Ricardo -> RE: Terms - modal vs tonal, color vs out note (Jan. 31 2021 20:54:48)
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ORIGINAL: kitarist quote:
K, this is good! Thinking an edited version of this should be on your Flamenco wheel, you know, for us musically challanged Thanks HR! However, Ricardo has been posting about this for years here [:)] I'd think for a how-to, he can summarize the basics best, or at least look over what I wrote and add to/edit it. Some relevant information. Most non-flamenco theorists view the normal major/minor circle to encompass all that is needed or possible in equal temperament. They would probably view our augmentation to the circle odd, and after understanding its implications for general music, they would find it redundant. So this augmentation applies specifically and uniquely to flamenco music or flamenco related fusions (I am thinking jazz fusion guys, guitar trio etc). So let me first speak on the inner portion of the circle first. The most relevant thing the circle reveals to guitar players is the relative “family of chords” that share a key signature. What that means is this. If you take the turning wheel and pick a key or key center you are interested in (by note name), lets say B major. What you do is turn the wheel so B/G#minor are in the 12 o’clock postion. What you can now visualize is the family of chords encompassed by the 11 o’clock, 12 o’clock and 1 o’clock positions only. Again, only talking about the inner two rings. You can see there are 3 majors and 3 minors in the family. Left to right that is E-B-F# and underneath C#m- G#m-D#m. Ignoring the scale or other relationships to those chords at first you can notice that if you have a song that uses any combination of those 6 chords, in any sequence, well, they all share the key signature seen at 12 o’clock. So that means 5# in their specific order. So something as simple as E->D#m chords back and forth, even without claiming them from the “Key of B or G#minor” you become aware they share a single scale of notes with 5#. The concept of E lydian, or D# phrygian is arbitrary as you are simply using the same notes for both harmonies. From there you can notice if you have sequence that uses B-G#m-E-C#m, that you have a situation that can be EITHER 5# OR 4# because no information is given by the chords themselves to tell you which position the wheel is sitting in. That means you can force a “Meaning” or “flavor” upon the progression simply by using a melody that either has A# or A natural, your choice. Over time of experimenting, both your ear and your mind will develop a command over how chords scales and keys operate all together. You start to develop an intuition about the “sameness” of mixolydian sound (F# major using the 5#, or in other words the 1 o’clock position chord) and dominant function. Anytime you invoke a mixolydian sounding melody, your are creating a dominant type function relative to whatever you were doing before that. For example playing B mixolydian is the same as turn the wheel one click to the right such that now E or 4# are sitting at 12 o’clock. In fact ANY accidental against your existing key signature is creating a new tritone situation. For example a G natural suddenly appears in your melody and you suddenly have to turn your wheel until a G natural pops up (2# position) and you realize that you might be evoking a B minor type sound (most often the F#7b9 is what is invoked, but there are other options such as E minor, again borrowed from the 2# family). The way “secondary dominant function” works is you are briefly turning your wheel to tonicize any specific chord in your key. So If I want to tonicize C# minor, I locate C# major first (Db on this wheel) look at the 1 o’clock postion chord (Ab major) and thusly precede my C#minor with some form of an Ab dominant7 chord or melody. The more consonant sound will be the one that relates to our 5# situation (G#7b9 for example, phrygian dominant sound vs Ab mixolydian). That specific example brings in the “problem” with Minor key V-i functions in general. The actual v chord in C#minor is a G# minor chord, and it has a very weak pull such that it is indistinguishable from and E major key passage moving politely from iii-vi....so minor keys necessarily BORROW the strong 1 o’clock dominant chord function in order to tonicize the minor key tonic. That borrowing, as you can see on the wheel here, is why accidentals in the minor key are introduced. Harmonic minor created by borrowing the 1 o’clock postion chords from the same named major key. Melodic minor borrows the 11 o’clock chord as well. (Db postion again has Gb chord on left, and the Ab discussed on the right. That means C# melodic minor can use an F# major chord AND the G# major chord thanks to the borrowing of those two chords). Once the tricky solutions to minor keys are learned and understood, we can then starting looking at Flamenco “keys” and how they function. Simply put, the tritone sub for the 1 o’clock postion chord in dominant7 form is what is used. Going back to our 5# situation, we see D# as the “flamenco key”. The 1 o’clock postion chord is Bb/A#...the tritone sub of which is E natural. So an E7 chord serves to pull strongly to D# phrygian key. We can see E is already in the chord family in the major ring 11 o’clock position. So that same chord position can always be used to force a phrygian cadence anytime we want....and indeed when modulations are done (more often in modern flamenco than traditional), that is how it is done. Example, you want to tonicize an F# flamenco sound (Taranta), instead of jump there you can make a smooth transition by using the 11 o’clock position major (G major) and making it dominant (G7) serves to strengthen the move. I could go on but that is already a lot for now.
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