Over 50 years ago a brilliant and breakthrough album was released by Miles Davis named ‘Kind of Blue’. At the time bebop was taking the jazz world by storm with the likes of Dizzy Gilepsie and Charlie Parker playing a hundred notes per second. Miles went against the grain at that time and created this album that to me sounds fresh to this day.
One of the tunes, ‘So What’ has become a standard and we were introduced to some lovely chord voicings by Bill Evans that day. These voicings are sometimes referred to as ‘So What’ chords and more generally referred to as quartals. They contain 5 notes built on 3 perfect 4th intervals (hence the name) and a major 3rd.
Because of their non traditional formation, there are a few different ways we can label these chords. They don’t fit easily into our traditional system of labelling harmony.
This quartal built on E can be called Emin11 or Emin7sus4 or thought of as a polychord, G/D over E5/A. I think it is much easier and more useful to think of it as an E minor chord.
‘So what’ is in D Dorian for 16 bars, then Eb Dorian for 8 and then another 8 in D Dorian. When I first teach this piece to beginners I suggest improvising using the white notes (D Dorian) and then simply use the black notes for Eb Dorian. Eb dorian also includes F and C so you might like to throw that in too. Do try and think about this piece modally and not so much as a whole bunch of chord progressions. I’ll chat a bit more about that some other time.
Watch the video, subscribe and share and I’ll catch you later.
All the best!
More Tutorials
How to practice the dorian mode
How to use the guide tones to solo
Tri-tone Substitutes