Simplifying Music Theory

Ebook Contents
Introduction

Module 1 – Page 8
What is music?

Music note

Timbre

Tone and Semitone

Guitar notes and piano notes

Music scales

Module 2 – Page 18
C major scale guitar

Degrees and music intervals

Augmented, Diminished and Perfect

Octave

Definition of chord

Music Intervals – another view

Bar lines

Module 3 – Page 31
Guitar fingers

Arpeggios

Chord names

Chord symbols

Tonality

Music theory terms

Chromatic scale

Module 4 – Page 54
Improvisation in music

Relative minor and major

Modes

Pentatonic scale

Blues definition

Blues scale

Module 5 – Page 81
Harmonic Function

Tritone
Deceptive resolution

Chord inversions

Modulation

Target notes

Module 6 – Page 100

Octave Displacement

Chromatic approach notes

Chord progressions

How to use chord progressions

Kinds of cadences

Circle of fifths

Module 7 – Page 113

Secondary dominants

Extended chord

Suspended Chords

Disguised Chords

Tone vs Tonality

Parallel Key
Module 8 – Page 128
Closely related Keys

Scales application

Harmonic minor scale

Melodic minor scale

Altered scale

Module 9 – Page 142

Chromatic approach chord

Diminished chord

Diminished scale

Dominant diminished scale

Equivalent chords VII° = V7(b9)

SubV7 chord

Module 10 – Page 159

Interpolated chord

Borrowed chords

How to modulate

Bebop scale – bebop jazz

Whole tone scale

Lydian dominant mode

IVm6 chord

Module 11 – Page 180

The chord II7

#IVm7(b5) chord

Improvising with outside notes

Improvisation in blues

Improvisation in jazz

Reharmonization

Chord substitution

Module 12 – Page 197

Greek Modes substitution

Reharmonization borrowed chords

Reharmonization with chord progressions

Blues harmony

Rhythm theory

Rhythm exercises

Mathematics and music

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 INTRODUCTION
Just on ―Simplifying Theory – Ebook‖ you can find more than 100 exclusive classes about music
theory.

The biggest problem of music theory courses and workbooks is the lack of didactics. Unfortunately,
authors forget to teach basics concepts before teaching more complex ones. They do not explain the
reasons behind things and use flowery language in explanations. Furthermore, sometimes they bring
few practical examples and use notations and music symbols without considering that the student
may be unable to read them.

There is no use in teaching a scale in a sheet music if the student is not able to read a sheet music;
there is no use in explaining chords concepts talking about triads and tetrads if the student does not
know what these are. For that reason it is necessary an organized course from which students may
learn the prerequisites and thus advance according to the teaching plan. The fact is that unfortunately
the music theory teaching still finds itself in the Baroque period, in other words, it has stopped in
time.

Besides, there are few books that discuss music theory in a comprehensive and connected way. Often
you will find on the internet pdf files on specific music topics that do not necessarily connect to other
concepts, which makes that knowledge impracticable. In those books you find a piece here, a topic
there, and at the end you find that it is a real ―mental juggling‖ to understand something.

A new way of teaching

In order to correct these common problems in the teaching of music theory, we created the
website ―Simplifying Theory‖. Starting with the simplest concepts and advancing to the most
complex ones and always trying to make connections with the music in practice here you will, in an
organized and didactic way, find practical and simple explanations about the most diverse music
themes. We also use an easy, modern and updated language, in order to avoid that your reading
becomes tiring.
To whom is this music theory course in pdf format?
Beginners find in Simplifying Theory a real guide to how studying and learning music theory. Here
intermediate and advanced students find solutions to various questions that may arise from their
learning. Our concern is, filling knowledge gaps that disrupt the development, to form a solid and
efficient knowledge background and present features and exclusive tips for any musician that wants
to upgrade his or her versatility. We don‘t care only about musical concepts themselves, but also
about the application of these concepts into practice (how to put theory into practice), because
knowledge is useless if it does not result in a musicianship improvement.

This pdf file contains, in the menus, links for you to navigate more easily through it (by clicking in a
link from a menu, you will be automatically directed to that subject‘s page). You can see that in this
example: (soon!)

The quality of the pdf ebook is the same as the articles present on the website. Those articles were
organized and structured to make the learning easier. The didactics includes tables, diagrams and
symbols: (soon!)

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 Module 1
What is music

Definition and main elements

Many authors define music as an organized combination of sound and silent moments. Let‘s look at
an example. A car alarm transmits sound and silence in in organized way, but would anyone call this
noise music? So, what is missing? Why isn‘t a car alarm music?

In a more teachable and all-embracing definition, music is created by a flowing composition

of melody, harmony and rhythm.

What is melody?
Melody is the ―singable‖ flow of sound. It is the ―main voice‖ that stands out from everything else.

What is harmony?
The overlapping notes that serve as a base to the melody are the harmony. For example, a person
playing the guitar and singing is making harmony with the chords in the guitar and creating the
melody with his/her voice. Chords are an overlap of many notes that complement the melody and are
called the harmony. We will examine chords later.

Observation: The melody is not necessarily composed by only one voice. It is possible to have two
or more voices, although this situation is less frequent. To better understand the relationship between
melody and harmony, think of a ship moving across the ocean. The ship (the harmony) serves as the
base and support for the people, (the melody). Together, they both get safely and pleasurably across
the water.

What is rhythm?
Rhythm is the beat of time through the music. Just as the watch marks hours, the rhythm leads us at
a certain pace through the song.

Each one of these subjects will be studied individually. A deeper knowledge of all the resources
available to create music allows us the luxury of unlimited manipulation in creating the ―sound‖ and
―silent‖ flow of sound that is interesting to our ears. Here in Simplifying Theory you will learn how
to understand the tools you need to create the music you feel inside you!

Go to: Music note

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A music note is the minimum element of musical sound. When a string vibrates, it moves molecules
in the surrounding air. This molecular agitation occurs at the same frequency as the string vibration.
The human ear captures and processes this vibration in the brain, attributing a different sound
(musical note) to each different vibration.

Identifying a music note

Musical notes can be identified by letters to make them easier to write and quicker to read. Musical
notation is universal, creating effortless communication between musicians from different countries.
There are seven letters that represent the seven musical notes in the piano‘s white keys.

In music theory within the English-speaking world, pitch classes typically represent the notes by the
first seven letters of the Latin alphabet, (A, B,C,D,E,F,G). However, most other countries in the
world identify the notes by the naming convention of Do-Re-Me-Fa-Sol-La-Ti (H in German for the
last one). The letter definition and corresponding notes are:

C –>do
D –>re
E –>mi
F –>fa
G –>sol
A –>la
B –> ti (H in German)
Another kind of representation for notes does not depend on words or letters. It is the written form of
music notation that uses modern musical symbols. You will probably recognize sheet music which
looks something like this:

As sheet music includes details involving rhythm, volume, and everything else, we have made
a specific topic to explain and teach all that you will need to learn about sheet music.

If this is your first contact with musical representations of any kind, don‘t worry too much about
sheet music just yet. First, start with what is simpler, and try to memorize the letters for the musical
notes.

As you gain in knowledge, you will find that sheet music will help you a lot in creating music. So, be
sure to use all that the ―Music Theory is‖ website has to offer. Go at a comfortable pace and be
patient with yourself. We are here to make your learning experience easier and more fun. In other
words, follow your own rhythm and enjoy it!

Go to : Timbre

Back to : Module 1

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Timbre (tone quality, color) is what differentiates two sounds in the same frequency (same note). For
example, the Do (C) note played in a guitar has a really different sound of a Do (C) when played in
keyboard or flute. This means that these instruments have different timbres.

Although we learn in school that a sound is a wave, this wave is not as ―cute‖ (sinusoidal) as it
appears in the books:
Each sound wave presents a characteristic shape that depends on the material which produced the
sound. This is what defines the sound timbre.

Note the different timbres below

A tuning fork is an acoustic resonator in the form of a two-pronged fork of steel. It is frequently used
as a standard of pitch to tune musical instruments. Notice that the waveform of
the tuning fork is almost sinusoidal.

Experienced musicians are able to distinguish between different instruments based on their varied
timbres, even if those instruments are playing notes at the same pitch and loudness.

Go to: Tone and Semitone

Back

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Tone and semitone

 Início /
 Tone and semitone

Definition of tone, semitone, sharp and flat

In western music, there are 12 notes: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A# e B. The symbol ―#‖
means sharp. From these 12 notes, 7 of them receive a specific name (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si) and
the other notes are identified for a sharp (#) or flat (b) of these notes, also called accident. A sharp,
by definition is the smaller distance between two notes in western music, as well as the flat. The
difference in nomenclature (flat and sharp) serves only to indicate if we are referring to a note above
or below. For example: Re flat is the same as Do sharp. Read the next section ―tones and semitones‖
to complement this concept. Here below there are some representations and their equivalences, to
make the understanding easier:

Re # # = Mi

Mi b b = Re

Mi # = Fa

Fa b = Mi

In fact, we don‘t use the way of writing ## or bb because is easier to say, for example, C instead of
D##. It doesn‘t make sense to use this second representation; we showed here only for understanding
meanings. In the same way, it‘s not common to use the nomenclature E#, nor B#, for being F and C,
respectively.

If you are curious about the mathematics that exists among the 12 notes in western music and what
makes a note different from another one in our brain perception, read the Mathematics in
Music article.

Observation: in piano, the white keys have the notes with specific names (C, D, E, F, G, A, B) and
the black ones have the notes with the accidents (C#, D#, F#, G#, A#).

What are tones and semitones?

A tone is a distance of two sharps (or two flats). A semitone is the distance of one sharp (or one
flat). For example, the distance between C and D is a tone, because between C and D there is a
distance of two flats (from C to C# and from C# to D). Simple, don‘t you think? To make it clearer,
nothing better than some exercises:
What is the distance between the notes G and B? Let‘s see how many flats (semitones) there are
between G and B:

So, there are 4 sharps of distance, which means 2 tones. Now that you know how to say the distance
between notes, try to find the distance between D and F. And then check it below.

Then, the distance is a tone and a half. Observation: A tone and a half = one tone + one semitone. In
the instruments: classic guitar, electric guitar, bass, ukulele, among others, each fret corresponds to a
semitone.

Go to: Guitar notes and piano notes

Back to: Module 1

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How to find the musical notes in your instrument?

In this topic, we will show you how the 12 notes are located (C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#,
B) in some instruments (guitar and piano). Let‘s start with the keyboard/piano.

Piano Notes
In this instrument, the black keys have the notes with accidents (sharps) and the white ones have the
other notes. You can see this below:
Guitar notes
In guitar, each string corresponds to a determined note (E, B, G, D, A, E, respectively from the
higher to the lower notes). The other notes are distributed as the picture below, where the numbers
represent the frets in the guitar fretboard:

Unlike on the piano keyboard, there is no obvious repeating pattern to the notes on a guitar. See that
in guitar is quite hard to memorize all the notes, but this will be easier progressively as you will be
studying the subjects here in the website, because there are some shortcuts that help in immediate
localization (to think in degrees, chords, scales, etc.). With time, certainly the guitar fretboard will be
completely dominated by you. Don‘t worry about that. Anyone wanting to master the guitar fretboard
will find all the help they need from this website. The learning of guitar notes and piano notes are
just the beginning.

Go to: Music scales

Back to: Module 1

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Music scale is an organized sequence of notes. For example: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C… repeating this

cycle. This scale started with the C note and goes following a defined sequence of intervals until the
return to the C note again. This sequence of distance was, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone,
semitone… repeating the cycle. This scale is called Major Scale. We could use this same sequence
(major scale) starting with another note besides C, for example, G. The scale would be G, A, B, C, D,
E, F#, G… You can see how the same logic was followed (tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone,
semitone). In the first case, we form a C major scale. In the second one, a G major scale. Following
the same logic we can form the major scale with all the 12 notes that we know. Do this as an exercise
and then check it below. We will show the major scale of the basic 7 notes:

To the other scales, we have other sequences to be followed (other intervals).

―Minor scale‖, as is called, for example, is formed by de following sequence: tone, semitone, tone,
tone, semitone, tone, tone… repeating the cycle.

Let‘s create then the C minor scale. You are already able to create this scale. It is just to follow this
given sequence starting for the C note. Just like this:

C, D, D#, F, G, G#, A#, C… repeating the cycle.

The notes D#, G# and A# are equivalent, respectively to Eb, Ab e Bb. We could rewrite then the
previews sequence like this:

C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, C.

We can see that the scale is completely the same; the only difference is that before it was written with
the sharp accidents (#) and now it was written with the flat accidents (b).
Generally C minor scale is written in the second way and not in the first one. Why? Simply because
like that all the 7 notes appear (with or without their accidents). In the first case, B note does not
appear. Does this change anything? Does this make any difference? NO. But in the books you will
probably find the second description, because of the mentioned reason. Actually, the choice for the
second option has a deeper meaning, because makes the observation of harmonic functions easier,
but don‘t worry about this now.

Check then the shapes of major scale and minor scale:

C major scale

C minor scale

Observation: In the guitar fretboard, to obtain the scale of another note (besides the ―C‖ note that we
showed) it is just to move this same drawing to the note that you desire. Try testing this doing this
same shape in C major scale starting in D note. After that, check the notes created comparing them
with the table that we showed before. This is great. Isn‘t it? This means that we only have to
memorize one drawing to each scale! In piano we don‘t have this privilege. Though, the piano
presents facilitators advantages. Each instrument has its own pros and cons!

Natural Scales
Ok, returning to the subject, maybe you are asking yourself why a scale is called ―major‖ or ―minor‖.

This is just a definition. The difference in theses scales is in the third degree, in sixth degree and in
seventh degree. In a ―major‖ scale, theses degrees are major intervals. In the ―minor‖ scale, theses
degrees are minor intervals. This is why we call the first scale ―major scale‖ and the second one
―minor scale‖. As exists other types or scales major and minor, theses basic scales that we just saw
receive the name as ―natural scales‖, because they are the most basic and primitive in music study.
In the next articles you will understand better this question about ―degrees‖. Don‘t worry if you
thought they are strange.

The ―natural major‖ and ―natural minor‖ scales are also called diatonic major scale and diatonic
minor scale. The name ―diatonic‖ means ―to move in the tonic‖. Every time we use the term
―diatonic‖ or ―diatonic note‖, we are saying that this note is part of a natural major or minor scale.

Other music scales

There are many other scales, as we will see in other topics. But the main idea is always the same. We
have a defined sequence of tones and semitones, and from this we can create a scale starting with the
note we want. Simply like that.

Ok, everything is nice, everything is beautiful, but where do we use a music scale?! My friend, it is
there where the secret lives! And this nobody tells you! You will find many texts in books or over the
internet showing lots and lots of scales, but nobody will explain where to use each one of them.

Fortunately you are in the right place! We planned all the topics of this website in a way that you
could have the entire base needed to ―take off‖ in this subject. We will talk about each scale specially
showing how to use them and everything. Here in Simplifying Theory you will learn all that you
need without paying any cent for that. Moreover, even paying wherever it is, hardly you will find a
quality material about this subject. Believe me, it is not for nothing that a few number of musicians
really know music theory. Our website is trying to tear down this wall. Enjoy it and help us to
improve even more doing your evaluation about the contents and sharing with your friends. To our
site grow and be more useful, we need your help!

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 Module 2

We already taught the basic concept about scales and we showed the typing of natural major and
minor scales. In this topic we will just show (to open your mind) other shapes to C major scale
in guitar. It is important to observe, how in this instrument, the same scale can have several shapes.
See some examples of the most common shapes:

C major guitar scale starting with the 5th string

Other shape to C major guitar scale starting with

the 5th string

C major guitar scale starting with the 6th string

Other shape to C major guitar scale starting with
the 6th string

Go to: Degrees and music intervals

Back to: Module 2

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What are degrees?

Probably you already heard about ―first degree‖, ―second degree‖, etc. And maybe this has sounded
strange in the beginning. But, as we will see, this terminology is simple and can be really useful.

If we give numbers to C major scale in the following way: C (1st degree), D (2nd degree), E (3rd
degree), F (4th degree), G (5th degree), A (6th degree), B (7th degree), we could say to a friend, for
example: ―play the 5th degree of C scale‖, and he/she would know that we are talking about G note.

For this, it is really useful to talk about notes of a song in terms of degrees. The logic is the same that
was shown above, applied to each note of interest. For example, we can create the degrees starting
from D note: D (1st degree), E (2nd degree), F (3rd degree), G (4th degree), A (5th degree), B (6th
degree), C (7th degree).

So, if someone asks, let‘s say, the 3rd degree of D, you would know that he/she is talking about F
note. You can see that we are working in C scale in all these examples. This must be specified (in
which scale we are working).

Applying Music Intervals

In a practical way, to know which note refers some degree it‘s only to count with your fingers the
notes starting from the one that was chosen as 1st degree. Below we have some examples, yet in C
scale (use like exercise):

– Second degree of E: F
– Fourth degree of G: C
– Seventh degree of B: A
*Observation: The first degree is also called ―tonic‖.

These examples were used only for teaching purposes. In practice, you will see that degrees are
really used in the context of harmonic fields. You will learn how to find yourself in a song using
degrees in the article called ―harmonic fields‖. Before this we will learn (in the topics ―augmented,
diminished and perfect intervals‖ and ―music intervals and degrees – complementary concepts‖)
other important details about degrees and music intervals.

Go to: Augmented, Diminished and Perfect

Back to: Module 2

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What are augmented, diminished and perfect

intervals?
If you have read the article about degrees, you saw that we mentioned only 7 notes in western music
(C, D, E, F, G, A, B). But if we wanted to use a reference for other notes too? (C#, D#, F#, G#, A#)?
For this there is a more embracing definition, as we will see now:

The first note is represented for the first degree, as we already saw. Let‘s use like example the first
degree of the C note.

In this case, the D note is the major 2nd. The note C# (or Db), in this case, is the minor 2nd. This
nomenclature (―major‖ and ―minor‖) exists to indicate if the interval (distance between two notes) is
short or long. Major intervals are long and minors are short. You can see that in the previous
example, the ―major second‖ represented the interval of one tone (because D is a tone above C), and
the ―minor second‖ represented the interval of half tone (Db is half tone above C). Therefore, these
names were given just for distance identification between notes. Expanding the concept to all notes,
starting with C, we have this:

C —> first degree major (perfect unison)

C# —> minor 2nd
D —> major 2nd
D#—> minor 3rd
E —> major 3rd
F —> perfect 4th
F#—> augmented 4th or diminished 5th
G —> perfect fifth
G#—> augmented fifth or minor sixth
A —> major sixth
A#—> minor seventh
B —> major seventh

Probably you have already asked yourself why do these names ―augmented‖, ―perfect‖ and
―diminished‖ exist. Well, you have to know that it is just a definition, and this is the ―language‖ that
you will find in any book about music or song books. The logic is the same as we saw for the names
―major‖ and ―minor‖. The name ―augmented‖ indicates an interval longer and ―diminished‖ indicates
an interval shorter. ―Perfect‖ is in the middle of these two.

But we can not simply use the names ―major‖ and ―minor‖ to all the notes instead of using
―diminished‖, ―augmented‖ or ―perfect‖? Yes, we could. So, why do other names exist? In the
advanced topics you will understand why this becomes really useful. For now, just memorize these
nomenclatures and what they represent. As you saw, there is no mystery, it is just given names to
specific degrees.

Let‘s now exercise this nomenclature starting from other notes besides C:
From the seventh degree, notes start to repeat themselves, because the 8th degree is the same as the
1st.

Following this logic:

– 9th degree is the same as the 2nd degree.
– 11th degree is the same as the 4th degree.
– 13th degree is the same as the 6th degree.

You can be asking yourself: if there is no need to talk about degrees after the seventh, because they
repeat themselves, why don‘t they use the notation 9th, 11th and 13th?? Well, some musicians prefer
to use these degrees to make clear which octave must be used. For example: If it is written the chord
symbol Cm6, probably you will create the chord of Cm and take the closest 6th degree to create
Cm6. Now, writing Cm13, you would know that you have to use the 6th degree one octave above
and not the closest 6th degree. The only difference is between this two chords is the sonority lightly
distinct due to the octave used to 6th degree (in the next topics we will talk about everything you
need to know about chords and symbols. Don‘t worry if you didn‘t understand this example).

And about the 9th extension, it is almost always one octave above, for this is used in the place of the
2nd. But this depends on the personal taste of each musician.

It is important for you to know details like these to not be in doubt about these nomenclatures.
Very good, let‘s talk now about the practical use of all these notations that we saw!

Applying the concept of augmented, diminished

and perfect intervals
We can refer ourselves to any note if we want to take as base some reference note. In the same way
as we did with the article about degrees. We will take here the same principle of the previous article
because we are complementing the subject; however, before we worked in C scale, saying just 3rd
degree, 6th degree, etc, we weren‘t specifying if the degree was major, minor, perfect, diminished or
augmented. For this, it was important to say that degrees would be like the major scale format. Now
it will be not necessary to link to a scale, because we will specify each degree separately. You have
bellow some examples (exercises):

– Minor third degree of C: D#

– minor seventh degree of G: F
– minor second degree of D: D#
– augmented fifth of C: G#
– perfect fourth (or fourth degree) of A: D
– diminished fifth of B: F

You can check these answers with the table we showed before.

Observation: for example, we are only talking about notes, not chords! The names ―augmented‖ and
―diminished‖, as well as the names ―major‖ and ―minor‖ also appear in chords, bur this is another
approach! Try to not mix the things, we are here talking about notes and their isolated nomenclature.
When the subject is chords, nomenclature has another purpose, For this is important this distinction.
Keep this in mind.

Go to: Octave

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What is one octave?

Probably you already hear terms like ―one octave above‖ or ―one octave below‖. But what does this
mean?
To say that some note is one octave above means that the note is the same but it is in a region more
acute of the instrument.

Imagine a piano. In it, the keys from the left are the bass notes lower than the ones in the right. If you
go on playing the white keys, starting in C, from the left to the right, you will follow the sequence: C,
D, E, F, G, A, B, C… going on in this cycle until the end of the keys in the piano. As the notes start
being more acute, it becomes easy to perceive that the next C will be more acute than the previous
one. Always when you finish a cycle and the note returns to be a C, you have completed one octave.

The term octave

Pay attention the B is the 7th degree of C (read the article about degrees), doing that C be the eighth
degree. For this is called ―octave‖.

We use here the example of C, but this is valid to any note, since that you start and finish with the
same note. If we start with D, we will close one octave when we arrive in D again.

The same logic can be used to one octave below, where the sound becomes lower than before.

With occidental music we have 12 notes (12 semitones), we can conclude that on octave comprises
the distance of six tones. Check below how in six tones we return to the base note:

Just for curiosity: Pianos has generally around 7 octaves.

Go to: Definition of chord

Back to: Module 2

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A chord is the combination of two or more notes played simultaneously.

This is the definition of chord, but there are innumerous possible combinations of making notes,
resulting in many chords. So, to make musicians‘ lives easier, each chord receives a name. This is
based in the fundamental notes we already know (C, D, E, F, G, A, B).

Definition of natural chords

Before learning how do the chords names are given, it is important to know that some chords receive
the same name as the notes (C, D, E, F, G, A, B). They are called natural chords. Each one of these
chords is made from three notes. And there is a little rule to discover which ones are these three
notes.

The notes that make the natural chords are the first, the third and the fifth degree of its
respective scales. Later we will explain this rule in practice, to make this visualization easy. Before
that, it is worth to know that a chord can be major, minor or suspended. Theses nomenclatures are
related to the third degree. To create major chords, you use the major third degree. To create minor
chords, you use minor third degree. When the chord does not have a third degree, it cannot be
classified as major nor as minor, receiving then the name of ―suspended‖. The used symbols are the
following ones: ―m‖ to say that the chord is minor and ―sus‖ to say that the chord is suspended.
When we don‘t have any of these symbols, it means that the chord is major. Let‘s see the examples
below, using the Do (C) chord:

C –> Do

Cm –> Do minor

Csus –> Do suspended

About the fifth degree in both cases (major and minor chords) it is the perfect fifth.

Triad Chord
Very well, when we talk about the three notes that create the natural chords, we are talking
about triad of each chord. This name exists to represent the formation notes of the chord. The
definition of triad then is this: three notes that create the natural chords (1st, 3rd and 5th degrees).

Well, now that we learned the rules, let‘s create chords using these concepts. Think about a chord
that you want create. For example, a C chord.

First degree: C
Major third degree: E
Fifth degree (perfect fifth): G

Therefore, the C chord is made by the notes C, E and G. It is just to play (or let flow) these notes in
your instrument and then you have the C chord.

Let‘s create now the Fm chord:

First degree: F
Minor third degree: G#
Perfect fifth: C

Therefore, Fm chord is made by the notes F, G# e C.

Tetrad
Until now we saw only natural chords. Enlarging just a little the concept, we can work with 4 notes
instead of only 3, and we do this adding the seventh degree of our previous chords. This way we
create chords with seventh. The set of degrees first, third, fifth and seventh consists in a tetrad. The
seventh degree can be major or minor.

Nice. So, from now on, when you hear ―play the tetrad in some chord‖ you will know that it means
the first, the third, the fifth and the seventh degrees of that specific chord. These are the main notes of
a chord, known as ―chord notes‖. In the following studies, you will understand that these are the
notes that create a harmonic function. For now, it is enough to know that these notes are the ―chord‘s
spine‖. They say of whom we are talking about and they guide us.

Go to: Music Intervals – another view

 Back to: Module 2

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In the article ―augmented, diminished and perfect intervals‖, the nomenclatures augmented and
diminished were only applied for the 4th and 5th degrees. However we will see now that these names
can be used for other degrees too. In this case, for degrees that already have the ―major‖ and ―minor‖
denominations, the augmented nomenclature will mean a semitone above the ―major‖ nomenclature.
For example:

 The major second degree has one tone of tonic distance. The augmented second degree has one and a
half tone of tonic distance.
 The major third degree has two tones of tonic distance. The augmented third degree has two and a
half tones of tonic distance.
In the same way, ―diminished‖ nomenclature means a semitone below the ―minor‖ nomenclature.
Examples:

 The minor third degree has one and a half tone of tonic distance. The diminished third degree has one
tone of tonic distance.
 The minor seventh degree has 5 tones of tonic distance. The diminished seventh degree has 4 and a
half tones of tonic distance.

Summarizing the concept of degrees

Well, let‘s summarize all that we saw until now about degrees, to make it really clear.
In case of you still have any difficulty thinking in tones and semitones, follow this study with the
diagram below (where ST means ―semitone‖ and T means ―Tone‖):

For all degrees we will have the following distances:

Using the example of C as first degree:
Major 2nd – it is 1 tone front the tonic (D)
Minor 2nd – it is a half tone from the tonic (Db)
Augmented 2nd – it is 1 and a half tone from the tonic (D#)
Diminished 2nd – It does not exist

Observation: We chose to write the accidents related to D here because this is the note of the second
degree in relation to C. We could have written, for example, Eb instead of D#, but this idea here is to
think in D.

Major 3rd – it is 2 tones from the tonic (E)

Minor 3rd – it is 1 and a half tone from the tonic (Eb)
Augmented 3rd – it is 2 and a half tones from the tonic (E#)
Diminished 3rd – it is 1 tone from the tonic (Ebb)

Observation: Only to emphasize, we put all the accidents here related to E, because it is the third
degree of C. For this Ebb appeared instead of D. This way, the logic is clearer. We will go on
following this induction.

Other musical intervals

Perfect 4th – it is 2 and a half tones from the tonic (F)
Augmented 4th – it is 3 tones from the tonic (F#)
Diminished 4th – it is 2 tones from the tonic (Fb)
Perfect 5th – it is 3 and a half tones from the tonic (G)
Augmented 5th – it is 4 tones from the tonic (G#)
Diminished 5th – it is 3 tones from the tonic (Gb)
Major 6th – it is 4 and a half tones from the tonic (A)
Minor 6th – it is 4 tones from the tonic (Ab)
Augmented 6th – it is 5 tones from the tonic (A#)
Diminished 6th – It is 3 and a half tones from the tonic (Abb)
Major 7th – it is 5 and a half tones from the tonic (B)
Minor 7th – it is 5 tones from the tonic (Bb)
Augmented 7th – it is 6 tones from the tonic (B#)
Diminished 7th – it is 4 and a half tones from the tonic (Bbb)
Perhaps it may seem unnecessary this definition that we showed now, this is why the augmented
second degree is the same as the minor third degree, for example. This could look like a created thing
only to confuse us. Well, actually, there is no need of using this ―augmented‖ and ―diminished‖
nomenclature for the degrees that already have ―major‖ and ―minor‖ definition. But, it can help us.

Just a second: ―Help us! – Did you say it right?!‖

That is it. Imagine that we want create a chord that has a specific triad. Let‘s create this triad with the
diminished fifth instead of the perfect fifth, ok? Let‘s say Do (C) minor with diminished fifth. As it is
a minor chord, we already know that the third degree is minor:

First degree: C
Minor third degree: Eb
Diminished fifth: Gb
This is our Do (C) minor with diminished fifth.

Let‘s say now that the vocalist of the band asks to add the A note to this chord. Everything is ok. We
added the A note, but how will we call this chord? The A note is major sixth degree, so the chord will
be called: ―minor C with diminished fifth and major sixth‖.

Ok, until here we didn‘t use any new concept. This chord has only 4 notes (tetrad) and gained a huge
and complicated name. The common tetrads that we know have simple names (like B minor seventh,
F major seventh, etc.), but our Dm6(b5) it is hard to visualize because of this name. Let‘s apply, then,
the concepts that we just saw. The major sixth degree can also be called as diminished seventh
degree. This is interesting to visualize, because in our tetrad would have basic degrees 1, 3, 5 and 7
(what is more common and easy to visualize instead of 1, 3, 5 and 6).

Nice. But… Did this make anything in our nomenclature? Yes! As we have a common tetrad
(degrees 1, 3, 5 and 7) and two of these degrees are diminished (fifth and seventh), it was decided
that this chord would be called ―diminished chord‖. In other words, instead of ―minor C with
diminished fifth and major sixth‖ we have ―C diminished‖.

That was just a example of application to this terminology. There are other situations where you will
also see these concepts, so it is good that you know this nomenclature to not be scared when you see
―augmented third degree‖ written in some place, for example. It is just a reference question.
Go to: Bar lines

Back to: Module 2

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For those who don‘t know what a sheet music is, a bar (or measure) is a time segment that is defined
by a given number of beats, each of that are assigned to a particular note value. When we separate
music into bars it will give us regular points of reference to pinpoint locations within a piece of
music. It also makes the written music easier to follow, since each symbol in the bar can be read and
played as a batch.

Bar and measure

The word measure is more common in American English while the word bar is more common in
British English.
Another term well used is the bar line (or barline), which is a single vertical line used to divide a
musical staff into measures. It can be referred to simply as a ―bar‖ too. Example of barline:

| C | Dm | G | C |

Go to : Module 3

Back to: Simplifying Theory

…………………………………………………………………………….
 Module 3

Fingers notation to the guitar

The notation used here in the website that will represent the chords for the guitar is the following
one:

Where the numbers in the strings represent the fingers from the left hand, as shown below:

The number at the left (highlighted in red) informs which is the fret of the instrument where that
space is:

In this example, that number represents the first fret in the guitar fretboard.

Bar chord
If there is dash in any fret in the representation, like in the example below:
It represents a bar chord, in other words, the index finger must be strained in that fret.

Below the strings we will tell you which note corresponds to each chord part. Check it below (in
red):

When it does not appear any note in some string, it means that that string should not be played. In the
previous drawing, the 6th string did not have any note written below, so, it could not be played:

Go to: Arpeggios

Back to: Module 3

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Arpeggio is when the notes in a particular chord are played one after other. For example, the notes
that create the C chord are C, E and G. When we play theses notes separately one after another, we
form the arpeggio of C, and when we play these three notes in the same time we have the C chord.

Guitar Arpeggios
It is worth to highlight that the guitar players also are used to another definition to arpeggios,
associated to a specific technique. Which is the ability of playing a note with a string, with
movements of up and down in the fretboard of the instrument.

For this, it is good to not mistake the things here. Always when we speak about arpeggios, we are
talking about the notes in a specific chord. Otherwise, we will let this clear.

Go to: Chord names

Back to: Module 3

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How to give name to chords

Have you ever been in a sad situation because of the chords names? There you are and you want to
play some song. You download it from the internet. Great (you think). And then in a specific moment
of that song appears some chord that you have never seen. Wow, which chord is this? You go to
chords dictionary, look for the concerned chord, but the dictionary doesn‘t bring any chord with that
name. This is the end; neither the chords dictionary knows this chord! Actually, maybe you could
think that the only way to know how to create a chord is memorizing it. If you don‘t have a giant
database inside your head, you will never know many chords. Well, you have to know that this is
foolishness.

