| Visit Our Catalog at SteelGuitarShopper.com |

Post new topic This guitar concept presents a dilemma for PSG
Reply to topic
Author Topic:  This guitar concept presents a dilemma for PSG
Bo Legg


Post  Posted 25 Sep 2013 9:10 am    
Reply with quote

Don’t ask me how but this really works on jazz guitar.
The concept of pattern playing just does not present itself in the same manor as a PSG
I’ve just got to mention this and it might explain our (Stuart and I) dilemma

Stuart had this thing he created that the Theory explanation for it was about 2 pages long.

Stuart explained that the theory was just a complicated musical explanation to what was simply derived from fret board patterns which in reality were as Stuart explained mirror chords that shared a note or notes of the chord as well as passing notes which were on the mirror surface with the original outside the mirror and the reverse within the mirror. Boy that really explained it.

I other words you were looking at the edge of the mirror and that mirror was one fret and image within the mirror was a chord on frets on one side of the mirror and the original was on frets on the other side of the mirror with the shared notes all on one fret (the mirror surface).

However if you looked at it with the understanding of the mirror explanation and visualized it on the fret board in that manor it was easy.
But if you tried to think of it in terms of theory it was almost impossible.

Then compound the whole thing by applying it to the PSG
View user's profile Send private message
Larry Behm


From:
Mt Angel, Or 97362
Post  Posted 25 Sep 2013 10:41 am    
Reply with quote

Wow if this is what it took to play steel we would be in trouble.

For me things like P1 is the relative minor of the open chord and P1 and P2 make the 4 chord etc etc make it pretty easy to understand.

Beyond that it depends on who is paying any attention to what you are playing, and does it really matter. Just saying.

Larry Behm
_________________
'70 D10 Black fatback Emmons PP, Hilton VP, BJS bars, Boss GE-7 for Dobro effect, Zoom MS50G, Stereo Steel amp, Telonics 15” speaker.

Phone: 971-219-8533
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Rick Schacter

 

From:
Portland, Or.
Post  Posted 25 Sep 2013 11:38 am    
Reply with quote

Larry Behm wrote:
Wow if this is what it took to play steel we would be in trouble.

For me things like P1 is the relative minor of the open chord and P1 and P2 make the 4 chord etc etc make it pretty easy to understand.

Larry Behm


Yep,I agree.
Your Pickin' Pockets video is much easier to understand.

Rick
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Dave Grafe


From:
Hudson River Valley NY
Post  Posted 25 Sep 2013 6:11 pm    
Reply with quote

What note is the bass playing?
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Bo Legg


Post  Posted 25 Sep 2013 6:36 pm    
Reply with quote

Here is an example mp3 and spreadsheet
I just noodled a bit with it on guitar. I really didn't do it justice but you can get the idea from it.
on first part of mp3 I play the mirror chords, then I play the notes of the chords in an ascending scale and then I add the passing tones and play as an ascending scale and then I adlib through the rest at that same position using only those notes. I bend the 6 to the 7 in a few places.
click here

View user's profile Send private message
Dick Sexton


From:
Greenville, Ohio
Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 4:05 am     Delimma?
Reply with quote

You've peaked my interest... More please.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Bo Legg


Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 2:28 pm    
Reply with quote

Here is a few of the chord forms of mirroring and a track of playing those in each scale over a
1 2m 5(7) 1 and 6m 2m 5(7) 1 chord progression.
I played the mirror chords over the first part of the song just so you could hear the mirror (normally I would not play those as a chord, just the scale derived from them.
In the second part I adlib the scales at each mirror following the chord progression.
I could have given the playing more effort but it’s good enough to give you the idea.
Click Here
View user's profile Send private message
Donny Hinson

 

From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 2:30 pm     Re: This guitar concept presents a dilemma for PSG
Reply with quote

Bo Legg wrote:
Don’t ask me how but this really works on jazz guitar. you were looking at the edge of the mirror and that mirror was one fret and image within the mirror was a chord on frets on one side of the mirror and the original was on frets on the other side of the mirror with the shared notes all on one fret (the mirror surface).



Try as I might to understand, this make absolutely no sense at all. Sad I may be wrong, but I don't feel you need to translate anything done on straight guitar to pedal steel to help you learn. There are patterns on straight guitar, and patterns on pedal steel, but you shouldn't get bummed if they're different.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 4:48 pm    
Reply with quote

What is a "mirror chord"? Can you put this into notes instead of diagrams? For example, what is the mirror chord of C major (C E G)? Is it (G E C)? That's what I imagine.

I have never heard the term "mirror chord" before now.
_________________
-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Stuart Legg


Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 5:36 pm    
Reply with quote

Well as usual Bo’s “what he said was” it is close but……... Laughing

Let’s start over with this….

Traditional or tonal music is made up of non-symmetrical groups of pitches, such as the diatonic scale or the major chord.
Symmetrical is scales or chords, such as the whole tone scale, augmented chord or diminished , diminished chords (diminished-diminished seventh).

What I’m doing is applying mirror symmetry to traditional non-symmetrical scales and chords.

I arrange chords or scales so at a given fret used as the axis of symmetry, if I folded the neck across the axis fret it would result in two identical halves.

However the PSG neck doesn’t fold like that since it uses a tone bar and naturally seeks moving perpendicular groupings out of necessity as apposed to more horizontal use of fingers on standard guitar.

