[nygaard, scott] modal harmony (ag 02). learn to c(bookos.org)

Lesson- 'Modal Harmony' http://www.acousticguitar.com/lessons/Modal_Harmony/1.shtml

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lessons | modal harmony

Learn to create chords from scales.

Scott Nygaard, Acoustic Guitarmagazine's managing editor, is anaccomplished guitarist with more than 25 years' experience. He has performed andrecorded with Tim O'Brien and theO'Boys, Chris Thile, David Grisman, and Jerry Douglas; released two solo albums,No Hurry and Dreamer's Waltz (RounderRecords); and been nominated for anumber of Grammies for his work onother artists CDs. He lives in SanFrancisco and performs in theImprobables with violinist Darol Anger(www.darolanger.com).

To hear the examples, you need the RealPlayer plug-in. Enjoy your lesson, and check out the instructional book/CD, BestPrivate Lessons.

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Tune up

In traditional Western triad-based harmony, chords areconstructed by stacking thirds on top of each other: aminor third (a step and a half) stacked on top of a majorthird (two whole steps) gives you a major chord, and a major third atop a minor third is a minor chord. Even the"fancy" chords used in jazz and contemporary music,such as maj7, m11, 13, and even 7b9, are constructed bystacking thirds on top of other thirds. Keep adding thirdson top of the 1, 3, and 5, and you get the 7, 9, 11, and 13.In the key of C, for example, you could add the B, D, F,and A notes to the 1, 3, and 5 of a C-major chord (C, E,and G). Notice that if you arrange all those notes (C, E, G,B, D, F, and A) in a slightly different order, you get aC-major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B.

In the music of many cultures around the world, themelody or rhythm is traditionally more important than theharmony. And in many instances, Western-influencedchord structures have been imposed upon what was originally scale- or mode-based music. Irish traditionalmusic is a good example. This music originated withvoice and bagpipes, and the addition of chordalinstruments like piano and guitar is a relatively recentdevelopment. But the tunes didn't always take well totriad-based chord accompaniment, and this is one reason


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that Irish guitarists have often favored the droney soundof D A D G A D tuning, which allows them to accompany the tunes without using obvious triadic chordsounds. A similar thing happened in jazz in the '50s whenMiles Davis and John Coltrane conceived of basing theirsolos and the backing harmonies of a tune on a scale,rather than on standard chords.

In this lesson, we'll explore the kinds of chords you cancreate by using the notes of the scale that corresponds to agiven key. Forming chords by combining the notes of ascale in different ways is a great technique guitarists canuse to find interesting new colors. Once you're freed fromhaving to define a chord with specific notesthe root, theseventh, and the thirdthe options become endless.

To keep our fingers from getting tied in knots, we'll startby using an open string, D, as the root of the chord andplay chords only on the three strings above it. Of course,to construct chords using a scale, you'll have to befamiliar with the scale, not only across the fingerboardbut up and down it as well. Example 1 shows triads in thekey of D, with a D bass note, in which the voices in eachchord move up the D scale step by step.

Example 1

For example, the notes on the third string move from A to


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B to C# to D to E to F# to G and back to A. The notes onthe second string are clearly a D-major scale: D, E, F#, G,A, B, C#, D. If you're not seeing this as you play thechords, play single notes on each string one at a time, asin Example 2.

Example 2

We'll start our exploration of modal chords by simplychanging one note of the chord forms in Example 1. Let'stry raising the F# in the first voicing to a G note. If weraise the highest note in all the voicings, we get Example3.

Example 3

The notes on the second and third strings remain thesame, but the notes on the first string are one scale stephigher than in the voicings in Example 1. These particularvoicings are often used in modal jazz and are sometimescalled fourth chords, because they consist of fourths stacked on top of each other. Look at the first voicing: the


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interval from the A to the D is a fourth and the intervalfrom the D to the G is also a fourth. The voicing on beat 4of measure 1 sounds odd, doesn't it? As we do theseexercises, we'll come upon chord voicings that may notseem to be very useful. But by going through everyvoicing of every configuration, we can learn what soundsgood and what doesn't.

