What's up YouTube, mDecks music here and thanks for joining us for another season of our acclaimed
series Upper Structure Fridays. This season we're gonna talk about quartals as upper structures.
Season 1 is dedicated to Upper Structure Triads. It is crucial that you understand the concepts
we use to create Season 1. So if you haven't done so already, I strongly encourage you to get volume 1
At least watch the intro to that season. I'll put a link in the description below, or you can
click on this icon. Okay so assuming we're all on the same page with upper structures, let's
talk about quartals. Most players think quartals are used only in quartal music, where you build chords
by stacking fourths instead of thirds, or in modal music. But in this series, we're gonna concentrate
on the use of quartals as upper structures over standard chord progressions, such as two five ones.
So, what are quartals? For our purposes, we're only gonna think of three note chords. So every time
I'm using the term quartal, I will be referring to those three note structures. So to make a quartal
we take any note and then we stack two more notes using fourths. So let's take the note C for example
and then stack a perfect fourth above C, that'll give us an F so now we have a perfect fourth.
And if I stack another perfect fourth on top of that -- a perfect fourth from F -- I'll get Bb.
So here I have a quartal, and we're gonna classify it as a perfect quartal moving forward because
it's built using nothing but perfect fourths. As with thirds, there are two kinds of fourths:
The Perfect fourth and the Augmented fourth. Notice that although theoretically we could
have a diminished fourth -- that is C to Fb -- the sound it produces is that of a major third, C to E.
So now I have two kinds of fourths we may use to create different kinds of quartals. A perfect fourth
plus another perfect fourth equals a perfect quartal: C, F, Bb. And we'll use the notation
C 4 7 to represent it. A perfect fourth plus an Augmented fourth equals an altered quartal: C, F,
and B natural. And we notate it C major 7 4 an Augmented fourth plus a perfect fourth
also equals an altered quartal: C, F#, B natural, notated as C major7#4. And our last
option would be an Augmented fourth plus another Augmented fourth: in this case we get C, F# and
C, which does not give us three different notes but rather two. This is not a quartal! It is merely
a diad. So we only have three kinds of quartals: the Perfect Quartal 4 7, the Altered Quartal major
7 4 , and the Altered Quartal major 7 #4. So just a brief note on this notation, while
it's not standard in the typical musical lexicon, these are the symbols we're going to use moving
forward because they very clearly represent the quartals that we're talking about. Had we
used the notation C7sus4, we would have implied the notes C, F, G, Bb. We could have changed it
to Csus4omit5 or (Csus4 "no" 5th), but they're too long to use in charts and really hard to read
at a glance. C 4 7 is clear and since it is not found anywhere else it is clearly understood that
it represents just the 3 notes C, F, and Bb. Same with the altered quartals. As soon as you see
C major7 4 you'll know it represents only the three notes C, F, and B. F is the 4 and B the
major7. C major7 #4 is just C, F# and B. A progression with quartals will look like this...
So get used to this notation it's fairly simple and there's only three types: the C 4 7, the C major
7 4, and then the C major7 #4. You'll notice the perfect quartals always have a
b7, and the altered quartals always have a M7 with the only difference being
how far apart that interior note is from the root, either a perfect fourth or an Augmented fourth (or
tritone). Okay so let's look at some examples of some Upper Structure Quartals, these are things
you will definitely see this season coming up! We'll do all of our examples on top of a C7. So
let's start with a couple perfect quartals, like if you see for example D 4 7 over C7 you're
merely going to play this -- a D a G and a C -- that's our quartal on top of the C7. And this is the sound
you get! Or, if you see E 4 7 on top of, or over, C7 you're just gonna play this -- E, A, and D --
on top of the same C7 that we had before. And then our altered quartals. For example, what if we have a
Bb major7 #4, that's gonna sound like this... so now I have a Bb, an E, and an A.
Since many players are not used to playing quartals, we will give you a few exercises to familiarize
yourself with them outside of the upper structure concept. Your first challenge is to play the
perfect quartals -- 4 7 -- in all twelve keys moving the roots by half-step in root position...
Next, we will play the same perfect quartals -- 4
7 -- but over two octaves, and I will explain why in just a moment...
Okay! So now that you've played them in two octaves, which you've also done, is
outlined all the possible inversions of our quartals. Yes, that's right, quartals also have
inversions. So C 4 7 in root position is C, F, Bb. In first inversion it's F, Bb, and C.
And in second inversion it's Bb, C and F. So I know what you're probably thinking
right now, "but that's just a sus2 or a sus4 chord!?" Yes, they are, but we want to see
them as inversions of quartals, exactly as we see inversions of triads: C root, first
inversion, second inversion... they're all a C triad to you, aren't they? Well that's how I
want you to look at these inversions as well. C 4 7 root, first inversion, and second
inversion. This will become very handy later on when we start looking at quartals as upper
structures, trust me. So our next exercise is to play them in all inversions in all 12 keys...
And here's the killer exercise! Play each inversion in all 12 keys!
I'm sure some of you know quaralts very well, but I'm willing to bet you probably didn't practice
them in the same way that you practiced triads. So definitely look at these exercises and know
you're perfect quartals left and right, upside-down , forwards and backwards. It'll definitely help but
the season moving forward. We've created three companion videos, each that will walk you through
the entire challenge for the three types of quartals we've talked about today. I'll put a
link in the description down below. Now we can use the same chord chord scale pairing concept
we used in Volume One with triads and apply it using quartals. So in this season we will take a
look at Upper Structure Quartals, how to use them, why they work, and how to create new colors and music
for piano comping and improvisation. By the end of the course, you will know all upper structure
Quartals over the different types of chords and functions. So be sure to come back every week
for a new episode of Upper Structure Friday's Season Two. Don't forget to Like and subscribe!!!
We'll leave you today with our demo using upper structure quartals throughout an entire song...