First up, let me make it clear Miles Black is a superb first-class pianist there’s no doubt about that in my mind.

However, I use the Pop Vancouver style quite often and playing through a song it always bothered me why often amongst the chord note combinations used in B&B that are pieced together there seemed to be a wrong note or notes during the 7th chord piano playback. It only seems to affect those types of chords or least they are the ones that stand out for me.

I have started looking at this in more detail. While some notes are possibly acceptable passing tones, examples of the odd notes to my ear are as follows:

In one of the offending F7 chords (others are OK) which should have the notes F, Eb, C, A, B&B was playing on the piano (on the first beat) Db, A, F . Well A, F are OK but Db?? Perhaps what was meant was Eb.

An offending G7 chord which has the correct chordal notes F, D, B, G the piano plays notes in sequence G, G, D, F, E, C#, A, G, D, A. Well E is in the G6 chord and A in the G9 chord are sort of acceptable but the C# sounds off. Perhaps D was meant. Another is B, C#, E, A ??

A particular D7 chord has notes D, C, A, F#. On the first beat in one song the following notes are played at the same time A, Eb, F#, D. Playing this on my piano sounds like some sort of diminished chord not a D7 with the rouge Eb note. Perhaps D was meant. Another example is C, F#, B??

It’s not all Vancouver style. Here in B140GTP Bossa an A7 chord (E,C#, A, G) the following notes are played together F#, B, G ?? None of notes except G are in the chord.

As noted above most 7th chords sound OK but in some B&B generations many sound off to me.

Of course there is a workaround and that is to edit the notes. But this is fiddly and defeats the objective of B&B to instantaneously generate a song for a given set of chords. How do others perceive this issue? Perhaps some might say the above is “acceptable” in jazz, but to me Vancouver style is not Jazz as its sounds orchestral and I believe should be played with straight chordal an perhaps with limited acceptable passing notes.

Cheers F