SHAUN’S CREATIVE ROCK
Shaun Baxter continues to explore ways of applying various intervals to create ear-catching results with Mixolydian blues. This month: 6ths.
Shaun Baxter continues his series showing how using specific intervals can give your playing a new edge. This month: 6ths.
In this current series, we’ve been looking at ways of exploring specific intervals within Mixolydian mode, and this lesson we’ve arrived at 6ths. Within the modes of the Major scale, 6ths will be one of two types:
• Minor 6th = four tones
• Major sixth = four and a half tones To illustrate this, Diagram 1 presents the notes of D Major and any of its modes (the A Mixolydian is its fifth mode). If you start from any note, and then move in any direction, clockwise or anti-clockwise, to another note that’s five notes away (in other words, with four scale notes in between both notes), the distance is either a perfect 6th (mostly) or a Diminished one ( b6).
Sixths sound soft and melodic, similar to 3rds. In fact, a 6th is an inversion of a 3rd: for example, C# up to A is a Minor 6th, whereas C# down to A is a Major 3rd.
Stylistically, 6th intervals are used extensively, both in their single-note and double-stop form, in pop and country music, and various forms of blues.
Generally, when playing 6th intervals, you have the choice of playing them: a) on adjacent strings (which will involve a large stretch); b) with a string-skip (this approach is more ‘vertical’ as the notes will always be on one or two frets, but it presents more work for the picking hand when playing single notes).
During this series, our aim is to build up a variety of intervalbased approaches over the same backing track (see Diagram 2). Once you have absorbed the various concepts featured within this lesson, you should aim to apply the same principles to the other scales that you know - shifting ideas up and down the length of the neck (lateral motion), as well as staying within the same neck area (vertical motion) - in order to develop useful repertoire that you can draw upon when improvising.
Also, you should aim to execute each and all of the following basic permutations both up and down through each shape of a scale:
• A series of ascending 6ths.
• A series of descending 6ths.
• A series of 6ths that alternate between ascending and descending.
• A series of 6ths that alternate between descending and ascending.
As well as trying other permutations, such as: • ‘Up, up, down’ or ‘down, down, up ‘ etc. • Various configurations on each 6th interval: • Low note + high note + low note
• High note + low note + high note
• Playing ideas that are a multiple of two (2, 4 or 8) to a triplet count.
• Playing ideas that are a multiple of three (3, 6 etc) to a duple count (eighths, 16ths, etc).
Finally, regarding the backing track, most drummers would write out the drum part in 6/8; however, for ease of reading on guitar, I have stuck to 4/4, viewing the bass drum pattern as a quarter-note triplet rhythm. If your rhythm reading isn’t great; don’t worry about it: just read the tab and use your ears.
I’d strongly recommend you recap on previous lessons in this series, since combining different intervals will make your solos sound a lot more interesting. Focusing on just one type will soon get boring for you and the listener.
NEXT MONTH Shaun brings us another solo using specific intervals. Next month: 7ths
“In this lesson we look at 6ths. Within the modes of the Major scale, 6ths will be one of two types: Minor 6th and Major 6th”