piano – Modern Music Theory Improvisation and Application

John McLaughlin’s Pentatonic’s for Coltrane Changes:[Giant Steps]

Posted on November 29, 2025November 29, 2025 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at John McLaughlin’s “Pentatonic” guitar concepts for playing over the Coltrane Changes.

Although I am employing alternate picking guitar technique at quite a fast rate, these pentatonic’s simplify things enormously.

THE RHYTHMIC SIDE OF THINGS:

To keep the solo line tight, we will count in a basic manner,

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

This way, you will know where you are in the bar and what chord you are playing over.

To begin with I use the B major pentatonic scale. Next, I employ a simple 2 finger pentatonic scale over D7 and GMaj7.

I then play the second part [same fingering] up a semitone and land on the note D for the EbMaj7 chord, counting 1 2 3 4 in preparation for the next chord.

Sheet music diagram showing giant steps chord names BMaj7, D7, GMaj7, Bb7, and EbMaj7, along with tablature for guitar. John McLaughlin version. — John McLaughlin Giant Steps BMaj7, D7, GMaj7, Bb7, and EbMaj7 for guitar players.

For the first three chords I play what could be called “A Dorian Pentatonic”. But, I am not really thinking in that way. [I am just adding the F# note for the 3rd of D7]. This in turn creates a very simple and “Fluid” guitar fingering that is very common to most guitar players and hence easy to play.

Sheet music featuring john mclaughlin guitar tablature for Am7, D7, GMaj7, Bb7, EbMaj7, and F#7 giant steps chords. — John McLaughlin giant steps guitar chords Am7, D7, Gmaj7, Bb7, EbMaj7, F#7, and BMaj7.

On the F#7 chord I play an F#7 arpeggio that then resolves into an Eb minor arpeggio for the BMaj7 chord.

John McLaughlin Sheet music showing guitar tablature for the chords BMaj7, EbMaj7, and F#7, with annotations. — McLaughlin Musical notation showcasing the BMaj7 and EbMaj7 chords alongside the F#7 arpeggio.

For then next part, I again employ a simple Pentatonic to get through the first three chords.

This Bb minor leaning works well because over the Bb7 chord it gives us the “Blue note”. Finally we use our A Dorian Pentatonic again to resolve to GMaj7 for our last three chords.

Sheet music displaying John McLaughlin's chord progressions and tablature for Fm7, Bb7, EbMaj7, Am7, D7, and GMaj7 in giant stpes improvisation

Here, I just use C#m pentatonic and F# Pentatonic to land on the D# to nail the change to the BMaj7 chord. Very simple and very common guitar fingering.

John McLaughlin musical sheet showing chord progressions for C#m7, F#7, and BMaj7 with annotations for specific notes. — Musical notation highlighting C#m7, F#7, and BMaj7 chords for McLaughlin’s giant steps.

For the last part, I employ an Fm9 arpeggio and a C minor pentatonic scale that then goes up a semitone and repeats our C#m7 F#7 to Bmaj7 phrase.

Sheet music displaying Fm7, Bb7, and EbMaj7 John McLaughlin chords with tablature for guitar. — Music notation for Fm7, Bb7, and EbMaj7 chords, illustrating McLaughlin guitar techniques.

But, this time we land on an F# for the 5th of BMaj7.

A musical sheet showing the John McLaughlin chords C#m7, F#7, and BMaj7 with corresponding tablature. — John McLaughlin guitar pentatonic’s example

PDF DOWNLOAD:

giant-steps-easy-guitar-fingering Download

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Exploring the Elektra Chord by Richard Strauss

Posted on August 11, 2025September 7, 2025 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at the amazing “Elektra” chord employed by composer Richard Strauss.

Nowadays, we might consider this to be a 7#9 chord, but looking at this from a 20th century classical perspective we can create much fresher and more interesting material from this worn cliche.

PART 1:

To get a clearer idea, we will exploit “Bi-tonality” and connect two different chords together, E Major and C# Major.

Musical notation showing E Major and C# Major chords on a staff with tablature below of Strauss "Elektra Chord". — Music notation showing E Major and C# Major chords, illustrating bi-tonality for the Elektra chord.

From this, we will remove the third [the G#] from the E Major triad and look at the C# Major triad enharmonically as Db Major.

So, now connected we have a Chord of Db7/E

Sheet music illustrating the Elektra chord, showing E Major, C# Major, and Db7/E chords with corresponding tablature. — Chord notation illustrating the Elektra chord (Db7/E) in relation to E Major and C# Major.

