so far, but there's no reason why it won't work through other scales/progressions etc.), and the chords within scales.