THE THANKING Name That Chord BY MICK GOODRICK NE AFTERNOON A COUPLE OF ‘years ago, I got together with my friend Wolfgang Muthspiei, who showed me a chord sequence based on an interesting voicing. Ater going through the progres- sion a number of times, he played one of the last chorus by itself: c= eas o Then he asked, “What do you call hist"! replied that you could lookat it a number of ways, depending on structure and/or usage, and suggested ¢ couple of possi bilities. We both agreed that the names were ambiguous, so I asked whar he called it. Wolfgang's answer both sur prised and pleased me: “Back home in Austria, some of my friends cal it Fred” Twas in shock for a moment. Then my mind began co bask in the glory of this ‘new realization, Why not give a chord ‘name? How simple! No problemswith structure or usage, [tis what itisynothing more, nothing less. Simply, Fred! Perfect! "Why hadn't someone come up with this before?” I wondered. Then, as is my habit, [decided to move Fred through the C major scale to see what would come up. Here's what came up: (© Major Scale 1M admit the following analysis may “appear suspectto some people, but if you hhang with me for a while, you may be able to discern a fairly consistent, al~ though somewhat warped, logic behind ry thinking Here we w. Fred: Ll GUITARIST bass would give us Fred again, s0 rin the bass gives us Fred minor: { call this one Jane, because it’s difer- ent from the preceding two. Observe the obvious dominant quality: ‘Once more, Fred (popular fellow’) Another Fred minor = Jane minor. F¥ in the alto voice would teu ane aif proces Jane mi So, scale provides four dif- ferent chords: Fred, Fred minor, Jane, and Jane joccurs three times, Fred _ minor owe, Jane once, and Jane minor ‘ance, Notice how the nvo voici contain the tritone F-8 or B-F fare Jané and Jane minor. (Now PAPE pDIEGICD Play trough hep ceeding voicings to get a sense of how sound and move. Now, ler's work with the Ai minor seale, which produces + that can work for G7alt/ Dp {dian Ay Meloaic Minor Meet Jane diminished. Nox obvious This chord comes from the vim scale, 100: = Mick Gooirck aces at the New England Conserv tory of Mus. the auchor of Te Advancing Guar urton. Chae HaJ Meet Jane augmented, Almost obvious Gpce the chord is 725.1 decided co call it Jane augmented: So, melodic minor gives us vo Sed De Jane, one Jane minor, one F plasitwe new chords: Jane augmented and Jskedifbinished. Ler’s move on quick iefe Full 30-day return praleges. Huge selection of the ater gear, including top ‘ART. Digech, Marsh Ko ‘Tascam, Rockman, Hartke, Galen HeTHE THINKING GUITARIST Putting Fred And Jane To Work BY mick ¢ HAT WAS THE POINT OF LAST ‘months material? Simply that ls very interesting and could be very useful to anyone will ing to work with it. Also, it demonstrated a practical pro ess of exploration and analysis. And f. nally, it's fun (maybe even funny). ‘To recap, last month you discovered ‘hha eight diferent chords can be derived from Fred (in context of the mafor, ft & melodic minor, and harmonic minor scales): Fred, Fred minor, Jane, Jane mi- not, Jane augmented, Jane diminished, Fred augmented, and Fred diminished. Ex I presents them with Gin the bass. ‘ent uses for each chord type. In the ‘meantime, experiment with the Fred and Jane family of harmonic realities to your Dear’ content aipee Weve “Not Soon Forgotten” (for Emily) is a short offering that employs some of the material. Enjoy! » ck Gondeick mache at ‘the New England Conserme tery Maa tthe author of The Ravan satan (die by Pal Conard and Ihe reformed with Mary ‘Berton, arte Haden aad many her.yy MIcK Go0D > oe) 7 A VE STARTED requesting an audition tape from prospective students, From ime to time, {get one that contains in- coherent phrasing, no melods, and un defined rhythms, Time and space is simply filled with meaningless sounds—gibberish! ‘Atsuch times, im reminded ofa story {beard years ago. Supposedly, ia Hall placed « sign insce his guitar case so he ‘would see it every time he took out his guitar, The sign said, “Make musical sense” This story made an important im- pression on me. ifJra Hall (whose playing always makes sense (0 me) had 0 remind himself to make sense, certainly the rest ‘of us would benefit from this advice. [Not long ago | called Jim to verity the story. He couldnt remember doing that, but said hed be willing o take eed fori (Obviously, he liked the idea, too.) The points, it makes a great story ‘Make museal sense! Remind yourself Of this before you start to play. Or least