Reharmonisation Recording: Amazing Grace

Below is a version of Amazing Grace I reharmonised using the ruleset.  As with most reharmonised parts I delve into more complex harmonic territory the more times it repeats.  The final version of it sounds most "out there" but it shows the depth of the ruleset.

Rules used for this include:

All rules used under the "chord extension" subheading.
Chord substitution rules 1,2,3 and 6.
Rules 1 & 2 of the ii-V section.
All three tritone substitution based rules.

The result for this one was mixed.  Some parts worked, others didn't.  I struggled to reharmonise this song as easily as some of the others.  Perhaps it was due to the homophonic melody, or the fact that almost every on-beat note of the hymn is a tonic chord tone.  Regardless, here are the results: Whether or not it was successful is up to the listener.

Reharmonisation Recording: Somewhere in Time

A key part of my project was to show that the ruleset can be applied to pieces of music from any style.

So far I've reharmonised love ballads, hymns, christmas tunes, hard rock songs, contemporary pop, and now I'm trying out an orchestral piece - "Somewhere in Time", by John Barry.

The trick is finding a distinguishable melody in a piece, then working out the chords to it.

In this case the chords are based on the C major scale.  C, Am, Dm and F are the chords used mostly throughout.  There's a part near the end of the "A" section where E7 and B7 are played.  I tried to get interesting here with tritone substitution, but it proved tricky.

Below you will find a brief piano recording I made of the "A" section of the piece, repeated twice.  The first time features a simpler, 'easier' sounding reharmonisation.  The second A section features a wider variety of rules used - based on minor scale and diminished harmony, the second play through is full of tritone substitution, and minor ii-Vs.  The result?  It works, but I'm not sure if it's exactly "smooth jazz".  If anything, it demonstrates the diversity of sound that the ruleset can produce.

As I begin to reharmonise more and more pieces I'm starting to see how this project and the ruleset itself is developing past what I intended.  It's gone beyond "can I get this to sound like smooth jazz?" and is now "how far can I let the ruleset take this song?"  Perhaps I should reel it in a bit...

(Please note it isn't supposed to be four minutes, I stupidly forgot to crop it when bouncing the file. The A section will repeat twice, with different harmonies.  Once that's done the track is over.)

I'm not sure I'm really following the ruleset any more...

...This is both a good thing and a bad thing.  I've spent so much time trying to reharmonise different versions of things that I've began to reharmomise tunes without even looking at the rules on my iPad. I'm simply playing things, hearing where I want them to go in my head and then fumbling around at the piano until I can remember where the reharmoised chord I want is.

 I can be working on a reharmonisation then think "I want to go to this chord".  I'll then think about other reharmonisations I've done, and remember what I did there and lo and behold, it's the chord I want to go to.  This is good as it means the project is working and that my ear is beginning to develop more, which is what I wanted from the start.

This is bad because it means some of the reharmonisations may be coming from me and not the ruleset, nulling them - this project is ultimately about me, yes, but the academic side is to be focused on the ruleset.  What does it matter if by the end of this I have a handful of reharmonisations that sound good, but they all bypassed the ruleset? What does that prove?  What I want to be able to say is "The ruleset works because" or "the ruleset doesn't work because."  Not "I picked this chord here because I wanted it to be there."

To actually be quite honest, this might be a good thing.  I'm not sure.  So I'm documenting it here.  Perhaps this realisation has become a vital part in the development of my project.  I don't know!  What I do know is that with or without the ruleset next to me, it's getting progressively easier to reharmonise tunes into something that sounds remotely like smooth-jazz.

And it's no coincidence that the reharmonisations are getting simpler.  TO start with I was trying to fill every bar with complex harmonic progressions.  Now I'm focused more on simply extending existing chords and adding substituted ii-V-I progressions where the melody calls for it.  If it leads to a more authentic sound, who am I to criticise it?  It's just going to make evaluating my project that little bit harder at the end.  Ah well.  At least I'm getting better.

Please note, I'm by no means saying I'm a reharmonisation master, I'm just saying that it's become a damn sight easier for me to reharmonises things from the top of my head than it was when I first started reharmonising things in January!

J

Stay - Rhianna Reharmonisation

Below is the music video for "Stay" by Rhianna.  The song is in 4/4 and is based on the same four chords: C Dm Am F, with the occasional G/Em thrown in.

Here is the song:

Below is the reharmonised chord chart:

Cmaj9 Dm7 Am7

Em7 Dm7 Am7

Cmaj9 Dm7-G b9 #13 Cmaj7

Am11 Abdim7 Am7

Cmaj9 Dm7 Cmaj7

Cmaj7 Dm7b5 G7 Am7

Fmaj7 Dm9 Am7

Atritone D b9 #13 G7

Ch

Cmaj7 Dmin7 Am7 F

Em7 Atriton Dm7 G7tritone sub

Cmaj7 Dm7 Am7 Bb/F 

Am7 D7 Dm7-G7 

Cmaj7 Dm7 Am7 

Fmaj7 Am7 D7 E7

Fmaj7 Cmaj7 Dm7 

Dm7 E7#9#5 Am7 

Fmaj7 Dmin7 Gtritone

Less rules were added here than one would think - for this song I simply added a number of ii-Vs and reharmonised them using tritone substitution, as detailed in previous blog posts.  Some chords were substituted for others - chords that are in the similar key and share a similar tonality.  In this case melody notes that were guide tones (like the 3rd of 7th) became extended chord tones, like 11th and 13th, etc.

I'll be uploading a recorded version of this with a singer singing the original melody soon.

J

YouTube link: Reharmonising Happy Birthday

I found another interesting youTube link which talks about finding target chords and working backwards to them, back cycling through various V and ii-V sequences.

This is useful to an extent, though the video's creator has embellished the melody too much for the purposes relating to this blog.  My plan is to reharmonises songs while touching the melody as little as possible.

The author's end result leads to a chord sequence that looks like this:


Cmaj7 - Adom7 - Dm7 - Gdom7
Bm7b5 - Edom7 - A7 - Ddom7
Dm7 - Gdom7 - Em7 - Adom7 - Dm7 - Gdom7 - Cmaj7

Considering the original sequence looks similar to this:

C G
G C
C F
C G C

We can see that it's a rather intense reharmonisation.  The A7 leads down a fifth to the Dm7, which then moves down a fifth to the G7.  We can see that the chord sequence continually moves down in fifths.  This is similar to a small set of rules I've composed which include back-cycling in fifths.  The user here seems to alternate between minor seven chords and dominant seven chords.  This is something I'll have to look at, though since I'm trying to adhere to the melody in my own reharmonisations, this may not work for me.

If anything, it's food for thought, and gives me a chance to see how other people reharmonises well known tunes.

J

Rules narrowed down: chord substitution

Below are a group of the near-finalised versions of the chord substitution based rules.  These may change before the final ruleset is released.

1) Dominant 7th chords may be replaced by minor seventh chords (eg. B7 can become Bm7) ONLY if the melody note does not fall upon the major third.  (This minor seven chord can then become the introduction to an imposed ii-V sequence).

2) Similarly, minor chords can be replaced with dominant seventh chords.  Same rules as above apply.

3) Any major triad can be made into a major 7 - those major 7 chords can then be replaced by the related mIII or mVI (eg. Cmaj 7 may be substituted for Em7 or Am7).

4) Those substituted chords may then be replaced by their major counterpart - e.g., Em7 may then become Gmaj 7.  Rule 3 can then apply to the same Gmaj7.  By doing this you can get a Bm7 chord from a Cmaj7 chord - MELODY DEPENDENT. 

5) If going into a ii-V especially, the ii chord can be substituted for a ii#9 b 5 chord.

Tritone Substitution

1) Any dominant seventh chord can be replaced by it's tritone substitute if THE MELODY DOES NOT FALL WITHIN A SEMI-TONE OF THE CHORD'S GUIDE TONES.  Eg. G7 can become Db7/G, or G7/Db, etc...

2) Tritone substitution should be used sparingly.  Do not alter every dominant chord into it's tritone substitute.  Tritone substitute should be used for colour, especially near the end of lines where a resolution is likely.

3) ONLY WHEN IT DOES NOT CONFLICT WITH THE MELODY you may alter the tritone chord even more - instead of flattening the fifth and 9th, sharpen them and play them on top of the tritone.  Eg. F7-Bbmaj7 - B7/Db7 - Bb (tritone/altered chord - Bb).  Again, this should only be used sparingly, preferably at the end of lines to build tension.

Rules Narrowed Down: Adding ii-Vs

Below are the rules which relate to the addition of ii-V sequences to existing chord charts.  By adding ii-Vs, chord sequences can be made more interesting - the original chord sequence can even stay the same.  The ii-Vs need not replace anything - they can just be input as additions.

1) A ii-V sequence can be added anywhere if the target chord is a major chord.  Eg, if the target chord is a Gmaj, Am-D7 can be added before the Gmaj.  

2) If there are multiple 4-5 sequences in a single line/passage, introduce a ii-V in the key of the 5.  Eg. in the key of D - if there's a G-A sequence, add an Em after the G leading into the A, leading to a G-Em-A sequence. 

3) Alternatively, replace the G with an Em, changing G-A into Em-A.

4) If there's a 1-4 (eg. F-Bb in the key of F), add a minor ii-v in the key of the 4.  Eg. F-Bb will become F-Adim7-D7b9 - Bb.  NOTE: DO NOT USE THIS MORE THAN ONCE IN A SINGLE VERSE/CHORUS OR IF THE MELODY FALLS WITHIN A SEMI-TONE ON EITHER SIDE OF THE GUIDE TONES OF THE ADDED CHORDS

5) Any dominant7 chord can have the minor seventh chord a fourth below placed before it.  Eg. A7 can have Em7 before it, or a Dm7 can be placed before a G7, etc.    

6) Any minor 7 chord can have the dominant seventh chord a fourth above it placed after it, for example B7 can be placed after any F#m7 chord, etc...

7) A ii-V can be added in the key above a target ii-V sequence.  Eg, if the target chord is Cmaj and the ii-V preceding it is Dm-G7, Em-A7 can be played prior to the Dm-G7 ii-V.