GuitArchitect’s Guide To Modes Part 11 – Geting Into Modal Arpeggios – 7th chords

Posted on March 17, 2012 by GuitArchitecture

Hello everyone!!

In the previous modal arpeggio lesson, I covered how to visualize triads from 3-note per string patterns. In this post, I’m going to apply the same concept to 7th chords. If you haven’t checked out part 10 of the series, you may want to review the approach before moving on.

Major Scale Harmonization

Any major scale is made up of the following triads and 7th chords based on scale degree.

Related to the key of C major, this breaks down into:

Triads: C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor and B diminished.

7th chords: C major 7, D minor 7, E minor 7, F major 7, G7, A minor 7 and B minor 7b5

This means that there are 4 unique qualities of 7th chords for a major scale:

major 7 (C major 7 and F major 7 in the key of C)

minor 7 (D minor 7, E minor 7 and A minor 7 in the key of C)

dominant 7 (or 7) (G7 in the key of C)

minor 7 b5 (B min7b5 in the key of C)

Played as 2-string fingerings there are 4 possible inversions of each arpeggio.

To see how these shapes relate to the modes, let’s look at an ascending C major scale on the B and E strings:

Previously, we extracted every other note to reveal the triads related to each 6-note shape.

This time, we’ll remove the 3rd and the 5th note from each shape. This will create a 7th chord arpeggio in the 3rd inversion (i.e. starting from the 7th).

Here it is written as 16th notes:

Chord sequence Dm7-Em7-Fmaj7-G7-Am7-Bm7b5-Cmaj7

While the approach I’ll demonstrate will work with any inversion, all the examples here will utilize the 3rd inversion.

The first important visualization with each form is that the 2nd note of each arpeggio in this lesson is acting as the root.

Step one: Using the patterns diagonally

As I mentioned in the previous arpeggio post, a distinct advantage of 2-string patterns is that you can move them in octaves and maintain the same fingering. Here’s a C major 7 arpeggio moved in octaves on the middle and top set of strings.

Michael Angelo Batio was the first rock guy I saw playing this type of pattern in a shred context but now the sound of it is pretty common rock/metal vocabulary. This idea will get covered more in part 12 of this series, but to make it sound a little cooler, instead of playing it over a C major chord – try playing the above arpeggio over an A minor chord:

when C major 7 (C, E, G, B) is played over A the notes act as (b3rd, 5th, b7th and 9th) or A minor 9 (no root)

Step 2: Putting it together positionally

At the top of the page, I showed how I extracted arpeggios by eliminating the 3rd and 5th note from an ascending 3-note per string pattern. This same process can also be applied positionally. For example, here’s a 3-note per string C major scale played in 8th position.

Now I’ll apply each of these arpeggio shapes to the C major scale starting with the root position. Notice that the 6-string shape links together a D minor 7, C Major 7, and a B minor 7b5 into one big arpeggio.

: .

To visualize the arpeggios across 6 strings just remember:

as the pitches ascend, the related arpeggios descend (and vice versa)!

Also remember that the 2nd note of the arpreggio acts as the root, so if you want the C major 7 arpeggio on the low E string

you’ll extract it from B Locrian.

The pattern creates a different flavor of modal arpeggio than the triadic version in part 10 of the guide. Where the triadic version moves in diatonic thirds, this pattern keeps a diatonic 2nd between each 7th chord arpeggio. Here are all of the positional arpeggios of the C major scale derived this way:

Big Picture Alert!!

Since all of the notes of the C major scale are presented in the linked arpeggios, you could technically play this over any diatonic 7th chord in C major if you resolved it properly. As a recap of the modal microscope lesson, I tend to view things from a parent scale perspective so:

If you play any of these patterns over a C major 7 chord – you’ll imply a C Ionian sound

If you play any of these patterns over a D minor 7 chord – you’ll imply a D Dorian sound

If you play any of these patterns over an E minor 7 chord – you’ll imply an E Phrygian sound

If you play any of these patterns over a F major 7 chord – you’ll imply a F Lydian sound

If you play any of these patterns over a G7 chord – you’ll imply a G Mixolydian sound

If you play any of these patterns over an A minor 7 chord – you’ll imply an A Aeolian sound and

If you play any of these patterns over a B minor 7b5 chord – you’ll imply a B Locrian sound

Now I’ll apply each of these arpeggio shapes to the C major scale. Feel free to try these over any of the chords listed above (although you may want to read the note about “The Problem with Ionian” below if you’re playing any of them over C major 7). I’m partial to playing them over D minor 7 or D minor 9 depending on which note I’m starting or ending on.

