rSoGuitar :: Guitar Lessons for Visual Music Theory

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The following post is an excerpt from some coorespondence I had with "Bob". I'm posting it here as it might provide some useful information for other readers ::

Bob,
Thanks for writing! Sorry it's taken me this long to reply. It's been crazy busy for me. One of the factors that has made it so is your discovery of the missing chapter! And to my horror, I couldn't find it anywhere on my computer. I had a little accidental file delete happen some weeks ago and then found a virus on my machine. It really threw me for a loop.
So, I was up till 1:00 the other night trying to do justice to the missing chapter. I think I did well, but I'll have to review it when I'm not so tired.
I'm impressed with what you are doing with the method and what you seem to already grasp probably before you ever laid hands on it. It sounds like you have some great experience with music already.
I wanted to share with you, a little for now, about how the method has helped me deal with such things as Melodic Minor.

I hope you find this interesting and useful...I don't know what you already know, so forgive me if it's all elementary to you...
I actually work with Harmonic Minor first in my explanational journey towards more radical scales like Melodic Minor and Hungarian Minor. Anyway, for Harmonic, I refer to it as "sharp OSis" because that's the only note that needs to move from the original pattern to create the new scale. It's a great one because it opens the door for diminished scale and adds so much tension to the original scale. I usually use the Harmonic Minor sound as a momentary departure from the original scale to create extra tension at choice moments, such as the moments before the progression is going to return to the home chord. That one note, #OSis, effects every family member in a different way:
It gives Mama the ability to be an augmented chord
It gives YBro the ability to be a fully diminished chord
It gives OBro the ability to be a major chord
It gives YSis the ability to be a minor chord and/or a fully diminished chord
It gives OSis the ability to be a fully diminished chord (as her root gets moved up one fret)
It gives Papa a major 7th
It gives ABoy the ability to be a fully diminished chord

As for how it effects the head set - bridge set - triple block sequence:
The bridge sets are unchanged
The first row triple block is effected by having its first note raised one fret such that you end up with what appears to be a head set (but of course, you should instead just remember it to be an altered 1st row triple block)
The 3rd row triple block is effected by having the middle note raised one fret, such that you end up with what I call a "super bridge set" (but, again, see to it that you remember it as an altered 3rd row triple block)
::::: By doing so you insure that at any moment, even as you might be moving across the fretboard you should be able to revert back to the original scale. So, of course, you should be able to utilize all the logic of travelling across the fretboard without getting lost if you do this, whether the scale changes or not. And that is what I think really makes this method incredible! It's what seperates it from all the rest of the "pattern based" methods.

I seriously can't wait to get through with explaining the fundamentals of this method so I can elevate my students to the really good stuff, like what we're talking about now!!!

Every time I play these kinds of alterations for my students, they always respond that they have heard it somewhere, somehow in a song or two. At last, I have the ability to generalize and document these classic moves such that so many of them can be catagorized as simply "#OSis".

So, moving on to the Melodic Minor scale. I consider it the #YSis - #OSis scale. And the same logic applies. Your experience mastering the Harmonic will, of course, come in handy here. If I weren't in such need of sleep I'd explain the many features as I did for Harmonic Minor...I'm tempted, as I think you might be interested. But, hey, how about I give you an chance to ponder on it. See if you can figure out what it does to each family member and how it effects navigation through the sets. And if you're not up to it, that's fine. I don't want you to have anything but fun with it. Ok?

By the way, there's great info right here in this message. I'd like to paste it into the forum, if you don't object (and I can't see why you really would...but I'll ask anyway). Just give me a nod or explain why not and I'll respect it either way.

Thanks, and keep in touch!
Fred