Originally Posted by NickD

I agree but I think there are differences in the way of looking at things that amount to a sufficienly different code.

For example, in all my years of working as a professional player in Chicago, I never have ONCE been asked to improvise over a figured bass line. I have been asked to read changes many times.

To me it's like writing computer code in Fortran versus C++. It depends on what you are doing. Fortarn is good for science and engineering (Fortran is an acronym for "formula transaltion"). C++ is good for more generic software, though either can do the function of the other. It's just that using the code of rhte main funcition for which it was designed is more optimized.

Figured bass might be ok for an organist improvising a continuo line on a Baroque piece, but when I am looking at a chord pregression with the contemporary "Real Book" style of writing the changes, it all makes more immediate sense to me.

Granted, subdominant goes to the dominant goes to the tonic no matter what, but the code can look a bit different on the paper. Making the connection between the two codes could be a very good exercise for the student!

Just a thought.

Nick