Today, a quick look at some of John McLaughlin’s amazing altered, slash and ambiguous guitar chords.
Johns harmony is a very rich palette indeed.
In the little example above in the video, I play about with some of Johns harmonic movement and colour.
EXAMPLE 1:
Although, I could employ diminished harmony, I am instead aiming at “Implication”….Why?…This is in order to bring out the big “Rich” resonance of the guitar.
F/F# [/A]
Eb/E [/B]
It is an ethereal sound where the natural harmonics and overtones can ring out of the guitars sound hole harmoniously.
SHORT CONNECTING RUN:
Next, we employ a Bb Major run with a few chromatic notes. These being, the B natural and the E natural chordal tones.
EXAMPLE 2:
Now, let’s addtwo more resonant chords,
A/Bb
B/C
ARPEGGIO CONNECTION:
We will now connect to the next part together.
This will be with an arpeggio of Ebm mostly [or D#m] implying BMaj7. [Although there is an implied resolution to B7 also].
This juxtaposition, creates another ambiguous move that opens up a fresh and unique sounding harmony.
From here, we can manipulate and resolve into the Bb minor full barre harmony:
Now, let’s create a sequence. This will be, C#7sus4 to C7 with a sharpened 4th and a Maj7th.
Notice, the chromatic movement in the bass as we sequence this.
Finally, this resolves from CMaj7#11 to CMaj7 with open string guitar chords.
In conclusion, this was just a quick look at Johns unique take on harmony and how to apply some scale and arpeggio movement to connect it all together.
John’s harmony is a lovely combination of ambiguity and resonance with a sense of calm.
The magical ethereal tone opens doors to really interesting solo applications that exploit implied harmonies and dissonances. These I find are met with with lingering resolutions that are never quite met.
It’s a sort of pairing of opposites that you can’t quite put your finger on that give it that alluring yet elusive quality.
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Here are the Number groupings from the Youtube video I posted today as promised.
First of all we have the 4+1 or 1 e and a 2. [Hence nailing the next beat].
This could also be transformed into a quintuplet. Or, Ta ka di mi thom from Johns use of Konokol.
EXAMPLE 1:
Here, we double this amazing “Prime number”.
NOTICE: We start on a downstroke for the first grouping and then start on an upstroke for the next grouping.
Musical notation and tab demonstrating alternate picking techniques and rhythmic groupings .
In terms of “Alternate Picking” guitar technique this creates some magic dust in our favour as not only are we two beats ahead of typical 4 note picking groupings, we are also connecting with both the up and downstrokes resulting in very quick and fluid picking.
From this, we can then start to break it up into musical motifs or phrases or riff/unison material.
The next great number for interesting phrasing and alternate picking groupings is the prime number 7
Now, let’s connect these two prime number patterns together!
Musical notation illustrating the connection of two prime number patterns in guitar technique.
This next example is also useful, although, it’s not a prime number but a group of 6 notes “Sextuplets”
From this, let’s add two more notes to form a common grouping of 8 notes:
We will now add one more note for a group of 9
9- Example 2
Now, let’s go up one more again for ten notes.
10-Example 2
This time we will go back to prime numbers with a group of 13 notes
Musical notation illustrating a grouping of 13 notes [Prime number] for alternate picking techniques.
Finally, let’s exploit a whole bar of 4/4 time
Guitar tablature and notation illustrating alternate picking techniques and rhythmic groupings of John McLaughlin.
IN CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, this was just a concept related to alternate picking guitar technique specifically.
This is because sometimes the rhythmic motifs are not logical and need to be re-framed in order to make sense of the demands of the picking hand.
Also, sometimes starting on an upstroke works better than the down stroke or visa versa. These prime numbers generally put us a beat ahead which for alternate picking is extremely important because otherwise there is the age old tendency to just tremolo and hammer on willy nilly trying to catch up and this music is the antithesis of that.
So, in summation: These groupings help make sense of illogical phrasing for the picking hand whilst making sure that we are ahead in the music.
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