Targeting 3rds and 5ths -do you?

[cragginshred]

Target notes make everything flow better and aide in transition ideas as opposed to 'meandering' right? How have you learned to target 5ths and 3rds to make ideas flow better and invoke feel and inspiration?

 

[JasonE]

I do this but have been doing it for so long that I do it without thinking about it. I just kind of get in a zone and let it happen however it wants to happen at that moment. I focused on it much more in my early days of learning to apply scales but haven't really thought about it since then and do things more by sound and feel.

 

[la szum]

I tend to be of the opinion that you get more interesting colours by targeting
notes that DON"T make up the traditional triad of a majour or minour chord.

Give me the flat 6ths and flat 7ths. Give me the passing notes. Give me the
chromatic walk up to a 5th, or a bend of a 4th up an whole step to the 5.

 

[Eagle]

I tend to be of the opinion that you get more interesting colours by targeting
notes that DON"T make up the traditional triad of a majour or minour chord.

Give me the flat 6ths and flat 7ths. Give me the passing notes. Give me the
chromatic walk up to a 5th, or a bend of a 4th up an whole step to the 5.

This, if you target 3rds and 5ths all night nobody will remember a note you play.

 

[JiveTurkey]

 

[Achilles]

If I ever stopped and tried syncing my brain with what my fingers were doing I'd be f-cked.
My ears may be targeting stuff but don't ask me what it is.

Ignorance is bliss!

 

[TSJMajesty]

I tend to be of the opinion that you get more interesting colours by targeting
notes that DON"T make up the traditional triad of a majour or minour chord.

Give me the flat 6ths and flat 7ths. Give me the passing notes. Give me the
chromatic walk up to a 5th, or a bend of a 4th up an whole step to the 5.

Man, I was just thinking the same exact thing! I couldn't say which notes it is, especially if the underlying chords are changing, but I go for anything that creates some tension, then I listen to go for a note that helps it resolve.

 

[la szum]

I think that is sometimes why bending up, or sliding into a note (root, 3rd, 5th) can
sound so amazing. Play a 7th, and then bend it up to the Root. Tension and resolution
in one movement.

Or the Jeff Beck trick of pre-bending a note. Bend the note muted up above a Root/3rd/5th
and then release it down to the Root/3rd/5th. Magic!

 

[TubeStack]

 

[unix-guy]

Targeting chord tones is one of the prime components of melodic playing.

However, remember that typical diatonic chords are made by "stacking" 3rds:

1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13

So, really, all the notes in a diatonic scale are chord tones depending on how you look at things!

However, as others have mentioned, the chromatic "in between" notes can really add the flavor.

One simple trick to get into this is to slide into the chord tones from a half step below...

 

[FuzzyAce]

One simple trick to get into this is to slide into the chord tones from a half step below...

Or just play it a half step below. Really adds tension. If you hold it for a few bars it can even make the listener feel uncomfortable, which is the primary goal.

 

[cragginshred]

I have learned it buy coming up with exercises surrounding them, and apply them on chord changes of tunes…in time.
Is important to not practice it in isolation of one chord…simply cause that’s not real life application.

Those exercises can be a lot of things…1235 1235 of every chord…or play a scale note up from the chord note, chromatic underneath it, into the chord note.
Or play chord note, chromatic under it, back to the chord note.

Simply play games with them, try to make musical sounds, but dont judge it as being art or not. You are building skills, and you are learning your ears to hear the chord notes and the tension the notes around them give. It WILL rise like a pheonix somewhere in your playing….someday

I need a video!! I'm such a visual dude. Be great to have some examples and backing tracks to try it over. Know of any YT lessons.

 

[Gothi]

Well, it all depends on the sound you want. If you wish a very consonant sound, such as classical music, folk and pop, you should mainly keep dissonances off beat and consonances on beat, so you always get a feeling of resolution of tension. Thus targeting thirds or fifths on beat will add to the consonant sound. If you want your sound more experimental, jazzy/fusion like or just more harmonically rich, the 7th and 9th and 11th as end tones can turn underlying triads into more complex and ambigious tetrads, and dissonances used on beat too can add further flavors.