An E Dorian blues-fusion vamp — Henderson dirt underneath, Landau float on top, and a B7♯9 trapdoor back into your harmonic minor cells. Everything here runs on triplets. One vamp, four scales, six exercises, one weekly loop.
Four bars, looped forever. Two bars of home, one bar of IV-chord funk, then a two-chord turnaround that opens the trapdoor: C9♯11 slides down a semitone into B7♯9, which is pure E harmonic minor territory — your three-cell framework plugs in directly.
One rule: the vamp is E Dorian with dirt, until beat 3 of bar 4 — then it isn't. The ♯9 chord is where you spend your harmonic minor capital.
| Chord | Primary Scale | Colour Notes | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Em11 | E Dorian E F♯ G A B C♯ D | C♯ (nat. 6) — the Dorian note | Home. Smooth, modal, open. |
| Em11 | E Blues E G A B♭ B D | B♭ (♭5) — the dirt layer | Henderson grit over the same bar. Mix freely with Dorian. |
| A13 | E Dorian, targeting C♯ | C♯ is now the 3rd of A13 — land on it | Same scale, new gravity. The C♯ stops being colour and becomes a chord tone. |
| C9♯11 | C Lydian Dominant C D E F♯ G A B♭ | F♯ (♯11) + B♭ (♭7) | Two beats of float. This is G melodic minor from the 4th degree. |
| B7♯9 | B Phrygian Dominant B C D♯ E F♯ G A | C (♭9) + D♯ (3rd) | The trapdoor. Mode 5 of E harmonic minor — run your cells here. |
Purpose-built for this session: subdivides in triplets and can rotate the accent through the three partials — the core skill of exercise 2. Headphones or amp room; your call.
Rotate mode shifts the accented partial every bar (1 → 2 → 3). If your pick hand can hold the pattern while the accent moves underneath it, the triplet engine is running.
Six drills, ordered by dependency. 1–3 build the engine in E Dorian. 4 opens the trapdoor. 5 adds the Henderson burst. 6 is the Landau float. Every number below the tab is a triplet grouping.
Ascending three-note cells through E Dorian, one cell per triplet: (E F♯ G) (F♯ G A) (G A B) (A B C♯) (B C♯ D) (C♯ D E). Strict alternate picking, metronome on 8th-triplet, accent on partial 1. Then descend the same ladder.
3 3 3 3 3 3
e|-----------------------------------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------------------------------------|
G|-----------------------------------------------------------|
D|-----------------------------------------12------12--14----|
A|-------------12----12--14----12--14--16--14--16--16--------|
E|--12-14-15--14-15--15-------------------------------------|
E F♯ G F♯ G A G A B A B C♯ B C♯ D C♯ D E
TARGET · clean at 72 bpm before moving on · ceiling 104
One six-note figure looped — E G A · B A G — while the accent (marked >) rotates through the triplet partials, one position per bar. The notes never change; only the weight moves. Set the metronome to Rotate and lock your accent to its accent.
Bar 1: accent partial 1 Bar 2: accent partial 2 Bar 3: accent partial 3 > > > > > > e|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------| B|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------| G|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------| D|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------| A|--------12---14--12-----|--------12---14--12-----|--------12---14--12-----| E|--12-15--------------15-|--12-15--------------15-|--12-15--------------15-| E G A B A G E G A B A G E G A B A GTARGET · 3 consecutive clean rotations at 80 bpm, no dropped accents
Chord tones in triplets across the change. Em9 arpeggio (E G B) (D F♯ B) for two bars, then pivot so the line lands on C♯ — the 3rd of A13 — on beat 1 of bar 3. This is the moment the C♯ changes jobs from colour note to chord tone; make the landing audible.
