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Using the Minor 3rd Chord Cycle

9/21/2013

by Scott Hesse

The last few Guitar Notes have dealt with the subject of chord cycles. This study of cycles has always fascinated me because there are so many different ways harmonically to get from one point to another.

The crux of most music is made by a tonic chord moving to its tension chord (usually a dominant chord), and back again. Even when harmony is static, oftentimes the melodic portion of music will imply the same I-V-I relationship within the line. With melody in mind, I've used another chord cycle below to show how I might approach this tension/resolution (V-I) idea linearly.

The Minor 3rd Chord Cycle is one of my favorites because of its beautiful and unexpected harmonic twists and turns. In practicing this progression, I would first repeat just the chords over and over. Try to place them in as many positions on the guitar as possible. Finding the chords all over the neck gives me different positions where I know I can find all the chord tones. It expands my reach both visually and aurally.

The melodic line is fairly simple. I didn't really deviate from the actual harmonies much more than adding a little chromaticism here and there. You can also see that I keep the majority of the line on the D and G strings. The positional moves on the fret board go with how the chords are moving. It's all about the connection between melody and harmony.

Another way to use this progression both melodically and harmonically is to substitute, or superimpose, this progression over another. For instance, if you were playing on a more standard chord progression like |Cmaj7 | A7 | Dm7 | G7 |, the Minor 3rd cycle works. Use the progression above in place of the standard harmonies. This superimposition of harmonies is done frequently by improvisers. It's a good way to get this tension/resolution into your playing in an organized way.

Experiment with this idea as much as possible. It will open your playing in many ways while allowing you to evolve your harmonic/melodic approach.

Feel free to post any questions or comments below.

Happy practicing!!

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The Major 2nd Chord Cycle Exercise

9/7/2013

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by Scott Hesse

This is the second installment in a series of tips on Chord Cycles. The first one dealt with a melodic voice-led approach to the harmonies. This time, I want to take a bit of a different approach.

First of all, I'm using a Major 2nd Chord Cycle below. What that means is that the tonic keys (the Major 7th chords in this case) are all separated by the interval of a Major 2nd. I connect each tonic key center by preceding it with a dominant chord. To color the dominant chords up a bit, I use the extension of a ninth.

Also, note that the way I put the exercise together is very uniform. The arpeggio pattern is the same through every key center and ends when you return to the CMaj7 again. More uniformity exists in the fingering pattern as well. A look at the tablature notation reveals the same finger pattern throughout.

The Major 2nd Chord Cycle:

Again the idea behind this exercise is to train yourself to hear different possibilities for harmonic cadence. You also need to be able to sight the various chord tones on the neck in different ways. This particular cycle (when broken in to segments) happens in lots of tunes as a I-vi (VI)-ii (or II) progression.

Even though I have this exercise set up as I do, there are many, many ways to take this apart and reconfigure with different sequences. I really don't mean for this to be about technique, but more about sound exploration. Use your ears to suggest other ways of hearing this chord cycle. A great way to start yourself toward that end is to write a piece of music based on the chord cycle. It could be the whole cycle, or just pieces of it.

As always, take your time to find your own way through it.

Happy practicing!!

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