You have entered the realm of harmonic complexity here. If you are not well versed in your chords, turn back now or skip it for the time being. Scales will also play an important part in this chapter so you may want to jump ahead to chapters 8, 11, 14 and 15 before returning here. This chapter may take a while to get through so be patient.
Increasing your Chord Vocabulary
Now that you have the tools to make countless voicings of any individual chord by manipulating the intervals of the desired chord in the order that pleases your ear, we can take the process a step further by harmonizing the chord through the scale of its origin. For examples sake, let’s say you like the sound of the following Aadd9(#11) chord:
Voicing: 1,#11,5,9
We will use the voicing as the base for six new voicings, all you will need to do is simply move every chord tone in the chord voicing up by one scale step. Because the first chord contains both a raised 11th and natural 5th, the only scale you can technically use is the lydian scale. More so than the major scale, the lydian mode is a more “balanced” scale for creating major family chords as the #11th and 3rd get along fine together and can show up in the same chord without any complications. Use the following A lydian scale for your reference:
Now let’s harmonize the next chord from the scale. The B note (the 9th of the chord) on the first string will move up to a C note while the E note on the second string (the 5th) will move up to an F# note. The D# note on the third string (the #11th) will move up to a E note and the A note on the fourth string (the root) moves up to a B. The reason I picked an A chord is because we can leave the fifth string throughout for the whole process. This way you can hear what all the separate upper chord voicings sound like over the root, the A note:
The next step is to move every chord tone in our new chord up a scale step to form our new chord. The C# note on the first string moves up to a D# note. The F# note on the second string moves up to a G# note. Next, the E note on the third string moves up to an F# note. Finally, the B note on the fourth string moves up to a C# note. Our root on the fifth string stays the same throughout the process:
If we continue the process through the whole diatonic lydian scale, we will get a set of seven lydian family chords:
Things to try:
1. Change the root to make other modal family chords in the same key. By changing the root in the previous exercise from A to F#, you will get seven F# dorian family voicings. G# = G# phrygian, C# = C# aolian, B = B mixolydian, etc..
2. Arrange the intervals of the first chord to accommodate a different mode based on the same root. Ex: change the first chord voicing from the current (1-1-#11-5-9) to (1-1-11-5-9) and harmonize the next six chords using the A dorian mode (G major scale). Change the first voicing to (1-1-11-5-b9) and harmonize the next six chords using the A phrygian mode (F major scale), etc..
If we do the same thing using the half/whole diminished scale we get interesting results. The symmetrical structure of the scale will only yield two different repeating shapes. First, the chord we will use:
Voicing: 1,b7,3,13,b9
The half/whole diminished scale that we will now use to create a new set of chords (keep in mind; where as the major scale is a seven note scale, the half/whole diminished scale is an eight note scale yielding eight chords rather than seven):
Putting this Concept to use
I’ve incorporated what we have been working on in the following example. There are a lot of chords to play so this technique works best in slow or medium tempo applications:
More Voicings to try
The following chords blossom into spectacular voicings. See if you can harmonize six more voicings from the following chord using the A dorian mode.
Voicing: 1,9,b3,b7,11
The A dorian mode to use for harmonizing the next six chords:
Write your six new voicings in the blank diagrams using a pencil (in case you make a mistake):
Harmonize six more voicings from the following chord using from the A dorian (G major scale) mode:
Voicing: 1,b7,b3,11,9
The A dorian mode to use for harmonizing the next six chords:
Write your new voicings in the blank diagrams using a pencil (in case you make a mistake):
Harmonize six more voicings from the following chord using from the A lydian mode (E major scale):
Voicing: 1,7,9,3,13
The A lydian mode to use for harmonizing the next six chords:
Write your new voicings in the blank diagrams using a pencil (in case you make a mistake):
Harmonize six new voicings from the same chord, this time using from the A lydian augmented mode (F# melodic minor scale). The A lydian augmented mode to use for harmonizing the next six chords:
Write your new voicings in the blank diagrams using a pencil (in case you make a mistake):
Use this technique to harmonize new chords from voicings that you like the sound of. Not only will you increase your chord vocabulary but it will also force you to use your head a bit.