10/12/2019 Mathias Lang's Guitar Blog: Book review: Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar by Mick Goodrick and

r by Mick Goodrick and Tim Miller

More Create Blog Sign In

This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyse traffic. Your IP address and user agent
are shared with Google, together with performance and security metrics, to ensure quality of service, generate
usage statistics and to detect and address abuse.

LEARN MORE OK

TABs & Sheet Music Online guitar lessons Gitaarles in Eindhoven en Heeze Pictures Audio Videos About me

Contact

TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2014 BLOG ARCHIVE

► 2017 (6)
Book review: Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar by Mick Goodrick ► 2016 (5)
and Tim Miller
► 2015 (8)
As I've mentioned in my previous post, I read the new book by Mick Goodrick and Tim ▼ 2014 (6)
Miller: Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar. In this book the authors introduce their ► November (2)
concept of Generic Modality Compression (GMC). Since this term is not really self-
► February (1)
explanatory (at least not for me), I was curious what it is all about.
▼ January (3)
There are actually only about 10 pages to read, the remaining pages (about 80) are II-V-I progressions using Generic
examples in standard notation (no tabs). So, I've read everything, actually twice to Modality Compres...
make sure I didn't miss anything, I've looked at all the examples, and I've played Book review: Creative Chordal
through many of them. Let me first summarize what I think this book is about, and what Harmony for Guitar b...
you can find in those 90+ pages. Happy 2014! And some news ...

The basic concept is very simple and can be explained very easily. Take a heptatonic ► 2013 (9)
(7-note) scale and remove the root ("compression"). Now you're left with six notes.
► 2012 (15)
Divide these six notes into two groups of three. If you try (or if you know basic
combinatorics), you'll see that there are 10 possible ways to do that. Now you have 10 ► 2011 (15)
pairs of three notes. Each pair, when combined, gives you all six notes of the
"compressed" scale (i.e., all notes except the root). These 10 pairs of three notes can LABELS
be played as three-part chords, or they can be played linearly as melodies (in any
blues (3)
permutation, of course). That's what Generic Modality Compression is about.
book review (3)
So, what can you do with it? The idea is that instead of playing complete four-part or
five-part-chords, you choose a chord-scale for the chord you want to play, apply the Charlie Parker (1)
process described above, and then you play the above mentioned three-part chords Chick Corea (1)
(either harmonically or melodically). This will hopefully lead you to new voicings and will chords (6)
open up new sounds that you might not have discovered otherwise. Collins Live Experience (4)
gear (6)
Let me give you an example to show you how it works in practice. If G7 is the chord
over which you want to play, first choose an appropriate scale, e.g. G-mixolydian: g-a-b- Generic Modality Compression (2)
c-d-e-f. If we remove the root we're left with six notes: a-b-c-d-e-f. Now we get the guitar solo (10)
following 10 three-note pairs: Herbie Hancock (1)
improvisation (12)
a-b-c * d-e-f
Irida (9)
a-b-d * c-e-f
a-b-e * c-d-f Julian Lage (1)
a-b-f * c-d-e lesson (5)
a-c-d * b-e-f Mick Goodrick (3)
a-c-e * b-d-f Mike Stern (1)
a-c-f * b-d-e
Miles Davis (1)
b-c-d * a-e-f
music theory (9)
b-c-e * a-d-f
www.mathiaslang.com/2014/01/book-review-creative-chordal-harmony.html 1/4
10/12/2019 Mathias Lang's Guitar Blog: Book review: Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar by Mick Goodrick and Tim Miller
b-c-f * a-d-e news (36)
This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyse traffic. Your Oz IP
Noyaddress
(3) and user agent
Each pair
arecontains all sixGoogle,
shared with notes, i.e. each pair
together completely
with represents
performance the scale
and security apart to ensure quality of service, generate
metrics, Richie Kotzen (2)
from the root note
usage G. You
statistics cantoplay
and eachand
detect of the aboveabuse.
address groups of 3 pitches as three-part
scales (9)
chords. Note that you can use inversions and open voicings, i.e. the three-part chord a-
d-f (second inversion of a D minor triad) can (and should) LEARN MORE as OK
also be played (from low to tabs (8)
high) Tim Miller (3)
transcription (6)
d-f-a
Winery Dogs (2)
f-a-d
f-d-a
a-f-d ABOUT ME SUBSCRIBE TO
d-a-f
Posts

In this way you'll get tons of three-part chords (and six voicings for each chord) to Comments
create new and unexpected sounds (and to keep you busy for a while).

Mathias Lang
Those 80 pages of the book in standard notation just contain all possible pairs of three-
Eindhoven,
part chords and their inversions (close and open voicings), first for the mode C ionian (C
Netherlands
major). After that the principle is applied to the jazz standard Stella By Starlight. For
each chord in that tune, a chord scale is chosen, and the corresponding 3-part-chords guitarist, composer,
are listed. You can listen to the examples on the CD, and there are also play-along guitar teacher
tracks for you to practice. Later in the book, there are also examples for the melodic use View my complete
of this concept ("Arpeggio Permuations"). This is very simple, just take the 3-part- profile
chords from the previous pages and arrange the notes linearly, i.e. play them one after
the other. FOLLOW BY EMAIL

Email address... Submit

OK, that's what this book is about and what you can expect to find in it. Now I would like
to make a few critical remarks. First of all, the whole GMC concept as introduced in the
book is based on reducing a 7-note scale to a 6-note scale by removing the root. The
motivation for removing the root appears to be the 'fact' that the root is played by the
bass player, so the guitarist shouldn't bother to play it. Well, especially in a jazz context,
you won't find a bass player just playing the root. Maybe the bass will play the root on
the first beat of the bar (or maybe not), but anything can happen after that. If also the
accompanying instruments are to be given some freedom - as is normally the case in
improvised music - then all instruments are responsible for establishing the sound of the
mode/chord at any given time. For this reason I think the motivation for removing the
root from any 7-note scale is a bit weak. There are great sounding chords/voicings
including the root (in a high register), so why not use them?

I feel that there's another problem with GMC: there is no mention of how to treat avoid
notes. Avoid notes are notes in a scale which are not (traditionally) available as
tensions for the related chord. E.g., if we choose C ionian (C major) as a chord scale for
a Cmaj7 chord, the note F is considered an avoid note, i.e. a note which cannot be
added as a tensions to the Cmaj7 chord. Consequently, if a Cmaj7 chord should be
outlined using GMC, all 3-part-chords containing the note F should be avoided. But this
is not done and not even mentioned in the book. Instead, all 3-part-chords containing a
C are avoided, yet this is not always necessary, depending on the chord voicings played
by the other instruments.

I understand that GMC restricts itself to three-part chords, but this fact is not discussed
in the book. I think that 4-part chords do sound great on the guitar, and just because six
notes (i.e., the compressed scale) can so beautifully be split in two groups of three
notes should be no reason to leave out great sounding 4-part voicings.

Finally, while browsing through the book I got the feeling that there are too many
redundant examples. E.g., all the permutations of melodic possibilities of three-part
chords. I think it is obvious how to take apart a three-part chord and play its three notes
linearly, in any desired sequence. The authors spend many pages on writing out all
those possibilities. I would have preferred a few more pages of discussion and
motivation, e.g. addressing the issues I've mentioned above (avoid notes, etc.).

On the bright side, the accompanying CD sounds great and inspires you to play through
some of the examples yourself. While doing so, you will definitely discover some chord
voicings which you haven't played before. What I also found inspiring was that the book
showed me one more possibility to learn a tune: by figuring out all possible (three-part)
voicings of the appropriate chord scales for the chord progression of the tune. This is
quite some work, but it will give you a lot of freedom while playing through the changes,
either harmonically or melodically. And finally, I found the book a great reading exercise.

www.mathiaslang.com/2014/01/book-review-creative-chordal-harmony.html 2/4
10/12/2019 Mathias Lang's Guitar Blog: Book review: Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar by Mick Goodrick and Tim Miller
Since there are no tabs you have to read everything from standard notation. And since
many ofThis
the site uses
chords arecookies from triads,
no standard Google to deliver
(sight) itsthem
reading services and
can be to analyse traffic. Your IP address and user agent
quite
challenging.
are shared with Google, together with performance and security and
So despite having a few critical remarks on the book's concept its to ensure quality of service, generate
metrics,
presentation,
usage Istatistics
got quite and
sometoinspiration
detect and outaddress
of it, andabuse.
I discovered yet another way to
study a tune.
LEARN MORE OK
Here a short summary:

Plus:
- nice CD, some great and surprising sounds
- shows you a very thorough method to study a tune
- good reading exercise

Minus:
- no mention of avoid notes
- completely disregarding the root is not sufficiently motivated
- too many pages of redundant examples, at the expense of room for discussing and
motivating the concept more thoroughly
- artificial restriction to three-part chords

Also check my post on II-V-I progressions using GMC.

Posted by Mathias Lang at 12:43 PM

Labels: book review, chords, Generic Modality Compression, improvisation, Mick Goodrick,
music theory, Tim Miller

4 comments:

Hugh Mann February 19, 2015 at 5:04 PM

Hello Mathius, cheers Bro

I felt I wanted to comment regarding your review...I have been working with G.M.C for
well about a year and a half....prior to starting work on that approach I had excavated
many many theories....and I found this (GMC) to be an absolute embarrassment of
riches......it just takes awhile to get the feel for the voicings to make them sound
musical,,,

I found no "problem" with "avoid" notes ...in fact I don't buy into the concept of "avoid"
notes....and respectfully,...I would call into question the "motive" for establishing "avoid"
notes as practice...

This theory (GMC) is as sound as it gets if you know how to use it....I am from the "Ted
Green" school of thought....I love to play heavy as well as jazz...

I just wanted to give an endorsement toward the GMC idea here because I strongly
appreciate it's value..

Also I wanted to say good work Mathius....

Keep it up Bro..your very good..and I enjoy watching and hearing you..

I will leave a link to a sound file with myself applying some GMC.....hope you like it..

https://soundcloud.com/hugh-mann-being/improvised-employment-generic
Reply

Hugh Mann February 19, 2015 at 5:30 PM

Sorry...I just read your pros a cons....or plus and minuses....DUDE!.....you seem you
have missed the idea of the theory (GMC)......for one....the root is extremely important in
GMC theory......but when you employed the theory...you failed to have a root present at
all....that is why the intended sounds are not manifesting....let me be clear...if there is no
root established and "summoned"......then you are not employing GMC theory....you
need to demonstrate in a Musical context....to be fair..

sorry if I offend..that is not my intention.....but do you see my point?....the theory

absolutely insists on presence of a root...rather than disregards it......that is
certain..;....and as with music in general......a little rhythm wouldn't hurt....you know what
I am saying?.....sheesh.....what do ya think? that you can strip away all sensible
elements of playing musically....and the theory would magically produce wonderfull
things?....lol

www.mathiaslang.com/2014/01/book-review-creative-chordal-harmony.html 3/4
10/12/2019 Mathias Lang's Guitar Blog: Book review: Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar by Mick Goodrick and Tim Miller

Cheers
This Bro
site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyse traffic. Your IP address and user agent
are shared with Google, together with performance and security metrics, to ensure quality of service, generate
Reply
usage statistics and to detect and address abuse.

Hugh Mann February 19, 2015 at 5:47 PM LEARN MORE OK

P.S. in my musical example I gave with my initial comment...you can hear me spiking the
hell out of those "Avoid" notes.......and a lot of people have told me it's honey to their
ears.....but then again...lots of them don't know music theory....so I guess their ears don't
understand...
Reply

Replies

Mathias Lang February 19, 2015 at 6:21 PM

Thanks Hugh for your comments. Fair enough you found no problem with
avoid notes. What I wanted to point out is that, traditionally, avoid notes are
considered an important thing, and that would already have been a good
reason for the authors to at least mention them. They can of course decide to
happily ignore them, if they like what they hear. I totally agree that avoid notes
can sound great if used with care.

And as for what I might have missed, I guess it's less than you think. What I
was referring to is the fact that none of the voicings contain the root, and
that's just the way it is. If you listen again to my examples then you can hear a
bass playing the root, so obviously I take the root into account. What I found
odd was just that no voicing ever contains a root, but many of them do contain
traditional avoid notes instead.

And indeed, the examples are not played in any interesting rhythmical way,
because I wanted to demonstrate the sounds, instead of showing off an
ingenious composition of mine. Rhythm was not the point at all, but of course I
agree with you that rhythm is essential to music.

I listened to your track, nice! After all, nobody cares what it is as long as it
pleases the ears. Just keep hitting those avoid notes :)

Reply

Enter your comment...

Comment as: Google Account

Publish Preview

Newer Post Home Older Post

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Picture Window theme. Theme images by Nikada. Powered by Blogger.

www.mathiaslang.com/2014/01/book-review-creative-chordal-harmony.html 4/4