For Guitar:

Musical notation for a Db7/E chord, including staff and tablature for the elektra chord on guitar.

Here, is the Arpeggio with TAB

Musical notation showing a guitar tab and sheet music for the elektra chord arpeggio with notes and finger positions. — Illustration of the arpeggio/chordal outline for the Elektra chord

Here, are 3 octaves of the arpeggio/chordal outline with TAB:

Sheet music showing a guitar tab with the arpeggio/chordal outline for the Elektra chord in three octaves. — Illustration of the arpeggio/chordal outline for the Elektra chord in three octaves.

PART 2:

Now, we will make another “Elektra chord” so that we have two chords to work from.

This new [Elektra] chord, will be C7/Eb

Musical notation of the chord C7/Eb showcasing the notes and structure to vary Strauss's elektra chord. — Musical notation illustrating the C7/Eb chord, showcasing the unique harmonic structure.

So, here are our two chord examples:

Sheet music displaying the chords Db7/E and C7/Eb from Strauss Elektra Chord. — Musical notation for the chords Db7/E and C7/Eb, highlighting their structure.

Below, I have included audio of a quick orchestration/compositon I did to show how this wonderful harmony sounds when we apply it to the orchestra [Orchestration].

Also, notice how the inner pitches work to create beautiful drama in this tonality. Here we have octaves moving down in semitones in 5ths and then 4ths.

elektra-chord-richard-strauss- — Musical notation illustrating the ‘Elektra chord’ concept as explored in the article.

AUDIO Example:

Next, notice the inner pitches when adding the 5th of the top triad.

AUDIO Example:

PART 3: GUITAR IDEAS:

Here, we have a simple chord and answering phrase:

1] Chord and line: Db7/E

Musical notation for the Elektra chord and improvised line with accompanying tablature for guitar.

2] Chord and Line: C7/E[/Eb]

Musical notation showing a chord progression with the elektra chord for guitar, including finger placements and notes. — Chord and improvised line example for C7/Eb, showcasing voicings and ideas for musicians.

CHORDS: Here are some voicing’s and ideas:

elektra-chord-richard-strauss-guitar-chords

3 Octaves of Elektra Chord: As ascending Arpeggio Movement:

elektra-chord-richard-strauss-example-3-octaves

IN CONCLUSION:

As we can see from this quick look at one chord, there is a whole world and a wealth of material within it.

For the serious composer, and improviser this search and re-development of worn ideas/harmony is essential in order to make ones mark.

This renewal, gives us fresh material to work with and a pallet of our own with which to stamp a unique signature that is all ours.

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD:

elektra chord 2 Download

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Easier way to improvise with Music Modes [Guitar]

Posted on June 19, 2025 by Modern Music Theory and Application

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IMPORTANT: Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a quick look at another way of exploiting modes/improvisation on the guitar fingerboard.

We will be creating music via concepts/musical tools based on this minor shape.

Why do this?

Because with this 5 fret shape arpeggio we can easily create:

So, for instance in C Major [Ionian] we can take chord iii and Vi arpeggio shapes as a solid base and create/develop improvisation-as opposed to learning millions of scale/mode shapes/patterns etc.

With this as a base we can develop proper musical lines and rhythmic phrasing

Before we start it’s important to see how easily chords iii and Vi link together:

Example:

The first thing to be aware of is the basic pentatonic’s right under our fingertips with this arpeggio shape:

[These pentatonic’s give us some basic building blocks from the outset]:

QUARTAL SOUNDS

Next let’s add some 4ths for a Quartal jazz/fusion-esque sound:

Descending:

Ascending:

With extension

Basic Quartal fingerboard movement:

CYLE OF 4THS

Another thing to take into consideration is the cycle of 4ths under our fingertips:

Remember that we can also make these, major, minor, diminished or augmented:

For instance all major:

All minor

[This gives us even more colour and choices for chromaticism/chromatic movement right under our fingertips once again]

TARGET TONES/APPROACH NOTES [JAZZ CHROMATICS]

Below, we can see the set-up for target tones with this Em arpeggio shape:

We can also add some chromatic notes to this to create a longer jazzy-esque line:

String Skipping Petnatonic’s

String skipping works well because it removes familiarity/cliches from the ear:

Here are two examples:

Example 2:

PAIRING TRIADS

Lastly pairing triads works really. Here is a Lydian example:

conclusion

This blog has only really touched on this way of thinking, but, you can see how easy it is to make connecting lines and musical phrasing and how to exploit improvisation tools from this simple minor arpeggio shape.

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