The Asus4b2 arpeggio we looked at last month (November 2017 issue[1]) may be repurposed in a variety of cool, interesting ways, which I think is...
The Asus4b2 arpeggio we looked at last month (November 2017 issue[1]) may be repurposed in a variety of cool, interesting ways, which I think is a worthwhile topic to explore.
We’ll begin by moving it down one fret, and while we’re there we’ll check out a slight variation that offers a similar sound and musical color. And, to get double “bang for your buck,” before we finish today’s lesson I’ll show you a convenient, alternate way to employ each of our two new arpeggios, giving you four new sounds to play with.
FIGURE 1 shows the two Asus4b2 fretboard “paths” I introduced in the previous lesson, both of which move diagonally across the neck and span at least two octaves. As you recall, this arpeggio is spelled A Bb D E, or, intervallically, 1 b2 4 5.
We’re now going to simply shift every note down a fret, as illustrated in FIGURE 2, but maintain an A tonal center (and bass-note accompaniment in the video lesson). We now have the notes G#, A, C# and Eb as our four-note cell. Relative to A, that gives us the major seven (G#), root (A), major third (C#) and diminished, or “flatted,” fifth (Eb). It’s a pretty exotic, mysterious sound!
Now, if we were to play these same four notes over A major’s relative minor tonal center, F# minor, we get an equally intriguing but decidedly darker F#m6-9 sound, with G# now heard as the second, or ninth, A as the minor, or “flatted,” third, C# as the perfect fifth, and D# (Eb) as the major sixth. We’re still playing the same four notes, but when heard over an F# bass note their individual roles change, in the way our brains perceive them. This duality is comparable to