Holy crap sheet music

[Cheesebuiscut]

So I'm in this theory class and my teacher does jazz band for the school. He already has 5000000004u578904376598754290384-389240-28-482-842-42 guitarists so he didn't need me for this semester but I asked him for the sheet music anyway so I could familiarize myself with it and hopefully be at least a tiny bit proficient by next semester when I'd be able to hop on.

Looking at my first piece, holy crap. Between figuring out where the hell the notes are on the guitar and my A.D.D. It took me like 10 minutes to figure out 2 chords (the first measure). I'd figure out one chord then start noodling around it then be like OSHT whats the next chord! Figure out where the first 2 notes are and start noodling again.

Jeez I couldn't imagine sight reading this stuff This isn't even a difficult piece either (things ain't what they used to be by mercer ellington) and what the hell is the tempo!? (all it says is moderate swing)

phew well /endrant

Oh btw anyone know what (#9) means I actually haven't gone over that in theory yet. Specifically its D+7(#9) I know thats D augmented 7 but am not sure what the nine in parenthesis is.

 

[Janiator]

Sight reading on the guitar is very difficult. I used to play sax and sight reading was super easy, but on the guitar it's a bit crazy. It can be done, but takes a lot of work. If you want I'm sure theres books on amazon or websites that will help you a lot, but ultimately all it is is a ton of hard work.
I read in an article that Vai practiced sight reading for an entire summer 10 hours a day to get decent at it.
Good luck!

 

[AvantGuardian]

Typically in a jazz band setting, the guitarist just plays chords like 99% of the time. If you have the chord symbols written above each bar, that's all you need to be looking at. A lot of the time if there are chords written out in the sheet music, they are fo the piano player and they could cause you some serious stress if you try to play them on the guitar. Learn all of your basic jazz chord shapes and you'll be fine. (#9) refers to adding the sharped 9th degree to your chord (in this case E#, aka F). The extensions like that are all fine and good to play, but if you leave them out, no one's going to notice. If you're struggling to keep up, just ignore the extensions and focus on playing a chord with the proper root and function (i.e. major, minor, dominant, half-diminished, altered). Good luck!

 

[Cheesebuiscut]

Ah thought so! Just had to be sure.

Yeah this piece is piano / guitar I'm actually glad it has the chords written out (even though it still has them named too in most places) otherwise I'd be completely lost. So far every chord I've just typed in online to figure out has brought me back something completely wrong.

 

[BigPhi84]

A lot of times, the guitarists in Jazz Bands play rootless chords. I agree with one of the above posters...unless the altered notes are in the melody, I would rather just let the piano/horns cover those notes. An interesting exercise is to play just the 3rds and 7ths of the chords (like a vibraphonist).

 

[AvantGuardian]

Ah thought so! Just had to be sure.

Yeah this piece is piano / guitar I'm actually glad it has the chords written out (even though it still has them named too in most places) otherwise I'd be completely lost. So far every chord I've just typed in online to figure out has brought me back something completely wrong.

I'd suggest looking up some moveable barre chord shapes for the basic types of jazz chords like major 7, minor 7, dominant 7, and minor 7 flat 5. If you memorize a couple of moveable shapes for each of these, you'll be able to at least get through most jazz charts on a rudimentary level.

As the above post says, you don't even need to worry about the roots (or the fifths) if you're playing in a jazz band. That's what the bass player is for! Making sure you hit the correct 3rds and 7ths in your chords is what is most important.

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

Not long ago, I was in the same situation as you are now. I can kind of read a head, but in the semester I spent in jazz band, I never touched the stuff. I wasn't comfortable going between thirteenth chords with alterations at the speeds we were playing, so I stuck with seventh chords most of the time, ninths occasionally. I'm no comping genius, so I did just what AvantGuardian suggested: learn movable chord shapes for seventh chords. You should know how to read chord symbols. If you see Ab13(#11), you should know it's a dominant function (Ab7 is the same chord, without extensions). If you see Abm11(b13), you should be able to reduce it down to Abm7. I made some charts of easy seventh chord shapes. The roots on these are the hollow circles:

Maj7 chords

Before I go much further, I should point out that the Mac version of NeckDiagrams has an error in it which causes some letters to be cut off in the text box when exporting or printing. You should be able to figure out that the missing letter on the middle chord in the chart above is "A".

