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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 6: Imrov II & Advanced Flatpicking i

Flatpicking Essentials

Improvisation (Part II) &Advanced Technique Studies

Written byDan Miller & Tim May

Volume 6:

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 6: Improv II & Advanced Flatpickingii

All contents copyright High View Publications, 2009

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Flatpicking Essentials, Volume 6Improvisation, Part II and Advanced Technique

by Dan Miller & Tim May

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Flatpicking Essentials Volume 6: Imrov II & Advanced Flatpicking iii

Table of ContentsIntroduction vImprovisation, Part II 1Diatonic Chords and Chord Progressions 3 Creating Diatonic Triads 4 Temperance Reel Exercise 9Chord Movement and Chord Progressions 10 I, IV, V Progression: Why It Works 10 The Relative Minor 14 I - vi - IV - V Progression 16 The ii Chord 16 I - vi - ii - V Progression 17 I - ii - V - I Progression 18 St. Annes Reel Exercise 19 Note Choices For Diatonic Chords 18 Stable Melody Notes 18 Chord Tones 18 Major Pentatonic Scales 20 Modes 20 Minor Pentatonic Scales 22 Remaining Notes 22 Nine Pound Hammer Exercise 23 The iii Chord 24 I - vi - iii - V Progression 24 I - iii - IV - V Progression 25 The Chord Stream 25Diatonic Triad Summary 26Seventh Chords 27 The Dominant 7th Chord 28 I - IV - V7 - I Progression 30Non-Diatonic Chords 31 The Flat Seven Chord 31 I - bVII - V - I Progression 31 Salt Creek Exercise 32The Seventh Chord in Blues 33 12-Bar Blues Using Seventh Chords 35Secondary Dominant Chords 36 V of the V 36 V of the IV 36 Alabama Jubilee Exercise 37 VI7 - II7 - V7 - I Progression 38Conclusion 39

Advanced Flatpicking Technique 41 Introduction 41 Tension & Release 41Alabama Jubilee 43Skipping Strings and Advanced Crosspicking 47Angeline the Baker 50Hybrid Picking - Part 1 54Beaumont Rag 56

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 6: Improv II & Advanced Flatpickingiv

Billy In The Lowground 60Using Harmonics Natural and Artificial 64 Mary Had A Little Lamb Example 65Bury Me Beneath The Willow 66Playing in Minor Keys 70Cold Frosty Morning 72Devils Dream 76East Tennessee Blues 81Forked Deer 86Twin and Triple Guitars Playing Harmony Parts 90 Basic Two-Part Harmony 90 Whisky Before Breakfast Melody 91 Whisky Before Breakfast - Harmony (Parallel 3rds) 92 Harmonized Scale 93 Whisky Before Breakfast Double Stops 95 Harmony Variation 96 Whisky Before Breakfast Harmony Variation 97 Two-Part Harmony Rules of Thumb 99 Whisky Before Breakfast High Baritone Harmony 100 Adding a Third Part 101 Whisky Before Breakfast Three Part Harmony 102Leather Britches 103Lonesome Reuben 106Lonesome Road Blues 110Hybrid Picking Part II 113 Hybrid Picking Example 114 Lonesome Road Blues Example 115Midnight On The Water 118Triplets 122Nine Pound Hammer 124Red Haired Boy 127Red Wing 131Temperance Reel 135Wayfaring Stranger 139Whiskey Before Breakfast 143

Conclusion and The Road Ahead 147

Appendix Chord Progression Summary 148

Table of Contents (cont)

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 6: Imrov II & Advanced Flatpicking v

Introduction Welcome to Volume 6 of the Flatpicking Essentials series! This book is divided into two main sections. The first section is the second part of our study of improvisation. Although we have really been studying elements of improvisation since Volume 1 of this course, the section on improvisation that was presented in Volume 5 introduced you to a free-form improv study method that we will continue here in this volume. In the improvisation section of Volume 5 you studied how to improvise over various I, IV, V chord progressions using chord tones and scale notes. In this book, Volume 6, you will continue with the same course of study; however, the chord progressions will get more complicated. Working with the various chord progressions that we provide in this book will certainly help you develop an ability to improvise over these chords. In addition, it should also help you develop your ability to hear these chords and chord progressions when you run across them at a jam session. So, an added benefit of working with all of these new chord progressions is that you will also be developing your ear through this method. An added feature of this Volume of the course is the inclusion of an appendix that will serve as an easy reference for all of the chord progressions that you were given in Volumes 5 and 6. We are also providing slow, medium, and fast back up tracks for all of these progressions on our Flatpicking Essentials website (go to http://www.flatpick.com/essentialsaudio. If you download all of these tracks and work with these chord progressions using the steps that were outlined on pages 55 to 76 of Volume 5, you will greatly improve your ability to improvise. In studying the material in the improvisation section of this book you will be presented with a bunch of music theory. I know that some of you will skim over this material and not really dig into it. I know this because Ive been playing music for 30 years and for the first 25 of them I never paid any attention to music theory because I thought it was boring and not really necessary. However, after I spent time working on projects with guys like John Carlini and John Jorgenson I realized, just by hanging around these guys and listening to them talk about music, that my music theory knowledge was severely lacking. So, I made a decision to focus on learning as much as I could about music theory and now that I know a little bit I am constantly regretting

the fact that I did not take it seriously early in my music career. For me, having a knowledge of music theory really helps me better understand everything that Im doing when Im playing music. Having a better understanding of what Im doing helps expand my choices and opens my mind up to new ideas. So, I hope you will take the time to expand your knowledge of music theory by reading the theory sections of this book and by exploring other music theory books and resources. I think that you will find it very helpful to your ability to arrange, compose, and improvise.

Advanced Technique The second section of this book is focused on advanced flatpicking technique. We approached this topic by first having Tim May record advanced level improvisations for nineteen different flatpicking tunes. Tim selected the tunes, but before he went into the studio I gave him a list of techniqueslike the use of triplets, natural and false harmonics, note bending, quoting, alternate tuning, syncopation, twin guitar, minor key tunes, hybrid picking, advanced crosspicking, string skipping, etc. Tim did a wonderful job incorporating all of these techniques into his improvisations and we discuss all of these techniques in detail in the pages that come before the first occurrence of a given technique. In addition to introducing new techniques in this volume, Tim also did a great job introducing you to advanced ways of employing many of the techniques that you have learned previously in this course, such as: hammer-ons, slides, pull-offs, bends, neighboring notes (toggling), tremolo (repeated notes), chromatic runs, drones, harmonic scales, folded scales, floating, crosspicking, arpeggios, note bending, runs that move up-the-neck, etc. He pulls it all together here and really takes out all the stops. If you are looking for interesting ways to spice up your bluegrass songs and fiddle tunes, you will definitely find them here in this volume. In addition to the advanced techniques discussed above, Tim also adds more complex timing and dynamic elements to his arrangements, as well as more complex note choices. As you will discover when you read our synopsis of each tune in the Advance Technique section, Tim makes good use of diminished, maj7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th chords and arpeggios. We will not really get into a discussion of these chords and

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 6: Improv II & Advanced Flatpickingvi

arpeggios until Volume 7 of this course. However, we felt like introducing you to these chords and arpeggios here in this volume would give you a good sense of how these note choices can be useful to you, in terms of practical usage in standard flatpicking tunes.

