I have seen numerous times when a fellow jazz musician tells me they are writing a pop song and after hearing it I realize that they really don’t understand the idiom. I do believe however that there is a fine line between using richer harmonies because it’s what the song calls for, versus my wanting to show and demonstrate how much I know…or worse, to sound cool. I know from my experience as a professional songwriter, I too, tend to want to “hip” up my chords and try to paint with the deepest colors.Īs Jazz pianists especially, we are on the never-ending journey for richer and cooler sounding chords. On the surface it may seem easy but to do it well requires a special type of skill. How can you successfully learn to use jazz chords in a pop song in a tasteful way? Painting Pop Songs With Hip Harmonyīeing able to tastefully use jazz harmony in a pop song is no easy feat. So, what can you learn from their success? How can you blend that subtle mix of jazz harmony into a pop context? People like Jamie Cullum, Steely Dan, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Sade, Musiq Soulchild, Jill Scott, and Erika Badu have been able to successfully achieve that mix in many of their songs.
There are a number of pop artists who’ve learned how to use rich jazz harmony in an incredibly tasteful way. How many thousands of times do we have to hear I-IV-V (1-4-5) before we fall asleep? ?įor those of us who love the power of richer harmony there is good news though. Lets face it, there are many pop songs that have some boring chord changes. Many educated and studied musicians have trouble relating to pop songs because of their lack of harmonic and melodic sophistication. If you answered yes to any of these questions you’re not alone. Have you ever felt bored while listening to a 3 chord pop song?ĭo you find the chord change bland or repetitive?