name that chord : the open guitar strings

People often wonder (and ask me, and I used to ponder) whether strumming the open guitar strings produces a chord. The short answer is yes: really, any conglomeration of tones is a chord. But since words are highly equivocal the question is usually meant as does strumming the open guitar strings produce a familiar triadic chord? The answer is still yes (more or less).

Before ever analyzing a chord and attempting to name it we should keep in mind that context has everything to do with how a chord is named (because chords may have harmonic functions, such as in the famed II-V-I progression). Consider this analogy: what does LIVE mean? You really can't answer the question (unless you want to give every possible answer) until you see/hear the word in a sentence.

She really knows how to live.
I went to a live concert last night.

In the first sentence we have a verb (a complimentary infinitive as a matter of fact); in the second an adjective.

So we must keep this in mind when wondering about what a given harmonic structure might be named.

So here's the chord in question, the open strings of the guitar...

(By the way, if you're unfamiliar with guitar notation these pitches sound an octave lower than written -- just like a tenor clef. I say this because you don't want to try to tune a guitar to these actual pitches unless you'd like to break your strings.)

There are 2 easy ways to analyze this chord completely out of context.

If it occurred in a tonal harmonic situation we could call it an E minor 7 add 11. We have all the notes of an E minor 7th: e, g, b, d as well as an a which is either the 4th or the 11th. Since 4s are usually sus let's just call this an add 11 -- that is we're viewing it as an extension of the triad. If there were an f# in the chord -- the 9th -- it would simply be an Eminor11. Another reason that this chord is e-ish is because there are 2 es. Nevertheless we don't have a context, and it isn't completely out of the question that the chord is not a G major (g, b, d) with an added 6 and 9 (e and a respectively) over an e.

But this chord is also even easier to analyze if we consider it as a quartal chord -- i.e. a chord built out of the interval of a perfect fourth (as opposed to thirds). In this case the lowest note (e, also the highest tone in the structure) is not the root. If we re-arrange the tones (and delete any repeats -- this is an abstraction for analysis) we can order them as: b, e, a, d, g -- five tones all a perfect 4th away from one another. When this chord shows up in the beginning of (say) Ginastera's Guitar Sonata it's probably best to assume that it's quartal and not triadic -- although other possibilities abound

Lastly (for our purposes) this could be part of a set of tones, for instance it could be a structure in a 12-tone piece (though with a duplication of a pitch class). In any situation like this it wouldn't get a name at all: it would simply be described numerically, such as (from low to high):
4 9 2 7 11 4. (This really depends upon what the reference pitch is: I've made C = 0 here, but it wouldn't have to be at all).

No matter what you call or how you describe it the chord sounds good...use it!

professor edwardo avarado

This actually ties in with the whole space age pop/exotica thing. You won't have to take the subway here in NYC too often to run into this guy: Professor Edwardo Alvarado (name taken from his banner). The clip is from Union Square, but I've seen him most often at 34th street and yesterday at Times Square (on the platform above the 7-train). I dig it but dude be creepy: or at least his act. Something about dolls gyrating about all on their seemingly own that is a little disquieting. But a memorable act nonetheless.



I came across the clip at this plog. But in youtube search for Professor Alvarado: he has many admirers!

tetrachords ii

So here's a little more concerning tetrachords. So far we've accrued 3 different tetrachords (with notes starting on C for analysis):

major tetrachord (C D E F)
minor tetrachord (C D Eb F)
phrygian tetrachord (C Db Eb F)

And we've been able to put those together as a pair to form a scale/mode in 9 different ways:

Major Scale (maj tet + maj tet)
Mixolydian (maj tet + min tet)
Dorian (min tet + min tet)
Phrygian (phryg tet + phryg tet)
Aeolian (min tet + phryg tet)
Melodic Minor (min tet + maj tet)
Neapolitan Major (phryg tet + maj tet)
Dorian b2 (phryg tet + min tet)
Mixolydian b6 (maj tet + phryg tet)

If we add just one more tetrachord we'll be able to up our total to 16 different scales. So let's add one which we'll call the harmonic tetrachord. It's the upper tetrachord of the harmonic minor scale, and looks like this taken out of a C harmonic minor context:
So with this tetrachord we can add the following scales to our syllabus:

Harmonic Minor (min tet + harm tet)
Harmonic Major (maj tet + harm tet)
Double Harmonic (harm tet + harm tet)
Neapolitan Minor (phryg tet + harm tet)
Ionian b2 (harm tet + maj tet)^FN1
Mixolydian b2 (harm tet + min tet) [mode v of harmonic major]
Phrygian Dominant (harm tet + phryg tet) [mode v of harmonic minor]


Next time? One more tetrachord...

