| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: 7/4 | |
| samian606375 -- 02/03/2004, 03:47:57 -- #528 | |
| Ok, its moon river again, thanks for your help last time, on converting moon river to a jazz style. I played it all alright, and the teacher said it was ok, but possibly too close to the original ( part of the point of the exercise was to be as far as possible from the original as you can). He suggested putting the piece in 7/4. I, like an idiot, pretended that I knew what he was talking about and that it would be easy for me to make that change. So anyways, now I need some help because the only 7/4 piece I know is the theme tune to 'the bill' (this will mean nothing to anyone in the US) and I have absolutely no idea how to put a piece in 7/4, so could someone briefly explain, and/or give some examples of some jazz played in 7/4? That would really help a lot. | |
| sid -- 02/03/2004, 04:19:32 -- #529 | |
| Probably the most widely-known piece in 7/4 is Brubeck's Unsquare Dance. Since you watch UK television, you might have come across it in a commercial for one of the building societies. The usual way to approach 7/4 is to play it as alternating bars of 4/4 and 3/4. So you could take Moon River and play one bar straight in the original 3/4 and then expand one of the notes in the next bar by one beat to make it 4/4, then back to one bar of three, then stretch the next bar to 4 again and so on. To make it "jazzy" you could play each 3/4 bar as a jazz waltz, that is, with a feeling of 2 beats against 3 (each beat a dotted quarter-note) and swing the 4-beat bar. Sounds tricky, but it's possible to get into a groove and make it feel quite natural. Hope this helps. sid | |
| Whacky -- 02/03/2004, 08:20:30 -- #540 | |
| I would try doing a bar of 4 then a bar of 3... | |
| 7 -- 02/04/2004, 09:41:16 -- #589 | |
| In the old forum there is a post which addresses some of the odd time signatures. Go to the old forum Click on search type in "Dave Holland" [exact phrase] [subject] 7 | |
| Barry -- 02/04/2004, 10:46:07 -- #593 | |
| Has anyone noticed that the Bill has now actually changed it's theme tune and it's in 4! Absolutely shocking - that was the only decent thing about that program...... | |
| sid -- 02/03/2004, 04:19:32 -- #529 | |
| Probably the most widely-known piece in 7/4 is Brubeck's Unsquare Dance. Since you watch UK television, you might have come across it in a commercial for one of the building societies. The usual way to approach 7/4 is to play it as alternating bars of 4/4 and 3/4. So you could take Moon River and play one bar straight in the original 3/4 and then expand one of the notes in the next bar by one beat to make it 4/4, then back to one bar of three, then stretch the next bar to 4 again and so on. To make it "jazzy" you could play each 3/4 bar as a jazz waltz, that is, with a feeling of 2 beats against 3 (each beat a dotted quarter-note) and swing the 4-beat bar. Sounds tricky, but it's possible to get into a groove and make it feel quite natural. Hope this helps. sid | |
| Dr. Whack -- 02/03/2004, 08:20:30 -- #540 | |
| I would try doing a bar of 4 then a bar of 3... | |
| 7 -- 02/04/2004, 09:41:16 -- #589 | |
| In the old forum there is a post which addresses some of the odd time signatures. Go to the old forum Click on search type in "Dave Holland" [exact phrase] [subject] 7 | |
| Barry -- 02/04/2004, 10:46:07 -- #593 | |
| Has anyone noticed that the Bill has now actually changed it's theme tune and it's in 4! Absolutely shocking - that was the only decent thing about that program...... | |
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