Take the 12 tone challenge!

I was noodling on the piano today and came up with the following challenge:
1. Compose a progression of three chords.
2. Each chord must consist of 4 notes playable on ukulele (in other words, each string plays one of the notes)
3. Among the 3 chords, all 12 notes of the chromatic scale must be used exactly once.
4. It has to sound "musical" ;-)

The easiest progression that meets the first 3 criteria would be this:
0101 1212 2323
Not very musical though. ;-)

Here's my first attempt:
0055 1311 6677
C69 Ebsus2sus4 F#7sus4

What can you come up with?

BM7 3322 A# D# F# B
G7sus4 0213 G C F D
Amaj7 1100 G# C# E A

Musicality score, out of 10, probably about a .8 - needs some bridging chords.

I like the chord progression, BM7, E7, G7sus4, Amaj7. Flows a little better. Maybe a 3 out of 10 on the musicality scale.

I like it!

can I copy something of Schoenberg or does it have to be original? I have a daughter who is a concert pianist. She also plays with a SKA group. I shall ask her if she has any 12 tone row SKA pieces. 23 of her chromosomes are from me...........

Does not have to be original. I am aware of "12 tone row" concept but have pretty much dismissed it as the few examples I've heard didn't sound "melodic" enough for me to want to listen twice. Something about the chordal approach sounds more promising to me. If you can pull something "musical" out of Schoenberg I'd love to hear it.

Here's another one:
0002 CMaj7 gceb
2224 Dmaj7 adf#c#
1311 Ebsus2sus4 g#d#fa#

Jim Hanks said:

The easiest progression that meets the first 3 criteria would be this:
0000 1111 2222
Not very musical though. ;-)

Click to expand...

Hmm, I don't think this is true. This includes two A's and zero D#'s.

Three consecutive Dim7ths should do it though.

pluck said:

Hmm, I don't think this is true. This includes two A's and zero D#'s.

Three consecutive Dim7ths should do it though.

Click to expand...

Doh! You're exactly right! I'll fix the original post. Thanks for the catch.