YOU CAN BREATHE NEW

life into ordinary triads when you

voice them to span more than an
octave. Composers have used this
technique for centuries. Lets see
how its done.
Open up. To give our ears a
treat, lets stretch triads drawn
from the harmonic minor scale
(see chart below).
Ex. 1a shows the familiar fifth-
position fingering for a standard
R-b3-5 Am. In Ex. 1b, we move
the middle noteb3and place
it on topof the chord for a R-5-b3
voicing. This expands the chords
range from a fifth to a minor
tentha big difference.
Ex. 1c takes us through the
root position (R-5-b3), 1st inver-
sion (b3-R-5), and 2nd inversion
(5-b3-R) of this open voicing.
Compare these sounds to the Am
we started with.
Ex. 2 illustrates how to harmo-
nize the Aharmonic-minor scale
using strings 4, 2, and 1. In Ex. 3,
we play the same voicings, but the
5 of each chord is now on string
3 (as opposed to string 2). This fin-
gering is more compact and thus
works well in the lower positions.
Run it down. Play Ex. 4 to
hear what happens when we har-
monize Aharmonic minor using
the 1st inversion of our open
voicing.
Open voicings sound cool
when arpeggiated, as in Ex. 5.
Listen to each line as it moves
note by note.
Playing open-position triads
will let you hear these simple,
three-note chords in a new way,
and help you unlock their hid-
den power. g
Randy Clark teaches music at
San Franciscos Blue Bear School
of American Music and Haight
Ashbury Music Center. For info
on Dark Comes Light, the debut
album from Clarks band Crow-
song, visit www.haight-ashbury-
music.com.
S E S S I O N S

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Am Bdim Caug Dm E F G dim

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B Y R A N D Y C L A R K
Ex. 2

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Am Am Am
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Ex. 1a
Ex. 3
Spread Triads
Ex. 1c Ex. 1b
Send us your candidate for Lick of the Month
(preferably notated and on cassette), along with
a brief explanation of why its cool and how to
play it. If we select your offering, youll get a funky
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dress, and phone number. Materials wont be re-
turned, and please dont call the office to check
the status of your submission. Youll get your shirt
if your lick is chosen.

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S K I P - O - R A M A
L i c k o f t h e M o n t h
OUR APRIL OFFERING COMES
from Scott Murphy, of Tokyo, Japan. He
writes, This lick makes an excellent warm-
up exercise. It stretches your fretting-hand
fingers and tests your string-skipping skills.
For a quasi-Philip Glass effect, cycle this
three-bar lick over a repeating two-bar drum-
machine groove. The faster you play it, the
better it sounds. Experiment with a slow,
sweeping flange or slap echo. Better yet, try
running this phrase through a harmonizer
set to fourths or fifths. Nowyoure talking! g
S
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Am E/G Am/C G dim/B F/A E/G

