Chromatic scale exercise

[vishalicious]

Hi All,

Its been more than 1/2 a year since I was on TB. I have a lot of reading to do.

I wanted to know if anyone here could help me understand how to play an exercise that I saw on No Treble. Its a chromatic scale exercise. I've been learning how to read notation using the Hal Leonard Bass Method, but what I'm seeing isn't something I'm familiar with.

Its at this link: Intro to Chromatic Scales

There are my questions:
1. What does "8va" in the first exercise's name mean?
2. Are all of the notes we're asked to play dyads? If so, I can't see how its possible to play them on a single string.

Thanks in advance!

 

[chungweishan]

1. 8va = octave. So start from the Open-string (G) to the 12th fret (G).
2. I'm assuming they wrote playing dyads, playing the Open-D, just to give you an idea of how the chromatic-scale works with a single note. "Play the exercises on all four strings, using the adjacent string for pitch reference"

 

[vishalicious]

Thanks! That makes a lot more sense now.

 

[mambo4]

I don't think that practicing chromaticism
in the form of a chromatic scale is very useful,
(except as a reading exercise.)

In most cases chormaticism is used as passing tones
between chord tones and steps of a "real" scale

For my money, Jamerson's Igors's chromatic Exercise
is the way to practice chromaticism as it might actually be used



[edit: link repaired]

 

[vishalicious]

Thanks, Mambo! The link to Igor's Chromatic Exercise doesn't work for me. I did a search on the forums here. Is this the right one:

Igor's Chromatic Exercise

 

[Bob_Ross]

I don't think that practicing chromaticism
in the form of a chromatic scale is very useful, (except as a reading exercise.)

I'll go one further: I don't even think practicing chromaticism in the form of a chromatic scale is useful as a reading exercise. Because as soon as one has the slightest semblence of sight-reading skill one starts to recognize large objects rather than individual notes, and a chromatic scale in either direction is a very easily recognizeable object.

It's only when you disrupt the linear 1/2-step progression that reading chromatic scale-derived passages becomes valuable...which ironically, is also true about using the chromatic scale towards musical purposes.

I will say that practicing chromaticism in the form of a chromatic scale can be a useful launching point for developing finger dexterity and teaching the one-finger-per-fret technique, but only if one is diligent about moving away from that launching point and embracing all the variations does it become truly valuable. Running 1234, 1234, 1234 patterns diagonally across the fingerboard gets too easily ingrained in the muscle memory to be a worthy excercise other than to warm up cold fingers, plus it has almost zero musical value. Running (for example) 4231, 4231, 4231 patterns reinforces more "digit independence" and arguably forces a bit more awareness/concentration on what notes one is playing.

But the best value I ever found for employing chromaticism as a practice technique was to apply 1/2-step approach tones (both upper and lower) to every partial of every type of arppegio -- and then run that sequence up and down the neck chromatically.

[E.g., take yer Cmaj7 arpeggio C-E-G-B, add a chromatic lower neighbor to every partial B-C-D#-E-F#-G-A#-B -- or, add a chromatic upper neighbor to every partial C#-C-F-E-Ab-G-C-B -- and run that up and down for an octave or two, then start the whole thing over on C#maj7. (For the sake of ASCII I've used enharmonic spellings here. If you're going to use these as sight-reading exercises, other considerations apply.)]

Do ^^^that for all major, minor, dominant, diminished, etc arppegios, being sure to listen to the qualities that these chromatic approach notes lend but also being sure to hear the fundamental chord shape that these chromatic approach notes are modifying, and you'll be well on your way to having a well-developed ear, a good handle on sight-reading mixed non-diatonic accidentals, and a great warm-up for challenging finger dexterity.

 

[vishalicious]

Hi Bob,

I actually do that with chromatic approach notes when warming up using arpeggios from time-to-time. Its something I discovered last year that I really liked the sound of. I didn't know if what I had stumbled across was a scale that I wasn't aware of yet or something else though.

Since learning how to execute the exercise, from chungweishan's original reply, I noticed something when practicing it: from a beginner's standpoint (which is mine, actually) its useful in helping to learn the sound of intervals when juxtaposed against the accompanying reference note.

I know most of you are probably well-beyond that point though.

 

[mambo4]

Its something I discovered last year that I really liked the sound of. I didn't know if what I had stumbled across was a scale that I wasn't aware of yet or something else though.

Not a scale but something more fundamental: basic tension and release.
It's the reason chromaticism works at all.