Soloing With 4th Intervals
Guitar Techniques|December 2019
John Wheatcroft continues his exploration of 4th intervals, putting them to work to create modern sounding lines that will turn heads at the jam session.
John Wheatcroft
Soloing With 4th Intervals

Building on last month’s study of 4ths, where we looked at the harmonic possibilities, we turn our attention to the soloing potential of this simple but hugely effective device. As we’ve seen, 4ths are a powerful cornerstone of harmony, if you continue around this pattern from a fixed root in an unbroken cycle of 12, you’ll both return to exactly where you started and you’ll have visited every note in the process, following a sequence that has huge transpositional value. From a single-note perspective, 4ths can be considered as a gateway to chromaticism, with their distinctively angular and modern sound.

This story is from the December 2019 edition of Guitar Techniques.

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This story is from the December 2019 edition of Guitar Techniques.

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