So the problem is transcribing horizontal logic to a mostly perpendicular instrument.
View user's profile Send private message
Alan Tanner


From:
Near Dayton, Ohio
Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 5:53 pm    
Reply with quote

Couldn't you just strum up instead of down???
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Bo Legg


Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 6:12 pm    
Reply with quote

Mirror symmetry is correct term.
b0b The word " mirror chords" came out of the blue as i was writting.
Mirror symmetry for C E G would be G Bb D low to high in scale but Stuart is deriving scales from mirrored chords and it would be low to high C E G C E B if you folded it on the C E at the 5th fret or high to low C G E D A E if you folded it at the E on the 9th fret and etc..
View user's profile Send private message
Stuart Legg


Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 6:53 pm    
Reply with quote

Bo you did a Frighteningly great job describing the dilemma Laughing

Here is couple of the derived scales of some mirror symmetric chords that I transcribed to perpendicular on E9. the D lever lowers the 2nd string 1/2 step.

View user's profile Send private message
Stuart Legg


Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 7:39 pm    
Reply with quote

I did notice in deriving scales with passing tones with this method I seem to be coming up with a reoccurring sequence of chromatic notes.

There is usually a 5 #5 6 b7 sequence in the minor and dominate 7 chord derived scales and a 7 1 b9 9 sequence on the major chord derived scales.

So I just decided to apply that and that only to the PSG.
This means that my iii with passing tones will work perfectly for the major chords as well and I’ve notice the ii minor and passing tones works well for the V7.
So you can basically use the two scales I listed above thru a I ii V7 I chord progression.

I much prefer the V7 scale to the substituted ii because it keeps the 5 #5 6 b7 which just sounds better to me since it is a reoccurring part of this picking style.
View user's profile Send private message
b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 26 Sep 2013 9:25 pm    
Reply with quote

I'd like to point out that there are no frets in music theory. Mirroring the fretboard is a pseudo-random approach to composition. It doesn't seem to be very useful to me.

I did an album once that applied varying degrees of genuine randomness to all of the notes, usually within an established musical context (actual scales, chords, etc.). The results weren't very listenable, according to most of my friends and family. Your mileage may vary, I suppose.
_________________
-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Dick Sexton


From:
Greenville, Ohio
Post  Posted 27 Sep 2013 3:25 am     Mirrors...
Reply with quote

I've been exploring mirroring on the E9th neck for a while now. Most, don't sound to country
and some might say, not even musical. But of course they are.

One example that comes to mind:

1_____________________________________________
2_____________________________________________
3_____________________________________________
4_____________________________________________
5__________________10_________________________
6_______________10____10______________________
7____________9___________11___________________
8__10__9--8_________________12__11--10________
9_______________________________________10____
10____________________________________________

Bo and Stu, keep up the good work... I always find interesting things in what you do.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
David Mason


From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
Post  Posted 27 Sep 2013 4:59 am    
Reply with quote

Quote:
Mirroring the fretboard is a pseudo-random approach to composition.


I don't totally discount "shapes" as a means to an end. Jazz guitarist Howard Roberts was a great fan of basically randomized fretboard shapes to bust up the standard "box" patterns and escape from the diatonic blahs - although on a guitar, it's kind of hard not to play something that fits some established scale. Guitarists like John Scofield and Pat Martino are big on shapes.

Composers in both the jazz and classical have been writing with "randomizers" seemingly forever - assigning notes to alphabetic letters with some sort of code, and then writing music based on names, words, poems etc. It's almost a "standard randomizing" technique. Laughing Nicolas Slonimsky was barking up the randomizer tree with his "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" too.

A few years back I was looking through some books to find something to assign guitar students and I came across "Guitar Fitness - an Exercising Handbook." Everything in the book is based around finger independence, being able to play any and all patterns with equal facility, skipping strings to reach way over to a couple of notes then back.... And as soon as I started working through a few things I though "Holy Cow! I'm writing the first three Dream Theater albums!" There is absolutely NO WAY that John Petrucci wasn't using this book while he was writing Dream Theater music.

Regarding "mirroring", it does seem clear that in the way you're employing it, you'll be generating
"wider", larger intervals on the right side of the mirror, and much more close voicings on the left side - just part of the structure.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Stuart Legg


Post  Posted 27 Sep 2013 8:31 am    
Reply with quote

I in no way suggest that a person play mirror chords as such in a chord progression. I’m only suggesting mirror chords as a means of achieving a scale.

I chose mirror chords that are tonally compatible and each some degree of a given chord.

I’m really suggesting a mean of notes low to high in 4ths 3 times then a 3rd and then another 4th and using some or all these six mean of notes within a scale to be derived by rule “if any note of the mean of notes is preceded by a note ½ step or a whole step below must be followed by the same step degree above“.

This means that my passing notes will always be within the mean of notes and the notes below and above the mean of notes were pre-selected as a given to be compatible with Traditional Tonal Theory.
Random maybe, maybe not but good results is diffidently predictable.
View user's profile Send private message
b0b


From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
Post  Posted 27 Sep 2013 9:06 am    
Reply with quote

I encourage random shapes for technique building. Many of Joe Wright's exercises are non-musical patterns. They expand your muscle memory so that when you come up with a new musical idea, your body won't have to be trained to execute it.

It's easy to fall into ruts, especially if you're always playing the same kind of music. Many of us struggle with minor keys because the patterns we've learned don't fit. Our fingers, feet and knees are coordinated to play country music and little else. Any exercises that break us out of those patterns are good.
_________________
-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website

All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Jump to:  
Please review our Forum Rules and Policies
Our Online Catalog
Strings, CDs, instruction, and steel guitar accessories
www.SteelGuitarShopper.com

The Steel Guitar Forum
148 S. Cloverdale Blvd.
Cloverdale, CA 95425 USA

Click Here to Send a Donation

Email SteelGuitarForum@gmail.com for technical support.


BIAB Styles
Ray Price Shuffles for Band-in-a-Box
by Jim Baron