Pattern Generation

Tag: jazz

  • Welcome to Phrygia, Good Luck in the Battle! Octave Pedal Tone Exercise in C from E to E (or 3 to 3).

    Here we encounter the octave pedal-tone exercise starting on the third note of the C Major scale, aka the Phrygian mode.

    The ancient Greek region of Phrygia is known to have a couple of very famous figureheads and was constantly at war! The Phrygians participated in the Trojan war; they were for a time led by Gordius, famous for his Gordian Knot; and Midas, the mythological King who’s touch turned everything to gold are all part of the Phrygian story.

    In the Phrygian mode we discover some very exotic tensions and, interestingly enough, the mirror image of the Major scale in terms of the perfect intervals (4th, 5th and of course octave) all remaining steadfast in their qualitative resolve but all of the Major intervals present in the major scale, the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th, shift to their minor quality. So where’s we can represent the Major scale as the numbers 1 through 8 with no modifications, we represent the Phrygian mode as follows: 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8. Try to enjoy the changing character of each different modal pedal tone exercise while you embrace the possible challenge of learning the location of these notes and the technique required to play it. I promise you your hands will be more agile than ever and you WILL know your fingerboard better than you ever thought possible!

    Here is the Tab:

    Octave Pedal Tone in C (E Phrygian)Download

    While there are a multitude of pathways we can choose to navigate through any octave pedal tone exercise, I decided for some reason to make this one a little challenging. We begin on the upper octave and shift the low voice to the off beats, creating a need to articulate in such a way that we don’t displace ourselves from the downbeat. If you’ve listened to the demo video you will hear that it’s all too easy for the ear to reorient itself within the pulse when the lower voice is the one that is moving–even though it’s on the offbeat–we just naturally want that to be where the beat is. In the interest of humility I will say I could have done a better job delineating that by accenting the beat and playing the offbeat with a softer dynamic. Something to work on, for me and for you!

    After this we go from the almost darkest of the modes to the very brightest with the Lydian. Things get progressively darker moving through Mixolydian, Aeolian and finally Locrian before we finish our elementary investigation into the octave pedal-tone exercises.

    But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we’re not even halfway there yet. Stay tuned for the E Phrygian played in alternating low/high triplets: COMING SOON!

    Thanks for visiting and as always, Happy Practicing!

  • pattern generation: the beginning…sort of

    octave-pedal-tone-1-c-major-1Download

    This is the first of a radically high number of possible octave pedal-tone exercises. In this one, we start at the open position C Major scale fingering and sort of inchworm our way all the way up to the high C on the 20th fret of the high-E string and then work our way back down so that we descend into a Unison through the same register we started in. The difference in the last octave sequence as compared to the first octave sequence is that we are now descending to the unison in the 5th position. Some CAGED-style thinkers might C this as the G shape, as opposed to the opening patterns movement through the C shape.

    One possible goal is to create as much overlap and ringing connection between notes as possible. Another equally fine approach is to make the notes as detached as possible. The choice really is up to you and the style you are working within, or towards, or maybe even away from?

    To achieve a strong foundation for future pattern generation development it is very important to keep track of where your moving voice is in the scale. To this end, even more than being aware of the letter names you are playing–though that is pretty crucial at the outset–you will want to practice seeing the notes you are playing relative to their scale degrees. So, for the C Major scale, C = 1; D = 2; E = 3; F = 4; G = 5; A = 6; and B = 7 and C at the octave, above or below = 8. This first exploration expands and contracts only between single octaves and a unisons so there is no need to consider compound intervals though at some point 2=9, 3-10, 4=11, and 6=13 will become valuable.

    Here is the play through for reference. Feel free to play it slower or faster, or with distortion or not. All of these decisions are yours to make. Happy pattern generating.