Honours Project

Pre production
In order to come up with a project, I first had to identify areas of interest and skills and knowledge gaps that I wished to fill. My main interest was in jazz and harmony and with this subject area I begun writing down a series of questions and statements that could be the focus of further research with the objective of coming up with a clear project idea.

In planning what my honours project would comprise of, I knew that my main area of interest was around jazz and improvisation. This is an area where I wish to fill skills and knowledge gaps. As part of meeting the criteria of concept development I took this subject area and began asking questions and writing down statements with the hope that this would start to narrow down the subject area.

Questions and Statements

Why does the interval of a minor second in isolation produce a grating unpleasant sound, yet within certain chord constructions, its sound quality is transformed. For example, play D and Eb in isolation and its effect is unpleasant. Within the chord of Cm9 despite the same minor second clash its quality is completely different.
Also, why do different chord voicing’s of the same chord produce different qualities when all the notes are the same?
Performance needs to be a key component of the project

The same scales have different qualities when alternative harmonies are applied. For example play an FMAJ7 chord and improvise using the A blues scale. The effect is completely different if the chord is changed to A7.

What dictates what scales to use over what chords when improvising?
How does harmonic backing influence the act of improvisation?

Does this change the course of improvisation when improvising in different settings such as in a group or as a soloist, even when the chords are the same?
From these questions and statements a more focussed project idea emerges. This is exploring the impact of harmony on improvisation, showing and explaining how harmony shapes the course of improvisation and how it defines the sound quality of the scales being used. The resultant output would comprise of a series of performance based activities that would each explore this along with a guide that would explain how harmony actually works applied to the context of improvisation.

In complying with the research methods and dissertation part of the honours project, I have identified some research material that should be of assistance in helping me understand my subject area.

From this there are many areas of research that can be identified. These include
· Jazz transcriptions- to reference consistent patterns between harmony and improvisation that produce particular effects.
· Jazz recordings- so that the effect of harmony and improvisation can be heard
· Books on improvisation
· Books on the theory of harmony
· Books on the Psychology of music

Target audience
The project could be aimed at jazz academics


Research- exploring the relationship between improvisation and harmony. By examining transcriptions how does the harmony change the effect of the scales being used? Supporting evidence pre production

Art Tatum ‘Aint Misbehavin’ (Jazz Masters 1986)
Within the transcription several observations can be made between improvised passages and the harmony Tatum is using. An example is in bar 8 where the last four semiquavers of the right hand would suggest A minor but the left hand suggests Db. The Semitone clash creates tension yet is instantly resolved at the start of the next bar where Tatum resolves the tension by playing a Db major chord which is spread over two hands. This gives the effect of there being a transition; there is a break in harmonic agreement. The chord in the left hand at the end of bar 8 characterises this. The effect would be completely different if the left hand played an A minor chord at this point. Tatum uses this device frequently in his improvisations. The use of scales that are made up of whole tones, such as in the first bar of the last system of page 18, is another device which is used. In this bar the effect that it has is of conflict. Again, it is the combining of the left hand harmony and the scale in the right hand that creates this effect rather than the scale in isolation producing it. The chord that the left hand is playing would suggest Ebminor, the scale seems to be derived from a B9 chord. The sound quality of the scale is transformed depending on what harmony is applied underneath it. For example on page 19 in the second bar of the last system Tatum plays another scale where no interval is less than a whole tone. The effect that it has this time is of greater harmonic agreement because of the chord that Tatum plays in the left hand. Another significant observation is how the whole-tone scale, played in isolation, in its entirety, has a dreamy, nostalgic quality, yet with some notes omitted this quality changes.



Psychology of music
Researching the experience of Harmony
Books that have reliable information that will inform my project include
‘Harmony its theory and practice’ by Ebenezer Prout
The book contains information on the harmonic series and the makeup of chords relating to the natural conditions which facilitate it. This would seem to be useful research material in understanding why certain intervals have a particular effect rather than simply accepting the effect.
‘A certain amount of knowledge of the phenomena of the production of musical sounds is of the utmost assistance to the student in enabling him to understand the derivation of the various chords which form the material of which music is constructed’ (Prout p24 1888)