Anyone heard of the 60 chord system ?

[Flat357]

Well have ya ?

Is it a caged thing ?

5 chords / 12 keys maybe ?

major, minor, dominant, diminished, augmented?

Anyone shed some light ?

Larry etc ?

After trying the net , it seems there are books by someone called John Mehegan called ' Tonal and rhythmic Principals ' and also ' Improvising Jazz Piano ' which contains this teaching .


ALSO :

Not sure if this is connected , as I haven't read it all yet , but thought you guys should read it . It's a bit tecnical , but what the heck .

The optimal chord form sequence for playing guitar :

http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ast/27/2/104/_pdf

[Larry F]

I haven't heard of the 60 chord system, but like you I immediately wondered if it was 5 chords in 12 keys. I looked around via google and found that it was a notion of John Mehegan, who wrote some highly regarded jazz piano books. The chords are major seventh, dom. seventh, minor seventh, diminished (7th?), and 6th. I don't know why these and not others, like altered chords and upper extensions. But they certainly are meat and potatos chords that should be mastered by any pianist. Here's something I found on the internet:

http://www.mmegi.bw/2006/October/Mon...347001421.html

"I have found John Mehegan's 60 chord system particularly useful for the teaching of piano. Or any other instrument for that matter. He attaches Roman Symbols to the different types of chords that he shapes from the scale. For him the most useful chords for the playing of modern improvisation music (of America) are the Major Seventh, the Dominant Seventh Chord, The Sixth, the Minor Seventh and the Diminished.

These can all be found at the second inversion of the major chord so that the left hand will play: G, B,C and E to form the Major Seventh. The Second or Middle finger would descend to the B Flat note to form the Dominant Seventh. The third would be used to form the Sixth...also a major chord. The thumb will be lowered from the E (Third note on the major scale) to the E Flat to form C Minor, and in that very position, the G would be lowered pinky or little finger would be lowered from the G to F Sharp to form the Diminished.) It is really a matter of fide detail that you might explain the Diminished chord by saying: Flat Third, Flat Five and Double Flat Seventh or A). The Flatted Third and Fifth are an adequate explanation for now.

These chords are perfectly useful in their application to Marabi or Mbaqanga. And every student of modern African improvisational music should know them and how they are derived from the Major and Minor Scales.

We have agreed then, that at every note, a Major scale can be formed from which the five varieties of chords can be derived. The student of music will soon discover that there are twelve semitones in an octave, I.e. from low C to upper C. Each one of those notes is perfectly capable of proving the root base for forming the five shapes of chords referred to above. So if you multiply five chords by 12 Root positions, you have your Sixty Chords which form such an ingenious part of John Mehegan's system."

[JayFreddy]

I dunno, but your idea of 12 x 5 makes sense, based not on keys, but on tonalities. As I understand it, there are a total of 15 chord flavors, not counting tension chords:

Major
Minor
Diminished
Augmented
Sus4
Major 6
Minor 6
Dominant 7
Major 7
Minor 7
Minor 7 b5 (aka half-diminished)
Diminished 7
Augmented 7
Dominant 7 sus4
Minor/Major7

As applies to CAGED, 15 x 5 = 75 chord shapes, however, some folks don't consider Minor/Major 7 a truly independent chord, and the diminished chords don't work well with CAGED either. So if you remove those three, you're back to 12.

EDIT: So this is piano theory?!

[Flat357]

The 6th puzzles me , as isn't it also a relative Minor 7th , or a diminished ( bb7 ) ?
Why give it more importance than the augmented .

I must be wrong mefinx

My theory is sooooo rusty

[JayFreddy]

Originally Posted by Flat357

The 6th puzzles me , as isn't it also a relative Minor 7th , or a diminished ( bb7 ) ?
Why give it more importance than the augmented.

You are correct. Enharmonically, the 6th is a double-flat 7. However, if the fifth of the chord is flat, it sounds diminished. If the third of the chord is major, it will sound like a 6th. If the chord has a major or minor 7th, it will sound like tension 13.

The deciding factor in how it's classified is how it sounds.

[Larry F]

Just for clarity, I don't have a dog in this discussion. The chords I listed were taken from the web article that I quoted. I don't know why he stopped at 5 chords.

About 6th vs minor seventh. They have the same notes, but different functions. In classical music, for example, 6th chords are a rarity. When do they do appear, after 1900, they are called "added 6th." This is because the term "6th chord," has a more common meaning of a chord in first inversion.

[klasaine]

It has to be remembered that the Mehegan books were first published in 1959 and were effectively the 1st scholastic text books for "jazz". He was the jazz instructor at Julliard starting in 1947.
"Kind of Blue" had yet to be recorded (arguably the first post-bop 'modern' jazz record) and no one knew how to teach this stuff yet.
It's coincidental that Mehegan's "60 chords" corresponds to our CAGED system. Major 7th, Dom 7th, minor 7th, 1/2 dim 7th, dim 7th.
You can pretty much grab any jazz, pop or tin pan alley tune pre 1959 with these chords provided you know them in all 12 keys. That's what he's getting at.
It's pretty out-of-date now but his books are a great resource for jazz theory during the dixieland, swing and mid bop periods.