Guitar and music theory Ralph Patt

1 guitar , music theory

1.1 major-thirds tuning

1.1.1 guitars 7 , 8 strings


1.2 scholarship

guitar , music theory

while in pittsburgh, patt studied guitar under joe negri. patt played rhythm guitar in style of freddie green, played stromberg in count basie orchestra. having earned baccalaureate degree, joined united states army , played guitar in army band. following 1955 discharge army, patt played touring bands, example, neal hefti, frankie carle, les elgart, benny goodman, richard maltby, , glenn miller orchestra.

after touring 5 years, patt settled in new york city, worked musician both @ abc , on broadway from 1960 to 1970; during period regarded barry galbraith mentor. studied under george russell, (1959) lydian chromatic concept of tonal organization patt edited. patt studied gunther schuller, himself student of arnold schoenberg , used schoenberg s twelve-tone technique atonal composition. patt wanted able play , improvise twelve-tone music.

major-thirds tuning

patt inspired jazz of ornette coleman , john coltrane , atonal music of schoenberg. seeking guitar-tuning facilitate improvisation, introduced major-thirds tuning 1964, perhaps in 1963. patt s tuning regular tuning in sense of intervals between successive open strings major thirds; in contrast, standard guitar-tuning has 1 major-third amid 4 fourths. patt used major-thirds tuning during of work session musician after 1965 in new york.

major-thirds tuning packs chromatic scale (the consecutive twelve-notes of octave) onto 4 consecutive frets of 3 consecutive strings, arrangement reduces extensions of little , index fingers ( hand stretching ). major , minor chords played on 2 successive frets, , require 2 fingers; other chords—seconds, fourths, sevenths, , ninths—are played on 3 successive frets. each regular tuning, chord patterns may moved around fretboard, property simplifies beginners learning of chords , simplifies advanced players improvisation. in contrast, chords cannot shifted around fretboard in standard tuning e-a-d-g-b-e, requires 4 chord-shapes major chords; standard tuning has separate chord-forms chords having root note on third, fourth, fifth, , sixth strings.

having 3 pitch classes open notes (for example {c,e,g♯}), each major-thirds tuning repeats every note in higher octave, because guitars have 6 strings. being regular, m3 tunings repeat each note after 2 strings: repetition simplifies learning of chords , improvisation. chord inversion simple in major-thirds tuning. chords inverted raising 1 or 2 notes 3 strings. raised notes played same finger original notes.

guitars 7 , 8 strings

saul koll built eight-string guitar ralph patt play in major thirds.

major-thirds tuning has smaller scope standard guitar-tuning, , patt started using seven-string guitars, enabled major-thirds tuning have e-e range of standard tuning. first experimented wide-neck mango guitar 1920s, modified have 7 strings in 1963. in 1967 purchased seven-string josé rubio. patt used major-thirds tuning when performed session musician in new york city after 1965.

later, purchased six-string archtop hollow-body guitars modified luthiers have wider necks, wider pickups, , 8 strings. patt s gibson es-150 modified vincent jimmy diserio, luthier worked in firm of john d angelico, circa 1965. luthier saul koll modified sequence of guitars: 1938 gibson cromwell, sears silvertone, circa 1922 mango archtop, 1951 gibson l-50, , 1932 epiphone broadway; koll s modifications, custom pick-ups accommodated patt s wide necks , high g♯ (equivalently a♭); custom pick-ups manufactured seymour duncan , bill lawrence.

besides these guitars, patt regularly played other stringed instruments recording musician: classical guitar, 12-string guitar, 6-string bass guitar, mandolin, banjo, , oud. patt stated guys didn t have double on dates tony mottolas , johnny smiths ; tony mottola , johnny smith famous jazz-guitarists, , doubling refers musician s switching 1 instrument another, particularly within family of instruments. patt worked studio musician 1970 1975.

scholarship

patt developed webpage extensive information major-thirds tuning. webpage part of website extensive information jazz guitarists. patt s website published vanilla book, contains chord progressions four-hundred jazz standards, after ve gone zing! went strings . title refers play vanilla changes , advice young pianists lester young. updated in 2008.

his website followed earlier contributions guitar scholarship , instruction. in 1962, patt wrote guitar chord dictionary (1962). living in new york city in 1960s, studied chuck wayne, whom wrote guitar appreggio dictionary (1965), 1 of bestselling titles music-publishing firm of henry adler.