----------

1. This is a very rare mode and I haven't yet been able to locate it in a scale syllabus -- in fact the Ionian b2 name is just one I gave it as it is purely descriptive.

let's make a deal...

OK, so your band gets its first gig. You tell all your friends and hopefully get a lot of bodies to show up when you play. But here's the thing: what if you want to keep your performing chops up and you want to go out every week and play? All those friends who showed up to your first gig may not (probably won't) show up at every gig if the frequency is weekly or bi-weekly. Maybe monthly. Maybe.

Whether you're "good" or not has no bearing on a club's interest in you. If you can bring people through the door then you count. You'll be asked back, etc.

That's fair, I do suppose. Consider the following: a great band (let's just stipulate that it's great, however you would measure it) shows up to a club with absolutely NO audience. A mediocre band shows up and brings in some people. The first band just seems lazy. Honestly, if they're not interested or if they're simply incapable of bringing a crowd then why should anyone else care to do so for them? It's not an irrational position.

Having said that, however, it does seem that the same standard should apply to clubs themselves. They obviously have more leverage, but the principle is the same: if they're not interested in promoting themselves all the time why should anyone else do it? It seems that certain clubs (not all) have simply shirked their responsibility upon the bands that they "hire". These are the venues that are going to be empty if no band shows up. Again, why would anyone want to help them do what they don't want to do?

So I say let's make a deal: both parties involved should really, really make a commitment to bringing in the most people possible. Bands then get to play in front of people and clubs get to sell more drinks, food, whatever. Totally win-win.

tetrachords i

I mentioned tetrachords in passing before. Tetra in Greek means four, and chordos means string, but as in a lyre (or harp) string, so we can also read this as note. We won't go into Greek music theory here (where the 2 outside parts of the tetrachord were constant while the middle two changed): suffice to say that a tetrachord is 4 contiguous notes. I'd say it's a perfect 4th, but we're going to use the tetrachord as a way of analyzing parts of modes/scales, and in the instance of the Lydian mode (say) it's an augmented 4th.

A major scale (or any 7-note scale) can be seen as 2 disjunct (not overlapping) tetrachords:

In this case both tetrachords are a P4 in span, and are exactly the same in terms of intervals:
W, W, H, or M2, M2, m2. Let's call this the major tetrachord.
A major scale therefore = major tetrachord + major tetrachord.

If we examine a melodic minor scale we see these 2 tetrachords:

These tetrachords are different: the lower one is M2, m2, M2. Let's call this the minor tetrachord. The upper tetrachord is the same as in the major scale. So we can say that a melodic minor scale is a minor tetrachord + major tetrachord.

If we stick with just these 2 types of tetrachords let's see what other combinations we can can come up with.

Try a minor tetrachord + minor tetrachord:
Look familiar? This is the Dorian mode.


How about a major tetrachord + minor tetrachord:
This is the Mixolydian mode.

Let's look at one more scale today: the natural minor/aeolian.
Here the lower tetrachord is the familiar minor tetrachord but the upper one is different. Based on the Phrygian mode (with it's lowered 2nd and 3rd) let's call this the phrygian tetrachord.
So a natural minor/aeolian scale is a minor tetrachord + phrygian tetrachord.

In fact the Phrygian mode can be seen as 2 phrygian tetrachords:

By adding this third type of tetrachord let's see what scales we can generate. Play these so that you can hear them:

major tetrachord + phrygian tetrachord = Mixolydian b6 (mode V of a melodic minor scale).

phrygian tetrachord + major tetrachord = Neapolitan Major

phrygian tetrachord + minor tetrachord = Dorian b2 (mode II of a melodic minor scale).

So from just 3 different tetrachords we've been able to come up with 9 different modes. In fact I discussed this with a physicist friend of mine who informed me that the formula for determining how n objects can be arranged into a pair is simply n². We could, therefore, arrange 6 different tetrachords into 36 different scales!

I bring up tetrachords because since they're small they're easier to deal with conceptually. Also, at least for guitarists a tetrachord is easy to finger, and therefore it's easy to string them together. Try playing a major tetrachord starting on C then play a major tetrachord starting on G: you get the major scale (as above) and it's super easy to play.

