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Looper's Delight
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>That's been pretty much the pattern in
art and scholarship: first the intuitive artists put it together and then the
analysts take it apart. Finally, the poor students have to emulate the masters
by rule-based exercises, and most of them get throttled in the
process.<the same thing has happened with jazz.
gotta hand it to bach: he pretty much wrote the book on "music theory" without
meaning to do so.>most people seem to start with a melody that
would lead the harmony as it goes<this is not always the case with traditional jazz. often, composer x will start with harmonically interesting chord changes (think giant steps, countdown, etc.) and the melody comes next. it makes the most sense this way. since the harmonic progression (changes) will be the basis on which composer/musician x will be improvising, the chords therefore have more significance than the melody and thus come first. charlie parker wrote new melodies over old tunes, keeping the chord progression intact...although this has just as much to do with not wanting to pay royalties on tunes he played/recorded. -jim
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