Re: [Harp-L] Sweet Georgia Brown Question

[Bill <bill.eborn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks
People who are better at jazz theory than me will be able to explain this
better than I can probably and I'm also at work and I haven't got a copy of
the head with me, I probably also need to actually do some work at some
point too!  If I remember rightly, the first 12 bars of the tune are four
bars or F7, then four bars of Bb7 and four bars of Eb7, then the progression
adopts a chromatic pattern resolving to the Ab.

In Ab the six chord would be Fm, the two chord would be Bbm7 and Eb7 is the
five chord.  Jazz musicians and composers will very often sharpen the thirds
of those minor chords to make them dominant, or to use the correct
terminology to make them sub-dominant.

The dominant chords is dictated by the melody but these also enable the use
of more varied harmony i.e. the use of diminished and chromatic scales etc
which provides more options to the improviser.   So my understanding of what
is happening here, is that the tune is in Ab and stays there, as you are
still playing harmony based on Ab, so when you play this tune on a Bb as I
do, you are in 11th position and because of the nature of the progression it
sits very nicely on that key harp.

Bill


On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 7:13 AM, Boris Plotnikov <ploboris@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi, Harp-l!
>
> > My question: since what I'm doing is playing a tune in Ab on a Bb
> > harp, technically I'm not in 2nd position, right? so what position
> > is this? Or since the tune starts out with lots of F7 and Bb7, am i
> > sort of in 2nd position? Could the tune be said to be in F when it
> > begins? i know jazz tunes tend to move around in terms of their
> > tonal centers...anyway, obviously i still have a lot to learn about
> harmony :-)
> > WVa Bob
> Howard Levy in his "New directions..." plays Sw.G.Brown with four
> different diatonics in one key of F (first chord is D, the last is F).
> His favourite harp for this tune is G.
>
> I play it usually with Bb harp
> in the key af Ab, and I think like starting tune in 2nd pos.
> myxolidian (F), and then goes to Eb lydian (the same notes, but other
> tonic!) and then to 2nd position natural minor (relatively mainor to
> Ab) with avoiding note A (3 and 7 draw). Very blues-like thing.
>
>
> --
> Boris Plotnikov
> http://myspace.com/harmonicaboris
>
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