Triad superimposing and inversions

November 7, 2005 at 11:27 PM

A few improv ideas for you...

I have a new friend - my tape recorder. Lately Ive been recording chords onto tape with the guitar and playing over them on violin.

The most basic melodic and fundamental device for me is the triad. Triads are easy to form, just take the root 3rd and 5th and there you go. Here is all the triads for a min

scale
a b c d e f g a

triads
a c e
b d f
c e g
d f a
e g b
f a c
g b d

One thing I like doing is playing chords on top of chords, for example when playing over a minor chord, Ill play a major arpeggio up a minor third and similarly with major chords, ill play a minor chord up a major 3rd. You can do the same thing with other chord tones, just build a arpeggio off the 5th 7th 9th 11th 13th... what ever you want.

Ive also been building polytonal arpeggios as well for example d minor in one octave then B major in the second octave.

Keep in mind when youre playing over a chord, you can always take another note of that cord and stack the other notes on top

...for example a min is
a b c d e f g a

a minor 7 chord is
a c e g

you can invert this chord as
c e g a
e g a c
g a c e

More creative ideas...

you dont have to harmonize the scale in 3rds you can try 4ths or even some other pattern
a b c d e f g a

4ths would be
a d g b

Ok there you go - next time Ill probably discuss chord scales - try them out and let me know how it goes!

cheers
scott (muggle violinist)
visit my webpage

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Triad superimposing and inversions

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