Looking for chords dictionaries is something for the freshmen. Because now you will learn to not
depend on it. Even more than this, you will be better than it!

Like everything in music, there is a logic rule to define the names of each chord. If you know this
rule, you know how to create the chord and give it a name in your instrument. Wonderful, let‘s learn
then how to do this! You will see the symbology of a ―strange‖ chord and will know how to create it
without external help. And more than this, a friend of yours will create any combination of notes in
your instrument and you will say to him/her which chord he/she is playing. It doesn‘t matter what
he/she does. He/she can spend all day long ―inventing‖ chords and you will always know the names
of all of them.
We will use the guitar as example, but these concepts serve to any instrument. So, let‘s go:

You have already learned how the major chords, minor chords and chords with seventh are done. But
maybe is not really clear how to do these chords in your instrument. Well, it is really easy; it is just to
play all the notes that form each chord we study.

For example,

Check below a possible drawing to the Dm chord in a guitar:

You can see as all the triad notes in Dm appear in this chord (D, A and F), and just them.

Our first target now will be to create the Dm7 chord. For this, we will add one note to the Dm chord,
which is the seventh minor degree (the C note, in this case). Ok, now we need to know where there is
a C note so that we could take it to add in our Dm chord. Check below where the C notes are located
in the fretboard:

You can see how it is really hard to add the C note to the Dm chord without changing its design. On
the other hand, we can use that C that is really closer to the Dm chord:
For this, we need to remove the D (because it is ―in front‖ of it in the fretboard, occupying its place
in that string). This way we would have with the chord:

Is there any problem in removing this D as we did? No, because there is already another D in this
chord; we only removed a D that was ―in excess‖.

In guitar this is really common, because practically all the natural chords that we create have some
note that is ―a double note‖, in other words, it appears twice.

In nomenclature point of view, nothing changes when you remove a note that is double. Even you
could choose ―to double‖ a note to have chords that are distinct in sonority, but with the same name.

Another example of duplicate notes in chords

You can see it bellow with the G chord:

Probably you have already seen or played this another version of G:

What is the difference between these two versions?

The G note appears 3 times in each one, but in the first drawing, the D note is being doubled, while
in the second drawing, it is the B note that is being doubled.

As in both drawings there are only the notes G, B and D, nomenclature doesn‘t change, the chords
name will be the ―G‖ for both formats.

You will agree that, besides the name/nomenclature doesn‘t change, the sound is lightly different,
depending on which note you are repeating, because it will be ―in evidence‖.

With this in mind, we can go on in our studies.

We can now create the Dm7 chord. Let‘s now create the Dm7(4). For this, we need to add the perfect
fourth to the Dm7 chord.

Observation: If it was the augmented fourth or diminished fourth, the chord would be Dm7(#4) and
Dm7(b4) respectively, but the procedure would be the same.

Creating the Dm7(4) chord

Well, who is the perfect fourth for D? We know that is G. So, let‘s try to add it to the chord Dm7.
Check bellow where the G notes are located in the fretboard:

Compare it to our Dm7 chord:

Which G note can we use? Well, Maybe you are realizing that, to add any G note, it will be necessary
―to lose‖ any other note, because all the strings are busy with other notes. Maybe you could say:
―Look, the sixth string is not being used! We could use the G located in it!‖. So, go on and try to do
this. Did you see that is impossible?! There are physical limitations for that (Our finger cannot reach
there). Let‘s try another thing, so.

There is a G note really close from the Dm7 chord that we created, can you see?

However, to use it, we should put it in place of F note, because we cannot play two notes in the same
string. Can we do this?

No! Because the F note is the third degree, in other words, it is it which is defining that the chord is
minor (Dm). Without it, the Dm7 chord would be a Dsus7, because of it would not exist the third (the
chord would not be major, nor minor, it would be suspended). But our target it was not to create
D7sus4, but Dm7(4). For this we cannot use the G note as we thought. Let‘s try another one. What
about this:

You can see that this would replace the A note. Can we do this?
Yes, first because the A note is already doubled. Besides that, even if there was only one A, this
could be removed for being a fifth degree for D. To lose the fifth degree doesn‘t mischaracterize the
chord, it doesn‘t get nor major or minor because of the fifth degree. Of course that without the fifth
degree the Dm7 chord will not be really ―completed‖, because the triad note was lost. But this loss is
tolerable in nomenclature point of view. Dm7 without the fifth degree is yet a Dm7. So we got it!
The Dm7(4) will be:

Steps to create any chord

This method that we used to create the Dm7(4) chord can be used to create any chord we wish. As a
basic rule, follow the given steps when facing a symbol of some unknown chord:

1st) You should identify the natural chord present in the symbology and create it in some region of
the fretboard of your instrument. For example, the natural of E9(13) is E.

2nd) You should identify which are the extension notes of the desired chord and find each one of
them in your instrument, looking for the closest ones. In the previous example, you would look for
the corresponding notes to the degrees 9 and 13 of E, that are the notes F# and C#. Look for one at a
time to make your search easy.

3rd) You should see which notes you could change for the ones you want. In general, you can change
the note that is doubled (repeated) or the fifth degree (that could disappear).

4th) You should repeat this procedure in another region of the instrument fretboard to check if the
resultant chord it is not “easier” to do. It can happen in some case in which is impossible to create
the desired chord in certain region, but in other ones this could be possible.

To make some exercises about this method, let‘s create one more chord.
Observation: Many steps taught here don‘t need to be followed in the keyboard, because the keys
organization makes this process easy. If you are a piano or keyboard player you can discard the items
that are not related to your instrument.

Creating the Em7(9) chord

Continuing our learning process about creating chords, this time we will create the Em7(9).

The Em7 chord is a Dm7 in one tone above, for this we will save work of creating the seventh degree
(it is the same that we did before). You can see the Em7 chord below and its respective notes:

Let‘s add then the 9th degree, which is F#. You can check below the F# notes in the fretboard:

Apparently, a good option it would be this F# (in yellow):

But, as you could have noticed, it would be in the place of E. We cannot do this because E is in first
degree, the tonic.

Another option to overcome this problem it would be using the E string that is not being used. This
could be the first degree and the chord would be:
This chord would be a good option to Em7(9), because it has an interesting sonority. But maybe you
wouldn‘t want to let this chord as bass as it is (the E string is really bass). There is a big difference
of octaves in this chord, and this is why it can be unpleasant depending on the context.

Let‘s try to find another universal option that we could apply in any context. Let‘s use this F#:

This F# would replace the G note. We already saw in the previous example that we couldn‘t do this;
because this is the third degree (it is it that says the chord is an E minor). Using this F# in the place of
a third degree, the chord would be suspended.

So, are we without options? No. If the problem is G, we could try another G that replaces that one!
Look below how there is another G close to the chord we are doing:

If we would use this G, it would be in the place of B. But B is already doubled (it appears twice), so
this is not a problem!

Our desire was granted, we could add an F# without damaging the Em7 chord. Look below how was
our chord in the end:
Try to do this in your guitar. Did you have any difficulty? Probably yes, because doing a bar chord
with the finger 3 and finger 4 it is not easy! Some jazz guitarists like doing this, but I believe that is a
minority. So let‘s think about the hypothesis of not playing the last note, the B, because this would
make our drawing really easy while creating the chord.

Can we do this?

Remember what we talked about fifth degree, that it can be omitted without damaging the chord‘s
nomenclature.

Then it is solved! The chord is as not complete and ―full‖ as the previous others that we tried to
create, but is in a really easy version to do and its sonority is pleasant. Look below its final result:

This is a most common version that you will find in books and dictionaries to the Em7(9) chord.

Practical tips about chord names

The most important thing after this study is that you have assimilated the thought that we had. You
can see that there are innumerous possibilities and different combinations to create the same chord.
Here in the final part we showed an example of Em7(9), but we could have written dozens pages
showing other drawing options for the same chords.
Bit by bit, the way you go practicing and doing exercises, you will see quickly more options, because
you will know the fretboard of your instrument and you will have better theorical background in
chords already memorized. And all this will allow you a faster and more accurate visualization.

During all this study, we created the chords using as reference the notes, but this is not the fastest
way. Actually the fastest way is to think automatically in degrees.

For example, to create the Em7(9) chord, you can search directly the ninth degree, because you know
the major scale drawing and you know how to count degrees! In this case, you wouldn‘t have to think
that the ninth degree is the F#. You would only search the ninth degree (counting the numbers in the
major scale) and you would find the ninth degree even without knowing which note is it.

You can see that this way of thinking is faster, because you don‘t need to think that the ninth degree
is the F# note to search the F# in the instrument.

Obviously, if you master well the notes in the entire instrument, this process will be automatic, and
you probably will prefer to think in notes instead of degrees. Our incentive is that you engage
yourself in this!

We showed here the process in a more teachable way. To think in notes or only in degrees will be
your choice. Everything will depend on your practice and personal taste.

A really good way to exercise these learned concepts is trying to create various chords and after that
to check your answers in some chords‘ dictionary. That‘s a tip.

Before finishing this study, we will show the most used nomenclatures in songbooks. We put this
complement as a second part of this topic (chord symbols). Check that!

Go to: Chord symbols

Back to: Module 3

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Overview about chords symbols

 Going on our studying about chords and keys of a chord, we will see now the most used
nomenclatures in chords dictionaries and songbooks. Check below the chord symbols:

 Minor seventh chords: they receive only the number 7. Examples: G7, Bm7, etc.
 Major seventh chords: There are many alternatives to represent theses chords. One of them is to put
the number 7 followed by the capital letter M. Examples: C7M, A7M, Bm(7M), etc. Another
possible notation is ―Maj‖: Cmaj7 or just Cmaj (abbreviation of Major Seventh). In popular music
websites, people use the notation 7+ (C7+), however this is not the most suitable notation, since it is
used for augmentedchords.
 Added ninth chords: They receive the number 9 followed by the word ―add‖. Example: Cadd9.
These are the chords created by the triad with an added ninth. When the chord also has the seventh.
The American notation use to put only the number 9. As we will see.
 Ninth and seventh minor chords: They can receive just the number 9, or the number 7 followed by
the number 9. Example: C9 or C7(9). This happens because the ninth chords use to have seventh too;
this is why it is understood that the symbol ―9‖ also informs that there is already a seventh together.
When there is not a minor seventh in the chord, it will be clear by using the symbol ―add‖, as we
saw. It would be like saying: ―this chord has a ninth added, in other words, it is the ninth added to a
triad. There is not a seventh!‖. Therefore in practice, not everybody makes this distinction, so it is
important to proceed with caution.
 Suspended chords: They are the chords that do not have the third. They receive the acronym ―sus‖.
Generally, these chords are followed by a perfect fourth. Example: Asus4. We will explain why this
fourth when we talk about ―extension notes‖.
 Augmented chords: They can receive the symbol ―#‖ or ―+‖ aside the altered degree in question.
Example: G7(#5) or G7(+5). Observation: when the alternated note is a fifth, the chord can also
receive only ―+‖, for example: C+.
 Diminished chords: They receive the symbol ― ° ‖. Example: C°. The diminished chord is formed
by 1, 3b, 5b and 7bb degrees. When only one note is diminished, we can use the symbol ―b‖ or ―-‖.
Example: G7(b5) or G7(-5). The symbol ―-‖ is also used in the American notation to say that is a
minor chord (besides the letter ―m‖), for example: A- (it is the same as Am). So, because of this do
not make a mistake when you see something like C-7 (in this case, it is the Cm7 chord, and not a C
chord with a diminished seventh).
Observation: we will study the diminished chord in another topic. Here we are just seeing
nomenclatures.

 Half diminished chords: They are the chords with the extension m7(b5). Example: Dm7(b5). We
say ―D half diminished 7th chord‖. This nickname is widely used, because the m7(b5) chord is
 almost a diminished chord; the only difference is in the seventh (that in a diminished chord is the
diminished seventh besides minor seventh). Moreover, it is easier to say ―D half diminished‖ than
saying ―Minor D with seventh and flatted fifth‖. Don‘t you think?!
 Altered chords: They are the chords with the extension #9#5. Example: G#9#5. Generally, this kind
of chord also contains the minor seventh (G7#9#5). We will give you more details about this subject
in the topic ―altered scale‖. For now, you only have to know that this extension #9#5 is represented
by the acronym ―alt‖. For example, the previous chord could be written like G7alt besides G7#9#5
(Major seventh G, augmented ninth and fifth).
In an overview of all we saw, we could conclude that there are things that the symbology tells us and
things that it does not tell us.

What does chords symbols establish?

– If the chord is major, minor or suspended.

– If the chord has a seventh or further added degrees (4th, 6th, 9th).

– If the chord has alterations (5#, 9b, etc.)

– If the chord is inverted (3rd, 5th or 7th in the bass). Observation: we will study this in another
topic.

What does chords symbology does not establish?

– The chord position in the instrument (it can be in different regions).

– Duplications or exclusions of notes in a chord (we can duplicate, triplicate or exclude the perfect
fifth, duplicate the third, etc.).

Very well, now you are already an expert in this subject of chord symbols and chord names! It is just
to exercise the concepts learned here and you will have total autonomy in chords creation, never
more with a help of a chord dictionary. Now you are the dictionary!

Go to: Tonality

Back to: Module 3

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Tonality (or harmonic field) is a group of chords created through a specific scale. Take like example
C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B.

For each note in the scale we will create a chord. We will have, then, seven chords, the will be the
chords of the tonality of C.

How will we create this tonality?

For each note in the scale, the respective chord will be created using the first, the third and the
fifth degree(starting to be counted in this note, in this same scale). Let‘s start with the C note. The
first degree is the C itself. The third starting in C is E. And the fifth starting in C is G.

The first chord in the tonality of C is created then by the notes C, E and G (pay attention that this is
the C chord, because E is the major third of C).

Now let‘s create the chord of the next note, which is D. The first degree is the D itself. The third
starting in D is F. And the fifth starting in D is A. Then, the second chord of our harmonic field is
created by the notes D, F and A (pay attention that this is the Dm chord, because F is the minor third
of D).

You should be realizing that until here we are creating the chords in the harmonic field thinking
in triadsand using only the notes that appear in the scale in question (C major). After creating the
triad, we should see if the third of each chord was major or minor. You can also check the fifth of
each chord, but you will see that will always be the perfect fifth, with exception to the last chord, that
will have a flatted fifth. It is a good exercise to try to create the remaining chords in this tonality.
After that, check the table below:
Song Tonality
Very good, you learned how to create a harmonic field. But what does this serve for? Well, a
harmonic field serves for many things, and in this moment we will focus in the most basic point: it
serves to define thecentral note (tonic) of a song. This depends on the existent chords in this song. If
a song has the major chords of the harmonic field of C, it means that the song is in C major. With this
we know that the scale to be used to make a solo, to improvise or create riffs in this song will be
the C major scale.

Therefore, to know the harmonic fields it‘s really useful: this knowledge allows us to know the notes
that we can use to do arrangements in such song. Knowing well the scale shapes, nothing will stop us
to create solos and riffs automatically (ability known as improvisation).

I hope that this has motivated you to go on in our study about tonality, seen the importance and use
of this knowledge.

We have already created a harmonic field using triads, and now we will enlarge this concept
to tetrads. The rule used to create the chord, just to remember, it was to take the first, the third and
the fifth degrees of the scale in question. We will do the same thing, but including the seventh
degree, that characterizes the tetrad. We will have then a harmonic field equals the previous one, but
created by tetrads instead of triads.

Analyzing the same scale of C major, starting by the C note, we have the seventh degree of this scale,
which is B. The other degrees (third and fifth) we already saw which ones they are. Therefore, the
first chord of this harmonic field will be formed by C, E, G and B. This is the C7M chord, because B
is the major seventh of C.
Applying this same rule to the next note (D), we will see that the seventh degree is C. Then, the
chord will be formed by the notes D, F, A and C. This is the Dm7 chord. Pay attention that here we
have the minor seventh of D, this is why we use the symbol ―7‖ instead of ―7M‖ (that characterizes
the major seventh).

Creating the complete table we will have:

Maybe you are asking yourself what is the difference, from the practice point of view, of these two
harmonic fields that we created. Well, the only difference is that this second one has one more note
in the chord, making them more ―complete‖. In a point of view of improvisation, relating to discover
which the tonality of the song is, nothing will be changed. We will see some examples of this subject
(discovering the song tonality) soon. Before, remember that we used the C major scale. Instead of
specifying the tonality (C) now, let‘s take this more generic: ―harmonic field of a major scale‖,
because if we use this rule to G major scale, A major scale or any major scale, we will always have
something in common. The major tonality of any note will follow this formation (where the Roman
numbers refer to degrees):

I7M IIm7 IIIm7 IV7M V7 VIm7 VIIm(b5)

You can check this creating the harmonic field of the remaining tonalities (besides C, that we have
already done).

Take as an example the E major scale and its harmonic field (tonality):
You can see that the major first degree was with seventh, the minor second degree with seventh, etc.
Following the formation that has been shown before:

I7M IIm7 IIIm7 IV7M V7 VIm7 VIIm(b5)

This makes our life easier; because it means that memorizing just this sequence above you already
know the major harmonic field of any note. It is just to put the notes of the major scale in question in
place of degrees.

For example: What is the major harmonic field of D?

D7M Em7 F#m7 G7M A7 Bm7 C#m(b5)

Observation: The major D scale is: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#.

As exercise try to create the major harmonic field of all the notes. Check then the tonality table
below:
Observation: To create the harmonic field using just 3 notes (triad), it is just remove the seventh of
all the chords in this table. We will leave the seventh here only in the last chord, because the chords
with diminished five rarely appear without the seventh in practice:

Now that we know the major harmonic field of all notes, we can apply this knowledge to discover the
songs tonality.

Exercises:

The chords below compose some specific songs. You should identify in which tonality each song is:

1) A, C#m, D, Bm, E7

2) F#m, G#m, B, E

3) Bm7, GM7, Em7, F#m7, D, A7

4) G, D, C

5) Am7, Bm7(b5)

6) Bb, F, Dm7, C7

Answers:

1) A
2) E

3) D

4) G

5) C

6) F

It is important to highlight that some songs have more than one tonality. In this case, part of the song
is in one tonality and another part of the song is in another tonality. This is really common in rhythms
like Jazz, MPB, Bossa Nova, Fusion, among others.

To do improvisation adequately in songs that have a lot of variation of tonalities (modulations) is a

big challenge, but don‘t worry. Step by step we will grow in the subjects in a way to explore more
resources. With commitment and dedication, you will (in a few time) feel yourself comfortable even
when you face more sophisticated sounds. We are working for that.

Go to: Music theory terms

Back to: Module 3

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Riff is a slang really used in the guitar world to describe a small piece executed in this instrument.
For example, the introduction of the song Sweet Child O‘ Mine from Guns N‘ Roses is a riff.
Generally, the riff is a repeated piece in the song. Riff can be anything, even a certain rhythmic in
some chord. Riff is a really generic term.

Musical phrase is certain piece of a solo.

A phrase gives the idea of ―from the beginning to the end‖, having some sense or meaning. A
written solo in sheet music can have many phrases divided by bar lines. It does not have a rule about
size of a musical phrase. This term is employed in the same way of riff (without many criteria).
What is the difference between musical phrase and
riff?
The difference is that the musical phrase is a term more used in solo context, while the riff
definition is more embracing and makes more sense for repetitive pieces.

Accidental note is any note that does not belong to a certain scale or tonality. For example, see the C
major scale:
C, D, E, F, G, A, B
The notes C#, D#, F#, G#, A# are called accidentals, in this case, because they don‘t belong to this
scale. Coincidentally, as the C major scale does not have any note with sharp (or flat), all the
accidents appear with these alterations. But if the concerned scale was E major (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#,
D#), the accidents would be the notes F, G, A#, C, D.

The difference between accidental note and sharp

Pay attention that ―accidental note‖ doesn‘t mean ―sharp‖. In most of explanations here in the
website we will be using C major scale, so you will hear these terms (accidental and sharp) as they
were synonyms, but remember that they are just synonyms in this context of C major. The real
definition of accidental note is that thing which does not belong to that concerned scale.

In the music field, we use to say that every instrument players have musical feeling when they put
feeling in what they are playing. This feeling can be a technical expression (perfect technical
execution well placed that touch us) as it can be the adequate placement of notes (that feeling given
by a pleasant melody). Summarizing, feeling is what differentiate a musician from a robot, because a
robot can be programmed to play many notes per second, but it by itself does not have expression or
creativity in music. The adequate choice of notes and their techniques depend on the context and the
―atmosphere‖ that the song is imposing.

Musical feeling and velocity

Many people use to say that playing fast is a synonym of absence of feeling, but this is not true.
Feeling is not tied to any velocity standard, scales or stiles. Above everything, feeling is something
really personal and is connected to emotions.
For this, the own definition of feeling will depend of a personal taste of the listener and his/her
emotional state in the moment of the song execution. Evidently, as more knowledge in music
theory the instrument player has, more options and ideas he/she will have to surprise and touch
people emotions. The Simplifying Theory website will help you to explore this potential.

Go to: Chromatic scale

Back to: Music Terms

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The chromatic scale is formed by the sequence: semitone-semitone-semitone-semitone, etc.

That is it, all the notes have a semitone interval. Thus, we can conclude that this scale has
12 notes (all the 12 available notes of occidental music). Check below the chromatic scale of C:

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B

Shape of the C chromatic scale

Chromaticism
Due to this peculiar characteristic, it has become common to use the term ―Chromaticism‖ to refer to
notes with a distance of a semitone. For example, if some solo has the notes D, D# and E played in
sequence, we say that this patch has chromaticism.

Chromatic scale application

In practice, in music context, the chromatic scale does not use to be applied in all its extension.
Normally we use small patches of chromaticism. The chromatic effect is really interesting and
explored by many musicians of various styles. The sonorous result that is produced creates a feeling
of passing notes. Even if some notes are out of the tonality of the song, when played fast in
chromaticism these notes are ―forgiven‖ to our ears, because we feel as they were passing notes,
steps of a ladder that has the objective to arrive in a specific place.

For now we will stay in this introductory concept about chromaticism, because to explain the
applications with all the details it would be exhausting. Instead of it we chose to show you
chromaticism utilization in each specific context. You will see chromaticism here in the website in
studies of Diminished Chord, Target Notes, SubV7, Jazz Bebop, among others.

From now on, chromaticism and chromatic scale will be part of your musical background. And its
importance will be evidently in each application.

Go to: Module 4

Back to: Simplifying Theory

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 Module 4

What is musical improvisation?

In the musical field, improvisation is the art of composing and recording in the same time; in other
words, it is inventing in that time!

Improvisation can be a harmony, a melody, a solo, a riff, a rhythm, etc.

This art differentiates creator musicians from the ones who only reproduce. These second ones are
those who only reproduce or play ready songs. They generally have the technique, but they are really
limited musically (dependents on a repertoire) and they don‘t know what they are doing; they are just
following a cake‘s recipe.

Creator musicians don‘t limit themselves to only reproducing ready songs; they are capable of
changing them, to enhance them, to create new melodies or harmonies automatically. These are
musicians that know what they are doing; they understand what is beyond symbology and staff. They
can ―speak‖ musically.

Summarizing; those who know improvisation:

– Understand what is happening and have immediate ideas;

– Find easy to compose, because they have many tools and resources in mind
– Have the ear really accurate
– Can deal with unexpected situations (new songs, changing of repertoire in the last minute, lack of
memory (when your mind goes blank), etc.);
– Put their own identity in the songs.

Motivating, isn‘t it?

The subject of the improvisation in music

Well, to be capable of doing improvisation it is needed to know this subject. For example, in the
lectures field, any person is capable of improvising in a speech about ―happiness‖, because
everybody has a concept in mind about this subject. But maybe the improvisation can damage the
quality of speech; many people would speak without using beautiful words and deep reflections. But
now, how many people would improvise about the importance of Schrödinger equation in quantum
electromagnetism?

In music is the same thing, we need a good vocabulary (to know how to choose the write ―words‖)
and we also need to know the context that we are so that the ―word‖ can make sense.

This conversation is good, but let‘s talk about something more practical now: How do learn how to
improvise indeed?

Well, there are some secrets to become a good improviser. We will talk specifically about solos in
this topic, but the concept is the same for all the other aspects of improvisation in music.

Explaining this in an easy way, it is just to know the basic scales and to know how to identify
the song tonality to do an improvisation. These things we already learned here in Simplifying Theory,
don‘t worry. But in practice it is not just knowing scales and its tonalities, you have to create a solo
with them.

It looks obvious, but it is not. Someone who is initiating in improvisation can learn about major scale
and understand where to use it, but if he/she doesn‘t have ready ―phrases‖ and links in his/her mind,
the improvisation will be terrible.

Nobody likes listening played scales that go up and down without dynamics. The beauty of music is
in the fact of knowing how ―to write‖ musical phrases with notes. And how will a beginner in
improvisation be able to do that? He/she has to take the ready phrases from other musicians,
memorizing them and using them in various contexts. This way, he/she will develop the ability to
know where to put the phrases in the songs. This is essential. The next step is taking these same
phrases and making some little changes, trying to put your own ideas from the ideas in the phrases.
After a certain time doing this, the person will start to create his/her own phrases from zero, without
having base in any ready phrase.
Very well, for those who have never done an improvisation, to have this ability will take time. It is
like everything in life: if the result is good, the effort needs to make this result be deserved. We
advise that the beginner devote himself/herself to take theses ready phrases and applying them in
major and minor tonalities. These phrases can be part of a major, minor, pentatonic or blues scale.
This must be the starting world to the person who wants to improvise. He/she needs to feel
himself/herself confident in this, because this is the base for future improvements. In this phase the
beginner will acquire ―feeling‖, he/she will learn to put his/her expression in the songs.

We will show along our study about scales, examples of application in each scale in various
harmonies. You should take these riffs and phrases and also play them, understanding them and after
that creating your own.

Soon we will be updating the website and putting basic riffs that can be used in innumerous contexts,
so that you can exercise what we said above about using ready sentences in various different songs.
We intend enrich more and more this subject creating a handbook for beginners in improvisation,
with a selection of riffs. Wait! For now, practice with the material that is already available in each
topic.

If Simplifying Theory has been useful for you, help to spread it. So you will be collaborating with the
growth and improvement of the website. Our target is to be a reference to students of music, mainly
for those who had already tried by their own strengths and found difficulties due to shortage of
material about the subject.

Make good use!

Go to: Relative minor and major

Back to: Module 4

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Relative minor scale is really used in improvisation, because it gives more ideas to solo. All
improviser that learned to use major and minor scales have to learn, after that, to use the relative
minor scale. But what is the relative minor scale?
 Example of relative minor scale
Think in some major scale, for example, C major scale. The C relative minor scale will be A minor
scale. As a rule, the relative minor scale of a major scale is the minor scale of the sixth degree of
this tonality. Saying this way may look confuse, but is really simple in practice. As we were in C, the
sixth degree is A, so is just play A minor scale.

Observation: if you are still lost about degrees, read again the article ―degrees and music intervals‖.

Well, as you can see, we are not learning any new scale here. This scale is nothing more than
the natural minor scale that we already saw. Only creating a link of sixth degree in relation to the
first, and then you will understand this.

Relationship between major scale and relative

minor scale
If you take C major scale and compare it to A minor scale, you will see that they have exactly the
same notes. In other words, the major scale has a related minor that is identical to it. Incredible, isn‘t
it? This is why the name ―relative‖. Compare below, for example, the scales C x Am and G x Em:

 C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B
 A minor scale: A, B, C, D, E, F, G
 G major scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#
 E minor scale: E, F#, G, A, B, C
This is extremely useful! It means that we can use A minor scale to do a solo in a song which tonality
is C major. In other words, when we have a major tonality, we can think in two scales: the major
scale of this tonality and the relative minor scale of it. This increases our options when we are
thinking in solo.

Relative major
In the same way, we could think in the opposite: each minor tonality has a relative major. This major
relative is located a tone and a half above the minor tonality. For example, one tone and a half above
A is C. Therefore, the relative major of A minor is C major.
Relative minor chord
It is worth to highlight that this concept also exists to the chords. The relative minor chord is the
chord of sixth degree of major chord in question. For example, the relative minor of C is the chord of
sixth degree in the harmonic field of C major, in other words, A minor. Other example: suppose that
the tonality be G major. The relative minor of G will be E.

As the relative chords have affinity among them, they can substitute one another. We will see this
with more details in the study of harmonic functions. For now, think in scales; remember that you
can always use a relative minor with a major scale. Try to test this taking a song in a major tonality
and playing the relative minor on it. You will see as it fits perfectly.

Now that you already learned what you needed about relative minor, try to find the relative minor of
all the other chords or major scales. After that, check with the table below:

Go to: Modes

Back to: Module 4

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What are greek modes?
The Greek modes are 7 different models to the natural major scale.

Maybe you have already heard names like ―Mixolydian‖, ―Dorian‖, or something similar. It looks
like things from another world, doesn‘t it? So well, we will show you that this and other names are
simple things in reality and they are easy to understand and practice. They appear in the context of
Greek modes. We will give you details to make clear what these modes are:

Ionian mode
Take the major natural scale. It corresponds to the first Greek mode, called Ionian mode. We will
show you later where this nomenclature came from, don‘t worry about that now.

Very well, you already know a Greek mode! Congratulations!

To make it easier we will work with the C major scale as example. We already know which one is
the Ionian mode:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B

Sequence seen: tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-semitone

Shape:

Tip: It is the own major scale.

Observation: To all the modes, we will put the sequence seen, one tip and the shape of the scale.

Dorian mode
The next mode is called Dorian. It is nothing more than the same major scale we are working with,
but starting in D.

Here you have the Dorian mode:

D, E, F, G, A, B, C

Sequence seen: tone-semitone-tone-tone-semitone-tone

Shape:

Tip: It is the minor scale with the major sixth.

Well, maybe you have not regarded the utility of this. Generally here people start to confuse
themselves and think that this study is boring. So, let‘s explain this well so that you don‘t give up
without a reason!

We just played D Dorian mode, right? This automatically means that its tonality is C major. Why?
Just because we built the Dorian scale using the major notes of C. The format tone-semitone, etc.
Deducted to a Dorian scale was different from major natural scale because we start with another note
that it‘s not the first degree.

We started by the second degree. This is why the difference in the shape exists. With this in mind, we
can find a practical application.

In the study of major harmony field, we showed the chords that are part of C major tonality. Imagine,
for example, that a song starts in Dm and then goes on with the chords: Am, F and Em. We can
conclude that the tonality of this song is C major, even if the C chord has not appeared once in the
song (until here, it‘s not a new concept!). Then, if we want improvise a solo in this song, we will use
C major scale. But how can we do this if the song starts in D minor? Our solo could start with D
instead of C to give a more characteristic ambience, couldn‘t it? It‘s here that this D Dorian enters!
We could say that we are doing a solo in D, because we are ―emphasizing‖ D (starting and finishing
with it), but using the C major scale. Moral of the story: we are using D Dorian scale to our solo,
because the chord is D minor, but the tonality is C.

Phrygian mode
Ok, let‘s make some progress. Now we will use C major scale starting with E. The sequence will be
like this:

E, F, G, A, B, C, D

Sequence seen: semitone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone

Shape:

Tip: It is a minor scale with second minor degree.

This is called Phrygian mode. The practical utilization is exactly the same of the previous example,
but thinking in E minor instead of D minor. If we wanted make a solo in E minor in a song that is in
C major tonality, we would use Phrygian E scale.

Lydian mode
The next Greek mode is the Lydian. It starts with the forth degree of the major scale. Just to recap,
we are using as example the C scale, and then the fourth degree is F (before the fourth degree was E,
and so on). The Greek modes can be constructed by any major scale. We are showing here just the C
scale. Later we will show with another major scale to help you and to make it clearer. Let‘s see then
how was our F Lydian scale:
F, G, A, B, C, D, E

Sequence seen: tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone

Shape:

Tip: It is the major scale with augmented fourth

Mixolydian mode
The fifth Greek mode is the Mixolydian. In C major scale, the fifth degree is G. Check it below
the G mixolydian scale:

G, A, B, C, D, E, F

Sequence seen: tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-semitone

Shape:

Tip: It is the major scale with 7th minor

We already explained the utilization of Greek modes in the point of view of improvisation, but it
would be interesting now to make an observation. If we wanted to make a solo in a song that is in C
major tonality starting with the note G, we would use G Mixolydian scale (nothing new here). Maybe
you are not convinced yet about the utility of this in practice. Because you are thinking: ―If I want to
use C major scale starting with G, I can take the drawing of C major, in the region that I would do C
major scale and then I do this drawing starting with G‖:

Everything OK, there is no problem in this. But let‘s say that a song is changing its tonality. Imagine
that it was in G major and now has gone to C major. You were doing a solo in G major using the
scale below, in that region of the instrument fretboard:

That that the song is in C major, you jumped to this region:

If you knew the drawing of G Mixolydian, you could go on in the same region that you were before,
however changing the drawing that before was this one:
To this one:

This would let the solo infinitely more beautiful and fluid, because the changing of tonality in the
solo would be slightly and pleasant. If, in this example, you change the region in the fretboard to
think in the C major scale, you would make the changing become more abrupt and ―hard to
swallow‖.

