Four Fundamental Forms of Jazz
In this article, modern jazz guitarist Jake Hertzog (aka Guitar Player Magazine's Hey Jazz Guy), breaks down some of the different forms of jazz music.
Four Fundamental Forms of Jazz
By Jake Hertzog for ArtistWorks
Classification can be useful! Much like the biologist as a student of nature attempts to sort all living things, we students of jazz can attempt to sort the types of situations we must be able to play. Knowing full well of course that most songs are a hybrid of basic elements, one can divide the jazz "kingdom" as it were, into these four categories: The Blues, Rhythm Changes, Modal Harmony and Coltrane Changes. Regardless of ‘style’ of jazz you are studying, be it straight-ahead or bebop or modern abstract, each of these represent different ways that harmony can move, and when examining a song you might find it relies primarily on one or the other, most often with elements of all four.
I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the blues as a style, and as a platform for the study of improvisation. The "classic" 12-bar blues form is short and simple enough that it can be used to try any musical concept. When we first learn to improvise, the 12 bar blues form is the perfect place to start since it is so common and our ears are "used" to following this progression. Many of the early jazz and swing tunes are variations on the blues form. Throughout the development of jazz, the blues was reharmonized, extended, contracted and sometimes unrecognizably altered, but regardless, possessing a deep understanding of the blues is key to becoming a great improviser.
I Got Changes
Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" is the second bedrock of jazz, a 32 bar masterpiece that, instead of relying on a I-IV-V type motion as in the blues, is much more diatonic in nature. It also includes a bridge that borrows a cycle of dominant chords from the blues. This form is the perfect "gateway drug" to the Great American Songbook repertoire and the types of diatonic progressions frequently encountered in so-called "jazz standards". There are hundreds of tunes based either loosely or directly on "I Got Rhythm", not to mention the variations of the 32 bar form. Learning and practicing this form will open up a large amount of jazz territory for your improvising pleasure.
Modal Interspace
Songs like "Impressions" and "Yes or No" represent the class of jazz tunes emphasizing modal harmony, where scales and melodies are superimposed on top of static chords and pedal tones. Studying modal harmony is a fascinating exercise that can almost be meditative. Anything goes! That said, there are certainly harmonic conventions that such tunes are based on and that merit the occasional homage.
Taking The Coltrane
Much has been said about John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" but the type of harmonic motion here makes it a form unto itself. The song is not as important as what it does, that being a multi-tonic system where each key demands acknowledgement. Learning and practicing this can be difficult but it serves as a basis for improvising in multiple keys and advanced harmonic situations.
Breaking things down in this simplistic manner can be helpful for organizing practicing. It should be remembered however, that musical situations do not exist in a vacuum. One could write a blues with a rhythm changes bridge and a modal section at the end where Coltrane changes are superimposed! So let it be not a method, but simply a guide in your shedding, that if you practice each of these forms in turn, there will soon be very little that surprises you. Jazz hard!
ArtistWorks offers a variety of jazz lessons, including jazz guitar lessons with Andreas Oberg, solo jazz fingerstyle guitar lessons with Martin Taylor, jazz bass lessons with John Patitucci, and jazz drum lessons with Billy Cobham.
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