Modern Music Theory Improvisation and Application

Alternate Picking Guitar Exercises/Runs 140 bpm ii v7 i

Posted on November 1, 2023November 5, 2023 by Modern Music Theory and Application

alternate-picking-mechanics-guitar-exercise-fusion-fluidity-lines

Video above demonstrates the exercises below:

Hi Guys,

Today, a couple of alternate picking guitar exercises.

The difference with these is that they are LONG “Fusion” fluidity exercises/lines. The Goal is in “Connecting” the 4 note tetrachords together to produce long liquid lines for jazz/fusion improvisation.

mclaughlin-liquid-lines-fluidity-alternate-picking-exercise

These lines are through a ii V7 I chord sequence/cadence at 140 bpm, so they are not super fast but are at the tipping point of the fusion tempo.

I am starting on a down stroke with the pick and following through with strict alternate picking in double time with 16th notes.

EXERCISE 1:

This first exercise employs some chromaticism ascending with pentatonic movement. The last 2 notes have a big stretch so there’s also a quick moment of detailed finger precision in the fretting hand.

alternate-picking-mechanics-guitar-exercise

As always with these types of exercises it’s important to count time and feel the pulse.

This will create the “Fluidity” in movement and help connect it all together.

EXERCISE 2 VARIATION:

Next, we have a variation of the exercise above. This time starting with an upbeat and an extension all the way to the top D note.

alternate-picking-mechanics-guitar-exercise-fluidity-lines

EXERCISE 3:

Lastly, we have another tetrachord exercise and variation going the other way,

alternate-picking-mechanics-guitar-exercise-liquid-lines

CONCLUSION:

As you can see from these short exercises, the only way to get the alternate picking effective with jazz/fusion is through the “Connections”, because the harmony/chord changes have to be dealt with whilst picking.

PDF DOWNLOAD:

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

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

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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:

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

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

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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: