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Friend' and 'Brothers In Arms', Mark Knopfler seems to be sharing the vocal part with the guitar. 'Big Log' is another
example – half vocal, half instrumental.
Beyond Scales:
Thirds, Fourths, Sixths and Octaves
Guitar breaks and fills do not have to be scale oriented. You can also use triads, arpeggios and intervals. These have
the advantage of thickening the sound more than single notes.
Major and minor thirds (C-E, C-Eb) provide a "sweet" sound. They were used a lot by Johnny Marr with The Smiths
- listen to 'This Charming Man'. Marr also showed masterful imagination when he placed dissonant thirds over the
main chord change in 'How Soon Is Now?' The famous break on The Beatles' 'Twist And Shout' is in thirds. Thirds
sound great on strings 1+2 or 2+3, but get progressively less effective as you go down the strings. There is a
fabulous guitar break on 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' using thirds and fourths instead of a scale. When
moving them up and down, it is important to have a guide finger to facilitate smooth changes.
If you turn a third upside down, you get a sixth. A minor third (C-Eb) becomes a major sixth (Eb-C), and a major
third (C-E) becomes a minor sixth (E-C). Sixths are similar in sound to thirds, though not quite as sweet. They are
common for fills, and many blues 12-bars finish with a sequence of sixths. Soul man Steve Cropper used sixths on
many classic recordings. They are usually played on either strings 1+3 or 2+4.
Octaves are mainly deployed in solos for strengthening a phrase. Jazz guitarists like to use octaves, especially to
thicken a melody. In his last years, Jimi Hendrix made plentiful use of octaves in songs such as 'Freedom' and 'Dolly
Dagger'.
Perfect fourths (C-F) have a distinctive "bare" Oriental sound. On the top two strings they occur at the same fret, so
they can be held down with one finger. Let's say we are playing a sequence of fourths in D major, commencing at
fret three. The sequence goes DG - EA - F#B - GC - AD - BE - C#F#. If we treat the top note (G) as the key, you
will find one position always sounds wrong. That's because G major does not have a C#. To adapt the pattern for a
key whose root note is on the top string, simply flatten the second string note when you get to the next-to-last
position. If you play the original sequence as DG - EA - F#B - AD - BE in D major, you have a pentatonic major
scale harmonized in fourths.
Fourths can be heard in Chuck Berry's music, and their exotic sound is exploited in The Vapors' 'Turning Japanese',
The Beatles' 'Don't Let Me Down', Pulp's 'A Little Soul', Bowie's 'China Girl', The Cranberries' 'Zombie', Led Zep's
'Ten Years Gone' and the intro to 'Band On The Run'.
Thirds in D majorFourths in G major and D majorSixths in F major and G major