Em11 (Em9 arpeggio) A13 — land the C♯
3 3 3 3
e|--------------------------|-----------------------------------|
B|--------------------------|-----------------------------------|
G|-------------11--(11)-----|-----------------------------------|
D|--------9-12-----12-------|--------------11--14--12-----------|
A|--7-10--------------------|--16--14--12-----------------------|
E|--------------------------|-----------------------------------|
E G B D F♯ B C♯ B A G C♯ B
TARGET · loop the full 4-bar vamp, always landing C♯ on the A13 downbeat
Your harmonic minor cell framework, deployed. A classical turn around the 3rd of B7♯9: D♯–E–F♯–E–D♯–C as a sextuplet, resolving to B on the next downbeat — which is beat 1 of the Em11, so the resolution lands you home. The ♭9 (C) against the root is the whole flavour; don't shy off it.
6 (sextuplet) resolve
e|--------------------------|----------|
B|--------------------------|----------|
G|--------------------------|----------|
D|--------------------------|----------|
A|--6--7--9--7--6-----------|----------|
E|-----------------8--------|--7-------|
D♯ E F♯ E D♯ C B (→ Em11, beat 1)
TARGET · slot into bar 4 beats 3–4 of the vamp without breaking time
One beat of controlled violence: six notes of E blues scale crammed into beat 4, landing on the root at beat 1. The burst is E–G–A–B♭–B–D — the full blues scale in one beat — with the ♭5 buried mid-burst where it belongs. Everything before and after the burst should be sparse; the contrast is the point.
...space... 6 (burst, beat 4) land
e|-----------------|------------------------|---------|
B|-----------------|------------------------|---------|
G|-----------------|------------------------|---------|
D|-----------------|-----------------12-----|--14-----|
A|-----------------|--------12-13-14--------|---------|
E|--(hold E, f12)--|--12-15-----------------|---------|
E G A B♭ B D E
TARGET · burst clean at 66 bpm sextuplets · rate-limit: max one burst per 2 bars
The inverse skill: instead of subdividing the beat, stretch over it. Quarter-note triplets — 3 notes across 2 beats — using only chord tones, letting the phrase drift across the barline. Play it with volume-swell dynamics if the mood takes you. Count it as tied 8th-note triplets first (ONE-trip-LET two-TRIP-let), then feel it.
Em11: G . . B . . D . . F♯ . . E . . (over 2 bars, floating)
── each note = 2 triplet-partials long ──
e|----------------------------------------------|
B|-------12--------15--------------------12-----|
G|--12--------------------11--------14----------|
D|----------------------------------------------|
A|----------------------------------------------|
E|----------------------------------------------|
G B D F♯ E ... let it hang
TARGET · hold the float through the C9♯11 without rushing back to 8ths
The consistency contract. One 25-minute block, same structure every session, five sessions a week. The exercises rotate through the same slots so the session shape never changes — only the tempo and the fluency do.
Ex 1 cell ladder, metronome at current base tempo. Ascend + descend ×4. This is non-negotiable and never skipped, even on bad days — especially on bad days.
Ex 2 with metronome in Rotate mode. Mon/Wed/Fri. On Tue/Thu swap in Ex 3 arpeggio mapping instead.
Ex 4 turn cell in isolation ×8, then slotted into the full vamp ×8. Fold in your existing harmonic minor three-cell material here — same chord, same position.
Alternate days: Ex 5 bursts (odd sessions) / Ex 6 floats (even sessions). Never both — they're opposing muscles.
Loop the vamp (looper or DAW), improvise, record every time. No judgement in the moment; one listen-back per week, Sunday, notes in the log.
Listen to the week's takes. One question only: is the vocabulary from exercises 1–6 actually appearing under pressure? If not, that exercise drops 8 bpm next week.
+4 bpm per week, maximum, and only if the current tempo was clean in 4 of 5 sessions. "Clean" means zero flams, accents landing, no time drift against the click.
Failure is data, not drama. A failed week holds tempo; two failed weeks drops 8 bpm. The ladder only moves on evidence, the same way everything else in your life does.
The vamp is the unit of truth. An exercise doesn't count as owned until it survives inside the full 4-bar loop at tempo. Isolation is rehearsal; the vamp is production.