Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on February 28, 2014 at 8:21am

I yam tinkink...I can see what a stacked minor third looks like...but one should have fun wit Musick, 2

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on February 28, 2014 at 10:38am

Ah you're reading ahead in the curriculum my friend, we're talking about a minor third stacked on a major one (4+3) or a major one stacked on a minor one (3+4). (What are these numbers in parenthesis? For the sake of brevity let's call them 'frets' )

(3+3) or indeed (3+3+3) are a different beast, known as a 'tritone' (isn't he the villain in avengers2 ??) aka in this case as mr diminished chord

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on February 28, 2014 at 4:54pm

Hehehehe...gotcher goin...seriously, though, Jeff, do you offer proper theory lessons online? Would that be something you'd want to do here, or is it too close to the day job?

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on February 28, 2014 at 7:18pm

i was thinking of making a group for it, but the link is gone, maybe we're all grouped out ?

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on March 1, 2014 at 1:08am

There's a group for that...

Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on March 1, 2014 at 2:42am

There is a group for people who don't like groups and a group for people who think there are too many groups.

However, I always enjoy tuning in for PK's unique, interesting and colourful insights. And I'm not just bring cheeky.

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on March 1, 2014 at 10:55am

yes there are 146 groups, but amazingly there does not appear to be one for discussing the intricacies of harmony....

perhaps it is not as relevant...

Permalink Reply by turtlehead on March 2, 2014 at 4:52pm

Gave it a few days and can't grasp the stacked minor thing, especially the part about raising the other third.  I'm a "just lower the third" kind of guy. I wish I would've studied more when I was a lad, but I always like to hear you talk about theory PK. 

I'd subscribe to your blog

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on March 4, 2014 at 3:26pm

Ok we'll say you have an open E major tuning and you want to play minor,
There's two relatively easy ways to go about it without retuning...

The first is to shift the key in your mind to the relative minor of E (3 frets below) in this case C#m ...
So your tuning is a combination of E B and G#, all you gotta do is raise one of the B strings two frets and there you go.. (If there was more than one B string and you leave it open it's a funky but relatively innocuous dominant7. The dom7 works in all minor modes crept some weird jazzy ones ie it's sure safe anyway )

Ok so that's one nice elegant way to do it, all the open strings work it's all good just call it C# rather than E, go fetch a capo and put up 3 to negate that...


Hmmm ok that capo bit was a clue to the second way....
If you're in an open E major (again, a combination of E B & G# strings) and you wanna play in E minor...

Well there's one thing to be aware and wary of, one of your open strings does not belong anywhere near this scale except as a passing tone.. Don't play that G# string open at all, you'll regret it....
The upside to, as revealed a second ago is that every note at fret three is part of your chord. You can just indiscriminately barre across that sucker and it's all good.. Let the low E ring open below, let the high one chime open above, it works great..
So anchor a finger on thee third fret on the G# string. Let it span another string or two if it wants to, or not, mix it up.. But get that G# string (or F# string in D tuning or B string in G tuning etc etc) covered at the third fret and bobs your daddy's brother

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