I've been revisiting some Derek Bailey recordings lately and realised I never really worked on one of his most distinctive sounds: combining normal fretted notes with natural harmonics. These fascinating effects can be harsh, percussive or shimmeringly beautiful, and the technique can be applied outside Bailey's own very idiosyncratic style.

I'm told many people enjoy it when I can't sleep and do one of these "here's some data, you sort it out" posts. If you're one of those people, this is your lucky day.

I realise this thread of posts is probably getting a bit old but I've done a bit more tidying up of my (initially flippant) project around "Hungarian pentatonics" and have some moderately nice initial results.

Here are a few more things to combine with Hungarian Minor Pentatonic, a.k.a. MiP (see also here and here) to make interesting sounds that are easy to find. Nothing new here compared with the earlier posts, just easier ways to find the same notes.

In this final instalment, I'll list out some applications of the Hungarian Altered Pentatonic -- see Part I and Part II for similar stuff, and this post for an explanation of what's going on, or just dive in.

This post is a continuation of this one and this one. It's probably worth starting with those first. This time we find all the ways to expand Hungarian Major Pentatonic (1 3 #4 5 7) to a seven-note scale.

After experimenting with my new friends the Hungarian Pentatonics yesterday, I decided to look a bit more carefully at what they can do for us. Today I started with what I'm calling the Hungarian Minor Pentatonic: 1 b3 #4 5 b7.

Following up on the previous post, I spent a bit of time today with Harmonic Minor #4, aka Hungarian Minor, aka Simhendramadhyamam. Here's some stuff I found.

It's no secret that I like m7b5 arpeggios. The other day I was trying to figure out all the options I use on a m7 chord, and came across what's almost a pattern but isn't. Nothing life-changing but some directions for further investigation.

#11-transcriptions over on YouTube just dropped a lovely transcription of Wayne Krantz's solo on "Whippersnapper" from 2 Drink Minimum. It reminded me that Krantz is, for my money, one of the very few truly original voices on guitar to emerge since the '70s.