Listen to musicians like Pat Mateny, Mike Stern, Frank Gambale and pay attention how they work
modulation (changing of tonalities). This fluidity comes from the complete dominium of the Greek
modes shapes.

Besides that, knowing well the drawings of these modes will help you to not be a prisoner of a scale
shape only. This would make your solo become ―square‖ and ―vicious‖. And into the bargain, this
dominium provides a total control of the instrument fretboard.

Aeolian mode
Ok, the next mode is the Aeolian mode and it corresponds to the sixth degree. In our example, the
sixth degree of C is A, then check below how was our scale:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G

Frequency seen: tone-semitone-tone-tone-semitone-tone

Shape:
Tip: It is the natural minor scale!

We found then a new name for the natural minor scale: Aeolian mode. The major natural scale had
already received a name, do you remember? Ionian mode. Probably you have noticed that the minor
sixth degree is the relative minor (we already studied that), so doing a solo using the Aeolian mode is
nothing more than doing this using the relative minor.

Locrian mode
The seventh and last one mode is the Locrian mode. Check the drawing below:

B, C, D, E, F, G, A

Sequence seen: semitone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone

Shape:

Tip: It is the minor scale with the minor 2nd and diminished 5th.

Training the Greek modes thinking in degrees really helps our mind and ear to identify quickly the
tonality of a song, because we become used to with these patterns.

Summary of the 7 Greek modes

Cool, we already done everything with the C major scale, we will show you now (quickly) how
would be the sequences using G major scale (instead of C major), for you to see the shapes of theses
modes starting by the 6th string:
Notice that the sequence (tone-semitone, etc.) were exactly the same as in the study of C major scale.
But the drawing (shapes) were different because we are starting by the 6th string instead of 5th.

These shown drawings starting by 5th and 6th strings keep the same structure to other tonalities. This
is really favorable, because learning the shapes to these tonalities, you know to all of them; it is just
to transpose the same drawings to other tones.
Along our musical study, you will hear many times about these modes. Seeing their application in
different contexts you will enlarge your vision and will be more convinced about their utility. The
important now is to practice and spend time with these shapes, understanding where they came from.

Before finishing this first study about Greek modes, we will satisfy your curiosity saying where
theses strange names came from.

The Greek modes appeared in ancient Greece. Some people from the region have peculiar manners to
organize the sounds of the equal tempered scale. They came from the
regions Ionia, Doria, Phrygia, Lydia and Aeolia. For this gave the names that you just saw.
The Mixolydian mode came from the mixture between Lydian and Dorian modes.
The Locrian mode came just to complete a cycle, because it is a mode slightly used in practice.

The Ionian and Aeolian modes became the most used ones, being more widespread in Middle Age.
Lately, they receive the names ―major scale‖ and ―minor scale‖ respectively. It is funny that all the
students of music learn first the names ―major scale‖ and ―minor scale‖ even before of hearing
about Ionian and Aeolian modes. Actually these Greek modes came before and are ―fathers‖ of
these scales.

If you liked the explanation of this topic about greek modes, help to promote Simplifying Theory so
that we can go on growing and improving our contents, and making also interaction with the public!

Go to: Pentatonic scale

Back to: Module 4

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The pentatonic scale is the guru of improvisers. And it is not hard to discover the reason why
everybody uses and abuses of this scale: It is easy to create and to use. Some decades before, some
musicians use to earn millions just playing this scale. Today is not too easy to become rich just
playing the pentatonic scale; therefore any beginner musician learns how to play this scale (and
generally spends the rest of the life doing only this).

What is pentatonic scale?

The concept is really simple: the major pentatonic scale is a bunch of notes from the major scale. We
know that the major scale has 7 notes. The pentatonic scale chose 5 from these notes and created
another scale, this is why it is called ―penta‖.

Pentatonic scale has notes that when played generate a pleasant melody, even if it is just the
execution of this scale from up and down. This makes the life of everybody easy! It is just to
memorize the pentatonic scale and then, when you are going to improvise a song in a major tonality,
instead of ―elaborating‖ a phrase with a major scale you play the pentatonic scale and it is guaranteed
success! The pentatonic scale played backward is nice; played forward is nice; played from the
middle to the end is nice, from the end to the beginning is nice, nice, nice, nice…

Very well; if you have never listened a pentatonic scale in life, take a keyboard or a piano and play
the black keys one after another. This is the sound of a pentatonic scale.

There are many shapes to pentatonic scales; this example of the black keys was just one to make the
observation easy because it is really practical. If you don‘t have a keyboard in home, don‘t be
desperate, we will explain in details how to create this scale.

Major and Minor Pentatonic Scale

The pentatonic scale can be major or minor. The major pentatonic scale has the 5 notes of the major
scale; the minor pentatonic scale has the 5 notes of the minor scale. A drawing of the C major
pentatonic scale can be:

Now see a drawing to A minor pentatonic scale:

Compare these scales (C major pentatonic and A minor pentatonic) with the C major and A minor
scales, respectively. Notice that the major pentatonic took 5 notes from the major scale, as we said,
and were 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 degrees. In other words, it took out 4 and 7 degrees! And the minor
pentatonic took 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 degrees from the minor scale. In other words, it took out 2 and 6
degrees!

Observation: the normal thing it would be starting and finishing with the same note in a drawing of
a scale, but we prefer to finish the scale with other notes here in these designs just to you understand
better the logic of this scale on guitar.

We chose to show the C major pentatonic and the A minor pentatonic because they have the same
notes. The minor is the relative of C. Do you remember?! If this is not in your veins yet, return and
study the relative minor, use it, and then follow your journey, because just accumulating knowledge
to not use it and forget it is a real waste of time!
It would be better spend your time watching soap operas or playing videogames…

How to use the pentatonic scale

We already said that pentatonic scale (major and minor) can be used in the same place where you use
the major and minor natural scales, respectively. But this scale, besides of the possibility of being
used in these contexts, can also be used in other contexts that the major and minor natural scales
cannot (this is the reason for you to like it!).

One example is Blues. Soon you will see in the article ―Blues Definition‖ that the pentatonic scale is
the ―queen‖ in this style. We will show examples of application of the pentatonic scale in major and
minor contexts here in this article and in the article ―Blues Definition‖ we will show the utilization of
this scale in Blues. We really advise you to practice well the pentatonic scale in blues, because it is
really funny! Spend hours and hours, days and days doing this and you will become a born
improviser.
How to practice pentatonic solos
But how do you practice the pentatonic scale to progress and like what you are doing? Follow these
steps:

Step 1: Memorize well the minor pentatonic scale and use it in the tonal context. In other words,
you can play with this scale inside a minor harmonic field or in a major harmonic field (playing the
minor relative pentatonic, in this case). Do this for a long time.

Step 2: Use the minor pentatonic in Blues context, after reading the article ―Blues Definition‖. Do
this for a long time.

Step 3: Now that you are familiarized with the minor pentatonic, you have to memorize the major
pentatonic and use it in the tonal context, as you did in step 1.

Step 4: Now that you are familiarized with the two pentatonic scales and know how to use them,
play the pentatonic scale starting in all the degrees. Do the following training, which will expand
your dominium about the instrument fretboard:

We will play the pentatonic scale in C major tonality, but starting in other degrees (other regions of
the instrument fretboard). We will go first in G, playing the other notes of the C pentatonic (this will
create a peculiar drawing). After that, we will do the same pentatonic scale, but starting with A.
There is nothing magical in this, we will play the same notes as before; we will only start in A
instead of starting in G. After that we will do the same to all the other degrees.

Check below the drawing and memorize each one:

This is the same idea that we had to create the Greek modes.

In the case of Greek modes, there were 7 notes in the scale; therefore starting with each degree
resulted in 7 scales. Here in the pentatonic we had 5 scales.

Now the mission is to practice the same way that you did in the previous steps. Use these drawings in
the tonal and Blues contexts.

Very well, you already have material to study for months! Your performance in improvisation is
being developed. If you master only the concepts that we talked about until here you will be able to
improvise in the most of the songs that exist.

Don‘t waste this knowledge. Put it into practice!

We will show you bellow some examples of application of the complete pentatonic scale (drawing
starting in all the degrees), in the tonal context (major and minor relative harmonic field). All this is
to give you a boost in your ideas!
And the application of the pentatonic in the Blues context will be shown in the article ―Blues
Definition‖.

The solo of the article in the Guitar Pro below is in A minor tonality. The harmony has the following
chords:

| Am | F | C | G |

You can download the file here: soon!

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The invention of the Blues

The Blues was invented in the end of XIX century in the United States, when the slaves that worked
in cotton plantation used to chant songs and laments that gave rise to what we know today as
―Blues‖. It was gospel music just sang, because by their precarious conditions they could not afford
to buy instruments. After that, this style came to church and was used to livened the services.

The Blues developed itself over the years, influencing and giving rise to other styles like Jazz, Rock,
Soul, etc. But what is the definition of Blues?

What the world knows about Blues is the musical sequence: First degree, fourth degree, first degree,
fifth degree, fourth degree, first degree. Briefly, this is the simplest and easiest sequence that
characterizes Blues. We will see now that with the bar lines, defining how long it rests in each
degree:

| First degree | First degree | First degree | First degree |

| Fourth degree | Fourth degree |

| First degree | First degree |

| Fifth degree | Fourth degree | First degree | First degree, Fifth degree |
Observation: Generally we finish the sequence putting the fifth degree (in orange) in the middle of
the last bar line, before returning to repeat everything again.

You can see and listen this typical structure of Blues in the file from Guitar Pro below. Because just
chit-chatting here would be a waste of time! In this example we are playing G as our first degree.

File: blues1.gpro

The base of this file was done this way:

| G7 | G7 | G7 | G7 |

| C7 | C7 |

| G7 | G7 |

| D7 | C7 | G7 |G7 D7|

Bar lines of the Blues

You can notice that the chords of this example are all with seventh. This is a peculiarity of Blues.
Another detail is that Blues has exactly 12 bar lines. It is just to count the bar lines we showed
before and you will see.

Very well, notice that we started with 4 bar lines of first degree. After that, we have two bar lines in
the fourth degree and then we return to first degree doing two more bar lines in it. There it comes the
climax, where in each bar line, we play a different degree: Fifth, fourth and first degrees. To finish,
we divide the last bar line in two parts, playing the first and the fifth degrees in it, and then we start
everything again.

Summarizing, we can define Blues as a structure of 12 bar lines where we play with three
chords (first, fourth and fifth degrees), all of them with seventh.

This is a really simple definition and doesn‘t cover all the variations of Blues, since we are in an
introductory topic, this definition is to help you to memorize the basic about this style.
Another way of creating Blues
Well, another way of creating this Blues is, instead of playing 4 bar lines in the first degree is playing
1 bar line in the first degree, 1 bar line in the fourth and 2 bar lines again in the first degree. This
way, instead of having 4 bar lines in the same chord, we have a little change playing also the fourth
degree in a bar line. The structure will be like this:

| First degree | Fourth degree | First degree | First degree |

| Fourth degree | Fourth degree |

| First degree | First degree |

| Fifth degree | Fourth degree | First degree | First degree, Fifth degree |

Notice that the only changing we did here was in the second bar line, that was before the First degree
and now is the Fourth degree. Listen and follow this structure in the file of Guitar Pro below.

File: Blues2.gpro

How to improvise in Blues?

Nice. Now that we know the basics of how to create Blues, it is time to know how to improvise in it.
There are many and many resources to use in Blues. In this topic we will be restricted to only one:
the pentatonic scale. Further, when you have studied other topics and will be dominating well the
subjects, we will return to Blues exploring other resources more advanced, which will enable you to
become a master of Blues. For now, satisfy yourself in being in the pentatonic scale and learn how to
use it. Actually, 99% of all the musicians do nothing besides the pentatonic while improvising Blues.
Because they don‘t know nothing more than this.

So let‘s go. What pentatonic scale can we use to improvise in Blues? The pentatonic scale of first
degree, for example, in the previous base that we worked with, the first degree was G, so you will use
the G minor pentatonic scale. That‘s all! Now take that previous base that we did and be happy using
the G minor pentatonic in it!
Of course we will give a little push to help you to have ideas. Here you have an example of solo in
bases that we did before. Pay attention in the ideas we created and then create your own ideas!

File Guitar pro: pentatonicscale(blues).gpro

Observation: Use the pentatonic scale in all the instrument fretboard! This will make you a great
improviser; someone that explores all the possible spaces. Check the designs in the final part of the
article ―Pentatonic Scale‖ to study this scale in all its extension.

Maybe you are thinking: ―Why can we use the minor pentatonic of first degree?‖; ―Where does this
rule come from?‖. Well, the explanation for this is quite complex. For now, just have it as rule and
practice this way. Further, studying here in the website you will have your own conclusions due to
the background in the earned concepts. Take it easy.

Nice. You finished our starting study about Blues. Practice now your solos downloading this backing
track: soon! Use the E minor pentatonic scale in this base. You can also interact with the website
recording your solo, uploading it on Youtube and sending the video link to Contact us. The best
videos will be posted here.

Don‘t stop practicing what you learned. The fluency and dominium process about any subject in
music is long and demands dedication; but is also really funny! Engage yourself and you will reap
the fruits! If you didn‘t know Blues, this subject will be really important to your musicality. Now is
your turn to spend time in your instrument practicing and enjoying this lesson!

Go to: Blues scale

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The blue note in blues scale

Blues scale is the pentatonic scale with one more note (added in the scale). This note is known as
―Blue note‖ and it is the flattened fifth in the case of the minor pentatonic, or the flattened third in
the case of the major pentatonic. See that the note that was added is the same in both scales; it is just
to memorize the Blues minor scale and transmit this note to all the other Greek modes while doing
the solo. Check below the shape of A minor Blues scale (highlighting the Blue note in red):
A minor blues scale

Check now the C major Blues scale and notice as the added note is the same (D#):

C major blues scale

Nice, but now some basic questions appear: Where did this scale come from? What is the use of it?

The Blues scale is one the first scales that students of improvisation learn and generally it ends as
being the only scale that they use besides the major and pentatonic scales.

It had its roots in Afro-American music with the slaves and became being really used in Blues,
receiving the name of ―Blues scale‖. The term ―Blue note‖ is generally translated into Portuguese as
―out note‖, due to the fact of this note does not belong to natural scale.

How to use Blues scale?

The utilization of Blues scale is the same as pentatonic scale. We can use it in any place that we
would use the traditional pentatonic scale, just taking care to the fact that the Blue note is a passing
note, in other words, it must appear just among other notes and not as a resting note. This is not hard
to understand, because the Blue note is a dissonant note to the natural diatonic scale. We should not
―rest‖ in it because this would sound like untune.
Try to do the test. Listen to a song in C tonality and play the D# note. It is strange, isn‘t it? Now play
the Blues scale in this song. Did you see that this same D# when played with other notes sounds
really nice?!

The chromaticism of the blue note is one of the most pleasant among all, this is why this is scale is
really widespread. To know how to use it well demands practice, but the progress is fast.

Some tips and examples to practice the blues scale

Let‘s give that push in your studies showing some riffs with the Blues scale, whether in the tonal
context as in the Blues context. Train these riffs and also create your own riffs. Soon, the Blues scale
will be dominated by you.

It is worth to practice this scale, because the Blue note gives some special ―taste‖ to any song when
well used! Just don‘t be tied to this scale as it was the only one in the world, because it is really
common that musicians use it to exhaust their ideas and being tied to nothing more than this. You
have to understand that this scale was and goes on being reproduced millions of times from
musicians all over the world, in other words, we will not differentiate yourself playing the Blues
scale. It is one of the most jaded artifices in music, so don‘t be surprised with the easy produced
gratification.

Of course this does not mean that you should despise it, not at all. You have to dominate it well, but
keep studying other things later. Follow your learning process here in the website and make your
mixtures of Blues scale with other scales and resources to create your own ―taste‖.

Very well, below you have some examples/exercises from Guitar Pro:

Blues scale in the tonal context: tonalbluescale.gpro

Observation: The tonality of this solo is the minor (chords Am, F, C and G).

Blues scale in Blues context: bluesscale ( in Blues).gpro

Observation: This Blues is in G

Practice now your solos using the E Blues scale in this backing track (download the file): Traditional
E blues.gpro
To finish, we will show the drawings of the Blues scale in the whole guitar fretboard. The idea is the
same as we mentioned before to the pentatonic scale: to dominate the Blues scale in all the fretboard!
As you are supposed to be dominating the complete pentatonic scale, this process will be really easy!
So, have good studies!
Go to: Module 5

Back to: Simplifying Theory

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 Module 5

Harmonic Function is a title that represents the feeling (emotion) that certain chord transmits to the
listener. This concept will be clearer when we give you examples. First of all, you have to know that
the three main harmonic functions are:

Tonic Function
Transmits a feeling of rest, stability and finalization. Promotes the idea of conclusion.

Dominant Function
Transmits instability and tension feeling. Promotes the idea of preparation for the tonic.

Pre-dominant
It is the middle ground between the two previous functions. We can say that it creates a preparation
feeling, but with less intensity and may migrate either to the dominant function (intensifying the
tension) as to the tonic (resting).

To understand better what we are talking about, try to play repeatedly the following chords in the
order that they are shown:

| G7M | C7M | D7 |

Playing slowly this sequence, you can see that the D7 chord transmits a ―preparation‖ feeling to
return to G7M. This sound of instability is characterized by the dominant function. When you return
to G7M chord there is a ―relief‖, ―solving‖ and stability feeling. This is a characteristic
of tonic function. And the C7M chord, in this context, represented a middle ground (without all that
―anguish‖ from D7 chord, but also without that stability from G7M chord). This characterizes a pre-
dominant function.
The context that we used here was the harmonic field of G major, where G7M is the first degree,
C7M is the fourth degree and D7 is the fifth degree. We can generalize this experiment saying that,
in any major harmonic field: the first degree characterizes the tonic function, the fourth degree
characterizes the pre-dominant function and the fifth the dominant function. As it was said above that
each chord has a harmonic function in music, we will summarize below the functions of each degree
in the major harmonic field:

Very well, so the idea that we showed about ―conclusion‖ and ―preparation‖ can not only exist with
the degrees I, IV and V, but also with the other degrees, as shown in this table. This is really
important! Let‘s start to use this harmonic functions concept from now on to the next topics and
levels! Therefore, it is fundamental that you memorize well the function of each degree in major
harmonic field, identifying quickly which one is dominant, pre-dominant or tonic.

The chords have the same harmonic functions and can be interchanged among each other. This
means that we can take the chords for a song and substitute them for others that have the same
harmonic function without modifying the feeling of that song! You can see this below, for example,
the harmonic field functions in C major:

You can play with a song that is in C major tone exchanging the place of the chords that are in the
same row of this table. For example, in the place of the F chord that will appear in the song, you can
use Dm. The same happens for the other functions.

For testing this concepts, choose songs that you already know and analyzed them from the harmonic
functions point of view. You should identify each chord in the song with its respective degree and
function, as we listed here. Also try to identify the feeling of that song in this moment. This will be
your ―homework‖. You can also try to substitute the chords of the same harmonic function among
them, but for now don‘t worry too much about that. We will work a lot about this harmonic functions
subject; this topic is just an introduction.

However, you will like to know that harmonic function is the biggest secret of musicians that have a
good ear. Knowing well the feeling of each one of these three functions has (tonic, dominant and
subdominant), it is easier to identify some chord by ear. The dominant function, for example, (in
opinion of many people) is the easiest way to identify.

How can you identify a chord by harmonic

funcions?
Let‘s say that you are playing with a band a song that you don‘t know, and somebody tells you that
the tonality is C major. You are in the back part of the stage and you cannot see the chords that the
vocalist is doing in his instrument. Summarizing, you are playing by ear this time. Suddenly you feel
that some chord has dominant function (this is easy to recognize with experience and ear training).
As you already know that the function is dominant and the tonality is C major, it means that this
chord can be the V7 degree or VIIm7(b5). It is more common appears the V7 instead of VIIm7(b5),
therefore you would try to play G7 and would have 90% of chances of being right. Even if you made
a mistake, you would do that in the same harmonic function, what is tolerable; because the sensation
passed through theses chords is the same (the sound wouldn‘t be dissonant).

Without knowing the feeling of harmonic functions, this task would be harder, because you should
know the sound of each chord individually and if you made a mistake, you would be at risk of
playing some chord with another harmonic function, what would be a disaster.

Emotions in harmonic funcions

Besides this application, harmonic functions also serve ―to manipulate‖ people‘s emotions. Who does
not become distressed with that song typically of thriller movies? So well, they are nothing more than
the abuse of these dominant chords, which are ―hammering‖ without solving the tonic.

On the other hand, advertisements in television emphasize light and pleasant feelings (tonic function)
so that the customer feels comfortable and connects this well being with this product.
Many musicians try to manipulate the harmonic functions according to the lyrics in a song. If the
lyrics talks about something bad and worrying, the feeling of the chord is dominant. When the lyrics
theme is solved and the song becomes ―happier‖, the harmony follows this evolution with the tonic
function. This way, the message is experienced by the listener twice, because the sense of the lyric
and the feeling of the song add up together. Good song writers, arrangers and producers use to be
experts in this subject.

Any study about harmony, improvisation or composition will address intrinsically harmonic
functions topic, this is why it is important to dominate from now on this subject.

In the improvisation field, it is easy to comprehend that the song is transmitting tension; the solo
needs to highlight this tension. If the song is transmitting tranquility, the solo has to highlight this
tranquility. A soloist that follows well what the song demands creates really pleasant melodies to our
ears, because there is a perfect marriage between melody and harmony. We can compare this to a
soccer match, where the right-back (harmony) cross the ball forward to the area and the striker
(melody) comes running and head the ball into the net. If the right-back retained the ball, should the
striker run to the area and head the wind? In the same way, if the right-back had crossed the ball
forward, the striker couldn‘t return to the midfield!

Besides obvious, this kind of mistake is really common in improvisation. But take it easy, we will
work here so that you play really mingled in this team!

Go to: Tritone

Back to: Module 5

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Tritone is the interval of three whole tones between two notes. In other words, when we play
simultaneously two notes that have three tones of distance between them, we are playing a tritone.
One example of tritone is in the notes F and B.
As said in the article ―Harmonic Function‖, the dominant chord has tension sonority. The responsible
for this feeling is exactly the instability of the tritone.

The tritone effect provides one of the most complex dissonances in western music. Its sonority gives
the idea of movement, instability and when it is not followed by a resting chord, the listener becomes
distressed, afflicted, because the tritone should be ―solved‖. This is why many thriller melodies in
horror famous movies have just two notes and are successful. It just to put tritones playing
intermittently and the viewer will be scared stiff.

All the dominant chords has a tritone, because the tritone is the responsible for the ―tension feeling‖
in the dominant function. Let‘s see some V7 chords (fifth degree with dominant seventh) for you to
check. See the notes that compose the G7 chord: G, B, D and F.

Between B and F we have 3 tones of distance.

Other example: See the notes that compose the E7 chord: E, G#, B and D.

Between G# and D we have 3 tones of distance.

Very well, it is enough to realize that in major chords with seventh there is a tritone between the 3rd
and 7th degrees.

One thing that is important to highlight is the chromatic effect produced by this tritone. In the case of
G7, that solves in C major, the notes B and F are a semitone below and above, respectively, of the
tonic and the third of C. In other words, there is a chromatic effect that makes the chord ―walk‖ to C,
as it has the necessity of solving on it.

Another kind of chord with dominant function is the minor with seventh and flatted fifth (do you
remember it? This chord appears in the seventh degree of major harmonic field, known as half
diminished chord).
Check the notes of Am7(b5): A, C, D#, G

Between A and D# we have 3 tones of distance.

Observation: not always the half diminished chord will act like dominant. Depending on the context,
it can act like another function (we will see this in other studies).

Tritone – The sound of devil

Well, maybe you are asking yourself: ―Why the hell of the title of this section is ‗the sound of
devil‘?‖.

For a long time, tritone was forbidden in the Western church due to fact of transmitting this tension
effect. This dissonance was seen as malignant by the church, because they used to believe that the
perfection of God would be translated into harmonic sounds, not in non-harmonics as the tritone.

This concept made that in the Middle Age, the tritone received the name of ―diabolus in musica‖
(devil in music), and it was forbidden to be played (threatening composers to go to bonfire).

Later, they realized that this definition didn‘t have biblical bases, and the tritone was then allowed. It
is common to see some mistakes pseudo-religious trying to distort Bible even today. But let‘s return
to the dominants…

Tritone in dominant chords

The dominant chord can appear in two ways: as altered dominant or non-altered dominant. It is
called altered dominant when the 5th, 9th, 11th or the 13rd are altered, in other words, out from the
scale that forms the mixolydian mode.

We know that the mixolydian mode is formed by the following degrees:

1st major, 2nd major, 3rd major, perfect 4th, perfect 5th and 7th minor.

Therefore, a non-altered dominant chord is the V7 chord that has the notes of the chord (1, 3, 5, 7)
and/or any one of the extensions above (major 2nd, perfect 4th or major 6th). If the chord is V7
shows any one of these altered extensions (minor 2nd, diminished 4th, augmented 4th or minor 6th)
or even the augmented 5th or diminished 5th note from the chord, it will be an altered dominant
chord.

For example, the G7(#5) is an altered dominant chord, because it has an augmented 5th. The G7(b9)
chord is also altered because it has a flatted 9th (or the minor 2nd, for those who prefer). And the
chord G7(6) is not altered, because it has a major 6th, which is part of natural mixolydian scale.

This nomenclature is useful because the dominant chord gives us many resources in improvisation.
Altered dominants have an approach quite different from non-altered dominants due to their different
sonority structure. In the articles of scales application you will see these differences.

A term that is also well used to altered chords it is what we call ―dissonance‖. The meaning of
dissonant is what needs to be solved, or something that is also strange to the original tonality. The
term ―consonant‖ means exactly the opposite: stability related to the tonic.

Songs with tritones

Talking about ambience, songs with heavy tension have many tritones, like the 5th symphony, 1st
movement from Beethoven, for example. The Heavy Metal is also a good example of a music style
that incorporated the dominant function in its basic harmonies.

But the dominants are not restricted to heavy and intense songs; they appear in several places, even
in peaceful songs, followed by the tonic solving.

Using dominants to do modulation (changing of tonalities) is another extremely common application,

what makes this kind of chord one of the most explored in music nowadays, and maybe the most
studied. If you want to be a good musician, the dominant (and the tritone) must be part of your
vocabulary and repertoire. You are actually taking a big step reading this article. The team
of Simplifying Theory is here to show you the way! Go on studying and learning here in our website
and you will be a complete musician.

Go to: Deceptive resolution

Back to: Module 5

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Deceptive resolution is when a dominant chord does not solve itself in its tonic. For example, the G7
chord is the fifth degree (V7) of C (dominant of C), therefore our ear waits that it solves itself in C.
If, after G7, another chord is played that not C, we would have a deceptive resolution, in other words,
it would be a surprise to our ear!

We call this resolution ―deceptive‖ because it it‘s like our ear is disappointed with an expectation that
is not solved. But, this surprise effect can be interesting and pleasing depending on the context.

Example of deceptive resolution

Look below an example of deceptive resolution:

VAMOS FUGIR (Gilberto Gil e Liminha)

A E7 F#m D E7 F#m

Vamos fugir deste lugar baby vamos fugir, tou cansado de esperar que você me carregue

A E7 F#m D E7 F#m

Vamos fugir pro outro lugar baby vamos fugir pronde quer que você vá que você me carregue

A E7 D A E7 D

Pois diga que irá Irajá Irajá pra onde eu só veja você você veja mim só Marajó Marajó outro

A E7 D

Lugar comum outro lugar qualquer Guaporé Guaporé…

See that the V7 dominant from A chord (E7 chord) has deceptive resolution all the times it appears in
this song (we highlighted these resolutions in orange). It is solving in VIm (minor relative) and, in
other moments, in the IV degree, wherein this waited resolution would be I degree.

Go to: Chord inversions

Back to: Module 5

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Chord inversions technique corresponds to make the most bass note of the chord does not be the
first degree. When a chord‘s bass note is its root, the chord is in its root position or in normal form.
When the root is not the lowest pitch played in a chord, it is said to be inverted.

We already learned how to create triads, tetrads and all the possible extensions about chords. Now
we are going to work with a new concept, called inversion.

Kinds of chord inversions

Well, you should have seen that the first note or the first degree of the chord (the bass note) is the one
which gives the name to the chord. For example, C major is made by C, E and G, where C is the first
degree. Inverting the chord is doing that the bass note does not be the first degree, but any other
degree that makes the chord. Therefore, we have three possible inversions (related to the notes that
make the tetrad): we can put the third, the fifth or the seventh in bass note.

1st inversion
The first inversion is to do the third be the lower note from the chord (the bass).

In C major, the third note is E. So the first inversion is the chord C with the bass in E.

The most common notation to represent inversions is a slash. For Example: C/E (C with bass in E).

See below some examples of this chord. The bass note is in red.

2nd inversion
In the second inversion, the lower note is the fifth.

In the C chord, the fifth is G. Therefore, the chord C in inversion is C/G. Check below some
drawings to this chord:

3rd inversion
In the third inversion, the lower note is the seventh degree. This inversion needs a special care when
the seventh is major (maj7), because it is located half tone below the tonic (1st degree). This can
generates a sound discomfort due to this ―chromaticism‖, because the short distance can gives the
idea that we are making a mistake in the bass note playing the tonic a semitone above of which it was
supposed to be played. When the seventh is minor, this problem does not exist.

See below an example of 3rd inversion to Cmaj7 and C7 (where major 7th is B and minor 7th is Bb):

Observation: There are innumerous different shapes to create inverted chords in the guitar; we
showed just some of them to introduce this concept. Try to find other shapes to these chords that we
showed and you can also try the inversions to the other chords! Soon we will upload more drawings
here. For now, you have as homework to work with this.

Tips to memorize chord inversions

Nice. You should have seen that the inverted chord has a sound lightly different from the original
chord, because the bass note is striking. This represents a great opportunity for you to vary the songs‘
sonority. Try to play a song that you know doing all the chords in the first inversion. Besides being a
great exercise, this is the best way of memorizing the drawings of these chords. Practice this with lots
of songs and quickly the inverted chords will be part of your musical vocabulary.

To create (compose) songs, try the inverted chords too, instead of traditional ones only, because
some sequences and progressions can be more beautiful and interesting. This acquired knowledge
will increase your ideas!

In keyboard/piano, working with inverted chords is really common (students learn in the first classes
how to do this). In guitar, as it is harder ―to search‖ the inversions and as there are many options of
shapes and structures, most of the teachers don‘t teach this, as it would not be an important subject.

Since very few people explore this concept given here, musicians that do inverted chords in the guitar
call attention. It seems that they are playing ―crazy chords‖, ―incremented‖ ones, because the shape
of the inverted chords is different, less usual, and its sonority is enchanting.

If you want, then, feel the eyes of you audience playing just triads and tetrads, here it is a simple
resource.

In the future topics, the advanced ones, we will use chord inversions to work with melodic lines with
the bass. For now, try to be used to them, using them always when it is possible.

Go to: Modulation

Back to : Module 5

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Modulation means changing tonality. In other words, it is the process, or operation, of moving a
collection of notes (pitches or pitch classes) up or down in pitch by a constant interval.

Just to remember, we already know how to discover the tonality of a song. It is just to see its chords,
because they show us which is the harmonic field in question and, therefore, they inform
which scale we can use to improvise or do arrangements.
But many songs have more than one tonality, in other words, they change from one harmonic field to
another. For example, let‘s say that a song has the chords C, Em, F, G and Am. We could say that the
tonality is C major. Imagine now that in the chorus the chords Bb, Gm and Dm appear. These chords
belong to F major harmonic field, and not C major. In the chorus, the tonality of this song changed,
so we can say that a ―modulation‖ happened in this part. In the point of view of improvisation, we
would use F major scale in the chorus, due to the fact that tonality there is F major.

