‘A Love Supreme’by John Coltrane

Recorded December 1964

John Coltrane (ts), McCoy Tyner (p) Elvin Jones (d)

Jimmy Garrison (b)

Quartal Harmony

McCoy Tyner's trademark sound is his use of quartal harmony. Quartal harmony means harmonic structures or chords built using intervals fourths rather than thirds as in traditional or ‘tertian’ harmony.

Quartal harmony is characterized by its ambiguous, open sound and using it can disguise the tonal center and as a result create tension or resolution effectively.

By the 1960’s the use of quartal harmony in music was by no means revolutionary, but it was Tyner with Coltrane who popularized the quartal sound in Jazz. Examples of quartal harmony can be found in the music of Erik Satie as early as 1891.

McCoy normally uses three-note quartal voicings in his left hand and can often be heard playing these diatonically through the mode, resulting in interesting shapes built from combinations of perfect and augmented fourths.

Below is a short practice routine for practicing this concept through the C Dorian scale.

It is also worth studying the inversions of these quartal shapes and taking those through the mode. For example:

Some other enquiries into the quartal sound that I have explored are:

- Melodic use of fourth structures through a mode with patterns or arpeggios - Non harmonic use of fourth structures to create tension over static chords- Four-note fourth voicings through a mode as above - The interval of a fourth taken through different axes and the resulting patterns. This is often heard in the playing of Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver and beyond, after McCoy Tyner’s work with John Coltrane melodic use of fourths became firmly rooted in the jazz language.

Pentatonic colours

In this technique derived from McCoy Tyner’s improvised lines, we can explore

the colors created by playing different minor pentatonic scales over a static root note or modal center.

In ‘Pursuance’, the modal center is Bb dorian but for the purposes of this handout let’s explore them in a C dorian context, here the scales towards the top of the table are more ‘in’ sounding as they emphasise the C dorian tonality. As we move towards the middle and bottom of the table, the scales contain mostly notes not found in C dorian or notes that are contradictory such as E natural or B natural – as such they sound a lot more ‘out’ and are best reserved for special effect.

As you can see, towards the middle of the table, describing the colours get tenuous using traditional chord-scale theory. I’ve found it better to simply hear how these colors sound than try to rationalize them with theory.

McCoy often ‘sidesteps’ into other (sometimes distant) pentatonic scales creating varying degrees of contrast.

Minor Pentatonic Scale Intervals over C pedal

Color

C minor pentatonic R, b3, 4, 5, b7 Minor 11G minor pentatonic 5, b7, R, 9, 11 Minor 11D minor pentatonic 2, 4, 5, 6, R Minor 13 (no 3)F minor pentatonic 4, b6, b7, R, b3 Minor 7 b6Bb minor pentatonic b7, b9, b3, 4, b6 Sus b9 b13Eb minor pentatonic b3, b5, b6, b7, b9 Pure locrianAb minor pentatonic b6, 7, b9, b3, b5 Minor/major b13 #11

b9Db minor pentatonic b2, 3, #4, b6, 7 Augmented Major 7

#11 b9F# minor pentatonic #4, 6, 7, b9, 3 Major 7 #11 b9B minor pentatonic 7, 9, 3, #11, 6 Major 7 #11E minor pentatonic 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 Major 7A minor pentatonic 6, R, 9, 3, 5 Major 6/9

In order to bring these extended sounds into my playing and aural awareness, I’ve practiced playing over Tampura drones, which can be found on YouTube in most keys. From a technical standpoint, I’ve found good results by choosing two pentatonic scales and alternating between them without changing the direction of my line – alternatively you can practice playing one pentatonic continuously and then have a friend shout out the next one at random, then shift into that scale as smoothly as possible.

Tension and resolution within a line

An important element of speaking the jazz language is the ability to improvise tension and resolution within a single line. If you play through the chord progression verbatim or ‘play the changes’ this tension and resolution will be incidental to that progression. But what players have been doing since Bach is embellishing a static chord by implying another chord in their line.

Major implications

Minor implications

Lets look at playing over a Bb minor chord. In order create a sense of harmonic momentum in our line we can imply V7 – I cadences over this static chord.

This is the concept in its purest form (minor triad and dominant 7th) but this basic idea although sometimes cleverly disguised can be heard in every movement in jazz music as a way of creating motion.

Here is a more bebop-style variation, this time using a minor 6 chord as the tonic and a diminished 7th chord as the dominant to create a V7b9 sound.

And here’s a variation inspired by McCoy Tyner’s playing on ‘Pursuance’ alternating between Bb minor pentatonic and F7 altered sounds.

This concept is not just limited to V7-I movements and you can impose different progressions over static or non-static harmonies to create interest in your line. McCoy also explores transposing cellular fragments within a statement notably the ‘Love Supreme’ theme, which he transposes to almost every key in this solo to great effect. Continuing this meeting of new and old ideas, I’ve been exploring combining the basic major triad with a quartal ‘trichord’. This creates angular but interesting lines with an internal logic. McCoy Tyner mastered the basic triad shapes and also quartal harmony so I decided to explore the effect of combining within a line.

Pentatonic scales in octave shells

Perhaps inspired by the great blues guitarists, McCoy sometimes plays pentatonic shapes in an octave shell - a sound evocative of the blues.Below is an exercise I’ve invented to practice it, starting on each degree of a pentatonic scale. This technique can be heard at the start of the tenth chorus of this solo.

The Lydian tetrachord

The Lydian tetrachord is a common melodic (or harmelodic) shape found in all kinds of music and has been used in jazz since the early years of bebop (see Charlie Parker on KoKo). However, John Coltrane’s classic quartet took this shape and explored its many applications and the melodies that can be found from it.

The very same shape in a linear context can be used to describe many different harmonies.

Transposition within a line

In the fourth chorus of the solo (bar 36) Tyner develops a pentatonic fragment in exactly the same way that Coltrane does in his solo on Acknowledgement by transposing it to different, unrelated keys. This creates a sense of motion and release when he shifts back to a fragment that fits with the modal center.

We can apply this concept to any melodic structure by transposing it by an interval or set of intervals.

This can help to create longer winding lines with inherent tension and resolution. Here is an example showing a major triad transposed down the augmented axis connected with a stepwise passing note:

Root Note Harmony Generated using Gb Lydian

C LocrianDb IonianD AlteredEb Minor 6/9E (Non-harmonic) Lydian Aug b9F Sus b9Gb LydianG (Non-harmonic) Dorian natural 7Ab MixolydianA (Non-harmonic) Dominant 13 b13Bb Harmonic Major or Mixolydian b6B Lydian b9

Blending old and new

Continuing this idea of blending tradition with innovation Tyner often directly juxtaposes traditional shapes such as seventh chords with quartal triads or tetrachordal cells. Towards the end of his solo he pairs an E minor 7 chord with a quartal triad from F# creating an angular line softened by the more commonly heard seventh chord.

Concepts like these are crucial to the sound of many contemporary players and prove very versatile in functional and non-functional contexts. Studying Tyner’s solo has revealed this organic yet structured way of improvising lines and has also extended my repertoire of compositional devices.

Cover illustration by Paulo Parisi from the graphic novel ‘Coltrane’