| Author |
Topic: Drop 2 voicings |
William Steward
From:
Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
|
Posted 18 Oct 2007 6:21 pm |
|
| I was just working through a fairly well-known (new-to-me) concept on piano that should also be interesting for steel guitarists and was just wondering if anyone out there is exploring it. The "Drop 2" idea of close harmony voicing where a 4 note voicing is followed by one of the lower harmony notes on the bass (in jazz typically applying to one of the bebop scales). Of course George Shearing's piano style pioneered this with the bass note mirroring the melody note and the harmony being filled in underneath the top melody note. This can be extended a step further by choosing different notes on the bottom of the voicing which makes it a little less obvious-sounding and more "pianistic" as Mark Levine says in his book "The Drop 2 Book" (Sher Music 2006). I was introduced to this idea by a 20 year old whiz kid pianist named Miro Sprague...if I had known about this earlier it would have opened a few doors for me musically. It makes me want to learn my chord inversions more thoroughly on the steel so I could try this out!! Check it out. http://www.marklevine.com/books.html |
|
|
 |
John Steele (deceased)
From:
Renfrew, Ontario, Canada
|
Posted 18 Oct 2007 9:59 pm
|
|
The whole drop 2 thing can get pretty complicated, but in it's basic form - a series of 6th chords puntuated by 7b9 chords to make a scale - lends itself so easily to the C6 tuning that it's scary.
If you use a 4 note string grip like string 3,5,6,8
it lays itself out quite naturally by using pedals 5&6 for the 7b9 passing chords. Alot easier than on the piano keyboard, anyway.
-John |
|
|
|
Billy Wilson
From:
El Cerrito, California, USA
|
Posted 19 Oct 2007 1:35 am
|
|
| Can someone elaborate on this a bit more? I'm liking the sound of it. |
|
|
|
William Steward
From:
Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
|
Posted 19 Oct 2007 4:28 am
|
|
John is on the money....using C6th chords, play an ascending C scale (add G# to the scale to make it a major 'bebop' scale) and alternate C6 chords with G7b9 chords, always keeping the scale note on the top of the voicing. C6,G7b9,C6,G7b9...etc. Playing the harmonized scale starting from the first voicing would then be E-G-A-*C*, F-G#-B-*D*,G-A-C-*E*, etc. in standard close harmony. In a "drop 2" voicing the second note from the top would be removed and plaed down an octave so you would have (A)-E-G-*C*, (B)-F-G#-*D*, etc. The addition of the extra note in the scale (G#)makes the alternation of C6 and G7 chords work out since you have 9 notes in the full octave instead of 8. That is of course only the basics applied to a scale but applying the concept to a song melody gets a bit more complicated as John says.
I had always messed with George Shearing style close harmony on the piano but never really knew what to do with the passing chords and never thought of scrambling the order of the voicing. This is a big step for me but I realise a small step for mankind  |
|
|
|
Billy Wilson
From:
El Cerrito, California, USA
|
Posted 19 Oct 2007 11:39 am
|
|
| Thanks William. |
|
|
|
Mylos Sonka
From:
Larkspur CA USA
|
Posted 20 Oct 2007 4:28 pm
|
|
Billy, Vance used the drop 2 voicing all the time.
Also, I've seen a photo of Noel Boggs with his fingers on the strings in a drop 2 position.
You pretty much have to be using three finger picks to get the top melody note to stand out.
Mylos |
|
|
|