Modulation and Transposition

Modulation can be short, which means that they last for a short time and then return to their original
tonality; or they can stand for a long time, changing definitely the song‘s tonality. When the song
modulates and does not return to its initial tonality, we say that a transposition happened. This
definition, though, it‘s not universal; many musicians call any modulation by transposition and vice-
versa. The main point is to understand that actually, modulation and transposition are the same thing:
changing tonality.

There are many ways of doing modulation, and we will study this in advanced topics. Our target here
is just to give you an introduction about the concept, because we will mention this word many times
from now on.

As you saw, there is no mystery. Along our studies you will learn many resources and different ways
of exploring this subject. To dominate styles that are more complicated like Jazz and Bossanova, this
knowledge will be fundamental. Even if you want to play only basic songs (that normally doesn‘t
have modulation) this study is interesting. Knowledge is never too much, and when it comes in an
easy way, it is better! Einstein said: ―The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original
size‖. After a while studying here in the website, probably you will be able to listen and realize
things that you couldn‘t see before. This will increase your perception and your musical pleasure,
undoubtedly.

Go to: Target notes

Back to: Module 5

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 The importance of Target Notes in improvisation
We call Target Notes those notes that are our main goal in a solo.

To make it clearer, let‘s talk about ―good solos‖ and improvisation.

You already know the basic to improvise in sequence of chords and you are able to know
the tonality of a song, use the major, minor, relative and pentatonic scales. Very well, but it is not
always that we have a good solo, do you agree?! Even phrasing and exploring many techniques,
sometimes some notes do not sound good, even though belonging to the same harmonic field of the
song.

The explanation for this is simple; we cannot restrict ourselves in thinking only in harmonic field.
We need to think in chords too! You should agree that a solo works in harmony, and a harmony is
made by chords. Even if the harmonic field doesn‘t change during the song, each note of the scale
will sound differently (it will have a different impact) when played in each chord of this harmonic
field. So we need to know which notes are more beautiful for each chord!

Follow this logic: a chord is a group of notes. So, doing a solo in a chord, we should play in our solo
the notes that belong to this chord. For example, if the song had the chords C, Em, F and G, we could
think in playing the following notes:

 C, E, G for C major
 E, B, G for E minor
 G, B, D for G major
 F, C, E for F major
These are the tetrads (chord‘s notes) of each chord of the song.

Observation: If these chords also had the seventh (tetrads), we could add the seventh degree as a note
to be played.

It would be impossible to sound ―ugly‖ what we did now, do you agree? Because it would be the
own arpeggio of each chord! So well, the secret is this: a solo will always be good if we focus our
attention in the chord‘s notes during the whole song. And then you could say: ―Hey, so do you want
to say that I have to do arpeggios all the time? Can I only play 3 or 4 notes by chord?‖.
No my friend, and it is here that this subject of Target Notes enters!

As the notes of the chord are the notes that sound very well, they are the Target Notes. In other
words, we will do our solo with our goal in these notes (this is why the name: target). How will we
do this? There are many ways. Pay attention in the song‘s tonality and try to emphasize the chord‘s
notes in some way, doing that they really appear in the solo. We will show some ideas for you to
work with this; some exercises that can be put in practice. We will see some ways of exploring this
concept of Target Notes.

Kinds of target notes

Very well, we can arrive in these target notes by many ways, and the most common ones are for
approximation:

1) Diatonic Ascending

2) Descending Diatonic

3) Mixed

4) Chromatic

5) Joint Degrees

6) Disjoint Degrees

You don‘t need to memorize all the names; it is just to understand the idea in each one.

We will show each technique in a song made by the chords C, Em, F and G (C major tonality). So
let‘s go:

Diatonic Ascending Approximation

The name ―diatonic‖ means that we will work with the notes of natural scale. It works like this: we
will try to play the notes of the scale that is located just before the chord‘s note and then we play the
chord‘s note. For example, in Em chord, the target notes are E, G and B. Which are the notes that
come before of each one of these notes? D comes before E, F comes before G and A comes before B.
So, one option to our solo could be the following: F – G, D – E, A – B.

The logic is exactly this: ―to finish‖ each stretch with a chord‘s note. We can play with the order of
the notes as we want (D – E, A – B, F – G, etc.), it‘s not mandatory to follow the order 1st, 3rd and
5th degrees in sequence. See below this application for chords of our song (the chord‘s notes are
highlighted in red):

C Em F G

Descending Diatonic approximation

It works the same way that we did before with the difference that now we play the note that comes
after the chord‘s note and then return (descending) and play the chord‘s note. Using the same
example of Em, the sequence would be: F – E, A – G, C – B. Notice that F, A and C are the notes
that come after E, G, and B, respectively. You can see below the application of the other chords:

C Em F G
Mixed Approximation
It works by mixing the two previous approximations. Use your creativity! We can, for example, in
the Em chord arrive in E by ascending, then arrive in G by descending, etc. Or even, we can play
both notes that come after and before the chord‘s note before finishing in the chord‘s note. We will
give examples below. About the C chord, we will show the mixed approximation ascending with the
next note descending; and about the Em chord, we will show the mixed approximation descending
with the next note ascending; and for the chords F and G, we will show the mixed approximation
with everything in an aleatory way.

C Em F G

Chromatic Approximation
The idea here is the same that we had for Diatonic Approximations; the only difference is that instead
of playing the note that comes after or before in the major scale, we will play the notes that are a
semitone before or after the chord‘s note, in other words, the notes of the chromatic scale. Although
they are notes that don‘t belong to harmonic field of the song, they will serve as passing notes,
because the chromatic effect makes our ear ―to accept‖ this reproduction. We will create a specific
topic to give you more examples about this subject, because it can be well explored and used. Here
we are just explaining and introducing the idea. In the case of Em, the sequence would be (in an
ascending approximation): D# – E, F – G, A# – B. Below you have some applications to the other
chords:

C Em F G
Joint Degrees Approximation
To work with Joint Degrees is to use the same concept of ascending and descending approximation
to do longer sequences before arriving in the target note. For example, we can arrive in G by
ascending conjunct approximation. For this, instead of playing only F – G, we can come from C
doing that: C – D, D – E, E – F, F – G. This work as for ascending approximation, as for descending,
mixed and chromatic ones. Examples:

C Em

F G
Disjoint Degrees Approximation
Disjoint Degrees are notes that are not immediate one another, in other words, they have a bigger
distance. For example, we can approach to E playing ―C – E‖ instead of ―D – E‖. In this case, we use
not the immediate note to the chord‘s note, but the second previous note. Examples:

Nice, you can see that we have innumerous combinations and possibilities to explore the target notes!
Your solo does not need to be a sequence exactly like these we showed; the ideal is that you pay
attention in the chords and indentify which are the target notes, trying to emphasize them in your
solo. These exercises are good for you to practice this idea and can be used as fragments in melodic
phrases that you have created.

It can seem boring to have to know/memorize all the chord‘s notes from all the possible chords. But
it is not really hard. In the strings instruments, you need to focus your attention in the drawings and
shapes. For example, the F in bar chord has the same shape of G in bar chord, etc. This means that if
you know how to find the notes from F chord, automatically you know how to find the ones from G,
because the drawing is the same. Then, our work is absurdly reduced, it is just to find the target notes
of 3 or 4 different shapes and you will be able to work target notes in any chord in any song.

So, focus yourself in it!

Furthermore, this study of target note is important because we start to exercise a concept of
improvisation that will be well worked forward: improvisation thinking in chords! Until here, we
have talked about improvisation thinking only in harmonic field.

Advanced studies work with improvisation from the point of view of each chord, taking advantage in
the opportunity of using many outside notes in each situation. It is this that will differentiate you
from the 99.9% musicians of the planet who only know how to play pentatonic and major scales. It is
incredible how you can find tutorials and classes just about technique, technique and technique.
Everybody only cares about playing fast, and those who already understood that speed is not
everything, try to create good and melodic solos using only technical resources, due the fact that they
don‘t know nothing about theory. Everybody forgets that a good sonority depends on the notes that
you are playing! The musician that knows about musical theory will always be a step forward.

To achieve this level of thinking in chords and not being restricted in harmonic field, starts now,
paying attention in each chord of the song. We are just starting our studies in this subject, starting
with target notes, but it is a great start. This will add beauty to your solos. Get the hint!

Go to: Module 6

Back to: Simplifying Theory

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 Module 6

We will show here a tool to increase even more your solo, it is the Octave Displacement (or octave
dispersion).

The idea is really simple: to have fun with octaves. The interesting is that even working only
with tonalnotes (without outside notes), it is possible to have a differentiate sonority! This study will
help you to make a solo in a way less linear and more ―easy-going‖.

Before working one more technique, try to play all the examples below. Here we are only playing
each note from the C7M chord with its respectively octave, what is already good:

Octave Displacement in music scales

Now we will do this: we will play a note from C major scale and the next note from the scale will be
played one octave above, and so on consecutively. After that, in the next bar line, we will do the
opposite: we will start with an acute note and we will work with the next note one octave below.
Check it:
Arpeggios with Octave Displacement
In the next example, we will work this concept in arpeggio of Em7:

You can increase these ideas to the other scales too. Try it!

Soon we will be adding more ideas and implementations in solos.

You can also send us your own ideas.

Have a nice training!

Go to: Chromatic approach notes

Back to: Module 6

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Chromatic approach notes is a complement to the study we did about target notes. We would like to
highlight that target notes by approximation bring many outside notes to your solo, in other words,
you will be adding in your solo notes that don‘t belong to the tonality.

This resource when dominated gives an impression that the musician knows a lot about music theory,
because its sonority brings innumerous alternative notes in each chord. You already know this secret.
If this concept is quite obscure yet, read again the article ―Target Notes‖.

We will show below some examples of C chord that use this chromatic approach, where the chord‘s
notes are highlighted in red. Choose those that please you and use them in your solos!
Ascending Chromatic Approximation

Descending Chromatic Approximation

Ideas of Chromatic Approach Notes in Em7 chord

Go to: Chord progressions

Back to: Module 6

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Chord progressions are sequences that are characteristically from chords that generate a harmonic
feeling of preparation and conclusion.

There are innumerous sequences from possible chords to create a song, but some sequences are really
common to appear due to their sound effect and because of it, they are called progressions (or
cadences). A really common progression, as we saw in the article ―Harmonic Function‖, it is the
progression IV – V – I.

Chord progressions and harmonic functions

Progressions serve like a standard (cliché), something that can be used in many contexts, with the
aim of creating a harmonic feeling. This is why progressions work with harmonic functions.

If you consider, for example, the degrees sequence II, V and I. We already saw that the 2nd degree
has a subdominant function, the 5th degree has a dominant function and the 1st degree is the tonic.

We can see that this sequence creates the exactly idea of suspending/preparing/concluding.

When the tonic is a major chord, this cadence (using tetrads) normally has the following shape:

IIm7 – V7 – I7M

Example in the harmonic field of C:

Dm7 – G7 – C7M

If you still have troubles in making association with degrees (I, II, III, etc.) with their respective
harmonic functions, it is better that you return and study again this topic (Harmonic Functions)
calmly, making notes, playing in your instrument; till you memorize well this part. This is really
important and has to be automatic in your mind. You should see the chords of a harmonic field as
they would have a surname, which is the harmonic function. From now on we will talk a lot about
functions and their degrees. So if you didn‘t understand the essence of this, you will have problems.
It is better to take a step back and then after, a step forward. And you will have progress. Otherwise,
you can think this topic is too heavy and give up. But don‘t make this mistake; we are going to the
most interesting and powerful points of music! It is worth to invest in it and progress slowly!!
Minor chord progressions
So, for those who didn‘t understand the previous example, we can also create the following idea
suspending/preparing/concluding when the tonic is a minor chord.

In this case, the cadence has the following shape:

IIm7(b5) – V7(b9) – Im7

Example of the tonality in C minor:

Dm7(b5) – G7(b9) – Cm7

These shapes didn‘t come by accident, therefore these chords (in both examples we showed) belong
to major and minor harmonic fields of C, respectively. Check it (in red):

The only ―different‖ chord that we showed and didn‘t appear in the table was the dominant in
progression II – V – I to minor chord, because in the minor harmonic field it has as shape Vm7
(Gm7) and in our example, it appeared as G7(b9). The explanation is that this shape (Vm7) doesn‘t
have tritone (which characterizes the ―tension‖ of dominant function), this is why we changed it in a
major chord with seventh (G7). Besides that, we added a flatted ninth (G7b9), because this b9 of G
(Ab, in this case) it is the sixth minor of C, which is present in C minor scale (in major scale, the
sixth is major!). This softened slightly the fact that G7 is major and does not belong to the field of C
as we said.

Nice, but there is another common cadence shape to minor chords:

IIm7(b5) – V7(#5) – Im7(9)

Example in C tonic:

Dm7(b5) – G7(#5) – Cm7(9)

The difference here in relation to the previous shape was putting a 9th as tonic.

This changing made the dominant changed too (it received an augmented 5th), because this enabled
an interesting chromaticism between D# and D notes (augmented 5th of G and 9th major of C). This
is why this shape is well used and accepted too.

Ok. We finished the first part of this study showing all the typical chord progressions that appear in
songs. In the second part of this topic (how to use chord progressions), we will talk about how they
can be useful for many purposes.

Go to: How to use chord progressions

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So far you already know about chord progressions and the typical cadence shapes II – V – I, we will
continue our approach showing how to use chord progressions.

Besides being pleasant to our ears in any context, progressions can be used to make changes in
tonality (modulation). So that changing doesn‘t be abrupt and ―painful‖ to our ear, normally we use
progression.

Example of how to use chord progressions

Imagine that the song is in A major and, for some reason, you want to change the tonality to E major
in the chorus. The automatic way of doing this would be by start playing E major harmonic field in
the chorus, what would be shocking to the listener and probably negative.

Another way it would be doing the cadence II – V – I to E major. We would use, therefore, the chord
F#m7 to serve as IIm7 of E. To complete the cadence II, V, I; we would play, after F#m7, the
fifth degree of E, which is B7, for then solve it in E7M.

Notice that the sequence F#m7, B7, E7M is a cadence II – V – I.

The interesting about this is that F#m7 chord belongs to A major harmonic field (it is the VI degree).
Besides also belonging to E major harmonic field (II degree) this made this changing of tonality
became softer. We were in A major, and the first chord of the cadence II, V, I of E still belonging to
A harmonic field (until here, the listener didn‘t know that tonality would change). The chord B7 is no
longer part of A major harmonic field, therefore, here now the listener sees the change. But despite
the fact that this chord doesn‘t belong to A field, appearing in the song is not really abrupt due the
fact that F#m7 precedes it. Our ear accepts well the cadence II, V, I because of its feeling. This is
why our brain adapts itself to the logic, projecting a progression II, V, I to E instead of rejecting B7
for not belonging to A field. When we play E7M, this chord is nothing more than a progression
already waited, and it is not a chord out from the context anymore.

Besides this explanation, a cadence can be useful to embody the harmony. Think about the song
below, that has only for chords and repeats them continuously:

| Dm7(9) | Gm7 | C7M | A7(#5) |

The song returns to Dm7(9) after A7(#5). We have here a ―dominant – tonic‖ (V – I) function. We
can use the last bar line to insert a chord that serves as IIm7 to complete the cadence II, V, I. The
second degree of D is E, and we will use Em7(b5), because the sequence IIm7(b5), V7(#5) solves
well in a minor chord, as we saw before.

So, we have:

| Dm7(9) | Gm7 | C7M | Em7(b5) A7(#5) |

We can work more with this harmony. Notice that we have another cadence II, V, I happening: Dm7,
Gm7, Cm7. But, the fifth degree here is minor instead of major (V7). We can, then, change it in a
major chord with seventh (G7) to characterizes better this cadence II – V – I that is solving in a major
chord (C7M) Now we have II, V, I typically of a resolution in a major chord, observes it:

| Dm7(9) | G7 | C7M | Em7(b5) A7(#5) |

This work that we did is known as Reharmonization, because we touched in the song‘s harmony. We
will talk more about this in other topics, but is good for now that you have in mind that you will see
many chord progressions inserted in this context.
In the next topic, we will continue this subject differentiating the existent kinds of cadence. You will
see that not all of them have this key idea of suspending/preparing/concluding.

Go to: Kinds of cadences

Back to: Module 6

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Now that we introduced the concept of cadence, we will go on in our learning dividing cadences in 5
different kinds: Perfect, Imperfect, Plagal, Deceptive and Half Cadences. Each one of them has
some peculiar characteristic and deserves to be analyzed apart.

The most important here about this study is not memorize all the names involved in this theme, but
observing the possible feelings that you can feel!

We will do our study in D major harmonic field. The symbol:

will be used to represent the idea of harmonic conclusion (finalization). So, let‘s go:

Perfect Cadence
The perfect cadence is created by the sequence ―V – I‖ (Dominant – Tonic), therefore it is the
strongest one. When it is preceded by a subdominant (II or IV degree), it is also called by authentic
cadence. Examples:
Imperfect Cadence
The imperfect cadence is created by the sequence ―V – I‖ (Dominant – Tonic), but here one or both
chords appear inverted, what weakens the feeling of progression. Examples:

1st tonic inversion

1st dominant inversion

1st tonic and dominant inversions

Cadence is also called imperfect when the dominant is the VII degree instead of V degree. Example:

Plagal Cadence
Plagal cadence is when a subdominant chord solves directly in the tonic, without passing through the
dominant. It can be a sequence II – I or IV – I. Examples:
This kind of cadence can also appear with one or all the chords inverted. Example:

Deceptive Cadence
Deceptive cadence is when a deceptive resolution happens, in other words, the dominant is followed
by any chord which not the tonic. This cadence has the ―surprise effect‖ and not the conclusive.
Examples:

A deceptive cadence can also be solved in a chord that doesn‘t belong to the original harmonic field,
what characterizes a changing of tonality (modulation). Some authors call this progression of
Interrupted Cadence. Example:

Half Cadence
 It is when the song (or part of it) rests in some dominant chord, in other words, the dominant doesn‘t
solve in any chord, leaving the cadence ―empty‖. Examples:

Very well, we finished our study about cadences. From now on you will hear a lot about them, but
don‘t worry about it, we will not be tied to associated nomenclatures to each cadence but to their
effects, explaining each case in details; because music must be taught as music and not as a boring
report about norms.

Go to: Circle of fifths

Back to: Module 6

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The Circle of Fifths it is nothing more than a sequence with distance intervals of perfect fifths.

For example, the sequence: C – G – D – A – E – B is made by intervals of perfect fifths, therefore, it

is part of a circle of fifths. You can see as B is the fifth above E which is the fifth above A and so on.

Nice, but what is the use of it?

How to use the circle of fifths

Some students learn the circle of fifths to analyze the accidentals in major scales. Check it:

 The C major scale doesn‘t have any accident (any note has sharps or flats).
 The G is one fifth above C, and the G scale has one accident, the note F#.
 The D is one fifth above G, and the G scale has two accidents, F# and C# notes.
The main point is: in each fifth we will have one more accident in the next scale. This is useful
mainly for keyboard and piano players, because each major scale has a different drawing, and the
number of accidents will say how many black keys the scale will have. You can see below a table
with the accidents in each major scale:

Ok, but this is not the only use of circle of fifths. It is interesting to observe that the V7 dominant
chordscan be ―stacked‖ one after other, creating a sequence of resolution grounded in fifths. When
this happens, these dominants receive the name ―Extended Dominants‖.

Circle of fifths forming extended dominants

Look at this example:

| A7 | D7 | G7 | C |

You can see that in this sequence, A7 was solved in its tonic (D), even though this D didn‘t have
tonic function, but a dominant function (D7), solving in G. In the same way, G7 didn‘t work as tonic,
bus as dominant solved in C. Therefore, we had a sequence of Extended Dominants; and looking
from left to right, the fifth degree of C is G, the fifth degree of G is D and so on. In other words, we
make a circle of fifths.

Pentatonic scale and the circle of fifths

Not everyone knows, but the pentatonic scale comes from a circle of fifths! See the sequence C – G –
D – A – E (circle of fifths starting in C). Now compare with the notes of the pentatonic scale of C
major: C, D, E, G and A.
As we can see, when we take the first five notes of a circle of fifths, we are creating a pentatonic
scale.

Circle of fourths
Very well, till now we only talked about circle of fifths; but what about the Circle of Fourths? It is
nothing more than a circle of fifths seen in the opposite way. See the previous sequence: C – G – D –
A – E.

This sequence if saw from the left to the right has the intervals of fourth. In other words, the circle of
fifths is the inversion of the circle of fourths and vice-versa.

Ok, let‘s finish than this topic drawing the complete circle of fifths. We will make a circle and will
put in it all the 12 notes spaced by intervals of fifth:

Notice that, in clockwise sense, we have the circle of fifths, and in the counterclockwise sense, we
have the circle of fourths.

Go to: Module 7

Back to: Simplifying Theory

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 Module 7

Secondary Dominant is any chord that has dominant function in any other chord that not the tonic in
the song.

For example, in C major tonality, the dominant chord is G7. If, in this tonality, A7 appears, these
chords would be a ―secondary dominant‖, because it is a dominant that solves in D, not in C (our
tonic, in this case).

Pay attention that secondary dominants are not part of the natural harmonic field. They are auxiliary
chords, and they serve only to ―prepare‖ a cadence for another degree of harmonic field.

Several times, secondary dominants are used to anticipate the natural dominant in the song. For
example, in the previous case, the natural dominant was G7, so we can play before itself another
dominant that prepares our way to G.

Example of secondary dominants

The dominant of G is D7. Thus we would have the sequence | D7 | G7 | C |, where D7 is the
secondary dominant. This dominant is also called ―Dominant of the dominant‖, since it serves as
dominant to another dominant.

In terms of nomenclature, normally we use the notation V7/V7 or V7/V to highlight that this is about
a secondary dominant to another dominant (for fifth degree). If it was, for example, secondary
dominant that would prepare to the fourth degree, we would write V7/IV.

How to use secondary dominants

Very well, the concept of secondary dominants is clear. Now we will show the implications that this
concept can have.
As V7 dominant is always a fifth above the chord that it will solve, we can ―play‖ with
successive circle of fifths. In the previous case, we played D7 before G7, but we could also play A7
before D7 and E7 before A7, creating the following sequence:

| E7 | A7 | D7 | G7 | C |

This sequence is a preparation after another one, which was solved in the end in C.

First, E7 prepared to A, but A was with seventh, preparing to D, and then successively till finishing
in C. This kind of progression is really used in Jazz.

As we saw, it is about ―extended dominants‖, because they form a cycle of fifths (or fourth,
depending on which side you are looking). The concept is simple, they are just dominants. We
can improvise in them using the mixolydian mode of each dominant, or all the other approaches that
we will study (in future topics).

Of course that this improvisation is not always easy, because these passages can be really fast, what
make our solo hard. This is why is really important to train a lot in this theme, because secondary
dominants appear a lot in styles that are rich harmonically (like Jazz, Fusion, Bossanova, MPB, etc.).
When we will analyze complete songs here in the website, you can be sure that secondary dominants
will appear a lot!

Go to: Extended chord

Back to: Module 7

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Extended chords are chords that have extended or added notes beyond the seventh. These extended
notes are all the other notes that form a chord, besides the ―chord notes‖. Remember that the chord
notes are those which form the triad and tetrad of a chord. Let‘s take as example Cmaj7 chord. It is
formed by C, E, G and B notes, which correspond to first degrees 1, 3, 5 and 7. This is the tetrad of
this chord, in other words, the notes C, E, G and B are called ―chord notes‖ of Cmaj7.

If we add any other note to this chord, for example, the ninth, the chord would be: C7M(9). In this
case, the ninth would be called as ―extension note‖.
 All the notes that are not 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th degrees will be called extension notes. Notice that there are
only 3 degrees of possible extensions (fourth, sixth and ninth). Observation: ninth is equivalent to the
second degree.

Until now, we used the tetrad only to create a harmonic field (we talked about Cmaj7, Dm7, etc). So,
to finish this subject, it is time to analyze the notes that are missing (4 th, 6th and 9th).

How to create extended chords

Our study will be showing which of these notes can be used by each chord in major harmonic field.
In other words, to a song that is in C major, for example, can we play Dm6 chord? And the FM7(9)
chord? These questions will be answered.

This will help you when composing or reharmonizing songs, because you will know which
extensions can be used in each chord and which ones must be avoided. The reasons to avoid some
extensions are:

 Undesirable chromatic effect

 Harmonic function mischaracterization
We will explain in details what each one of them is.

Let‘s use as example C major harmonic field. Remember that this concept works for all other notes.

The C major harmonic field is:

I II III IV V VI VII

C7M Dm7 Em7 FM7 G7 Am7 Bm7(b5)

When we talk about notes to be avoided, remember that we are talking about notes that belong to
C major scale, because the harmonic field is C major. This is important to highlight, for example, the
Fmaj7 scale (in this harmonic field of C) is F Lydian, not F major. So, for this chord, we will use
the Lydian scale. Don‘t be scary when you see an augmented fourth, for example, analyzing if it
must or not be used in this case. We are analyzing only the notes of C major scale, and these notes,
when the chord is not C, receive a different reference in the point of view of degrees; this is why you
will see diminished fourth, augmented fourth, etc. Think in the greek modes. The drawing of the
major scale will be used only to Cmaj7; the other chords will have their scales according to its
respective Greek mode. I suggest that you have in hand the scales of Greek modes to make your
study easier in this topic.

Cmaj7 Extensions
We will begin analyzing the first chord (Cmaj7). See bellow the C major scale and all the possible
extensions (fourth, sixth and ninth):

The notes are, respectively, F, A and D. Let‘s see how the chord Cmaj7 is for each one of these
extensions:

With fourth: Cmaj7(4)

With sixth: Cmaj7(13)

With ninth: Cmaj7(9)

The question is: Can we use all the extensions in C major harmonic field?

Answer: All the extensions can be used, except the fourth degree. In other words, we cannot play C4
or C7M(4). Reason: the fourth degree to this chord is the note F. Ok until here, because this note
belongs to C major scale (so, in theory it could be used). But, it is one semitone of distance from E,
which is a chord note (the third) of C7M. What is the problem of that?

Well, if we put F with the chord C7M, creating a C7M(4), we would be playing simultaneously two
notes that are distant by a semitone (E and F), and this would sound really unpleasant. Take your
instrument and play simultaneously two notes that are separated by one semitone only. Can you see
how this is bad? This is happening because we have a chromatic approximation. You will learn, in
our study of ―SubV7‖ that this approximation serves to prepare the way where we want to go.

For example, let‘s say that a bass player is playing the G note, in a harmonic field of C, because the
chord of the moment is G, and the next chord of the song is A minor. Before playing A, the bass
player could play flatted A to then play A. This effect of chromatic approximation sounds very good,
because it seems that we are rising one scale (G, G#, A), where the next degree is already indicated
(when we play flatted A, immediately we wait that the next note be an A). For this, playing flatted A
with A (both notes in the same time) brings some confusion. The impression is that we are in
conflict, because both notes are really close and they should be played in sequence, not in the same
time. The confusion emerges from the doubt in our brain: ―Do we want rest flatted A in A?‖, because
the chromatic sequence could be Ab – A or A – Ab. In the first case, Ab would be a passing note to
rest in A (ascending cadence), and in the second case, A would be a passing note to rest in Ab
(descending cadence).

With this in mind, you should try to avoid playing any chord that has two notes with a distance of a
semitone.

Maybe you are thinking: ―But then I could never play any chord with forth, because the forth always
is a semitone of distance from the third degree (which is a chord note)‖.

This reasoning makes sense and it‘s true. But there is a solution: we can take away the third degree
from the chord! This way there will be no conflict. As, in this case, it wouldn‘t exist third degree
anymore, the chord becomes suspended. Moral of the story: the chords with 4th use to be suspended.
This is why you will see Asus4, etc. The chords with fourth will have ―sus‖ indicating that the third
degree was suppressed from the chord.

Dm7 Extensions
Continuing our study about extended notes, let‘s analyze our next chord of major harmonic field of C
(Dm7). This chord doesn‘t have any degree to be avoided, so you don‘t need to worry about its
extensions. You can use anyone. You can see bellow the possibilities. The scale is D Dorian.

With fourth: Dm7(4)

With sixth: Dm7(13)

With ninth: Dm7(9)

Em7 Extensions
Our next chord is Em7. See the scale (E Phrygian) and the extended notes:

With fourth: Em7(4)

With Sixth: Em7(b6) = Em7(#5)

 With ninth: Em7(b9)

For this chord, we have to avoid the minor ninth degree (b9) and the minor sixth degree (b6 or #5).
The degree b9 must be avoided because it is one semitone of distance from the first degree, giving
that undesirable chromatic effect that we talked about before.

And the sixth b6 must be avoided because it mischaracterizes Em7 chord. The chord Em7(b13) or
Em7(b6) is identical to C7M(9) chord. Compare them:

 Em7(b13) notes: E, G, B, D, C
 C7M(9) notes: C, E, G, B, D
Conclusion: IIIm7(b6) in the major harmonic field is equivalent to Imaj7(9). What is the problem in
it? The only problem is that we would lose our objective, which is playing the chord E, because it
would be sounding like C! This can imply in many consequences, for example, if we wish to use E
minor to do a modulation to D major, through a cadence II, V, I (Em7, A7, D7M), this idea would be
impaired, because our E minor is sounding like C major, that doesn‘t belong to D harmonic field.
The progression Cmaj7 – A7 – Dmaj7 is not a chord progression with the format II – V – I. This kind
of mischaracterization suggests that we avoid b6, so, in the chord of third degree.
 The next chords of our analysis (F7M and G7), that corresponds to IV and V degrees, don‘t have
notes to be avoided. We will show bellow some examples of common chords that appear in C major
context to these degrees:

 IV: F7M, F7M 9, F7M #11, F7M9 #11, F6, F6add9, F6 add9 #11
 V: G7,G7 9,G7 13,G7 9 13, G7 11,Gsus4, Gsus13
Feel free to play with these options!

The sixth degree of our harmonic field, Am7, has a note to be avoided (b13). Reason: It makes
Am7 sound like Fmaj7(9). Compare them:

 Am7(b13) notes: A, C, E, G, F
 Fmaj7(9) notes: F, A, C, E, G
The seventh and the last degree Bm7(b5) has two notes to be avoided: b9 an b13.

The note b9 must be avoided because it is one semitone of distance from the first degree, as we
already saw. The note b13 must be avoided because the chord Bm7(b5) is identical to G7(9),
compare them:

 Bm7(b5) notes: B, D, F, G, A
 G7(9) notes: G, A, B, D, F
Now that we finished this study, let‘s make a summary of the notes to be avoided in each degree:
Very well, all other extended notes are available for you to have fun!

We advise you to take songs that are rich harmonically to observe the extended notes used in them. It
is the best way of learning. Feel the effects of each extension and abuse of the possibilities!

Observation: We worked all the time in major harmonic field, but the same logic works for the minor
harmonic field. We chose to not showing them to not be boring. If you want to analyze a minor
harmonic field, try taking the major relative field to check the notes and observe which extend chords
you must avoid. For example, if you want to analyze the notes you must avoid in B minor harmonic
field, think in D major harmonic field (its relative) to check if all the note/degrees that you found are
correct.

Go to: Suspended Chords

Back to: Module 7

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We already learned that a suspended chord is the one which doesn‘t have third, in other words, it
cannot be classified as major or minor.

Another thing is that a chord with fourth (extension note) use to appear as 4sus, because the fourth
replaces the third.

But we didn‘t talk about the application of this kind of chord yet, because a theory base for this was
needed. Now that we are in advanced levels, we will see the most common cases where these chords
appear.

How to use suspended chords in practice

We will begin with a common shape of suspended chord: V7sus4.

This kind of chord, known as dominant with a suspended fourth, generally appears replacing IIm7.
Observe it in the example bellow:

II V I
 | Dm7 | G7 | C7M |

In this progression, we could put the chord G7sus4 in place of Dm7, and then we would have:

| G7sus4 | G7 | C7M |

Let‘s understand the reason of it:

 G7sus4 notes: G, C, D, F
 Dm7 notes: D, F, A, C
You can see that these two chords have three notes in common: C, D and F.

As they are really similar, one can do the function of the other. This happens mainly by the fact that
the tritone of G7 has disappeared when we took away the third (it was made by the notes F and B,
but now we took B away); therefore, G7 mischaracterized its function of dominant being suspended
(G7sus). Besides that, it‘s interesting to observe that B doesn‘t belong to Dm7, so taking it away
allowed a similarity even bigger among these chords.

Very well, so it is explained: G7sus4 doesn‘t have any triton and has several notes in common with
Dm7. We can think in using it as IIm7 when the intention is to keep the bass static in a cadence II –
V.