The “trouble” with Ionian

The “problem” with the Ionian mode in general is that the natural 4th is an avoid tone over major 7th chords with the same root. (i.e. C Ionian played over C maj7). For this reason, I generally avoid Ionian as a mode and instead focus on the major scale for visualization purposes. If I were to use this approach over a C major 7 chord, I would probably be more likely to go with a Parent Major scale of G major for a C Lydian sound (i.e. change the “F” in each pattern to “F#”).

Step 3 – Adaptation

While I dig these arpeggios as is – I tend to use them as visualization tools.

You may notice that these arpeggios are all 2-note per string.

Just like a “box” position pentatonic scale….

“Hey”, you might be thinking, “what if you adapted all of those pentatonic variations and sequences that you worked out to these arpeggios?”

Good Idea!!!

As a starting point, I’m partial to playing this form over D minor as it already has some of the step-wise shapes I associate with pentatonics:

so I’ll use it for the examples below. In the first one, I’m applying a descending group of threes to a pattern. (This also works ascending as well).

A big thing I work on with pentatonics is string skipping. Here, I’ve adapted an idea to the linked arpeggios.

Here’s a cool variation on this lick – replace the 8th fret “G” on the B string with an “A” to match the major 3rd interval on the G string. Once you can visualize a lick making variations like this is relatively easy (and it sounds cool!!)

From there it’s easy to mix and match things, Now that you see the pattern it comes from, the lick below just removes the F to create a different arpeggio shape. It starts off as C major 9 but links into a D minor shape to create a D minor 13 sound followed by some string skipping. Grab your guitar and give it a whirl!

The key with any approach like this is to keep it simple. Mind you, some of these ideas might not sound simple, but the approach really comes from mastering the 2-string visualization idea, and then usurping it in cool ways! Try coming up with your own variations!

Extra Credit!!

Like I said before, while I’m sure that they’re out there, I don’t know any other guitarist who approaches fingering modal apreggios with the interlocking 7th chords, but if these shapes are already familiar to you or if you’re looking to expand outside of this tonality, I have a few small tweaks that have BIG implications.

Lowering the E –> Eb in any of the C major patterns above will give you all of the Melodic Minor 7th chord linked arpeggios.

Lowering the E–> Eb and lowering the A –> Ab in any of the C major patterns above will give you all of the Harmonic Minor 7th chord linked arpeggios.

In other words, “Thar’s gold in them thar’ hills!!” If you put some time into working with these ideas methodically, I’m sure you’ll get some unique approaches under your belt that’ll pay dividends (even if they don’t get you a tab at the general store).

Part 12 gets into superimposition. It’ll be short, sweet and really cool!

I hope this helps!

-SC

GuitArchitect’s Guide to Modes Part 10 – Getting into Modal Arpeggios – Triads

Posted on February 27, 2012 by GuitArchitecture

Hello everyone!!

I’ll be delving into individual modes in more depth in the coming weeks and months ahead but as a preliminary step, I wanted to get into modal arpeggios a bit as they’ll be important components in future lessons.

Scales = Chords

Since chords and scales are made up of the building blocks (notes), they are essentially 2 sides of the same coin.

For example, let’s look at an ascending C major scale on the B and E strings:

If we remove every other note of the first for notes we can see arpeggiated versions of the triads associated with those modes.

While 2-string arpeggios are often neglected by guitarists, they are certainly worth investigating for helping with visualization.

2-String Triadic Visualization

The major scale is made up of three types of triads: major, minor and diminished. Played as unique notes, any triad has three typical voicings:

Root position with the root as the bass note: (i.e. Root, 3rd, 5th)

1st inversion with the 3rd as the bass note: (i.e. 3rd, 5th, Root)

2nd inversion with the 5th as the bass note: (i.e. 5th, Root, 3rd)

Here are some sample fingerings of each of the chord types played as 2-string arpeggios in each inversion:

2-string Major Scale Triads

Now I’ll apply each of these arpeggio shapes to the C major scale starting with the root position.

As a reminder here are the triads of the C major scale.

Since the fingerings are on 2-strings, they’ll be the same on the E/A, D/G and B/e strings.

Here are the arpeggios in 1st inversion. Again, since the fingerings are on 2-strings, they’ll be the same on the E/A and B/e strings as well.

C major scale triads in 1st inversion ascending by scale degree

And finally, here are the arpeggios in 2nd inversion.

Putting it together positionally

At the top of the page, I showed how I extracted arpeggios from ascending 2 string patterns. This same process can be applied positionally. For example, here’s a 3-note per string C major scale played in 8th position.

Now I’ll apply each of these arpeggio shapes to the C major scale starting with the root position. To create a modal arpeggio, simply remove every other note. Doing so with this scale creates a C Ionian modal arpeggio.

Modal arpeggios are sonically cool because they convey the full sound of the mode but break it out of a scalar pattern.

