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CA 1.3 - The Mystery Passenger unveiled
The Duke is a discreet, but also very generous man.
He not just lifts the lady's veil, but shows her fully disrobed in her magnificent glory.
But only to those who care to look for her!
Here she is, in the very first four bars of the melody :
Audio 4
Once you realise that the Go7 chord in this song really functions as a dominant C7 chord (with a b9 thrown in for extra colour and the root missing to provide a bit of mystery) the whole A section harmony suddenly starts to make sense.
For look here :
Audio 5
The C7 chord (with or without the b9) is the V7 scale-tone chord of the F harmonic minor scale. It naturally leads to F minor.
The A section of Caravan is therefore a simple V7 - Im progression in disguise. The F minor target chord is in this case Fm7 which does not fit into the F harmonic minor scale, but the minor mood prevails.
Below the typical II-V-I chord progression for the harmonic minor. In Jazz the F minor triad is usually replaced by a full blooded Fm7 chord (which shifts the progression into the F Dorian mode).
Keyboard and guitar players often voice the V7 chord as a IIo7 chord, which fits smoothly into the progression as shown on the right below.
Audio 6
Any one of the four diminished chords can be used as a substitute for the dominant 7th chord.
Select the diminished chord that starts :
- a semitone above the dominant chord's root
- or on the 3rd, 5th or 7th chord tone of the dominant chord.
Audio 7
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CA 1.4 - Improvisation
The most commonly selected scale for improvisation over a diminished 7th chord is the 8-note diminished scale.
This is a symmetric scale with the notes spaced at tone - semitone - tone - semitone - intervals, starting with a tone.
Audio 8
From the revelations above it is clear that, in order to reflect the true nature of the exotic passenger in the Caravan, the use of the (II-mode of) F harmonic minor scale is a much more appropriate choice for improvisation.
Use this scale for the first 12 bars over the Go7 chord, then switch to the F Dorian mode for the next 4 bars over Fm7. This is a good combination and nicely reflects the minor nature of the Caravan's A section.
Audio 9
If you improvise for a second chorus, make it interesting with some variety by using as an alternative the G 8-note Diminished scale.
Note that this scale contains the same notes as the C 8-note Dominant scale.
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CA 1.5 - Modes of the 8-note Symmetric scale
The 8-note symmetric scale consists of alternating tones and semitones. It has 2 distinct modes, one starting with a semitone the other starting with a wholetone interval.
- 8-note Dominant scale = semitone - tone - semitone - tone -
- 8-note Diminished scale = tone - semitone - tone - semitone -
The 8-note Dominant scale contains all chord tones of the dominant 7th chord (1, 3, 5 and b7), as well as the b9 (Db above), #9 (D# above) and #11 (F# above). Use this scale therefore for dominant 7th chords, especially when they contain added altered notes.
The 8-note Diminished scale contains all chord tones of the diminished 7th chord (1, b3, b5 and 6).
It does not contain all the notes of the dominant, minor, half diminished and major 7th chords. It is therefore a unique scale for improvisation over diminished triads and diminished 7th chords.
Make sure to use these two distinct names for these two distinct modes. (Unfortunately this is not done by several prominent Jazz educators.)
These two scales are members of the 6 modes system the contemporary-classical French composer Olivier Messian used for many of his compositions. The wholetone scale is a third member of his system.
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CA 1.6 - Caravan : Bridge
After the minor A section the Bridge in Caravan has a distinctly happier mood.
The chord progressions moves through a series of dominant chords in Circle of Fifths order until it arrives at Abmaj7, which is the major key ('related major') with the same signature as F minor. Then it returns to C7 in preparation of the final A section.
Here is a simplified version of the progression.
Audio 10
| | F7
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| | Bb7
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| | Eb7
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| | Abmaj7
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| | C7
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Use Mixolydian modes over all dominant chords, and the Ab major scale over Abmaj7 for improvisation.
