Re: [Harp-L] Vmi7 - its harmonic function

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

OK, what he was doing was to set up an approach to the IV chord that comes in Bar 5. This is common in jazz.

Let's say you're playing blues in C, jazz style. Jazz will not lean as heavily as 'true" blues in making every chord a dominant 7th chord. So for two bars you'll have a C major chord that might have a color note added, such as a 6th, maybe even a major 7th. By not using the flat 7th (Bb), you're making it more striking when it finally does arrive as part of the C7 chord just before you go to the F chord

So, you're two bars in, and the IV chord, F, is looming lon the horizon. To set this up as a new temporary key center, you play the the IImi7 to the V7 - but in the key of F. Those chords will be G minor 7 and C7. In the key of C, those would be called the Vmi7 and the I7. Both of these chords contain Bb, so by withholding it in the earlier C chords, you're really introducing a contrast that says -Hey, something diffferent is about to happen. Then something new does happen - the IV chord.

That said, I think it's more common to have three bars of I, and then to give the Vmi7 and the I7 two beats each on Bar 4 to push quickly into the IV chord. But maybe Reid was giving a whole bar to each so that for someone new to this, they'd have time to hear the sound of each chord and play over it.

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa
Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
Harmonica instructor, The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance
Resident expert, bluesharmonica.com
Columnist, harmonicasessions.com

--- On Fri, 10/8/10, michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: michael rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Vmi7
To: "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Friday, October 8, 2010, 9:26 AM

I was reading some jazz bass lines in a Rufus Reid book and he had a
blues progression that started out with 2 bars of the I chord and then
the third bar was a Vmi7, returning to the I7 chord for the fourth
bar.  I have never seen this before.  First, everytime I see a
substitution for the I chord during the first four bars of a blues it
is during the second chord.  Next the V chord is not dominant, it is a
mi7.  Any clues as to why this works and if it is common in jazz
blues?
Thanks,
Michael Rubin
MIchaelrubinharmonica.com