A Word About the Audio Files This volume has a lot of audio files. In previous volumes we always provided an audio reference for every exercise and every tune. We do the same thing here, however, we have gone a bit farther this time. For each of the chord progressions we have provided you with three different tempos so that you can find a tempo that is comfortable for you to work with. We also made each track 3 minutes long so that you could have plenty of time to work with each progression. The problem we ran into there was that in providing you with three tracks for each of 16 different progressionseach three minutes longthat resulted in two hours and fifteen minutes worth of audio just for the backup rhythm tracks. In order to save having to put out four or five audio CDs with this book, you will find that the audio CDs that are in the book only have the medium tempo backup tracks for the chord progressions. However, the slow and fast tracks can be downloaded for free from our website at the URL mentioned on the previous page. For the tunes that we have asked you to improvise over in the improvisation section (Temperance Reel, St. Annes Reel, Blackberry Blossom, and Salt Creek) we have provided a medium tempo version of these songs that you can jam along with on the CD. These tracks are taken from Brad Davis Flatpick Jam series. If you want to play along with slower or faster tempos of these songs, you can purchase Brads Flatpick Jam tracks at www.flatpickingmercantile.com or download them at www.flatpickdigital.com. All of the tunes that weve asked you to work with in this book are on Brads Flatpick Jam, Volume One. For the tunes in the Advanced Technique section of this book (those that were improvised by Tim May), we have provided you with two tempos of each tune. One is at a moderately fast tempo, and the other is slowed down. We wanted to provide you with two speeds of these tunes so that Tim could go ahead and play the tunes at a comfortable pace when he was recording, but then you could hear a slower version to help you pick out the details of what he is doing. Tim did not record the tunes at the slower tempo, they were slowed down electronically in the studio.

The way we organized the two audio CDs that come with this book is as follows: The first CD contains all of the tracks that are associated with the improvisation section of this book. The first sixteen tracks are those that are the medium tempo tracks of all of the chord progressions as presented in the appendix. The first 5 tracks are progressions that you worked with in Volume 5. The remaining tracks are progressions that you are presented with in Volume 6. After those generic chord progressions, we then give you the progressions to the fiddle tunes that we have given you in the improvisation section of the book. We put all of these back up tracks together so that you would be able to find them easily when you are practicing your improvisation exercises. The remaining tracks on this disc present the exercises and examples that are given in the improvisation section of the book. Each exercise and example has the Disc and track printed next to it for easy reference. The second disc that comes with this book includes all of the audio that corresponds with the material in the Advanced Technique section of the book. This includes all of Tim Mays improvisations (at two speeds) and all of the other examples and exercises that appear in that section. I hope you enjoy working with all of the material in this book. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me: [email protected]. Also, if youd like to contact Tim, you can reach him through his website: http://www.timmaymusic.net/ Have fun and keep pickin! Dan Miller

Acknowledgements: There are many people that helped make this book possible. First and foremost Id like to thank my co-author Tim May. This book would not have been possible without his expertise, talent, hard work, and patience. Next I want to thank Tim May, Robert Bowlin, Wil Maring, and Adam Granger for helping me put together the guitar harmony section this course. Their ideas and suggestions were very helpful. We also need to thank Brad Davis for the material in the hybrid picking section. Finally, Tim and I would both like to thank Charlie Chadwick and Dillon Hodges for their help in the studio. Dillon played rhythm guitar for all of Tims solo improvisations and Charlie played bass on all of the back up tracks. Charlie also engineered all of the rhythm tracks and all of Tims solo tracks.

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 6: Imrov II & Advanced Flatpicking 1

Improvisation, Part II: Before we move on to the next phase of our improvisation study, lets first look back at what we have already learned in the previous volumes.

Volume 1: In volume one you learned how to design your own bass runsincluding the use of leading tonesto move from one chord to another. By the end of Volume 1 you should have been able to improvise bass lines that serve to smoothly connect one chord to the next in a I, IV, V chord progression. After sufficient practice with the bass runs and fill lick examples that were provided in Volume 1, you should have developed a degree of comfort with:1) Improvising bass runs that connect chords in a I, IV, V progression.2) Improvising fill licks to fill in between vocal pauses while playing rhythm.3) Ornamenting your rhythm accompaniment with embellishments such as strums, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. Whether you were aware of it or not, developing these skills in Volume 1 formed the first small step in your learning how to improvise! All of these skills will come in handy in this volume and in Volume 7, so keep working on them!

Volumes 2 and 3: In Volumes 2 and 3 you learned how to find song melodies by ear and then embellish those melodies with a variety of techniques, which included: hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, drones, scale runs, folding scales, neighboring notes, tremolo, a variety of strum patterns, and crosspicking. By the end of Volumes 2 and 3 you should have been able to find a simple song or fiddle tune melody by ear and then improvise, to some degree, on that melody by employing one or more of the above mentioned techniques. Granted, while much of the work that you did while learning the steps outlined in Volumes 2 and 3 dealt more with arranging than improvisation (since you probably were not coming up with your arrangements spontaneously in real time), remember that earlier in this course we defined improvisation as instantaneous arrangement. So, in building your arranging and composition skills in Volumes 2 and 3 you were also working on your ability to improvise by learning to come up with your own arrangements and variations.

Learning how to take a simple, stripped down melody and embellish it to come up with a melody-based arrangement is an important skill. As your ability to come up with variation after variation on a songs melody improves, your ability to improvise on that melody will also improve. If you take small steps and are consistent with your practice, progress will come. Through your work with Volumes 2 and 3 you should have the tools available to you to be able to hear a song melody in your head and find it on your guitar. Once you can do that with the simple melody, you will then later be able to not only find the melody on your guitar in real time, but also fill in around the melody with interesting fills, runs, licks, and techniques that will ornament the melody in interesting and exciting ways. Learning how to play licks over chord progressions is much easier than learning how to play a tasteful melody-based solo, so that is why we started learning melody-based soloing before we discussed a more free-form approachone that doesnt necessarily stick as close to the melodyin Volumes 5 and 6.

Volume 4: Volume 4 was all about exploring the fingerboard and moving up the neck. In the section on using chord shapes you also learned something about arrangement and improvisation based on chord shapes and chord tones. You also studied the use of scale runs and arpeggios at various locations on the neck and practiced moving up and down the neck using open notes, floating phrases, and harmonic scales in a effort to connect various scale positions or boxes. Expanding your note choices on the neck also expanded your ability to improvise. As you move around to different areas of the neck in order to find melodies and embellish those melodies you are naturally going to find new ways of expressing those melodies. As you learn how to do that in real time you are greatly improving your ability to improvise in ways that add interest to your solos.

Volume 5: In Volumes 2, 3, and 4, all of your study of arrangement and improvisation focused on working with the song melody. You found the melody, you simplified the melody, and then you worked to embellish the melody. In Volume 5 we asked you to do a 180 degree turn and forget about the melody so that you could

Flatpicking Essentials Volume 6: Improv II & Advanced Flatpicking2

basically learn how to play scale and chord tones over chord changes. Our logic in asking you to do this was to allow you to feel a little bit of freedom from having to play specific notes. In practicing those exercises you hopefully gained some confidence in being able to play without looking at a piece of paper or taxing your brain to remember a pre-set sequence of notes. If youve never experienced this sort of improvisation before, it can be very liberating. After Volume 5 was published we received emails from a lot of people telling us how much fun they were having with this section of the course because they didnt have to worry about making mistakes. This is a typical letter:

I just LOVE Volume 5for my particular learning style, it is spot on. It is really a lot of fun to just sit and play over the G chord and the progressionseven with just 3 notes I feel like I was able to come up with some pretty good stuff. Sticking with the stagesin orderhas been very helpful to me. Even on my very busy days at work I manage to get in at least 30 minutes of practicing with Vol 5 and I can tell that it is already helpinga lot of the improvement has come in the form of confidencejust being able to play with the pentatonic minor, blues and pentatonic major scales and not worrying about mistakes or if it sounds good or not. For me, that was a major step and I think it will carry over when I play with other people.

We loved receiving that kind of feedback because it is exactly the kind of feeling of freedom and confidence that we wanted the students working with Volume 5 to experience. On the flip side of that, however, we have also received feedback from players who grew up playing blues and rock that have no problem at all with playing scales and patterns over chord progressions, but are having a lot of difficulty learning and sticking to a melody. This is why we have worked to present both approaches. Depending on your background and experience one approach is going to seem easier than the other. If you have spent the majority of your time in the past working with tab and memorizing someone elses arrangement, then you should now spend time with the improvisation exercises in Volume 5. If you have spent a lot of time playing riff blues and rock, then you should spend more focused time on the steps that are outlined in Volumes 2 and 3. Eventually, the two approaches will meet somewhere in the middle and you will be able to stick close to the melody when the melodic approach is called for and then you will be able to stray farther away from it when a more non-melodic approach is appropriate.

