Post by Paul KPost by Steve KnightThere are a lot of good postings in the RMMGJ archives on Triad Pairs.
I'm working on triad pairs now, partially to improve my ear &
partially to improve my chops. It's fun to practice; but, it
definitely feels like a "technical exercise" at this point more than a
musical statement. Making actual music with this approach is still a
long ways off for me. Can anyone recommend some recordings where a
musician is using triad pairs in their improvisation? I've heard the
samples from the Hal Crook "How To Improvise" book, but those are
pretty short.
Thanks,
SK
I'm with you on how hard it is to use these musically. One obvious thing that
escaped me completely until a sax player I play with showed me is to not just
play the triads in a pair as 3 notes (eg CEG DF#A EGC F#AD etc) but to
instead run longer patterns that cover more than one octave. For example an
"ascending-descending" pattern might start
CEGce f#dAF#D Gcegc ....
etc. then do these not linearly, eg
CGEec f#AdDF# ....
If you get good at this then playing in say 8th notes gives you groups of 5,
which give you some interesting rhythmic tension. the longer words also give
it less of a "playing pattern feel".
This is just theoretical for me. I can do a little of this in practice, but I
havent gotten this out on the bandstand.
Paul K
There are obviously all sorts of permutations that one can do to the
note order of the 2 triads.
Essentially we're talking about hexatonic (6-tone) scales because the
two triads used are not supposed to have any common tones.
Charlie cautioned me against just running them as scales though. He
thought that the best thing to do was to keep finding ways to cycle back
and forth from the sound of one triad to the other which might not come
out if you're just thinking in terms of the scale.
Still, many of his exercises did amount to treating these tones as a
6-tone scale.
His basic exercises for gaining facility with a pair of triads was as
follows:
Fmaj & Gmaj
Arpeggiate up both triads starting with root position, then 1st
inversion then 2nd inversion. Then reverse.
Rt. Pos 1st Inv 2nd Inv Rt. Pos
F A C, G B D |A C F, B D G |C F A, D G B |F A C
2nd Inv 1st Inv Rt. Pos
F A C |D G B, C F A |B D G, A C F |G B D, F A C
Ascend through the F triad and descend through the G triad.
Rt. Pos 1st Inv 2nd Inv Rt. Pos
F A C, D B G |A C F, G D B |C F A, B G D |F A C
2nd Inv 1st Inv Rt. Pos
F A C |B G D, C F A |G D B, A C F |D B G, F A C
Descend through the F triad and ascend through the G triad.
Rt. Pos 1st Inv 2nd Inv Rt. Pos
C A F, G B D |F C A, B D G |A F C, D G B| C A F
2nd Inv 1st Inv Rt. Pos
C A F |D G B, A F C| B D G, F C A |G B D, B G D| C A F
The obvious rhythm to practise these patterns with is triplets, but they
work well in duple rhythms like 1/8s and 1/16s too.
Then we would do pairs of notes where each note in the pair came from
one of the two triads.
F A, G B| A C, B D| C F, D G| F A
F A |D G, C F| B D, A C| G B, F A
and
F A, B G| A C, D B| etc. (i.e. Ascend through the 1st two notes and
descend through the next two notes.)
and
A F, G B| C A, B D| etc. (i.e. Descend through the 1st two notes and
ascend through the next two notes.)
and
A F, B G| C A, D B| etc. (i.e. Descend through the 1st two notes and
descend through the next two notes.)
Then
F C, G D| A F, B G| C A, D B| F C
F C |D B, C A| B G, A F| G D, F C
and
F C, D G| etc.
and
C F, G D| etc.
and
F C, D G| etc.
Then we'd do pairs of notes in which each of the two notes came from
both triads.
F G, G A, A B, B C, C D, D F, F G
F G, D F, C D, B C, A B, G A, F G
and
F G, A G, A B, C B, etc.
and
G F, G A, B A, B C, etc.
and
G F, A G, B A, C B, etc.
Then
F B, G C, A D, B F, C G, D A, F B
etc.
and
F B, C G, A D, F B, etc.
and
B F, G C, D A, B F, etc.
and
F B, C G, D A, F B, etc.
Then
F D, G F, A G, B A, C B, D C, F D
etc.
We would also do other manipulations with the tones of this hexatonic
scale that amounted to what he called "non-tertian-triads", i.e. triads
that are not built in thirds.
For instance...
This scale is: F G A B C D F
We would take 3 tones of the scale, eg. G A B and treat it as if it was
a triad. Initial Pos is G A B. "1st Rotation" is A B G. and "2nd
Rotation" is B G A.
We would juxtapose that triad with a triad made up of the remaining 3
tones of the scale, C D F which rotates to D F C and F C D.
This makes for patterns like this:
G A B, F C D| A B G, C D F| B G A, D F C| G A B
etc.
And all of this stuff, as hard as it is to assimilate, is just the tip
of the iceberg if you really want to explore the possibilities of this
technique.
Note: All of the above patterns will work over the following chords:
G7sus4, Dm7, Fmaj7, F7, B7alt
Try them also over Db7 when it's functioning as SubV7 in C.
Also not too bad over Bm7b5.
Jerry Bergonzi's book Hexatonics is probably the best source out there
for more information on these techniques.
--
Joey Goldstein
<http://www.joeygoldstein.com>
<http://homepage.mac.com/josephgoldstein/AudioClips/audio.htm>
joegold AT primus DOT ca