Student’s question:
Hi, I am enjoying the course and learning a lot. I have a question related to the third harmonic environment. I understand that the leading half step from note 3 to note 4 is what gives the scale its dark, brooding quality. Sometimes the 4 works, but I see it more as an avoid note, especially when playing jazz. Am I wrong?
How we think about this in IFR:
That’s a great observation and a good starting point. It’s wonderful that you’re listening to each note and noticing the sensations produced by each one. And you’re making your own choices about which sounds you find beautiful. All of this is exactly right.
But this is the point where labels become obsolete. You can call that note 4 an “avoid note” or a “forbidden tension” or a “hip note” or “the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard”. But all of this is totally subjective. The meaning of each note is determined by your own personal musical culture and history.
For example, I LOVE the sound of note 4 in the third harmonic environment! For me, it’s a gorgeous tension that brings an air of flamenco or even classical music into my improvising. But to a person with a different musical background and experiences, this sound could be so surprising that it merely sounds “wrong” and causes dismay.
In Improvise for Real, we don’t express any opinions or value judgments about the sounds. We just want to give you two things: (1) an understanding of where each sound “lives” in any key on your instrument, and (2) the creative exercises that will enable you to get to know each sound for yourself.
Once you’ve gained that direct, personal experience with each sound, it no longer matters how other people label any given note because you have your own direct knowledge of the thing itself. But everything you expressed about that sound is totally understandable. So I just encourage you to make a note of those observations, but to also keep an open mind about the future. As with anything else in life (foods, activities, people, etc.), sometimes our first impressions can be negative but we later come to love them. The same can happen with sounds.
But if that hasn’t happened for you with this particular sound yet, then you are 100% right to avoid it and concentrate on other sounds that you find more pleasing. That’s exactly how we discover our own musical voice. Thanks for sharing that discovery!
