"The chord/scale theory popular in current jazz is a uniform methodology which encourages you to take absolutely any kind of raw material and process it with the same set of techniques."

This is a subjective point.

"Whatever the merits of your performance as a jazz piece, you've lost it as a song arranger."

So is this.

Maybe you have observed it in others, but it is a much shakier "rule" than any of the "rules" of harmony that I have outlined.

"If you're going to respect the expressive values of a traditional idiom"

And what if you're going to answer somebody who asks you about the modes of the major scale and how they relate to chords?

"And knowing what fits means first of all looking at the nitty-gritty details of melodic structure"


You will note that earlier on, my approach to helping people fit good chords onto songs was first and foremos to develop a good ear.

The best way of doing this in my opinion is the way I taught myself to do it as a teenager without any knowledge of theory, which was to play chords and get used to how they sound in relation to each other.

It makes sense to begin with G, C, and D for a novice as they are easy/familiar chords to work with on a guitar and the relationship between I, IV and V is the easiest and most satisfying to learn, anticipate and apply practically.

My ear is excellent for 1 reason. My initiation into music involved taking chords I, IV and V to Irish sessions where I had to sink or swim - what with the evil eye of the other musicians scathingly scrutinizing me.

I explored harmony my own way and learned a lot, but hit a glass ceiling of understanding which was only broken when I took the time to sit down and learn about what breakthroughs past masters had achieved.


I suspect that you are talking about people with no love of a particular type of music, who completely neglect to pick up on the feel and soul of it, yet because they have a musical training think that there is nothing that they can learn from a more "primitive" style.

I too have encountered this.

But that is a point about people and their arrogance and perhaps even their lack of natural talent and musicality despite having a good education. But this should in no way have any bearing on the desire to increase ones knowledge and the furtherance of critical understanding is alwaays a goood thing.

Anyway, I'm sorry to have taken this thread so far off topic, this discussion should probably have happened on the other thread, however it probably wouldn't make coherent sense if it were moved so lets leave it as it is.