Thanks Ash....not sure at all why that doesn't play for me...I even linked it to facebook and joined...oh well, perhaps eventually...if only there was a no frills audio version of photobucket...or is there?
By the way, like the title...so many things you can do with the word "black"...we could sit around over a few drinks for weeks making puns and attempting to play "I want you black", "black in the saddle again"... (I had a band concept once where every song was "blue"...LOL)
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Interestingly I've heard a few people try and make "blues' out of it...never successfully mind!
Played a bit with some whole tone things this morning...you can get some "monk" type melodies out of it...find a little interesting twist perhaps and add it to something more tonal...that's the point of trying these things, just expand the palette a little.
That said, most things I know the theory but you don't get to play things too often like this and I generally like to find some kind of "cheat"...I was about to add it to the things to play thread...might do, but may as well post it here....
How many "whole tone licks" does one need...well possibly none...however...over an A chord...
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-------2-4------4-6------6-8--------8-10---------10-12---------12-14-------14-16-b17~~
--2-4------4-6------6-8------8-10--------10-12---------12-14--------14-16----
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This ones kind of a cool cheat that exploits the g/b string major third interval there to make a two finger sequence that can really zip along and ending by bending into the 5th that has been avoided all that time, the semitone to E.
Using two fingers you could hammer them or pick them and really get this thing moving...remember if played fast enough, and especially if there is some 'internal logic' to the patterns, you can get away with just about anything as long as you end on the perfect note at the right time...and in this lick, it does that and counters the scales directionless-ness with a powerful forward momentum.
Used like this, you get a bit of ear candy in a short burst and something impressive to play and looks good, but dead easy to achieve...as I say, I tend to 'cheat'...LOL
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As always a pic with a lick...so something seasonal from the island...
Bloody tourists everywhere...
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And just as an after thought...
I don't have synethesia or anything, but I do try and think of a lot of these things in terms of "colours"...to me, the WT things are anything but black, perhaps a really washed out grey...more likely a kind of pastel...perhaps mauve.
I tend towards earthy tones...but especially really bright primary colours these days it seems. And I tend to think of say a tonic chord as say Yellow in major, blue for the IV, Red for the V...that kind of thing. That minor sub-dominant affect we have been 'trainspotting' in franks thread perhaps a kind of Purple iv chord, an Augmented chord...not sure, kind of murky green perhaps?...an add 9 chord an almost fluro yellow to a I chord, a sus or add 2 a kind of washed out yellow maybe.
It's not that I can see these things, though synethesia is more common than people realize apparently, but it's that impression and you can kind of train yourself to think that way. It can be kind of cool to then be able to "work' with a tonal palette in that way in composing.
Un/fortunately I have something of an aversion for too many washed out mauve or pastels...
I do like 'black' though...not sure what I would consider 'black'...a ii chord is kind of orange, a ii chord kind of green...a vi chord kind of deep blue.
A lot of people associate diminished sounds with something, satanic but really, they seem like a more spicy V chord which is red...hand on, perhaps that is satanic then...but not black...
closest thing I can come up with is this kind of shadowy (not the band) thing that adds an add 9 to the classic minor James Bond Theme
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---0--1--2--1------------------------------------
---0--0--0--0------------------------------------
---2--2--2--2------------------------------------
---2--2--2--2-----------------------------------
---0--0--0--0------------------------------------
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--------0------0------0------0-------------------
------4------4------4------4---------------------
----2------3------4------3-----------------------
--0------0------0------0-------------------------
Yes...that's kind of "inky" and 'black'...
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Anyway...a good exercise perhaps to play a chord or scale or interval and try and associate it with something like colour, or...as I say, don't have synethesia myself but it is probably an internal potential in most of us and you can train yourself to get the idea.
Some true synethetic people really do hear music as colours...now that would be weird...and recent experiments in neurology have been able to induce it in people with powerful magnetic things I believe for short times...and with drugs like LSD or mushrooms I believe...not sure I'd be going down that road to experience it...best to stick to the 'theory' and your imagination!