SongTrellis
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Author:  David Luebbert Posted:  12/18/08; 1:55:31 PM Topic:  Moment's Notice Msg#:  5576 (in response to 5575) Prev/Next:  5575/5577 Reads:  1093

Impressions is a modal tune, where the harmony doesn't change for large sections of the tune's form.

It has the same harmonic plan as Miles Davis' "So What": 16 bars of Dmi7, 8 bars of Ebmi7,8 bars of Dmi7.

Soloists use the pitches of the D Dorian mode within the Dmi7 measures of the form, and Eb Dorian within the Ebmi7 measures.

I'll put up a chord arrangement in a few moments to provide something to practice or compose with, but I don't think anyone will be satisfied with it. Accompanists have ways to comp over modal situations that I don't understand yet.

If anyone can explain to me how this kind of comping works, I can translate that knowledge into code so that we can generate better modal voicings for these kinds of tunes using the SongTrellis Editor.

This software shortcoming has prevented me from posting accompaniments for "So What", "Freedom Jazz Dance", "Passion Dance" and many of the tunes McCoy Tyner played with Coltrane that had this kind of static harmony, where a harmonic idea is sustained for a very long duration. Because the software doesn't know any of the ways that are used to vary this kind of sequence, the accompaniments it produces generally sound dull and wrong for the style.

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