Modal arpeggios are cool in this method, because if you can visualize a scale then making the arpeggio is relatively easy.

The trouble with Ionian

With that in mind, here ‘s another approach for using this arpeggio.

I really dig playing this particular arpeggio over D minor – to create a D Dorian type of sound. In the example below, I’ve used the C and the E pitches on the low E string to encircle the D (one note above and one below) to help emphasize the D minor 13 sound of the arpeggio and end it on the 9th.

The final visualization trick

If we look at the positional arpeggio again:

Take a close look at the positional modal arpeggio! If you look at it as a group of 3-note shapes you’ll see that it’s actually made of of 3 triadic arpeggios: C Major, B diminished and A minor.

C Ionian = C maj + B dim + A min

Going back to the 2-string scalar observation in part 3 of this post, as the pitches ascend, the related arpeggios descend. This is true of any of the modal arpeggios – so it might be a cool way for you to visualize it! Try it with your own arpeggio forms!

In the next post, I’ll go through 7th chord arpeggios. In the meantime, try practicing the 2-string arpeggios over all of the chords of the C major scale:

C maj 7
D min 7
E min 7
F maj 7
G7
A min 7
B min7 b5

and then over whatever other tonal centers inspire youI hope this helps! As always, thanks for reading!

-SC

PS – if you like this post, you may also like:

Books:

Lessons

The GuitArchitect’s Guide To Modes Part 9 – Visualizing Melodic and Harmonic Minor

Posted on February 4, 2012 by GuitArchitecture

A while ago, I had posted that given an hour, I could get almost anyone at an intermediate level to visualize any of the Major, Melodic Minor or Harmonic Minor modes anywhere on the guitar. In this overdue return to the serialization of the guide to modes book – I guess this is my put up or shut up moment. ; ) Since this is print as a pixel based medium – I’m going to cover it in a lot more detail than I might normally in, say a 1/2 hour lesson.

As a precursor, all of the information here works off of the 2-string (3 note-per string) pattern visualization method that I’ve covered in parts 3a and 3b of this series, if any of the initial shapes (or connecting ideas) in this post seem confusing, just go back and review the following:

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 3B – Seeing The Six-String Major Scale

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 3A – Seeing The Six-String Major Scale

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 2 – Seeing The Two String Major Scale

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 1 – Seeing The Single String Major Scale

A Pedagogical note (taken from part 2)

Since the initial emphasis of this lesson series is on sonic visualization and making sense out of 2-string and positional fingerings, I’m only dealing with visualizing parent scales (Major, Melodic Minor or Harmonic Minor in this case) as a whole here.

While modes are always associated with a chord or a chord progression, I’m limiting harmonic options only to C Major/Melodic Minor/Harmonic Minor for now.

Extremely important elements in this process, such as harmony, modal interchange, arpeggios, individual modes and actual music making are the topics for other posts. Having said that, it is important to state again, that modes (or any scale), in and of themselves, are not music but are only a tool in making music. Anything I post here should always be filtered through your own aesthetic and utilized, adapted or even ignored accordingly (i.e. take what works for you).

With that in mind here’s a review of much of the information as it relates to C major. For the Melodic and Harmonic minor shapes – just skip down to the next section.

Major Scale/Modal Visualization Review

The guitar fingerboard can be divided into 3 sets of two strings. Any 2-string fingering pattern that starts on the B string can be moved to the same starting pitch on the D or the low E string and keep the same fingering.

The major scale can be broken down into seven two-string modes that follow a specific order based on its scale degree from the parent scale (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian). The two-string patterns are modular and can be adapted to positional playing (see rules above).

The modular 2 string modal shapes I use look like this (The numbers represent fingers).

Here’s a C major scale played on only the B and E strings:

Comparing the initial shapes to the ascending pattern, the positional patterns can be broken down into the seven 2-string modal fingerings that ascend in sequential order (i.e. C Ionian, D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian, A Aeolian and B Locrian).

Since the two-string patterns are modular they can also be adapted to positional playing. So if we look at a C Major scale played in the 8th position and starting from C:

This 6-string fingering can be seen as containing three distinct patterns:

Two-string sets of C Ionian

Here are the important things you need to know for visualizing this:

As the fingering pattern ascends across the strings,

the six note modal fingerings descend to the next modal pattern.

Like wise, as the fingering pattern descends across the strings,

the six-note modal fingerings ascend to the next modal pattern.

This is true of any 2-string pattern.

Adapting Major shapes to create Melodic and Harmonic Minor fingerings

I’ve talked before about the modal microscope and seeing things on the parent major level. The advantage of this comes into play right here. First, let’s take another look at a C major scale played in the 8th position again:

Here’s the audio.