If the resolution chord was C minor instead of C major in the previous example, we would need to
add one more extension. You can see the reason bellow, that is a common cadence (already studied)
to be solved in minor chords:

II V I

| Dm7(b5) | G7(b9) | Cm |

As the tonality here is C minor, the second cadential has the flatted fifth (Ab, in this case). Therefore,
the chord that will replace this Dm7(b5) also needs to have Ab (the G7sus4 used before doesn‘t have
this note).

In the case of G, this ―Ab‖ is the flatted ninth. Then, we need to add this extension, creating the
chord G7sus4(9b). Look how this replacement became:
| G7sus4(9b) | G7(b9) | Cm |

Nice, this was a possible application to this suspended chord (replacing the second degree in a
cadence II – V – I).

Suspended chord replacing the relative minor

Another really common application to suspended chord is in the harmonic field of sixth degree. In
this context, the sixth degree is the relative minor. When we suspend the relative minor, we feel an
interesting impact, because the feeling of ―minor chord‖ is really necessary in this chord, because this
is the shape that it has a lot of affinity with the main tonic (I degree).

This ―impact‖ of suspending it, is normally explored when we want to keep the song without rest,
giving an idea of ―continuation‖. For example, see the sequence bellow, which is in E major tonality:

IV V VI

| A | B | C#m |

In this case, B is the fifth degree (dominant) of this tonality.

After it, it is being played a resolution chord (VI degree, relative minor, tonic function).

Leaving C#m suspended, we wouldn‘t have this ―rest‖ anymore, check it:

| A | B | C#sus4 |

Generally, when we add the fourth in this case, we use to play, shortly thereafter, the chord C# (in
other words, VI major chord), due to the chromatic effect created by the perfect fourth followed by a
third major. This C# could enter in this harmony serving as fifth degree to F#m, for example:

| A | B | C#sus4 C# | F#m |

Listen to the file bellow and observe the feeling that it produces:

File: suspendedchord.gpro
 In this file from Guitar Pro, we put the sequence | A | B | C#m | first, for you to feel ―the taste‖ of
natural cadence (with resolution in the relative minor). After that we replaced C#m for C#sus4,
followed by C#. We go on with this sequence with F#m and we finished with E/G# (inverted tonic).
We chose to put the bass in G# in this ending because the song could return to A, and then we would
have the chromatic effect in the bass (G# | A).

There are other possible applications to suspended chords, but basically they summarize themselves
to these principles of changing the feeling of a major chord. When a major chord is suspended, the
impact is not really strong, passing almost unnoticed in the point of view of ―harmonic feeling‖.

This is why, when you feel this feeling of ―suspension‖ in a song, try to identify quickly which minor
chord is having this change. Generally it will be IIm7 or the relative minor, as we saw now, but it
could be another one. Be attentive!

Go to: Disguised Chords

Back to: Module 7

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Disguised chord is like a police officer in plain clothes (nobody expects that he is who he really is).
This kind of chord normally is a chord inversion that, by its structure, doesn‘t let clear by the first
sight its harmonic function in the song.

See the following example:

| F7M | Gm6 | A7(b9) | Dm7 |

In this case, Gm6 is disguised as Em7(b5). Notice that these two chords have the same notes:

 Gm6 notes: G, Bb, D, E

 Em7(b5) notes: E, G, Bb, D
By the previous progression, Gm6 was appearing to be the 2nd degree of F, when actually it was the
2nd degree of D (IIm7). It is interesting to highlight that, in this case, we had an imperfect cadence.

Using disguised chords to do non usual cadences

Disguised chords are interesting when you wish to do a non usual cadence. You can try to play with
chord inversions in many contexts creating cadences that don‘t indicate to the listener the real
intention of the movement.

Go to: Tone vs Tonality

Back to: Module 7

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What is the difference between tone and tonality?

Actually, tone and tonality are different things. Here are their definitions:

Tonality
Is a specific system of sounds (scales). There are the major, natural minor, harmonic
minor and melodic minor tonalities. When we say the word ―tonality‖, we are relating to one of these
systems, which are scales associated to harmonic fields.

Tone
Is a note where we perform the tonality. As there are many different notes, we can have the same
tonality in different tones; or we can have the same tone in different tonalities. See the examples
bellow (notice that ―harmonic field‖ is a joint of tone with tonality):

In practice, though, these two definitions are mixed. Nobody says: ―C tone in minor tonality‖.
Therefore, these terms have the same meaning in practice. There‘s no need for getting mad with
these subtleties, at least if you want to do a mandatory pre-entering exams of music in a university or
something like that.
Go to: Parallel Key

Back to: Module 7

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Parallel keys (or homonym keys) are those tones that have the same tonic (fundamental note –
1st degree) and different mode (major or minor). For example, the parallel key of C major is the C
minor.

The parallel minor or tonic minor of a particular major key is the minor key based on the same tonic.
In the same way, the parallel major has the same tonic as the minor key.

The difference between parallel keys

You should have noticed that the difference between two parallel chords it‘s only in one note:
the third. This represents an interesting opportunity when the subject is modulation, because
modulating to a parallel key would keep the same tone changing subtly just one note (and this note
makes all the difference, because it changes the major mode into minor or vice-versa!).

Don‘t worry. We will work more about this subject and we will show examples when we will study
modulation techniques. Our intention here in this article it is just bringing a definition of the concept
to be able to address it later without problems.

Go to: Module 8

Back to: Simplifying Theory

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 Module 8

Closely related keys are tones that have some affinity among them for having many common notes.
This affinity represents a possibility of modulation, and this is what makes the study interesting.

We will show the existent closely related tones first and then we will talk about each one in detail:

Dominant and subdominant closely related keys

They have just one (or no one) accident related to the main tone.

Parallel closely related keys

They have the same tonal center among them.

First of all, let‘s talk about Dominant and subdominant closely related keys. The degrees that have
just one accidental note in relation to the main tone are IV and V degrees. The sixth degree doesn‘t
have any accidental note. As we are used to, let‘s check these affirmations. Take as example C
major harmonic field. The fourth degree is F major, the fifth is G major and the sixth is A minor. See
below the scales of each one of these tones:

F major scale: F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E

G major scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#

A minor scale: A, B, C, D, E, F, G

Notice as the scales of four and five degree (F and G) have just one accident (Bb and F#,
respectively) related to the main tone (C). A minor scale doesn‘t have any accident, since it is
a relative minor.

Very well, these are some closely related keys that we can use to do modulation. Another option it
would be taking relative tone of degrees IV and V (because they have the same notes of these). Let‘s
see this in our example:
F relative minor: D minor.

G relative minor: E minor.

D minor scale: D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C

E minor scale: E, F#, G, A, B, C, D

As it was to be expected, these scales have the same notes as in F and G scales. Therefore, they also
have just one accident in relation to C scale. In the point of view of the tonic, they are the degrees II
and III of the C harmonic field (D is the second degree and E the third degree).

Parallel closely related keys, on the other hand, are parallel keys. Let‘s check C major and minor
scales:

C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B

C minor scale: C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb

Notice as the parallel key has three accidents in relation to the main tone. But, besides having three
accidents, the central tone is the same to parallel tone, and this makes that this tone has an affinity
with the original tone. The solving, in both cases, goes to the same C tonic (tonal center = C),
wherein this tonic, when we think in the chords (C and Cm), differs only one note: the third. This is
why a parallel is also considered a closely related key.

Nice, we already know which ones are the closely related keys. The practical use of them, as we
mentioned in the beginning, is to know how to choose where we can modulate in a song. Choosing
modulate to a closely related key, we are choosing a tonality that has some affinity with the main
tone, this will result in a transition well accepted to our ear.

Distantly related keys

The tones that are not closely related keys are considered distantly related keys. Nothing prevents
that the song has modulation to distantly related keys, but this must be done with a lot of care and
conscience.
Sometimes the composer‘s idea is precisely radicalize and turning the harmony upside down, but it is
needed be aware of it. Please don‘t try to insert abrupt modulations if the idea is just diversifying the
harmony. You should try first the closely related keys.

We will work with modulation in the next studies, so you can use these concepts. For now, try to
―feel the taste‖ of the closely related keys in relation to the original tone. Get used to this idea, and
then your ear will be sharp to recognize not only the fact that the tonality has changed, but also where
it has gone.

Go to: Scales application

Back to: Module 8

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All musicians have already asked how to use scales. And then, what do music scales serve for?

In the article about target notes, we talked that a solo must be created by the chords of the song, not
only from the harmonic field (tonality). The truth, though, is that the majority of the musicians and
improvisers don‘t see anything besides harmonic field. They just want the answer for the famous
question: ―In which tone is the song?‖ and that‘s enough, they do the solo using major, relative
minor and pentatonic scales.

To break this ―mental blockage‖ about scales application, we showed that we can explore each chord
individually in the song, working with the notes of the chord. But we were still stuck in the natural
scales. Now it is time of extrapolating this concept, going beyond the basic scales. It is time to learn
how to use alternative scales!

Recalling the concept of basic scales application

Very well, you should have in mind that certain scale can be used when the harmonic field of the
song was created from it. In other words, you know that you can use the scale of the tonality in
question. Nice, this is a fact. But this is not the only one resource we have!

How to use other music scales

 The other scales, besides the natural ones, could almost never be used if we think only in harmonic
fields, because the harmonic field of a song is 99% of the time natural. Therefore this approach will
detach from ―tonality‖ and focus on characteristics of each chord, to discover what we can do and
which scale we can play. Some chords, especially the tension chords, allow many outside notes in
them, because their structure and harmonic feeling allow these variations without problems. In the
next topics here in the website, you will see that the most explored chord to outside notes is
the dominant chord. With it we can play many scales. And practically all the songs have a dominant
chord. In other words, you will always have the option to play with alternative scales! What a good
news, isn‘t it?! It means that your solo can be more ―tasty‖!

Summarizing, we will not invalidate the concept of harmonic fields, quite the opposite, this will be
always useful and essential. Let‘s just go to other resources, thinking on chords. Continue here in
the Simplifying Theory and you will find out which scales you can use for each chord. You will see
that there is no mystery: we have many resources easy to use with amazing results. Study each topic
carefully and practice a lot. Remember that it doesn‘t matter housing lots of knowledge in your brain
if you don‘t put them in your fingers. Above all, make music!

Go to: Harmonic minor scale

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Harmonic minor scale is really similar to Natural Minor Scale.

Difference between harmonic and natural minor

scales
The only difference between both scales is what is in the seventh degree. In the natural minor scale,
the seventh degree is minor, while in the harmonic minor scale, the seventh degree is major.

For you to see the difference, we will use as example the natural minor scale of A and the harmonic
minor scale of A. Compare them:

 Am Natural: A, B, C, D, E, F, G
 Am Harmonic: A, B, C, D, E, F, G#
You can see that the only difference is in the seventh degree (in this case, G). This seventh major
degree in the harmonic minor scale increased the distance between 6 and 7 degrees, shortening the
distance between 7 and 8 degrees. This changing gave it a really interesting sound.

Harmonic minor scale drawing

Check bellow the drawing of A harmonic minor scale (the seventh degree is highlighted in red):

Try to play this scale repeatedly to feel its melody. Notice how just the scale itself has already a
pleasant sound.

Harmonic minor chords

The harmonic field created by Am harmonic scale is the following:

Observation: the method to create this harmonic field is the same that we used to create the major
harmonic field to a major scale. The only difference is that here we used the harmonic minor scale.
We will not do all the procedure again to no become boring.

In a generic way, harmonic minor chords can be seen in the following way:

Im7M – IIm7(b5) – III7M(#5) – IVm7 – V7 – VI7M – VII#dim

Nice, so in theory, always when we identify one of these chords/degrees in a song, we can use the
harmonic minor scale in our solo, because the harmony allows it. The problem is that, in practice, the
chords Im7M and III7M(#5) rarely appear, and the other chords with the extensions m7(b5), m7, 7,
7M, appear in innumerous contexts, what makes the approach hard, because they can belong to
another harmonic field that not the harmonic minor. In this case, to use this scale with these chords,
you need to identify, for example, if the chord with extension m7, let‘s say Em7 is the fourth degree
in the song, IVm7, as we say in the drawing of this field:

Im7M – IIm7(b5) – III7M(#5) – IVm7 – V7 – VI7M – VII#dim

For this, the song would need to be in B minor, so then you could play B harmonic minor scale in the
moment that this chord Em7 would appear, because the corresponding harmonic field would be:

Though, if the song was in G major and the chord Em7 appears, it would be the sixth degree, VIm7,
that belongs to a major harmonic field, in other words, it wouldn‘t allow the use of B minor harmonic
scale with it (generally speaking). You can see the harmonic field of G major:

This makes our life harder, because we would need to pay attention all the time in corresponding
degrees and tonalities to know when we can or cannot use the harmonic minor scale.

Thankfully that, in practice, as we said in the article ―scales application‖, hardly you will use this
scale thinking about harmonic fields this way. The easiest way to discover this context of when you
can use this scale is paying attention to the fifth degree, as we will explain.

How to use the harmonic minor scale

The context that harmonic minor scale mostly appears in solos, riffs or arrangements is when a chord
V7 solves in a minor chord. This resolution is typical in the minor harmonic context, because it
doesn‘t exist nor in the natural major harmonic field as in natural minor. In the major field, V7 solves
itself in a major chord, as we already know. And in the minor field there is not V7, because the fifth
degree is minor (Vm7):
Thus, the resolution ―V7 – Im7‖ is typical to Harmonic minor chords. This is really important to
know because this is the sequence that mostly appears in songs when the subject is harmonic minor.
Besides that, the dominant V7 is really easy to be identified by our ear, especially in the context of
minor tonality. We will show some examples of use of this scale. Notice that in the resolution ―V7 –
Im7‖ the harmonic minor scale is played over the chord V7, because it is it that characterizes the
harmonic minor tonality.

Observation: when we say ―played over the chord V7‖ it means that is the harmonic minor scale of
first degree (Im7), but played in the moment that the chord V7 appears. Don‘t be confused, because
we are not saying that is the harmonic minor of fifth degree. For example, if it appears the chord E7
solving the chord Am, we would use A harmonic minor scale in the moment that E7 was being
played. We would not use E harmonic minor! Be careful to not mix the ideas!

Practice a lot this scale in this context and try to identify songs that have this progression V7 – Im7.
Your ear will be used to this resolution quickly and it will be acute to perceive it when it appears.
Check bellow, in the file from Guitar Pro, an example of solo in this context. Certainly this will help
you stimulating your ideas to understand better this application!

File: minorharmonic.gpro

In the solo of this file, the harmony is in A minor tonality. The dominant F#7 is which allowed the
utilization of A harmonic minor.

Practice now this context of harmonic minor scale downloading this backing track: Harmonic minor
scale Train.gpro

This base is in A minor. When the chord E7 appears (dominant), you can use the harmonic minor
scale of A.

Do you want to show your talent and ideas? Make a video of your improvisation about this base, put
it in Youtube and send its link to ―Contact Us‖. The best solos using this scale will be shown here!

Just a curiosity: one musical style that uses a lot the harmonic minor scale is the Spanish Music.

Go to: Melodic minor scale

 Back to: Module 8

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Melodic minor scale is really similar to the harmonic minor scale.

We already studied the harmonic minor scale and we saw that it has a ―long‖ distance between 6 and
7 degrees (one and a half tone). With a goal of reducing this distance, it was added an intermediate
note to approximate the sixth degree from the seventh. This would make the sound of harmonic scale
more melodic, creating the Melodic Minor Scale. For this, the sixth degree that before was minor in
the harmonic scale became major in the melodic scale.

Difference between melodic scale and harmonic

minor scale
For you to see the difference, we will show the harmonic minor scale of A and Melodic minor of A,
one below the other. Compare them:

 Notes of Am Harmonic: A, B, C, D, E, F, G#
 Notes of Am Melodic: A, B, C, D, E, F#, G#
Notice as the difference is in the sixth degree (in this case, F).

Drawing of the Am melodic

The 6th and 7th degrees are highlighted:

Try to play this scale repeatedly to feel the created melody. The ―flavor‖ of the melodic minor scale
differs a little bit to the ―flavor‖ of the harmonic minor and is quite hard to analyze it, because it has
two changes in relation to the natural minor scale (6th and 7th degrees), while the harmonic minor
scale has just one change (7th degree).

Before going on, it is worth to mention that there are two melodic scales: real melodic and classic
melodic. Real melodic is that one we already showed. The classic melodic is a scale that increases as
the melodic minor scale and decreases as the natural minor scale. In other words, it has a shape when
goes up and different one when goes down. See below:

Drawing of the classic melodic minor scale

This scale is used by musicians that don‘t like the ―flavor‖ of the minor melodic when it goes down
and prefer using it only when it goes up. The name ―classic‖ comes from the origin of its creator
(Sebastian Bach), great baroque composer. A lot of people prefer to call the classic scale of ―Bachian
Scale‖. Here in the Simplifying Theory, however, in all the times that we mention melodic minor
scale, we are talking about real melodic minor (goes up and down the same way).

Chords of the Melodic Minor Scale

The harmonic field created by melodic minor scale of A is the following one:

In a generic way, the chords of the melodic minor scale are created by:

Im7M – IIm7 – bIII7M(#5) – IV7 – V7 – VIm7(b5) – VIIm7(b5)

Very well, in the same way that we talked about the application of the harmonic minor scale, the
melodic minor scale needs to be studied besides the context of harmonic field, because not many
songs have the melodic minor tonality. It is time to lose our ―addiction‖ of thinking only in
―harmonic field‖. Let‘s be free. This scale is extremely used by musicians of various styles,
especially guitar players of Jazz. And it‘s not by accident, because the melodic minor scale is a great
option to have an alternative sonority, which mixes tonal feelings with atonal ones. Learn how to
follow the contexts in which you will use this scale in practice!

How to use the melodic minor scale

The context that the melodic minor scale uses to appear more is in a dominant chord. How is this? It
is simple! When a dominant chord appears in some song, you can use the melodic minor scale in that
exact moment.

But which melodic minor scale? Which tone?

We will show this with an example. If in some moment of the song was played the chord G7
(dominant that solves in C), we could play in this G7 the melodic minor scale of D. In other words,
you play melodic minor scale of the fifth degree of the dominant chord. Another way of thinking in it
is playing the melodic minor scale that is one tone above of the chord that will be solved. In this case,
G7 is the dominant of C (it is solved in C). Therefore, we would play the melodic minor one tone
above C, which is D.

The justification that makes this application possible is quite complex and will be studied in
advanced topics. For now content yourself with the fact that the dominant is unstable and tense
chord, which opens space to many ―bold‖ melodic resources.

This application we taught. Does it work always? Yes, since that is a non-altered dominant chord.
Just to remember, non-altered dominant chord is that one which has only fundamental notes (tetrad).
And the altered dominant has some accident (for example, the augmented fifth).

In our example, G7 is a non-altered dominant. If it was an altered dominant, G7(#5), the melodic
minor scale that we would use would be G#. In other words, to altered dominant chords, you can use
the melodic minor scale that is one semitone above the dominant chord in question.
Due to this purpose, this scale became known as altered scale, because it has many accidents in
relation to the tonic. We will talk about altered scale in another topic, but is important that you know
that altered scale of a certain tone is the melodic minor scale played one semitone above it. For
example, the altered scale of G is the melodic minor scale of G#.

Summarizing how to use the melodic minor scale

Summarizing everything, we can use the melodic minor scale:

– One fifth above the non-altered dominant

– One semitone above the altered dominant

Observation: In the case of the non-altered dominant, if the resolution chord is minor, it is more
desirable to play the melodic minor scale a fourth above instead of a fifth above. For example, if the
chord G7 solves in Cm, the C melodic minor scale would be more advisable than the D melodic
minor scale. There is nothing to stop you from playing the D melodic minor scale in this case (the
dominant chord enables many different choices, even ―bold‖ ones) however, the C minor melodic
scale would be advised simply because the chord G7 belongs to the C melodic minor‘s harmonic
field.

We will show now this application with two examples: one for each kind of dominant. Download the
files from Guitar Pro below and start to practice and stimulate your ideas! Invest time in this study,
take songs, identify the dominants and abuse of melodic minor scales in them. This way you will
develop a rich vocabulary and cause a new feeling in your improvisation.

About non-altered dominant: minormelodic1.gpro

About altered dominant: minormelodic2.gpro

Download the Backing track: Train of melodic minor scale.gpro

In this base, the tonality is G minor. You can apply the melodic minor scale of A when the chord D7
is played.
To finish, we will show a part of the song ―Yesterday‖ from The Beatles. In this song, the initial
melody makes a passage by the melodic minor scale. Observe it:

F Em A7 Dm Dm/C

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away

We highlighted the word ―troubles‖ because is in it that the passage happens. So, take as exercise to
listen and verify the other moments of the song where this application repeats. The tonality is F
major. The chord A7 is the dominant V7 that is allowing the utilization of the melodic minor scale of
D.

Go to: Altered scale

Back to: Module 8

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Altered scale is made by the sequence: semitone – tone – semitone – tone – tone – tone – tone.

We already said, in the article ―Melodic Minor Scale‖ that altered scale of a chord can be made
through a melodic minor scale one tone above this chord. For example, the altered scale of G is the
melodic minor scale of G#. This makes our life easier, because we already know the melodic minor
scale.

The notes that make the melodic minor scale of G# are: G#, A#, B, C#, D#, F, G

Drawing of Altered Scale of G#

Notice that this scale has the notes G, B and F (fundamental, third and seventh of G7). The other
notes: G#, A#, C#, D# are respectively, flatted ninth, sharp ninth, flatted fifth and sharp fifth. In other
words, all the possible changes in a chord of dominant seventh are included in this scale.

Altered chord (alt)

The chord that is made by this scale we showed can be G7#9#5, also known as G7alt. You can notice
that the symbol ―alt‖ is the abbreviation of ―altered‖ for having its origins in altered scale. When you
face this notation ―alt‖, you already know what this is about (sharp fifth and ninth).

Observation: though the notes b5 and b9 also be in this scale, the named chord ―alt‖ doesn‘t refer to
them, because these notes are also mentioned in diminished scale, as we will see in other topics.

Altered Scale application

We already showed the altered scale application in the topic ―Melodic Minor Scale‖: It can be played
in an altered dominant chord.

In terms of given sound, the altered scale produces one of the most complex sounds in a dominant. It
is important to highlight that playing an altered scale in a dominant that is not altered can result in an
unpleasant dissonance depending on the context. For this, it is fundamental to be aware of the given
effect. In altered dominants, this awareness is not needed.

The altered scale is one the most used in Jazz. If you want improve in this style, it is fundamental to
practice a lot the altered scale in many dominant contexts to be used with its ―flavor‖.

But not only Jazz has altered dominants. Several other styles use and ―abuse‖ of these chords. One
example of really common occurrence is appearing the dominant with #5 before a minor chord with
seventh and ninth, and an altered scale well placed, with no doubt, makes all the difference in these
contexts.

We can risk saying that we arrive in a watershed. We are already addressing professional themes of
the area. Prepare yourself to be a musician that masters it! Study these patterns, improvise them in
songs, use them, and apply them, again and again.
Here bellow there is an example of Guitar Pro of Altered Scale (from the article ―Melodic Minor
Scale‖):

File: Altered.gpro

These scales that we worked until here need ―to be in your blood‖. But don‘t take this training
without motivation. It is fundamental that you have fun in this process. It is fundamental that you like
the produced sounds, and that you play with the ideas.

Your musical personality needs to flourish. This is the moment!

Go to: Module 9

Back to: Simplifying Theory

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 Module 9

Chromatic approach chords are chords that are located one semitone above or below the chord you
want to solve, and they have the same structure of this chord. For example, in the sequence |
Dbm7 | Dm7 |, the chord Dbm7 has chromatic approach function. This kind of chord uses to have a
short length in the bar line, serving just as a ―passage‖ to the next chord. See the following chords
progression:

| Dm7 G7 | Em7 A7 | Dm7 Db7 | C7M |

Adding chromatic approach chords, this progression could be:

| Dm7 Ab7 G7 Fm7 | Em7 G#7 A7 Ebm7 | Dm7 D7 Db7 B7M | C7M |

SubV7 as chromatic approach chord

Notice that, in some cases, the chord subV7 can be seen as a chromatic approach chord (when that
chord that comes after it has the same shape, for example: G#7 | A7).

Though, the chord subV7 cannot be taken as only chromatic approach chord in these situations,
because it is a dominant chord that serves as substitute of fifth degree (V7), for reasons that we will
show in another topic. Saying that it has only chromatic approach function would limit it too much.

Go to: Diminished chord

Back to: Module 9

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Diminished chord is a chord made by the musical degrees: 1, 3b, 5b, 7bb.

Observation: 7bb is the same as diminished seventh. As 5b is the diminished fifth, in this chord we
have two diminished notes. Then, it is not without reason that this chord is called “diminished
chord”, is it?!
 Let‘s make a chord then to see how it works.

Making a diminished chord

Example of diminished C:

 First degree: C
 Third minor degree: Eb
 Fifth diminished degree: Gb
 Seventh diminished degree: A
Resulting chord: Cº

The used symbol to a diminished chord is the degree symbol above the chord‘s letter: C°. But some
authors also use the notation “dim”: Cdim

The diminished interval

One easy way of thinking in diminished chord is remember the interval ―one and a half tone‖,
because all the degrees in a diminished chord have one and a half tone of distance among them.
Check it:

Distance from the 1st degree to 3rd minor degree: one and a half tone.

Distance from the 3rd minor degree to 5th diminished degree: one and a half tone.

Distance from the 5th degree to 7th diminished degree: one and a half tone.

This gives a really particular characteristic: This chord repeats itself in each one and a half tone. In
other words, if you make the diminished chord in the guitar fretboard, in keyboard or in any other
instrument and move to this same chord one and a half tone above or below, the chord will continue
being the same!

The only thing that will change will be the localization of the notes in relation to your fingers, but the
whole chord will have the same notes, in other words, it will be exactly the same. Check below in the
guitar fretboard the Diminished C chord and its respective notes:
Now this chord moved one and a half tone above:

Another one and a half tone:

Another one and a half tone:

Moral of the story: C° = Eb° = Gb° = A°

This is really convenient, because if we want to play, for example, A°, we can play C° (which is the
same chord!). This is useful if we are playing in a region in the fretboard where C° is closer than A°.
 In another situation, the closer and more convenient chord to be played can be D#°, so we can play it
instead of A°. Nice, isn‘t it?!

How many diminished chords exist?

You can see that, as there are 12 notes and that a diminished chord corresponds to other 4 identical
chords like them, we can conclude that there are only 3 different diminished chords. They are: C°,
C#° e D°. The other chords will be consequence of these three:

C° = D#° = F#° = A°
C#° = E° = G° = A#°
D° = F° = G#° = B°

Very well, we already know as a diminished chord is made, so now it‘s time to analyze it in the point
of view of harmonic functions and general applications. Are you ready? So, let‘s go:

Harmonic Function of a diminished chord

The diminished chord has two tritones. They are between:

1. The first degree and the diminished fifth;

2. The third minor and the diminished seventh.
Well, in case of not being explicit, the diminished chord has dominant function! Having two tritones
it is not a small thing, is it?! So, we can use it to replace dominant chords (like V7, for example). In
this case, we can exchange the V7 chord by the diminished chord located one semitone above it. For
example, the V7 chord could be replaced by G#° (or its equivalents B°, D° e F°).

We will give as exercise to you to check the notes of G#° and compare then with the notes of G7.
You will see that the tritone of G7 is present in G#°, what allows this substitution. This is one of the
applications of diminished chord, to serve as option of dominant chord. Check below one example of
substitution from the G7 chord to a diminished chord:
 Download the file from Guitar Pro and check it: Diminishedchord(V7).gpro

Auxiliary diminished
When a diminished chord has the same bass note (the lower note) of the chord that it solves, it is
called auxiliary diminished. Examples:

 | G7M | G° | G7M |
 | C7M | G° | G7 |
The auxiliary diminished chord solves the resolution and gives a minimum harmonic movement, as it
keeps the bass note.

Ascending and descending diminished chords

Another application, and maybe the most used, is playing the diminished to explore the effect
of chromatic approximation. In this case, the diminished chord uses to be played one semitone above
or below the chords we want to solve, being called, respectively as ascending
diminished and descending diminished.

Nice, but can we use ascending and descending diminished chords to solve in any major or minor
chord? Well, in theory yes, but in practice this will not always sound good. The descending
diminished doesn‘t act like dominant, because it doesn‘t have the same tritone from the chord V7, in
the opposite of ascending diminished.

Maybe you are confused now, because we already said that the diminished chord has two tritones, so
why does not descending diminished act like dominant function? Well, just to remember, the concept
of tritone refers itself to a necessity of resolution. When we play a tritone, there is a need of this
―tense‖ interval being solved, and the resolution you wait is doing that each note of this tritone be
replaced one semitone. For example, the tritone of the chord G7 is between the notes F and A. When
F goes one semitone below, it becomes a G and when A goes one semitone above, it becomes a C.
This is why the waited chord to solve this ―tension‖ is C, which has these two notes (C and G, first
and fifth degrees, respectively). If the chord G7 was solved in another chord than C, we would have
a deceptive resolution. Until here there is nothing new. Now, imagine that the song is in A
major tonality and that the sequence G7 – F#7 – B appears. In this case, the chord F#7 is the
dominant that was solved in A major, while G7 served as a chromatic approach chord.

It wouldn‘t be wrong saying that G7 was a dominant that had a deceptive resolution, but this main
function in this song would be the chromatic approach effect, because the waited resolution for G7 is
C major, which doesn‘t belong to A major tonality. In other words, it doesn‘t make sense to think in
G7 as a dominant that was starting a modulation and suffered a deceptive resolution if it provided
another effect to the song. The same happens with de descending diminished. The tritones of a
diminished chord don‘t solve themselves the same way that the chord V7, therefore, the descending
diminished has only a chromatic function, and this makes that its use is not always pleasant.

Let‘s see now two approaches (ascending and descending diminished) and find out which are the
most used ones when the chord that you want to solve is major or minor.

Resolution to minor chords

When the chord that you want to solve is a minor chord, the ascending diminished is, without any
doubt, the most used and it always work! It is hard to not be beautiful. But there are a lot o people
who like to use the descending diminished in this resolution. So, don‘t be tied to ascending
diminished only! Explore both concepts.

Resolution to major chords

And for major chords, the ascending diminished can also be used due the fact of being similar to
VIIm7(b5) (chord from seventh degree in the major harmonic field). Because of it, the ascending
diminished sounds like it was tonal.

And the descending diminished is replaced by SubV7 (we will talk about this chord in the next level)
when the desire is to explore this chromatic effect to major chords. It‘s up to you to define your
tastes.
 When can we use the ascending or descending diminished
chord?
Summarizing, the ascending diminished, for both major and minor chords, can be used without fear.
But the descending diminished needs some caution. Speaking in a generic way, the ascending
diminished is the most common function of the diminished chord in songs, especially for resolution
in minor chords.

Diminished as passing chord

In both cases of ascending and descending, diminished chord appears like a passing chord.

Check below some applications of the diminished chord in different harmonic contexts. In these
examples of Guitar Pro, we will work with cadences II, V, I.

To minor chords, the sequence will be: | Em7(b5) | A7(#5) | Dm7(9) |.

To major chords, the sequence will be: | Dm7 | G7 | C7M |.

So let‘s go! We have 4 cadences to show (ascending and descending diminished to resolution in
major and minor chords).

 Ascending diminished being solved in a minor chord: Download the file: minorascending.gpro
Here in this file we showed how is the perfect substitution of A7(#5) to ascending diminished C#°. In
the next verse we chose to use the dominant compass to play A7(#5) and after this to make the
chromatic cadence C7M, C#°, Dm7(9).

So, we showed that is possible to use the ascending diminished as well as alone or in a chromatic
cadence.

 Ascending diminished being solved in a major chord: download the file: majorascending.gpro
First, we showed in this file how the simple substitution of G7 to B° is. After that, we used the bar
line of the dominant to play with alternations between G7 and B°. This ―game‖ makes seem that we
are playing many chords; it gives the idea that we know a lot about harmony, when actually we are
only alternating chords with the same harmonic function, with no mysteries. To give even a better
 impression that you are playing many chords and varying in your harmony, try to use the equivalent
diminished B° = D° = F° = G#° to enrich your base.

 Descending diminished being solved in a minor chord: Download the file: minordescending.gpro
As usual, first we showed the perfect substitution of A7(#5) to D#°. The detail here chose the Dm7
chord instead of Dm7(9) after D#°, because this way we could keep a chromaticism in the second
string (passing through the frets 8, 7 and 6 of the guitar). If we play Dm7(9), the sequence would be
more abrupt and less pleasant to our ear due the direct passage from the fret 7 to 5 in the second
string. But don‘t worry with this detail now; we will study more this concept when we study
reharmonization. Pay attention now only in the given cadence.

