Jambole.com – for Guitarists

If you want to get to the arpeggio charts, click here: Quartal Arpeggio Charts

Background

Standard Western musical harmony is based on stacked thirds. So for example a C Major Chord is made by playing a “C”, the note a third above that which would be an “E” then the note a third above that which would be a “G”. We can then extend that idea by adding the note a third above that to make a 7th, then a 9th, and 11th and a 13th. Hopefully simple stuff, if you’ve read my previous article on Chord Naming.

Quartal harmony has a similar structure however fourths are used instead of thirds, which gives some interesting results.

So lets start this example with the note “B” (You can pick any starting note, this just simplifies my example).

The fourth above a “B” is an “E”, The fourth above that is an “A”.

If I were to treat the “E” as a root, we’d have the 4th (A) and 5th (B) notes. (How many songs can you play just with those 3 chords?)

Lets extend this a little further. A fourth above an “A” is a “D” the fourth above that is a “G”. If I write that out as E, G, A, B, D we have the 5 notes that comprise an E Minor/ G Major Pentatonic scale!

Lets extend it a little further, a fourth above a “G” is “C”, a fourth above a “C” is an “F”.  Writing that out in order, we have “C”, “D”, “E”, “F”, “G”, “A”, “B”. All the notes of a “C” Major scale!

Lets take it further moving in 4ths, we have Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, then (Cb or enharmonically a B again – back where we started). Writing this out in order, we have C Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B. In other words all the notes of the Chromatic scale!

Wow, so much contained by moving in steps of a single, simple interval.

Comparing Quartal Chords to Standard Chords

Quartal arpeggios and harmonies are most often used against a standard harmonic background, so it’s often worth understanding how to translate Quartal harmonies into standard ones.

Writing out the first 3 Quartal chord tones, I have a 1, 4 and b7.  Moving the 4 to the next octave, we have 1, b7 and 11.  As you can imagine, this functions as an 11th chord, though the lack of a 3rd means that if can function as a Dominant or Minor 11th.

If I rearrange these notes to be b7, 1, and 4, then adjust the numbers to treat the b7 as a root, we have… the notes 1, 2, 5. which are the chord tones of a Sus2 chord, or alternatively a 9th chord without a 3rd or 7th notes.

If I rearrange these to be 4, b7, 1 then adjust the numbers to treat the 4 as a root, we have 1, 4, 5 or 1, 5, 11. This can be Thought of as a Sus4 chord, or alternatively  an 11th chord, without the 3rd or 7th notes.

Hopefully you can see in every case, we miss a 3rd so the chords are ambiguous about whether they are major or minor in character. This give these chords their own unique quality.

Ok, enough of the theory, we’ll get into some arpeggios laid out for the guitar in the next article.