HYBRID INTERVALLIC APPROACHES

Last time around I introduced you to some intervallic approaches to playing scale forms. These included intervallic 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, and 7ths. Hopefully, these exercises are helping you to implement a method of phrasing that sounds less like ëscale practiceí and more like melodies. In this article, we will take fragments from my last article and combine them together into new hybrid intervallic approaches.

Intervallic practice is quite beneficial to us as players because it trains our ears to recognize more ëangular-soundingí melodic shapes and forms, as opposed to pure scalar movement. For a lot of players, the shapes that they are able to recall based on what they are spontaneously hearing are limited to a small group of patterns that have been practiced independently of their performance situations. In other words, the shapes that they can play ëby earí are limited to simple exercises that sound like rehearsed patterns and not much more, simply because that is what they have spent hours repeating over and over again in the practice shed. Because of this, it is necessary that we constantly push the envelope of our current level of ear training and phrase recognition. This means forcing ourselves to learn to play and hear shapes that we are not familiar with already. You will find that the better you are at recognizing intervals, the faster you will be able to transcribe more challenging lines or learn complex phrases by ear. Subsequently, you will also gain the ability to recall these more advanced shapes spontaneously, both on the gig and in critical recording situations.

For the following examples, we will refer again to our reference major scale pattern that we have used in previous articles, using a 3 note per string position, as demonstrated in previous columns. The fingerings are given for 4 string, 5 string, and 6 string bass in figs. 1a.-1c.

Fig. 1a


Fig. 1b


Fig. 1c


The following examples will utilize the range of a 4 string bass, using a G major scale pattern played in a single position. (Start the pattern on the 3rd fret E string.) Remember to keep your hand in position as shown, using only the fingerings specified for the duration of each exercise.

Method 1: Combining 2 intervallic shapes
Using this method, we take two intervals and combine them together into one exercise, alternating the interval off of each scale degree in order.

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Example 1a: Combining 6ths and 3rds
In this example, we alternate playing an intervallic 6th and an intervallic 3rd off of each successive scale degree. The exercise written in scale degrees would look like this:

Ascending: 1-6, 2-4, 3-8, 4-6, 5-10, 6-8, 7-12, 8-10
Descending: 12-7, 11-9, 10-5, 9-7, 8-3, 7-5, 6-1, 5-3

Ex. 1a
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Example 1b: Combining 3rds and 5ths
In this example, we alternate playing an intervallic 5th and an intervallic 3rd off of each successive scale degree. The exercise written in scale degrees would look like this:

Ascending: 1-3, 2-6, 3-5, 4-8, 5-7, 6-10, 7-9, 8-12
Descending: 12-10, 11-7, 10-8, 9-5, 8-6, 7-3, 6-4, 5-1

Ex. 1b


Example 1c: Combining 4ths and 7ths
In this example, we alternate playing an intervallic 4th and an intervallic 7th off of each successive scale degree. The exercise written in scale degrees would look like this:

Ascending: 1-4, 2-8, 3-6, 4-10, 5-8, 6-12
Descending: 12-9, 11-5, 10-7, 9-3, 8-5, 7-1

Ex. 1c

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Method 2: Combining 2 consecutive intervals
Using this approach, we would first choose an interval and then play it twice, consecutively, from each scale degree. This can also be referred to as the ëstackingí of intervals.

Example 2a: Playing 2 consecutive 5ths
In this example, we play an intervallic 5th off of each scale degree, and then another intervallic 5th above that. The result is a 3 note grouping off of each scale degree created from the stacking of 2 intervallic 5ths. The exercise written in scale degrees would look like this:

Ascending: 1-5-9, 2-6-10, 3-7-11, 4-8-12
Descending: 12-8-4, 11-7-3, 10-6-2, 9-5-1

Ex. 2a

Example 2b: Playing 2 consecutive 3rds
In this example, we play an intervallic 3rd off of each scale degree, and then another intervallic 3rd above that. The result is a 3 note grouping off of each scale degree created from the stacking of 2 intervallic 3rds. (This is the same idea as playing a diatonic triad off of each scale degree.) The exercise written in scale degrees would look like this:

Ascending: 1-3-5, 2-4-6, 3-5-7, 4-6-8, 5-7-9, 6-8-10, 7-9-11, 8-10-12
Descending: 12-10-8, 11-9-7, 10-8-6, 9-7-5, 8-6-4, 7-5-3, 6-4-2, 5-3-1

Ex. 2b

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Example 2c: Playing 2 consecutive 4ths
In this example, we play an intervallic 4th off of each scale degree, and then another intervallic 4th above that. The result is a 3 note grouping off of each scale degree created from the stacking of 2 intervallic 4ths. The exercise written in scale degrees would look like this:

Ascending: 1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9, 4-7-10, 5-8-11, 6-9-12
Descending: 12-9-6, 11-8-5, 10-7-4, 9-6-3, 8-5-2, 7-4-1

Ex. 2c


Obviously, these are just a few of the many possibilities for integrating hybrid intervallic approaches into your practice routine. You will find that the more you push yourself to learn the shapes and sounds of these types of examples, the more creative you will become in improvisational contexts. Furthermore, the angular shapes of these exercises will likewise challenge you technically. If you practice these at a variety of tempos in a disciplined fashion, your speed and dexterity will also improve. You might also want to try these using different types of techniques. For example, try mixing together a slap and fingerstyle approach to playing each of these. You might be pleasantly suprised by what you come up with. Until then, happy practicing!

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