[Harp-L] #V - i.e. bVI chord (was temeprament dust-up)

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Holcomb asks:

Can anyone recommend some ways to gracefully play through a #V chord in
2nd position?  I'm working on Stormy Monday and can't seem to find any
smooth flowing licks for this part of the chord progression.  A 36 or
69
octave works nice, and a 3 draw half step bend sounds good.  So does a
Sonny Boy Williamson II style 23 headshake (2- 3'-), but I'm looking
for
something a little more melodic.  Suggestions?

=====Winslow replies:

OK< let's say you're playing in in G on a C-harp (second position). 

The V chord is D7: D F# A C

The bVI chord is: Eb G Bb Db

The bVI chord is a semitone above the V chord. Where it appears in
blues progressions, it often is preceded or followed by the V chord. On
some instruments, you could easily play parallel licks - use one likc
or riff, play it a semitone or higher or lower according to the chord.
This may prove awkward for those who have not achieved the holy grail
of completel chromaticity on the diatonic, so it may be fruitful to
look for other ways to go.

Firs, let's look at what it takes to play each note in the bVI7 chord
(note: each "b" before a note indicates one semitone of bend):

Eb: 1OB, 4OB, b8B

G: 2D, 3B, 6B, 9B

Bb: b3D, 6OB, bb10B

Db: b1B, b4B, 7OD, 10OD

let's say you want to avoid the overblows and overdraws. You can
connect the ramining chord notes to one another using scale notes that
don';t clash wwith any of the chord notes. For instance, you'd probably
want to avoid E natural (tends to clash with Eb in this context) and B
natural (clashes with Bb).  However, F, A, C, will all work nicely. D
F#, and Ab can even be worked in with a little care.

So, let's see, we have F, (F#) G, (Ab), A, Bb, C, Db, (D), or, to
simplify it a little, F, G, A, Bb, C, Db.

Now, to give it a little context, let's look at the chord that follows
the Eb chord. And let's say that chord is D. So whatever lick or riff
we play over the Eb chord, we want it to end up landing on a note of
the D7 chord. For instance, in the following example, all the notes are
over an Eb chord except the last one, which lands on the newly arrived
D chord:

bb2D 2D b3D 4B b3D 4D

Note that the entire lick falls within the G blues scale. Most of the
notes also fit the Eb7 chord. here's another one along the same line:

b4D 4B b3D 2D bb2D 1D

To extend it a little farther:

b6D 6B 5D 6B    5D b4D 4B b3D bb3D 2D bb2D 1D

The above lick could also start with unbent 6D.

I could go on but this is enough to start with.

Winslow  



		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail