Hi Todd,
Hope things are good with you. I've really been enjoying Fishing for Grips recently - many thanks for an introduction to the concepts!
Playing around on my own I've discovered a few neat little substitutions that work quite well with grips. Is this something you use a lot? I suspect it might a personal journey as to discovering which of these sounds good.
Some of my ideas (thinking in the key of C major for this post just to make things easier):
I've tried using Fmaj7 grips over Dm7 (subdominant function sort of substitution) and both Em7/Am7 over Cmaj7 (tonic substitution). Some really pretty sounds coming out! e.g. voicing Em7 with a 9 in the top over C gives G/D/F# which is a nice lydian sound....I guess there's no reason I couldn't play something like Gmaj7 voicings over C for a stronger lydian flavour.
Just wondering, if you use this sort of susbtitution with your grips, which others you might recommend checking out?
I haven't really tried substituting the V chord yet. I suppose, still in C, Bm7b5 would be a good sub for G7 (dominant substitution). There's also the possibility of diminshed-based stuff (e.g. playing Bb7, Db7, E7 as subs over G7, just shifting a nice G7 voicing in tritones. Or even any of their related iim7 chords, like Abm7 over G) Another obvious one would be to just continue playing Dm7 grips over G7 (or play G7 grips over Dm7). Perhaps some of these altered sounds might be clearer if I just think in terms of altering the top "melody" note and keeping the 3rd and 7th of G7 underneath - e.g. playing, low to high, B/F/Ab for a G7b9 sound.
As long as I'm careful about using what I call "handle with care tones" B and F, I would guess there's no reason why I couldn't sub anything in the key of C for any other chord though, right? I don't want to obscure the function of the underlying harmony, but it's great to suddenly realise there's such a broad range of colours available to me when I comp.
Apologies for the slightly train of thought post, floodgates have been opened a bit here! Don't get that much time to play chordally (even though it's great for my ear and theory chops) because I feel I ought not to neglect my role as a bass.
Hector
Hope things are good with you. I've really been enjoying Fishing for Grips recently - many thanks for an introduction to the concepts!
Playing around on my own I've discovered a few neat little substitutions that work quite well with grips. Is this something you use a lot? I suspect it might a personal journey as to discovering which of these sounds good.
Some of my ideas (thinking in the key of C major for this post just to make things easier):
I've tried using Fmaj7 grips over Dm7 (subdominant function sort of substitution) and both Em7/Am7 over Cmaj7 (tonic substitution). Some really pretty sounds coming out! e.g. voicing Em7 with a 9 in the top over C gives G/D/F# which is a nice lydian sound....I guess there's no reason I couldn't play something like Gmaj7 voicings over C for a stronger lydian flavour.
Just wondering, if you use this sort of susbtitution with your grips, which others you might recommend checking out?
I haven't really tried substituting the V chord yet. I suppose, still in C, Bm7b5 would be a good sub for G7 (dominant substitution). There's also the possibility of diminshed-based stuff (e.g. playing Bb7, Db7, E7 as subs over G7, just shifting a nice G7 voicing in tritones. Or even any of their related iim7 chords, like Abm7 over G) Another obvious one would be to just continue playing Dm7 grips over G7 (or play G7 grips over Dm7). Perhaps some of these altered sounds might be clearer if I just think in terms of altering the top "melody" note and keeping the 3rd and 7th of G7 underneath - e.g. playing, low to high, B/F/Ab for a G7b9 sound.
As long as I'm careful about using what I call "handle with care tones" B and F, I would guess there's no reason why I couldn't sub anything in the key of C for any other chord though, right? I don't want to obscure the function of the underlying harmony, but it's great to suddenly realise there's such a broad range of colours available to me when I comp.
Apologies for the slightly train of thought post, floodgates have been opened a bit here! Don't get that much time to play chordally (even though it's great for my ear and theory chops) because I feel I ought not to neglect my role as a bass.
Hector