How I TRY and Harmonize Like Gil Evans #1.1 (The Basics)

If you are really into harmony, you'll enjoy my Intermediate Workbook. You can get it here: ko-fi.com/s/47c236ec92
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This is about jazz harmony and arranging. I discuss chords, 4 & 5-part harmony, voicing and reharmonization. The techniques I discuss I have learnt from studying the music of Gil Evans.
0:00 Intro
0:40 The rules
1:20 The musical example
2:30 Target chords
3:20 Writing the bass line
8:15 Filling in the inner voices
13:47 Final example on piano
14:04 Final example with saxophones
#jazzharmony #musictheory #arranging
Miles ahead, jazz chords, orchestration, music theory, orchestration

[@avantagonist]

Great pacing in this video, its also nice to watch someone else think out loud, write stuff and say "no that doesn't work". Would love to eventually see an approach to writing a soli part in Gil Evan's style

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thank you. Yes others have commented on the 'process' style of the video too. I wanted to show how I think about it, hence the multiple takes on one section. A soli part! Great, I'll add that to the list :D

[@BruceCassidy]

Love it man! - I learned to write by listening to Miles Ahead, over and over, when I was a kid at Berklee in 1957. Herb Pomeroy uses some of these guides in his Line Writing Course. My process is very similar to yours. So useful to see someone demonstrate their process out loud - so cool!😎

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thank you Bruce. I don't know Herb's Line Writing myself, but a few people have mentioned it to me now in the comments.

[@uvcruv]

This is great! I was waiting for that Ab in the last chord for so long until you finally changed it, literally shouted out loud with joy!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Haha great 😊 glad you liked it

[@Norm64349]

Fantastic instruction. All of your videos are great. Thank you.

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thank you! I have some exciting ones coming up

[@mewtwoberr]

could you please make more of these! i would love seeing tutorials on how to get these types of sounds logically

[@gilevansinsideout]

Hey Eli, thanks for the feedback. What is the logical part that you need? Just more detail on the bass and inner parts generally or more detail about chords and secondary dominants?

[@mewtwoberr]

@@gilevansinsideout i guess more “inside the mind” tips, where you detail how you think Evans was thinking about the harmony (writing the bassline first, then inner line)

[@gilevansinsideout]

@@mewtwoberr Hey Eli. I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Did you mean, how did I come up with the 'rules' and method that I do here (and how I think that's how Gil may have done it)? I will definitely be adding another video

[@gilevansinsideout]

Hey Eli, have you seen the Boplicity videos? They might answer your questions a bit about how I came up with this method?

[@Whamystrang]

Brilliant, I was with Gil playing in the British band on guitar. Great to do this, he was the harmony master.

[@gilevansinsideout]

For real!? That is so cool. Do you have some pearls of wisdom to share?

[@Whamystrang]

Gil was very Zen about music. He let the guys loose and they soloed it’s great respect for his compositions and of course his arrangements.

[@skidz12341]

very cool! clear and interesting video. the final result sounds great!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thanks Steve!

[@simonfivez2947]

Another great video! Your channel is a real gem, I'm glad I found it :) thanks for the great lesson!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Awesome, thank you! Let me know if there is any specific you would like to see!

[@pianomarianopiano]

Great vídeo, thank You!!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thank you, you are welcome. I'm thinking about my next series at the moment.

[@saldrich3226]

I dig it.

[@albrin]

interesting concepts!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Excellent, please give them a try and let me know how it goes!

[@noelgllagher]

thanks a lot

[@gilevansinsideout]

You are most welcome

[@Whamystrang]

I’ll post some things up that he gave me.

[@gilevansinsideout]

Yes please do!

[@luizcadu]

The process you describe is similar to the "line writing" concept of Herb Pomeroy. What you call "target chords" would be referred to as "harmonic points" in line writing. Starting with the bass and then filling up the texture and avoiding note repetition in the same part are other procedures in common. Thanks for sharing! Cheers from Brazil!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thank you. I don't know Herb Pomeroys work so I'll check it out.

[@luizcadu]

@@gilevansinsideout He was a professor at Berklee. As he never wrote a book, his teachings and arranging techniques acquired a "mythical" status, and are passed on by former students. But from what I've studied from it, it's not far from what you describe here. I'd say one main difference is that line writing doesn't have a problem with unisons, but it does have a set of rules to reach and leave a unison. Thanks for your precious work!

[@gilevansinsideout]

No thank you! I've checked out what I could find about his techniques already. Seems pretty cool!

[@gabrielcassaro]

Amazing video!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thanks!

[@nicolasgalli3324]

Oh sí

[@EJM_Productions]

Great video! Quick question on the chord symbols - Would you mark specific voices in the rhythm section for these to match the horn section voicing? If not, how would you avoid the clashing of pitches throughout the voicing?

[@gilevansinsideout]

Thank you. At this tempo you could write a new chord every beat for the rhythm section. But in a passage like this the piano will often sit out, and you would write the bass notes for the bass. Dose that help?

[@EJM_Productions]

@@gilevansinsideout yes, that makes total sense! It may be a cool video for you to go through gil's approach to the rhythm section along with his winds orchestration.

[@gilevansinsideout]

@@EJM_Productions yes, thank you. That's a good idea. A few people have asked s similar question

[@SebSquonks]

What a great video! At 10 :15 you start checking that none of the voices contain repeated notes, but you call the second voice from above the alto line and the fourth from above the baritone line...are you already talking about saxes or just as general range-related voices? Because if that was saxes I wouldn't really get how they're placed. Also at the end when you have your pal playing the passage with saxes, you got six voices in total?

[@gilevansinsideout]

Hello Sebastian. Thanks for the questions. Yes I just called them alto, tenor, baritone as a way of distinguishing them. I wouldn't assign those lines to those particular saxes. Yes, you are right at the end there are six voices, as I doubled the melody down an octave. I see you play tenor! Do you play the other saxes as well?

[@SebSquonks]

@@gilevansinsideout thank you for your reply! So I guess my question should be: how will these 5 voices translate to a complete big band arrangement? Would you just distribute them in a basic ensemble voicing situation with a lot of doublings? Yes I play tenor! But I come from alto. I'd say tenor is the horn I feel more comfortable with now!

[@gilevansinsideout]

@Sebastiano Terzuolo You'll see how I put it into a big band in several of my videos, have a look around on my channel. You play very well! Would you be interested in playing sax for some of the examples one day?

[@SebSquonks]

Hi there! I had a couple of quick question to ask, would it be alright to connect somehow? I'm always still available to record something for you in case you needed it!

[@gilevansinsideout]

Yeah sure. You can get to my email if you go to the 'about' tab on my channel page

[@Whamystrang]

If you message me I can download the copy of The parts.

[@gilevansinsideout]

That would be awesome!

[@tooter1able]

Think Chordily before writing something that you KNOW won't sound good. Secondary dominants? chromatic planing/

[@gilevansinsideout]

I'm not sure what you mean here if you'd like to elaborate. Part of the idea in this video was to show my process in slow motion.