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I'm going to offer some parts of Gestalt Banjo Vol. 2 - (tentatively subtitled Fretting Hand Liberty and Internalizing the Mind/ Banjo Connection) here as the muse speaks and I get the draft together. It may take awhile to get to publication, probably not the 7 years that Vol. 1 required. I will put pretty looking tabs as generated in MusEdit in place of these text ones as I get to it. The published document will of course have MusEdit tabs.

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Section ? - The Tritone Trick

The chord form

    G7
___9_____
___6_____
___7_____
_________
_________

by itself isn't really a G7, it's an incomplete G7.

In building the underlying major chord the 1 and 5 (g and d) are foundation, and are a fairly ambiguous sound. Adding the 3rd provides interest, defines the chord as major or minor and gives the chord it family DNA.

What you hear in a (dominant) G7th chord as you add the b7 (f) note is a tritone sound built on the major third (b) in the chord. To hear this, play G and G7 back and forth a few times and be aware of the added clash.

   G  G7
__0___3_____
__3___3_____
__4___4_____
__5___5_____
____________

or

   G  G7
__0___0_____
__0___0_____
__0___0_____
__0___3_____

The tritone is a sound with a lot of tension, and this is added to the underlying chord. In the case of the dominant 7th chord here, it is by adding the b7 note to the existing sound mixture of root, 3rd and 5th.

The notes of the tritone are as far away from each other musically as possible. They are across the circle of fifths, six frets away from each other in (three whole tones, or the tri-tone), and the frequencies are off by the irrational number, the square root to 2 (1.14121.....). In this case, the F and the b are the ones that clash, and the frequency mismatch says to our minds, "this doesn't fit together well, let's move, let's go somewhere to relieve this tension."

As an aside, a name in the middle ages for the tritone was 'the devil in music'. It was considered connected with forces that were diabolical, supernatural and uncontrollable (!). Today it is an integral part of our western hemisphere music.

So the tritone is the really important part of the 7th chord, and your auditory memory or the accompanying instruments can supply the 1 and the 5. You can play just it and imply the chord. The chord in question is therefore an incomplete G7, with 5, b7, and 3 in the stack.

Here's a fun trick on the tritone idea. Play 2 measures of the first tritone below with any roll/pattern and some other strings thrown in, then shift both fingers down one fret while keeping the rhythm going for another two measures. Then move up 2 frets for two measures, then back home (down 1) for 2 measures. That is a total of 8 measures. The pattern isn't important, just play something with a nice bounce. Your ear will fill in the missing pieces and you will hear a G/C/D/G progression. Getting back to open strings in the last measure leads the ear to a resolution to the G kind of format. Just play 8 notes and then move your fretting hand.

Here is where your fingers go:

2 measures each of G7 C7 D7 G7 (implied)
_________________________________
____________6_____5____7____6____
____________4_____3____5____4____
_________________________________
_________________________________

Here is what you play.

2 measures each of G7 C7 D7 G7 (implied)
____________?_____?____?____0____
____________6_____5____7____6____
____________4_____3____5____4____
____________?_____?____?____0____
____________?_____?____?____0____

When is the last time you saw question marks in a tablature? The question mark (?) just means you can means play anything on that string, as long as you are keeping the chattanooga rhythm going. At first it will be good to only add extra fretted notes that are in the dominant 7th chord implied, then experiment with other color notes. There are no wrong notes on those strings: this is the antithesis of written music......

You can apply this strategy to any f/b or b/f pair anywhere on the neck, for example,

2 measures each of G7 C7 D7 G7 (implied)
____________9_____8___10____9___
____________6_____5____7____6____
____________?_____?____?____0____
____________?_____?____?____0____
____________?_____?____?____0____

Now stretch this idea out a bit further. What is a typical and practical use of this noise? You could now insert this into a common tune with a G/C/D/G progression as the second half of your break AFTER you establish the melody line in the listeners ear with the first half. For instance, play the Scruggs break to Blue Ridge Mountain Home through once (8 measures), then 8 measures like this with the tritone trick.....

~Gestalt Banjo Vol. 2~

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Section ?? - Music Theory Isn't