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    Crooked Face Chords - Adam Maness

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    tommidelfino
    This document provides an overview of several advanced jazz chord techniques called "Crooked Face Chords" to spice up basic chord progressions. It describes secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, "Moo/Mu" chords with added 9ths and dropped 3rds, and modal interchange using chords from the parallel minor. Examples are given of applying each technique to the standard I-vi-IV-V jazz progression, along with additional variations and ways to combine multiple techniques.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Crooked Face Chords - Adam Maness

    Uploaded by

    tommidelfino
    212 views7 pages
    This document provides an overview of several advanced jazz chord techniques called "Crooked Face Chords" to spice up basic chord progressions. It describes secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, "Moo/Mu" chords with added 9ths and dropped 3rds, and modal interchange using chords from the parallel minor. Examples are given of applying each technique to the standard I-vi-IV-V jazz progression, along with additional variations and ways to combine multiple techniques.

    Original Description:

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    Original Title

    Crooked Face Chords – Adam Maness

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    This document provides an overview of several advanced jazz chord techniques called "Crooked Face Chords" to spice up basic chord progressions. It describes secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, "Moo/Mu" chords with added 9ths and dropped 3rds, and modal interchange using chords from the parallel minor. Examples are given of applying each technique to the standard I-vi-IV-V jazz progression, along with additional variations and ways to combine multiple techniques.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    212 views7 pages

    Crooked Face Chords - Adam Maness

    Uploaded by

    tommidelfino
    This document provides an overview of several advanced jazz chord techniques called "Crooked Face Chords" to spice up basic chord progressions. It describes secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, "Moo/Mu" chords with added 9ths and dropped 3rds, and modal interchange using chords from the parallel minor. Examples are given of applying each technique to the standard I-vi-IV-V jazz progression, along with additional variations and ways to combine multiple techniques.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 7

    CROOKED

    FACE CHORDS

    FREE PDF
    CROOKED FACE
    CHORDS
    So you’re looking to get those stank-face inducing chords into your playing?

    Join me on a journey that will transform your basic bob chord progressions into spicy, tension-
    filled movements that will keep listeners on the edge of their seats.

    We call these the Crooked Face Chords: Secondary Dominants, Tritone Substitutions, Moo/Mu
    Chords, and more.

    The chords that make life worth living.

    Adam Maness
    Creative Director

    We start with the Landmark Chords:


    I–vi–IV–V Progression
    Also known as the the 50’s progression because of
    doo-wop classics like Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me.”
    This super common chord progression has been a
    mainstay of pop music charts ever since.

    The Landmark Chords are basic, beautiful, but


    incredibly boring in a jazz context:

    openstudiojazz.com
    1. The Secondary Dominant
    The first pathway to Crooked Face goodness is the Secondary Dominant, any dominant chord that
    leads to a landmark chord. Instead of going straight from one landmark to the next, we can throw in
    the Dominant 7th chord from a 5th above (or fourth below) our target, like so:
    5th Above 5th Above 5th Above

    The best thing about Secondary Dominants? They’re very malleable! Basically any note of the
    chord can function as the bass (or root). Here’s what it sounds like with the 3rd of each Secondary
    Dominant in the bass:

    Or how about this with the 5th in the bass to get this cool descending bass line:

    We can even do the 7th in the bass. For best voice leading be sure to resolve each Secondary
    Dominant to a landmark chord with the 3rd in the bass, like so:

    openstudiojazz.com
    2. The Tritone Substitution
    Next we have a chord that’s a close cousin of the secondary dominant, the Tritone Substitution.
    Consider the C7 approach to F, instead of using the secondary dominant, C7, we can use the
    dominant chord a Tritone (or diminished 5th) away, Gb7#11.

    All of the notes in the top of the chord can stay the same. You simply swap the bass for its tritone:

    TRITONE

    Confused? A simpler way to think about it is a dominant chord a 1/2-step above the landmark
    chord. For example when approaching our Amin landmark, we think a halfstep above to Bb7
    (instead of E7):

    1/2 SteP Above

    Here’s the full progression using Tritone Substitutions between each landmark:

    openstudiojazz.com
    2.5 The SUS Tritone Substitution
    Here’s a little bonus using Sus Chords in the place of Dominant #11 chords:

    3. The Open Studio Moo Chord


    Our next Crooked Face Chord is inspired by Steely Dan’s Mu Chord, a fancy name for a triad with
    an added 9th. The Open Studio Moo Chord takes Donald Fagen’s Mu one step further by
    dropping the 3rd down to the bass, like so:

    openstudiojazz.com
    Don’t sleep on Open Studio Moo Chords:

    4. The Cush Chords (Modal Interchange)


    Our final stank-producing concept is a different paradigm than the chords above. Instead of carving
    a pathway between landmarks, we’re going to completely different locations via Modal Interchange.

    Modal Interchange is borrowing chords from a different mode (or tonality), while keeping the same
    tonal center. Since we’re in C Major, we can borrow chords from C Minor.

    But that can be hard to think of on the fly. That’s why I like to think about Cush Chords like this:
    Keep the the tonic, C, and move all the other chords up a minor 3rd to Eb Major, like so:

    Key of Eb
    I vi IV V I

    openstudiojazz.com
    BONUS: Mixing it all together

    Go on a deeper dive with Adam's Popular


    Chord Voicing Courses:

    osjazz.link/chords osjazz.link/genius osjazz.link/magic

    Learn more about Open Studio, the #1


    openstudiojazz.com
    online jazz community

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