Hi there guys and guls...

With a positive response to a previous post and because there may be some interest...I thought I'd show what an annoying smart ass I can be by presenting in this thread a bunch of Music Theory and Composition Cheats, perfect for the surfing style!

Nothing too intimidating I'm sure, a few laughs maybe...but playing the simple things is important to hear what it is! Failing that, at some point, I might even record some basic things to go along so that you can hear it and maybe be further encouraged

The first two posts will be a cut and paste of my "tropical chords" response as I am still having fun with some simple extended chords and Major7ths.

The second of these two is a grief look at the more spooky spy kind of thing generated from the "bond" chord and how these symetrical shapes might be used with out getting to fancy-pantsy with the naming of the buggers!

The third I just wrote which explores middle eastern kinds of melodies through simple hybrid scales derived from polytonal techniques. I am sure this concept may come up a bit to generate other fake foreign sounds easily.

Let me know if this kind of thing is of interest or there are other areas of interest and I'll see if there are any "cheats" out there. If I gloss over something like what ii-V-I means or something, well if it matters much, I can explain it...or maybe it doesn't matter so much if you play Dm-G-C !

I'll also try and keep it within the general "surf guitar" genre...though this is pretty broad. These kinds of ideas could be applied to anything. They are generally not things that you might be taught "in school" and much of it will gloss over the deeper meanings and theories, chord naming and such. I will be keeping things easy...there's no need to get RSI from making giant hand stretching moves...life's too short...and well, it's surf!

So...here we go...

pete

1 Mahogany HSS squier strat with trick wiring and noiseless SD JB pups...

other 1 Baby blue telecaster with tremolo, Fender WR-HB and DIY sustainer...

amp...fender hotrod deluxe + 15" cab!

Bond Caught up in Symmetrical Intrigue

(I guess I didn't explain this post as it flowed from the one above. The "Bond" chord shown last in the thread above, is what I see as a "symmetrical" chord "shape". Interestingly, there is a major seven chord shape with the same fingers but different strings. Inverting the "shape" produces a high tension V chord. So as Mr Bond is fond of the Bahamas and the surf guitar crowd are fond of the Bond theme...it is only natural that the two will find themselves in some kind of monkey puzzle of a plot!)

Cool!!!!!!

Thanks for the responses...I thought it had put everyone to sleep! (Major7 chords can do that!)

I enjoyed doing it, perhaps I will start a dedicated thread to some of these meanderings...let me know if there's an audience.

It helped me think as well...since doing that, I've played about with this thing from above...

---------(0)-------------------<0>-----

----4----2----5------4--------<0>------

----3----x----5------6-------------------

---CM7-F6--Dm7--Gaug---CM7 (cliche harmonics!)

(played softly like the waves lapping on the shore...)

~ means to slide the bass note and hold while playing harmonics.
play say a bar of each chord...for the IV chord why not go the whole hog (roasted in a fire pit of course) and add the open e for more M7th spice!

however changing the D minor chord for this version...

---x---x---x---

---5---4---4---

---5---6---3---

This illustrates the underlying "voice leading" in the "cadance" (end of the sequence ii-V-I) with the chromatic lead up on the b string..D-D#-E...often heard in hawaiian kind of themes. The same Dmin form that Laika used!

Made me get out my plastic lighter and do a bit of sliding around working out melodies!

Yes...that last one is the famous "bond" chord...the final chord on the theme. It is also the fingering on different strings of a common Maj7 shape...

---7---------x-----

---9---------8-----

----x--------10----

Cmaj7__Em9Maj7 (bond chord)

Do a mirror inversion of the "shape" and you get a nice B extended chord and you get spy approved mystery sounds like this sequence...

---7---------x---------10------7------<0>~~~~~~~

---9---------8---------8-------8------<0>~~~~~

----x--------10--------x-------x--------------

CM7"bond"B7,13,#9_B7_E7min harmonics~~~~

Anyway...there's a part of me that seems to like these kinds of "puzzles"...but it isn't as dry as it seems, or all that tricky really.

It's important to play the things to "hear" them but most of these things are not that finger twisting or stretchy. In fact in a lot of the more "jazzy" middle sections of that tune by Laika, there is a lot of of simple chromatic movement of basic major forms and majors turning into minors.

These are jazz substitution things that function to give direction...if "named" with all these weird extensions it becomes confusing...but in reality much of is simply maj and min chords that we all know and love and fall easily under the hand.

That's the attraction to surf music to me...that it allows this kind of thing...few rock styles accept so easily such invention.

But these things are not just chords...if you look a bit deeper or take melodies from the chords...or even overlay melodies arrived from such chords on the more typical major/minor forms it can add some spice to melody writing.

