LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Chord gliss

AndyD -- 09/18/2006, 05:21:16 -- #29879

Anyone seen this notation before? I was just trying to get to grips with a bit of this piece that I'm struggling with “All the Things You Are”.  It contains this notation that's new to me – chord gliss.   It’s in this music book: http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?cart=33675547187319264&type=rec&item=2959762 and one can hear the piece on CD, as it’s transcribed from the Tatum Pablo Solo Masterpieces, disc 3 , number 5.   The chord is written as five notes, top C (C7), B below, Ab below, F# below, and E below… and runs as a glissando (annotated by a solid line) down to a left hand octave on Ab2/Ab1. So, to sort of repeat but hopefully clarify, directly after the chord (annotated as lasting 2.5 beats)  is written in italics "chord gliss" and a solid straight line angled downwards left to right to the next bar where the line ends above the low Ab octave played by the left hand(on the first beat of the next bar). Although the written notation says “chord gliss”, it sounds like a chromatic glissando played on both black and white keys. It’s definitely not played as a chord, it’s a glissando.  But how? Also on youtube about one minute into this Yesterdays video, he seems to do a similar glissando http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzj6Q61h3oA He seems to use his fourth and fifth fingers on the whites, his second and third on the blacks, and possibly his thumb on a lower white. Any comments?  I’ve just discovered this and cannot do a chord/chromatic glissando or whatever it actually is, but any help on acquiring the technique or clarifying what he actually plays much appreciated. Regards Andy P.S. A few bars after the chord gliss, Tatum stretches an eleventh in the left – Eb to Ab. I think it’s the only eleventh I’ve ever seen written.

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