right after you've caught yourself dealing ‘out ahealthy heaping of gibberish. What is “musical sense"? This is sub- jective: What might be gibberish to me ‘could make musical sense fo you and vice versa. Il even say that sometimes ¢ litle bit of gibberish might be useful. (But only ‘litte and only sometimes) E Bach of us has tobe able to say openly | and honestly, “Yup. That's my gibberish.” Equally important, each of us has to be able to say, "That sounds like musi.” How do you cut down on the former while in- © creasing the latte? { have some ideas that | Tthink you wil find useful Pick a standard tune with harmonic ‘meat to it—“All The Things You Ate, Sela By Seatgh or Falling Grace for {nstance. Set your metronome to 72; these clicks will represent half-notes on two and four. Go for a medium swing fel. | Record yourself playing a walking bass “line through one chorus of the tune. Stay “ina low register and make sure the metronome is being recorded, too. On the second chorus switch to a single-line solo Inthe middle or high registers. Use mostly -quarter-notes, half-notes, and dotted ‘quarters followed by eighths. Never use ‘more than four eighth-notes in a row. At beginning of the next chorus, go back Playing a walking bass line. Repeat the nick “entire process a number of times. , 5 When you finish recording, the odd- numbered choruses on your tape willbe ‘walking basslines and the even-num- tered choruses wil be single-line solos 1 call his "dovetail recording,” ‘Now rewind the tape and play against ic im dovetail fashion. Solo tive against your taped bass lies and play lve bass Tinos against the ped solos. ‘Some observations and suggest ‘Experiment with anvipations,par= ticularly when soloing * For bas lines play quarternotes that are not quite full value. Pace tiny spaces before them; Think dootinstead of doo. «se a metronorne setting of 72 as your mild ground, bu try other settings | down to about $4 and up to about 108. | {The metronome is marking haif-notes:_ | your actual tempo is fice that ofthe set-_ | tings) On most metronomes this wil give | you approximately 17 tempos to work | ‘th Explore them ll! * Dovetail recording tends to make your solos much fess complicated and much * You'l tin gibberish by restricting yourself to no ‘more than four consecutive eighth-notes * By alternating bass and solo lines, thematic | fe huge amount of The finest selection | usin utes a names and aoastc ‘for he working musician + fo the vintage collector ‘or tha weekend player Call or writ or two inveminy ist prone is) seats ACA BON, AX Wie BUY. Sei, TRADE. + Insrurents § Pa Aceon L faa} + LPs Cases, aa et + Books & Videos cme {USE YOUR ROCKMAN" ONSTAGE ZA sity cisbors, steve Stevens. and A Rioipn Sc Surchased you'll be able to play for a longer time ‘without getting bored. * You'll probably become increasingly aware of time and swing feel. This will im prove your phrasing. + You'll begin to understand how bass Lines and solos are much more alike than, they are different. * Gradually expand the number of | consecutive eighth-notes that you alow | yourselfto play. But be strict at frst. | ‘+ Reverse the usual range of the two | parts (ce, play bass lines in the middle or "upper registers and play the solo low) * If you have access to a multitrack recorder, record two dovetail parts Listen to both tracks together; you'l really hear what works and wat doesnt. Dovetail recording gets you very fo cused on time, phrasing, swving fel, the- matic development, and rhythmic dis placement. And because it drastically cuts down on gibberish, dovetail recording will hhelp you in your quest to make musical sense, x EPRe siET SS UML AMERICA’S #1 PROTECTIVE COVER ‘These curable, walar-repelen covers are custom-ft toall makes & models a professional equgment. ‘AMPS + PA CABINETS « MIXERS * KEYBOARDS VINTAGE AMPS ‘6 Year Warranty & Cordura Nylon ACCESSORIES BAG WITH ORDER 803-821-1664 FREECATALOG FESS TUR, Cat P.O ox 284, Sune, SS BKEASASTHE THINKING GUITARIST Grip-o-logy, Part 1 BY MICK GoopRICcK \NJAN. AND FEB. '91 | INTRODUCED You to Fred and Jane. Remember? The Noicings withthe names you ex plored this material, perhaps you real- ized that Fred and Jane could also have ‘other names, such as “slash chords in dis- guise.” or even the dreaded “hybrid 9th family” Its time for some related harmonic concepts. (No names today!) Im using hy. Did 11ths in the following examples. How: ‘ever, you can apply the principles to any woicings you desire. | chose this particular voicing because I've been working with