In the same way that we did before, here we also worked with the idea of chromaticism playing the
sequence Em7(b5), D#° and Dm7. See how this sonority became.

 Descending diminished being solved in a major chord: Download the file: majordescending.gpro
To finish, in the descending diminished to a major chord, we explored the same previous ideas, and
is appropriate to highlight that we chose to play C7M(9) instead of C7M, because de chord C#° has
many notes in common with C7M, so the cadence would lose its ―strength‖ (we almost wouldn‘t
notice that is a cadence!). Playing C7M(9) we changed one more note between these two chords
(C7M and C#°), in a attempt of differentiating them to our ear.

After all these examples, maybe you have agreed with the fact that, in practice, descending
diminished chords need more attention and work of our part, because they don‘t always fit together.
These exercises serve as base to this concept. And the ascending diminished are just joy and fun,
without great brain efforts connected. Which one of them did you like the most?

Share it now with your friends and add diminished chords in the arrangement of your songs!

Go to: Diminished scale

Back to: Module 9

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Diminished scale is a symmetric scale created by the sequence: Tone – Semitone – Tone – Semitone
– Tone – Semitone – Tone.
In the same way that we studied in the diminished chord, diminished scale repeats itself each one and
a half tone. This is really advantageous, because it opens a whole range of possibilities.

Drawing of Diminished Scale

See bellow an example of shape to the diminished scale of C:

Notes: C, D, D#, F, F#, G#, A, B

Due the fact that this scale repeats itself each one and a half tone, we will check the diminished
scale of D#:

Notes: D#, F, F#, G#, A, B, C

You can see that, even though these two scales start in different notes (one starts in C and another in
D#), both have the same notes.

Ok, but what is the advantage of it? Well, let‘s say that you are improvising a solo in E minor till the
moment in the song when the chord B7 appears. As we will see forward, you can use diminished
scale of C in B7. But as this scale is identical to D# and this D# is closer to E than C, we can take
advantage of this little distance and use diminished scale of D# (instead of diminished C) to let our
improvisation with fluid movements. This is one of the advantages.

Another advantage is the repetition of patterns. You can create a phrase in the diminished scale and
repeat it each one and a half tone, creating a really interesting effect. The guitar player Yngwe
Malmsteen explores a lot this resource. Let‘s see this concept used in examples.

Now is time to show the application of this scale, because it is not important just chit-chatting about
that, because the main thing is to know where you can use these concepts! So, let‘s go:
How to use the Diminished Scale
Now you can imagine, diminished scale can be played in a diminished chord. This cannot be strange,
because it is the diminished scale that creates the diminished chord. It is in this point that many
students give up, because it doesn‘t appear with much frequency in many music styles; and when it
appears, it is usually for a short time, and it doesn‘t give time to the diminished ―phrase‖ being
developed. So the student thinks: ―why will I waste my time memorizing this scale which I’ll never
use?‖ And he/she has all the reason! It is useless to memorize things that you don‘t use in practice.
Nice that you are in the right place. The website Simplifying Theory will show you the value of the
diminished scale to you.

The most common application for the diminished scale is in the dominant chord. It can be played
one semitone above of the dominant chord in question. In this case, we play the tonic (fundamental)
of the dominant chord (in other words, we start the scale with this note) and then we play the
diminished one semitone above this tonic. Let‘s explain this concept. Pay attention in the following
thinking:

As this scale repeats itself in each one and a half tone, we could think of playing it starting by
other degrees. For example, G7 chord is a dominant that is solved in C major. The used diminished
scale in G7 is the diminished G# scale (half tone above the dominant). As this scale repeats itself in
each one and a half tone, we also could play diminished B scale (one and a half tone above G#).

As B is a semitone below C, we can think that the diminished scale to be used is located one
semitone below the chord that the dominant will solve. In other words, it is like we are ―creating‖ a
diminished of ascending passage.

This is just one way of thinking, and can be really useful in practice. Imagine that you
are improvising a solo in a song that is in C major, in other words, you are using the C major scale. If
G7 appears in any moment, it would be really practical thinking in use the diminished scale one
semitone below C, because it is really close to the region where you are doing your solo.

To think in a scale one semitone above G7 can slow our answer in the time of improvisation. But
each person has his/her preferences. Use a point of reference that makes you feel comfortable and
practice the use of this scale in a musical context.
 We will show (as usual) some examples of application of diminished scale. You can also create your
own phrases and obtain fluency in the theme. It is worth spending time in this study. The diminished
scale in a fantastic resource; it has a single sonority and enchants any listener.

Diminished Scale in a Virtual Diminished Chord

Another application to this scale, besides being able to be played in the diminished and dominant
chords as we saw, is in a virtual diminished chord.

That is it, don‘t be afraid! We are calling virtual diminished chord a diminished chord that doesn‘t
exist in the song, but could exist. It looks like things from crazy people, but actually is simple.

Imagine that your band is playing a song that has the following chords | C | D | Em |, repeatedly in
this sequence. After the chord D comes E minor, but we already talked in another article that the
diminished chords fits well as diminished of passage between a major and a minor chord (in this
case, we would have a Major – Diminished – Minor sequence, becoming: D, D#°, Em). Obviously,
we are not creating another bar line; the diminished chord is only sharing the same bar line as D.

Very well, this song doesn‘t have this diminished chord, but we could play the following sequence
without problems:

| C | D D#° | Em | instead of playing only | C | D | Em |, or even | C | D#° | Em | (deleting completely

the chord D).

The interesting thing is that this diminished of passage is well accepted in this context that we do a
solo as the chord was there, even if it isn‘t. In this case, we are ―kidding‖ the listener, making
him/her believe that there is a diminished chord in that point. And the listener accepts, because
this progression is really pleasant! We strongly recommend that you play diminished arpeggio in this
case, to strength this impression that there is a diminished chord there. We will show this resource in
the examples of Guitar Pro below.

 Example of application of a diminished scale in a diminished

chord: diminishedscaleinadiminishedchord.gpro
In this file, the harmony is in A major. The diminished chord A#° is serving as passing chord
between the first and the second degrees.
 Diminished scale in a dominant chord: Diminishedscaledominantchord.gpro
This file consists in a cadence II – V – I created by | Am7 | D7 | G7M |. The diminished D# scale will
be done in the dominant D7.

 Diminished scale in a virtual diminished chord: Diminishedscalevirtualdiminishedchord.gpro

The base of this example is in D minor tonality, being created by: | Dm7 | Bb | C |

We will consider that is an ascending diminished chord (C#°) between the chords C and Dm7,
because this passage is really accepted. Actually, this chord C#° doesn‘t exist in music, but we will
create a solo as it was there. See the effect.

 Examples of repeated diminished patterns each one and a half tone: patternsdiminishedscale.gpro
The exercises of this last file are in diminished scale of A.

Practice now the diminished scale in this base (download the file): Diminished Scale training

The tonality of this baking track is in D minor. When the chord A7 is played, use the diminished
scale of D#. You can abuse the ideas. Show your creativity recording a video of your solo with this
base, put it on Youtube and send the link of your video to Contact Us. The best ones that use this
diminished scale will be put here in our site! Make sure to take part in it.

Go to: Dominant diminished scale

Back to: Module 9

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What is dominant diminished scale?

Many authors strongly say that there are two diminished scales: The one we already showed (article
―diminished scale‖) and the ―dominant diminished‖. This dom-dim scale is nothing more than the
drawing of the diminished scale that we showed but starting in the second degree instead of the first
one. In other words, instead of the scale being:

 Tone – semitone – tone – semitone, etc.

Starting in the second degree, we will have:
 Semitone – tone – semitone – tone, etc.
Notice that we used exactly this second sequence in the dominant chords in the article about
diminished scale, because we played the diminished scale of G# starting with G, in other words, the
structure was semitone – tone – semitone – tone, etc.

Moral of the story: the dominant diminished scale is the diminished scale used in a dominant chord.

Therefore, don‘t think that they are different scales; think that they are the same diminished, but used
in a dominant chord (played one semitone above it). This will make your way of thinking easier.

Go to : Equivalent chords VII° = V7(b9)

Back to: Module 9

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In this article you will learn the relation that there is between two equivalent chords: the
seventh diminished degree and fifth dominant degree with flatted fifth.

We already know that the diminished chord when located one semitone above the chord V7 has the
same tritone of it. See this example, which is in C major tonality (G is the fifth degree):

 Notes of G#°: G#, B, D, F

 Notes of G7: G, B, D, F
The tritone which is present here is between the notes B and F (3 tones of distance).

The diminished chord (G#°) still has another tritone, between the notes G# and D. We could, then,
think in changing the chord G7 to make it more similar to the diminished chord. The only note that
would miss in the G7 chord to create the tritone (G# <–> D) it would be G# (which is the flatted
ninth of G). So we could put a flatted ninth in the V7 chord, and have G7(b9).

Now we have two equivalent chords:

 Notes of G#°: G#, B, D, F

 Notes of G7(b9): G, G#, B, D, F
As we also know that G#° = B°, and A is the seventh degree of our tonality, we could generalize in
saying that the chords VII° (seventh diminished degree) and V7(b9) are equivalent.

Observation: To think in a chord of seventh degree VII° instead of V#° is more common.

Now think about this

– C is the resolution chord of G (V7 – I).

– The flatted ninth of G corresponds to the flatted sixth of C (note G#).

– This flatted sixth of C is present in C minor scale (C major scale has sixth major and not sixth
minor).

Conclusion
The chord G7(b9) is indicated as dominant to be solved in C minor!

Well, so you already know that the idea is to put the chord V7 to be solved in the first minor degree,
and we can add an extension note (b9) to this dominant chord creating a V7(b9), because this will
strength this cadence.

In this topic, we discovered one more reason that makes the ascending diminished be solved in minor
chords, because it is equivalent to V7(b9). To finish this subject, try to practice this equivalences
VII° = V7(b9) in the other tonalities, incorporating this concept in the songs you know. This will
enrich your vision about substitutions.

Go to: SubV7 Chord

Back to: Module 9

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We will study here one more option of chords substitution. This will be useful to increase our range
of possibilities in the item reharmonization, besides offering the knowledge about some ―harmonic
clichés‖ that appear in many music styles.
 SubV7 is an abbreviation to ―Substitute of V7―. Popularly, you read ―sub-7‖.

As the name says, this is a chord that serves as option to substitute the fifth degree.

We know that V7 is a dominant chord; therefore its substitute needs to be a dominant chord. Till
now, our study was restricted to make substitutions only taking chords from a specific harmonic
field, using the functional harmony concept. We will work now with new concepts. Prepare yourself
to think ―outside the box‖.

Consider the cadence II, V, I below:

| Dm7 | G7 | C7M |

The chord SubV7 in this progression will be the chord that will substitute G7, in other words, it will
be in its place (this is why the name: ―substitute of fifth degree‖). In this example above, SubV7 is
the chord C#7 (we will explain this soon), creating the following cadence:

| Dm7 | C#7 | C7M |

Where did we take this C#7 from? As a rule, the chord subV7 is a major chord with seventh which is
located one semitone from the tonic that it will solve. As the tonic here is the chord C7M, the major
chord with seventh which is located one semitone above it is the C#7.

Great, we introduced a rule here, but maybe you are thinking that this is strange, because the chord
C#7 in the example above doesn‘t belong to the harmonic field of C! That‘s true. But, as we will see,
not all in life goes around the tonal context. We will help you to lose this prejudice. The effect of the
chord SubV7 is in the chromatic approximation. Notice that the chord C#7 has 3 notes that are
located one semitone immediately above the notes that create the chord C7M. Compare it:

 Notes of C7M: C, E, G, B
 Notes of C#7: C#, F, G#, B
This chromatic approximation effect allows that the chord C#7 (even if it doesn‘t belong to the
harmonic field of C7M) to be used to create a cadence. Besides that, by the fact that this is a major
chord with seventh, the subV7 has a tritone, characterizing it as a dominant chord, allowing its
substitution by V7 in the point of view of harmonic function.
 To help to convince you that it is possible to perform this substitution of the V7 by subV7, notice that
the notes of the tritone of G7, in the previous example, are the same notes of the tritone of C#7:

 Tritone of G7: G, B, D, F
 Tritone of C#7: C, F, G, B

Reasons why you can use subV7 in place of V7

Let‘s summarize then the reasons why this substitution is possible:

 Most of the notes of subV7 are located one semitone above the chord that it will solve, providing a
feeling of chromatic approximation.
 The tritone notes of V7 are the same of the tritone notes of sub V7.
 SubV7 is also a dominant chord, making that its substitution by V7 doesn‘t interfere in the harmonic
function of the respective part of the song.

Use of the SubV7 chord

In theory, subV7 always can substitute V7. In practice, though, it‘s not like that, because this
substitution will not fit well with the melody. It is always necessary to verify and try the ―flavor‖ that
subV7 will give to the song while played with the melody. If it does not sound good, it must be
avoided.

Some music styles, like Jazz, Bossa Nova and MPB normally use a lot this subV7. Other ―squared‖
styles (less harmonically developed) use to not accept well the subV7.

In all the times when possible to use subV7 in some song, all the approaches that we studied about
the dominant V7 will be also useful to subV7 in the harmonic point of view, as well as the concepts
of secondary dominant, deceptive resolution, extended dominant, etc.

Example of secondary subV7

| C | Gb7 | F |

We already know that a secondary dominant chord is that one which prepares to another diatonique
degree (which is not the 1st one). In this case, subV7 prepared the way to F (4th degree of C
tonality).
Example of subV7 with deceptive resolution
| Dm7 | Db7 | F |

The expected resolution here was C major, because Db7 was acting like subV7 of G7 (the natural
sequence would be Dm7 – G7 – C). The F chord is an unexpected resolution in this context.

Examples of extended subV7

| E7 | Eb7 | D7 | Db7 | C |

In this example, we had four subV7 chords together in sequence.

We can also have the extended sequences II – V:

| Dbm7 | C7 | Bm7 | Bb7 | Am7 | Ab7 | G7 | C7M |

Notice that these subV7 in this example are solving minor chords (e.g. C7 – Bm7) and these minor
chords are already serving as second degree to a new progression II – V. The series finished with
Ab7 – G7 to then G7 acts like V7 dominant of C.

Very well, now you can have fun experiencing the ―taste‖ of this chord. Some extensions really used
to subV7 are the flatted 9th and 5th. We will still see other applications to subV7 along our learning
here in the website. If you are enjoying our studies and thinking that Simplifying Theory useful, help
to spread it so that we can be even better!

Go to: Module 10

Back to: Simplifying Theory

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 Module 10

Interpolated chord is that one which appears in the middle of a ―harmonic cliché‖. For example, in
the cliché II – V – I:

| Dm7 | G7 | C |

If we put the chord Ab7 before G7, it would be considered as an interpolated chord:

| Dm7 | Ab7 G7 | C |

Notice that Ab7 is acting as subV7. This is the most common occurrence of an interpolated chord.

Another example, this time using the chord Db7 before C in the cliché V – I:

| Am7 | G7 | C |

| Am7 | G7 | Db7 C |

In this case, many authors call this resolution as ―indirect resolution‖, because the tonic didn‘t come
automatically after the dominant V7.

How to use interpolated chord

The Utilization of the interpolated chord can serve as a surprise factor due to the partial disrupting of
the harmonic cliché, or it can serve as option to delay the resolution. All depends on the related
melody and the idea of the arrangement performer.

Go to: Borrowed chords

Back to: Module 10

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As the name says, Borrowed Chord is a chord that is borrowed from another mode. It can be from
a Greek Mode or from a Parallel Mode.

Most of the time, Borrowed Chords come from the parallel mode. For this reason, many authors
classify the Borrowed Chord as just a chord borrowed from the parallel mode. Our definition here
will be broader.

Before going on, we will give you an example of borrowed chord: let‘s say that the song is in C
major tonality. If, in some moment of the song appears the chord Eb7M, we quickly identify that it
doesn‘t belong to the harmonic field of C major, but from the harmonic field of C minor. As C minor
is the parallel of C major, we conclude that this Eb7M is a borrowed chord from the parallel mode.
These borrowed chords are passing chords; they suddenly appear in the song and soon the song
returns to its tonal harmony again. It is rare appearing a borrowed chord followed by a cadence,
because, in this case, we would be characterizing a modulation.

Notice the difference: modulations are little transitions of tonality. Borrowed chords don‘t change
tonality, they are just borrowed and passing chords. With this difference understood, let‘s go on.

Borrowed Chords options

Considering all the modes, there are many options for borrowed chords to use them in the songs. See
below the chords of the harmonic field of all the available modes to C tone:

In the point of view of extension notes, it‘s really common to substitute, in the parallel mode,
the degreesIm7 and Ivm7 for Im6 and Ivm6, respectively, due to the pleasant obtained sonority.
You also have to be careful with the chord Vm7, because in some cases, it is not a borrowed chord
but a second minor degree, providing a modulation to the fourth degree. Example: Gm7 – C7 – F.

Very well, you have probably noticed that there are many details, so you need to work in each one of
them calmly.

Now that the concept of borrowed chords is solid, let‘s train improvisation using these chords. After
that, let‘s analyze some songs that have borrowed chords, for you to believe that they are real and
used!

How to improvise in Borrowed Chords?

To improvise in borrowed chords is simple, it is just to identify where the borrowed chord came from
and play the scale of this chord. In theory is easy, but in practice you should be thinking that this is
hard, because we have to identify fast what was the borrowed mode to know which tonality or scale
to use. Actually this is true. This is why is useful to know which are the most used borrowed chords.
This way you can memorize these degrees and know automatically which one to use in these
situations. All this will help to decrease your ―surprises‖ while improvising and will increase your
music luggage. As more experience you will have, faster will be your reaction.

Let‘s start then, working on improvisation with some bases of Guitar Pro. All of them are in D major
tonality and have borrowed chords:

1) | C7M | Fm7 Bb7 | C7M |

File: Borrowed chords1.gpro

In the second bar line of this file, we can use Cm scale, since Fm7 and Bb7 belong to the parallel
tone of Cm. Another option it would be using the resources that we already studied to the cadences II
– V, with of that possible approach to the dominant, because Fm7 – Bb7 is a cadence II – V
with deceptive resolution. Of course the fact of being a deceptive resolution requires caution in the
return from the solo to the original tonality.

2) | C7M | Dm7 Db7M | C7M |

File: Borrowed chords2.gpro

Here in this base we have, in the end of the second bar line, the chord Db7M, which is a borrowed
chord from the Phrygian mode. In other words, Db7M is chord which exists in Ab major tonality (it
is the IV degree of Ab), where C is the third degree (IIIm7) of Ab. So we can use in this moment the
scale of Ab, its relative Fm or, of course, C Phrygian. Or even Db Lydian, since it is the IV degree of
Ab. All this things are, actually the same thing.

3) | C7M | Abmaj7 Db7| C7M |

File: Borrowed chords3.gpro

In the first half of the second bar line, we can use the scale of Cm, because Abmaj7 is a borrowed
chord in the parallel mode, IV degree of Cm. In the second half, we can use Ab melodic minor,
which it the melodic minor scale one fifth above Db7.

Observation: This chord is acting as subV7 of G7.

4) | C7M Bb7 | Abmaj7 G7 | C7M |

File: Borrowed chords4.gpro

Here, in the first bar line, it appears a borrowed chord (from the parallel mode). With it we can use
the scale of Cm or A flat Mixolydian, because Bb7 is the fifth degree of Eb (relative of Cm). We can
go on with the scale of Cm in the second bar line due to Abmaj7 (which also belongs to the field of
Cm) and when the chord G7 comes, we can play the harmonic minor scale of C, as if we would stay
on C minor mode. This is a really interesting idea to this progression.

5) | C7M | Fmaj7 Fm6 | C7M |

File: Borrowed chords5.gpro

In the second bar line of this progression, in Fm6 (IVm6), which is a borrowed chord of the parallel
mode, we can use the melodic minor scale of F. If you want understand the reason of it, read the
article ―Fourth minor degree (IVm6)‖.

Besides all this approaches we showed, borrowed chords can also being preceded by a dominant
chord. For example, in the previous exercises, Ab7M could be preceded by Eb7 in some progression.
In this case, Eb7 wouldn‘t be a borrowed chord, but an auxiliary dominant. Now, be careful when
you also want to add the second degree in this progression, to try to create II – V – I, because with
this structure we are already going to modulation and leaving the borrowed chords subject.

Don‘t forget what we said in the beginning: borrowed chords are those which appear as intruders,
they don‘t have the aim of changing the tonality of the song; they just appear as a surprise effect to
create some peculiarity in the melody.

See below some examples of songs that use borrowed chords (in orange):

MEU ERRO (Hebert Vianna)

A C#m D Dm A

Eu quis dizer você não quis escutar agora não peça não me faça promessas eu não quero te ver

C#m D Dm C#m F#m

nem quero acreditar que vai ser diferente que tudo mudou você diz não saber o que houve de

D Dm A D A

errado e o meu erro foi crer que estar do teu lado bastaria a meu Deus era tudo que eu queria

D Dm

eu dizia o seu nome não me abandone…

In this song, which is in A major, we clearly have a single chord that doesn‘t belong to the harmonic
field of A: the chord Dm. In the tonality A major, D is the IV major degree, not the minor (IVm). The
chord Dm is present in the tonality of A minor, therefore Dm is a borrowed chord in the parallel
mode.

NOS BAILES DA VIDA (Milton Nascimento e Fernando Brant)

D D7M D6 C
Foi nos bailes da vida ou num bar em troca de pão que muita gente boa pôs o pé na profissão

Em7 A7(4) A7 D

de tocar um instrumento e de cantar não se importando se quem pagou quis ouvir foi assim

D7M D6 C

cantar era buscar o caminho que vai dar no sol tenho comigo as lembranças do que eu era pra

Em7 A7(4) A7 D D4

cantar nada era longe tudo era tão bom pé estrada de terra na boléia de caminhão era assim

D D7M D6 C
Em7

com a roupa encharcada e a alma repleta de chão todo artista tem de ir aonde o povo está se

A7(4) A7(4) A7 D D4

foi assim assim será cantando me disfarço e não me canso de viver nem de cantar

In this song, which is in D major, the chord C should be C#m7(b5) (VIIm7b5). This C major that
appeared is acting like D minor (it is the seventh degree downgraded bVII).

This song also presents other interesting characteristics, like cadences II – V – I to the tonic and to
the first degree with passing notes. This last characteristic appears in the chord D4 (where the fourth
is an avoided note. Notice that the chord D4 appears before the chord D, emphasizing that this fourth
is just a passing note).

Go to: How to modulate

Back to: Module 10

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We already learned in the topic ―Modulation‖ the basics about this subject. Now that we have a solid
theory base, it is time to go deep in this subject and to show you how to modulate, in other words,
which resources and analysis we can explore in this subject.

We can start answering some questions:

Where can we modulate to?

We can modulate to any tone, independently from where we are; there is no restriction to this. But,
the most common is modulating to closely related keys because our ear will adapt itself better to this
kind of transition, due the fact that there is some affinity between these tonalities. In Pop music, in
general, it is also used the modulation one tone above (increase the song one tone) or a half tone
above.

What kind of resources can we use to modulate?

The most common is using cadences. We can make II – V – I progressions, or any other, to prepare
better our ear to the tonality change. Cadences serve as ―transition softeners‖; they prepare the way.
To the improviser, they also serve as indicator so that the musician sees where the song is going. In
the article about cadences we showed one example of use of cadences in modulation. We will see
here more examples in known songs.

But, before of this, it is worth to highlight that cadences are not the only way of soften a tonality
transition. We can also make the ―diatonic modulation‖.

What is diatonic modulation?

It is when we change the harmonic function of a chord in the song; in other words, we take advantage
of the fact that a same chord exists in different tonalities and we does the transition between these
two tonalities by this chord.

See this example: Let‘s say that the tonality of a song is in C major, until the moment where G major
appears followed by D major and B minor. We can clearly see that tonality has changed to D major,
but it is interesting that the chord G belongs even to the harmonic field of C major as D major. In the
tonality of C, G is the fifth degree (dominant function), while in the tonality of D, G is the fourth
degree (subdominant function).

Moral of the story: to make this modulation from C major to D major, we changed the function of G:
it is no longer the fifth degree and became to be used as fourth degree. This is an interesting manner
of modulating, because we confuse the listener making the same chord serves in another function.
Many times, this technique when well used makes the modulation becomes almost imperceptible; the
tonality changes and the unsuspecting listener doesn‘t notice this!

Well, the definition that we showed until now is the only one possible to diatonic modulation. For
example, in a song in C major, after G could come the C minor chord, and in this case we would be
modulating to a parallel tone using G as dominant, in other words, it didn‘t change its function,
despite having taken the song to another tonality. Therefore, a broader definition to diatonic
modulation would be using the present chord in the original harmonic field to take the song to
another harmonic field. Many authors also call this kind of modulation as ―modulation with pivot
chords‖ or ―modulation with common chords‖.

If we would think in each possibility of modulation, we would stay here until tomorrow talking about
how is possible to change the harmonic function of a chord (we could change a V7 in a secondary
dominant; this one, on the other hand, could become a subV7, etc., etc.). It is not worth continuing
discoursing about these innumerous cases, because it would be really boring. It is just to understand
the concept, because the examples and ideas will come when we analyze the songs.

Besides this modulation, we still have the called ―Chromatic Modulation‖.

What is Chromatic Modulation?

It is when we does some chromatic change in one (or more) notes of a chord of the original harmonic
field to be able to use it in another harmonic field, changing then, the tonality of the song. This
sentence is really long, but an example can make it easy: Let‘s say again that the song is in C major.
Think about the following sequence: C – Am – A – D. The tonality here has changed to D major, and
the idea was to take the Am chord and change chromatically its third, changing it in a major chord.
This A (that before was minor and belonged to the harmonic field of C major) became a major chord,
serving as fifth degree for D (A major belongs to the harmonic field of D minor), concluding the
modulation.
Very well, now that we know the resources, let‘s show one example of song that has several
modulations, so you will see how composers work with this in practice.

The song below has 3 tonalities: D major (in yellow), G major (in green) and A# major (in orange).
Check it:

In the first modulation, the tonality was in D major, and then A7(9) chord, that was supposed to be
solved in D7M (expected resolution), served as dominant for the dominant (V7/V7), because the D
chord appeared with seventh and was solved in G7M, characterizing the first modulation. This
modulation can be classified as modulation by secondary dominant to the IV degree, which is a
closely related key. From this moment, the tonality became G major.

The second modulation happened when the chord that was supposed to be G major appeared as G
sharp minor (G#m7(11)). In this right moment, it would be hard to discover where the harmony is
going to, but the next chords will give us a hint. Right after this G# minor, G7(#11) chord came,
which is an altered dominant, and then F#7M chord appeared. So, we can conclude that that G#
minor served like second minor degree of F# major and G7 served like subV7, replacing the fifth
degree V7 of F#, which would be C#7.

From that point, the tonality became F# major. Notice that this modulation went to one semitone
below the previous tonality, which was G major.
The song still returns to the initial tonality of D major, through another modulation. In this case, the
modulation happened through a dominant of the dominant (V7/V7), because E7 served as dominant
to A, which in its time, served as dominant V7 to D. It is worth to highlight that, before this
modulation, a modal borrowed chord of parallel tone appeared (A7M, highlighted in red; it belongs
to the harmonic field of F#m, which is parallel to F# major).

There are other characteristics in this song that could be studied apart, like imperfect
cadences, inverted chords, among others. But as our focus here in this topic was the subject
―modulation‖, we will let these complete approaches in the part of studied songs here in the website.

Go to: Bebop scale – bebop jazz

Back to: Module 10

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Bebop Scale emerged in the same context of Bebop Jazz.

If you want to learn how to play Jazz, we can be sure that you are taking a big step in reading this
article!

We will show here a resource extremely used by Jazz musicians; and that can be also used in any
other music style. Be ready to increase your versatility in all the contexts, because the application of
this scale is really wide and useful to everybody!

So, before everything, let‘s start with a little story about Bebop Jazz.

Bebop Jazz
Bebop Jazz emerged among the 40‘s and marked what we call Contemporary Jazz. The father of this
style was the saxophonist Charlie Parker, and the propagation of Bebop all over the world has the
help of many other musicians (like the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie).

Due to its complex harmonies and frenetic rhythms, this style called attention, because it wasn‘t
appropriate to dancing, nor to singing, being driven just to the improvisation and instrumental
virtuosity. Bebop Music stood out because it was different from Popular Music, having fast rhythms
 and hard sequences of eighth tones. The improvisation used resources known from Jazz and also
some alterations, like the augmented fifth. These characteristic alterations, after being really used and
consecrated, gave origin to Bebop Scale that we will show.

The development of Bebop changed some approaches of accompaniment and solo. Drummers start to
depend less on bass drum and more on drum plates (cymbal conduction). Bass players become more
responsible for keeping the rhythmic pulsation, marking the harmonic cadences and playing the
crotchets all the time. And the pianists were able to use a lighter touch, where the left hand was not
obligated to mark the rhythmic pulsation or the fundamental note from the chords. With this, the
standard shape of the Contemporary Jazz became universal and unmistakable.

Very well, as we are not talking to basic readers but with musicians, before going on with this
reading, go to Youtube and search ―Charlie Parker‖.

Dominant Bebop Scale

Now that you have listened a little of Bebop, you should have noticed that chromaticism appears
―without limits‖ in this style. A chromaticism that marked the Bebop was the use of the seventh
major in a Mixolydian Mode. In other words, to improvise in dominant chords the Bebop musicians
added one note to Mixolydian Mode, making a scale with 8 notes. This scale became known as
Dominant Bebop Scale.

Let‘s see how the scale of G dominant Bebop compared with G mixolydian was.

 Notes of the G Mixolydian Scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, F

 Notes of G Dominant Bebop scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, F, F#
Drawing of G Dominant Bebop

In G Dominant Bebop, there is a chromaticism among the notes F, F# e G.

 As F# doesn‘t belong to Diatonic Scale, we should avoid resting on it. This seventh major should be
used just as a passing note. The interesting is that the scale of 8 notes allows a more accurate
rhythmic subdivision than in a 7 notes scale. A scale of 8 notes fits in a compass 4/4 playing one note
by each eight notes. With this, the passing note can have the same duration of the other notes.

Major Bebop Scale

There is also a Bebop Scale which is not dominant. This Bebop Scale, known as Major Bebop Scale,
is used in major chords. It also has 8 notes, and the alteration is in the fifth degree (it has an
augmented fifth).

Compare below the C major scale with C Bebop major scale:

 Notes of C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B

 Notes of C Bebop major scale: C, D, E, F, G, G#, A, B
Drawing of C Bebop major

Observation: In the Dominant Bebop Scale, we saw that the ―extra note‖ was F# (seventh degree of
the dominant). This note, starting from C, is the flatted fifth. In other words, both scales (dominant
and major scales) together represent two alterations (diminished fifth and augmented fifth, in relation
to the tonic).

Bebop Scale Application

Bebop scale can be used in any tonal context, since these alterations in the fifth serve as passing
notes! Of course that these passing notes tend to sound better in the tonic and in the dominant V7
(because the origin of these notes was based on these chords), but you don‘t need to be afraid of
using them in the other degrees of the tonality; it is all about good taste.
Nice, you have just discovered new outside notes that can be used as passing notes (like the example
of the blue note in the Pentatonic Scale).

The difference is that the ―blue note‖ everybody knows and uses it, while the Bebop Scale is
unknown to almost everybody. So this could be your differential!

But, making the Bebop Scale sounds good requires training and practice, because these sonorities of
augmented fifth and diminished fifth in the tonic are associated to a characteristic of the Jazz style.

Maybe you use well the blue note of the Pentatonic Scale now, but notice that this note sounds good
in a peculiar style that you developed (this involves certain dynamic, accentuation, among other
things that your brain is already ―programmed‖ to do when it thinks in blue note).

In the same way, Bebop Scale sounds good when used with the right dynamic and accentuation. As
everything in life, it is not in a blink of an eye that you acquire this ability. Calm down, we are here
to speed up this process to the maximum! First of all, we will give you some exercises for you to
practice. They are links and sentences using the Bebop Scale. Repeating a lot these exercises, many
times a day, you will internalize the Bebop feeling and will pass to use this scale like a master in
innumerous music contexts, even those far from the Jazz context.

Besides the exercises, we will show you some examples of application of these ideas in solo
practices.

Just as observation, the Descending Bebop Scale generally works better than the Ascending, but this
you will realize by you own. Besides playing, try to listen to Jazz Bebop. We will indicate in the end
of this study some names for you to take as models.

