Pat uses the diminished 7th chord and the augmented triads to unravel
some chordal and melodic possibilities on the guitar. Both of these
chord types are symmetrical, which are very easy to see on the guitar
fingerboard, which is also symmetrical. Let's start with the diminished
7th. C Eb Gb Bbb (A) For the purposes of seeing how this ties together
you sometimes use the enharmonic spelling of a note, ie F# instead of
Gb, so don't let that throw you.
For guitarists it will help to play these examples to see how they work.
A common voicing for this chord on would be Eb on the 4th string (D
string), 1st fret; A on the 3rd string, 2nd fret; C on the 2nd string,
1st fret; and Gb on the first string, 2nd fret. Now, if you lower the Eb
on the 4th string 1/2 step to the open D you obtain a D7th chord. If you
are serious about applying this I'd suggest writing these down in
diagram or notation form, because you are going to end up with a lot of
information. Next, go back to the original diminished 7th chord and
lower the A on the 3rd string 1/2 step to Ab, which yields an Ab7th
chord. Then, back to the diminished and lower the C on the 2nd string
1/2 step to B natural, which yields a B7th chord. Last, back to the
diminished chord and lower the Gb on the 1st string to an F, which gives
us the F7th chord. From the one diminished 7th chord you get four
dominant 7th chords. This principle expands several ways.
First, you will be able to see how the diminished scale works with
dominant chords. A lot of players have trouble remembering which
diminished scale goes with what dominant chord. By using a very easy
symmetrical fingering for the scale you can see how this works. Starting
from the 4th string on the 1st fret play Eb, F, Gb, 3rd string Ab, A, B,
2nd string C, D, Eb, 1st string F, Gb, Ab. The fingering will be 1, 3,
4; 1, 2, 4; 1, 3, 4; 1, 2, 4. This scale fits all four dominant 7th
chords which the unraveling excercise gave us, and you can *see* the
chord shape along with the scale with just a bit of practice.
Now a variation on the four 7th chord excercise. This time start again
with your diminished 7th chord and lower the Eb to D again, giving us
the D7th. Now go back to the diminished 7th and move it up three frets
to the 4th fret. (Your note on the 4th string will be Gb, aka F#) Most
of you probably know diminished chords repeat on guitar every four
frets. Now lower the Eb on the 2nd string, 4th fret 1/2 step to a D, and
you have the next inversion of a D7th chord on that group of strings. Go
back to the diminished and move it up another four frets to the 7th
fret. Lower the Eb on the 3rd string to a D and you have the next
inversion of D7th. Last take the diminished to the 10th fret and lower
the Eb on the 1st string to a D and you have your final inversion of
D7th on those strings. Moving up another four frets to the 13th gives
you the octave of your original chord. BTW, doing this excercise the two
different ways is a principle that comes up repeatedly on guitar. Mick
Goodrick calls it "one thing changes while the other stays the same".
If you have diagrammed or already know these chords you can go the next
level. If you raise the note C 1/2 step to C# in each of the D7th
voicings you get four D major 7th chords. If you lower the F# in the
four D7th voicings 1/2 step to F natural your convert each of these
chords to a D minor 7th. From the Dm7 chords you obtained in the last
example you can lower the A's 1/2 step to yield four Dm7th b5
(half-diminished) chords. So, by using the diminished as a springboard
you can easily work out the various types of 7th chords on the
fingerboard. Next variation:
In the first diminished chord we used to start this excercise the Gb
flat is on the 1st string, 2nd fret. Now flip that note over to the 6th
string (same fret) and you have an easy way to get more voicings using
the same principle of lowering each of the tones 1/2 step.
Before I go I'd like to suggest some advantages to doing things this
way, not that I'm advocating doing it exclusively. First of all, with a
little patience you can work out any basic chord you'll ever need (more
on this with augmenteds later). Goodbye chord books. If you need a
particular note in the treble for melody or in the bass for movement you
have a way to figure this out. You can do this excercise on ANY four
strings on the guitar. There are 14 different combinations of four
strings, and often there is more than one way to form a diminished 7th
on a given set of strings, so there are a bunch of chords that you can
learn. Another advantage to this is using these voicings to relate your
scales and melodies to. Lots of guitarists, from Charlie Christian to
Pat use the underlying chord form (shape) as a reference for their
improvising.
Many of the techniques that I learned from Pat are similar in that they
expand once you have some basic concepts. He thought this was valuable
because you can continue to teach yourself rather than having to rely on
a teacher or a method book. So, I'll see you on the next exciting
installment.
Clay