[gravitas]

I've always been very impressed by the chords you choose in your arrangements and your original compositions. By what logic do you make them?

[Kirk Lorange]

Hi, gravitas, and thanks.

I'm not sure what pieces you're referring to, but when I'm arranging, I usually hear the different chordal possibilities in my head then choose the one I like most on the day. Sometimes, it's just a hint of what I want to hear, so I experiment a bit. Logic? I think I usually hear the bass note first, then just sift through the handful of possibilities and listen to them in context.

When I'm composing, I'm always seeking something a little out of the ordinary to keep interested ... I guess that just comes down to personal taste in the end.

If you can more specific, so can I.

[gravitas]

Well, for instance, this guy right here:

YouTube - Bluesy Finger Style Guitar

I think that anybody (myself included) who saw that video was immediately motivated to join your site

Now, that's as good a version of Stormy Weather as I've ever heard, but there's a lot of departure from the traditional "Real Book" chord structure. So how did you get that from what it was to where it is? What decisions, in short, led you to write the chords you did?

[Kirk Lorange]

For that one I was just trying to remember the original! As I recall, I was noodling around and that opening augmented chord kept reminding me of Stormy Weather, but I didn't have a version of it to listen to so I just faked it. I was also aware (as I am today) that it's better for copyright reasons to come up with your versions of these old tunes.

The more you look into chord progressions, the more you start to see the patterns and the fact that really, there aren't that many. You can fiddle around with the detail, but underneath it all, there aren't that many main structures.

You can hear in that one that the melody line is different, the chords are slightly different, but overall it still evokes Stormy Weather.

[gravitas]

No yeah, I agree. There are only so many permuations of I-VII. But basically what you're doing in that example is to have your chords follow the melody? And if so, are you doing it tonally?

[Kirk Lorange]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'tonally', but yes, I take the melody note and then build a chord around it. I experiment. There are obvious choices and not so obvious choices. I like the not so. Also, the final arrangement comes from which melody notes you choose to harmonize. You could do them all if you wanted, but then it would sound samey and probably too 'thick', for lack of a better term, and needlessly complex. It's the variety in sound texture when you take some notes and harmonize them and leave others a single notes that pleases my ear ... that's kind of what I strive for, but in fact these renditions never really cement themselves into any one arrangement, they're always changing, evolving. Some days I might turn a different batch of melody notes into chords and leave others as single notes. That's the beauty of 'jazz' really, isn't it? It should be called 'flux' because it's ever-changeable.

Having said all that, I don't really consider myself to be a jazz player. I never studied it nor am I conversant with the theory enough to say that I'm one of them ... I just twang away and make sounds I like. But, I can certainly listen to anything out there and know exactly what they're doing, so ... maybe I am. I don't know. My old pal Tommy Emmanuel is a bit the same ... he never really knows the academic details of what he's playing and more often than not he'd take a while to name the chords he's playing (I know this because I worked with him often in studios and live) but he can play anything, anywhere, anytime ... better than anyone.

[gravitas]

You know, Joe Pass never knew what a scale or arpeggio was, and Oscar Peterson wouldn't have anybody else heading up his rhythm section (except Oscar of course). Not knowing how to codify what you're playing doesn't restrict the kind of musician you are.

But yes, I hear what you're talking about now. When I say tonally, I mean as it relates to the progression- does it stick within the key, or does it jump around with it? The chorus sounds to me like a VI7 -ii - V7 - I with some spice thrown in. When you move into that verse type section it also sounds like you're moving between some of those chords with diminished sort of stepping stones, but at that point my ear kind of loses steam.