Appendix VI - Lesson 14

Symmetric Cycles

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Appendix VI - Lesson 14 TEF's

Notes to Appendix VI - Lesson 14

Appendix VI - Lesson 14 finally gives a name to the technique of symmetric progression:  Symmetric Cycles.  Mickey does not exactly say this exactly, so maybe this will clear up any confusion you may have:  a symmetric cycle is taking one chord form and moving it a series of equal steps.  This lesson features a minor third, for several reasons: 

  1. There are more minor thirds in a harmonized diatonic scale than any other interval

  2. Most chords have at least one minor third in their harmonic structure

  3. If you divide a chromatic or 12-tone scale by 3 (there are 3 half-steps in a minor third) the answer is 4, something that works really well when the vast majority of music is in 4/4 time.

In the exercises Mickey's written, he's taken a min9, dominant13b9, and Maj7 forms and written some simple cycles.  Hold on to these exercises as he's going to give you some variations based on them in a future lesson.  Look at the standard notation for each chord form in each exercise.  What you may see is that as the chords progress, at least one note of the previous chord is present in the new one. 

Additional Exercises:  Needless to say, here's an opportunity to write out some exercises using some of your favorite or most used chord forms.

Just be sure to have fun with them.