Search options

That's preeeeetttyyy far-out, haha :-).

If you dig far out stuff, the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen is worth checking out! He was a big inspiration to The Beatles (he's on the sergeant pepper album cover actually), to Miles Davis and was among those who inspired Frank Zappa as well. He spent about 20 years in "acoustic laboratories" manipulating sine wavs and studying phonetics, to "compose a sound" and to eventually synthesis other sounds. He was a German composer who spoke several languages fluently and this video happened to be recorded in French. Karlheinz introduces the song and performs in it as well.

Microphone placement was definitely key here, as well... in fact, one guy on each side of the tam-tam is actually holding the mics used to record this and the mic distance from the epicenter is charted out, both in width and depth on the sheet music, as well as all the specific tools and motions used to produce various sounds.

Mikrophonie 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhXU7wQCU0Y

Anyone heard of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum? My favorite album of theirs is probably "Of Natural History", but "In Glorious Times" is a super close second. Someone told me that one of the band members made his own instruments (strange ones) to play.

Greenless Wreath
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvyKzz5E0YM

One of the main differences of the pentatonic scale is that it isn't a staircase of whole steps and half steps. It has larger jumps and for that reason people like Dean Brown (Excellent jazz fusion player and super nice guy, played with Brecker Bros and others) say that the scale is already a melody, or as much a melody as it is a scale. Nothing need be discounted and likewise quality can't be determined by popularity. Pentatonics are a great way to solo without sounding like you are thinking of scales, especially if you alternate between pents over a each chord.

Shaw, you mentioned pents for C-F-G progression (I-IV-V). When looking at it as being a progression in Cmaj, we can then look at the harmonized scale and play minor pent from all of the minor chords in that progression (The ii-iii-vi chords, and of course that bonus one I mentioned earlier Bmi [the vii] to get all those ultra tasty chord/scale tones).

However... if those are played as a blues, then the chords would presumably be C7-F7-G7. That changes everything, because we can't see it in the key of Cmaj any longer. In the harmonized maj scale dominant chords are V chords, so we would view C7 as being in the key of F... that means we can play the min pent again from the ii-iii-vi chords, which would be Gmin pent, Amin pent and Dmin pent (also we can of course play Cmin pent if we bend the b3 up to a regular 3rd to achieve that bluesy sound).

Then applying that same thinking to to the F7 chord means that we can play: Cmin pent, Dmin pent and Gmin pent (Amin pent doesn't work anymore because you'd be playing a 7th over F dominant, which requires a b7). Also, as with all dom chords, you can play a min pent from the root as mentioned in the previous paragraph (this case being Fmin pent).

Then applying that same thinking to to the G7 chord means that we can play: Dmin pent, Emin pent and Amin pent. Also, a min pent from the root (this case being Gmin pent).

One last ultra awesome tip, is that whenever a dominant chord is a "functioning dominant", meaning it is the V of whatever follows it (i.e. C is the V of F, or G is the V of C, etc) you can play a min pent from a b3 up and you'll be playing a selection of notes from the altered scale. So if you are in a C7 blues and you are at the turn around, going from G7 back to C7, you can play Bbmin pent over the G7.

Here is a special treat! Skip to 2:25 for the solo, to catch this pentatonic super impositions in action :-).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlGq-qsjyvM

This talk has me encouraged to upload my Pent vids more frequently, hahaha. I do kind of have like 5 series running at the moment, which is fun and cool but it spreads my topics a little thin perhaps. On the other hand, maybe it's good, I mean an average person only takes 1 lesson a week anyway and 1-2 uploads a week for a single topic might be perfect. I'll have to think on that some more, probably.

Hey, Funster! I just noticed you are from Nova Scotia! Any chance you've heard Patrick Healy's Lazarus Project? He is a local in your neck of the woods and pretty awesome. I bet you'll dig this, man. He's got a great mix of sounds going on, which includes a lot of the people we've been talking about. His new CD is really interesting... sort of a mix between intense and atmospheric, vibe-y fusion.

http://www.reverbnation.com/patrickhealyslazarusproject

I did a long promotional pre-sale and created a sampler with a bunch of people involved and he was a contributor. Great guitar player and Cool dude too. Worth befriending on FB and the like. Oh btw, I don't know if you use FB or not but feel free to hit me up on there:
https://www.facebook.com/lee.wanner

I hear ya, Shaw. What blew my mind when I was in school, was learning that the Pentatonic can be played in multiple places on the neck to achieve every mode of the Major scale (which includes the minor scale of course because the aeolian mode, the minor scale, is the 6th mode of the major scale). In fact, you can even play notes from the altered scale with the pentatonic scale.

I know this is a tad rushed because I have to run at the moment, but as an example of what I mean: people might want to try these sweet tips/tricks.

Over an Amaj7 chord, you can play:
Bmin pent (bit tense, many scale tones)
C#min pent (Really good sounding)
F#min pent (That's the relative minor)
and G#min pent (The hippest of all, has the 7, 9, 3, #11 and 13)!