Exercises of Jazz Bebop

Remember that the objective of these exercises is not gaining speed! We are not studying technique
here, but musical vocabulary. So, forget the mechanic of the thing and start worrying about
perception. Soon the results will appear!
Repeating the links bellow many times, the Bebop vocabulary will be in your fingers. Memorize it,
understand it, feel it and practice a lot. This file of Guitar Pro has sentences built in C7
chord: BebopC7.gpro

This means that the tonality is F major and that the worked scale is C Dominant Bebop Scale. You
can transpose this to the tonality you wish; our objective is just introducing you the idea. These links
were taken from the book ―How to Play Bebop‖, from David Baker. Use of Bebop ideas in
songs: Bebopapplication.gpro

This base is in C major tonality and has the chords Dm7 | G7 | C7M. Notice that the G Dominant
Bebop Scale fits well with the G7 chord, but can also be used in other chords of this tonality, because
the Dominant Bebop Scale is not restricted to the dominant chord alone, as we already emphasized.
The same happens with C Bebop Major Scale, that doesn‘t need to be played exclusively in C major
chord. It is important that you understand that Bebop Scales can be used in any tonal context, since
that the outside notes appear as passing notes. Practice the Bebop Scale downloading the file: Bebop
scale exercise.gpro

This base is in E minor tonality. Listen carefully and practice the bebop sentences in this backing
track.

Try to know some consecrated Bebop musicians to internalize this style once and for all:

Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Oscar Pettiford, Duke Jordan, Miles Davis, Tommy Potter, Al Haig,
Thelonious Monk, Sonny Stitt, Max Roach, Lucky Thompson, Fats Navarro, Kenny Dorham, Kenny
Clarke, Milt Jackson, Charles Mingus, Roy Haynes, etc.

Go to: Whole tone scale

Back to: Module 10

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Whole Tone Scale or Hexatonic Scale is a scale made by the sequence: tone – tone – tone – tone –
tone – tone.
It is not for nothing that it is called ―Whole Tone Scale‖, is it? Because all the notes have 1 tone of
distance among them.

You can also notice that this scale has 6 notes, so the name: ―hexa‖ also makes sense! Using this
sequence, let‘s see how the G Hexatonic Scale is (you can also see the degrees above the notes):

1M 2M 3M 4A 5A 6A

C, D, E, F#, G#, A#

Drawing of Hexatonic Scale

Nice, but you are interested in knowing what this scale is and where to use it! So let‘s go to what
matters:

How to use the Whole Tone Scale

Hexatonic scale can be used in dominant chords. For this, it is just playing the Hexatonic of the own
dominant in question. For example: in the progression of chords Am7 | G7 | C, we can play the
Hexatonic Scale in G7.

Nice, we will talk about some details later, but is good for you to know that the Whole Tone Scale it
is not as used as Diminished, Harmonic Minor or Melodic Minor scales. Its sonority is not as
―acclaimed‖ as the other scales; some musicians like more, others less, it is up to you to decide when
it is worth to use it or not. Our hint is that, when you will use it, try to play this scale in altered
dominant. Why?

Well, as we already saw, the Hexatonic Scale has augmented fourth and fifth, besides a seventh
minor. The dominant V7 already has a seventh minor, so the Hexatonic creates in it two alterations
(augmented fourth and fifth). When the dominant already has these two alterations, the Hexatonic
sounds even better, doesn‘t it? So that‘s the reason!

In the next topic, we will talk more about Whole Tone Scale, making relation with a special Greek
Modeand giving you examples of application. Check it!

Go to: Lydian dominant mode

Back to: Module 10

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Another possible application to the whole tone scale, besides those we saw, is in the Lydian
Dominant Mode.

―Gosh, now it became difficult! It screwed me up! I will not understand anything!‖. Calm down, sure
you will understand, it‘s really simple. What is the Lydian scale? It‘s a major scale with an
augmented fourth. If you didn‘t know that, it is just to check the Greek Modes; do this scale and
observe it.

Let‘s recap then. If the tonality is in C major, the chord of fourth degree is F7M and the Greek Mode
used in F is the Lydian Mode. Until here, nothing is new.

Lydian Dominant Mode

If we change this seventh major of F7M for a seventh minor, we would have F7 chord. In this case,
the scale that we used before (Lydian Mode) would have an alteration in the seventh degree (it would
no longer be major, but minor). This new scale (Lydian with seventh minor) is called Lydian
Dominant Scale, because the resulting chord became a dominant chord with seventh (F7).

Notice that lowering of the seventh created a tritone, this is why the chord became dominant.

Very well, the greatest result of all this is when the chord of fourth degree is a dominant chord, the
scale in it has an augmented fourth (which comes from the Lydian Mode) and a seventh minor
(which comes from the dominant structure), being really similar to the Hexatonic scale!
 Actually, the only note that the Hexatonic scale has that is not in the Lydian dominant scale is the
augmented fifth degree.

Similarity between Lydian Dominant and

Hexatonic Scales
Compare below the F Lydian dominant scale with F Hexatonic scale:

 Notes of F Lydian Dominant: F, G, A, B, C, D, D#

 Notes of F Hexatonic: F, G, A, B, C#, D#
Due to this affinity, we conclude that the Hexatonic Scale can be used in Lydian dominant chords, as
we wanted to show you!

Now let‘s continue this reasoning. Where does the Lydian dominant chord come from? In which
context does it exist?

It is always in the melodic minor harmonic field. Let‘s see C melodic minor harmonic field:

Notice that the fourth degree is a major chord with seventh! (in other words, a Lydian dominant).
Therefore, the Lydian dominant comes from the melodic minor context. This makes us to conclude
some things. Take a breath, calm down and relax. Ready? Now we can go on.

We already saw that F Lydian dominant is the mode that fits in F7 when F is the fourth degree of the
tonality. And what is the scale to be played in the first degree (Cm7M) in this case? It is C melodic
minor, right? Because this harmonic field is created in this scale!

So my friend, this means that the Lydian Dominant Scale is the fourth mode of melodic minor scale.
In other words, F Lydian dominant is the C melodic minor scale played starting in its fourth degree.

We are doing here the same thing we did in the Greek Modes, in other words, we are playing a scale
starting from other degree that not the first. If is hard to understand, read again the article
about Greek Modes and then return back here. The idea will be really clearer.
 Let‘s now compare the notes of C melodic minor with F Lydian dominant:

 Notes of C melodic minor: C, D, Eb, F, G, A, B

 Notes of F Lydian dominant: F, G, A, B, C, D, Eb
They are exactly the same notes. Have you noticed that C minor melodic scale is one fifth above F?
Do you remember that we taught you how to use the melodic minor one fifth above the non altered
dominant chords?

So then, there it is one application to this! F7 is a non altered dominant, right?! The moral of the
story is this: Playing the melodic minor scale one fifth above a non altered dominant, we are doing
this dominant sounds like it was a fourth degree Blues (IV7).

For example, we let‘s suppose that we are improvising in this cadence:

| Dm7 | G7 | C |

The tonality here is C major, but in G7 we can play the D melodic minor scale, as we already know.
Doing this, we are using G7 chord to ―cheat‖ the listener making him/her that G7 is IV degree Blues.
This is the same as thinking that tonality changed to D melodic minor (momentarily), where G7 is
acting like fourth degree IV7 (and not as V7 of C anymore).

Of course that this is not the only explanation to use the melodic minor scale one fifth above the
dominant. Many musicians prefer thinking that this D melodic minor scale creates an alteration
(ninth flat) in G7 chord. Independently of the explanation that you will choose, the important is not to
be restricted to only one train of thought, because sometimes we can explore hidden resources and
create really attractive sonorities when thinking beyond the common sense. Never block your mind
when the subject is music!

Melodic minor and Lydian dominant

Well, returning to the idea of Lydian dominant, due the fact that we are doing G7 sounds like IV7,
we can also try playing the Hexatonic scale on it, because we already saw that there is more affinity
between Hexatonic and Lydian dominant mode (IV7) that between Hexatonic and Mixolydian
dominant (V7). Summarizing, when you apply the Hexatonic scale in a non altered dominant V7, try
to mix your solo to the melodic minor scale one fifth above.
This combination sounds really good, because it renders the Hexatonic more attractive! The melodic
minor one fifth above can make the V7 has another momentary function (IV7), which is more
interesting to the Hexatonic. In practice, Hexatonic scale doesn‘t use to appear alone, because the
Lydian dominant chords (IV7) or augmented fourth dominants are not really common. So Jazz and
Bossa Nova musicians like to put a small dose of Hexatonic mixed with other things (mainly the
melodic minor one fifth above), to give this ―taste‖ we explained. Many even don‘t know the reason
of this!

To finish this, notice that there are just two Hexatonic scales (C and C#); the other ones are identical
to these two, starting in other degrees. This is really useful of observing when improvising, because it
increases our field of vision. Instead of thinking in G Hexatonic, for example, you can think in D#
Hexatonic, which is identical.

So, when you want to mix G Hexatonic and D melodic minor, for example, you can think in D
melodic minor and D# Hexatonic (it is closer and better to see). Get the hint!

1.200 words later…

Well, the subject here burned our neurons! But the concept is not as complicated when we put the
pieces together. With practice these concepts will go from your head to your veins!

We can guarantee that explanations like this one you will not find anywhere, even paying a lot for
books and extensive bibliographies. It‘s a great pleasure to Simplifying Theory team to scrutinize the
details and reveal the hidden secrets behind many theory themes of music.

If this website has been useful for you, help us to divulge it so that we can improve even more!

To finish this topic, we will give you an example in Guitar Pro of the use of Hexatonic in an altered
dominant chord.

The base, hexatonicscale.gpro, in D minor tonality and is made by the following chords:

| Em7(b5) | A7(#5) | Dm7(9) |

Try to create your own ideas and mix the A Hexatonic with D melodic minor scale in this example.
Enjoy it!
 Go to: IVm6 chord

Back to: Module 10

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The fourth minor degree chord (IVm6 chord) is a chord that doesn‘t belong to the natural major
harmonic field, because in this field, the fourth degree is major.

In this way, it acts generally like a borrowed chord of the parallel mode in this context, because it
belongs to the minor harmonic field. As this chord appears many times in songs, we dedicated a
specific topic to speak about it. Generally the fourth minor degree appears with an additional sixth
(IVm6), because this produces a pleasant sonority to this chord.

How to improvise using the IVm6 chord?

To improvise in it, we can think in the parallel mode or in the melodic minor scale of itself.

This second option is a secret rarely known, and we will (as always) explain why this is possible.

Firstly, let‘s name the things. You could suppose that we are in the tonality of C major and suddenly
appears the Fm6 chord. This chord can be seen as a Bb7 ―disguised‖. Compare it below:

 Fm6 notes: F, C, D, G#
 Bb7 notes: Bb, C, D, G#
Notice as this two chords have the 3 identical notes, being different just in the tonic. The main
similarity here is that Fm6 has the tritone of Bb7, which is made by the notes D and G#. Therefore,
Fm6 can be understood as a dominant (in this case, the dominant V7 of Eb, due the fact that Bb7 is
one fifth above Eb). You can also notice that Eb is the relative major of Cm.

Very well, as Fm6 is acting like Bb7, we can use the melodic minor scale one fifth above Bb7 (if you
don‘t remember this resource, read the topic ―Melodic Minor Scale‖).

But the fifth degree of Bb7 is the F itself, because this we can use the melodic minor scale of F in
Fm6 in this context.
Let‘s show below an example of application of this concept by Guitar Pro (took from the topic
AEM):

Base: | C | Fmaj7 Fm6 | C |

File: IVm6.gpro

Listen the melodic minor scale of F in Fm6 in this context and take your own conclusions!

Notice now the first part of the song ―Trem de Cores‖ by Caetano Veloso. We will show only the
first chords of the song to prove that this resource of fourth minor degree is really used:

| D D(#5) G7M | Em Gm6 |

In the second bar line, Gm6 chord is acting like IVm6, because the tonality is D major.

Our intention is to improve even more this website, giving more practical examples and analyzing
more songs.

You can help to enrich Simplifying Theory divulgating the website and sending your own ideas of
solos to this and other themes. Take part on it!

Go to: Module 11

Back to: Module 10

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 Module 11

In the harmonic major field, the chord of second degree is minor. But an interesting resource (really
used) is playing the chord of second degree as major. The feeling which is produced is similar to
a secondary dominant, because the second degree could serve as V7/ V7 (dominant of the dominant).
For example, in C major tonality, D is minor, so playing D major would give the sensation of
preparation to a fifth degree (G). Without adding the seventh (D7), the feeling of the dominant is
attenuated.

We will show some examples of use of the major chord of second degree, for you to be used with
this sensation:

 In this first file from Guitar Pro, the tonality is C major. Notice the feeling of the D major chord in
this context: IImajordegree.gpro
 Now pay attention in B7 chord in tonality A major. Notice that it is serving as secondary dominant to
E major: II7.gpro

How to improvise in major chord of second degree

(II7)
Nice, let‘s say now that you are improvising a solo in a song that has the major chord of second
degree. What to do? You can use the melodic minor scale in it, which is located one fifth above it.
Any surprise in this? No! Because it is the same resource that we used in non-altered dominants, and
as we already said here, the major chord of second degree gives the feeling of the secondary
dominant. We can also consider that it is an borrowed chord from the Lydian Mode. This doesn‘t
change the resources that we can use in the point of view of improvisation, because the idea would be
the same that we just said.

Listen to the examples we gave and practice this concept in other songs too. Train your ear to
identify the feeling of a major chord of second degree. As in many times this chord has the seventh
(to definitely mark the dominant function), it is denoted by II7.

This chord doesn‘t appear only in harmonically rich styles, but also in popular songs, providing
interesting variations. Now that you know this resource, try to identify it as always as possible.
 Go to: #IVm7(b5) chord

Back to: Module 11

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Well, in the previous article, we talked about the chord of second degree (II7). Now we will talk
about a chord that is closely connected to it: the half diminished sharp chord of fourth
degree #IVm7(b5).

Where to use the chord #IVm7 (b5)?

This kind of chord can act like a passing chord between IV and V degrees.

Before everything, let‘s name the things to not being so abstract: you can suppose that we are in the
C tonality. IV and V degrees, therefore, will be F and G chords. And the chord #IVm7(b5) will be the
F#m7(b5) chord.

Back to the subject we proposed, the F#m7(b5) chord can be used as a passing chord between F and
G chords. It is possible to notice that one of the reasons for this being possible is the chromatic effect
which is associated, because the bass note is going chromatically from F to G. But why does the
chord need to be half diminished (m7b5)? Pay attention in this:

 Notes of #m7(b5) chord: F#, A, C, E

 Notes of D7 chord: D, F#, A, C
As you can see, these chords have 3 notes in common; and besides that, the tritone from D7 chord
(created by F# and C notes) also is present in the F#m7(b5) chord. Moral of the story: one can have
the function of the other!

Nice, but what does it mean in practice?

Well, the D7 chord is the dominant of G, isn‘t it? So then, playing D7 before G would be a
cadence ―V – I‖ (perfect cadence), while playing F#m7(b5) chord before G would have the same
purpose, being a cadence ―VII – I‖ (imperfect cadence).
Very well, so it is explained! The F#m7(b5) chord can be used between the F and G chords due the
chromatic effect and the formation of a cadence ―VII – I‖. Now you are able to use this resource
whenever you want.

Observation: if the F#m7(b5) chord is followed by B7, it is acting like II degree of a progression II –
V – I to E minor, then the previous thought is not applied, because the purpose is another one.

Before finishing the subject, just notice that D7 is the second major degree (II7) of C; then don‘t be
surprised if, ―by accident‖ you see the #IVm7(b5) chord replacing the second major degree (due the
fact that they are really similar). The utilization of #IVm7(b5) is not restricted to stay only between
the IV and V degrees; remember that everything is possible when the subject is music.

It is important to notice that, as being a strange chord to the tonality, the #IVm7(b5) chord will not
always sound well. It is needed being aware of the produced effect. As much practice you have in the
use of this chord, faster you will know how to identify it and also how to fit it in the songs that don‘t
have it.

We tried to pass here in the website the fundamental concepts to avoid doubts and to awaken ideas in
the functional harmony aspect. The real application of these concepts, however, will be connected to
the melody and the good taste of the composer.

Go to: Improvising with outside notes

Back to: Module 11

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Let‘s use this topic to make a general review of everything we saw about improvisation until now, to
serve as a quick reference guide.

Improvisation guide
Before anything, a good improviser needs to know in ―which ground he is walking in‖. For this is
important:

1) Identify the main tonality of the song.

Prerequisite: to know the natural harmonic fields.

2) Identify quickly the changes of tonality, if there is some.

Prerequisite: to know the most used resources in modulation.

3) Identify passing chords which are strange to the tonality, if

there is some.
Prerequisite: to know the concepts of borrowed chords, secondary dominants, major second
degree (II7), minor fourth degree (IVm6), passing diminished.

4) Identify the harmonic feeling of each chord in the song.

Prerequisite: to know the harmonic function.

Very well, with these 4 items, the improviser has already a great vision about the ―ground‖ he is
walking in. To know how to profit the most this ―ground‖ it is important that the improviser knows
well the main scales.

Application context of music scales

Let‘s organize then the contexts in which the scales can be used, highlighting in italic the resources
that bring outside notes to your solo:

1) When the tonality of the song is identified (and the possible

changes of tonality), the musician can use:
– Natural scales: major, relative minor, Greek modes.

– Derived from natural scales: pentatonic and Blues scale.

2) When strange chords to the tonality are identified, the

musician can use:
– In borrowed chords: Natural Scales (if you know from which mode this borrowed chord came).

– In secondary dominants and major chord of second degree: Melodic Minor Scale one fifth above
the chord in question.

– In minor chord of fourth degree: Minor scale of the chord of I degree of the tonality and/or Melodic
minor scale of the own IVm chord.

– In passing diminished: Diminished Scale of the own chord.

3) When the harmonic feeling of each chord is identified, the

musician can use:
– In the tonic function (I degree of the song): Major scale, relative minor, pentatonic, Blues
scale, arpeggioof the chord, Bebop scale, target notes by chromatic approximation.

– In the tonic function (VI degree of the song): Minor scale, relative major, pentatonic minor, Blues
scale, arpeggio from the chord, Bebop scale, target notes by chromatic approximation.

– In the tonic function (III degree of the song): Phrygian mode, pentatonic minor, arpeggio of the
chord,target notes by chromatic approximation.

– In the subdominant function (II and IV degrees): Greek mode from the chord, arpeggio of the
chord,target notes by chromatic approximation.

– In the non-altered dominant (V7): Mixolydian mode, arpeggio from the chord, Melodic minor
scale one fifth above, altered scale, diminished scale one semitone above, hexatonic scale of the own
chord, Bebop scale, target notes by chromatic approximation, harmonic minor scale one fourth
above (if it solves in a I minor degree).

– In the altered dominant chord (V altered degree): Mixolydian mode, arpeggio from the
chord, altered scale, diminished scale one semitone above, hexatonic scale of the own chord, Bebop
scale, target notes by chromatic approximation, harmonic minor scale one fourth above (if it solves
in a I minor degree).
We already said this, but never is too much emphasize that a dominant chord is what allows outside
notesthe most, as you just saw here.

About the other chords of the natural harmonic field, the outside notes can come from the following
scales: Blues, Bebop and target notes by chromatic approximation. It is always good to come back
and study again some topic if you forgot how to use some scale. This summary serves as a guide for
those who absorbed the content separately here in the website. Bit by bit we will also insert new
contents, so be sure to follow! Your solo will be even more ―tasty‖ in the way you take this
―trickery‖ of these outside notes. Show you creativity sending your solos to Simplifying Theory. This
is a good way to see music theory in practice!

Go to: Improvisation in blues

Back to: Module 11

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After studying many subjects, here we are coming back to the world of Blues!

If you are a beginner in the subject and by accident you fell in this topic, read the basic topic about
Bluesbefore anything.

Well, if it is not the case, and you have been following the website, so you have learned that
the dominant chord V7 allows us to use many interesting resources in improvisation. It is the most
explored kind of chords when we talk about outside notes.

What we are going to do now is to take the concepts that we learned about dominants and use them
in Blues; because Blues is formed mainly by dominant chords! You already know the basic structure
of Blues, so now is time to get off from the surface and go beyond the Minor Pentatonic
scale + Blues scale.

Summarizing the improvisation in blues

It is time to use the other approaches we know! Let‘s summarize what you can use in the chords of
Blues (first, fourth and fifth degrees), all of them non-altered dominants:
– Melodic Minor scale one fifth above

– Diminished scale one semitone above (Dominant Diminished scale)

– Whole tone scale

– Bebop Dominant scale

– Mixolydian mode scale

– Major Pentatonic scale (above the first degree)

– Chromaticism with Target Notes

We don‘t need to comment here about Melodic Minor Scale, Diminished, whole tone, Bebop and
Mixolydian; because the reason to use each one of them is thinking that each chord of Blues acts like
a dominant chord (we already studied this approach for each one of these scales).

Even if these chords with seventh of the dominant are not being solved in their tonalities, they are
nonetheless dominants, so we think as each of them as a V7 chord.

The chromaticism with Target Notes was also completely explained in other topics and you already
know how to use it.

The new thing here is the Major Pentatonic. In the same way we use the Minor Pentatonic, we can
also use the Major Pentatonic above the first degree. Think about this: Major Pentatonic takes the 1st,
2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th degrees. In G chord, Major Pentatonic would take then the notes G, A, B, D and
E. Let‘s see if these notes are already present in another scale we are using:

To G7 chord, D is present in the Minor Pentatonic scale of G. Ok, then I don‘t need o be worried
about this note. E and A are present in Melodic Minor scale of D (which is the melodic minor one
fifth above G7). B is present in the Mixolydian scale of G. In other words, when playing the Major
Pentatonic scale of G, we are not doing nothing different than using the previous notes that we
already used. So, there is no problem in doing this!
Just as a curiosity, the Major Pentatonic in Blues is really used by the guitarist B.B. King. If you
want to grow in this style, listen to B.B. King and notice the way he uses the Major Pentatonic.

If you are not comfortable with the Major Pentatonic and if you are a lover of the shape of the Minor
Pentatonic scale, you can think about the relative minor of G (E minor) and play, in this case, the
Minor Pentatonic of E.

Very well, the theory concepts are all expounded, now it is time of hands-on! We will give you all
these concepts used in solos. Check bellow and take these ideas as example to build your own ideas!

Observation: Diminished scale in Blues sounds better when is played before the transition from one
chord to another. For example, before going from the first degree to the fourth, try to use the
Diminished. Do the same thing in the transition from the fourth degree to the first. This scale sounds
better this way because it is really used in the idea of ―passing chords‖, as we already studied.

File Guitar Pro: AdvancedImprovisationinBlues.gpro

Use all these concepts in this base of Blues: Bluesbase.gpro

Now you can consider yourself a differentiated musician! Which is the frequency that you listen to
these outside notes in Blues? We can do almost everything in Blues, but 99.9% of musicians don‘t
explore it, they just extract things from Minor Pentatonic with a Blue note. It is such a waste of
opportunity, isn‘t it?!

In this topic, we talked just about improvisation. In the next advanced topic of Blues we will talk
about the concepts of functional harmony. If Simplifying Theory has been useful for you, share it and
help us to grow! Our target is to develop the website even more and be reference in music theory
study. Your participation is important!

Go to: Improvisation in jazz

Back to: Module 11

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If you are reading this article, probably you have already asked yourself how to improvise in Jazz.
 All musicians who are hooked on Pentatonic scale fear Jazz, because this style has many harmonic
variations, far from the tonal songs that the ―virtuous pentamusician‖ are used to.

But there is always someone who is hooked on Pentatonic and wants to leave this limited life and
learn Jazz. This mission, though, goes down the drain in most of the cases, due the fact that Jazz
looks like a thing from another planet. And this is why we are here! We want break this myth that
Jazz is not for all!

We will soon create a topic which explains what characterizes Jazz, its rhythm and everything. But
we can give good news for you who studied and followed all the levels until now: you are already
able to improvise in Jazz!

That‘s it, but before jumping for joy, calm down, because is yet needed training and dedication.

Characteristics of Jazz
We will not give you a new concept in this topic; we will just emphasize some important points:

1. Jazz is, normally, rich in cadences and modulations.

2. The rhythmic pulse of Jazz asks a solo that follows the swing.
We will cover in this topic the first item. Later we will create a topic about the second item.

So let‘s go. To improvise well in modulations, we already know that is important to master with
confidence the Greek modes, in a way that you could stay in the same region of your instrument even
if the song changes its tonality.

For example, let‘s say that a Jazz song started in C major and in the third barline the tonality changed
to D major. If you were using C Ionian, it would be interesting to stay in the same region of the
instrument, changing from the C Ionic to C Mixolydian, instead of ―jumping‖ to F Ionic. Try to stay
with your hand static during these transitions so that the improvisation can flow, without being like a
―deer jumping‖ and searching Ionic modes in each tonality.

This is the way of developing a behavior and a posture of someone who plays Jazz. In relation to
cadences, train a lot the improvisation in cadences II – V – I, exploring the resources that we have to
the dominant V7, specially to the Melodic minor scale and altered scale (its sister), because Jazz
musicians use and abuse these two scales.
Spending time improvising in a cadence II – V – I will make you used to this sonority and with an
immediate reflex, a reaction that phrasing automatically develops when faced with this cadence. The
advantage of this is that Jazz uses this cadence, so you will recognize immediately what is happening
all time, and of course, you will behave really well in these progressions. After that, train
improvisation in other cadences less usual than this, like deceptive cadences, to learn how to react
well before some surprises.

Observation: when we say ―cadence II – V – I‖, you should have the idea of the sequence:
subdominant – dominant – tonic, in other words, we can have other chords assuming these functions
too, as the cadence IV – V – I, for example.

Having these two concepts that we commented well trained (modulation and cadences); you will find
your place in any Jazz song.

How to improvise in Jazz with jazzy phrasing

To have a jazzy phrasing, listen to some musicians of this style and notice the ―enthusiasm‖ they play
the notes. Practice a lot the Bebop scale. Choose some Jazz songs and train improvisation in them. In
the part of ―examined songs‖ here in the website, we will be putting some classics of Jazz with
comments. Practice them. The results will not delay to appear. Try to practice these concepts of this
backing track (download the file): Jazztrain.gpro

This base is full of cadences II – V – I. Practice until you feel yourself comfortable with this context.

Soon you will feel yourself comfortable to Jazz, and this will enrich your musical vision in a
surprising way!

Go to: Reharmonization

Back to: Module 11

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Reharmonization is the art of modifying the harmonic structure of a song. For that, musicians work
with many concepts, almost all of them we already saw here in the website.
How to reharmonize
In practice, reharmonize is taking a song which is already done and change its harmony keeping its
original melody. Let‘s say that a friend of yours show you a song he did. With the concepts of
reharmonization, you can take this song and make it better, creating a complex and interesting
structure.

Another use is working in songs that are well known. For example, you could want to play a famous
hit, but with another version, to show personality from your own. To this, it would be necessary
reharmonize its structure. Remember, however, that more complex doesn‘t always mean more
beautiful. The main function of reharmonization is providing a base to alternative ideas, wherein the
quality of these ideas will depend on the good taste of the composer.

How to work with reharmonization

Many composers gain their lives doing this. People come to them with songs they want to record,
doing their ―dry‖ and ―square‖ chords (the only ones they know). So composers observe the
intentions of the ―artist‖ and reharmonize the song, making the structure better and enriching the
composition according to the taste and motivation of their ―client‖.

You will perceive, over this study that any reharmonization needs to be done considering the melody.
It is it which will say what we can or can‘t do. This topic will emphasize this point, showing how the
melody is the flagship and what we can create of harmony in it.

Types of reharmonization
In order to have this articulation we mentioned and learn well this concept, we will show you here 6
ways of possible reharmonization:

1. With the addition of notes to the chords.

2. With the substitution of chord with the same harmonic function.

3. With the substitution of the used Greek Mode.

4. With the utilization of chord progressions.

5. With modulation.

6. With borrowed chords.

We will show each method separately, because each approach is extensive. Let‘s go to the first one:

1) With the addition of notes to the chords:

This method is nothing more than adding notes to the chords in the song. Many authors don‘t classify
this addiction as reharmonization, but here we will consider any change in the harmony as
reharmonization (even if it is changing isolated notes in the chords).

Think then that a song was created with the following chords:

| G | D | Em | C |

A first idea that we could have to this song it would add the seventh in each one of the chords,
making tetrads instead of triads. We would have then:

| G7M | D7 | Em7 | C7M |

This structure would give another ―body‖ to the song. But maybe the singer didn‘t like this D7,
saying that it was quite aggressive. So you choose to put a D9, which is ―smoother‖.

| G7M | D9 | Em7 | C7M |

Since that, in the D9 chord in the guitar, the ninth (E note) entered in the place of the third (F# note),
we can use this F# and put it in the bass.

Check the chord D9/F#:

This also would make an interesting sequence in the bass of the song; that would be decreasing: G,
F#, E:

| G7M | D9/F# | Em7 | C7M |

As we will have a return to G7M after C7M, and as the fifth of G7M is D, we could add this D to
C7M (it would be the ninth of C7M) to let this structure more static. See the examples below:

Notice as the note of the second string (D) didn‘t move in the transition of these chords. This
technique of trying to keep some notes static during the transition is really used, because it makes the
harmony be ―smooth‖. Many composers argue that, as less ―punches‖ and octave abrupt changes, the
more pleasant and ―smooth‖ the harmony will be. We have to search for notes which are near, that
move our fingers a little. In the keyboard, this approach is exercised in the chords.

Keyboardists generally search for the best inversions and shapes to play ―near‖, without jumping far
away in the keys. It is interesting that you think in extension notes considering this. Try to do the
least movement as possible with your fingers in each change of chord. Of course that this
―smoothness‖ will not be always your sound objective, but when it is the case, remember that.

Well, compare the initial harmony with the final one:

| G | D | Em | C |
| G7M | D9/F# | Em7 | C7M(9) |

This was just an idea. We could think about putting fourths, sixths, inverting some chords, anyway,
you will always have many possibilities to work with. It is just to consider the tonality you are and
include the extension notes that will please you, also combining the static effect we mentioned and
the bass move. Consider that, even some extensions mischaracterize some chords (depending on the
context), any extension can be useful as surprise factor, since there is no impact with the melody.

The next resource of reharmonization will be analyzed in the second part of this topic (chord
substitution).

Go to: Chord substitution

Back to: Module 11

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Now we will consider another resource of reharmonization: Chords substitution.

How to substitute chords from the same harmonic

function?
This strategy summarizes itself in a replacement of a chord for another one with the same harmonic
function of it. Let‘s work this with the song ―Atirei o pau no gato‖.

Atirei o pau no gato – to

Dm

Mas o gato – to

Não Morreu – reu – reu

F

Dona Chica – ca

Admirou-se – se

G7

Do berro

Do berro que o gato deu: Miau !

Listen to it in Guitar Pro: Reharmonization1.gpro

Before anything, let‘s summarize the functions of each chord in the harmonic field of C major (which
is the tonality of this song):

Chords of tonic function: C, Em, Am

Chords of dominant function: G7, Bm7(b5)

Chords of subdominant function: Dm, F

We already learned that two chords of the same harmonic function can be exchanged one for another
without changing the harmonic function of the specific part. So let‘s try some exchanges. In the tonic
function, let‘s exchange the C that is in the part ―morreu-reu-reu‖ by an Am, and the C that is in the
part ―admirou-se-se‖ by an Em.

In the subdominant function, let‘s change the place of Dm and the F where they appear.

In the Dominant function, let‘s put Bm7(b5) in the place of G7.

Try to play and sing this song with these new chords:
C

Atirei o pau no gato – to

Mas o gato – to

Am

Não Morreu – reu – reu

Dm7

Dona Chica – ca

Em

Admirou-se – se

Bm7(b5)

Do berro

Do berro que o gato deu: Miau ! Listen to this new harmony in guitar pro: Reharmonization2.gpro

What did you think? Did you feel any problem? This is the proof that we can do these changes with
freedom. Of course that this is not always the best option; sometimes the melody asks another thing.
We have to be attentive to the melody. Melody is the boss!

Choose songs that you know and try to play them changing the place of the chords with the same
harmonic function. Practice this to open your vision and your ear. Besides the natural harmonic field
you can also try the chords from harmonic minor and melodic minor field. Check the options:
* It doesn‘t have dominant function

** It is also called 4th Blues degree

Now we will go to another approach in the third part of this topic (Greek modes substitution).

Go to: Module 12

Back to: Module 11

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 Module 12

The third part of our study about reharmonization will show that we can substitute the Greek Mode in
a song.

What is Greek Modes substitution?

