Week 12 14-02-14 Gato

harmony

The opening section of Gato uses just two chords rocking back and forth, typically described as Im7 bIImaj7  (in concert  Em7  Fmaj7).

In our session I suggested various options for soloing over these chords:

option 1)  minor pentatonic  1  b3  4  5  b7  8  built from root of minor seventh chord  (in concert  E  G  A  B  D  E  )

The minor pentatonic fits the first chord minor seventh very closely (ie 1 b3  4  5  b7  8 ) and played against the second chord major seventh gives lovely extensions, aka colour notes (ie major 7, 9, 3, #4, 6 and back to major 7 ).

Within the minor pentatonic we explored both step-wise movement and broken thirds/fourths.

Jim also mentioned the idea of 'thinking about' the relative major, built from the minor third  1  2  3  5  6  8  (in concert  G  A  B  D E  G ).  Same notes, but  different starting point.

option 2)  phrygian scale 1  b2  b3  4  5  b6  b7  8  built from root of minor seventh chord  (in concert  E  F  G  A  B  C  D  E )

The phrygian scale is the third mode of the major scale  (in concert E phrygian is the third mode of C major ). This scale can also be played over the second chord major seventh where it becomes the lydian scale  1  2  3  #4  5  6  7  8  (in concert F  G  A  B  C  D  E  F ). The lydian scale is the forth mode of the major scale (in concert F lydian is the fourth mode of C major ). Although knowledge of both scales is useful it is perfectly possible to improvise using just one (if you know they can be related to each other). In principle you could use either the phrygian scale, or the lydian scale, or indeed the related major scale (sometimes called 'parent scale'). Just thinking about one scale for both chords can help with melodic playing (THIS IS A GOOD THING!)

option 3)  changing scales for each chord

We didn't get on to this in our session. However, another way of playing over these chords would be to use different scales for each chord. The first chord minor seventh could be played with the aeolian scale  1  2  b3  4  5  b6  b7  8 .  This scale has a natural 2 (rather than a b2 as in the phrygian scale). The second chord major seventh would normally be played with lydian scale as above (Ash asked about using a regular major scale  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  but I think the 4 will sound 'odd' whereas the #4 will sound more appropriate - always subjective though!)

  rhythm - groove

Rhythmically this piece draws on a variety of 'latin music' elements (particular Cuban) with the crotchet anticipations in the bass (bars 2, 4 etc) and also the two quaver hits at the end of bar 16. I thought our rhythm section made a thoroughly fine job of this in our session :-)

I have just noticed a mistake in bar 21, please remove the tie between quaver and the following crotchet.

form

In all fairness to Finn Peters I should acknowledge the fact that I blatantly disregarded a whole section of his composition - a beautiful set of chord changes which give this piece yet another dimension. It is in fact over these chords that the soloing takes place (and not the intro chords as we did). Steve mentioned this (and quite rightly so). If anyone is interested to look at these chords then why not have a go at working them out yourself. I will also have a look at them and we can, if you wish, compare notes in a couple of weeks. 

Excellent work from everyone during this block - well done.

No session next week but we resume with our next block of four on Feb 28th (then March 7th, 14th, miss a week, finish on March 28th). Info about the tunes to follow soon!

Cheers Mark

mark@markbassey.com