Typically you are going to want to stay close to the melody at the beginning of a song. Later in the presentation of a song if you, or others in the band, have stated the melody clearly several times, you are going to want to stray away from it so that the overall presentation of the song doesnt become monotonous to the listeners, or the band. As Ive stated before, improvisational players who are the most tasteful can weave their solos around a melody in ways that still state the melody, or interesting sub-melodies, without straying so far away that the song becomes unrecognizable. There is a real art to this kind of soloing. It is our belief that in order to learn how to develop tasteful improvisations the rudiments of music must be firmly ingrained into the musicians mind and muscle memory. In Volumes 2 and 3 we worked with learning how to ingrain the melody, and then embellish that melody. In Volume 5 we worked with ingraining a solid sense of the chord changes, chord tones, and the scale of the key while working with simple I, IV, V progressions. However, as you know, a lot of songs that you will encounter stray away from the I, IV, V progression and their melodies involve notes that may not lie in the scale of the key. So, here in Volume 6 we are going to continue with the ideas and practice stages that you were presented in Volume 5, but we will be adding new chords and more complex chord progressions. Now that you have built a solid foundation working with the I, IV and V chords, it is time that we add in some minor chords and some seventh chords.

A Little Theory In order to better understand common chord progressions that include chords other than the standard I, IV, and V it is going to behoove us to first study a little theory relating to how those chord progressions are formed and what scales are best used over those chords. I know...theory is not always fun, however, hopefully you have discovered from the theory that Ive presented thus far in the course that knowing theory does help guide you when you are arranging and improvising. Ive tried to not lay out too much theory all at once in any given section of this course, however, we are now getting into deeper water in terms of theory with the study of diatonic chords, the relative minor, seventh chords, and modes. If youll bear with me, I promise that understanding these things will help you in the long run. I promise!


Diatonic Chords and Chord Progressions In previous volumes of this course you learned that the word diatonic means of the key. If a melody is diatonic that means that all of the notes in that melody are notes that appear in the scale of the key. If the song is in the key of G, a diatonic melody will consist of only notes that are found in the G scale. Most simple song melodies are diatonic. As you learned in Volume 4, chords can also be diatonic. In the harmonized scale section of Volume 4, you learned that diatonic triads are triads that are built on each scale degree of a given scale. In order to build diatonic triads on the G scale, you simply lay out each degree of the scale in sequence along a horizontal line and then stack thirds on top of each of those notes (as shown at the top of the next page). Youll notice that some of these notes are going to be major thirds while others are going to be minor thirds, depending on the notes that are diatonic to the G scale. This concept can be confusing, so lets explore it a little further.

What is in a Name? Before moving on, lets clarify how notes, scale degrees and intervals are named in music theory. For most of you, this will be a review. Musical pitches are represented using the letters of the alphabetA through G. These letters are referred to as the musical alphabet. Thus, there are seven letters in the musical alphabet. Since there are more than seven tones in Western music, the notes of the musical alphabet can be altered by using a sharp or a flat symbol. A sharp symbol (#) used after a note letter name raises the pitch

of that note one half step. A flat symbol (b) used after a note name lowers that pitch one half step. By using these sharp and/or flat symbols in combination with the first seven letters of the alphabet, we can name every pitch that is common to Western music, thus naming the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale. If youve gotten this far in the course, this is not new information. Western music is tonal music, which means that both melodies and harmonies are typically centered upon one musical pitch. This pitch is referred to as the tonic. When groups of pitches are arranged around the tonic in half-step and whole-step patterns, these patterns are referred to as scales. The major scale is the pattern that forms the basis for most popular melodies. Previously in this course you studied the whole-step/half-step formula for the major scale and a few minor scales. Major scales can be built from any pitch in the chromatic scale by using the major scale formula. Although not as widely used, there are a number of other scales in music (minor, pentatonic, diminished, whole tone, etc) that each have their own unique whole-step/half-step formula. Each pitch in every scale can be defined by a note name from the musical alphabet, or by scale degree. Scale degrees name each pitch in a major scale using a sequence of numbers. In a C scale, the C note is the first scale degree because it is the first note of the scale, D is the second, E the third, etc. Using scale degrees makes things a little easier. Since all major scales are made up of the same pattern, using scale degrees provides a universal system for naming these scales.

TAB

023

235

457

023

245

002

124

345

G Am Bm C D Em F#dim G

GBD

ACE

BDF#

CEG

DF#A

EGB

F#AC

GBD

Diatonic Triads in the Key of G Major


Lastly, lets look at how intervals are named. You will remember from earlier volumes of this course that an interval defines the distance between two notes. The first thing to know is that whenever you are naming intervals there are two parts to the name. One part of the name refers to its quantity, i.e. unison, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or octave. The second part of the name is its quality, i.e. major, minor, diminished, perfect, or augmented.

Creating Diatonic Triads Given the naming conventions listed above, lets now look at how we might figure out the diatonic triads in the key of G. As stated above, the first thing to do is lay out the G scale horizontally, as shown on the bottom line of the diagram shown in the box above. To build the triads, we are going to first stack above each note of the G scale the note that is a third above that note. The note that is a third above any given note in a scale is the note that is two scale degrees away in that scale. Therefore, if you want to find the note that is a third above G on the G scale, you look at the G scale and count up two scale degrees to B. To find the note that is a third above A, count two scale degrees up the G scale from A and you find C. Continue on for each note in the G scale and you will find the notes that are indicated on the second line in the diagram shown above. For the time being we are not going to worry about whether the interval is major or minor, we are just going to find the notes. To find the third note of the triad, you will execute the same procedure, counting two scale degrees up

Notes in the G Scale and Diatonic Chord Tones

G G#/AAA A#/BAB C C#/DAD D#/EAE F F#/GAG

Whole Step Whole Step Whole Step Whole Step Whole Step

Half Step

Half Step

G A B C D E F#

D E F# G A B C

B C D E F# G A

G Scale:

Up a Third:

Up Another Third:

Root

Third

Fifth

from each note on the middle line of the diagram above. Starting with the B note and counting up two scale degrees on the G scale we arrive at D. If you continue with this procedure along the middle line of the diagram you will find the notes that are shown on the top line. These notes are a third above the second line and a perfect fifth above the notes of the first line. Thus you have found the root, third, and fifth triads using each note of the G scale as your root. Since we have only used notes of the G scale to build these chords, all of the chords are diatonic to the key of G. Now we are going to take a look at each of these chord triads one-by-one to determine if they are major or minor. As we discussed previously in this course, a major chord has an interval of a major third between the root and third note (four half steps) and a minor chord has an interval of a minor third (three half steps) between the root and third. An easy way to count half steps is to use the chromatic clock as shown at the top of the next page. Start with the root note and count the clicks around the chromatic clock. For instance if you start at G and count around the clock to B, you will find that B is four half steps away from G, thus the interval between G and B is major. Moving on to the triad root of A we count the clicks around the clock from A to C and find that it is only three half steps, therefore this interval is minor. Does this mean that we can call the first triad G major and the second triad A minor? Well...yes and no. The major third does indicate that the chord is major and the minor third does tell us that it is minor. However, we still have to take a look at the interval between the


C C D E F G A B

G G A B C D E F#

D D E F# G A B C#

A A B C# D E F# G#

E E F# G# A B C# D#

B B C# D# E F# G# A#

F# F# G# A# B C# D# E#

C# C# D# E# F# G# A# B#

F F G A BA C D E BA BA C D EA F G A

KEY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

EA EA F G AA BA C D AA AA BA C DA EA F G DA DA EA F GA AA BA C GA GA AA BA CA DA EA F CA GA AA BA CA DA EA FA

Chord Tones:

