exploring modes via pentatonics

OK, so if you've been reading this blog I understand that at this point you're rolling your eyes and emitting some form of loud "arrgh!" at the thought of yet another post dealing with pentatonic scales. Well, that's just how cool and useful I think they are, so here goes.

Let's say you have a Dmin7 chord that you're going to play over (or even write a melody over, etc). By using pentatonic scales you can elicit the colors of certain modes, and can do so by using your own and perhaps already copious supply of pentatonic licks.

The pentatonics that can easily be used are the following: start with the pentatonic with with the same root, in this case D minor. We can use the pentatonics which are 2 "clicks" both clock and counter-clockwise on the circle of fifths:

C | G | D | A | E

Each pentatonic scale, when combined with the underlying chord, corresponds to one or more modes. For example, if we take an E minor pentatonic scale (e, g, a, b, d) and play that over a Dmin7 chord (d, f, a, c) our resulting conglomeration of tones will be:

d, e, f, g, a, b, c

aka the dorian mode.

Starting with the pentatonic 2 clicks to the left and moving to the right (or clockwise on the circle of fifths) we can generalize the mode relationships as:


The reason that there can be more than one mode hinted at is because not all 7 tones of a scale are present in those situations. E.g. if we play a D minor pentatonic (d, f, g, a, c) over a Dmin7 chord (d, f, a, c) we only have five tones:

d, f, g, a, c

and without knowing what the 2nd (some kinda e) and 6th (some kinda b) are we can't tell what the mode is with complete precision. For instance, if there were an eb and a b natural we would end up with a complete dorian flat-2 (or flat-9), the second mode of the c melodic minor scale.

That is how the minor pentatonics will work over minor chords. In some future post we'll explore how they work over major chords.

short coryell lick (which has been seen before...)

I've been listening to a lot of Larry Coryell lately and on the tune "Wolfbane" (from his 2005 album Electric with bassist Victor Bailey and Lenny White on drums) I heard a lick which I had transcribed on this blog before...yup one from Vinnie Moore's "Morning Star". Here's the Larry phrase (which is over E7#9) and the lick under discussion begins on the 4th beat of the 2nd measure:


And if you go to the Vinnie Moore transcription it's pretty easy to find: it's the very first phrase.

So the question is: did Larry listen to Vinnie's lick? or is it the case that given the number of players and the style that this pattern is inevitable? Similarities are bound to occur: just listen to the last movement of Brahms' First Symphony...remind anyone of Beethoven?

raga sindhi-bhairavi

I transcribed this from the great Ravi Shankar album The Sounds Of India. What's great about the cd, beyond the playing, is that before each piece Ravi plays the raga used and also goes over the rhythm. Here is raga Sindhi-Bhairavi, and like the classical melodic minor it has 2 forms, an ascending and descending. Clicking on the images will make them ever so slightly larger:




The x's indicate that some microtonal bending was taking place in Ravi's playing.

I have no real conception of Indian music beyond what I've heard on cds, etc (i.e. I've never engaged in any formal study). But it seems that the idea behind the different forms of this mode (if I may) has to do with what tones are being tonicized or made the the focal point. Half steps do that well (and in Western music from the Medieval period on a similar practice has been in place: in fact melodic formulas born of said practice eventually gave rise to the melodic minor scale). I'll put up some actual passages of Ravi's playing soon, but play around with this raga keeping that half step idea in mind. Play it over a C#mi7 chord: it sounds cool, and gives a lot more color than a regular dorian or minor will (w/o chromatic passing tones, that is).

BTW I arrived at a C# by pitch shifting the original track up 86 cents (could've shifted it down, of course, too). Why not simply retune the ol' guitar? One reason: Floyd Rose.

pentatonics again

So here's a way of using pentatonic scales which comes at the issue from the other way around from what we were doing before. Let's start with an F major triad, and let's use minor pentatonics.

Now, the first thing we should stipulate is that you can play whatever you want whenever you want. That's the first rule, and this is basically the opening sentence of Persichetti's Twentieth-Century Harmony. Your ear and musical soul will guide you. On the other hand often what we're doing when we improvise is restating the underlying harmony, and if this is the case then we have to be a little more analytical or "rule bound" in our approach.

Back to the F major triad. Let's see what happens when we start a pentatonic scale on all of its tones: f, a, c.

Right away we can see that the F minor pentatonic (f, ab, bb, c, eb) isn't the best choice if we're aiming at re-stating or -enforcing the harmony. The minor 3rd is what undoes this most. BUT in context the triad might be standing in for a dominant chord, so the minor 7th might work well. And if it is standing for a dominant-type chord it might be a 7#9 chord, in which case the minor 3rd really would sound as the #9 and it would reinforce the harmony. The tones relate to the chord as follows:
f = 1
ab = b3
bb = 4
c = 5
eb = b7

A minor penatonic (a, c, d, e, g) works well as the collection of tones is found in both F ionian and F lydian. It of course won't work if the major triad is actually a dominant chord. The tones relate to the chord as follows:
a = 3
c = 5
d = 6
e = 7
g = 2

C minor pentatonic (c, eb, f, g, bb) could well work, depending on context. If the triad is a dominant-type chord then you get the following:
c = 5
eb = b7
f = 1
g = 2
bb = 4