Next tetrachord session we'll look at the Harmonic Minor and Lydian modes to see what tetrachords they possess and what we can generate then with all of our various tetrachords.

soul of the machine

I bought this cd back in 1987 and at the time, being a through-and-through metal head/classical freak I didn't love it immediately. It's grown on me: actually I totally got into it before long. The cover must be of a Roland Alpha-Juno-type dial:


If you're not familiar with it the cd is a "Windham Hill Sampler" of electronic music. It's filled with awesome music, and it leads-off with Mitchel Forman's Rizzo. Mitch is a complete bad ass keyboardist, and you know this is gospel truth because he performed in one of the 80s incarnations of the Mahavishnu Orchestra (and you don't get to play with John McLaughlin unless you are a complete bad ass). One of my favorite tunes is Ayers Rock by Colin Chin, which has a very dark quality (and also seems as if it would be usable as a great soundtrack). And the last tune Shadows of the Earth (Roy Finch) also is darkish and quite alluring and captivating.

Other faves: Water Trade, which has a nice contrast of mood, and the main theme of which seems to draw some inspiration from Chinese music. Time and the River and Land of the Morning Calm are great tunes to have wash over you. Just let it happen.

All the music is fairly imaginative, well-crafted, with lots of layers. It fits well within the Windham Hill endeavor (by my reading) of making meditative, ambient music -- often with a view to healing (life is filled with real loss, after all). And I completely admit to not knowing most of the musicians on this cd. Worth looking into...

emotional states

Whatever a human being is, he/she is at least a collection of emotional/psychological states. And these states are influenced by many things: foods, drugs (from caffeine to acid) and even strings of words and sounds. It's easy to predict the effect of arsenic on a person, and slightly harder but still predictable are strings of words (such as "I love you" or "I never want to see you again," etc.) The predictability of music is still harder. There is no decided meaning that's connected universally with harmonic, melodic, rhythmic structures. Plus there's the issue of nostalgia and memory: music can trigger emotions based upon past experiences. Certain tunes might remind one of the Jetsons cartoon or a former friend/lover.

Many Zen adepts were prompted into enlightenment by hearing the sound of, say, a pebble hitting bamboo. I can easily imagine an alien race that is far superior to us being able to concoct music that would elicit pure joy, sorrow, elation and despair, in any person, regardless of age, sex, race, etc.

And when we can elicit (more) precisely the emotional/psychological states that we desire we will be real artists/magicians.

real rock n roll

Though not one of their more famous tunes White Lion's All You Need Is Rock 'n' Roll is a favorite of mine. Vito Bratta is such a bad ass and this is a great showcase for him.


But something that's overlooked is that the tune starts by the band members playing (as if just for kicks) Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula. The point here is the connection, one often not made. 80s glam-cock-rock/metal, whatever you wanna call it, is REAL ROCK N ROLL! No, it's not the Velvet Underground, no matter what you might've been taught in art school. It's real rock 'n' roll because it, as a genre, is concerned with what 50s rock (indisputably REAL rock and roll) concerned itself with, viz. guitar playing, having a good time, getting laid, getting your heart broke. And 80s guitarists could, well, actually play their instrument -- a feat that died in the 90s -- and they could play the blues, or at least were cognizant of the fact that the blues was a huge contributing factor to making rock and roll.

another show tonight

Same as yesterday's post, but tonight at Goodbye Blue Monday.
9pm. Free....totally free.

Located at 1087 Broadway. Take the J train to Kosciusko Street. Just a couple blocks away.

Oh, yeah: the band is actually called Naked Women. And there is one, too, stripping...so keep in mind this is not a PG-13 event!

show tonight : the naked project

A plug here: tonight I'm playing a show with the Naked Project at the Yippie Museum/Cafe.
It's a blend of psychedelia, high-energy jazz, afro-pop, spoken word, free improvisation and dance.
9pm. Totally free.

The roster of musicians:
Tom Blatt, bass
Matthew Polashek, sax
Charles Ramsey, guitar
Tom Ritchford, electronic winds
Ken Sliverman, guitar
Raymond Todd, trombone + spoken word
Zebra, drums

The Yippie is located at 9 Bleecker Street between Bowery + Elizabeth. It's easy to walk right by it, so here's what it looks like:

diminished lick from legnani

Everybody knows Paganini. And not just in the classical world but shredders, too, since Yngwie. But very much not known by those in either world is Luigi Legnani who was a duet partner of Paganini. One thing not known about Paganini so much is that he was a guitarist. And Legnani was mainly a guitarist but also a violinist. As a duo the two would switch off instruments.