it ‘on and off forthe last three or four yeas, 0 tstil seems fresh. (Maybe Im slow. No ratte, they dont call me Mr. Goodchord for nothing) The two-step program. Working out voicings isa two-fold process. Inthe sim- plest terms, itamounts to this: ‘Step 1: Take 2 voicing you like and ‘move ft diatonically (scalewise) through whatever scales you can think of (major ‘melodic minor, harmonic minor, symmet- sical diminished, etc) ‘Step 2 Take any (perhaps all) of these voicings and find as many inversions as possible. The Fred and Jane columns contained good examples of Step 1, but nothing about Step 2. The secret to Step 2 is to compress the notes of the desired voicing into 2 four-note scale within an octave (1 say four note scale because were dealing with four-note voicings. However, the con: ‘cept holds true for two, three» five, and six-note voicings as well.) Once you've compressed the voicing. ifs easy to arrive atthe correct inversions by simply moving each line (bass, tenor, alto, or soprano) up the four-note scale. ‘Write out the inversions béfore trying to pley them, particularly when working with hybrid voicings.iearbe wer confus- ing trying to think things through on gi tar “Lets see. This voicing is an Ab riad over D, except Dis in the alto woice. not the bass. What do I do now#" Get out the ‘manuscript paper—you'l save oodles of time. Rewving up. Ready to experiment with Step 2% Ex. I shows a familiar voicing Hees what you do + Compress the four notes into ane oc tave (Le., close position), and determine the four inversions. They are G-BS-D-F, BL-D-FG.D-F-G-Bh. and BG-B-D These are the ascending melodies for each chord voice. Okay so far jow, write out each ascending ‘melody horizontals: place the frst note of each melody in the octave comesponding to the origina voicing (Ex.2). ‘+ Next, stack these four melodies (ep: ing them in their current octave) so they form four vertieal inversions (Ex. 3) and play ‘em. There. You probably know these voicings already. (As Isai, well start eas Getting sweaty. Lets turn up the heat a tad. Begin with another voicing (&x 4) and move it through a major seale, say Cmmajo. ‘This fre step yields seven voicings (Ex 5 Step 2 dictates that we process each voic ing into its four inversions, making a total ‘of 28 voicings Ex. 6). Are they all diferent Nope. As soon 26 you play even the first seven voicings in Ex. 5, you'll encounter repetition, (Remember, were talking voic- ‘ngs, not pitches) Obriously, if some ofthe ‘original voicings repeat, then many inver sions wil also repeat. you work the har 0. ‘mony out youT realize thatthe woicings sets andS are idencicat Binse he wae. ings in sets 3. 6, and 7 are identical The vovcingsaredifferentin sets 1 and 4 ‘To summarize: Our one origina! vic. tng—when run through @ur two-step Bro cess —pelds a toa! of 16 diferent new voicings four fom ses 2 and Sour foe: sets 3, & and 7 four fom set 1 and four from ser). Not bad Some final intrespection, {ce Se ne voicings all playable on she pumar' Good ‘question! This depends on the kex the or—- Ise, the intervals ofthe original woking, and the avatabiity of open sxing—= 537 nothing of your overall undescaning cf the size of sgh ‘But dont lec such considerasions ds. ‘courage you. They never seopped me—at least not for long. The point is. you never know (nor grow) unless you try E ‘many of the woicings are unplayable ask explore these ha Whenever you choose Next month: More time with non-majer scale,BY MICK GoovRicK F YOU SURVIVED LST MONTH'S harmonic workout, you should be knee-deep in chords by now. For those who've just tuned in, we're exploring a two-step process for generat- ing new chord voicings. Ir works like this: Step 1: Choose a voicing and move it daconically (scalewise) through a select. ‘ed scale (major, melodic minor. harmon. ie minor, symmetrical diminished, etc.) ‘Step 2:Take any (pethaps all) of these oicings and find as many inversions as THE THINKING GUITARIST rip-o-logy, Part 2 possible. In my previous column, we moved a volcing through the C major seale (read ‘the fuly 91 column for specifics). This time around, let’ explore harmonie mi- ot Mo minor feat. Move the voicing in Bx 1 through an 4 harmonic minor scale. ‘This results in seven chords (Ex. 2). Next Process each chord into its inversions— just as we did last time. Seven sets of four ‘oicings (root postion plus three inver- sons) yield a total of 28 chords Let's re- ew the process and work out the first set together, + First compress the voicing’s four notes into one octave (close