Substitute the Greek mode is using chords from another Greek mode instead of the original ones (in
other words, you change the tonality of the song). For example, let‘s say that a song is in E minor
tonality (E Aeolian). Some chords that could be part of this song would be Em, G, Am, Bm, C etc.
All of them belonging to the harmonic field of E minor (E Aeolian). If we change the chords of this
song for the ones that belong to the harmonic field of C major, like Em, Dm, F, among others, and
we continue starting the song by E minor, this tonality wouldn‘t be E Aeolian but E Phrygian,
because E would act in this harmony like the third degree of C. Therefore, we would be changing the
tonality from E minor to C major. As we are starting with E and assuming that E is the resolving
chord of the song, saying that the tonality is E Phrygian is the equivalent of saying that we need to
emphasize chord notes of E in the resolution of solos, because the song solves itself in E, and not
forgetting that the tonality is C major.

And how to choose the Greek Mode to substitute?

First of all, it is important to know that we can choose any Greek mode, since the melody allows it.
Now we are going deep in the question of analyzing the melody. This will be easy to understand
when we see the example that follows, yet in the song ―Atirei o Pau no Gato‖.

The notes of the initial melody of this song are: G, F, E, D, as you can see in the file of Guitar Pro
that we showed before.

Since the initial melody goes around G (check the first and the second bar line to see it), we can start
the song with any chord that has G note as a chord note. This concept is new and extremely
important to work with reharmonization. Keep this idea: the chords that create a melody need to have
in them the notes of this melody. This could seem obvious, but it is not, because it gives amazing
possibilities, as we will see.
Our song starts like this:

C
Atirei o pau no gato – to

Since we want to change the Greek mode, let‘s choose the Mixolydian mode to test the theory. The
tonality of this song will no longer be C Ionian but a C Mixolydian. In other words, the harmonic
field of the song will be F major, and C will be, therefore, the fifth degree (V7) of this field.

So, we start with:

C7
Atirei o pau no gato – to

Can we do this? Yes, because the melody of this part of the song is in G, and G belongs to C7 chord
(it is the fifth of C7). So let‘s continue. We can think to use the F chord right after to make
the cadence V – I (C7 – F), so:

C7 F

Atirei o pau no gato – to

But we have a problem there! The melody in this part of the song still in G, and the F chord doesn‘t
have the G note! How will we fix this problem? Well, we can add the extension 9th to F chord
(because the ninth of F is the G note). Nice, so we have:

C7 Fadd9

Atirei o pau no gato – to

Chord Fadd9:
The melody of the next part of the song: ―Mas o gato-to‖ is in F. We can think to use Bb chord here
(because the F note is the perfect fifth of Bb. Besides that, Bb belongs to the harmonic field of F
major, as we want). The result is:

C7 Fadd9

Atirei o pau no gato – to

Bb

Mas o gato – to

The melody goes to E note now in ―não morreu-reu-reu‖. The F7M chord has the E note (it is the
seventh major of F). So is a good thing to choose:

C7 Fadd9

Atirei o pau no gato – to

Bb

Mas o gato – to

F7M

Não Morreu – reu – reu

We don‘t need to substitute the next chord, which is Dm7, because this Dm7 belongs to the harmonic
field of F major and the melody in this part of the song is in A (which is the perfect fifth of D). So we
have:
 F7M

Não Morreu – reu – reu

Dm7

Dona Chica – ca

The melody now goes to G in the part ―Admirou-se-se‖. We can put the Am7 chord, which belongs
to the harmonic field of F and has the G note in its structure (G is the seventh minor of A).

F7M

Não Morreu – reu – reu

Dm7

Dona Chica – ca

Am7

Admirou-se – se

In the next part (―do berro‖), the melody goes to G note, so nothing impedes us to put the Gm chord
(which also belongs to the harmonic field of F major).

Dm7

Dona Chica – ca

Am7

Admirou-se – se

Gm

Do berro
It‘s done, now the song finishes with C note. So let‘s finish with the Fadd9 chord, because D note is
the perfect fifth of Fadd9.

Our final reharmonization became this:

C7 Fadd9

Atirei o pau no gato – to

Bb

Mas o gato – to

F7M

Não Morreu – reu – reu

Dm7

Dona Chica – ca

Am7

Admirou-se – se

Gm

Do berro

Fadd9

Do berro que o gato deu: Miau !

Listen to: Reharmonization3.gpro

Notice that we reharmonized this song changing the Greek mode from C Ionic to C Mixolydian. We
could try to do the same to other modes; but, it is necessary evaluate if the melody would allow this.
We couldn‘t think, for example, in change this song to C Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian nor Locrian,
because in these modes, C is minor (it has the third minor), wherein the melody is passing through
the D note, which is the third major of C. Did you notice as is important to always think in the
melody?

It is in this point that the musician begins to understand the root of the thing, the chords exist to
follow the main melody. Everything goes around it!

Another important observation in this reharmonization that we did is that there is a moment in this
song when B note appears in the melody, in the part ―Admirou-se-se‖. This B doesn‘t belong to the
harmonic field of F major that we created. But B is the seventh major of D, and as D minor is
the relative of F, we can think in using the harmonic minor scale of D in this part (since the harmonic
minor scale is the minor scale with the seventh major).

Very well, we will continue our study in part 4 (modulation and borrowed chords)!

Go to: Reharmonization with borrowed chords

Back to: Module 12

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Now that we explored the concept of Greek modes substitution, let‘s move on to the last three items
that we mentioned about reharmonization: use of cadences, modulation and borrowed chords. We
will first see modulation and borrowed chords, and then we will finish with the study about cadences.

The idea that we will use for modulation and borrowed chords will be the same we used for Greek
modes substitution: think about the melody.

So let‘s go:

We already know that the initial melody is in the G note. This note is the third major of Eb7M chord.
So this means that we can use Eb7M to start this song! Can you see as the concept of melody and
chords opens new horizons?! Our song began to start with:

Eb7M
Atirei o pau no gato – to

As the F note is the melody of the next part, we can think in DM7(b5) chord, because F is the third
minor of D. You can also notice that Dm7(b5) belongs to the harmonic field of Eb, so we still in this
tonality.

Eb7M

Atirei o pau no gato – to

Dm7(b5)

Mas o gato – to

In the next part, the melody note is D, so we can try to put C7M chord there. From now on, we will
continue the song with chords of C major tonality (the original ones of the song). This means that we
did a modulation! We went from Eb7M to C major tonality. The melody allowed this easily. Nice,
but what kind of modulation was this? It was a modulation to a parallel key! Eb7M is the relative
major of C minor, in other words, this means that we were in C minor and now we went to C major.
Our song became:

Eb7M

Atirei o pau no gato – to

Dm7(b5)

Mas o gato – to

C7M–> modulation

Não Morreu – reu – reu

Dona Chica – ca
 Em7

Admirou-se – se

G7

Do berro

C7M

Do berro que o gato deu: Miau !

Very well, let‘s put now a borrowed chord in this ―game‖. The melody in the part ―Dona Chica-ca‖ is
in the A note. This note is the third minor of F#m7(b5), so we can use this chord. The song would be:

Eb7M

Atirei o pau no gato – to

Dm7(b5)

Mas o gato – to

C7M–> modulatiom

Não Morreu – reu – reu

F#m7(b5) –> borrowed chord

Dona Chica – ca

Em7

Admirou-se – se

G7

Do berro
 C7M

Do berro que o gato deu: Miau !

Listen to: reharmonization4.gpro

Ok, if someone asks: ―where did this F#m7(b5) come from? Because this chord doesn‘t belong to the
harmonic field of D major‖. Our answer could be: ―It‘s a borrowed chord from the Lydian mode!‖.
Explanation: F#m7(b5) belongs to the harmonic field of G major. This is the same of saying that
F#m7(b5) belongs to the harmonic field of C Lydian. Therefore, this chord is been borrowed from
this mode.

Very well, we already included modulation and borrowed chords in this song. Now is the time to
finish this topic by adding cadences in this reharmonization we did! Follow this in the part 5 of this
topic!

Go to: Reharmonization with chord progressions

Back to: Module 12

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Continuing our study about reharmonization, we arrived at cadences! In the part ―Mas o gato-to não
morreu-reu-reu‖, right after Dm7(b5) comes C7M chord, right? So let‘s try to put G7 before C7M to
create a progression II – V – I:

Now, right after F#m7(b5) comes Em7 chord, so we can add a B7 to create another progression II –
V – I:
 With this, F#m7(b5) became a second minor degree of Em7. But F#m7(b5) was already acting like
a borrowed chord, so now it is a chord with a double function: borrowed chord and second
minor degree.

Well, before F#m7(b5) there is C7M chord. This F#m7(b5) has only one note of difference from
F7M. Compare it below:

 F#m7(b5) notes: F#, A, C, E

 F7M notes: F, A, C, E
So we can think that F#m7(b5) is acting like F7M and, in this case, C would be the fifth degree of F.
Therefore, we can put a C7 right after C7M to emphasize this transition:

Another progression II – V – I that we can do with the chords Em7 and Dm7 in the next part, is
putting an A7 between them:

The final part has already a progression II – V – I, so we will not touch it:
Great, we will see how our final reharmonization is:

Listen to it in guitar pro: reharmonization5.gpro

It‘s really interesting this harmony, because we had a sequence of three cadences II – V – I, that goes
from the part ―Dona Chica-ca‖ until the end of the song (we call it extended cadence II – V – I). This
made a children‘s song sound like Jazz!
Awesome, so now that you learned how to make reharmonization, it is time to stimulate your
creativity and start to reharmonizate the songs you know. The more you practice, more ideas will
come. The resources are many, aren‘t they?!

Enjoy it!

Go to: Blues harmony – advanced

Back to: Module 12

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Now that we already know how to give a special ―color‖ to Blues improvisation, it is time to explore
Blues Harmony.

If you fell in this topic by chance, first you should learn what Blues is and follow the contents of
the website with calm.

We will see here the origins of Jazz; how it came from the Blues structure. Even to someone who
doesn‘t like the style, it is worth to study this topic, because Blues structure allows innumerous
substitutions, cadences and harmonic works, a lot that couldn‘t fit in a book.

Very well, let‘s start with the basic. The definition of Blues as we saw, it is connected to 12 clearly
defined bar lines. See an example of Blues in A:

I IV I I

| A7 | D7 | A7 | A7 |

IV IV I I

| D7 | D7 | A7 | A7 |

V IV I V

| E7 | D7 | A7 | E7 |
We already know this structure; it is one of the basic arrangements of Blues. Let‘s start to ―play‖
with this harmony, using some concept that we already know.

Increasing the harmony of blues

First, let‘s work in the fourth bar line. Notice as we started in A7 and went to D, in other words, A7
is acting like dominant V7 of D. We can make this cadence more fluid changing this passage in
a progression II – V – I. For this, in the fourth bar line we will put the chord Em7 before A7. With
this we will have Em7 – A7 – D.

Now notice that we have two consecutive bar lines in D7 (fifth and sixth bar lines). As we will return
to the first degree in the seventh bar line, it is interesting to put a diminished chord in the sixth bar
line. We will use the diminished that serves as substitute to D7. Which one is this? We already
studied that! It is located one semitone above the dominant, in other words, it will be D#°. See below
how is the structure with these first changes:

I IV I IIm7 V7

| A7 | D7 | A7 | Em7 A7 |

IV IV I I

| D7 | D#º | A7 | A7 |

V IV I V

| E7 | D7 | A7 | E7 |

Very well, it is becoming to be interesting! Now we will be more audacious. Starting in the eighth
bar line (that precedes the ―climax‖ of the song), we will make a sequence of dominants. Notice that
after A7 (in the eighth bar line) we went to E7 (ninth bar line). Our intention is to put the dominant
V7 of D before going to E7. Nevertheless, the dominant V7 of D is B7.

We can enlarge even more this idea playing the dominant V7 of B before that, which is F#7. So, our
―game‖ will be putting F#7 in the eighth bar line in the place of A7, because A7 is already present in
the previous bar line, and we continue in this sequence of dominants putting B7 and E7 in the ninth
and tenth bar lines. Look how this is:

I IV I IIm7 V7

| A7 | D7 | A7 | Em7 A7 |

IV IV I I

| D7 | D#º | A7 | F#7 |

V IV I V

| B7 | E7 | A7 | E7 |

Notice that, since we were in E7, and we went to A7 in the eleventh bar line, because E7 is the
dominant V7 of A. With this, we omitted the passage for D7 in the tenth bar line; it was out of this
progression.

As result, we have the progression F#7 – B7 – E7 – A7, in other words, we finished a cycle of
fourthsstarting in F#7 and finishing in A7. Interesting, isn‘t it?!

Well, as our song finishes in E7; before starting all over again, we can repeat this ―game‖ in the two
last bar lines. In other words, what about putting F#7 after A7 inside the eleventh bar line and B7
before E7 in the last bar line? We will have a progression that will be identical to the previous one,
but faster, because we would be putting two chords by bar line! Check it below:

I IV I IIm7 V7

| A7 | D7 | A7 | Em7 A7 |

IV IV I I

| D7 | D#º | A7 | F#7 |

V IV I V
| B7 | E7 | A7 F#7 | B7 E7 |

Ok, our Blues is already really ―stirred‖. We are leaving the traditional sound of Blues and going in
direction to Jazz. Let‘s continue this tour!

We already know that, in the major harmonic field, the first degree has the same harmonic
function of third degree (IIIm7).

Really in practice, these degrees have two notes in common. Compare A major to C# minor. Both of
them have the E and C# notes. So we can try a substitution. It would be really relevant to substitute
A7 to C#m7 in the seventh bar line, because the next chord of the sequence is F#7 (which is acting
like V7 of B). This way, C#m7 would serve as second degree of the progression II – V – I made by
C#m7 – F#7 – B. So we will make this substitution of C#m7 in the place of A7 in the seventh bar
line and make the same thing in the eleventh bar line:

I IV I IIm7 V7

| A7 | D7 | A7 | Em7 A7 |

IV IV I I

| D7 | D#º | C#m7 | F#7 |

V IV I V

| B7 | E7 | C#m7 F#7 | B7 E7 |

To ―soften‖ a little bit this harmony, we can make B7 of the ninth bar line become a Bm7, because
then we would have a progression II – V (Bm7 – E7). Besides that, it is worth to highlight that the
passage from F#7 to Bm7 would give space to a harmonic minor scale in the improvisation. We
could repeat this idea in the last bar line, due the fact that the progression is the same. We would
have:

I IV I IIm7 V7
| A7 | D7 | A7 | Em7 A7 |

IV IV I I
| D7 | D#° | C#m7 | F#7 |

V IV I V
| Bm7 | E7 | C#m7 F#7 | Bm7 E7 |

Since we are making this harmony really tonal, we could do even better, changing the chords C#m7
in C#m7(b5) chords, because this extension is typical of cadences II – V – I that are solved in minor
chords (remember that our resolution is being made in Bm7). Besides that, other really common
extension in these progressions that are solved in minor chords is the flatted ninth in the dominant
chord. This way, we increment the cadences II – V – I that before were C#m7 – F#7 – Bm7 making:
C#m7(b5) – F#7(b9) – Bm7.

I IV I IIm7 V7
| A7 | D7 | A7 | Em7 A7 |

IV IV I I
| D7 | D#° | C#m7 (b5) | F#7 (b9) |

V IV I V
| Bm7 | E7 | C#m7(b5) F#7(b9) | Bm7 E7 |

Harmonizing Blues with Closely Related Tones

and Borrowed Chords
Let‘s use now the concept of closely related keys. As the first degree of this Blues is A major,
the parallel key is A minor. The fourth degree of A minor tonality is D minor. We already studied
this subject and commented that the fourth minor degree (IVm6) is really used in many different
songs and styles! So let‘s reorganize this harmony taking out D7#° from sixth bar line and put it in
the fifth, with D7, opening space in the sixth bar line to appear Dm6 (remember that this space was to
have D7 originally). Then, we added a borrowed chord in the ―game‖! It is being borrowed from the
parallel key. This progression D#° – Dm6 – C#m7(b5) was interesting, because the bass
walked chromatically from D# to C#.
 I IV I IIm7 V7
| A7 | D7 | A7 | Em7 A7 |

IV IV I I
| D7 D#° | Dm6 | C#m7 (b5) | F#7 (b9) |

V IV I V
| Bm7 | E7 | C#m7(b5) F#7(b9) | Bm7 E7 |

Wow, a lot of modifications! Are you tired?! I hope not, because we are going to play another
―game‖: add subV7 in this dance!

Harmonizing Blues with SubV7 Chords

We can use and ―abuse‖ subV7, because he have lots of dominants V7 in this harmony. So, let‘s go.
We will show some ideas and the explanation below:

I IV I IIm7 V7
| A7 | D7 | A7 | Em7 Eb79(b5) |

IV IV I I
| D7 D#° | Dm6 | C#m7 (b5) G7b5 | F#7 (b9) C79(b5) |

V IV I V
| Bm7 F7b5 | E7 | C#m7(b5) F#7(b9) | Bm7 E7 |

 In the fourth bar line, we changed A7 to its subV7 which is Eb7. We used some common extensions
to this subV7, which are the 9th and the flatted 5th. The chord was then Eb79(b5).
 In the seventh bar line, we used the subV7 of C#7 (G7b5) to precede F#7.
 Right after this, we used the subV7 of F#7 (C79b5) to precede Bm7.
 In our ninth bar line, we added the subV7 of B7 (F7b5) to precede E7.
Gosh!! This is becoming a huge mess!

Blues Harmony with Complex Chords

What about having a glimpse of ninths, fourths and thirteenths in some chords that still ―square‖, to
make it more ―spherical‖ and beauty?! Feel free to season at your taste! We already taught how to do
this in other topics. Our final work of art has finished and was like that:

I IV I IIm7 V7

| A7(9) | D7 (13) | A7 (9) | Em7 Eb79(b5) |

IV IV I I
| D7 D#° | Dm6 | C#m7 (b5) G7b5 | F#7 (b9) C79(b5) |

V IV I V
| Bm7 F7b5 | E7 (11) | C#m7(b5) F#7(b9) | Bm7 E7 |

Awesome! We took a lot of juice from this fruit! Imagine all the possibilities and combinations that
we can create!

My friend, it was like that that Blues gave birth to many styles! Here we did a reharmonization in a
primitive way of Blues and changed this structure to Jazz. So for that harmony sound like Jazz, it is
just to add the swing. We will talk specifically about Jazz in other articles, so you will be able to kill
this lion! For now, we already gave you many tools for you to ―destroy‖ in harmonies
and improvisation.

1.700 words later …

Imagine how many resources we can use in this harmony when doing a solo! Merge all this
knowledge with techniques, clarity, feeling and you will be an exceptional musician. We will keep
updating the website, bringing more examples, ideas, analysis, comments, studies and for that we
need your help, sharing Simplifying Theory and collaborating to our growth.

Let‘s go!

Go to: Rhythm – Theory

Back to: Module 12

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What is Rhythm theory?

In this topic we will learn the theory that exists behind the musical rhythm. Besides rhythm being an
element of great importance to any musician, the majority misses this study, because they think that
rhythm is innate of human being: ―those who are born with rhythm in veins don‘t need to practice
this, only those who face difficulties in this item‖. Well, you have to know that this is completely
misguided!

Any musician needs to study and practice rhythm, the same way that they need to practice any other
technique, because the rhythm can be refined and developed.

The first tip for those who want to develop this field of rhythm is always playing with a metronome
aside. Those who use a metronome while training technique are like having a military general aside
saying: ―do not quite the rhythm!‖. This makes the musician develop not only precision, but also
accentuation, an important factor to any instrumentalist.

Nice, but before reading the following in this topic, we recommend that you read the article ―sheet
music‖, because we will use here some resources from it to represent the rhythms, specially the part
that mentions bar lines.

Very well, we already learned in the article about sheet music what represents the 4/4 time: it fits 4
quarter notes in a bar line. Just to remember, see below how many figures fit in a bar line in the
representations:

4/4 = it fits 4 quarter notes

4/2 = it fits 4 half notes

4/8 = it fits 4 eighths

2/4 = it fits 2 quarter notes

3/1 = it fits 3 whole notes

5/32 = it fits 5 sixty fourths

7/2 = it fits 7 half notes

As we commented before, 4/4 time is the most common in music. In this time, you can count, in the
rhythm of a song, from 1 to 4, starting over again the count, without having mismatch with the
melody.

See the example of the song Rolling in the Deep:

Starting in 00:23 of this song, when the bass drum enters marking the time: ―boom‖, ―boom, ―boom‖,
―boom‖, you will count from 1 to 4 and start again, following the ―boom‖ of the bass drum in this
way:

Notice that there is a perfect match in this count with the melody; this means that this song is in the
4/4 time.

As the 4/4 time is the most used, the majority of the musicians feels uncomfortable when facing
songs that are ―broken‖ (that are not in 4/4 time).

For example, pay attention in the introduction of the song Dreaming Awake, from the Swedish band
of Progressive Metal Harmony:

Once the song starts, we will start the count as we did in the previous song. This time the snare drum
is the one that will help us to mark the time. Count (1, 2, 3, 4) in a way that the first beat in the snare
drum be in the number 3, in other words, when the song starts, you start to count in a speed that the
number 3 be in the first beat of the snare drum. This will be our speed of counting in this song. Count
up to four and restart counting, the same way you did in the previous song.

Did you notice that the song doesn‘t fit well in this count? The guitar is doing a repetitive riff, but
this riff doesn‘t fit well with our count, because when we arrive in number 4 and restart the count, the
song is in a different point, ―untidy‖. This is happening because the introduction of this song is not in
4/4 time, but in 7/4.
But how can we find out that it is in 7/4 time? Well, repeat this same count that you were doing, in
the same speed, but instead of counting just up to 4, count up to 7 and then restart. Did you see as it
fits now? The guitar riff follows the count up to seven to the restart.

Observation: Our analysis of this song was focused just in the first part of the introduction, because
actually, the whole introduction starts with 3 compounds in 7/4 time and then a compound in 8/4
time. This last one can also be seen as two 4/4 consecutives. In the same way, the firsts compounds
we saw (7/4) can be seen as a sum of a 3/4 to a 4/4. We preferred to deal with this compounds as 7/4
and 8/4 to make a reference to our count and to be easier to follow.

And when the vocalist starts to sing, the time of the song goes to 4/4. Notice as this song doesn‘t
keep the same time, but switches between 7/4 and 4/4. This situation is not common in popular
songs. This is why is interesting to take songs with complex timing to practice and loose the
addiction of just being comfortable with songs in 4/4.

Let‘s see one more example now in 3/4 time, the song ―Ele é exaltado‖:

Check the counting below, in the rhythm that follows the lyrics:

Very well, now that we learned how to identify this odd times, try to observe, as exercise, that the
song Take Five, played by the quartet of Jazz Dave Brubeck, is in 5/4 time:

Other band which is worth to mention about this, in a way of having many songs with ―broken time‖
is the Canadian band Rush, which was an influence to many of Rock/Metal segment by adding
complex times in its compositions (as for example, the virtuous American band Dream Theater).

We will give continuation to this study in the topic ―Setback‖.

Go to: Rhythm exercises

Back to: Module 12

……………………………………………………………………………………………….
ery well, it is time to give you some interesting rhythm exercises for you to develop your rhythmic
independence.

Starting with our logic of counting (1, 2, 3, 4) to find the time of a song, rhythmic independence is
knowing how to play in the time 1, in the time 2, in the time 3, etc.

This independence gives us freedom to work in any point of rhythmic marking, and not depending
only on strong times, for example. The exercises we will see have this goal.

In these exercises, for guitar, the hand with the guitar pick will mark the time with quavers, while the
left hand will muffle the strings, except when is indicated to play the chord. In other words, you
make the chord sounds just when is indicated, muffling the strings with the left hand the rest of the
time. If you are training in other instrument, you need to know that ―muffling the notes‖ is like a
pause, making the chord sounds only when is indicated.

The chord which will be used in the exercises is Dm7, but you can use any other chord you choose,
or even just a note.

If you don‘t know how to read sheet music, read this article.

Rhythmic exercise model

The time used will be 4/4 and all the symbols are quavers:

In this first exercise, you should play only the first quaver of the bar.

Observation: The counting time can be done in the following way:

Follow in Guitar Pro: Exercise1.gpro

Exercise 2: In this next exercise, you should play only the second quaver of the first time:

File: Exercise2.gpro

Exercise 3: Now, play the first quaver of the second time:

File: Exercise3.gpro

Exercise 4: Play only the second quaver of the second time:

File: Exercise4.gpro

Exercise 5: Play only the first quaver of the third time:

File: Exercise5.gpro

Exercise 6: Play only the second quaver of the third time:

File: Exercise6.gpro

Exercise 7: Play only the first quaver of the fourth time:

File: Exercise7.gpro

Exercise 8: Play only the second quaver of the fourth time:

File: Exercise8.gpro

Now let‘s make some combinations:

Exercise 9:

File: Exercise9.gpro

Exercise 10:
Exercise1o.gpro

Bonus exercise: In this exercise we will work the rhythm with the harmony made by Bb7M, A7(#5)
and Dm7. Notice how this concepts are useful to make creative bases. We will not put the image here
because it is really big.

File: Exercise11.gpro

You can practice these exercises with many different times in the metronome, starting slowly and
increasing bit by bit. You can also create your own exercises. You can also work with other symbols,
like semiquaver, for example, increasing the difficult and creating more subdivision options.

Go to: Mathematics and music

Back to: Module 12

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Is there a relation between Mathematics and

Music?
We decided to create this topic to show Mathematics is related to Music, because many people ignore
the fact the there is Mathematics in music. Maybe you don‘t like Math, but don‘t worry; we will try
to explain each concept in a simple way, just for you to know that our sensitivity to sound is
connected to the logic in our brains. This is really interesting, so let your prejudices aside. All the
knowledge is nice when well taught.

Before going to the subject of Mathematics in music, let‘s remember some basic concepts.
Physics in music
Ok, in the first topics here in the website, we commented that sound is a wave, and that the frequency
of the sound is what defines the music note. But what is frequency? It is a repetition. Imagine, for
example, a bicycle wheel spinning. If this wheel completes a turn in 1 second, we say that the
frequency of this wheel is ―one turn per second‖, or ―one Hertz‖. Hertz is just a name to represent a
frequency unit, and normally is abbreviated by ―Hz‖. If this wheel of our example completes 10 turns
per second, its frequency would be 10 Hertz (10 Hz).

Nice, but where is the connection with sound? Well, sound is a wave, and this wave oscillates with a
certain frequency. If a sound wave completes one oscillation in one second, its frequency will be 1
Hz. If it completes 10 oscillations in one second, its frequency will be 10 Hz. For each frequency, we
will have a different sound (a different note). A note, for example, corresponds to a frequency of 440
Hz.

Mathematics in music
And where Mathematics enters in music? It was observed that when a frequency is multiplied by 2,
the note still the same. For example, the A (440 Hz) multiplied by 2 = 880 Hz is also an A, but just
one octaveabove. If the goal was to lower one octave, it would be enough just dividing by 2. We can
conclude then, that a note and its respective note have a relation of ½.

Very well, before going on, let‘s return to the past, to the Ancient Greece. In that time, there was a
man called Pythagoras that made really important discoveries to Mathematics (and music). This that
we showed about octaves, he discovered ―playing‖ with a stretched string. Imagine a stretched string
tied in its extremities. When we touch this string, it vibrates (look the drawing below):

Pythagoras decided to divide this string in two parts and touched each extremity again. The sound
that was produced was the same, but more acute (because it was the same note one octave above):
Pythagoras didn‘t stop there. He decided to experience how it would be the sound if the string was
divided in 3 parts:

He noticed that a new sound appeared; different from the previous one. This time, it wasn‘t the same
note one octave above, but a different note, that was supposed to receive another name. This sound,
besides being different, worked well with the previous one, creating a pleasant harmony to the ear,
because these divisions showed till here have Mathematics relations 1/2 and 2/3 (our brain likes well
defined logic relations).

Thus, he continued doing subdivisions and combining the sounds mathematically creating scales that,
later, stimulated the creation of musical instruments that could play this scales. The tritone interval,
for example, was obtained in a relation 32/45, a complex and inaccurate relation, factor that makes
our brain to consider this sound unstable and tense. In the course of time, the notes were receiving
the names we know today.

Mathematics and music scales

Many peoples and cultures created their own music scales. One example is the Chinese people,
which began with the idea of Pythagoras (using strings).

They played C in a stretched string and then divided this string in 3 parts, like we showed before. The
result of this division was the note G. Noticing that these notes had a harmony; they repeated the
procedure starting in G, dividing again this string in 3 parts, resulting the note D. This note had a
pleasant harmony with G and also with C. This procedure was then repeated starting in D, resulting
in A. After that, starting in A, they got E.

When they repeated this procedure of dividing the string in three parts once again, resulting in B,
there was a problem, because B didn‘t fit well when played with C (the first note of the experiment).
Actually, these notes were really close one another, what caused a ―sound discomfort‖.

Because of this, the Chinese finished their divisions getting the notes C, G, D, A and E, taking B
aside. These notes served as base to Chinese Music, making a scale with 5 notes (Pentatonic). This
Pentatonic Scale, for being pleasant and consonant, represented very well the Oriental Culture, which
was always connected to harmony and stability.

Since its creation until today, the Pentatonic Scale represents a good option to melodies, as we
already said in the topic ―Pentatonic Scale‖. But let‘s return to the subject of notes and frequencies,
because we just showed 5 notes of the scale.

The Mathematics of 12 notes

The western music, which works with 12 notes, did not discard the note B as the Oriental Culture
did. The western people observed that the notes C and B were close one from another and decided to
create a more comprehensive scale. In this scale, all the notes should have the same distance one
from another. And this distance should be the interval that had between C and B (one semitone). In
other words, between C and D, for example, should exist an intermediate note, because the distance
between C and D (one tone) was bigger than the distance of C and B (one semitone). Through an
analysis of frequency, it was discovered that multiplying the frequency on the note B by the number
1.0595 we would arrive in the frequency of C. Check it:

Frequency of B: 246.9 Hz

Frequency of C: 261.6 Hz

Multiplying the frequency of B by 1.0595 we will have:

246.9 x 1.0595 = 261.6 Hz (the note C).

As the goal is to keep the same relation (distance) to the other notes, we will use this procedure to
discover which note will come after C. Multiplying the frequency of C by 1.0595:

261.6 x 1.0595 = 277.2 Hz (the note C sharp)

Repeating this procedure to see what comes after C sharp:

277.2 x 1.0595 = 293.6 Hz (the note D)

Notice that following this logic, we can create all the chromatic scale! In other words, after
multiplying the frequency of C by the number ―1.0595‖ twelve times, we will return to C. This is
possible because ―1.0595‖ corresponds to the result of the square root 12√2. Notice that 12√2
multiplied 12 times by itself is (12√2)12 = 2. And we already saw that a note multiplied by 2 is itself
one octave above.

Now we can clearly see that these numbers didn‘t come by chance. The goal since the beginning was
dividing a scale in 12 identical parts, in a way that the last note return to be the first.

It was like this that Equal Temperate Scale appeared, also called as Chromatic.

Logarithm in Music
We will not go in many details, but those who know a little bit about Math have noticed that we
worked here with the logarithm of base 2. Because of this, the makers of piano put the form of a
logarithm graphic in the piano body, to make a reference to this Musical Mathematics Discovery.
Check it:

Example of a Logarithm graphic:

Piano body:
There are many other Mathematical explanations to many questions about music, but to show them
here it would be necessary to talk about advanced topic in Mathematics, like Fourier series, Riemann
Zeta Function, etc. Like few people have this base in Mathematics, we will not go deeper.

Our goal here was to show how music works mathematically and how the logical relations are
understood in our brain, creating tranquility or tension. Obviously, we did everything using
approximation (round numbers), because an analysis more accurate would be boring to the majority
of the readers.

It is not necessary to memorize all that we taught in this topic; just think that music didn‘t come from
nowhere. Music is the result of a numeric organization. The interpretation of all these things is done
by our wonderful and mysterious brain.

The final conclusion is that, if you are a musician, so you are (in a way or another) mathematician,
because the feelings of pleasure that you feel while listening to music hide subliminal calculations.
Your brain likes calculations, it is a calculating machine! The more you practice, study and know
music, the more this faculty will be developed. Probably you will begin to feel pleasure while
listening to songs that before didn‘t bring great feelings to you.

We can compare this with a student of Physics in the first semester. If he reads a book of modern
Physics, it will looks like Greek to him. It will not give him any pleasure. But some years later when
he will have a good base of Mathematics and face this book again, maybe he can love the subject and
could wish spend the rest of his life in this.

Go to : Module 12

Back to: Simplifying Theory

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