Remember to always be aware of the anchor interval under your fingers at all times.
Vertical movement is movement which goes towards the bridge of the guitar, moving in this direction by n frets increases your current anchor interval by n.
Horizontal movement is more complicated, but can be understood since each time you move horizontally it's adding or subtracting 5, by doing this we generated the horizontal movement overlay:
| 6 | -1 | 4 |
-3 | 2 | -5 | 0 | 5 | -2 | 3 | -4 | 1 | -6 |
And another representation of that same thing:
| distance from horizontal anchor point | <- (direction) | -> (direction) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | -5 | 5 |
| 2 | +2 |
-2 |
| 3 | -3 | 3 |
| 4 | +4 | -4 |
| 5 | -1 | +1 |
The harmonic backdrop is an attribute of a song or any series of notes played over time. It represents the notes which have been played while weighting them based on how many times they have been played. In general songs that are played in a key will have the ais defined by that scale being the harmonic backdrop, so for a minor song then we would have 0 2 3 5 7 8 10 as our harmonic backdrop.
This is the first type of improvisation you can do, by choosing a backing track which is modal, it means that the harmonic backdrop doesn't change too much and therefore you can play the ais defined by that backdrop and it will match the backdrop.
On the fretboard you will keep track of the current ai that you are playing and learn how your vertical and horizontal movement will affect the ai you're playing.
Modes of a scale are produced by rotating or changing the root note while leaving the intervals between the notes the same, the main modes we think about are the ones derived from the major scale, and they are:
| Mode Name | ai's involved | ai's ordered |
|---|---|---|
| Ionian | 0 2 4 5 7 9 11 | 0 2 4 5 7 9 11 |
| Dorian | 10 0 2 3 5 7 9 | 0 2 3 5 7 9 10 |
| Phrygian |
8 10 0 1 3 5 7 | 0 1 3 5 7 8 10 |
| Lydian | 7 9 11 0 2 4 6 | 0 2 4 6 7 9 11 |
| Mixolydian | 5 7 9 10 0 2 4 |
0 2 4 5 7 9 10 |
| Aeolian | 3 5 7 8 10 0 2 | 0 2 3 5 7 8 10 |
| Locrian | 1 3 5 6 8 10 0 | 0 1 3 5 6 8 10 |
Chords are collections of notes played simultaneously (polyphony), the way we think about them is by setting an anchor note and then considering these notes as anchor intervals, so with an anchor note of 2* and the chord 2* 6* 9*, we think about this chord as the collection of ais 0 4 7.
There are two main properties of a chord, it's quality and the ai's invovled with the chord, two chords with the same quality but differeing ais will sound similar but not the exact same, two chords with the same ais but different quality will sound similar but not the same, understanding these differences will come with time.
When given an ai collection, diatonic chords are ones that are formed only using ais defined by that collection. When we work with the main scales it turns out that by choosing two notes that have one in between the distance between them is 3 or 4, this is because the underlying scales are formed by taking notes and adding 2 or 1 between consecutive notes in a specific order.
The diatonic chords of a major scale are:
| Starting ai | ai's in chord |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0 4 7 11 |
| 2 | 2 5 9 0 |
| 4 |
4 7 11 2 |
| 5 | 5 9 0 4 |
| 7 | 7 11 2 5 |
| 9 | 9 0 4 7 |
| 11 | 11 2 5 9 |
In the standard system chords are referenced by giving the root of the chord, and then a quality, the quality is really a relative interval collection which is to be stacked onto the the root to produce other notes.
When working with chords you usually can leave out certain relative intervals that are defined by it's quality, for example in most chords we have the relative interval of 7, that may be omitted since it doesn't add too much complexity to the chord.
In music roman numerals are used to index the diatonic chords associated with a scale. The way the chords are indexed is based on the root of the chord.
The diatonic triads of a major scale are:
| Numeral | Root | Anchor Inteval Collection | Relative Interval Collection |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | 0 | 0 4 7 11 | 0 4 7 11 (Major 7th) |
| ii | 2 | 2 5 9 0 | 0 3 7 10 (Minor 7th) |
| iii |
4 | 4 7 11 2 | 0 3 7 10 (Minor 7th) |
| VI | 5 |
5 9 0 4 | 0 4 7 11 (Major 7th) |
| V |
7 | 7 11 2 5 | 0 4 7 10 (Dominant 7th) |
| iv | 9 | 9 0 4 7 | 0 3 7 10 (Minor 7th) |
| iiv | 11 | 11 2 5 9 | 0 3 6 10 (Half Diminished 7th) |
The relative minor of a major starts on 9, so therefore to figure out the chord and qualities associated with the minor you just have to pretend like iv is i and go from there.
In order to read chord symbols quickly, you'll need a method which takes a chord and turns it into a set of ai's, it's important because right now music notation is not written in anchor interval notation and thus if we want to use our system we will have to convert it.
You'll need to be able to take a quality and turn it into a relative interval collection, so here is a list of all the main chord qualities and their associated relative interval collections:
| Chord Symbol | Steps above X |
|---|---|
| X | 0 4 7 |
| X+ | 0 4 8 |
| Xo | 0 3 6 |
| X- | 0 3 7 |
| X^7 | 0 4 7 11 |
| X-7 | 0 3 7 10 |
| X-7b5 | 0 3 6 10 |
| Xo7 | 0 3 6 9 |
| X6 | 0 4 7 9 |
| X7 | 0 4 7 10 |
| X9 | 0 4 7 10 2 |
| X11 | 0 4 7 10 2 5 |
| X13 | 0 4 7 10 2 5 9 |
| X(...)sus2 | ... 2 (replacing 3) |
| X(...)sus | ... 5 (replacing 4 or 3) |
| X(...)b5 | ... 6 |
| X(...)#5 | ... 8 |
| X(...)9 | ... 2 |
| X(...)b9 | ... 1 |
| X(..)11 | ... 5 |
| X(..)#11 | ... 6 |
| X(...)b13 | ... 8 |
| X(...)alt | ... 1 8 6 |
Now that we have this reference let's go into to building them quickly, the process is: