I was reading a lesson on Joe Bonamassa in Guitar Techniques and there was a lick there in minor with a major 6th in it. I liked the feel of that note, so I thought to myself: All notes in a scale have a different feel. I've only just listed it so this is all off the top of my head, let's see what you think about it!

1 - The root note, best used for ending a solo as playing it in the middle might make people think (feel) the solo is over.

b2 - Mostly a passing tone when going to the root or the 2.

2 - Great ending note, great holding note as well

b3 - A bit standard, not much of a feel to it.

Blue 3rd - Gives it a bluesy feel (duh).

3 - Sounds a bit off to me most of the time (well, it IS actually off on a guitar)

4 - I mostly play this to give a kind of sus feel.

Blue 4th - Bluesy feel again, more so than the 3rd. I always feel like it's a blue 3rd ON the blue 3rd.

#4 - Lydian feel, great in legato licks for a Vai-style thing.

b5 - (yes, it's different imo) Dim-feel, Neo-classical stuff can be fun with it.

5 - Seriously nothing special (except if you're like, Derek Trucks or anything. He's got cool licks with it)

#5 - Whole-tone/augmented indicator

b6 - Harmonic minor (ya know, that oriental feel scale) or just natural minor, which is pretty dark-sounding.

6 - A major 6 in major pieces of music is nothing special, but in minor it indicates the dorian scale, which is the parallel minor of the lydian scale, so it has a similar feel. Nice in a trill with the m7 or 5.

b7 - Pentatonic/Blues rocky feel I guess

7 - Good for runs into the root, or for that same oriental feel as the b6.

Disclaimer - of course this is not all set in stone, if you play over jazz changes it'll be much more complex and some intervals can get you more feel than only the notes in there.

I hear you about the M6th, as I usually approach the blues from the Dorian mode perspective.

NJlo, that's a really useful overview! I think most musicians favor certain intervals. Stevie Wonder has often referred to them as "colors", which is interesting, given that he is a blind man.

I've listened to way too much Curtis Mayfield, Floyd Cramer, The Police, Steely Dan, and Hendrix... the sus chord tensions and resolutions are permanently implanted within the brain.

Given the music that I play these days, I often have to be a bit polite with altered tensions, but any time a V7 chord comes around, I'm always listening out for the possibility of tossing out b5, #5, b9, #9. I like #4/11 a bunch and tend to overuse lydian dominant over I7 and IV7 chords.


I like chordal "line cliches", and tend to overuse those as well...

major - major 7th - dominant 7th (The Beatles - "Hey Jude").

minor - minor/major 7th - minor 7th - minor 6th ("God Bless the Child").

minor - minor#5 - minor6 -minor#5 ("Secret Agent Man", James Bond, film noir in general).


I know that 6th chords generally have tons of uses, but I can't help it... when I hear them, I think "Memphis", "Stormy Monday".

I'm a big fan of stacking chord voicings at recording sessions, and if it's a bit dissonant, I like it better. I enjoy marrying up voicings that contain a 9th and a 3rd, and I like the sound of suspending a 4th on top while placing a 3rd in the bass. My current fave minor chord stack is the 9/13 combo. The 9 is warm and friendly, while the 13 is dark and strange. Together, they're unbeatable, especially as ending a minor ballad.

If anyone has anything to add, please do! This might become a very very useful list for myself also

Corleone, that thing about the 13 (well, I adressed it as the M6 that it is in soloes) is really freaky sounding. I love using it in my ProgRock band and stuff. Well, I love prog and my band anyways . I'll have to go try that sus4 on a /3 chord.

This is a cool thread. I never have spent much time thinking of each interval in these types of terms. I do have some intervals that I use in these ways, to try and create certain feels. But, I haven't really organized them all in a systematic way.

I usually "hear" them more in context. Certain intervallic and/or chordal movements seem to imply moods and feelings, to me. But these usually are dependant on the overall musical landscape. What came before, and after.



I'm going to watch this thread, and do some listening and experimentation with your concepts. Please keep them coming!

Nothing too much to add to this discussion other than that "I agree" with all of the above. The only thing I'll contribute is that I like adding - when appropriate - the b6 (#5) to a major7th chord.

Spelled from Low to High : C Ab B E G
I know that you 'could' analyze it as an altered chord, some type of either G, Bb or E alt dom but in this voicing I like using it for a static maj.7th or even moving parallel maj.7th's. Definitely "darkens" up the prettiness of a major chord.

quote:

Originally posted by Corleone: and I like the sound of suspending a 4th on top while placing a 3rd in the bass.

Try alternating that somehow (could work well in a free jazz inspired riff) with a chord that eh. Okay this is hard to explain so here's the thing:

D/C Csus/E

OR

D/C Csus/Eb

I'm gonna try and write a nice riff with that.. thanks for the tip mate! Dissonance is really becoming a key feature of my band's music :/

quote:

Originally posted by Corleone:
NJlo, that's a really useful overview! I think most musicians favor certain intervals. Stevie Wonder has often referred to them as "colors", which is interesting, given that he is a blind man.

I've listened to way too much Curtis Mayfield, Floyd Cramer, The Police, Steely Dan, and Hendrix... the sus chord tensions and resolutions are permanently implanted within the brain.

I buy into the concept that each has some prefered intervals. That and phrasing are big part of a player's signature of course you have to add one's touch, atatck, vibrato ect but phrasing and the note choices(intervals) are a big part of the equation for me.

Like Corleone I have a built-in thing for suspended voicings... I also tend to favor a lot of 7th and 9th. That's what I'll find out after I worked on something. I usually work on an idea using my ears researching the missing colors/flavors/notes... because if I went with knowledge I'll probably lose the essence of the moment writing it... but I like to check it out after the fact so that I can write it down, if only for future arrangment purposes.

I like the concept of stacking chords a lot also mostly when recording but acoustically, being that I fingerpick a lot I'll also use this thinking as a transition thing when I do what I call over-simplifying chords more on that...

I sometime will over simplify chords in order to play only parts of it with a sound and the other part with another sound. Example... in the case of a Dsus4 I'll separate it into 2 playing the G & B strings only(D5) and on another track I'll play the B & E strings(G5). I'l do the same thing play in a Cadd9 by playing the A & D strings on one(partial Cmajor;missing the open G) and the B & E on another(G5).

With that concept I'll use that as a transition in between chords as I can use one of the 2 parts of a chord on its own to add dynamics and make the transition smoother and somewhat more complex and interesting to play(to me anyway)
With the example I listed I could move from the Cadd9 to the Dsus4 doing this instead of just the 2 chords; Cmaj, Cadd9, D5, Dsus4, G5...

In terms of fingering from the left hand view it's all the same... but when fingerpicking I can make that simple thing more interesting by dividing 2 'fancy chords'(to most anything that isn't minor, major or a power chord is fancy...) into more chords but that are yet simple ones...

I guess I should have simply said that I love diads and triads but you might not have pictured exactly what I meant by that since not veryone have the same definition and use of such

quote:

Originally posted by Corleone: and I like the sound of suspending a 4th on top while placing a 3rd in the bass.

quote:

Originally posted by NJlo:Try alternating that somehow (could work well in a free jazz inspired riff) with a chord that eh. Okay this is hard to explain so here's the thing:

D/C Csus/E

OR

D/C Csus/Eb

Your Csus/Eb caused me to find a few new grips!

When you mentioned "alternating that somehow", I take it that you were speaking generally, and not specifically to flipping the 3rd and 4th. Speaking of which though, placing a 4th in the bass, with the 3rd on top (say, D/G) is a great sound, one which I quickly associate with Steely Dan (I can't help it, most of my "colors" are associated with tunes that I've heard, and that's how I go about applying them elsewhere).

Speaking of The Dan and "polychords", that D/C is a fave of theirs as well. Since C is b7 of D, I love to arrange this voicing to play alongside a garden variety D7 (if the D7 is a "cowboy chord", all the better).

