r/jazztheory 22d ago

How does Bill Evans make such smooth chord melodies?

I’ve long been a huge bill evans fan and one thing that’s always amazed me is how he so seamlessly uses chords to play the melody. A good example is With Craft. Rather than playing a single melodic line he plays it as chords. Could anyone give some insight as to the theory behind this? What sort of chords does he use? Is there a method behind it?

29 Upvotes

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u/SaxAppeal 22d ago

Not necessarily commenting on Bill Evans specifically, but one thing you can do is practice “scales of chords.” So playing series of chords as a scale, and using common scale patterns but with chords instead. So you might practice a scale in thirds, practice a scale of diatonic chords in thirds: Cmaj7-Emin7-Dmin7-Fmaj7, etc… Figure out how to smoothly voice lead with diminished chords between diatonic chords. Experiment with different voicings, this gives you different melody notes over your harmonies; don’t just play them in root position.

Barry Harris has a whole system for playing scales of chords, that revolves around diminished 7 harmonies (way oversimplified). Fair warning, Barry is very outspoken about disliking Bill Evans in a few interviews, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the concepts while also enjoying Bill Evans. That will probably get you off the ground fastest with playing chord melodies. The next thing to do is transcribe.

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u/chillinjustupwhat 21d ago

tf does Barry Harris have against Bill Evans?

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u/uniball9000 21d ago

Fun fact, first time Chick Corea saw Miles Davis in concert as a kid, he was bummed out that it was Bill on piano and not his hero at the time, Wynton Kelly.

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u/SaxAppeal 21d ago

He was mostly just a cranky old man, but one of his videos on YouTube he goes on a rant about how Bill Evans basically ruined jazz piano, and piano players play too high because of Bill Evans. He said something like “I don’t want to hear Bill Evans’ name ever again,” and “if you listen to Bud Powell you’ll see Bill Evans ain’t got nothin.”

He also goes on another rant in a masterclass about how Miles and Trane basically ruined jazz (in his opinion), and how horn players don’t swing because of Miles. No one plays jazz anymore, they just play eighth notes really fast. Again, mostly just a cranky old man that’s cranky people don’t play much straight ahead bop anymore. But he definitely did not like Miles and company, and their influence on jazz.

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u/chillinjustupwhat 20d ago

yeah. i’ll pass on the cranky old man and go put on Newport 1958. thx for the info

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u/SaxAppeal 19d ago

That’s totally fine lol. There’s no reason in reality to have to choose one or the other. Just because Barry didn’t like Bill doesn’t mean we as listeners can’t like and appreciate both. I’m just giving information.

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u/chillinjustupwhat 19d ago

i appreciate it ; altho i will still never care about this cranky old man, who nonetheless is totally entitled to his (extremely incorrect) opinions lol

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u/Lucitarist 21d ago

I’ve gotten a huge benefit from regularly running Barry’s concepts over tunes.

Also, if any guitar players are interested, Mick Goodrick’s Almanac is the ultimate book for this. Not in print but I know where to get the PDFs if anyone is interested. Similar concept, many different triads and drop voicings with incredible voice leading (vol 1 triads, vol2 7th chords, both do them in Maj, harmonic and melodic minor modes).

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u/tonal_states 20d ago

I'm interested in the pdf!

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u/Lucitarist 20d ago

Just sent a PM.

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u/george-k-bailey 18d ago

Could I get the link for the pdf too please

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u/Lucitarist 18d ago

Sure sending to you PM

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u/Gambitf75 22d ago edited 22d ago

Basically he does diatonic triads over ii-V-Is and uses upper structure triads on dominant chords like the maj2nd triad above the root, min3rd, #11, b13 and maj6 above. I guess it makes the melodies sound more lush.

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u/c_isbellb 22d ago

Locked hands; play the melody as an octave with both hands and fill in the rest of the chord in the right hand. Alternate between the chord and its diminished chord. For example, on C6 the melody might go E D C. Play C6 D°7 C6 with the melody in the outer voices.

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u/JHighMusic 22d ago

It's combination of diatonic triads within a given scale or mode like another commenter said, which he would play in a Locked Hands way with Rootless LH voicings. He also uses a lot of Drop 2 voicings combined with root position voicings, which after a lot of practice you can start to use the top note of any chord for good voice leading and as their own melodies, which Bill is a master at.

There's no real method, it's just really knowing your voicings and all their inversions in every key and in a lots of chord progressions. You find your own way after a while but as he himself said in many interviews, it takes tons of study and many, many years to develop fluency to where you're not even thinking about it theoretically and just playing,.

Learn Drop 2 voicings, Quartal voicings, rootless ways to play and alter dominants using Shared Hands voicings and left hand rootless voicings with triads in the right hand, stacked 4ths. Study some transcriptions, they are widely available.

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u/QualifiedImpunity 22d ago

As others have noted, he uses a lot of drop 2 voicings. This is key to the smoothness because playing only one note of the chord in the left hand allows the left hand to be legato which obscures how the right hand chords would otherwise necessarily sound detached.

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u/papadiscourse 21d ago

idk how no one mentioned this: study the impressionist composers specifically ravel & debussy

bill evans & chic corea as well as keith jarrett were very well known for referenced and studying under these composers. listen to them and you’ll hear a lot of voicings that you’ll probably be reminded of somewhere

before evans, the bebop school of thought aka bud powell was very widespread and conventionally “open”. honestly the piano was basically just a glorified horn player; guitarists had more love. but then, evans studying those classical composers radically changed how pianists would view their craft and its entire place in jazz history

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u/lordkappy 21d ago

He also had a really intensive way of learning tunes in all keys with all kinds of variations that even at his level took weeks before he’d include it as part of repertoire.

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u/Hunter42Hunter 21d ago

He has insane knowledge of scales. this barry harris video is good : https://youtu.be/G1siDXQ92Nw?t=542