4TH INTERVALS

This month Shaun Baxter enters ‘quartal’ territory by looking at how to use 4th intervals to create modern sounding blues-rock solos.

- Shaun Baxter

ABILITY RATING

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Info

Key: A

Tempo: 160bpm

CD: TRACKS 64-66

Will improve your

Recognition of 4ths in a scale

Knowledge of how to use 4ths

Creaion of lines using 4ths

In this current series, we’ve been looking at ways of employing a range of intervals to develop some new and hopefully useful vocabulary when Mixolydian mode. So far, we’ve looked at 2nds and 3rds and, in this one, we move on logically to 4ths.

Intervals are a great way of developing approaches that have distinct flavours, or particular colours. Each interval-type has its own innate character, and this is something that we can use to our advantage in order to control the musical complexion of what we do when improvising.

Compared to other intervals, 4ths (like their inversion, 5ths) have an open and contemporary sound and form the basis of a whole branch of music theory: quartal harmony. Within the modes of the Major scale, each 4th interval will be one of two types:

• Perfect 4th = two and a half tones.