5 ms·

In jazz A minor generally implies A Dorian

• acjohnson55 10y ago
  Yeah, in my reading, it never seems that there was a compelling reason to chose Aeolian vs. Dorian as the definitive "minor". I think it's largely because common practice evolved to much more frequently approach the tonic from below instead of above. That would favor harmonic minor over Dorian. I suspect that this is because it allows for very similar cadences as major keys.
  • hamiltonkibbe 10y ago
    I think a lot of the time (in a jazz context) the chords are approached as almost individual elements or as part of a small "local" progression instead of in the context of the global key of the song, since the key could be changing as often as every couple bars. In the case of a common minor progression: B-E7alt-Am7 the major third of the dominant chord is the same note as the major 7 in the harmonic minor scale of the target minor chord, which would be one option for playing straight through that progression, but you'll often find that players will use either A harmonic minor, diminished, E altered, G# whole tone, etc. over the V7 and resolve to dorian or aeolian or something with a b7. It doesn't make much sense to analyze that progression in a classical context since those chords aren't entirely contained within any single key, and you end up something that looks like a key change, or has B as a secondary dominant implying a key change to the E7, where a jazz player would immediately recognize it as a minor 2-5-1
    • acjohnson55 10y ago
      That's wild. Jazz blows my mind! I've heard it said that it's fundamentally actually very tonal, in the sense that the underlying progressions are typically 2-5-1. Which has always been hard for me to imagine :), but I guess it simply dispenses with the slavish dedication to a particular scale of the tonic. "A Geometry of Music", which I've linked to elsewhere in this thread, digs into jazz practice a lot.