Book review: Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar by Mick Goodrick and Tim Miller

As I've mentioned in my previous post, I read the new book by Mick Goodrick and Tim Miller: Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar. In this book the authors introduce their concept of Generic Modality Compression (GMC). Since this term is not really self-explanatory (at least not for me), I was curious what it is all about.

There are actually only about 10 pages to read, the remaining pages (about 80) are examples in standard notation (no tabs). So, I've read everything, actually twice to make sure I didn't miss anything, I've looked at all the examples, and I've played through many of them. Let me first summarize what I think this book is about, and what you can find in those 90+ pages.

The basic concept is very simple and can be explained very easily. Take a heptatonic (7-note) scale and remove the root ("compression"). Now you're left with six notes. Divide these six notes into two groups of three. If you try (or if you know basic combinatorics), you'll see that there are 10 possible ways to do that. Now you have 10 pairs of three notes. Each pair, when combined, gives you all six notes of the "compressed" scale (i.e., all notes except the root). These 10 pairs of three notes can be played as three-part chords, or they can be played linearly as melodies (in any permutation, of course). That's what Generic Modality Compression is about.
So, what can you do with it? The idea is that instead of playing complete four-part or five-part-chords, you choose a chord-scale for the chord you want to play, apply the process described above, and then you play the above mentioned three-part chords (either harmonically or melodically). This will hopefully lead you to new voicings and will open up new sounds that you might not have discovered otherwise.

Let me give you an example to show you how it works in practice. If G7 is the chord over which you want to play, first choose an appropriate scale, e.g. G-mixolydian: g-a-b-c-d-e-f. If we remove the root we're left with six notes: a-b-c-d-e-f. Now we get the following 10 three-note pairs:

a-b-c * d-e-f
a-b-d * c-e-f
a-b-e * c-d-f
a-b-f * c-d-e
a-c-d * b-e-f
a-c-e * b-d-f
a-c-f * b-d-e
b-c-d * a-e-f
b-c-e * a-d-f
b-c-f * a-d-e

Each pair contains all six notes, i.e. each pair completely represents the scale apart from the root note G. You can play each of the above groups of 3 pitches as three-part chords. Note that you can use inversions and open voicings, i.e. the three-part chord a-d-f (second inversion of a D minor triad) can (and should) also be played as (from low to high)

d-f-a
f-a-d
f-d-a
a-f-d
d-a-f

In this way you'll get tons of three-part chords (and six voicings for each chord) to create new and unexpected sounds (and to keep you busy for a while).

Those 80 pages of the book in standard notation just contain all possible pairs of three-part chords and their inversions (close and open voicings), first for the mode C ionian (C major). After that the principle is applied to the jazz standard Stella By Starlight. For each chord in that tune, a chord scale is chosen, and the corresponding 3-part-chords are listed. You can listen to the examples on the CD, and there are also play-along tracks for you to practice. Later in the book, there are also examples for the melodic use of this concept ("Arpeggio Permuations"). This is very simple, just take the 3-part-chords from the previous pages and arrange the notes linearly, i.e. play them one after the other.

OK, that's what this book is about and what you can expect to find in it. Now I would like to make a few critical remarks. First of all, the whole GMC concept as introduced in the book is based on reducing a 7-note scale to a 6-note scale by removing the root. The motivation for removing the root appears to be the 'fact' that the root is played by the bass player, so the guitarist shouldn't bother to play it. Well, especially in a jazz context, you won't find a bass player just playing the root. Maybe the bass will play the root on the first beat of the bar (or maybe not), but anything can happen after that. If also the accompanying instruments are to be given some freedom - as is normally the case in improvised music - then all instruments are responsible for establishing the sound of the mode/chord at any given time. For this reason I think the motivation for removing the root from any 7-note scale is a bit weak. There are great sounding chords/voicings including the root (in a high register), so why not use them?

I feel that there's another problem with GMC: there is no mention of how to treat avoid notes. Avoid notes are notes in a scale which are not (traditionally) available as tensions for the related chord. E.g., if we choose C ionian (C major) as a chord scale for a Cmaj7 chord, the note F is considered an avoid note, i.e. a note which cannot be added as a tensions to the Cmaj7 chord. Consequently, if a Cmaj7 chord should be outlined using GMC, all 3-part-chords containing the note F should be avoided. But this is not done and not even mentioned in the book. Instead, all 3-part-chords containing a C are avoided, yet this is not always necessary, depending on the chord voicings played by the other instruments.

