Thomas Echols' Elevator
#people/Thomas_Echols is an amazing guitar player who runs a YouTube channel called Labyrinth of Limitations and he's got some really advanced stuff that I"m trying to sort out.
The Basics
He talks about an "elevator" we can take across different "floors" of the 6th diminished scale. It involves the typical alternating between "on" and "off" notes, but in contrary motion, gradually filling in inner voices as we go along. #people/Barry_Harris did this on the piano and it sounds awesome. It's a little tricky to do on guitar, but if you can swing it you're in a great spot.
Since I'm having such a tough time wrapping my head around it, I'm going to write out all of the different voices as they're played on the guitar. It'll be a little tedious, but I'm tired of forgetting it and it's hard to hold in my head all at once. I'll be using it in C for simplicity's sake, and I'll go ahead and make tables for the major, minor, and dominant scales.
Many of these are drop 2 voicings, with a couple of other ones thrown in
Major
| Lower voice | Upper voice | Inner voices | Drop |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | C | (Unison) | N/A |
| B | D | (Second) | N/a |
| A | E | C | 2 (sorta) |
| Ab/G# | F | B (drop2) | 2 |
| G | G | A, E (drop2) | 2 |
| F | G#/Ab | B, D | 2 |
| E | A | C G | 3 (sorta) |
| D | B | Ab, F | 2 + 4 |
| C | C | A, E | N/A |
Crossings
See Drop voicing reference for a list of rules for them.