Legnani wrote solo guitar music that's fab. Here's a diminished lick taken from his Caprice no. 36, op. 20. I've tabbed it because if you're a guitarist this is exactly how Luigi fingers it:


You can also do it this way:

(Clicking on the images will make them slightly larger.)

The cool thing about this line is that the sequence consists of 7 notes but is played in 16ths, so that the beginning of the sequence keeps shifting in the meter. Anyway you can float it or play it as a septuplet or whatever...it's also just a great exercise!

is it one tune or many?

On a longer-than-average subway ride today I fired up Soft Machine's "Slightly All The Time" from their awesome album Third -- the tune is 18 minutes and some change and I knew I'd have time to hear it all. It's a great piece and has some unquestionably abrupt changes (partly due to the way the album was put together by splicing performances from different times + places), from the opening which seems to take its cue from modal jazz to a more Indian, psychedelic vibe and winding up in a place that must've inspired Pink Floyd (especially the Dark Side Of The Moon).

So the question arises: when do we regard a tune or piece of music as a whole and when do we regard it as a medley. Yes this might fundamentally be able to be placed under the Doesn't Matter At All rubric, but it is something to consider when composing/writing.

If for instance we took at random 3 completely different sections of unrelated pieces of music (maybe one or 2 coming from a questionable zone of "is it music?") and slapped them together as:

A B C

and left it at that do we have one piece or are there 3 pieces which occur without any pause in between? Keep in mind: we've stipulated that these are completely different and unrelated.

That's a difficult question, but I don't think the following one is. Let's take the above "piece" and structure it as:

A B C B A

Is it now one piece? I imagine that it's much easier to conceive of this as a unity, due to the structure which imposes order by some repetition.

the diamond club in tokyo

I had the good fortune to get to sit in and play a couple of tunes at the Diamond Club in Yotsuya, Tokyo (near Shinjuku) with Nosho Yoshihiro on Saturday. A great time. By the way, if you ever call out a tune, make sure you remember the head!






One thing different in Tokyo is that the subways quit running around 1am, so things have to wrap-up before that so people can leave and not get stranded on the way home. This club closed at 11:30pm. On the other hand here in NYC I've played sets starting at 1am, and some sets (like at Showman's) start at 2am.

So if you're ever visiting Tokyo and wanna hear some music, check this place out. The staff is really, really nice, too!

takemitsu : in an autumn garden

Here's some gagaku music by Toru Takemitsu commissioned by the Imperial Household in Japan. Basically this is just audio (no performance footage unfortunately). It's been split into 2 parts for youtube formatting:

i


ii

harmonic major modes

We've already discussed the Harmonic Major mode, but I want to cover its modes just because they're so cool.

The Harmonic Major is basically an Ionian b6. All the other modes will fall into this pattern (i.e. a familiar mode name plus one alteration).

ionian b6	1	2	3	4	5	b6	7	1	2	3	4	5	b6	7
dorian b5		1	2	b3	4	b5	6	b7
phrygian b4			1	b2	b3	b4	5	b6	b7
lydian b3				1	2	b3	#4	5	6	7
mixolydian b2					1	b2	3	4	5	6	b7
aeolian b1						b1	2	b3	4	5	b6	b7
locrian bb7							1	b2	b3	b4	b5	b6	bb7

The Locrian bb7 might seem weird. Since we've only added one alteration why is there a double flat??? The reason is that the 7 in the Locrian is already a b7, so if you slap on another flat you get the bb7.

Also, as detailed elsewhere, the b1 isn't so useful practically. If we re-analyze the aeolian b1 we'll see that it's construction is thus:

1 #2 3 #4 #5 6 7

The #4 is a hallmark of the Lydian mode. And we've already encountered the Lydian #5 -- Lydian Augmented -- in the melodic minor modes (it's mode 3). So this can easily be named
Lydian Augmented #2.

telstar

Back in the day when instrumental tunes were popular came this tune from the British ensemble the Tornados. The tune takes its name from the AT&T communication satellite which went up into orbit in 1962 (yeah, the tune came out that same year).



It's super catchy. Definitely check this out if it passed you by...

gennett records

Some great Jazz and other musicians recorded here back in the 20s. Check out the site...


