Is this a line cliche?

periclimenes

Hi All,

I'm working on twelfth year, and a local GJ guitarist threw something into his solo that blew my mind. I looked through gypsy rhythm and didn't notice this substitution/line cliche, but I might have missed it. Here is the basic progression:

D6-------E7-------A7-------D6
|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|
B7------- E7-------A7-------D6--A7
|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|

Here is what made me stop dead in my tracks: in the part that goes B7 --> E7 --> A7, he just arpeggiated the E7 for the first measure. On the second measure of E7, he arpeggiated a b minor (the vi of D), and then sat on a high D (bending the 1st string 9th fret up a half step to D) for both measures of the A7 heading into the turnaround. In other words, this seems to be the implied harmony:

B7------- E7--Bm-A7add11-D6--A7
|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|


this one is hard to wrap my mind around, since it negates the secondary dominant:

V/V/V---V/V--vi--V---------I----V
|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|////|

Is this just one of those moments of inspired playing? Or is this something relatively standard that I just haven't noticed before?

Thanks for your help.

Jack

Well, as far as the Bm over E7, that's just E9; the Bm arp is the 5, 9, 5, 7, 9 of E7. I think if it was a line cliche type thing it would be more likely to go B7 Bb7 (tritone sub) A7...I think...

best,
Jack.

periclimenes

A little theory is a dangerous thing! I don't know how I didn't hear/see that... Thanks! Any ideas on the D over A7 or is that really an add 11 feel?

djangology

periclimenes wrote:

A little theory is a dangerous thing! I don't know how I didn't hear/see that... Thanks! Any ideas on the D over A7 or is that really an add 11 feel?

well, he's probably implying Dm6 over the A7. if you learn the A7 arp (gypsy style), it fits nice over the Dm arp. either that or he was literally thinking in terms of the A7. im not sure why you assumed D major.

periclimenes

Sorry for the confusion. I meant he was just playing a single note (D at the 10th fret on the 1st string) over the entire 8 beats of A7. I didn't mean a D major chord. I'm not clear on how a Dm6 would function in the context of 12th year, since it is in D major. Do you mean it would be B7 (V/V/V) E7 (V/V) Dm6 (im6) D6 (IM6)?

djangology

well, if you wanted to play a note to create tension back to the A7 chord then any note from Dm (such as a D note) would play a part to create that tension. so, i havent heard the song, but i'd guess he was playing the D note from the Dm scale as tension before resolving to the A7.

BluesBop Harry

Yes as Jack said the Bm in front of the E7 is just an implied ii (as in II-V of A or an extension of the 7th chord 5th, 7th and 9th.

That D note over the A7 does imply an 11th, but maybe it's function is more melodic than harmonic. Django did it a lot, it's just playing the tonic note and it should fit over any chord that belongs to the key with varying degrees of dissonance.
It does come from the D Major scale not minor since the tune is in a major key and there's no F to suggest a modal interchange.

It's sort of the SRV play blues licks over any changes mentality, if the phrasing is strong and convincing it sounds cool.
Remember, only twelve notes.

Try not to think too much about it, just make it fit and sound good... yes it's an implied ii, yes it's an implied A7sus11 but that doesn't matter much, the important thing is to make it sound good.

periclimenes

Thanks for all of the feedback everyone. I have one question kind of unrelated to this specific song now. You can arpeggiate a Dm6 over A7? That's D F A B over A7 (A C# E G)? How does that work? Or does it just work?

BluesBop Harry

In my opinion that sounds a bit weird by itself, though you could make it work especially if you're resolving to Dm, it would sound like an anticipation.
I think Dm Maj7 (D F A C#) works a little better, but it's not my first choice.

Over A7 you can play any note but the one that sounds the least good to me is the D, again depends on the treatment.

Some arps that I think work well over A7 are:
Em6, C#diminished, C#aug, Bbm6, Db7, Am6.

One that I really like that includes the 11th is playing Gm6 (iv6) over A7, Django used it a lot, works great if you resolve it to the I (D6 or Dm6 in this case)

djangology

periclimenes wrote:

Thanks for all of the feedback everyone. I have one question kind of unrelated to this specific song now. You can arpeggiate a Dm6 over A7? That's D F A B over A7 (A C# E G)? How does that work? Or does it just work?

just get a Dark Eyes jam track and play over it. you'll get practice with D minors and A7's and also you'll get a little bit of practice with the G minor stuff (g-minor tension resolving to Dm). if you spend time thinking about Dark Eyes and how the song is put together and how the tension and release works, you can learn a lot. in fact, youll learn enough to answer all your questions (above) without needing to ask anyone except for your own ear.

BluesBop Harry

Djangology's right, don't worry too much about theory and what goes over what, listen to the records and figure out the stuff.
"All the answers are in the records"