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F/A E/G

Dm/F Caug/E Bdim/D Am/C

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Ex. 4
Ex. 5
harmonic minor formula 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7 8
A harmonic minor A B C D E F G# A
Harmonic Minor Scale
ARPEGGIOSCHORDS PLAYED
one note at a timemake dandy tools for im-
provising single-note lines. Ripping through
an arpeggio lets you establish harmonic color,
yet remain melodic. The link between
melody and harmony, arpeggios can seem
tricky to master because there are so many
ways to fret them. You can, for example, fin-
ger a one-octave dominant-7th arpeggio
along one string, or stretch it across two,
three, or even four strings. When you start
playing multi-octave patterns, the possibil-
ities increase exponentially, especially when
you factor in all the harmonic variations of
seventh, extended, and altered chords. Yikes!
The modular concept. A good way to
make sense of arpeggios is to master one-
octave modules, and then learn how to snap
them together into multi-octave patterns.
In this lesson, well begin this process by
looking at practical ways to drape one-oc-
tave, major-7th arpeggios across three
strings. Well then discover how to transform
these forms into other useful 7th-chord
types. Next month, well explore ways to
connect these one-octave modules.
Four onto three. A major-7th arpeggio
contains the root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th tones
of its corresponding major scale. For exam-
ple, pull the root, 3, 5, and 7 from a Gmajor
scale (G, A, B, C, D, E, F#) to create a Gmaj7
arpeggio (G, B, D, F#).
To squeeze a major 7s four notes onto
three strings, we have to play two notes on
one of the strings. Look at the Gmaj7 arpeg-
gio pattern in Ex. 1. See how two notes fall
on the fifth string? In this three-string form,
the root is on the lowest string, 3 and 5 are
on the middle string, and 7 is on the highest
string. Move this form across the fretboard
to play Cmaj7, Fmaj7, and Bbmaj7 as
shown. Ascend and descend through the
four arpeggio patterns, picking each note
one at a time.
Ex. 2 illustrates a different three-string
form. In this arpeggio, the root is on the low-
est string, the 3 is on the middle string, and
the 5 and 7 are on the highest string. Again,
follow this form across the fret-
board, ascending and descending
through Amaj7, Dmaj7, Gmaj7, and
Cmaj7 arpeggios.
Ex. 3 features yet another three-
string form. Here, the root and 3 are
on the lowest string, 5 is on the mid-
dle string, and 7 is on the highest
string. You know the drill: Move this
form across the fretboard, playing
Gmaj7, Cmaj7, Fmaj7, and Bbmaj7
arpeggios.
Congratulations, you now have
12 one-octave, major-7th arpeggios
at your fingertips (three forms x four
string sets = 12 patterns). To play
each arpeggio in all 12 keys, simply move
it up and down the neck. Coolthats 144
major-7th arpeggios! But were not done yet.
Let the transformations begin. Its time
to convert the major 7s into other types
of arpeggios. You accomplish this by rais-
ing or lowering specific notes according
to the formulas shown in the chart below.
For instance:
To morph Ex. 1s Cmaj7 into C7, lower
the 7 to b7. Easy.
Ex. 2s Amaj7 becomes Am7 when you
lower 3 to b3, and 7 to b7.
Convert Ex. 3s Gmaj7 into Gdim7 by
lowering 3 to b3, 5 to b5, and 7 to bb7 (or 6).
This process takes time, so dont rush
it. As you morph major-7th arpeggios into
other harmonic flavors, youll find certain
fingerings feel better to you than others.
Make a note of the cool onesthese will
become your everyday patterns. Your faves
may differ from someone elses, and thats
fine. The truth is, you dont need a billion
optionsa handful of patterns will suffice
to make great music. What is important,
however, is the discovery process. If you
go through thi seven i f i t takes
yearsyou will emerge with a more inti-
mate knowledge of the fretboard, and thus
be a deeper player.
Next up: Linking one-octave modules
into multi-octave patterns. g
With the guitar, you really have to sort out what you want to express. Joan Armatrading, April 78 GP
B A C K T R A C K
Snap
-
Together
Arpeggios
B Y A N D Y E L L I S
3
Gmaj7 Cmaj7 Fmaj7
1
B maj7 ,
5
7 3 1
5
7 3 1
5
7
3 1
5
7
Amaj7 Dmaj7 Gmaj7 Cmaj7
3 1 5
7
3 1 5
7 3 1 5
7
3 1 5
7
Gmaj7 Cmaj7 Fmaj7 B maj7 ,
III III III III
3
1 5 7
3
1 5 7
3
1 5 7
3
1 5 7
major 7 root 3 5 7
dominant 7 root 3 5 b7
minor 7 root b3 5 b7
augmented 7 root 3 #5 b7
diminished 7 root b3 b5 bb7 (6)
minor 7b5 root b3 b5 b7
dominant 7b5 root 3 b5 b7
minor/maj7 root b3 5 7
major 6 root 3 5 6
USEFUL FOUR-NOTE ARPEGGIO FORMULAS
Ex. 1
Ex. 2
Ex. 3
S E S S I O N S

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Ex. 5

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Ex. 4

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Ex. 3

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Ex. 2
OKAY, SO I STOLE THIS IDEA FROM
Joe Pass. (Check out his duets with Ella Fitzger-
ald on Pablo records, and youll hear what I
mean.) As a form of penitence, I boiled down
the Pass concept for a guitar class, which result-
ed in the following examples.
Approaching the root. Well start with a I-
VI-IIm-V progression in Bb, voiced as shown in
Ex. 1. You can pick these chords fingerstyle using
thumb, index, and middle fingers, or use a hy-
brid pick-and-fingers grip.
Heres the basic technique: After each
chord, play a quarter-note bass note a half-step
belowthe next chords root. Try Ex. 2 to hear
how this works.
Ex. 3 shows an alternative approach. This
time, we step into a chord from a half-step above.
Shifting the root. Once youre comfortable
with these two half-step approaches, youre
ready to separate each chords root from its com-
panion harmony. Well divide each chord rhyth-
mically: Use your thumb (or pick) to play the
bass on the downbeats, and your fingers to
pluck the harmony on the upbeatsthe
andof each quarter-note. This yields a syn-
copated groove, as shown in Ex. 4. Its important
to prevent the harmony notes from sustaining
beyond their eighth-note duration. After pluck-
ing these tones, momentarily relax your fretting-
hand grip, and theyll stop ringing.
Ex. 5 illustrates how to combine upper and
lower half-step approaches to the root, as well
as on-the-beat and syncopated chord hits.
Even a simple two-chord vamp presents many
possibilities. g
David Hamburger teaches at the National Gui-
tar Summer Workshop. Check out Hamburgers
The Dobro Workbook[Hal Leonard]. For Davids
solo album, King of the Brooklyn Delta, or info on
clinics and private instruction, write to Chester
Records, Box 170504, Brooklyn, NY 11217.
X X X X X X X X X X X 1 2 3 4 X 2 1 2 3 3 1 2 3
B 6 F7 Cm7 G7 ,
VI VIII
VIII III
Ex. 1
Compingwith
Bass Lines
B Y D A V I D H A M B U R G E R