I’m teaching basic reharmonization techniques in my Jazz Theory class. The hardest part for students to wrap their heads around is that there are no easy rules.
It’s easy to understand why. Their exposure to music theory is all in the traditional Western tonal theory. You know, the one with the small number of simple IF-THEN part-writing rules. Follow those eight rules, write good theory. Piece of cake. (Well, not really, but at least all written out in black and white.)
Reharmonization rules can be combined. They can be and layered, reworked. And whether they work in context depends a lot on your ear’s guidance. Hard and fast rules for reharm break down when they interact with something as complex as, oh, any song in the Great American Songbook.
Today in one-on-one meetings, I repeatedly urged my students to get comfortable with those shades of gray. Of not knowing whether you’re applying it correctly until you hear it and assess it.
They’re trying, and they’ll all get there. But they’re facing a subconscious message that they didn’t even realize they’d internalized – not just from traditional theory classes, but also from every math class they’ve ever taken, and really from the entire educational system. Black-and-white rules, and answers that are either 100% right or 100% wrong, are the norm.
The good news is, once you can understand that internalized message, you can alter it or toss it. That’s good news, because the world outside of school is rarely full of 100% right and 100% wrong answers.