"Star Eyes" Harmonic Major Reharm


Yes, I'm on a reharmonization theme at the moment. Here's one using the Harmonic Major subs suggested in this post. In each case the original chord is subbed with one or two chords made from the appropriate Harmonic Major mode using the ones in the mode that aren't in the original chord.

I've deliberately voiced the guitar chords very low as I wanted plenty of clearance between them and the melody while I was practicing it, but of course you should voice them any way you like (and as they are they may seem muddy, especially if you prefer a dark sound):



(The final A section has a four-bar tag at the end but you can extend the idea to cover that pretty easily if you feel inclined.)

Of course, this is deliberately perverse and doesn't really "work" as is (although I'm surprised by how well it does sort-of work anyway). The idea here is to use these subs as superimpositions on the original chords, either stacked up as polychords or spread out as arpeggios for soloing. To try the polychord approach, play the reharm with a pianist or fellow guitarist who's playing the standard changes.

Doing this on the whole tune, as written above, is surely a bit much, but it's useful for practicing. For more real-world applications try mixing one or two of these bars into your usual vocabulary and see what you can make work.