I just got back from a trip and I am pleased to announce that I have a new granddaughter! I was thinking of the song "Someone to Watch Over Me" and immediately this video came to my mind and the idea to do a series of posts on reharmonization. So, a big thank you to Curtis, George, and Deo for asking me about phat chords and reharmonization... stay tuned in the weeks ahead.

Special announcement... drum roll, please! Here is our princess:

Basic Reharmonization:

Most jazz pianists tend to play voicings without the root of the chord on the bottom but I will list many examples of simplified piano voicings in root position.

Reharmonizing a tune makes it more interesting. The individual part is very important. The ultimate goal when harmonizing a tune is to make it sound as much like your tune as the original songwriter's.

Reharmonization is a form of compostition. You don't have to reharmonize an entire tune. Sometimes just changing a single chord completely alters the way a tune sounds, and stamps it as your own unique version. You can reharmonize the chords to a tune both ahead of time and in the heat of the moment, while soloing.

Here's the last two bars of "On the Sunny Side of the Street."

D/ CFC
GF/ ABF
CG/ EGC

Let's replace the last chord:

D/ CFC
GF/ ABF
DbAb/ FGC

Reharmonization can take several forms:

* Altering the chords
* Increasing the number of chords
* Decreasing the number of chords
* Substituting a chord (or chords) for the written chord (or chords).

I'll be posting more on altering chords later on in the month. Remember that any chord, whether major, minor, augmented or seventh can be modified or altered thereby changing its character or 'color'.

Next time, Reharmonizing V as II-V

-- LadyD