and love, and the right column shows
quartal grips that differ from their adjacent
pals by only one note. For example, look
at the top pair—E7 and E11. The first
chord will be very familiar to most players.
To get the second—which consists of two
perfect fourths (E–A and A–D) topped by
an augmented fourth (D–G#)—you simply
drop E7’s B a whole-step to A.
In our previous two lessons, we didn’t
try to name the quartal forms we generated, simply because we’d left the world
of traditional harmony—and its nomenclature—to explore a brave new realm
where the old rules didn’t apply. But in
this E11, we have a purely quartal voicing
(E–A–D–G#) that we also can name and
describe in conventional terms. Ah-ha!
Sometimes quartal harmony can insinuate
itself into the world of third-based chords.
Fig. 2 illustrates how easy it is to combine third- and fourth-based harmony, and
how well these sounds blend. Essentially,
we;have;an;Em7-A;progression—a;ii-V
in the key of D. But by changing Em7 to
Em11, a one-note alteration, we inject a
sense of mystery to the simple progression
by having it begin with quartal harmony.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could
bring the ambiguous, angular sounds
of quartal voicings into the world
of traditional tertian harmony?
Fortunately, we can.
In Fig. 3, we use a yet another min11
voicing;to;color;the;Vm-IV-I;progression
in E Mixolydian.
Of course, we’re not limited to minor
substitutions. This “stealth” quartal technique of modifying tertian chords works
well with dominant chords too—
especially when you want a biting, funky riff, as
in Fig. 4. Thanks to the tangy E11, we’ve
put some attitude into what would be a
bluesy, yet otherwise pretty tame I7-%VII-
IV7;groove;in;the;key;of;E.;Again,;one
note makes all the difference between a
ho-hum E7 and a whoa E11.
So far in this lesson, we’ve been smug-
gling modified four-note seventh chords
into our progressions. But three-note quar-
tal clusters work well with tertian chords
too, as shown in Fig. 5. If you look care-
fully at the B11, C#11, and E11 clusters
in this example, you’ll see they’re simply
stripped-down versions of the four-note
E11 fingering shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 4
&
####
™ ™
4
4
E11 oeoeoeoe n
>oeoeoeoeJ ‰ oeoe n OE
E11 > oeoeoeoe n oeoeoeoeJ ‰ oe n oe OE
E11 > oeoeoeoe n oeoeoeoeJ ‰ oeoe n oe #j‰
D Ab7 A7
oeoeoe n oe oeoeoe b n oeoeoe n n OE
™™
let ring
¿
˙
™
™
7
7
7
9
45
7
7
7
9
7
7
7
9
57
7
7
7
9
7
7
7
9
7
7
7
4
5
4
5
6
5
™
™
9
10
11
9
Fig. 5
™ ™
4
4
B11
oe oe oe™™™
C#11
oeoeoej ˙˙˙
F#m
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
E11
oeoeoe oeoeoe OE
B11
&
###
oeoeoeoeoeoe˙
oeoeoe oeoeoe OE
C#m11
G#dim7
F#m7
oeoeoeoe oeoeoe n#
˙
˙˙˙
™™
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
˙
™
™
4
4
4
2
2
2
24
4
4
7
7
7
7
7
7
2
2
2
2
2
2
4
4
4
5
4
3
4
3
2
2
2
2
™
™
