Concepts of Music Theory, by Randy Hetlage

All students will gain a complete and thorough understanding of the instrument beginning with but not limited to,- chord and major and minor scale construction, inversions and modes, the blues and its variations, diatonic harmony, ii-v progressions, secondary and extended dominants and their related ii-’s ,   exposition of the harmonic and melodic minor scales and their harmonies, chord substitution and the Joe Diorio plural concept, the Pat Martino diminished and minor convergence concept, and the George Russell Lydian chromatic concept.  Rock, R+B, Funk, Jazz, Latin, and Pop jam along disks are also used for developing feel and melodic flow.

This is the first real guitar lesson ---guard this stuff , it is only for people that are ready—

First ,a thing called plurals, A7,C#-7flat 5,E-69,and GMAJ7flat5 ( GMAJ7#11)--are all plural. They can be looked at as coming from D Major, but should be looked at a little more closely. A7 (especially sus4) takes Mixolydian Of course. C#-7flat5, Locrian, but the ii-7b5 of B harmonic works much better. The E-69 is definitely Dorian (same relation as the ii v in D ) a blues scale can also work on it as well as the A7 on its root. The fourth mode of B harmonic = E Dorian #4, that works real well. The G maj7b5 (or #11) wants Lydian, however the third mode of Eb melodic minor is Lydian augmented, it will stretch you're ear a bit.  So you see A7 to C#-7b5 = A9, C#-13#11 , E-69 is A13 with no root ,GMAJ7b5=A9 13, again no root...all of these chords are interchangeable  (hents, PLURAL, kitten, cat mountain lion , saber toothed tiger.) if you need something from the "feline" "family", any one will work in a pinch, just know that you don’t treat a mountain lion the same way that you would a kitty - its a matter of taste developed through experience.

Now then, we move to the minor thirds family of dominants...A7, C7, Eb7, Gb7.  If you analyze them in relation to one another you will find this ,,,C7 to A7=A7b9#9, Eb7 to A7 = A7b9#11 (or A7b5b9,,tri-tone substitution of A7b5/Eb7b5b9) then Gb7 to A7=A13b9 (the Gb7 should in this case, also maintain a b9 as well (the natural 9 on Gb would create a major 7 on the parental A7, not good-) so now you can see the "family" as it is (sort of, mother, son, sister, cousin – respectively ).   

And now the good stuff with this minor third business- and here is where you're diminished stuff comes home.  All diminished seventh chords invert in minor thirds, but if you will remember, any time you lower any one note in a diminished chord by a half step it becomes the root of a dominant seventh chord-hence, Edim can become Eb7, Gb7, C7 and A7...(back home again).  All of these diminished chords can sub for dominant seventh flat 9 chords by playing them up a 1/2 step...(E-6b5).

Now back to the top of the page, all minor seventh chords lasting more than 2 bars will automatically want to sound Dorian, unless its four chord is also minor, or unless you inflict you're personal taste upon it.  The same relationship that happens with the relative major to minor (Ionian to Aeolian) also happens between Lydian and Dorian----the natural 4 of the major scale is considered a "void" tone, it doesn’t really sound "good”, that note also is the b6 in the relative minor side of the coin, and it isn’t one that you would want to hang on either, so this relationship that all the classical instructors you've ever learned from is NOT necessarily the best approach in the genre of Rock, Blues, R&B and Jazz....ALL non-diatonic major sevenths take Lydian or Lydian augmented.

All non-diatonic dominant seventh chords that have natural extensions will take Lydian b7 (the fourth mode of melodic minor). Now the really good stuff-----any chord may be "preceded" with its related V7 chord, you don’t have to play the chord but the melodic material that it yields will slam the ear into the oncoming harmony-------i.e. you are jamming on A-7 ,so blow E7 alt. stuff ,usually from F melodic, to lead back to A-7….now you are playing over non-existent harmony--- and ALL V7 chords can be "preceded" by their related ii-7------B-7b5 (A HARM) E7 alt.(F MEL.) A-7 (A DORIAN) ---- SOOOOO----- HOW'S THAT FOR A MOUTH FULL - Spoon fed by a steam shovel!

O.K..- here’s phase two, a real life application

Now if you remember the plurals of A7(A7,C#-7b5,E-69 and Gmaj7b5 or #11,#11 implies that the natural 5 may still be there, b5 implies that the #5 may be present, as all being one general topic, this next approach will put it all into play - in the idiom of R+B , there is in most cases, a quick shuffle back and fourth, between the I7 and the IV7, so in the case of an A blues or funk, we I, IV, them to death. 