G = G, B, DAm = A, C, EBm = B, D, F#C = C, E, GD = D, F#, AEm = E, G, BF#dim = F#, A, C

G

G#/AA

A

A#/BA

B

C

C#/DAD

D#/EA

E

F

F#/GA

The Chromatic

Clock

Major Third = Four Half StepsMinor Third = Three Half Steps



Major Third = 4 Half StepsMinor Third = 3 Half Steps

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Half Step

Major Chord = Major Third + Minor ThirdMinor Chord = Minor Third + Major ThirdDiminished Chord = Minor Third + Minor ThirdAugmented Chord = Major Third + Major Third


G Major Chord:


G Minor Chord:


G Diminished Chord:


G Augmented Chord:

The G Triads

Triads: Major, Minor, Diminished, and Augmented

third and fifth scale degrees to determine if the triad is diminished or augmented. When you are constructing triads there are four possible triad types that you might encounter: major, minor, diminished, and augmented. These triads are defined in the chart shown above. A major triad has an interval of a major third between the root and third scale degrees and an interval of a minor third between the third and fifth scale degrees. The minor chord has just the opposite. A minor chord has an interval of a minor third between the root and third scale degrees and an interval of a major third between the third and fifth scale degrees. A diminished chord has an interval of a minor third between the root and third scale degrees and a minor third between the third and fifth scale degrees. An augmented chord has an interval of a major third between the root and third scale degrees and a major third between the third and fifth scale degrees.

If you look at the chart above you can see that Ive constructed all of the possible triads that start with the root note of G. By counting the half steps on the chromatic scale shown at the top of the page Ive determined what notes make up the major, minor, diminished, and augmented G chords. Youll notice that in each case the scale degrees are the same (G, B, and D), however, the B and D notes are either natural, sharp, or flat. In order to determine what kind of triads we have constructed on page 4, we must examine the intervals between the third and fifth scale degrees. Looking at the notes above the G on the bottom line we see a B and a D. The distance between the B note and the D note on our chromatic clock is three half stepsan interval of a minor third. Since the interval between G and B is major and the interval between B and D is minor, we know that this is a G major chord.


TAB

1

300023

012200

234422

010233

232002

000220

2124

200023

G Am Bm C D Em F#dim G

I ii iii IV V vi viidim I

Diatonic Chords in the Key of G

Taking a look at the next triad, we already determined that the interval between the A note and the C note was a minor third. The next interval, between the C and the E notes, is four half steps and thus a major third interval. Since the first interval is minor and the second is major, you know that this is an A minor chord. Analyzing all of the triads that are formed from each note of the G scale, you will discover the chords that are shown in the chart above. The triads built on the first, fourth, and fifth scale degrees are major triads. The triads built on the second, third, and sixth scale degrees are minor. The triad built on the seventh scale degree is diminished. The method we have used to determine each triad type was based on counting half steps. You could have also used a derivative method to find these triad types. If you are familiar with the notes of each major scale, as shown in the chart at the bottom of page 5, then you can simply compare the notes of each triad with the notes of each major scale. For instance, if you compare the notes of the triad built on the root of G with the G major scale, you will see that the root, third, and fifth notes of the G major scale are G, B, and D and thus the triad is major. When you look at the notes of the triad that starts with the A note as the root (A, C, E) and compare that to the A major scale you will see that the first, third and fifth notes of the A major scale are A, C#, and E. The only difference here is that the third degree of our triad (C) is a half degree flat from the C# note of the A major scale, thus we know that our A chord is minor. If we jump forward and look at the F# scale, we find that in the F# major scale the notes of the 1, 3, 5 triad are F#, A#, and C#. Comparing that to the triad we built on

the F# note using the notes of the G scale (F#, A, and C), we can see that both the third scale degree and the 5th scale degree are a half step flat. This tells us that our F# traid that was built from notes of the G scale is a diminished chord. Whether you count half steps or derive results from the major scales you will find that for every major scale the diatonic chords built from each scale degree are universally the same: I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viidim (or vii). OK, so the big question in everyones mind now is, How is this information useful? Good Question!

Practical Application of the Theory In the improvisation section of Volume 5 you practiced a number of exercises where you played the notes of the G major scale against the I, IV, and V chords in the key of G. You will remember that one of the primary goals of that section of the course was to learn how to play the root note and/or other chord tones of each chord as the chords changed. Since the chord tones of the I chord, IV chord, and V chord were all in the G scale, all you had to know in order to improvise solos in the key of G were the notes of the G scale. If you were successful at matching up chord tones with chord changes, then your improvisations fit the chord progression. If you were able to keep the melody in your head and hit melody notes, or play G scale patterns that incorporated the melody notes, you were able to come up with a pretty good solo. Now that you know that the chords Am, Bm, Em, and F#dim all consist of notes that are found in the G scale, you can apply everything you learned in Volume 5 to these chords as well! You certainly know by now that


most common chord progressions in folk, bluegrass, blues, old-time, and rock music consist of the I, IV, and V chords. A little later in this course we will examine why those chords are the most common chords in roots and rock music, however, for now we will simply accept that as fact and move forward. After the I, IV, and V chords, the two chord types that you will most likely find in the songs that you will encounter playing bluegrass and folk music are the six minor (vi) and the dominant seventh (V7). We will study seventh chords a little later, so well set that dominant seventh aside for now. Lets first look at the vi chord. The six minor chord (vi) is very common for a couple of reasons. If youll look at the chord tone chart on page 5 youll notice that the Em chord shares two chord tones with the G chord. Since it shares two of the three chord tones with the G chord, it is very close in tonality to the tonic of the key, or key center. If you examine the Em scale, you will also notice that it shares all of the exact same notes as the G scale. It just starts on the E note instead of the G note. The six minor is also referred to as the relative minor and/or the Aeolian mode. We will also talk about those two concepts later. But before we talk about any more theory, lets get away from the theoretical and practice an example in the key of G that uses a six minor (vi). There are a lot of songs in bluegrass that are played in the key of G and include the Em chord. Just in this course alone we have run across a number of them, including Temperance Reel, Cherokee Shuffle, Big Sciota, Blackberry Blossom, and others. Tunes such as Billy in the Lowground, New Camptown Races, and Colored Aristocracy also include the six minor (vi) chord. In our first example we are going to take a look at Temperance Reel. This is a good song to work with for our purpose because there are plenty of

G A B D E G

G Major Pentatonic Scale:

E Minor Pentatonic Scale:

E G A B D E

TAB

1

L L L

0 30 2

0 20 2

L L

0 30 3 5 3 0

3

L L L

02 0

2 02 0

3

0

E minor Pentatonic Scale

chances to play over the Em chord. Also, because the B part of this song really lends itself to improvisation we are going to leave most of the B part open to full improvisation over the Em and D chords. In Volume 3 you learned how to play a melody-based version of this tune. Here I want you to try and mix the melody-based approach with a freely improvised approach (a la Volume 5) by playing the melody over the G chord parts and then improvising over the Em chord in the A part. Then in the B part, improvise over the Em and D chords. In the A part of the tab you will see that Ive kept the B note followed by the E note under the Em chord because those two notes are stable melody notes. Other than hitting those notes, you should freely improvise over the Em chord. In the B section youll see that I left the tab under the Em and D chords totally blank. So, freely improvise during that section using the chord tone technique that you learned in Volume 5. Before you give this tune a try, one interesting thing to recognize is that the notes of the G major pentatonic scale and the notes of the E minor pentatonic scale are exactly the same (see diagram above). The only difference is that they start on the G note and the E note, respectively. If you worked with the 12-bar blues in E as I recommended in Volume 5 (Stage 16: Exploring Other Keys), you will be able to improvise over the Em chord in this song using the E minor pentatonic scale. Even if you did not work with the E minor pentatonic scale in Volume 5, but did work with the G major


Temperance Reel Basic Melody Outline with holes for Improvisation

TAB

1

0 2

G

0 0 0 20 1

33

3 02

Em

02 2

6

G

0 0 0 20 1

33

3 02

Em

02 2

D G

02 0

10

14

02 2

0 2

D G

02 0

Em

Em

D

improvise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

improvise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

improvise . . . . .

improvise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

pentatonic scale (stage 8 on page 70 of Volume 5), then you will still be familiar with the notes of this scale. When you hit the Em chord in Temperance Reel, just think G major pentatonic, but start on the E note and youll be fine. If you did not familiarize yourself with either of these scales in Volume 5, then run through the E minor pentatonic scale as shown at the bottom of the previous page before working with Temperance Reel. There are many songs in the flatpickers fiddle tune repertoire that have a B section that lends itself

to improvisation. In tunes like Temperance Reel, Blackberry Blossom, Lonesome Fiddle Blues, and Salt Creek, to name a few, you can stay close to the melody in the A section, and then stretch out and improvise more freely in the B section. After practicing with Temperance Reel, try this same exercise with Blackberry Blossom. Practice tracks for both of these tunes, taken from Brad Davis Flatpick Jam series, can be found on audio Disc 1, Tracks 17 and 18, respectively.