Note:

In all the audio examples, I’ve played the example first as sextuplets – then at a slower tempo (i.e. 16ths) – then as sextuplets again.

Each mode is associated with chords as well. Here’s a chart of the triad and 7th chords for C Major:

In all of the chord examples below, I’ve taken sample diatonic 7th chord shapes for the E, D, G and B strings with the roots on the low E string. These are certainly not the only way to play these chords, but if you’re not familiar with the voicings they’re not a bad place to start. Also, while I’ve notated each chord as a 1/4 note, I’ve held each chord for 2 bar lengths (i.e. 8 beats) to be able to play the scale patterns against.

Also, distortion tends to wash out chords with larger voicings, so for all the examples in this exercise, I’ve used a clean setting courtesy of Scuffham Amps.

Melodic Minor

To visualize Melodic Minor Patterns – simply flat the 3rd of the Parent Major scale.

(i.e. to visualize C Melodic Minor just play C major but change every E to Eb).

It’s important to note that all of the fingering conventions mentioned here are solely to assist with visualization. Melodic and Harmonic Minor really aren’t directly related to the Major scale sonically.

Melodic Minor short cuts:

Using the Parent Major patterns above here’s a list of short cut’s to help you visualize the patterns.

Note: in the F Lydian shape – there’s no change from the major shape since there’s no Eb in the 2-string pattern.

Here’s the initial melodic pattern with the modified major fingerings written above the 2-string shapes:

Here are the diatonic triads and 7th chords.

Try playing the initial C Melodic Minor shape over any of these chords..

Harmonic Minor

To visualize Harmonic Minor Patterns – simply flat the 3rd and the 6th of the Parent Major scale.

(i.e. to visualize C Harmonic Minor just play C major but change every E to Eb and every A to Ab).

Here are the pattern adaptations. In a situation like this, it can get confusing to remember a formula like “Dorian b2, b5” so as an alternative you may just want to try remembering something like “Pattern 1” for Ionian b3, b6, “Pattern 2” for Dorian b2, b5, etc.

Here’s the same scale pattern – I left off Pattern 6 by mistake but the sequence is Ionian b3, b6 (Pattern 1 ), Locrian b4 (Pattern 7) and Ionian b5, bRoot (Pattern 6). You can really see this if you compare it to the initial major patterns.

Here are the diatonic triads and 7th chords:

Try playing the initial C Harmonic Minor shape over any of these chords…

Performance Notes:

This whole process just a short cut for a visualization process to see C Major/Melodic Minor/Harmonic Minor on the fingerboard. In parts 3a and 3b of this series, I’ve provided every C major positional fingering. As a first step, you should consider adapting each of those fingerings to Melodic and Harmonic Minor. After you get the shapes under your fingers, try moving them to other keys as well.

In addition to using a time keeping device of some kind (like a metronome, drum loop, etc) playing along to a chord or a bass note will help establish tonality and help associate each pattern with a sound). I’ll get more into application in further lessons, but for now try playing the patterns over any of the bass notes or chords in the mp3s and once you get familiar with the chord shapes, try writing tunes or solos with the material.

Technical Notes:

While it’s natural to want to progress quickly, trying to play too quickly too soon results in excess hand tension which will increase the difficulty of what you’re trying to play. Fluidity comes from focused, relaxed repetition.

Fretting hand: When playing these patterns, practice using just the fingertip to fret the notes and use the minimum amount of tension needed for the note to sound cleanly. Additionally, try to keep the fingers down on the strings when playing and remove them from the string only when necessary.

Picking Hand: Try using the above picking pattern on the top two strings or alternate picking.

Practice the scale ascending and descending and really focus on clarity of notes, hand tension and timing. Even many intermediate to advanced players can gain something by really focusing on making clean transitions between the fingering shapes.

Isolate problem areas and work out. You’re not going to be able to play the sequence cleanly if any of the individual components aren’t 100%. This isn’t a bad thing. Things you develop over time are more likely to stay with you (and thus be accessible when you’re improvising).

Musical:

Making music from the patterns is a whole other skill set, but you need to know where to put your fingers on the strings while you bend, slide and phrase your way into making music. Having said that, since the visualization process doesn’t take that long, as soon as you get the shapes down I’d recommend to start manipulating them to try to make them more musical to your ear. See Part 2 of this series for more specifics or the making music out of scales post for some suggestions for how to do this.

Like I said before, I’ll be going deeper into using these scales (and using them in other harmonic contexts) in future posts. With any lesson material, I recommend you just go through the lesson at your own pace and return as you need to. Please feel free to post any questions you might have (or pm me at guitar.blueprint@gmail.com).

I hope this helps. As always, thanks for reading!

-SC

P.S. If you like this post – you may also like:

.

Practicing: