Ted Greene Revisits “’Round Midnight” 07/05/2000 – Part 3

Описание: Welcome back to part three of my video-taped lesson on “’Round Midnight” with guitar legend, Ted Greene!

Surprised? Yes, there is more! I renamed this lesson “revisits” because the purpose was to review this song from a previous lesson from January 2000, Parts 1 & 2 are already posted here on YouTube. There are some are new ideas and topics being introduced in this lesson. Rather than risk confusion in searches and sequencing video parts, I am titling this video lesson “Part 3”. “Part 4” will soon follow.

The “Grappling for…” edit screens were added to save you time and spare you the unnecessary annoyance from my occasional mindlessness. I love the Ted one-liners: “Your fingers just got wildly over enthusiastic!” Ted, it’s grappling!

This is the same lesson where Ted corrects a leaning bridge on my Ibanez archtop guitar before launching into the Japanese hit oldie “Sukiyaki”    • Ted Greene Explores “Sukiyaki” 07/05/00   thus the extra tuning from my strings still stretching. Ted refers to what he said in his recent “Just Jazz Guitar” (May 2000) magazine interview regarding improper guitar setups rendering them “sad and unloved.”

The conversation then segues to the tone of the strings: Flatwounds vs. Roundwounds. Ted likes both and gives his personal reasons to favor flatwound strings. Interesting! Tim Lerch (Ted Greene alumni) posted a video recently comparing the two on his Tele while playing “Yesterdays”.    • Tim Lerch  - Flatwound vs Roundwound on a ...  

Remember, we are still in the key of Eb minor. We revisit ‘The James Bond Line’ (the ascending/descending inner line) used on the repeat of the song in January’s lesson. BUT, now we addeded that 4th note, a 9th.

“Grappling for a chord”? Ted plays this C alt. dom. chord lower on the neck to possibly make it easier to see, a familiar shape to recognize. Don’t forget the B (Cb) chord that follows!

“I like those lines!”    • Ted Greene Revisits “’Round Midnight” 07/0...   There are several nice examples to choose from here, worthy of transcribing.

Ted describes THE FOUR QUADRANTS OF MINOR CHORDS: 1. Min7 (softest, easy on the ears), 2. Min7b5 (soft & sad), 3. Min6 (mysterious), 4. Min/Maj7 (grief, tragedy). I brought up Leon Russell’s “Masquerade” which uses a min/maj7 chord as a transitional chord.

Transitional chords? I am reminded of the beginning of Ted’s 1st book “Chord Chemistry” where that oddball chord needs chords before and after it to make sense. Ted plays that example and comments.

“Min/Maj7 can be melodic”, softer on the 4th degree and Ted plays a part of that early Joni Mitchell song “Michael from Mountains” to demonstrate its use. By themselves? Scary monster movie music!

Onward! “Anytime you have minor 7 as a tonic chord, it is super friendly with the IV dominant”. That’s what we have here! For jazz, add the embellishment, the 13th.

Question: What is the V of IV? “Grappling for an answer”. Bzzzzzz!
“I have to say one more thing to say!” The min/maj 7 chord also acts as the V chord to the home key. We aggressively front cycled our way into the IV7 chord. Easier said than done!

“Three half steps up” was the Wes Montgomery chord changes leading up to | Bm7 E7 Bbm7 Eb7 |. Enter DELAYED ENTRANCES, “like notes falling down the stairs.” I wasn’t ready for this at first and joked it off. Wouldn’t this make a great arpeggio exercise?

Lastly, here’s a very nice line with chord choices to capture. Pay attention! The fingering is super important for this line to work well!

That’s a wrap for “’Round Midnight” Part 3! Stay tuned for Part 4 for the conclusion of this lesson!