7 chords

m7 chords

m7b5 (half-diminished) chords

dim7 chords

Diminished seventh chords are symmetrical, and therefore, any of those notes can be a root. Same with augmented chords. If you need a chart for those, I'll gladly make one.

 

[Fzau]

I always though those chord charts are much better when the interval is indicated (ex. 7 etc)
That way you can easily locate and add/alter some of the chord tones (like 69, #9 etc)

 

[BigPhi84]

I was wondering when you'd pop in, Mike. You're always great help.

To the OP, another great approach would be to study the steady Freddie Green style of jazz band guitar playing.

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

I always though those chord charts are much better when the interval is indicated (ex. 7 etc)
That way you can easily locate and add/alter some of the chord tones (like 69, #9 etc)

Your wish is my command.

A quick note: augmented triads and diminished seventh chords are symmetrical, which is why I have not indicated a root or intervals for those chords. However, as you can see with the two chords on the bottom right, as soon as you add seventh or an extension, you have to identify a root.

 

[BigPhi84]

Very nice, Mike.

 

[Cheesebuiscut]

 

[viesczy]

Sight reading chords SUX!

Very boring, gimme a piece of music where there are lines to know, a melodic shape to both hear and see, now that's something I'm very much into, but I started on organ so long ago I'm embarrassed to even tell you...

Cheese, if you have any pieces that are line driven, as opposed to chord driven, just wrap your fingers around a measure, then wrap your fingers around the first 2 beats of the next measure to make sure that you're in a logical position and then tie those 2 measures together and so on... get like 4 measures down (16 beats if in 4/4) and then start again. It is tedious, but you'll have the music and the mechanics down!

Right now I'm working on Czardas, not that challenging of a piece, but I've extended all the arpeggios and scalar parts (just like how all the violinists have done) and man that if fun to play!

Derek

 

[SnowfaLL]

Sight reading on the guitar is very difficult. I used to play sax and sight reading was super easy, but on the guitar it's a bit crazy. It can be done, but takes a lot of work. If you want I'm sure theres books on amazon or websites that will help you a lot, but ultimately all it is is a ton of hard work.
I read in an article that Vai practiced sight reading for an entire summer 10 hours a day to get decent at it.
Good luck!

Totally agree. I started on guitar and I am a decent sightreader, but picked up alto sax in my 2nd year, and WOW its so easy in comparison. If only I didnt suck at sax as an instrument lol damn embrochure.

Gotta work at sightreading everyday to get good at it. Hard work but its worth it if you want any kind of serious music gigs.

 

[SnowfaLL]

Your wish is my command.

A quick note: augmented triads and diminished seventh chords are symmetrical, which is why I have not indicated a root or intervals for those chords. However, as you can see with the two chords on the bottom right, as soon as you add seventh or an extension, you have to identify a root.

Hey man.. Thats great, Its so hard to find high quality chord chart images..

Care to do me a favor? Since im sure you are a more accomplished jazz guitarist than I am.. Can you write out which chords that you use when in a band setting (ie bass piano horns etc) for comping over jazz chords? I know they are pretty much just inversions.. but whats the "trick" to comping?

Is it like, you try to get your melody note in the chord (guidetones) in the highest string? I always find comping the hardest thing about guitar.. sightreading is not bad, just comping because theres no "set" way to do it, and I think in definites =/

The hard part comes because in a full band, you dont just use full barre chords, they sound like junk.. Need to change it up =/

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

Care to do me a favor? Since im sure you are a more accomplished jazz guitarist than I am..

Sorry, I just play the chords. I'm the farthest thing from an accomplished jazz guitarist.

 

[Shep1]

As said before, sight reading for guitar is difficult (ask yourselves why do tabs exist!), the range of the guitar is huge and you'd have to be some kind of genius to be able to read standard 6 string chords without a chord chart.

Also, I think another key point is that the guitar is one of the few polyphonic instruments (like the piano) that can play both single note melodies and full-blown chords.

Like the advice above, I'd recommend you to learn chord names and the basic 7th/9th/11th/13th chord shapes (minor, major and dominant) and then start working your way into altered chords, inversions etc. Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry and Modern Chord Progressions books are a very worth while investment.

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

I just realized that there was a mistake in my chord chart. Anyway, I went back and revised it. I've also changed the resizing options on my Photobucket account, so it's a little easier to read now.