...and if you can try to get a hold of the three disc set of recordings...they're really good!

asa chang + junray : hana (花)

Just a shout out for a tune I really REALLY have come to dig. Hana ( which is the Japanese word for flower) by Asa Chang and Junray. This is also timely since I'm about to board a plane for Japan in just a few hours...

a well-run rehearsal

Sometimes you're under the gun: a performance is coming up and you've got tunes/pieces that are just not happening. In these times it's good for the rehearsals to go well, i.e. not be aimless jams which in the end leave the troublesome issues unaddressed. And if you're in a place like New York City (where you can't just bust out a full-fledged rehearsal in your apartment without getting evicted) you're probably renting space, and that almighty dollar tends to make us want results.

So here are some tips to ensure that rehearsals are productive:

1. Get through all the material. If you've gotta learn 6 tunes and you've got 2 hours to rehearse at least figure out the average amount of time you can spend on each tune (in this case 20 minutes). Sure, some tunes will require less work and others more. But you've gotta have a ballpark figure. Don't just "feel" it.

2. Big picture. Try to get through a tune, even with catastrophes on the way. If you can't get all the way through a tune/piece then spending a lot of time on one or two measures or sections won't help overall.

3. Communicate well. If you can't convey how a piece is put together or its form, guess what? Nobody'll be able to play it. Be as analytical and logical -- or at least consistent -- as possible.

4. Don't over-rehearse. I.e. if it ain't broke don't fix it. "Fixing it" in this case usually has the result of killing the spontaneity which will in the end zap all the vitality of a tune/piece.

a multitude of names ii : harmonic minor modes

Having gone over some salient features of the melodic minor and its modes it's time to have that same fun with the harmonic minor and its modes.

The harmonic minor differs from the major scale by two notes: it has a b3 and a b6. The b3 is in common with the aeolian (natural minor) and melodic minor. What the harmonic minor has that is different and very unique is the interval between the b6 and 7, an augmented 2nd. This has a decidedly Middle Eastern flavor, and in fact is found in scales of Asian musics (Arabic, Indian...).

When we named the modes of the melodic minor scale we tried to keep to a pattern that utilized the name of the parallel mode in the major scale with one alteration, e.g. the mode starting on the 4th degree of the melodic minor would have to be some sort of Lydian, and and in fact all of its intervals are the same except that this mode of the melodic minor has a b7, so it's called a Lydian b7.

With the harmonic minor modes the situation is a little different: we could keep to the same pattern, but as was also detailed in the melodic minor post, what we need as players/composers is a practical and easy way to deal with this information. When there are 2 alterations it can be easier just to see what mode it's closest to in the major scale modes and then add an alteration.

Here's a tabulation:

mode 1: Harmonic Minor aka Aeolian #7
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7

mode 2: Locrian #6 (instead of Dorian b2 b5)
1 b2 b3 4 b5 6 b7

mode 3: Ionian #5 aka Ionian Augmented
1 2 3 4 #5 6 7

mode 4: Dorian #4
1 2 b3 #4 5 6 b7

mode 5: Phrygian #3 aka Phrygian Dominant aka Spanish Phrygian (instead of Mixolydian b2 b6)
1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7

mode 6: Lydian #2 (instead of Aeolian b1 b5)
1 #2 3 #4 5 6 7

mode 7: Superlocrian bb7 aka Altered bb7
1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 bb7

These modes are all super-cool, and the Spanish Phrygian is common (if you play through the Spanish Phrygian you'll understand why it's so named -- and if you play classical/flamenco guitar you'll already be quite familiar with it). These modes aren't used so much in jazz^{FN 1}, but definitely in other styles. In fact Satie makes use of them in his Gnossiennes -- especially check out no. 2 (written in 1893, hardly a modern phenomenon).

There is something cool that happens if we examine the Ionian #5. This is a case like the melodic minor: it differs from the major scale by only one tone. If we use this as a basis and compare the modes with the major scale we get the following correspondences:

major scale modes	harmonic minor scale modes
Ionian	Ionian #5
Dorian	Dorian #4
Phrygian	Phrygian #3
Lydian	Lydian #2
Mixolydian	Mixolydian #1
Aeolian	Aeolian #7 (harmonic minor)
Locrian	Locrian #6

Again, the Mixolydian #1 isn't so useful, and when we compare it to another mode that's close we get the Superlocrian, and so Superlocrian bb7.

