Quote:
Originally Posted by FretlessMainly  I'm assuming by "triad pairs" the subject is the same as what most folks refer to as "stacked chords." Maybe I'm wrong on this. |
In this case, these do not refer to "stacked chords".
This is more of a horizontal, melodic way of creating lines, not a vertical, harmonic way of stacking up chords. So, no, its not another kind of slash notation.
Slash chords are of course, chords, so you certainly could play a triad pair on one, just like any other chord, but this kind of "triad pair" is not about slash chords.
This kind just has you using only notes within two triads, either triads that are either diatonic (part of the scale you are in) or not (contain notes outside of the scale). You get different effects depending on each kind.
And there are two approaches to finding a pair to use.
1) The balls-out-lets-just-see-what-happens method is you literally randomly make them up. Pick two notes, either a whole step, a half-step or a tri-tone apart, then pick a quality for a triad on each note - minor for one, major for another, major for both, augmented on one, whatever. There ya go. Done. Now start making lines with them. This one takes a little more work afterwards to find out where you can use them, but (to me anyway) this is kinda fun. How you determine where you can use them is by looking at the notes and seeing, okay, against this chord the notes in my two triads give me a #9, a 5, a 13, etc etc. And then just play against different chords and see what is interesting.
2) The second way is to
start from a scale and then pick existing triads from that scale. So, you need to know the triads for the main scale types, major and minor (harmonic, melodic). All that means is you need to know what kind of triads get made if you build them off each note of the scale. Then, anywhere you would normally use that scale, you can use the triad pair instead. For instance, say you have a song and there are 8 measures where you could play C melodic minor (c d eb f g a b c), and you want to play some triad pair there. Well, pick two triads from the C melodic minor scale, I will just randomly pick:
- Eb aug - Eb, G, and B - the triad you get if you build one on the third of the scale
- F Maj - F, A, C - the triad built on the 4th.
You know these will work, because they are already part of the scale that fits over that section. Now, just run through any of the, oh, 700 or so,
possibilities that every triad pair has, as the article shows and come up with some lines that sound interesting.
This works the same for major, so anywhere you know that there are, say, 8 measures of Bb Maj, pick two triads (that dont have common notes) from that scale and try them. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat.
Now, maybe this Eb/F pair works on some other chords too, you just have to get down to spelling out the notes and seeing where they sit against the chord you want to play them on, like at the end of the article with the Bbmaj and the F7 example.
So, you could try that Eb/F pair on any G7b13 chord too, see, you would have the root (G), the third (B), the 9 (A), the b7 (F), the 11/4 (C) and a flat 13 (Eb)...or say an Amin7b5, you got the root (A), the 2/9 (B), the minor 3rd (C), the flat 5(Eb), the 6/13 (F) and the b7 (G). Or maybe you want to use it anywhere there is a regular A min chord, to spice up that turnaround on a blues or something - throw it in. A lot of times sax players use these intentionally to play notes that are not in the chords (like playing an Eb on a regular A minor instead of the regular E) as they solo. I
wouldn't do this in a bass line, but, during
your solo it could work.
You just have to go through like that and see where the juicy notes are and well, just try them against different chords, and see which ones sound good.
The "start with the scale" method is probably faster, but the "just make them up" method is going to get you the really exotic sounding ones more likely, and get you to stumble on those happy accidents that make you say "oh cool!".
Anyway, like I said in the post, there is a
LOT of depth to this subject, even though you can get the idea behind it in a paragraph or two. But, it is not the main thing we get looked at to do in a band, so this is fun stuff, but it is not the backbone of bass playing, it is for that 1-5% of the time we get to cut loose, so keep that in mind.
