Uncover the Art of Hearing Flexible Melodies
There can be an overwhelming amount of applications of modes and scales! One chord alone can yield more than a handful of possibilities, causing a brief delay from the mind’s understanding of what it hears, to transmitting that information onto the hands and fingers.
This bass lesson introduces the Spacial Hearing Concept. This concept is designed to eliminate any unnecessary thinking and over-intellectualizing when hearing a chord. Adding to that, the Spacial Hearing Concept creates Flexible Melodies that will naturally weave in and out of multiple modes and scales.
Introduction
Your musical perception can either free up your playing or it can limit you. An example where musical perception can be limiting is if an individual perceives a C major chord as a C major scale, or C lydian scale, or C major pentatonic scale, etc…
This perception tends to become limiting, because it continually tells the mind that a certain set of notes will work and implies that another set of notes will not.
Discover the Spacial Hearing Concept
The concept of Spacial Hearing states: When a chord is sounded, those tones are the most consonant with that chord. All other notes simply become chord extensions A.K.A melodic leading tones.
You will notice that this concept allows for greater note possibilities and naturally teaches you to hear the spacial distance between the chord tones, allowing you to create unique scales that are flexible.
Try it for Yourself
Let’s create an example. A chord is sounded. Hear the exact chord tones that are sounded. Try to not hear a chord and let your mind tell you, “Oh, that’s a C major chord…”
That thinking will defeat the purpose of developing this concept. Try not to define what this chord is.
So, hear the chord tones and figure them out on your bass. What are they? Let’s say that the chord that was being sounded is a 4-note voicing, played this way, from low to high: C, E, Bb, G.
Resist the urge to define this chord as a C dominant 7 chord. Resist the urge to settle and only play a C Mixolydian scale.
Here is the Spacial Hearing Concept again: The concept of Spacial Hearing states that when a chord is sounded, those tones are the most consonant with that chord. All other notes simply become chord extensions A.K.A melodic leading tones.
How To Apply the Spacial Hearing Concept
First isolate the lowest chord tones. In this example, the lowest chord tones are C and E.
Then, create a melodic line based on the space between those notes. There are many ways to create a melodic line from C to E.
Here are a few of those options:
- C, C#, D, D#, E
- C, C#, D#, E
- C, D, E
- etc…
Now listen to the space between E and Bb. There is a larger distance.
Because there is a larger distance between these chord tones, there are more options:
- E, F, F#, G, G#, A, Bb
- E, F#, G#, Bb
- E, F#, G, A, Bb
- etc…
Now listen to the space between Bb and G. Here are some of your options:
- Bb, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G
- Bb, C, D, E, F#, G
- Bb, B, C#, D, E, F, G
- etc…
Put Your Melodic Line Together
Playing any of these melodic lines over this example’s specific voicing will sound good, particularly in a contemporary jazz setting! Instead of specific scales being derived from the chord’s definition (C 7 = C Mixolydian), flexible melodic lines become derived in relation to how a chord is voiced.
The voicing of the chord alters the space between the chord tones, thus affecting the possibilities of other flexible scales that can be played.
This concept naturally teaches you to hear the blue notes and how they behave in relation to the chord tones being played.
You will also notice that when more notes are sounded to play a chord, the melodic sound becomes more defined.
Contrary, a single note being sounded ultimately provides the most freedom!
Practice this often and you soon you’ll be able to pick out any 2 notes in a chord and create flexible melodies that theoretically should not work, but actually do sound good over a chord!
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