I understand that GMC restricts itself to three-part chords, but this fact is not discussed in the book. I think that 4-part chords do sound great on the guitar, and just because six notes (i.e., the compressed scale) can so beautifully be split in two groups of three notes should be no reason to leave out great sounding 4-part voicings.

Finally, while browsing through the book I got the feeling that there are too many redundant examples. E.g., all the permutations of melodic possibilities of three-part chords. I think it is obvious how to take apart a three-part chord and play its three notes linearly, in any desired sequence. The authors spend many pages on writing out all those possibilities. I would have preferred a few more pages of discussion and motivation, e.g. addressing the issues I've mentioned above (avoid notes, etc.).

On the bright side, the accompanying CD sounds great and inspires you to play through some of the examples yourself. While doing so, you will definitely discover some chord voicings which you haven't played before. What I also found inspiring was that the book showed me one more possibility to learn a tune: by figuring out all possible (three-part) voicings of the appropriate chord scales for the chord progression of the tune. This is quite some work, but it will give you a lot of freedom while playing through the changes, either harmonically or melodically. And finally, I found the book a great reading exercise. Since there are no tabs you have to read everything from standard notation. And since many of the chords are no standard triads, (sight) reading them can be quite challenging. So despite having a few critical remarks on the book's concept and its presentation, I got quite some inspiration out of it, and I discovered yet another way to study a tune.

Here a short summary:

Plus:
- nice CD, some great and surprising sounds
- shows you a very thorough method to study a tune
- good reading exercise

Minus:
- no mention of avoid notes
- completely disregarding the root is not sufficiently motivated
- too many pages of redundant examples, at the expense of room for discussing and motivating the concept more thoroughly
- artificial restriction to three-part chords

Also check my post on II-V-I progressions using GMC.

Happy 2014! And some news ...

I wish you all a great and successful New Year!

I've just returned from a trip to Austria, where I was asked to join some of my friends to play a concert at the New Year's party on the main square of Linz. It was great fun to play with people I already played with 20 years ago, and it was also great to share the stage with Johannes Forstreiter, a young Austrian drummer I hadn't met before.

Left to right: Hannes, Maalo, me, Irida, Alexandra Regenfelder

Here a photo from the soundcheck, you can see that I felt pretty cold ...

Freezing during soundcheck on the main square of Linz on New Year's Eve.

The concert went really well, even though there was no rehearsal. We just had a few skype sessions to agree on song forms, keys, and solos. I wish it was always that easy ...!

Let me also tell you what I'm currently working on. Apart from some preparations for concerts starting in February, I'm working on two things right now: I've transcribed a solo by Oz Noy and I'm currently learning to play it. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time for this, but as soon as I feel comfortable with it, I'll record a video and I'll share the transcription with you. The other thing I did was that I finally got myself the latest book by Mick Goodrick and Tim Miller: Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar. Everybody has been talking about their concept of "Generic Modality Compression (GMC)", and since I'm into music theory and advanced harmony I thought I should also understand what they are doing. Mick Goodrick is an accomplished guitarist and guitar teacher. He has published many books, the most famous of which is probably The Advancing Guitarist, a book I've read (and enjoyed) many years ago. To be honest, I didn't know Tim Miller, but I've checked out some of his youtube videos, and it's obvious that he's a great player from whom we can learn a lot. I'm still playing through the examples in the book, but I'll soon post a book review on this blog. So check back soon!

Playing outside with Chick Corea

I'd like to share with you a transcription of an outside lick played by Chick Corea on the song Vulcan Worlds from the album Where Have I Known You Before (Return to Forever). I've always found that playing outside is a difficult topic because even though the concept is simple - just add notes from outside the tonality -, it is hard to make it sound good. There are tons of videos and articles on the web that try to teach you how to best apply the concept of playing outside. Some of them are even quite good, but I believe that the best way to learn it is by figuring out how great improvisers play outside.

