Spiral

[Tarquin1986]

I'm learning Spiral (John Coltrane, Giant Steps) and there's somethingI'm unsure of. The first few chords are given as G Gb F E. Are these major triads? Major 7 chords? Something else entirely?

If anyone who actually knows spiralcould help that would be great but I'm sure anyone used to reading from fakebooks could help.

Thanks in advance, Tarquin.

[Joseph India]

It just means Major
The chords can be interpreted as you wish,
Major Triad or Major 7, Major 6, Major 9 etc.
There isn't much of a difference whichever you pick, in the sense that they are all the same scale.
Look at the melody, it could help you decide if you want to just play a triad or add something to it (assuming you're playing chords on piano or guitar)
For example: maybe the melody contains the 7 and the 9 snd you might say it doesn't matter much if I just play a triad, if that's how you feel.
No offense but Spiral might be too advanced for you if you dont know this, but I could be dead wrong.

[spastic]

Usually when a chord is simply major, you don't add the 7th (especially if the melody note is the root). you can play it as a triad if you want, but making it a 6 or a 6/9 is often preferred.

[Tarquin1986]

No offense but Spiral might be too advanced for you if you dont know this, but I could be dead wrong.

I totally get why would get that impression but I have actually been playing plenty of harmonically sophisticated stuff for quite a while now, it's just fakebook notation I'm new to. In college we mostly work on figured bass.

Thanks to both of you for the help.