D/C also serves as a great passing chord that transitions the I chord to a IV chord and back, as yet another great line cliche. Ex:

D - D/C - G/B - Gmin/Bb - D

We've all heard it in a million tunes, from pop to jazz to country to gospel. Cool voice leading and bass movement always tug at the heart strings!

quote:

Corleone, that thing about the 13 (well, I adressed it as the M6 that it is in soloes) is really freaky sounding.

Indeed! We've talked about in terms of how dark it sounds in a minor context, and I mentioned a couple of roots-based tunes that I relate the maj6 chords to... what I neglected to mention is probably my fave reference to the 6th interval within a melody - Thelonious Monk's "Mysterioso"... that melody wouldn't exist without the 6th!

quote:

Originally posted by Glo®bz:


I buy into the concept that each has some prefered intervals. That and phrasing are big part of a player's signature of course you have to add one's touch, atatck, vibrato ect but phrasing and the note choices(intervals) are a big part of the equation for me.

Like Corleone I have a built-in thing for suspended voicings... I also tend to favor a lot of 7th and 9th. That's what I'll find out after I worked on something. I usually work on an idea using my ears researching the missing colors/flavors/notes... because if I went with knowledge I'll probably lose the essence of the moment writing it... but I like to check it out after the fact so that I can write it down, if only for future arrangment purposes.

I like the concept of stacking chords a lot also mostly when recording but acoustically, being that I fingerpick a lot I'll also use this thinking as a transition thing when I do what I call over-simplifying chords more on that...

I sometime will over simplify chords in order to play only parts of it with a sound and the other part with another sound. Example... in the case of a Dsus4 I'll separate it into 2 playing the G & B strings only(D5) and on another track I'll play the B & E strings(G5). I'l do the same thing play in a Cadd9 by playing the A & D strings on one(partial Cmajor;missing the open G) and the B & E on another(G5).

With that concept I'll use that as a transition in between chords as I can use one of the 2 parts of a chord on its own to add dynamics and make the transition smoother and somewhat more complex and interesting to play(to me anyway)
With the example I listed I could move from the Cadd9 to the Dsus4 doing this instead of just the 2 chords; Cmaj, Cadd9, D5, Dsus4, G5...

In terms of fingering from the left hand view it's all the same... but when fingerpicking I can make that simple thing more interesting by dividing 2 'fancy chords'(to most anything that isn't minor, major or a power chord is fancy...) into more chords but that are yet simple ones...

I guess I should have simply said that I love diads and triads but you might not have pictured exactly what I meant by that since not veryone have the same definition and use of such

Great post, Glorbz. What can I say, I'm your "brother in suspension". The biggest reason that I'm a bigger fan of recording than of playing live (and I gig a lot), is that I've only two hands, and I'm a freak for arrangement, particularly the way different chord voicings spread out the sound.

I like to play around with how different instruments and tunings, as well as how use of capo's, make the sounds larger than they otherwise would be... guitar, banjo, mandolin, baritone guitar, high-strung guitar - anything that causes the clusters to allign themselves in a different sounding way.

I started screwing around with DADGAD tuning for the first time yesterday, and can't believe I'm into the game this late, as I've been absorbed by it ever since. It's funny, I've played double-dropped D for years, but tuning the B down to an A changes everything.

One of the reasons that the Led Zeppelin acoustic stuff sounds so huge and ethereal is because of the tuning differences between the guitars and mandolins. All those colors, extensions, clusters, and drones make those tunes sound like they do.

quote:

Originally posted by Corleone:
I like to play around with how different instruments and tunings, as well as how use of capo's, make the sounds larger than they otherwise would be... guitar, banjo, mandolin, baritone guitar, high-strung guitar - anything that causes the clusters to allign themselves in a different sounding way.

I like my mandolin also... for that very same reason... that's probably why I have a hard time figuring out if I should sell it or not providing I haven't touched it in roughly 4yrs ! A shame I know but those 4 reversed strings just make you play differently and you find stuff that way you probably won't only on guitar...

