8/25/05

Jof Lee's Polychord overview

(click on the above graphic to enlarge)













Jof Lee, one of Portland's top pianists, sent me this overview of polychords. I was never sure of how to find scales for polychords. This overview is highly illuminating. Thanks Jof!

Just to clarify exactly which modes of Melodic and Harmonic minor:

~For a polychord with the upper chord a minor second below the lower triad:
F# triad over G triad
*you would play a melodic minor from the third of the bottom triad (B melodic minor)


~If the upper triad is a minor second above the lower triad:
Ab triad over G triad
*play a harmonic minor from the 3rd of the upper triad (C harmonic minor)

~If the upper triad is a Major 2nd above the lower triad:
E
triad over D triad
*Play a Harmonic Minor scale from the fifth of the lower-triad (A Harmonic Minor)

1 comment:

Hucbald said...

That's fantastic, David. I downloaded that page. Hope you don't mind.

It's been a long time since I was at Berklee (BM Professional Music '83), but didn't we call "slash chords" hybrid structures? That's what I've always called them, anyway. Guitar is not a great instrument to get true polychords on due to range and fingering considerations, but this post has given me some ideas for arpeggiating them. Thanks.

You are one of my new favorite music bloggers, BTW. I'll add you to my Blog List over at my place.

I couldn't help but laugh of your description of your young self as a musical revolutionalry in the post above this one. Weren't we ALL going to shake up the world when we were young? ;^)

I find that reading really weird and esoteric theory books gives me fresh ideas. Schillinger is probably the best resource I've found for breaking the molds. Lot of weird stuff in there. Did you know Berklee was originally called Schillinger House? I did my Master's degree lecture-recital on Schillinger techniques applied to composing for solo guitar.

Oh, and how did you get the word verification anti-spam function in your comments section? I've been spamed a couple of times, and it's really irritating.

Cheers.