Appendix VI - Lesson 8
Resolution of Chord Cycles
Notes to Appendix VI - Lesson 8
This lesson will be both a review, and perhaps a different view of several concepts. In the Volume 1 lessons and the extra material presented at that time, we learned the names of the note positions relative to the particular key, e.g., 1 = tonic, 2 = supertonic, etc. We talked about the Cycle of Fourths that show dominant to tonic progression, as in C to F to Bb to Eb, etc.
Exercise 16 is a C Major Scale of triads. Mickey names the positions, and as we did a long time back, he gives those positions Roman numerals. Mickey uses upper case numerals for all forms and adds minor, diminished, and augmented to them to show the triad from which the chord is based. I believe that a somewhat more popular and universal system is to use upper case numerals for Major and add a + to show that it's an augmented or #5. Tonic, Sub-dominant, and dominant triads of a Major key are I, IV, and V. Minor and diminished chords are lower case, with a degree symbol added to show diminished. Even that is somewhat controversial, with some musicians saying that a vii triad in a Major key is always diminished, so the symbol is redundant.
Rather than argue as to which system is the "right" or "best" way, it isn't too much of a hardship to learn ALL the systems. When we generate a score or an analysis of a score, we can use whatever system that we wish, especially remembering who our players/readers may be. I'll try to point out all the variations I've come across and if you come across something that isn't mentioned, please send it to me. I'll add it to the lesson.
In this exercise, Mickey highlights the I, ii (II), and V triads with parentheses, as the most important to us at this point of study.
Exercise 17 shows the I - IV - V cycle in triads. Note that as in Exercise 16, the editors have misspelled "Dominant."
Exercise 18 shows the I - ii - V cycle that Mickey culls from Exercise 16. He tells us that in Lesson 9 we're going to learn the art of substituting ii chords for V chords. We've been doing this since Lesson 3 of our Volume 1 course, so let's interpret this to mean that we're going to learn the theory of why this works.
By the way, this lesson only talks about Major scales. Remember that in either a natural minor scale or a descending melodic minor scale, the triads will now be i - iidim - III - iv - v - VI -VII. Also, the VII note is called the "subtonic". In harmonic minor and ascending melodic minor, we have some interesting chords that become even more interesting when we add the 7th to them.
Inversions: An inversion is a chord where a note other than the root of the triad is the lowest note. If the 3rd of the chord is the bass note, then it's called a "first inversion". The 5th in the bass is a second inversion, the 7th is a third inversion, etc. To show these inversions Mickey uses a number preceding the Roman numeral. Examples of that are:
2V7 = a second inversion dominant 7 chord. In C, this would be a G7 chord with a D (the 5th) as the bass note.
1I7 = a first inversion tonic Maj7 chord. In C, this would be a C Maj7 chord with an E (the 3rd) as the bass note.
3ii9 (3II9 per Mickey) = is a third inversion super-tonic 9 chord. In C, this would be a D min9 with a C (the 7th) as the bass note.
In Lesson 9, we'll come across this notation and hopefully by then, it'll seem like an old friend. If this seems like something very modern, you may be surprised to learn that Jazz's arguably first preeminent musician, Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote arrangements using a system that spawned this one. He created a bass line and under it he wrote numbers which the players interpreted and improvised an accompaniment. This is known as a "figured bass". All Johann needed was Louis Armstrong to teach him the Blues scale!
Just reading about all this theory is interesting to me, but it helps me to have playable examples. I've created an Exercise 16 expanded TEF in the key of C. It's "expanded" because it shows scales of triads and of their inversions, and it gives them on in four groups: Group 1-strings 1, 2, and 3; Group 2-strings 2, 3, and 4; Group 3-strings 3, 4, and 5; and Group 4-strings 4, 5, and 6. As you play through this exercise, you'll note that some of the groups are going to be much more useful than others. The lower chords of Groups 3 and 4 are pretty "muddy". This isn't to say not to use them, but remember the very old Brylcreme commercials: "A little dab'll do ya!" Practice these expanded triad forms until you can recognize the patterns. Then it won't be much of an effort to transpose parts of any of the scales to any key desired. As you play through them, see if you can convert some of these 3-note triad scales to 4-note triad scales.
Just for fun, I've created a 4-note chromatic scale based on the key of C. Note that to fill in the "gaps" between like triads, I've added the same flavor triad, and between the major and minor, I've used a diminished.
Maybe you're saying to yourself "why is that so important? I use complex chords that are at least a 7 in my playing, so why should I be so concerned with triads?" All good questions. Go through your collections of Jazz guitar recordings and analyze the chord solos. You are going to discover that the bread and butter chord form is a 3 note form, more often than not from the triad harmonized scale. If you are fortunate to have a bass player, or a pianist as a friend, ask them to play the C scale with 8 quarter note repetitions of each note. You play the C triad harmonized scale ascending or descending against this. You'll hear immediately that when the bass note isn't a note of the triad, you have a very modern sound. One guitar legend that used triads quite a bit in his improvisations is Wes Montgomery. Although Wes is known as the preeminent octave improviser, he was a great single string and chordal melody player as well. Transcribe one of his chord solos and note how he uses simple minor triad forms.
Continue with the stretching exercises of the earlier lessons and your on-going re-harmonization of the classics. Transcribe a tune or two (contrary to popular opinion, it won't kill you!)
As always, make it FUN!!