Target Notes vs Playing the Changes

[pingu]

Also in bar 2 Try G+ , and G7+5

[pingu]

no-one else do the Maj / Relminor simultanious headfuk thing ?

ie in Amin => Cmaj

i => vi
ii => vii
V = > III7 etc etc like hearing both at the same time ?

[Groyniad]

look - the main issue is very simple

the organizing principle of your melodic line is its 'end point' or 'target'. this need not always be its last actual note - though it very often is. it need not be because:

- on hitting the target you can immediately begin a new phrase organized around (towards) a new end point

- or you can play a wee final flourish which just lets the sound sound (i.e. a phrase that is not going anywhere - that is not targeting something)

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that's already a lot - its way better than just saying:

'you play notes that 'go with' the chord, when the chord is sounding'

its better than that because it tells you more that's helpful -

the idea of 'hitting a target' is more helpful than the idea of 'playing over'.

say the target is the third of a major chord

then to hit it means you have to run into it from your starting point (the place the arrow of your phrase is aimed from)

there are an infinite number of ways you can do that. a simple and effective way to do it would be to play 1-3-5-7 of the major chord's dominant chord - and then go down a semi-tone to the 3rd of the major chord

this should be done in crotchets, quavers, semi-quavers etc.

and you could hit the third of the major chord at the beginning of the bar in which it is meant to be sounding - or on any of the beats of that bar (or even just after it has finished sounding....or just before it has started)

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this essentially rhythmical aspect of the concept is utterly crucial

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now you can make the targeting phrase MUCH longer (its shortest possible form would be just the last two notes above - the 7th of the dom. and the 3rd of the major chord)

for example by playing 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 of the dominant chord's 2 chord, then going down a semi tone to the 3rd of the dominant and down from there - 3 - 2 - 1 - 7 and then going down a semi-tone to the 3rd of the major chord (the target)

now again - the thing is we have said nothing yet about WHEN you play this targeting phrase or what rhythmical units you use in playing it

in general i think.... - the longer you wait and the quicker you snap into the target - the swingier and cooler and nicer everything is

so that means - its great to play this as e.g. semi-quavers at medium tempo rather than quavers - and to use triplets and triplet fragments to break things up

AND

its great to take up a lot of the bar of the major chord with the phrase targeting its third note. so you are playing e.g. d min and g 7 sounds whilst the c major sound is sounding

it is truly amazing how much harmonic space this opens up in a tune - and how much it improves the feel of your line

it makes everything sound purposive and rhythmically committed

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and you can either use the changes of the tune to determine the harmonic flight your arrow-phrases take towards their targets

or you can make it up yourself

so you can use the harmony of the two bars preceding a given sound to target a note in that sound - or you can just make up your own harmony

this is where serious flat five dominant substitution stuff is going to work wonders (e.g. like the stuff benson discusses in front of his fire place in that teaching video).

so far i'm not doing much other than 2/5s of various kinds into my target note - but you can structure the targeting line any way you like

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because you generate all sorts of interesting harmonic events by superimposing targeting harmony on top of the changes that are sounding you are using a rhythmical technique (call it 'rhythmical displacement') to generate harmonic effects (call them 'harmonic extensions').

i like the sound of that.

[pingu]

If you play
Em , A7 , Amin D7 , G
And you bring out the gt line
D , C# , C , B

Just noodling around in between those decending
Chromatic notes

Is that targeting ?
PS I mean I hit those guide tones on strong beats
And then decorate around that , hope that makes sense

[Groyniad]

yes that's a good example

you might go for those targets because they bring out something nice in the changes

and hitting those notes at the right times gives your phrases a sort of 'snap'

[pingu]

yes that's a good example

you might go for those targets because they bring out something nice in the changes

and hitting those notes at the right times gives your phrases a sort of 'snap'

OK great thanks , I been working on those 'targets' a bit recently
I call them GTLs (guide tone lines)

Yeah its like I'm making the changes AND I've got a nice
Descending line going on too at the same time

It almost sounds like I know what I'm doing sometimes !

There's a LOT of milage in those for me ....

Cool , I like targeting