Play Along with Audio Track 1-17


Chord Movement & Chord Progressions

Before we move on to work with more song examples, I want to first talk a little bit about chord movement and chord progressions. We will dive deeper into this subject in Volume 7: Advanced Rhythm, however, in order to understand improvisation using the chord tone technique, it helps if you understand something about chords and chord movement. If you can grasp some of the underlying theory of chord progressions, you can better understand how to solo over various chord changes.

Why The I, IV, V Progression Works You know from the material that weve presented in the previous volumes of this course that in any simple song that you will run across in bluegrass, folk, blues, or rock music the melody and harmony of the song revolves around the notes of a major or minor scale. At the root of the scale is the tonic, or root, note. Chord progressions are tonal and they revolve around the tonic chord. Even if you dont know the key of a song the tone center will always reveal itself as the song resolves because it settles on the tonic chord. Not every song begins on the I chord, but almost every song ends on the root chord. The simplest songs are those whose melody can be supported harmonically by just one chord. Some nursery rhymes and a handful of pop songs are one chord songs. Take a look at the French nursery rhyme Frere Jacuqes shown at the top of the next page. If you take a look at the songs melody, you will notice that the first and last notes of every measure are notes that belong to the G chord. Any G scale notes that are not part of the G chord in this song simply serve as connecting notes. So, this melody can be completely supported harmonically by the G chord. While there are not too many song melodies that can be supported by just one chord, there are thousands that can be supported by two or three chords. We have learned that the majority of song melodies that we will encounter in bluegrass, folk, blues, or rock music are based on the major scale. In the first section of this bookwhen we presented diatonic chordsyou learned how to harmonize the major scale. Since most songs melodies come from the notes of the major scale, it makes sense that the majority of the chords that are used to support those melodies will come from the diatonic chords.

If you know that your primary chord choices for a given song are going to come from the list of diatonic chords and you are presented with a song melody that sounds happy and upbeat throughout, then you know that the chords that support that melody are probably going to be major chords. Remember, major chords and scales sound happy and bright while minor chords and scales sound sad and dark. Looking at the diatonic chord list, you may recognize that there are only three major chords availablethe I, IV, and V chords. When we studied song melodies in Volume 3 you learned that in the resolving phrase of every song, or song section, the chord progression was most likely going to move from the V chord to the I chord. Why is that usually the case? Remember back in Volume 1, and again in Volume 5, when we worked with leading tones? You discovered that leading tones beg to resolve to the root of the scale. If you dont believe me, play the G scale that is written below.

When you play this scale arent you just aching to hear that F# note resolve to the G? Similarly, if you are playing a song that is tonally centered upon G, when you play a D chord and your ear hears the F# note in that D chord, it naturally wants to hear resolution to the G chord. As we will study later in this book, the concept of tension and resolution is something that helps add interest and helps propel music. The tension and resolution between the V chord and the I chord is not great, however, it is significant enough that simple song melodies take advantage of it. The relationship between the root (tonic) and the V chord (dominant) is a strong one and thus most all two or three chords songs include the V chord. On the next page you will find a simple two chord song, Skip To My Lou, that demonstrates the I and the V chord relationship. Notice that in measures 1 and 2 the melody consists of all G chord tones, but in measure 3 when the melody moves to the A note as a strong stable note, it calls for the harmony to move to the D chord. Almost all two

TAB

1

30 2 3

0 2 4


One Chord Song Brother John (Frere Jacques)

TAB

1

G

Are you sleep ing,

0 20

0

Are you sleep ing,

0 20

0

Brot her John?

0 1 3

Bro ther John?

0 1 3

- - - -

5

G

Morn ing bells are ring ing,

30

3 1 00

Morn ing bells are ring ing.

30

3 1 00

Ding, ding, dong.

00

00

Ding, ding, dong.

00

00

- - - -

Two Chord Song Skip To My Lou

TAB

1

G

Skip, Skip,

00

Skip To My Lou

0 0 0 3

D

Skip, Skip,

24

Skip To My Lou

2 2 21

5

G

Skip, Skip,

00

Skip To My Lou

0 0 0 3

D

Skip To My Lou, My

21 1 0

2

G

Dar ling

0 0

-


chord songs are going to consist of the I chord and the V chord. Since the I chord and the V chord share a note in common, there is a smooth transition between the I and the V. Chords that share a common tone are called common tone chords. The transition between common tone chords is relatively smooth due to the shared tone. If the tonality of a song melody remains happy and bright throughout and the 4th or 6th notes of the scale show up as stable melody notes (in the key of G, that would be the C note or the E note), then those notes are going to call for a IV chord to provide the harmony. In the key of G, it is the C chord. [You may note that diatonically the E note also appears in the Em and Am chords and the C note in the Am chord, however, those chords give a darker tonality to the progression.] While the relationship between the I and the V chord (tonic and dominant) is the strongest, the relationship between the I and the IV chord (tonic and subdominant) is the next strongest in line. In a two chord I-V-I progression there is a slight tension set up when the I chord moves to the V and then a resolution when the V moves back to the I. Many three chord songs follow the I-IV-V-I or the I-IV-I-V-I progression because:1) Shared Major Tonality: These are the only three diatonic chords that have a major tonality.2) Smooth Transition: The IV chord is a nice transition chord between the I and the V because it shares a note in common with the I chord.3) Step Transiton: The movement from the IV chord to the V chord works well because the root of the IV chord steps up to the next note in the scale (V). 4) Resolution: The V chord wants to naturally resolve to the I chord. Therefore, in I-VI, I-IV-V-I, or I-IV-I-V-I progressions in the key of G you have movement in the songs harmony as shown graphically in the next column on this page.

Adding to the I, IV, V Progression While most popular songs are written using the I, IV, V chord progression, there are times when a song composer wants to add a bit of flavor to the melody and harmony of a song he or she is writing. The first step in adding to the I, IV, V tone pallet is to use the diatonic minor chords, namely the ii, iii, vi, and vii. In the parlance of music theory the I, IV, and V chords are called primary chords and the ii, iii, vi, and vii

I - V - IG - D - G

DBG

Fifth:Third:Root:

AF#D

DBG

SmoothTransition

Resolution

I - IV - V - IG - C - D - G

DBG

Fifth:Third:Root:

GEC

AF#D

DBG

SmoothTransition

StepTransition

Resolution

I - IV - I - V - IG - C - G - D - G

DBG

Fifth:Third:Root:

GEC

AF#D

DBG

DBG

SmoothTransition

SmoothTransition

SmoothTransition

Resolution

chords are called secondary chords. Lets go ahead and take a look at all of those secondary chords and how you might improvise over them. An interesting thing to note is that for every major diatonic chord there is at least one minor diatonic chord that shares two of its notes. Chords that share two notes can be used as substitutes for each other because their tonal qualities are so similar. The diagram at the top of the next page shows all of the diatonic chords that share two notes in common. The information in this chart can be helpful in two ways. The first is when you are looking to spice up a given chord progression with chord substitutions. For instance, if a song melody is supported by a I-IV-V progression, but you want to add something different to give some variety to that progression, you can add a substitute chord in order to give a different texture to the harmony.


