Composer:  Miles Davis    (click to list other tunes) Copyright:  Copyright ©2001, Submitted by:  sid thomas Posted:  8/1/2001; 10:17:21 AM Topic:  Half Nelson Msg#:  2061 (in response to 2040) Prev/Next:  2059/2062 Reads:  1547

Dave - thanks for working up Half Nelson, a number I've always enjoyed.  Here are some alternative angles that might be of interest - comments welcomed.

The two long bars of Cmaj7 at the start make a pianist who likes to keep things harmonically mobile nervous, so here's a way of beefing them up.  Try holding G9sus for the first bar, then in bar 2, D7b9#11 (one beat, shot chord) followed by Cmaj7#9#11 (held for the rest of the bar).  I'm including a .mid file to show what I mean.  It's a nice recurring motif to play these two bars in this tempo on each improvised chorus before reverting to in-tempo walk on bar 3.  Similarly, bars 9 and 10 are also static.  Here a walk from Ab down to D works nicely:

[Abmaj7 : Ab/G [Fmi7 : Fmi/Eb [ D9sus...etc

Sid Thomas

New feature: use the SongTrellis Excerpt Service to customize this piece. Prepare scores for transposing instruments, transpose the score to a new key, change tempo, clip an excerpt for your own practice, study, or composition work.

Video Demo: Excerpt Service Basics   Video Demo: Saving Excerpts

Please join our community at SongTrellis. Our contributors welcome your comments, suggestions and requests. As soon as you join the site (or login if you are a member) a response form will appear here.

To include this sound in a page, type "Half Nelson - alternative thoughts", including the quotes.

Check home page to learn about newly submitted tunes, chord progressions, and rhythms.