Cycles Of Fifths

 

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Cycles of fifths

Cycles of dominant fifths are fundamental to the harmonic development of many jazz tunes, either from the original changes, or from re-harmonizing, passing chords, and turnarounds. As always, the voicings are shown as minimal with three notes. However, all other notes at the fret between strings 1 and 8 can be played since they are repetitions of notes an octave away, or extensions. 

The best way to develop the cycle of fifths changes on the C6 tuning is to follow the root. One pattern I use is to alternate pedal 6 with the knee lever than pulls A -> Bb, moving down successively two frets at a time. Look at the tab for an example of playing the bridge of “I Got Rhythm” (key of Bb), where the changes are D7 / G7 / C7 / F7. The D7 chord (1) is at the 14th fret with the A->Bb pull, the G7 chord (2) same fret, pedal 6. Now drop back two frets to the 12th fret for the C7 chord (3), with the A->Bb pull, and F7 chord (4) with pedal 6. You can the drop back two frets for the next round of 5th’s. You can also choose to start the run with the D7 at fret 9 with pedal 6, and drop back two frets to fret 7 with A->Bb pull for the G7 and continue the run from there.


1__________________________________________________________________________
2__________________________________________________________________________
3__________________________________________________________________________
4____14R___14_____12R___12___________9_____7R___7______5R__________________
5__________________________________________________________________________
6____14____14(6___12____12(6_________9(6___7____7(6____5___________________
7__________________________________________________________________________
8__________________________________________________________________________
9__________14___________12___________9__________7__________________________
10___14___________12_______________________7___________5___________________

     D7    G7     C7     F7          D7    G7   C7    F7
     (1)   (2)    (3)    (4)         (5)   (6)  (7)   (8)
One run that some players like is to alternate pedal 5 and pedal 8. See the tab below. The D7 chord (9) starts at fret 5 with pedal 8, and the G7 chord (10) is at the same fret, pedal 5. Now drop back two frets to fret 3, and alternate pedals 8 and 5 for the C7 / F7. Keep dropping back two frets to continue the run. If you run out of frets, you can switch over to using pedal 6 and the A-Bb knee lever. So after the F7 chord (12) at fret 3 using pedal 5, JUMP UP two frets to the 5th fret using pedal 6 for the Bb7 chord (13) start alternating the A-Bb knee lever with pedal 6 and dropping two frets, as shown in the first tab and described in the first paragraph.

1__________________________________________________________________________
2__________________________________________________________________________
3__________________________________________________________________________
4_________________________________5______3R________________________________
5____5______5(5____3______3(5______________________________________________
6_________________________________5(6____3_________________________________
7____5(8____5______3(8____3________________________________________________
8__________________________________________________________________________
9_________________________________5________________________________________
10___5(8____5(5____3(8____3(5____________3_________________________________

     D7     G7     C7      F7     Bb7    Eb7
     (9)   (10)   (11)    (12)    (13)   (14)