7181 / 18210 · Workshop 54 — “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”: Soul-Jazz Harmony, Gospel Cadences, Backbeat Feel, Repeated Hooks, and Making Simple Chords Sound Warm Instead of Plain← prev⊞ allnext →
54.88This is also important for your future requested song labs
When we do the many-version treatments of “The Bare Necessities” and “Mack the Knife,” some versions will deliberately use sophisticated reharmonization.
But others should retain essentially simple harmony and get their identity from:
- stride
- swing
- gospel
- blues
- New Orleans
- Latin
- funk
- block chords
- bass design
- meter
- texture
Otherwise “variation” would merely mean “more chords.”
And that would miss most of what we’ve learned.