I miss a piano tho! That to me is the best thing to work with when it comes to arrangements then again I took classical lessons for 6yrs straight as a kid so that must be why eventhough I can barely play it now. One day if I ever have the luxury of owning a house I'll manage to get a straight piano in, I tried keyboards and they don't feel the same at all as the real deal you miss the touch element that's probably why I love guitar so much... the touch factor is increased quite a lot compared to a piano!

I take it you are a guy who likes layering tracks... the hardest thing when you start that is to layer silence and air in

quote:

Originally posted by Corleone:
...

Oh sorry, I should have been clearer on that 'alternating'. What I meant was that you can use those two chords in an arrangement as passing chords and stuff.

Also, I think you got the definition of a polychord wrong: A polychord is two chords (triads) on top of each other. D/C I think is called a slash chord in English (?) and just means you've got a D triad with a C in the bass. I personally like writing polychords just with added tones (for D over C: Cadd9+11,13) but I think I've seen it like this as well:

D
-
C

You are correct there NJlo - Poly chord = two triads, slash chord = triad over bass note. By the way I like that D/C to Csus/E. I'm stealing it from you .

Yeah, a polychord is different than a slash chord, and I was misleading when I referred to, say, D/C, as anything other than a slash chord. A lot of musicians that I've been associated have referred to Steely Dan as being proponents of polychords, and if we had access to the master tapes and could solo all the stacked instruments that are playing the various voicings, we'd likely be hearing more than a slash chord. However, if you have only two hands (like me!), and you need to cover a tune like "Josie" live, the practical default is often slash chords.

It's a bit like that opening chord on "Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles. You can analyze that chord and call it anything in the world, and there are quite a few grips that cop the basic vibe if you need to play it live with one guitar. However, my understanding is that George stacked voicings in the studio (wish I knew what they are!), and I don't think that chord (and those of its ilk) quite comes off without being stacked with different voicings.

quote:

Originally posted by Glo®bz:I like my mandolin also... for that very same reason... that's probably why I have a hard time figuring out if I should sell it or not providing I haven't touched it in roughly 4yrs ! A shame I know but those 4 reversed strings just make you play differently and you find stuff that way you probably won't only on guitar...

No man, please don't sell your mando! The number of tunes I play mando on at shows continues to increase, and I use it all the time at sessions. It's just such a great texture, and the marriage of acoustic guitar and mandolin sits so beautifully within a track. Plus, mandolin is a sure-fire chick magnet! Seriously, it's like taking a baby to the park. I can't count the number of times a woman has come up to me at gigs and asked, "What's that little bitty guitar, that's the cutest thing I've ever seen!" I wish I'd owned one when I was a single guy, no kidding.

quote:

I miss a piano tho! That to me is the best thing to work with when it comes to arrangements then again I took classical lessons for 6yrs straight as a kid so that must be why eventhough I can barely play it now. One day if I ever have the luxury of owning a house I'll manage to get a straight piano in, I tried keyboards and they don't feel the same at all as the real deal you miss the touch element that's probably why I love guitar so much... the touch factor is increased quite a lot compared to a piano!

Ah yes, piano. I do own a house and I have an upright piano. I'm a hack, but I do dink around on it as an arrangement tool. I'm with you 150% - the reason I don't track keys at recording dates is because my piano won't fit into the back of my Toyota! The very best digital work stations sound awful to me, and whenever the subject of using digital keys is brought up within any project I'm associated with, I vote quite loudly and adamantly against it... when you know what a Steinway and a Hammond B3 sound like, it's tough to get excited about an approximation, or at least it is for me.

quote:

I take it you are a guy who likes layering tracks... the hardest thing when you start that is to layer silence and air in

Guilty as charged! You know, as much as I bitch about the digital domain, I really am a freak for the editing and housekeeping capabilities of systems like Pro Tools and Qbase. There are lots of times where I'll enter a session thinking, for example, that the high-strung guitar should lay out until the first pre-chorus, drop out during the instrumental break, this sort of thing. What I'll do instead is to play the instrument with appropriate dynamics over the entire track, like I would live, knowing that edits are simple moves anymore. I like to leave a session knowing that I've given a project leader more textural options than are needed. Some engineers thank me for it later, others curse me for the option anxiety.