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Next let's alter the first voicing by moving the middlevoice, the D note, down a step, to the C#. This chordsounds a little strange, but keep moving up the scale andsee what nice chords we uncover with this configuration.

Example 4

Example 5 moves the lower voice, the A note, up a step toa B. Now we're starting to get somewhere. Notice thateach of the voicings contains a second intervalthe BC#in the first voicing, the C#D in the second, etc. Using


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seconds in chords is easy and common on the piano butrather difficult on the guitar. You'll most likely have toplay the second and fifth voicings in Example 5 bystretching your index finger and pinky (or ring finger, ifyou've got big hands) three frets. And you'll have to makesure that the finger playing the note on the third stringdoesn't damp the note on the second string. These kinds ofchords are very cool, and they would be much harder topull off if you had to finger more than three notes.

Example 5

For some more piano-like chords, let's raise the voicing onthe first string by another step (Example 6). Ouch! Thesewill take some work at first, and you'll need to make surethat your fretting-hand thumb is placed behind and in themiddle of the neck. If you're used to wrapping your thumbaround the neck, you'll have trouble playing these chords.But since you're only fretting three treble strings, youwon't need as much strength in your whole hand.

Example 6


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Before you feel like your tendons are going to burst, let'stry another set of piano-ish chords that don't require quiteso much stretching. Going back to our original voicing,let's raise the upper voice a step to a G and the middlevoice a step to an E.

Example 7

I've been pretty systematic in my approach to finding thesechords, but once you start to see where the notes of thescale are, you can create chords out of any of these notes,limited only by what sounds good to you and what yourfingers can reach. Notice that I haven't given these chordsa name. When forming chords modally, it's a little silly toworry about their names. For example, the first chord inExample 6 could be called a Dmaj13 or a Bm9/D or an Aadd9/D, none of which really tells you what notes toplay.

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Let's continue by finding voicings based on an A7 chord.Remember that the A7 is the V chord in the key of D, sowe'll be using the same scale as in the previous examples.We'll use the open A string as the bass note and constructchords on the top four strings. But since the open G andE strings are notes in the A7 chord, let's try just changingthe notes on the D and B strings, to get an open-tuningsound. Moving the notes of an open-position A7 chord that fall on the D and B strings upward gives us Example8.

Example 8


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If we let the notes on the G string move upward with theD and B strings, we get Example 9. We're playingfive-note chords here but only fretting three strings. Make sure you don't inadvertently damp the high E orlow A strings.

Example 9

Now let's try messing around with that voicing on the D,G, and B strings. We'll leave the high E string alone forthe moment. As your fingers stretch to reach notes, it's alittle harder to keep the open E ringing, but remember asyou play this next batch of chords, that you can add theopen E string anytime you want. First let's raise thehigher voice a step (Example 10).

Example 10


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Now let's also raise the lower voice a step (Example 11),giving us some more "piano chords" that require a bit ofstretching. You'll need to finger the fourth and fifthvoicings a little differently, switching from using yourring finger to your pinky on the bottom note of the voicing.

Example 11

For the next batch of chords (Example 12), we'll drop thehigh voicing back down a step to where it began, on theC#.

Example 12


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So, what are you going to do with the 88 new chords youjust learned? Remember that since all these voicings arein the key of D, you can substitute them for any chord inthe key of D, relying on your ear to decide what worksand what doesn't. For example, try playing "WinterWaltz." The chords follow a simple DBmGA(IviIVV) progression, using voicings from Examples312. Obviously, once you have to start fingering the bassnotes, like G and B, your options are limited.

See if you can come up with some variations on thissimple ditty, using some of the other voicings we'vefound. And remember that this idea will work in all otherkeys as well. Try moving all the voicings down two frets and adding a C note to the bottom to get some modalchords in the key of C. And if you're working with a bassplayer or another guitarist who's playing basic triads,


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you'll have even more fun, because you can experimentwith modal voicings without having to worry aboutplaying the bass notes.

Winter Waltz

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[nygaard, scott] modal harmony (ag 02). learn to c(bookos.org)

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