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8/1/09 11:coustic Guitar Central: Ken Hatfield

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Ken HatfieldThe nylon-string jazz guitarist discusses the importance of learning to play in every key. With audio.

By Adam Perlmutter

Tune Up

Ken Hatfield, along with Ralph Towner, Gene Bertoncini, and the lateCharlie Byrd, is one of a small handful of jazz musicians to have made thenylon-string guitar his primary instrument. While not the most well known,Hatfielda 2006 winner of the ASCAP Foundations Vanguard Awardisamong the most adventurous of this group. Hatfields strikingly originalcompositions shine as much as his brilliant technique, and he can be foundplaying everything from chamber works for classical guitar to duets forguitar/dobro and guitar/mandolin (on the album String Theory, where heplays all of the stringed instruments) to Brazilian folk music and post-bopjazz.

Hatfield is also a brilliant educator, as is evident from his Mel Bay bookJazz and the Classical Guitar: Theory and Application. His most recent

project, tudes for Solo Guitar in 24 Keys, came about as a pedagogicalexercise. Hatfield wanted to teach his students the benefit of learning toplay in all keysmost importantly, those considered inhospitable toguitaristsas well as introduce them to a wide range of musical forms.Hatfields 24 tudes, which are available as both a CD and a sheet-musicfolio, are as pleasurable to listen to as they are to play. I recently sat downwith the guitarist in New York City to find out more about the ideas behindthe studies.

What are some of the benefits of being able to play in all 12 keys?HATFIELD The real richness in our harmonic system comes from the fact that there are sharedmaterials amongst all keys. An Am chord for example, could be iii in the key of F, vi in the key of C, orii in the key of G. Knowing all of the keys helps people realize these relationships, allowing them totravel fluidly between keys when composing or improvising. My old counterpoint teacher, Paul Caputo,used to liken it to walking into a large hall with hundreds of doors on either side: depending upon whichdoor you open, you can go in and have a different little harmonic adventure.

Its important to know not just what chords different keys have in common, but which notes differentchords have in common, too. Heres a four-bar vamp [Example 1] I use in a tune of mine calledMero [from Phoenix Rising]. The chords have a lot of common tones; the high Ewhich is the rootof Emaj7, the fifth of Am9, the ninth of Dmaj9, and the seventh of Fmaj7/Ghelps hold the whole dealtogether. And while the vamp is in E major, the last chord of the progression, Fmaj7/G, is designed toset up the pieces seemingly distant overall key, C major. [Fmaj7/G can also be seen as a G dominant
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chord, which functions as the V of a C chord.]

Audio: Example 1

The chord progression in your composition Demain, from The Surrealist Table, is anotherexcellent example of the harmonic fluidity that can come from an awareness of the relationshipsbetween all keys. Can you break it down?HATFIELD The main body of the tune is a slightly unusual two-chord vamp in Db major: Dbmaj9 toAbm9 [Example 2]. Eventually it works its way to F major [Example 3], and the vamp is sequencedthrough different keys. In each sequence, a major chord [Fmaj9, for example] is followed by a minorchord [Cm7] that takes the fifth of the major chord [C] as its root. The next major chord [Dmaj9] is builton a root a half step below the preceding minor chords third [Eb]. The sequence continues until itarrives at Ebm9, which is the ii of the original tonicthe Dbmaj7 chord. I then use a Dmaj7 to get fromthe Ebm7 to the Dbmaj7. This Dmaj7 thus functions as what classical theorists call a Neapolitanchord, with the bass and melody moving in contrary motion.

Audio: Example 2

Audio: Example 3

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Audio: Lick of the Month

Photo credit, top, Ken KorshKen Hatfield's Guitars and Gear

Acoustic Guitar: Buscarino Ken Hatfield nylon-string model with a lattice-braced spruce double top,rosewood sides, and a carved rosewood back.Amplification: Richard McClish (RMC) hexaphonic pickups with active Poly-Drive electronics. Radial JDVSuper DI. Earthworks QTC40 (QTC1) high-definition microphone. Hatfield usually plays through the housePA, otherwise with either an Acoustic Image Focus head and Buscarino Chameleon speaker or an AERCompact 60 amp.Strings: Luthier Concert Gold.Accessory: Janssen Guitarest.

Ken Hatfield's Guitars and GearThis article also appears in Acoustic Guitar,Issue #201
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