I gotta finish up some some stuff here in the studio, but I'll come back to add some more tips later! Also, my vids will cover all that eventually. I plan to be concise but also step-by-step thorough :-).

You mentioned some bands I haven't heard of and will have to check out, man! (Split Enz, Brand X, Max Webster)

I am a pretty huge Zappa fan I have to say. Aside from 60+ albums, everything he did to fight censorship?! What an awesome, dude! Oh and totes with the Jethro Tull. I seem to remember they Won best metal album of the year at one time when Metallica was also up for the nomination. I trust they also could have won best album of several genres that year :-). Steely Dan is amazing too... I don't know if you've heard the guitar player, Scott Henderson? He is one of my favorite Jazz/Rock guitar players and he said that he loved Steely Dan because they essentially had the harmonic depth of , but wrote great "pop" songs songs. Over course, we likely think differently of what is meant by the label "pop" these days, but you probably get his point.

One pretty alien artist, you may like, or even know about already... Allan Holdsworth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDoE … hJbU1zbOeE

On a side note, I think it is true to say that what people refer to as "Pop" and "Avant Garde" can have great, great music. But I don't think those names really work for a genre. "Popular" doesn't seem accurate because if the Beatles came out today they would probably be called a fusion or alternative band, for having songs like "Live and Let Die" that go from orchestral-rock to reggae, etc... And Avant Garde means "new and unusual experimental ideas", which is totally appropriate as a concept, but as a genre people often fulfill certain idioms that are considered Avant Gard and contradict it. Names like Jazz, Rock, Blues, Metal, etc. all work best as names, because they have either been totally invented or been given new meaning at least. CRAY CRAY RAMBLING, sorry, haha.

Hey, 77pinkbubbles77!

Good for you, persevering and prevailing like a boss :-D!

I don't happen to know anyone with dyslexia, so I'm not sure if these diagrams I made will be helpful, but they do happen to include the numeric interval of each note on them... also if it helps, you can see my hands just like in a private lesson. Oh and please, just like a private lesson, if you have any questions, hit me up :-)!

Here's the series (should be in a playlist). All the best :-)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCYfKmO … TnX2OkqNRy

Wow, EdShaw! That was a pretty thorough post, man!



I have started a series that will maybe be of some help to people? It will demonstrate all of the modes of the pentatonic scale in traditional and 3-note-per-string versions, talking about incorporating the blue note into all of those modes, as well as the 9 and 13, b13/#5, how and when those are applicable, etc... also how to super impose them over every kind of chord from different. Anyway, hope this helps :-)!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00IvdMp … mp;index=2

Hey, DVC!

Jerome's answer was spot on! I'd like to give your question a shot, too... just in case I am able to add anything helpful.

People convert the letters into numbers, or rather intervals, because although the letters change for every key, the intervals of chords and scales do not. For example:

CDEFGABC
becomes
12345678

Two notes are cannot be a chord because they are only an interval, so the fundamental foundation of a chord must be three notes. Also chords can only be built by stacking thirds. This means that the most basic chord possible is a triad, meaning: 1-3-5 (Root-third-fifth).

Now the root can never change, but the 3rd and 5th can. So that gives us these variations.

Maj: R-3-5
Min: R-b3-5
Dim: R-b3-b5
Aug: R-3-#5

Augmented triads are kind of rare; but if you wanna hear a good example, check the intro to "Stardust" by Nat King Cole.
Diminished chords are a lot more common; they often act as transitions between diatonic chords. Check out the Jazz standard "Bewitched" as an example.

Now, about the 7... The seven is just following the formula used to find triads, stacking 3rds.

Most common 7th chords:
Maj7 chord: 1-3-5-7
Min7 chord: 1-b2-5-b7
(Dom)7 chord: 1-3-5-b7

Notice that those 7th chords are built from the Maj and Min triads. Other 7th chords can be build from Dim and Aug triads.

So now about the 9, 11, 13... you may have noticed that while stacking thirds, we skipped over the 2, 4 and 6. A quick recap:
CDEFGABC = 12345678

Well 8 is the same as 1 again, C and C. If we stack thirds beyond the point of 1-3-5-7, well moving a third over 7 will pass over 8 and lands at 9, which is the same as two... check it out, CDEFGABCD = 123456789. C is 1 also 8. D is 2 and also 9. A third above the 2/9 is 4/11. A third above 4/11 is 6/13.

9, 11 and 13 are considered extensions or scale tones. as where 1-3-5-7 are considered chord tones. Anything in between a chord tone and a scale tone are passing tones.

Hope that helps.

P.S. A quick tip, try adding a 9, just as an example, to any chord you play. It's never a "wrong" note, unless you are playing with someone who knows to altered a functioning Dom chord.

All the best, dudes! Check out my youtube channel if you want to see some videos with weird chord voicings (and normal ones too) and other lessons :-).