Please watch video above for detailed info:
Hi Guys,
Today, a look at John McLaughlin’s emotional and melodic chords for composition and reharmonisation.
PART 1:
The key to both parts of this blog is the employment of the 1st Inversion Major chord and its resonant guitar voicing:
Below, is the key voicing shape: Here, we have F Major as a 1st Inversion [or F/A] voicing:
From this, let’s take the sequence from John’s classic “Electric dreams/Electric Sighs” composition.
John’s melodic harmony:
We will start with a basic E Major chord that will then go to an Eb first inversion chord:
From here, we will resolve this by moving to Ab minor:
We will now repeat the pattern, and, create an ascending sequence with F#/A# resolving to B minor:
There is now an implied cadence with Em7 to A7. But, this doesn’t Modulate to the key of D,
Instead, we carry on with the sequence. This time we employ Ab/C to Db minor [enharmonically C#m]
And finally, we do resolve, but, this is back to our tonic chord/Key of E Major.
FULL SCORE:
With this type of beautiful, creative, melodic harmony, it’s a good idea to apply arpeggios to underline it and give it movement.
PART 2
The minor b6 and First Inversion Chord Relationship:
Most people seem to have a preference for the minor 6th chord, [which in this case has the F# or the Major 6th].
But, the minor flattened 6th chord [F natural in this case] has an amazing character of its own, [especially when it resolves to the first inversion, as we will see].
What makes the minor chord with a flattened 6th work really well is to move down to a first inversion chord.
EXAMPLE:
Here, we have a Db minor chord moving down to a 1st inversion Ab Major chord:
Notice the flattened 6th note of A at the top moving down a semitone to the Ab note:
This smooth chordal transition works beautifully when creating melodic sequences.
Let’s now add some more first inversion chords:
Here, we employ F#m/A with the bass resolving a half step down to the G # note.
Once again, we have a wonderful melodic transition, this time going to the E first inversion chord.
In order to move away from cliche-dom we will now alter the harmony a bit.
Here, we will add a chord of D9/F# [1st inversion] and let the bass move down a semitone to a chord of F7 [but with a Maj7th also and a #11th].
To complete this example, we will exploit chains of 7 Sus4 chords: Here, are the first three chords moving up in semitones.
Here are the next three chords moving up in semitones :
Finally, we come to a conclusion and rest on an E/F# Chord, up a semitone once again.
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