Intermediate
Intermediate
- Learn the difference between diatonic and non-diatonic notes.
- Use dissonance to spice up your solos.
- Understand how scales, chords, and non-diatonic notes work together.
Why is it that when soloing some notes that seemingly shouldnāt work, do? And no, itās not jazz weāre talking about. So get ready to play some dissonant music that sounds wonderful.
Which Are the Wrong Notes?
For the purposes of this lesson, when weāre referring to āwrongā notes, what we honestly mean are ānon-diatonicā notesānotes that are not in the home key of the chord progression. For instance, in the key of C major we have the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B and the chords C-Dm-Em-F-G-Am-BĀŗ. Thus, any notes not found in this collection are non-diatonic. As a result, this entire lesson will only use chords from the home key of C major, making the non-diatonic notes easier to identify. Respectively, Iāve also labeled the āwrongā notes as flats, even though sometimes they technically function as sharps.
Spice up Your II-Vs
When it comes to playing āwrongā notes, one of the best places to start is the old I-IV-V progression. While the tradition of the blues obviously fits into this category, Iām going to bypass that genre as there are plenty of other lessons focused on that idiom. Instead, Iām going to jump ahead to the bluesā babiesāthe first wave of rock and roll from the 1950s; its second wave, the British Invasion; the third wave of American garage rock; and ending with some rock/fusion.
Though I am skipping traditional blues, the chord progression in Ex. 1 is in fact a 12-bar, but without the traditional blues riff. In fact, this feel is more akin to Gene Vincentās āBe-Bop-a-Lula,ā and the note choices are based on Cliff Gallupās original solo.
To our 21st-century ears, most of this solo sounds normal, however, in the 1950s, many of these choices were radical to those raised on pop music. Thatās because this solo is full of non-diatonic notes, specifically the b7, b5, b3, and b2, all of which can be seen in the notation by looking for the flat symbols. For example, measure one starts on a Bb, aka b7, measure two has a Gb, aka b5, etc. So keep your eyes and ears open for these non-diatonic notes.
One important piece of theory information here: When labeling notes as b7, b5, etc. itās important to understand that these notes have two relationships, one to the overall key and one to each individual chord itās being played over. For instance, a Bb is a b7 in the key of C and over a C chord, yet over the F chord the Bb is a 4. Additionally, over the G chord, the Bbis a b3. This can seem confusing at first but just think of it as a familial relationship: A daughter to a mother can also be a sister to a brother. Itās that straightforward: same person, two different relationships.
Ex. 2 is based on another I-IV-V 1950s rock and roll classic, Buddy Hollyās āItās So Easy.ā It would be understandable to presume that this example is merely using the blues scale, but this isnāt true. What this solo, and the entire lesson, emphasizes is that itās the combination of both diatonic and non-diatonic notes that makes this lead so dynamic. Thus, this solo contains all 12 notes found in Western music! Even better, this solo also contains three so-called āquarter-stepā bends (measures five and seven), which are not normally acknowledged in the traditional Western chromatic scale. A solo with 15 different notesā¦ Amazing!
Moving on to a British Invasion era sample, Ex.3 contains non-diatonic notes in both the lead and accompaniment. At this point, itās worth mentioning that many of the āwrongā notes are what we call chromatic passing tones, meaning we donāt spend a lot of time on these but pass through them on the way to diatonic notes. This can be seen and heard when the accompaniment moves from F to Gb to G, and throughout the solo. This lead also benefits from a ārhythmic motif,ā meaning that the rhythm of the lead is consistent throughout the first three measures, which brings cohesion to the solo, and feels satisfying when measure four, surprisingly, varies the rhythm. This example is loosely based on āThe Game of Loveā by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders.
Ex. 4 is our final I-IV-V example, which was inspired by the McCoyās garage rock-era cover of āHang On Sloopy,ā featuring a young Rick Derringer on guitar. This lead is almost entirely composed of double-stops, combining both diatonic and non-diatonic notes.
Mixolydian Hybrid
Returning to the British Invasion, countless songs from that era employ chord progressions that emphasize the Mixolydian mode, which is to say that they revolve around, and resolve to the V chord, instead of resolving to the I. The Themās āGloriaā is a prime example. Hence Ex. 5, a Mixolydian hybridāthe progression is pure Mixolydian, the solo is not. While the original āGloriaā solo avoids non-diatonic notes, it does possess a rhythmic motif, which is a triplet figure comparable to the one in our example. As mentioned earlier, a rhythmic motif is a shrewd way to bring cohesion to a solo, even more so when using āwrongā notes. Ex. 5 abuses this privilege by running through a series of triplet groupings. Of particular interest are measures seven and eight, which contain a Db, which is extremely dissonant against the F and C chords yet still works wonderfully.
The Who also had their fair share of Mixolydian progressions (āI Canāt Explainā being perhaps the most famous) and Ex. 6 was inspired by their āRun Run Run,ā featuring a solo by a studio musician named Jimmy Page. Unlike Pageās solo, which is largely pentatonic, this lead accentuates the differences between the various diatonic and non-diatonic notes.
Our final example, Ex. 7, is another Mixolydian hybrid inspired by both Jeff Beckās āFreeway Jamā and Steely Danās āReelinā in the Years.ā Once again we enjoy plenty of chromatic passing tones, and also noteworthy is the Gb, in measure four that wants to resolve to G but instead goes to B; and final descending triplets, which, as wrong as many of them are, find structure in their symmetry.
While there are myriad worlds of āwrongā note genresā20th Century classical music, free jazz, art punk, etc.āthose are contexts in which wrong become ārightā by way of stylistic intent. This lesson has attempted to demonstrate wrong notes in more pedestrian situations, circumstances in which an otherwise ānormalā solo may be enhanced by spice, tension, and the unexpected. I hope youāll attempt some of these ideas the next time you find yourself in a classic rock, country, or even folk jamā¦because wrong notes are alright!