blue bossa chord chart?

[monfoodoo]

does anyone have the chord fingerings for Blue Bossa?I have the chords on the music sheet,but i,m getting confused on the fingerings for chords like the G7#5#9 and such.

[Chris S.]

First off, you don't always have to be literal with every tension in a chord on the sheet music. For G7 you could play any old G7, or almost any altered G7.

For the one you asked about (G7#5#9), try this:

3x3446

Stretch the little finger out to catch that Bb on the top.

Hope it helps, CS :-)

[Joe-Bob]

Another option would be just G7#9, omitting the 5th.

[monfoodoo]

i.m looking up these odd chords,but getting all different positions.So it,s throughing me off.

[Swine]

what are the chords either side of the G7#5#9?

[Swine]

found this for you mate. seems like a logical way to play the part. he uses the same version of the G7 as Chris S mentioned only he omits the G in the bass

hope that helps

man i forgot the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLVPEbJcbnM

[MondoGuitar]

Swine is right, I'm no jazz expert but when I see people playing this chord they tend to voice it without the G in the bass, i.e. B D# F A# -- here's a beautiful voicing with the 3 in the bass:

-1----------
-4----------
-3----------
-----------
-2----------
-----------

Wow. What a chord.

As someone else said, it matters most where you're coming from and where you're going to, i.e. voice leading.

[xjazzy]

That was the first Jazz standard that I've learned all the chords.
I'll pick the guitar in the lunch hour and write down the chords to show you how I play it.

[xjazzy]

Well, I found more interesting and easy to just record a video showing the chords.
Hope this helps:

[Tim Bowen]

Haven't played "Blue" Bossa in ages, but the G7 in question sits in the middle of a ii-V-i in C minor.

As Chris says, don't get too hung up on what altered tension to choose, within reason (you still need to check in with what the ear hears). 'G7' in a chart is sort of like a "serving suggestion" on a TV dinner - a basic roadmap. #5, #9, b9 can all be cool depending on the voice leading that you hear, and of course upon voicings that are being played by the other musicians. I'm a little more careful with a b5 in this scenario, as this tension really places its sonic stamp, particularly in a minor ii-V where the ii chord contains a b5 by default.

3x3446 is the first grip that I quickly "see" for the aforementioned specific voicing. Whether or not to include the root in the bass would depend upon how sparse or dense other instrumentation might be. In omitting the root in the bass within this position, I might also choose xx3443 (#5), or xx3444 (#5b9). As to the ubiquitous "Hendrix chord", #5#9 is a quick and easy grab for this familiar grip - simply lay the pinky down to grab a barre across the B and high E strings:

-11-
-11-
-10-
-9--
-10-
-x--

Again, voice leading - and what the ear wants to hear - is the order of the day. For Latin sambas and bossas, I'm a pretty big fan of really tight voice leading for the ii-V cadence (i.e. if changing one note will effectively imply the chord change, I love it). So if I'm grabbing a garden variety D-7b5, I might choose a diminished chord sub to imply the altered V7 (in this case: 5-b9-3-b7), and resolve to some variant of C-7, to taste:

-x--x-
-6--6-
-5--4-
-6--6-
-5--5-
-x--x-

None of the examples that I've listed are particularly ear-tweaking or "outside" for the harmony at hand; they're fairly stock moves.

[Mike Bruce]

http://www.songsterr.com/a/wa/song?id=5741

I didn't check it for accuracy, but it's worth a try.

Peace, Mike.

[jazztele]

this might be getting a little "advanced," but i'm going to do it anyway.

chris hinted at it--there's no "right way" to play the chord. But, in an attempt to avoid a rant, i'm gonna put this out there and let it float...

your job as a jazz accompanyist (the guy playing chords) is threefold.

be interesting
be smooth
be supportive


be interesting means for god's sake, please don't play the same G7#5#9 voicing evrry time that chord comes up. in fact, the fun thing abot jazz is--hey, don't feel like playing the raised ninth this time? then don't. If i was writing a chart for "blue bossa" i simply put all of those dominant chords as "alt," which means, alter the 5's and 9's as you feel, but don't give me any unaltered 5's or 9's. so what does this mean to you...well, again, it's my big two things i harp on ALL the time, and i apologize for being so...well...pissy about it, but those things are:

fretboard knowledge

and how to build chords

knowing those things, the voicings for a G altered chord are almost limitless...

here's what that chord is saying: G (of course) 7 (so that means dominant 7, flat seven of the G major scale and a major third as well, so B F) and raised 5 (D#/Eb) and raised ninth (A#/Bb)

so anywhere you can grab ANY combination of G, B, F, D# and A# you hae your chord. and as others have hinted at, you don't need all the notes either. and as i have hinted at, maybe sometimes, a b5 and b9 could work too...which brings me to my second point...

be smooth. no, not smooth jazz, i mean be smooth in transition. this means voice leading, or using common voices in subsequent chords. here, taking blue bossa, let's look at this.

here's an example that uses both voice leading and a common voice, an it's from the minor ii V i that includes our G alt chord. I'm gonna do two voicings of the G alt in the time alotted, so two beats on each...

Dm7b5: x x 6 5 3 4

Galt: x x 3 4 4 4

Galt: x x 3 4 4 3

Cm9: x 3 1 3 3 3

look at the top note in these voicings. here, we keep a "common note" on top of the first two, the Ab (yes, i'm putting the b9 in my G altered chord)

from the second to the third voicing, that tone moves a half step "south." that's "voice leading" in simplest terms. we then keep that G on top for the minor i.

smooth transitions via these two devices is always a good thing to consider.

be supportive is a little more advanced when another player is soloing and you are their accompanyist, as you need to listen to what they are reaching for. But during the tune itself, you should also support the melody. this means those groovy high extensions might not work during the head. any alterations you make should be run by the melody, and if there's a clash, well, then it's a no go. that's "be supportive," in most basic terms.

sorry to go on so long, but i'm a teacher, and i get riled up about this stuff. I figure, I could give the guy a G7 altered voicing or I could get into the "Why." The "Why" always wins, for me...

have fun!

G alt

[Joe-Bob]

I play in a jazz big band, and I hesitate to play chords other than those given. With 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, and 5 sax-a-ma-phones, there's always at least two people playing each chord tone; they don't have a choice of notes to play. Free alteration of chords will usually stomp on somebody else.

So while what jazztele said is true, I think he didn't stress enough the context. The bigger the ensemble, the more restricted your options are, you need to serve the music above all, and carry out your position in the group. That doesn't mean it's any less fun or interesting--instead of altering the chord, play a different inversion--this can be quite a challenge if your band sight-reads as many charts as we do.

[jazztele]

what joe-bob says is very true-- big band comping is a whole 'nuther thing.

[klasaine]

I'll assume the OP has a handle on the changes now.

But I'd like to add that since the turnaround changes are a 'minor' ii V i there are a lot of opportunities to to just move in minor 3rd's from the Dm7b5 to the G7(alt.).
ANY m7b5 moved up a minor 3rd will become some type of alt/dom V7.
Try this Dm11b5 to G7#9#5 (resolve it to any Cm9) ...

-----3--------6---------9--------------
-----3--------6---------8----------------
-----5--------8---------8---------------
-----6--------9---------8---------------
-----x--------x---------x---------------
-----x--------x---------x--------------