I - vim - IV - iim - vii - V - iiim - I

G - Em - C - Am - F# - D - Bm - G

DBG

Fifth:Third:Root:

GEC

AF#D

DBG

BGE

ECA

CAF#

F#DB

Substitute Chord Chart

Tim May executed this type of chord substitution on the old Flatt & Scruggs tune Gone Home that he recorded for the FGM Records project Flatpicking Bluegrass. Typically the chorus of that song starts on the IV chord for two bars. Tim played it that way the first time through the chorus. However, the second time he played the chorus he started on the ii chord for a bar before moving to the IV chord on the second bar. Since the IV chord and the ii chord share two notes in common, this was a logical chord substitution. In Volume 7 of this course we will take a deeper look at the theory and application of using chord substitutions in order to add texture to an existing chord progression. The second way this chart can be useful to you is when you are trying to figure out chord progressions that support a given melody line. Remember the chord ladder from Volume 2? Ive reproduced it above for the diatonic chords. If a song is in the key of G and starts with a G chord, but then the tonality of melody

turns minor, youll know from this chart that the minor is most likely going to be an Em because in sharing two notes with the G chord the move to an Em tonality is very smooth. Or, it could be an Am chord that is being substituted for the C chord. An interesting thing to note here is that the Em chord is to the right of the G chord on the chart at the top of the page and the E note is the sixth degree of the G scale. The Am note is to the right of the C chord on the chart and the A note is the sixth degree of the C scale. And, the Bm chord is the right of the D chord in the chart and the B note is the sixth degree of the D scale. The diatonic chord that is built from the sixth degree of any scale is called the relative minor chord and it is the fourth most common chord you will encounter in bluegrass, folk, blues, and rock songs (after the I, IV, and V chords). So, lets take a closer look at the relative minor chord.

iii

vi

ii or IV

V or viiI or vi

The Diatonic Chord Ladder

Bm

Em

Am or C

D or F#

G or Em

Tension

Resolution

Chord LadderChord Ladder

for Key of G

Em

Am

Dm or F

G or B

C or Am

Chord Ladderfor Key of C


I - vi - IV - V Progression in the Key of G: The 50s Cliche

TAB

1

G

3

3300 0

3300

Em

0

0002 2

0002

C

3

0102

3

0102

D

0

2320

0

2320

The Relative Minor When song and tune writers are composing and want to insert a feeling of sadness to a tune that is in a major key they will typically first turn to the six minor (vi) chord. The six minor is referred to as the relative minor because all of the notes in the six minor scale all relate to the notes of the major key. They are, in fact, the exact same notes. The chart on the top of the previous page showed us that in the key of G the G chord and its relative minor, Em, share two notes in common. So the transition from the G chord to the Em chord is smooth, but because of the flat third note in the Em chord the tonality gets dark. In bluegrass this bright-to-dark movement occurs most famously in the Earl Scruggs tune Foggy Mountain Breakdown. As we discussed earlier, many bluegrass songs and fiddle tunes use the six minor chord. Pop tunes of the 1950s and early 1960s also made use of this chord, so much so that the I-vi-IV-V-I progression is known as the 50s cliche progression. Songs like Earth Angel, In the Still of the Night, Please Mr. Postman, Stay, and many others, used this progression. Play through the progression shown above and see if it sounds familiar to you. Other popular bluegrass songs that use the six minor chord in various combinations with the I, IV, and V chord are songs like Rocky Top, and Big Spike Hammer. Regarding improvisation and the relative minor, you discovered in our Temperance Reel example on page 9 that since the notes of the relative minor scale are exactly the same as the major scale you can play the notes of the major scale starting on one of the chord tones of the relative minor and you will be safe. Furthermore, if you play the minor pentatonic scale of the relative minor over that chord you will never play a wrong note.

In Volume 5 you learned how to start to improvise using chord tones and scale notes by following a series of practice stages and working with a rhythm track. In this volume we are going to ask that you do that exact same thing with each of the new chord progressions that we present. At the top of the page 16 you will find a simple chord progression in G that includes the Em (vi) chord. You will also find a rhythm track on the audio CD that provides a rhythm bed for this progression. In the tab Ive simply given an example of how you might improvise over this progression using quarter notes. Youll remember that in the stages that were presented in Volume 5 you worked with root notes, then leading tones, then quarter notes, then eighth notes, then a mixture of quarter notes and eighth notes. Then you worked with some repeating patterns, then you worked to include different tones from the chord on the first beat of each measure. For each new chord progression that we present in this section of this volume, it would behoove you to go back through all of the steps that you practiced in Volume 5 when you worked with the I, IV, V progression (pages 55-76). Not only will this exercise help you to learn how to solo over these minor chords, but it will help solidify the minor tonality in your ear. So, take the progression shown on page 16 and work through all of the same stages that you work with in Volume 5. Once you have worked through all of the stages with this progression, try to work once again with Temperance Reel, and also play along with the rhythm track of Blackberry Blossom that we have provided on track 18 of Disc 1. Work to play a melody-based solo for section A of each of these songs, and then stretch out a bit on the B section and improvise freely over those Em chords.

Audio Track 1-06


Revisiting the Circle of Fifths Circle of Fifths

CG

D

A

E

BF#

C#

A

E

B

F

D

bb

bb

G b Cb

00a

1#

2#

3#

4#

5#6#

7#

12

3

45 6 7

bbb

b b b b

eb

f#

c#

g#a

d#e

a#bf

c

gd

b b b

5ths4ths

(Cycle of Fourths)

CG

D

AmEm

Bm

IVI

V

iivi

iii

The more you learn about music theory, the more you will learn to refer to the circle of fifths to help understand and remember the theory that you have learned. Lets briefly revisit the circle of fifths (also sometimes called the cycle of fourths) here so that we can point out a couple of other useful references that you can find in this chart. At right is a graphic of the circle of fifths as it was presented back in Volume 4. In addition to showing the progressive numbers of sharps and flats in any key and depicting intervals of perfect fifths moving in the clockwise direction (and perfect fourths moving in the counter-clockwise direction), most every graphic presentation of the circle of fifths will also include a presentation the relative minor chord that is associated with each root chord. In our diagram, at right, the relative minor is shown in the inner most circle. If you want to quickly know the relative minor of G, the circle graphic shows you that it is Em (e). For C, it is Am (a), for D it is Bm (b), etc. However, this is not the most useful part of having the relative minor associations on this chart. Because, really, if you want to figure out what the relative minor of the G chord is, you can simply count six steps up the scale and you have it. The circle of fifths is more useful when you want to look at the bigger picture. Earlier in this course we talked about how you could glance at the circle of fifths in order to quickly know what the I, IV, and V chords in any key might be. Youll remember that for any chord that you look at on the circle the chord

to its left will be the IV chord and the chord to its right will be its V chord. Well, if we add the relative minor chords to the mix (as shown below), you may notice that in looking at a small slice of the circle of fifths you are presented with every diatonic chord, with the exception of the vii. Weve studied the diatonic chords in the key of G (as shown below), but what if you want to quickly find the diatonic chords in the key of E? A quick glance at the circle of fifths will tell you that they are E, F#m, G#m, A, B, C#m, and D#!


