Upper double chromatic to the 3 of Mixo arps.

[mdhakr]

2 questions:
-Is there no upper double chromatic to the mixo arp 3 (due to lack of chromatic tones between 3 and 4)? or ? If so, what is it?
-I know that you will say, “We’ll hear it when we get there”, but how does one decide between using lower vs upper approaches, and the differing pitch groupings (3, b7 vs 1,5 vs 3/b3,5)?

[Richie]

As a general rule upper double chromatic approaches that begin on a non-diatonic note are very dissonant and usually avoided. The other issue is that they create modal ambiguity. In the case of the 3, if we start a dch from above we are starting with the #4 which is not diatonic to the mixolydian. As a result, the sound produced is associated with the lydian,lydian dominant or super locrian.

So, if you want to play it safe, the best sounding double chromatic approaches are those that begin on a diatonic note.

Let me know if this answers your question.

[mdhakr]

Thanks, Richie. That was not intuitively clear to me, so this is very helpful….
Can you think of any particular song or album by the beboppers where they are playing slow enough that we hear them deliberately using this device. Most of the stuff I listen to has screamingly smooth chromaticism and this is hard to slow down to digest the small portions…

PS. A song by Jo Stafford, on the top of the 1954 Billboard hit parade, “Make Love to Me”. I have included an excerpt which has an upper double chromatic from the 5 to the 3 via the #4/11, 4, 3. This would be a modally ambiguous device (it sounds OK to me). Can you comment…

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by mdhakr.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by mdhakr.

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[Richie]

The reason this works is because it is “prepared” chromaticism. The 5th which is a chord tone is preparing the approach which descends chromatically to the next chord tone or 3. Many just analyze this as a chromatic line. When double chromatic approaches are “unprepared” which is usually the case, and start on a non diatonic note from above, that’s when we have that ambiguous dissonant effect.

[mdhakr]

Perfect!

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