Chords for Herbie Hancock on Music Theory

_ _ Sometimes our creativity can be flowing, _ _ but I'm sure that many of us have
experienced periods when there has been some kind of _ blockage to our _
imagination.
_ _ _ Many, many years ago I was challenged and frustrated with my own
playing and as a result _ became a bit _ depressed.
_ _ It's disheartening, right?
_ _ _ I
seemed to be playing the same stuff over and over again.
I was stuck in
familiarity and somehow couldn't get out of the rut.
_ _ _ This happened one night at
Lenny's on the Turnpike, a well-known jazz club in Peabody, _ about half an hour
or so from here. _ _ _
I was on stage with the Miles Davis Quintet, which included Ron
Carter, Tony Williams, and Wayne Shorter. _ _
I was really in a rut that _ _
night.
Everything I played sounded the same.
_ _ _ Miles could sense my sense of
frustration, so he leaned over to me and said, _ _ don't play the butter notes.
_ The _
_ _ _ butter notes?
_ _ What _ _ _ could he possibly mean? _
_ _ _ But since it came from Miles, I knew it
had to mean something. _ _ _
_ _ So _ I figured that he meant _ don't play the obvious notes
because I was thinking butter _ might mean fat and fat might mean obvious.
_ _ _ Doesn't _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ apply to the body, so.
_ _ The most obvious notes might be the third and
seventh of a chord because they define the nature of the chord.
_ I realized if I
left out the third and seventh notes, I'd have a lot of other notes that could
_ work without confining my solos to the obvious restricted interpretation.
_ This
would allow the harmonies to be opened up to various views. _
So I'm going to show
you _ what I mean by that. _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ In a way, music is like math.
_ _ So _ if _ _ you're playing a _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ scale, [Bbm] this _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ is one, [Db] [F] that's three, that's five. _ _
_ _ And [Db] this is seven, _ _ _ it's a major seventh, _ [Dm] _ [Ab] it's a dominant [Dm] seven.
So the third is whether it's minor [D] or major. _
And the seventh can _ tell you whether it might [G] go here _ [D] _ [G] _ _
_ or it might be _ [D]
a _ _ _ _ _ _ place where you might end up.
_ _ So in a song, _ _ let's [Dm] take _ [F] something that might be in what we say D minor.
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ The old way of thinking that got me into a rut was thinking, _ _ _ _ being _ used to having the [F] third _ and [Em] the seventh _ _
_ [Bbm] in a [Dm] chord.
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _
[A] _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ Okay. _ _
Now if you leave out the third, _ [Fm] _ _
[G] _ _ [Fm] you _ _ _ _ _ _ _
have these other notes that you can play.
_ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ [Bb] _
_ [Em] _ _ _ [D] _ [C] _
_ [Am] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _
_ [Gm] _ [D] _ _ So it just gives you more possibilities of things you can play.
_ _ _ [Am] _ [D] _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ So that kind of freed me from _ _ just being kind of stuck in.
[F] _ _ [Em] _ _
_ [D] _ _ [Dm] _ [G] Now, _ _ _ I didn't throw away playing that way, _ [N] _ but I included _ something brand new for me at the time.
_ _ So even though _ when I played the next solo, it felt
cumbersome and sounded _ erratic, to my surprise, the audience _ responded positively and gave me excellent feedback.
_ _ I believe _ within this raw exploration, they felt my openness _ and my desire to try something imaginative.
_ _ _ I used Miles's suggestion as an exercise and this experience _ became groundbreaking for me and opened the doorway to the future of my performances.
_ _ Not only did it affect my style of playing throughout the rest of my life, it taught me the valuable lessons of courage, _ _ conviction, _ _ confidence, and trust. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
Ethics.
Miles could feel my frustration and through his compassion for me and his respect for my feelings, _ he made the wisest of comments. _
_ Only a great master can provide a path to finding your own true answers. _
I _ _ was then able to translate Miles's guidance to my future bandmates and students.
_ _ _ _ Reach up while reaching down.
_ _ _ Grow _ while helping others. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _
While we're in the process of moving forward, _ _ _ bring others with you.
_ _ _ _ _ _
This mentor-apprentice relationship _ runs freely through the jazz world.
We don't hide our discoveries from other musicians.
In fact, it's quite the opposite.
_ _ It's not unusual to hear a musician say, hey, I found this scale that's really cool, or _ check out the voicing for this chord.
_ _ _ That's the spirit _ and the wisdom of Miles Davis _ and the ethics of jazz. _
_ So always remember, _ _ _ don't play to butter notes.