I - vi - IV - V Progression in the Key of G: Filling in with Quarter Notes

TAB

1

G

32

02

02 0

3

Em

02

22

02 0

2

5

C

32

02

D

0 42

4

G

02 0

2

32

02

The Two Minor (ii) Chord After the vi, the next most common diatonic chord that you will encounter is the ii. Youll remember from our chord substitution chart that this chord is a good substitute for the IV chord. In fact, go ahead and play the 50s cliche progression at the top of page 14 but substitute the ii for the IV chord and youll recognize the tonality of this progression right away. If you shorten the changes so that you are changing chords every half measure and then play eighth note arpeggios over the chord changes, youll recognize this famous backup to the tune Heart and Soul (see the tab at the top of the next page). Many of the songs from the Doo-Wop era of rock and roll use this progression. The ii chord often precedes the V chord, giving us the ii-V-I sequence that is prevalent in jazz. (We will revisit that famous chord sequence later in this book, and in Volumes 7 and 8). Substituting the IV chord with the ii produces a smoother sound and thus many composers like the tonality. Play through a I-IV-V-I progression on your guitar and then play a I-ii-V-I progression and see if you can get a sense of the difference between the two. One of the reasons that the ii-V-I progression flows so well is because of the relationship between the ii and the V chord. Remember at the beginning of this section

we talked about the strong relationship between the I and the V chord? Well, the ii chord and the V chord have a very similar relationship because if you convert the V chord and make it the I chord, then the old ii chord is now the v chord, which has a vI relationship. It is not a strong as the VI relationship, but the pull is still there with the minor chord. When the five chord is major (V) it is referred to as the V of the V or V/V. If that doesnt make sense to you, lets look at a more concrete example. Lets say that we are in the key of G. The V chord in the key of G is D, the ii chord is Am. However, if we now look at the key of D, the D chord is the root chord and the A chord is the V. So, we can say that the A chord is the V of the V (D) in the key of G. Remember that previously we talked about how the V chord wants to resolve to the I? The II chord wants to move towards the V chord in the same way. The pull is not quite as strong when II is minor (ii), but it is still there. So, the V wants to resolve to the I and the ii wants to move towards the V in our ii-V-I progression . If you look at the progression shown for Heart and Soul at the top of the next page and analyze the sequence, we can take this concept one step farther in this vi-ii-V-I progression. The vi chord is the v of the ii chord (in this case the E note being the 5th

Audio Track 1-21


scale degree of the A scale). So here with a vi-ii-V-I progression you can see that the iv is the v of the ii, the ii, is the V of the V, and the V is, obviously, the V of the I. In the key of G, the E is the V of the A, the A is the V of the D, and the D is the V of the G. So the E chord is the V of the V of the V (or V/V/V)! All of this happens in a much stronger sense when you add dominant 7th chords to the mix. When we study 7th chords in the next section of this book we will revisit the V/V and V/V/V concept and talk about the idea of subdominant chords. If you are not already aware of this type of chord progression you may be amazed at how many songs, especially in swing or jazz, that follow this chord sequence. But, enough of that. Lets get back to talking about the ii chord. In terms of soloing over the ii chord there are a number ways that you can approach it. The first thing that you could do is simply play the G scale, but start it on one of the Am chord tones. If you start the G scale on the A note then you are playing in the Dorian mode. We briefly touched on modes earlier in this course and we specifically presented the Dorian mode on pages 12 and 13 of Volume 5. The A Dorian mode is defined by playing the notes of the G scale in sequence, but starting on the A note. The second thing you might think about when improvising over the ii chord is that the ii shares the exact same scale notes as the IV chord. For instance, in the key of G the ii is the Am chord and the IV is the C chord. Since Am is the relative minor in the key of C, we know that the notes of the C scale and the notes of the Am scale are exactly the same. Therefore, you could play the notes of the C scale over the Am chord in the key of G. The only note that would not be diatonic to the key of G is the F note. However, as you saw in Volume 5, we could solve that problem by

playing the C major pentatonic scale (which does not include the F note). When you worked with the Em scale earlier in this book you learned that the notes of the Em pentatonic scale were exactly the same as the G major pentatonic scale. In Volume 5 you worked with the C major pentatonic scale, so you should be familiar with it. By now you may have guessed that the notes of the A minor pentatonic scale and the C major pentatonic scale are exactly the same. So, when you are playing in the key of G and you play over an Am chord, you can play the notes of the C major pentatonic scale starting on the A note (which is exactly the same as playing the A minor pentatonic scale!). The song Fox on the Run, which was popularized by the Country Gentleman in bluegrass, uses the ii chord in the chorus. In that song the progression toggles back and forth between the ii and IV chord, like this:

I-V-ii-IV-ii-V-IV-I

The ii chord also shows up in the B part of the fiddle tune St. Annes Reel, which you learned in Volume 3 of this course. Additionally, the ii chord shows up in the fiddle tune Devils Dream. Although we have yet to present Devils Dream thus far in this course, you will find that an arrangement of Devils Dream is presented later in this volume. In the tab shown at the top of the next page we have presented a simple I-ii-V-I progression. This is the same basic progression that you worked with in Volume 5, however, Ive replaced the IV chord with the ii chord. This is a progression that was used by Neil Young for his song Out On The Weekend. [Authors Note: My distinguished co-author, Tim May, produced a recording for CMH Records a few years back titled

I - vi - ii - V Progression in the Key of G: Filling in with Eighth Note Arpeggios

TAB

1

G Em

32

02

02

22

Am D

02

22 0

23

2

G Em

32

02

02

22

Am D

02

22 0

23

2

Audio Track 1-22


TAB

1

G

30

00

30

00

2

Am

02

12

02

12

2

5

D

02

23

2

02

23

2

G

03

30

0

30

0

3

3300

I - ii - V - I Progression in the Key of G: Filling in with Chord Tones

The Bluegrass Tribute to Neil Young, which includes the tune Out On The Weekend. If you like Neil Youngs music, I highly recommend Tims tribute recording]. In the tab shown above I have filled in with chord tones. You should play through this progression along with the audio track provided (Disc 1, Track 9), working through all of the steps as outlined on pages 55 through 76 of Volume 5. After you have worked with the progression provided above, try to play the tune St. Annes Reel as shown on the next page. This is basically the version you learned in Volume 3, however, we are encouraging you to improvise over the B section using notes of the C scale. Give it a try, playing along with the track taken from Brad Davis Flatpick Jam (Disc 1, Track 19) before moving on. So far we have taken a look at chord progressions that include the I, ii, IV, V, and vi chords. Before we move on to take a look at the remaining diatonic chords, lets first examine all of the various ways that you might choose to think about making note choices for diatonic chords.

Note Choices for Diatonic Chords Before we proceed to look at the last two diatonic chords, lets first analyze the six different ways that you can look at consonant vs. dissonant note choices when

you are playing a solo over any diatonic chord changes. A consonant note choice is one that is resolved and stable. Conversely, dissonant means unresolved and unstable. Both consonance and dissonance are used to great effect in soloing, so one is not necessarily better than the other. It all depends on how you use them. To give you a better understanding of consonance and dissonance, here is a list of note choices that moves from the most consonant to the most dissonant:

1) Stable Melody Notes: Obviously, the most stable notes of any solo are going to be those stable melody notes that we worked with in Volume 2. If you are playing a solo to any song, the prominent melody notes are going to be the most stable notes in the solo because they define the song. As you learned in Volumes 2 and 3, the most stable melody notes are usually the notes that belong to the chord because the harmony in the chord is there to support the most prominent and stable notes in the melody. Which leads us to our next set of note choices.

2) Chord Tones: As we discussed in Volume 5, the most consonant note choices, outside of the melody notes, are the notes that belong to the chord that you are playing against. While the chord tones are not as stable as the exact melody notes, playing any chord

Audio Track 1-23


St. Annes Reel Basic Melody Outline with holes for Improvisation

&

TAB

44 ..

.

.

1

1 3

C

0 0 1 03 1

2

02 2

0

F

23 3 2 3

C

0 2 03

01 3

& ..

.

.

6

0 0 1 03 1

2

02 2

0

F G

2 21 0 0 3

C

1 1 1 1 1 3

2 C

21 1 1 1

3 1

& ..

.

.

11 C Dm G C

& ..

.

.

15 C Dm G C

3 1 13 1

2 C

23 1 1

1

1

1

1

improvise - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

improvise - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Play Along with Audio Track 1-19


tone against a chord will still have a consonant tonality. You practiced improvising using chord tones in Volume 5.