You can start by taking a look at the lick I've transcribed below. It starts at 2:54 into the song, and it is played over an Em7 groove. The chord scale for Em7 is E dorian, and that's also how the lick starts. In the first measure there are embellished A major and G major triads, both of which are contained in E dorian. In the next measure Chick Corea plays a purely pentatonic melody. However, it is not in E minor pentatonic but in F# minor. This is still inside because all notes the of F# minor pentatonic scale are contained in E dorian. On the second beat of the third measure, he moves to the G minor pentatonic scale. This is the outside part of the lick. He uses a chromatically ascending line to move back to E dorian, and he finishes by a lick taken from the B minor pentatonic scale, which is again totally inside because all notes of the B minor pentatonic scale are part of E dorian.

So why haven't I just transcribed the outside part of the lick, i.e. the G minor pentatonic part? Because I believe that the art of playing outside lies not only in the choice of the outside notes but also in the way you move outside and back inside again. So let's have a look at these 3 components and how Chick Corea made his choices:

• moving outside: by moving down a half-step, which takes him from F# minor pentatonic to Gm pentatonic. Note that he does not move up, even though the scales move up from F# to G!
• playing outside: he uses the G minor pentatonic scale, which contains 3 outside notes (Bb, C, and F) and two inside notes (G and D). It is important to connect the outside notes in some 'logical' and musical way, and using the familiar pentatonic scale is one great way of doing this.
• moving back inside: he plays a chromatically ascending run which adds a lot of tension before it resolves back to E, the root of the tonality. From there he stays inside by playing another pentatonic lick.

 When you check out the lick, also experiment with fingerings and positions because I just chose one possibility that suits my style of playing. In the video below you can hear the original lick with me playing along. Afterwards I also play a slow version, so you can hear and see what's going on. Enjoy!

Oz Noy: chord solo over 12-bar blues

Hi everybody,

in my previous post I talked about Oz Noy and the scales he demonstrated over a 12-bar blues in G. Even though his single note solo contains a lot of interesting melodies and note choices, I decided to transcribe the very last chorus, where he plays an improvised chord solo. I really like studying chord progressions, chord voicings, and voice leading. Oz Noy's chord solo was yet another challenge to try to hear (and understand) what's going on. It keeps amazing me how much you can do with a simple 12-bar blues progression. If you check out the transcription below, note the identical voicings for the dominant chords Ab7/#9, G7/#9 and for the diminished chords C#dim7/11, C#dim7/b13. This is a cool sounding voicing taken from the diminished (whole-half) scale (for dominant chords, it is actually taken from the half-whole scale, which is just a shifted version of the diminished scale). Another chord worth noticing is the final chord. Even though the tonic chord of a standard blues is a dominant chord - G7 in this case - Oz Noy switches to a major7/#5 for the final chord, which is basically a B major triad over a G bass note, check it out!

This is me playing the chord solo (with Oz Noy in the background):

Scales over 12-bar blues: great example by Oz Noy

I found this video of a master class by the guitar player Oz Noy where he demonstrates different scale choices over dominant chords. It's a 12-bar I-IV-V blues in G with the chords

||: G7  | C7 | G7 | G7 | C7 | C7 | G7 | G7 | D7 | C7 | G7 | D7 :||

He then plays one or more choruses using only one type of scale to demonstrate the sound of that scale over dominant chords. E.g., when playing mixolydian he would choose G-mixolydian over the G7 chord, C-mixolydian over C7, and D-mixolydian over D7. He continues in this way using the following scales:

• mixolydian: 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7
• minor pentatonic: 1 b3 4 5 b7
• major pentatonic: 1 2 3 5 6
• whole tone: 1 2 3 b5 #5 b7
• diminished (actually half-whole): 1 b2 b3 3 b5 5 6 b7
• altered: 1 b2 b3 3 b5 #5 b7

The first three scales are pretty much inside and will not cause too much friction. However, the whole tone, the diminished and the altered scales contain quite a few outside notes, and they might simply sound wrong to you if you use them for the first time. Anyway, Oz Noy manages to use them in a very musical way. Check out the video and start transcribing (starts at 6:46)!