Today’s Lockdown Lessons is about a common Blues Embellishment. You’ll hear this all over Blues Rhythm Guitar parts so I’m going to explain its derivation in order that you can both understand it and invent your own ways of applying it. First let’s have a listen to it:
Here’s the notation & TAB:
Now for the explanation:
What’s happening here is actually something called ‘Triad Superimposition’. It sounds more complicated than it is! Triad Superimposition is where you play one triad (or in this case 2) over another tonality to yield an extended sound using shapes you’ll already know. The main reason you’d do this though is because triads are very strong sounds so using Triad Superimposition makes your ideas sound very bold. Perhaps this is why the embellishment in question is so ubiquitous….
So in this instance we’re superimposing a Minor Triad built off the 6th degree of A (F#) and resolving it to another Minor Triad built off the 5th degree of A (E) - both of these triads are indigenous to the parent A Mixolydian scale. In doing this these triads are yielding the following intervals as relates to A7:
So you can see we’re implying A6 - A9 by superimposing these two triads. We’re doing the same when we play over D7 only we’re superimposing Bm and Am over D. In bars 2 & 4 I’ve used different inversions of minor triads just to show you another option in the same position of the neck.
The quick ‘in’ to locating these triads is to think of any minor triad built from the 5th of your Root. So if we were playing over C7 we’d think of a G minor triad. You can then play that minor triad shape a tone above the 5th and you’ll have your 6th. You could even slide the minor triad from the 5th up to the 6th and then back to the 5th (which is pretty much what I’m doing in the demo). You can do this with any minor triad (or inversion thereof) that you know on the guitar and you’ll have this sound!
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Thanks so much, James.