Modern Music Theory and Application

12 tone jazz/fusion 20c classical quartal/quintal lines

Posted on October 21, 2023November 1, 2023 by Modern Music Theory and Application

CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

12 Tone Jazz/Fusion Quartal/Quintal improvising and composing concepts

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a look at employing 12 tone rows for Quartal and Quintal improvising and composing.

Here is the first row: Notice the movement of 5ths and 4ths.

Now, we will play it backwards with retrograde motion or reversal: Also, notice the use of changing register.

Full 2 bars:

In this next example we will employ Triadic movement and semitone connections.

In the following part we connect triads directly:

Finally, we will add some non 12 tone notes to complete the phrase:

From here we will exploit the tone row and make 4 bars of music from it: Here is the 12 tone row:

We will now copy it and change register: Notice that the last four notes descend:

Now, that we have this we will reverse both bars and create another 2 bars of music:

Lastly we will join together 2 different rows: We will break these up a bit with the first part acting more like a vamp:

The second part employs quintal and quuartal movement once again:

PDF DOWNLOAD:

12-tone Download

If this lesson was of use to you then please SUBSCRIBE to us on Youtubebelow, Thanks!

12 tone diatonicism? Alban Berg: guitar 12 tone serialist composing?

Posted on October 1, 2023December 24, 2023 by Modern Music Theory and Application

CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at exploiting the thinking of serialist composer Alban Berg and his unique tone row formations.

alban-berg-diatonic-12-tone-serialism-technique

What makes this unusual and tonal and ironically diatonic in this context is that one half contains the white notes and the other the black notes.

What you notice is that there are two “Hexatonic” scales here:

This creates an interesting harmonic shift that can be exploited easily from a compositional perspective.

Okay, let’s take a tone row from this hexatonic setup:

alban-berg-diatonic-12-tone-row-technique

Now, let’s create some chords form this. I am going to employ tri-chords [three note] chords because they work well with chordal guitar picking:

alban-berg-diatonic-12-tone-serialism-tri-chords

Using these chords as a basis for my composition I will add open guitar strings and and a few fretted notes and re arrange the chord voicing’s, eventually, moving away from 12 tone.

Here are the chords I chose:

alban-berg-diatonic-12-tone-serialism-chords-guitar

Lastly, a little turn around/cadence:

Now, let’s exploit another 12 tone row in this context:

alban-berg-diatonic-12-tone-serialism-guitar-how-to

This time I will employ strumming as the main guitar technique for this part of the composition.

So, as usual let’s make some tri-chords:

Finally, here we see a snippet from Berg’s “Lyric Suite”.

PDF DOWNLOAD:

bergconcepts Download

If this lesson was of use to you then please SUBSCRIBE to us on Youtube below, Thanks!

CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

E Pedal Note Rhythm Guitar Alternate Time Signatures

Posted on September 26, 2023January 27, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

CLICK SUBSCRIBE!

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a response video to my previous blog in regards to employing a pedal note.

What is the E Pedal Note?

This is just an open E string that can be plucked as the basis for holding time.

john-mclaughlin-pedal-note-guitar-technique-diagram

We can use simple quarter notes as our base and syncopate chords between them or play chords on different beats.

We can also double this with 8th notes

And of course taking it further with 16th notes:

To make this more interesting we can play on the off-beat:

And finally, “Mix” the Pedal note rhythms for rhythmic drive:

This is all good and well and extremely useful, but there is more………..

What makes this really useful is that we can play odd time signatures or uncommon time signatures along with alternate time signatures.

For this I am going to employ Indian “‘Teen Taal” and then break it up.

So, above we see the 16 beat cycle with the accented red numbers 1 5 9 13

Next, count this and accent those numbers and get a feel for the repeated cycle.

Now we will break this up:

We will only count up to 11 and then create a loop with our E pedal holding time in quarter notes. Remember the accents on 1 and 5 and 9.

This now gives us 11/4

From here we can develop and create our own patterns in 11/4 with the E pedal note holding time and our accents of 5 and 9 which tell us where we are in the bar or beat cycle.

Lastly, let’s mix two different time signatures together.

Here we have a group of 5 and a group of 7. Also, notice the rhythm in the bass with the E Pedal note.

From here you can create and develop easily what you want as this concept works really for the guitar and alternate time signatures and uncommon time signatures.

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD:

pedal-note-e Download