position): A- E-D-Checomes A-C-D-E. + Next, determine the four new chords. They are: A-C-D-E, G-D-E-A, D-E- AG and BA-GD. * Write out these chords as four as- ‘cending melodies; place the fist note of each melody in the octave corresponding to the original voicing (Ex. 3). + Stack these four melodies (keeping them in their respective octaves) so they form a set of four vertical structures (Ex 4. Play. + Repeat the process for the remaining six of the seven original chords. Then take a break—you'll deserve it! Strip out duplicates. Many of the re- sulting voicings are duplicates of the pre- vious major scale experiments. (Don't forget, we're talking duplicate voieings— ie. a particular arrangement of intervals, ot necessarily duplicate pitches.) The harmonic minor inversions derived from the A (1st) voicing duplicate major sets 3, 6, and 7; the inversions from the 8 (2nd) voicing duplicate major set 4; E's (5th voicing) inversions duplicate major sets 2 and 5; F's (ch voicing) inversions dupi cate major set But we do get some fresh voicings {from all this. The inversions derived from. Care all new (Ex. 5). So are those from D (Ex, 6) and Ge (Ex. 7). These three sets Yield a total of 12 new harmonic minor generated voicings, As | mentioned last time, such factors as the length of your left-hand fingers, your fingerstyle chops, the key, the regis. ter. the intervals of the original voicing, the availability of open strings, and your fretboard acumen determine a voicing’s playability. Keep what you like, chuck the others, Meanwhile, intrepid fretboard expior- 8, get some rest; there's more grip-0- logy next month, x Mick Goodrick aches at the New England Conserv {ry ana the aur of ‘The Advancing Guitarist (Mat Laonand His new a: ‘bem, Bryhn. CMP ies 1128 5168 reac Germany,THE THINKING GUITARIST Grip-o-logy, Part 3 By Mick Goodrick RANK UP YOUR HARMONIC Benerator, let's get some new chords happening! First, we need to reconnoiter: In my July column, we created 16 grips by using the {infamous Goodrick two-step program to ‘move a voicing through the C major Scale. We followed the same process in ‘August to generate 12 new voicings from, the A harmo: _ What kind of voicings we can discover by generator, The basic procedure, in ease ‘you've forgotten, is this: Step I: Choose a voicing and move it diatonically Scalewise) through a select- ed scale. ‘Step 2 Take these voicings and find as ‘many inversions as possible, Melodic minor grips. Walk the voicing in Ex.1 through the Ab melodic minor scale, You'll create seven chords (Ex. 2) Process each chord into lis inversions, as we've done previously. Each of the seven “parents” yields four “offspring” (root po- sition plus three inversions); you end up with 28 chords, Let's process the first parent top to get things off to a good start. * Compress four notes into a one. ave, close-position voicing: Ab Bb: Dy becomes Ab-Ch- Db ‘Work out the three inversions of th lose-position chord. Including the root position voicing. you get four chords (Cb- Dh-Eh, Ch-Dh-Eh-Ab, DheBh-Ab-Ch and £5 -A}-Ch-Ds, * Convert these chords into four ending melodies. Important: Locate th first note of each melody in the octa that corresponds to the original open-pa sition voicing (Ex. 3) * Scack these four melodies (keepin, ‘them in their respective octaves) 6 the form 2 set of four vertical structures (i 4), Start playing, + Repeat the process forthe reiainin «chord six Ak melodie minor pa shown in Bx.2. Nuke the dupes. Some of our melodia minor offspring voleings duplicate the major scale offepring we developed in Ju ty, Gust a reminder: Were talking dup cate interval structures, not duplicate Pitches.) The four melodic minor off spring generated from the Ab parent voicing in Ex. 4 duplicate the major off spring in sets 3,6, and 7, as do the str tures built from (2nd parent), The Di (4th parent offspring duplicate mojor sel 1; the BF (Sth parent) offspring duplicate major sets 2 and 6; the F (6th parent) off spring duplicate major set 4. Here's a twist: The G (7th parent) offspring dupl: cate set7 of our harmonic minor volcings (Aug. ’91), We do get some new stru tures, though—four of ‘em, derived from G (x. 5) Try moving these guys around! the fretboard. Well conclude our grip-o-logy studies next month, when we take what we'Vé Jearned so far and tei all together. Until then, try to keep a grip on th 4, Mick Geedrick teaches at the New Engand Conserv Tory ais the auto of TheAdvancing Gari fe Hl (Mal Leonard, Hs new a ‘bum Weshtms, ton CMP Bas 1125 5106 Krewza, Germany,