"Zhivago" lick, Part 2

In the previous post, I put up a transcription of a signature line from Kurt Rosenwinkel's solo on "Zhivago" from The Next Step. The line is basically planing a particular arpeggio diatonically, but modifying it to match the underlying chord progression.

To get a better grasp on the device, I took it out of the context of the chord progression and planed the arpeggio diatonically through the major scale. This would also work on any mode of the major scale (dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, locrian), since they all have the same chords.
This could work well in a modal tune like "Milestones", which is a long dorian vamp followed by an aeolian bridge.

The arpeggio is 1-5-7-10-13-14 (10-13-14 being 3-6-7, but up an octave). Rosenwinkel plays them alternating between the ascending and descending version. This works out two ways, depending on whether you start ascending or descending.

Since this is an arpeggio, there are many ways to modify it and come up with different results.  Here are two obvious ones: omitting the root of each arpeggio (which gives you a five-note pattern, creating rhythmically interesting results), and omitting both the root and fifth of each arpeggio (which creates a quartal sound with an interesting ambiguity).

All of these can be played with different rhythmic permutations.

The 5-note pattern is creates interesting cross-rhythms when played as 8th notes or triplets.

The 4-note pattern is more interesting as triplets.

Any triplet pattern can be played with accents on the 8th-note triplet or on the quarter note triplet.  Especially on the original 6-note pattern, I like to mix up the two kinds of triplet accents.

Kurt Rosenwinkel: Zhivago

Here transcription of "the lick" from Zhivago. I've deconstructed it and will post some of what I came up with in the next post.

Note that he's using his weird tuning so there are some unreachable low notes for a standard guitar.

More Augmented Scale

Here's a continuation of the previous Augmented scale study, using three maj7 chords.

Since the augmented scale can be related to three augmented tonics, it makes sense to me to relate it to the harmonic major (major b6) scale on each of those tonics.

Triads in the Augmented Scale

Here's an an older one from my workbooks. I've spent a lot of time exploring the possibilities for using various triads in improvisation. They create such strong lines and have a compelling internal logic an musicality.

These examples are pretty bare-bones, but there's a lot to work with.
The Augmented (aka symmetrical augmented) scale is made up of two augmented triads a half-step apart.
It works well over Maj7#5 chords built off the higher of the two triads (it implies a Maj7#5#9 chord). It also works over a dominant 7th chord built off the lower of the two triads (implies 13#5b9).

Triads in the Diminished scale

I haven't posted anything to the blog in a while (obviously), but not because I haven't had anything to post! I'm just a bit of a perfectionist and it's been hard to find the time to put stuff into a form that will make sense to other people. I've decided to post stuff a little more haphazardly for now, just so it's more regular.

Here's something from my pile of things I'm working on. The diminished scale has a wide variety of sounds within it, including three different kinds of triads (diminished, minor, and major). This is just a basic presentation of the possible diatonic triads. Interestingly, if you start with a diminished triad and proceed diatonically you get all diminished triads, but if you start with a major or minor triad and proceed diatonically, you get alternating major and minor triads.