3) Major Pentatonic Notes: The next set of consonant notes are those that are found in the pentatonic scales (either major or minor depending on the chord you are playing over). You worked with both the major and minor pentatonic notes in Volume 5, and then you worked with playing the notes of the minor pentatonic scale over a diatonic minor chord earlier in this book, so you should have some familiarity with them.

4) Modes: The fourth set of notes that you can choose from are the seven notes that are found in the major scale of the key. Five of these notes (major pentatonic) are going to be fairly consonant, however, as we discussed in Volume 5, the 4th scale degree and the 7th scale degree for the major chords and the 2nd scale degree and the 6th scale degree for the minor chords are going to be a bit dissonant as they are a half step away from one of the chord tones. One thing to remember when we talk about consonance and dissonance is that while consonant notes are the most stable, that does not mean the dissonant notes should be avoided at all cost. Dissonant notes do serve a very useful function as they can help provide the important quality of tension and release to your solos. You have already worked with one example of using a dissonant tone when you played the leading tone of the major scale (7th scale degree) to help lead the listeners ear to a chord change in Volume 1. We will study tension and release more thoroughly later in this book. When you choose to play notes that are in the scale of the key, but play them over a chord that is not the key center (root chord), the choice involves modes. You

were briefly introduced to modes in Volume 5 when we took a look at minor scales in the front of that book. A study of the various uses of modes, especially in jazz, is a very deep subject. We will introduce modes here, but we are not going to need to dive in too deep. For the time being there are only two things that you need to know about modes in order to begin to understand their most basic use. First, youll need to know how they are built and then youll need to know what they are in the context of the key and scale of the key.

How Modes Are Built: Modes are built using the notes of a major scale, but each mode starts on a different scale degree. If you look at the chart at the top of this page you can see that the notes of each of the seven modes are the exact notes of the G scale, but each mode starts on a different degree of the G scale. Each of these modes maintains the structure of the G scale, however, the tonal emphasis is placed on a different root note. The use of modes can be confusing, but for now we can simplify and just say that if you are in the key of G and the chord progression moves to the D chord, for example, and you start your solo on a D note and use only the notes of the G scale, then you are using the D mixolydian mode. The type of modes that we are dealing with here are called Greek modes, church modes, or jazz modes. These type of modes are not the same as the major modes or minor modes that are used to describe the tonality of a song. The seven Greek modes that relate to the key of G are shown in the table on the top of the page. Using the information in this chart you will know that if you are playing over an Am chord and using the notes of the G scale, then you are playing in the A Dorian mode. If you are playing over a C chord, but using the notes of the G scale, then

C C D E F# G A B Lydian

G G A B C D E F# Ionian

D D E F# G A B C Mixolydian

Am A B C D E F# G Dorian

Em E F# G A B C D Aeolian

Bm B C D E F# G A Phrygian

F# F# G A B C D E Locrian

Triad 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mode

G Scale Modes


you are playing in the C Lydian mode, etc. Do you have to know what mode you are playing? Do you have to know all of your modes? Do you have to practice modes? Not necessarily. It is always good to practice a variety of exercises on the guitar to help your fingers and ears gain familiarity, so if you want to run through the notes of the Dorian mode in any key, that is fine and it might be a good exercise to help you familiarize yourself with the tonal qualities of this mode. However, as long as you know that when you are in the key of G and hit an Am chord (for example)and you want to play notes that are consonant to the keyyou can chose to play the notes of the G major scale. You dont really need to know that you are playing the A Dorian mode. Simply play the G scale notes over the Am chord.

What Are Modes? Now that you have an idea about how modes are constructed, lets define modes a little more clearly. In Western music scales and chords are related in two ways. There is the relationship that they have with each other, and then there is the relationship that they have with the key, or tonal center, of the song. When you are playing a song in the key of G, the tonal center of the songs melody revolves around the G scale. When stable melody notes appear, that are notes from the G chord, then the harmony is built on the G chord. When this situation occurs, the root of the chord and the tonal center of the key are the same and the tone center remains very clearly defined. However, if the stable notes of the melody move away from the chord tones of the G chord, then the harmony changes in order to support those melody notes. For instance, if you are playing a song in the key of G and the stable melody notes of F# or A ariseand the tonality of the song

C C D E F G A B C Major

G G A B C D E F# G Major

D D E F# G A B C# D Major

Am A B C D E F G A minor

Em E F# G A B C D E minor

Bm B C# D E F# G A B minor

F# F# G A B C D E Locrian

Triad 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Scale

The Diatonic Chords in the Key of G with Corresponding Scales

remains bright and happythe harmony that supports those notes are going to be found in the D chord, and thus the chord progression changes to a D chord. As you know from studying diatonic chords, the harmony that is built on the D note includes notes that are in the G scale. In other words, what happens when the chord changes to D in the key of G is that the tonal center of the melody and harmony is shifted to the D note without the overall tonality of the melody moving away from the structure of the G major scale. Thus the song remains in the key of G. So, while the melody is still revolving around the tonal center of the key (G), the tonal center of the harmony is based on the D note. What all this means is that while the notes of the G major scale are still at the tonal center of the melody, the tonality that receives the most emphasis, for the time being, is found in the D chord. When we temporarily shift the tonal emphasis of the song, but still maintain the songs overall tonality and structure (G major scale), you have created a mode of that major scale. In much simpler terms, if you are playing the notes of a major scale (the scale notes of the key) over a chord that is not the root chord, then you are using a mode. In our example we were playing the notes of the G scale over the D chord and thus we were using the D mixolydian mode. This is just one way to define and use modes. We will dive a little bit deeper into the world of modes later in this course. As mentioned previously, there are a lot of different uses for modes, especially in jazz music. The usage that is described above is called the key center approach. Really studying and thinking about modes, in the key center application that is presented here, is not necessary when you are playing songs that have chords


that change every few measures. A more serious study of modes, and the sub-melodies that can be built on modes, becomes more important when you are playing songs that stay on a particular chord for a longer period of time. Lets move on.

5) Notes From the Minor Pentatonic Scale: The next set of notes to chose from are the five notes of the minor pentatonic scale of the key. You worked with this scale extensively in Volume 5. This is the first scale that weve encountered that uses notes outside of the scale of the key, and so we are adding some dissonance here. We are adding the Bb note and the F note to our note choice pallet. Although we are going to think about adding the F note as a part of the G minor pentatonic scale, you may recognize that this note is also the only note that is part of the C scale that is not in the G scale. In Volume 5 we worked with switching our way of thinking away from the scale of the key to the major pentatonic scale of the chord. If you were to think about using the whole scale of the chord, instead of just the major pentatonic scale, that would move you one step farther away from consonance (because youd be adding that flat seven scale degreethe F note in the C scale). The concept here could be that when each chord changed, you switched your way of thinking about your note choices from the notes of the key to the notes of the scale of the new chord. That could be a viable way of thinking when you are considering adding some dissonance. When adding that F note over the key of G, we like to think about adding it in the context of the minor pentatonic scale instead of the C scale. But you are free to think about it either way.

You can see by the chart shown at the bottom of the previous page that for every scale that you might play over any given chord that is diatonic to the G scale there is, at most, one note that doesnt belong to the key. If you look at the Am scale, youll see that the only note in that scale that is not in the G scale is the F note. The same is true for the C scale. For the Bm scale, the only note that is not in the G scale is the C# note, the same holds true for the D scale. The Em scale is exactly the same as the G scale. The scale that is associated with the F#dim chordthe Locrian mode scaleis also exactly the same as the G scale. So, out of all of the scales that are built around diatonic chords in the key of G, there are only two notes that are not in the G scale: the F note (in the C and Am scales), and the C# note (in the D and Bm scales). Even though one of the notes in these four scales is going to be outside of the diatonic scale tones, there are only those two notes to worry about, and if those notes are used as passing tone

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