So let’s look at the plurals of the IV chord (in this case D7).  D7, F#-7b5, A-69, and Cmaj7b5.  This is where the rule of - you can play minor on major but not major on minor becomes evident-the melodic power in this situation starts to center around the IV chord, as it goes back to the I chord (i.e. movement ), causing us to use the A-69 side of the plurals of D7.  If you look at the notes in A-69 you can see that they are really the same as an A pentatonic minor with a ninth, no fourth, and the flatted seventh is replaced with the major sixth. --- One of my personal favorite two handed techniques is to play the minor seven flat five's of both parent dominants at the same time----.  If we look at the F#-7b5 as an individual unit of harmony, we see also that E harmonic minor works very well. Applied to the I chord (I7, I-7 idea) we now have Dorian #4 (or #11) on the A chord now giving us the flatted fifth of the blues scale in a newer context.  The F#-7b5 against the A= an A-6 (6, root, -3, 5).

Next we will talk about secondary and extended dominants and their related two minor seventh chords, and the scales that are appropriate to those particular moving harmonies.

O.K.- Here it goes…

Now we will take a closer look at the rule, "All chords can be preceded by their related V7 chord".  These are called secondary dominants.

Listed here are the naturally occurring scalier adjustments:

Lydian b7 is used on all sub. v7's - bII7, IV7, bVI7, bVII7. These are substitute dominants and will want Lydian b7 but this is subjective to some degree as the melody is in charge. Another great scale for some of these secondary dominants is Lydian b7 b9.  (I don’t think you will find it in any book.)

bII maj7 and bVIImaj7 both want Lydian ,as well as bVI maj7,but the sixth mode of harmonic can also be applied.

Take a closer look at V7/II and you see choices of, natural 9 b13 from melodic. (fifth mode). Or b9 b13 from Harmonic, (also from the fifth).

In the action of manipulating deceptive resolutions, the b13 will usually set up the "key of the moment".

So let’s put this picture together now-with the roman numerals of the parent scale as reference:

 ~ I hope you’re getting something out of this ~

 So now that we have established the fact that it is possible to ii V into anything, let’s look at some standard scale choices for this situation.

A normal ii V I in to a major target is simple-Dorian, Mixo to Ionian, but we could also use Dorian#4 to Lydian b7 to Lydian (if the target happens to be b IIIMaj7 you could also end on Lydian augmented, or also the bVI of harmonic minor.  There are of course more possibilities but now I want to go minor.

A standard for minor ii V's is to use the -7b5 for the ii ,and to alter the V7. so let's look at this,B-7b5 to E7b9#9b5#5(or b13) going to A-7.the B-7b5 can take A harmonic minor ,the E7alt. can take F melodic (or Bb Lyd.b7) and the A-7 can take A Dorian (or E harmonic minor (A Dorian #4 or A blues).  If you are in a static vamp over an A minor chord, you can whip these scale changes over it at any time (you must do it quickly) and totally imply the ii V I- , without needing to play the chords. It works best at the end of the bar to clarify a statement, or at the beginning to launch a new idea.

Another batch of stuff you can use on the V chord is half step whole step or whole tone.... the place that this ii-7b5 to V7altered first comes up is in the vii-7b5 acting as a related ii-7b5 going to V7/vi- (III7) going to vi-.  The iii-7 going to V7/ii- to ii- is also a good example of the V being altered. Like iii vi ii V I, only the vi being minor and then becoming dominant makes the #9 interval apparent.  You can also use a -7b5 to lead into other -7b5 chords, and example would be, F#-7b5, B-7b5, E7alt. going to A (major or minor).  You must bear in mind that tri-tone substitution also plays a strong role in these concepts.

I would recommend studying any information that you can find by Pat Martino, Joe Diorio, Ted Green, Howard Roberts or Scott Henderson.  I would also like to give special credit to Berklee College of Music, G.I.T, Mr. Martino and Mr. Diorio for teaching me these concepts.

Sorry but this is all of the information that I will give out for free.  For people seeking a deeper understanding, please contact me, or attend a major music school and work you’re butt off.

PEACE AND POWER TO THE WARRIORS OF THE TRUE LIGHT ~ ~ ~ MANY BLESSINGS ~ ~ ~