This time I thought I'd take a look at how we can use quartal harmony to add interest to our playing in a jazz context.
Generally speaking the chords that most western music is based on are built on thirds. This means that there's an interval of a third between each of the notes of the chord and its nearest neighbour.
For example, using the scale of C major - C D E F G A B C - we can construct chords by choosing every third note from our root.
So if our root note is C and if we're building a three note chord we'll get a chord with the notes C E G. If our root note is D (still in the key of C major) then our three note chord will be D F A. We can of course do the same for all the other notes of the scale. (I'm not going to go into this too much here - I'm presuming this makes sense to you, and if it doesn't there are plenty of places online that cover this topic.)
A theoretical or fancy way of describing this kind of harmony based on thirds is tertian harmony. (It's sometimes called tertial harmony - both are correct although tertian is more usual.)
This brings us on to quartal harmony. As you might guess, if tertian harmony is based on thirds then quartal harmony is based on fourths.
So, in C major again, if we use quartal harmony to build our chord from the C root we'll end up with C F B E (I'm building a four note chord this time, because it gives a richer sound when we come to use it in a minute :) If we build our chord from D (in C major) we'll get D G C F.
Here are the notes and guitar TAB for the entire scale:
Speaking purely from a guitarist's point of view for a second, we can see that some of these chords look fairly familiar. Because we can't use as many fingers as pianists, for example, we often have to leave some notes out when we're playing extended chords. So when we're playing a Dm11 chord, we might well already use the voicing constructed on the D root above.
It's not really then the individual chords that result from this quartal approach that add interest to our playing; the interest comes rather from the movements between the chords and the general sound that results from using a few of them in combination. The best place to be able to use them in combination is in modal tunes, where the key/mode rests in one place long enough to allow this combination to happen.
Here's a sound clip example of how this quartal approach can be used over Coltrane's tune Impressions:
This tune alternates between Dm and Ebm with both chords having a strongly dorian modal feel. This being the case, I'm using the quartal harmony constructed from the D dorian and Eb dorian modes. As the dorian mode is the mode based on the 2nd note of the major scale, my D dorian quartal chords are the same as those we constructed on the C major scale above. (Again, I'm presuming you know about modes and that this makes sense to you!) For the Eb dorian section I simply move these a semitone higher.
Depending on how familiar these quartal harmony sounds are to you you may have noticed that right at the end I used some ideas not based on the dorian mode. These were based instead on the melodic minor scale, and I used them to imply a V chord against the D dorian (i.e. an A7). (Specifically, I was using the quartal harmony constructed on Bb melodic minor in to give me an altered A7 feel.)
Here's how these chords are constructed in C melodic minor (the C major scale with a flattened third):
Again, if you're a guitarist the chord based on the B root might look very familiar! (In the Impressions example when I wanted to imply A7 altered I simply dropped all these chords based on C melodic minor down a tone.)
You can hear these quartal ideas in action on my tune Banderilla. The first part of the tune is based on the E phrygian mode, and if you know your modes you'll know that this is the third mode of the C major scale, so again I was able to use exactly the same chords that we constructed on the C major scale above.
I hope this brief introduction to constructing and using quartal harmony has been of some use! If I've presumed too much knowledge anywhere above, let me know because I might be able to fill in the gaps in a future blog.
In the meantime if this is new to you just try to play around with these ideas, relax and ..wait for it.. use the 4ths! (Sorry, couldn't resist.. :)
Cheers for now,
Chris
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