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This is a very interesting question for me to ask. I'm looking to brush up my repertoire of standards and so typically I will make my own chord roadmaps / harmonic analysis as part of the learning and memorizing process. When dealing with modulations I've always felt that my roman numeral roadmaps, in order to be accurate should reflect the harmonic function of the chords as they pertain to the shifting key centres that will occur in many tunes such as All The Things You Are.
So, I was just checking out the updated version of the iOS app 'iReal Pro' (a digital fake book with chords-only and programmed accompaniment) and they added in the ability to use number oriented chord charts which I think is a new feature.
For All The Things You Are they have:
A Section: 6-7 / 2-7 / 5 7 / 1Maj 7
4Maj 7 / #4-7 7 7/ 3Maj 7 / 3Maj 7
B Section: 3-7, 6-7, 2 7, 5 Maj 7.....etc.
For one, it's weird for me to see chord charts not using roman numerals but no big deal and probably having more to do with constrictions in the app.
My main question / point of interest....is that they are relating ALL of the chords in the song back to the primary key. This makes total sense from a memorizing standpoint...but it strikes me as very weird as far as a true harmonic road map goes and not an approach I've ever personally used. (Although maybe this could be a useful way to go)
So my question to all you hard core Jazz heads...is whether this is actually a pretty typical and common approach that is often used to memorize standards? (Relating very chord in the song, regardless of modulations, back to the primary key solely for the purpose of memorization advantages)
I kind of feel like maybe I've been missing something in my own approach over many years. For example, there's something weird for me taking this approach and thinking of '5Maj 7' in the B section for example. On the other hand, it makes absolute sense for a pure memorizing strategy. I'm really curious what you're thoughts and experiences are...and also any of your own strategies for memorizing tunes both in the easiest manner to recall and in the most useful manner from an improvisational standpoint?
Cheers and beers!
So, I was just checking out the updated version of the iOS app 'iReal Pro' (a digital fake book with chords-only and programmed accompaniment) and they added in the ability to use number oriented chord charts which I think is a new feature.
For All The Things You Are they have:
A Section: 6-7 / 2-7 / 5 7 / 1Maj 7
4Maj 7 / #4-7 7 7/ 3Maj 7 / 3Maj 7
B Section: 3-7, 6-7, 2 7, 5 Maj 7.....etc.
For one, it's weird for me to see chord charts not using roman numerals but no big deal and probably having more to do with constrictions in the app.
My main question / point of interest....is that they are relating ALL of the chords in the song back to the primary key. This makes total sense from a memorizing standpoint...but it strikes me as very weird as far as a true harmonic road map goes and not an approach I've ever personally used. (Although maybe this could be a useful way to go)
So my question to all you hard core Jazz heads...is whether this is actually a pretty typical and common approach that is often used to memorize standards? (Relating very chord in the song, regardless of modulations, back to the primary key solely for the purpose of memorization advantages)
I kind of feel like maybe I've been missing something in my own approach over many years. For example, there's something weird for me taking this approach and thinking of '5Maj 7' in the B section for example. On the other hand, it makes absolute sense for a pure memorizing strategy. I'm really curious what you're thoughts and experiences are...and also any of your own strategies for memorizing tunes both in the easiest manner to recall and in the most useful manner from an improvisational standpoint?
Cheers and beers!