Falando de Amor Tutorial
In this lesson we look at Jovino’s arrangement of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s choro piece Falando de Amor.
Jobim’s choros are not widely known outside of Brazil, mainly because in many cases the lyrics were never translated into English. This piece, Falando de Amor translates to Speaking of Love and is in the choro canção style.
A great accompaniment for this piece is a variation of the “fork” which uses gently arpeggiated 16th notes. Jovino goes through a few ways to become comfortable with this left hand accompaniment, both for playing the melody and improvising. The piece is in G minor and it is based around a two-chord progression from F#dim7 (an inversion of D7b9) and Gm. Jovino suggests spending time with these two chords and improvising using the G melodic minor scale to gain familiarity with the sound of the piece.
Related Lessons
Minor progressions often contain altered tones which can be used to add interesting colours to your progressions and groves.
Tritone Substitution is a useful reharmonisation technique that can be used to add harmonic interest and variety to a chord progression.
There are three types of minor scale: the natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor. Each one has a different use & application in jazz.
Practice Tips
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Spend some time getting to know the harmony of this piece - it is a different sound to many minor-key jazz tunes in that it is based around the harmonic minor scale. Checking out some recordings will help with this familiarisation.
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To work on the improvisation try just improvising on the first two chords first before moving on to the rest of the form.
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The rhythmic feel is much more gentle than many other choros. Try to match Jovino's tempo and dynamic and listen to Jobim's recording for another reference.
