In music, four note group patterns, alternately called "four-note digital patterns" or simply "four note patterns", are one of many ways to formulate
improvised
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
solos in
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...
. "Four-Note Grouping is an improvisation technique that uses
major and
minor triads along with specific
passing notes as a means of generating lines. The concept of Four-Note Groupings lets the lines be more
'out' and stretch the possibility of available
notes
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...
over a
chord
Chord may refer to:
* Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously
** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning
* Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve
* Chord ( ...
due to the
structural
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...
integrity of the triad-based
line
Line most often refers to:
* Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity
* Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system
Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to:
Art ...
."
Four note group devices
*
Diatonic scale
In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole st ...
fragment
* Arpeggio (of current chord,
altered harmony or an implied
passing chord
In music, a passing chord is a chord that connects, or passes between, the notes of two diatonic chords. "Any chord that moves between one diatonic chord and another one nearby may be loosely termed a passing chord. A diatonic passing chord may ...
)
*
Chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a ...
approach note (a note preceding a chord tone or scale tone one semitone above or below)
*
Chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a ...
surround notes (two notes preceding a chord tone one semitone above and below)
*
Pentatonic scale
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale).
Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancien ...
fragment
Examples
*John Coltrane: "
Giant Steps
''Giant Steps'' is the fifth studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane as leader. It was released in February 1960 on Atlantic Records. This was his first album as leader for Atlantic Records, with which he had signed a new contract the previou ...
" solo
See also
*
Sequence (music)
In music, a sequence is the restatement of a motif or longer melodic (or harmonic) passage at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice.Benward and Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p.111-12. Seventh Edition. . It is o ...
Sources
{{reflist
External links
"Four Note Groupings Part 2" ''EdSaindon.com'' (351 KB
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
) - Ed Saindon
*Javier Arau
"Augmented Scale Theory" ''Javier Arau''
Faculty of Saxophone/Woodwind in NEW YORK JAZZ ACADEMY.
*Michael Leibson
"Giant Steps, Central Park West and Modulatory Cycles" ''ThinkingMusic.ca''.
Jazz techniques
Musical techniques