Now, what I'm about to say is blasphemous to some, buuuut since we need the absolute easiest way as players/composers (musicians) to deal with information sometimes it's easiest to forget the mode names altogether and simply think about the harmonic minor (though this could apply to any mode) over a certain tone. The Spanish Phrygian is a good example: you can think of a Phrygian with a sharp-3 or simply think of a harmonic minor scale up a perfect fourth -- e.g. E Spanish Phrygian could be conceived of as A Harmonic Minor over E. In fact you could probably argue that this is the way a lot of Spanish music was written -- at least in the 19th century: not in a modal framework but in a tonal one.

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1. See The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine, pps. 476 - 478.

is it art? is it pop? music classification...

To classify is certainly a human characteristic: after all it's a good idea to know that some snakes and spiders are poisonous and that it's a good idea to stay away from things that resemble them just to be safe.

A famous dictum regarding music comes from Duke Ellington who said (more or less) that there are only two kinds of music: good and bad. This is a very safisfying way of classifying music because it introduces, though implicitly, the element of subjectivity that people often ignore. On the other hand taken all by itself it will fail in those instances where one is not familiar with the musical style at hand. E.g. it would be very hard for a Westerner who only knows Western music (from classical to punk to bossa novas, etc.) to be able to discern whether a performance of Japanese koto music is good or not, except in a case where the performer obviously forgets a part or starts over. In fact it could be hard to know whether a player/ensemble is even in tune if the tuning system were different.

Another way of classifying music is to place it in some sort of continuum which ranges from Artistic to Entertainment. And here Artistic must be convertible with the term "unpopular", and Entertainment "Popular". It isn't to say that Popular and Artistic cannot coincide, but rather that Popular has to have a mass appeal that generally will preclude much in the way of experimentation or complexity.

And I would add another category which would be Serious or Fluff (but not meaning Fluff pejoratively).

So, if we're going to classify music (we do all the time) I would argue that the best way would not be to use a 1-dimensional scheme (good/bad, art music/popular, artistic/entertainment) but to use instead a multi-dimensional one that combines the schemes. We could start by using a grid that measures the Serious or Fluff value and the Artistic/Entertainment one. This has the advantage of allowing us (and forcing us) to consider different aspects combined.



A third axis could then be added which would locate the music with respect to how good or bad it is.

So yes, this may seem a bit silly or unduly complicated, buuuut if we're going to classify music we should recognize that it is a multi-dimensional affair, and that simplistic tools will only yield simplistic observations.

space age pop

America certainly has its share of under-celebrated cultural phenomena. Two that are forever linked in my mind are Googie architecture^{FN 1} and Space Age Pop. Connected with the latter I absolutely must plug this fabulous website devoted to such music:

We've all heard this music (aka Exotica, Easy Listening, etc.) before if we've ever watched the Munsters or have been in touch with much of the cultural production of the late 50s and early 60s, but I got more in touch with it about 10 years ago or so when I encountered the Ultra-Lounge vol. 9 record Cha-Cha de Amor, and subsequently vol. 11 Organs in Orbit, which I must confess never goes too long without getting played.

As a project I think that this music taken on average is extremely successful. A friend of mine just last night told me that he thought the purpose of all art was to transport the psyche, and this music does just that. The music is not simply a set of techniques (describable by rhythm, harmony, melody, instrumentation) but is a vehicle for transporting the listener to far away places (geographically or temporally) some of which seem to have a more visibly relaxed attitude with respect to the passions (viz. sex). Even today with World Music as a well-established genre listening to the likes of Les Baxter and Martin Denny does still seem exotic and capable of transporting us to islands of the South Pacific.

Definitely check out the above mentioned site: it's full of great info, has some mp3s of rare cuts and is really fun to explore. And here's the Ultra-Lounge link if you'd like to check-out their many offerings.

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1. For some info regarding Googie architecture click here.

a multitude of names i : melodic minor modes

It really is a good idea to know (and not have to think about) the modes of the major scale if you're interested in learning the modes of other scales. The reason is that the modes of other scales will tend to resemble the modes of the major scale to some degree, and that can be used as a basis for describing the mode in question.