Of course you don't think like that while you are playing (unless you want to be some kind of master jazz improviser), and after a while these things make some intuitive sense. But to add a bit of flavour and interest in composing, a little bit can make all the difference and keep your interest.

...

Anyway...enjoy doing it, wearing out my "hyphen" key on the transcriptions...but that's ok!

If people are really interested...I'd be prepared to do a thread with regular little bit's and pieces for you guys and guls...keeping my mind active in the meantime. There's plenty to explore, without getting too "heavy"!

Pete (SuRfAcE)

1 Mahogany HSS squier strat with trick wiring and noiseless SD JB pups...

other 1 Baby blue telecaster with tremolo, Fender WR-HB and DIY sustainer...

amp...fender hotrod deluxe + 15" cab!

The code tag works better than the quote tag for tablature.

OK...next time, thanks...but for now...

Let’s Pretend We’re Foreigners

No…I don’t mean the band of guys who are “waiting for a girl like you” (somewhat ominously I imagine)…“want to know what love is” (just what a girl wants to hear, in a dark alley)…and “urgent” (as in urgent, call the cops!)

But let’s not get all cultural and ethnomusicological about the exercise either…welcome to SuRfAcE’s world of hybrid scales from superimposing chords theory101!

Let’s pretend, we are relatively safe on a beach in California, but the spanish sounds are drfting north from south of the border and your mind drifts across the Baja dunes and think…I could be in the middle east and some far out pyramid may yet rise from the sands like Atlantis reclaiming the future…

Of maybe, you just simply want a bit of no-fuss middle eastern mystic in your playing and composing!

No problem, surfs up and anything goes that works for the effect required…

For a start, let’s fake up some spanishy sounds to get us in the mood…

----0-------0-------0-----

----1-------2-------0-----

----2-------3-------2-----

Nothing easier, take the E chord, move it up a fret for a weird F chord then back again…ohhh, spooky, evocative…getting in the mood?

So, lets take a Major E chord’s notes…E, G#, B
Ok…lets take the Major F chord’s notes F, A, C

Ok…now combine them into a scale…

E, F, G#, A, B, C, E

Hmmm…shades of “Miserlou” already! Let’s play it this way in an easy surf approved open position…

------------------------------------0-------------------------------------

----------------1----2------------------------------2-----1---------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

_EG#__B
__FA_C

So basically…

--0-----1-------
--0-----1--------
--1-----2--------
--2-----3--------
--2-----3--------
--0-----1--------

…in a scale! Any E and F “triads” (or in other keys, adjacent major chords) give you this sound. Another cool “position” to play this in is off the A shape bar chord (in E on the seventh fret, kind of)

-----------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----9----10----------|---------------9---10-------------------------------10----9------------------9--

-----7----8-----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EF_ hold E note so as to hear the tonality

So…you might like to get intellectual about it all and claim to be play “polytonaly” or you may simply think that’s a neat sound and most of it only requires my middle and index fingers.

You might think that big skip between the C and E notes a bit much melodically…so lets combine seventh chords to fill the gap. Say Major7ths

E, G#, B, D#
F, A, C, E

Giving you…

E, F, G#, A, B, C, D#, E

Only adding in that D#...also a nice and spooky D#,E,F twilight zone chromatic thing in it…neat!

Or dominant7’s

E, G#, B, D
F, A, C, D#(or Eb)

E, F, G#, A, B, C, D, D#, E

This gives you yet another note to play with and even more of those chromatic runs…

D, D#, E, F

Don’t just play these notes all in a row, that's a scale…pick and choose some notes to create a melody or evocative feel. Make yourself a tune!

So, instead of hitting the theory books, hit me up with polytonality…who really cares if it is a Harmonic or Hungarian minor, it’s the flavour that counts!

...

_OK...sufficient to start with...

Some of the ideas I have been playing with lately is some modal stuff that gives some nice sounds without abandoning the major minor chords and scales you are already familiar with, yet giving you some nice sounds and approaches to things.

There are plenty of other flavours that can be generated from combining chords without learning a bunch of jazz scales.

But there are more basic things too like chord families and such as well.

Will post some more with encouragement, or even without if I am bored and have half a brain wave!

till then...

pete (SuRfAcE)_

1 Mahogany HSS squier strat with trick wiring and noiseless SD JB pups...

other 1 Baby blue telecaster with tremolo, Fender WR-HB and DIY sustainer...

amp...fender hotrod deluxe + 15" cab!

I like your posts Surface. But some times - a guy just wants to play and not think about it too much. I appreciate the new ideas though - thanks!

I make a wicked Hungarian Goulash - please PM for the recipe.