Hi there jazz guitarists.

One of the things I always return to is the triad pair exploration.

One of the triad pairs, also called hexatonics ( purely because it’s 6 note scale if notes from 2 triads are combined.. similarly like pentatonics being 5 note scale..)

So one of the triad pairs that are one of my favorite are the ones located trione away.. Similar like concept of tritone substitution as most of jazz guitarists and jazz theory nerds already know most likely… But in case you don’t know, it’s replacing any dominant 7 chord with another dominant 7 chord tritone away. What is tritone? 3 whole tones… it’s also an interval that can be called b5 or #4.

The reason this replacement works is because any of the notes in the replacement chord are also either usual alterations or one of the chord tones.

Let’s say example C7. We have notes C, E, G, and Bb. Tritone substitution chord is F# or Gb. Dominant 7 chord notes for Gb7 are – Gb, Bb, Db, E . Bb and E are also part of C7 chord. And Gb is b5 and Db is b9. That makes Gb7 chord also a C7b5b9 chord. Here! That’s why it works! If it’s not clear feel free to book a lesson with me and I can explain it more with more examples..

So back to triad pairs!

I sometimes use Jerry Bergonzi Hexatonics book to simply play through some examples, but other times I use it as an inspiration. You can come up with many fun voicings and new lines using these ideas.

I was trying out some stuff with C and F# major triad pair/ hexatonic.. And here is a short etude ( sharing for free..) I wrote with a few fun voicings.