Let's focus on the melodic minor scale. It differs from the major scale by only one note, the 3rd (which is a minor 3rd in the minor scale, needless to say). Sometimes it's even described as an ionian flat-3. And if you think about it, since there's only one difference between the melodic minor and the major scale all of the modes of the melodic minor should be able to be described like ionian flat-3, i.e. like their parallel mode in the major scale with one alteration. In fact this is the easiest way, but there is one troublesome spot. Here are the modes tabulated:

ionian b3	1	2	b3	4	5	6	7	1	2	b3	4	5	6	7
locrian b4							1	b2	b3	b4	b5	b6	b7
aeolian b5						1	2	b3	4	b5	b6	b7
mixolydian b6					1	2	3	4	5	b6	7
lydian b7				1	2	3	#4	5	6	b7
phrygian b1			b1	b2	b3	4	5	b6	b7
dorian b2		1	b2	b3	4	5	6	b7

The problem is with the phrygian b1. The issue is that a flat-1 is kind of weird, because the 1 is usually the basis for determining the rest of the scale, and only when you know ahead of time (as in the table above) does it make sense to talk about a flat-1. Put another way: if you know you're dealing with a phrygian mode that has an alteration, and you've determined that the alteration is the 1, then a flat-1 designation might make sense. But in actual practice we don't usually consider that the 1 is flat -- we're usually trying to figure out how the rest of the mode relates to that tone. If we take our phrygian b1 and reexamine it without any bias regarding what its name should be, its structure looks like this:

1 2 3 #4 #5 6 7

If we look at the modes of the major scale we'll see that the the closest one is lydian (with its characteristic sharp-4). So it might be better to name this mode (and in fact it usually is named) Lydian #5, or Lydian Augmented.

So this taxonomy may or may not sit well with certain people who would prefer to see a 1 to 1 correspondence between the modes of the two scales in question. As a player, however, or a composer we simply need the best practical way of dealing with what's at hand.

And as far as taxonomy is concerned here are some of the other names of the modes discussed:

Melodic Minor aka Ionian b3 aka Jazz Minor
Lydian b7 aka Lydian Dominant aka Overtone
Locrian b4 aka Superlocrian aka Altered

Next time we discuss modes we'll focus in on the modes of the harmonic minor. Same idea but there are 2 (count them two) different notes with respect to the major scale...

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1. Or just the ascending portion of the melodic minor scale if you're used to classical music. The descending is the same as the natural minor or aeolian.

old time music

Old Time Music is that style of music which eventually gave birth to both Bluegrass and Country. It's basically the music which came with the European settlers, especially those from Ireland, England and Scotland. If you're interested in hearing any of it and don't have access to live performances you can try the Smithsonian collection entitled Classic Old-Time Music.


The collection of music is extremely diverse. There are instrumental tunes like Bonaparte's Retreat, Concord Rag and Wednesday Waltz. There are funny tunes like Bill Morgan and His Gal; very sad songs like Cyclone of Rye Clover; the ubiquitous songs detailing a man killing a prostitute as in Little Sadie and Pretty Polly; and of course religious tunes like Streets of Glory.

And just in case you think that all of these tunes represent old-time family values here's a verse from one of my faves from the album, "Policeman" by the Spare Change Boys:

I got drunk and I fell on the floor this morning
I got drunk and I fell on the floor this morning
I got drunk and I fell on the floor
That's good pouring whiskey and I want some more this morning

All in all the music is highly infectious, full of life (in all its multi-dimensionality) and a good time, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

there's always a relation

What I have in mind here is the situation where we're moving from one chord/tonal area to another. If you take a tune like "So What" where we go from Dmi7 to Ebmi7 there's certainly no overlap as far as the chord tones go. If we consider, however, the scales used then it's a whole different story. If we're using seven note scales, keeping in mind that there's only an available twelve, then there has to be at minimum two notes which will be the same (no matter what scales they are, so long as they're both septatonic). If you write out the tones for the above mentioned chords (using dorian in both cases) you'll see what two notes are the same (in bold):

D Dorian: d e f g a b c
Eb Dorian: eb f gb ab bb c db

And of course knowing which notes are common helps us to build links between the tonal areas (if so desired).

On the other hand the most tones in common would be six (because if all seven are the same we haven't moved from one area to another^{FN 1}), because traveling around the circle of fifths by the shortest distance -- either right or left on the circle -- only alters the key signature by one accidental.

There is an interesting situation that can be imagined (and in fact can happen ) which might contradict what's been said regarding having at least 2 tones in common. We might travel from C# major to Db major, for instance, and if you look at those two scales you won't find any common tones:

c# d# e# f# g# a# b#
db eb f gb ab bb c

However if we listen to the two scales (equally tempered) we won't hear any difference! This is because they are enharmonically equivalent, and in fact no tonal movement has occurred at all.

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1. Leaving aside something like moving from Ami7 to Cmaj7 where there are two different scales (aeolian and ionian), because here the overall collection of notes is the same.

carulli: petite concerto in e minor

This is probably my favorite Carulli concerto (though his Concerto for Flute and Guitar has in it's second movement one of the prettiest themes I've ever heard) written around 1820 or so. The opening theme on the guitar is very cool and not too hard to play but sounds like it's hard to play -- this sort of rare occurrence needs to be relished!

When I first heard the piece I wondered why the 3rd movement had the same theme as the first. I then realized that the entire work (in it's petiteness) is really just one movement -- a sonata-allegro form movement -- spread out over three movements in this concerto. This works well, of course, because the sonata form is in its broadest consideration tripartite, consisting of an Exposition, Development and Recapitulation.

So in this particular instance Carulli distributes this form as follows:

1st movement: 1st theme in e minor, 2nd theme in G major.
2nd movement: a slow movement in G major (the 2nd movement usually being a slow movement) which works its way back to e minor.
3rd movement: 1st theme in e minor, 2nd theme in e minor.

This seems like a very inventive way to get a lot of mileage out of a little bit of material -- an eternal quest after all. Not to mention that the material is exceptionally beautiful, at times sounding like parts of Beethoven's Violin Concerto (really it does), and at other times using themes that would not sound out of place in Vivaldi.

fever

This has to be in the top 5 favorite songs of mine of Judas Priest, the penultimate track from their magnum opus Screaming For Vengeance. I think that Priest never suffers from a lack of intensity in their tunes, but in this one we have real drama. The opening got me the first time I heard it: a beautiful, clean, chorused-and-reverebed guitar (more or less a rarity with Priest). The reverb gives way to a very dry sounding guitar, the effect of which was explicitly discussed by Wuorinen in the liner notes to his Time's Encomium, viz. that the sound becomes much closer to the listener. Of course we get the drama when the drums and distorted guitars enter. And the climactic point (in E mixolydian more or less) is the pay off vocally as Rob kicks it up into the stratosphere. The tune really does have a feverish quality.

the harmonic major

Since I just discussed the major key a bit here's a plug for a related mode: the harmonic major. Compared to the major scale it's construction is:
1 2 3 4 5 b6 7
the b6 being the only difference from the major scale. C harmonic major looks like this:

At first glance this might seem like a mode of F melodic minor, but the melodic minor doesn't have a #4, so this is a different animal altogether. ^{FN 1}

The name comes from the fact that the upper tetrachord (4 notes) of this scale is the same as that of a harmonic minor with the same root. In this particular case: G Ab B C. The bottom tetrachord is the same as a major scale, hence "harmonic major".^{FN 2}

That's just one application. Others are taking triads or other harmonic structures from the scale and building tunes/pieces from them, and exploiting those new nuances of mood.

And another plug here: for names (and structures) of many, many modes visit this site.
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1. Though we could insist that a melodic minor sharp-4 is the parent scale and that this is consequently a derived mode.

2. Actually analysing with respect to tetrachords is a topic in its own right. It has the advantage of being able to quickly isolate where differences occur between modes. Another meaningful example is the melodic minor itself: it's often called an Ionian flat-3. This because the upper tetrachord is the same as a major (ionian) scale, and when the bottom two tetrachords are compared the differnce found is that the melodica minor has that b3.

the moods of modes: the major key

The major key is usually described as bright, cheerful and happy, etc. (in contradistinction with the minor key which is somber, sad and dark). This is only a shorthand, though. Whenever I hear or play through Sor's Study no. 16, op. 60 I'm amazed at how poignant and teary-eyed it can make one:

And another Sor example that comes to mind readily is his Bagatelle no. 3 (from op. 43), marked Cantabile:


It would be hard to characterize this as cheerful, happy or bright. And while it is certainly very pretty there is an undeniable gravitas which makes the piece fairly somber.

Carcassi's study no. 3 is another great example, and there are many, many other examples to be found in the guitar repertoire of the 19th century, not to mention the entire classical repertoire of that period, or of other periods and styles.

Of course I point this out not for taxonomic purposes or any sort of academic reason, but because noticing this point, i.e. that the major key is multidimensional with respect to mood, and that by extension so are all the other modes, we can ourselves become more creative as improvisers and composers.