the +3 cut — bigger than a lift, smaller than a leap
Pop · R&B/Soul · Show TunesC → Eb · +3 FR
1 ‖ new 1 (+3 frets)
A direct cut up a minor 3rd: far enough that the ear can't hear it as a stretch of the old key, close enough that the melody survives intact. The new key is the old parallel minor's relative major — which is why the jump feels dramatic but never wrong.
hear it in final-chorus pop jumps · gospel double-lifts
Lead-in — how players set it upEnd the section on 5⁷ — unresolved energy funds the jump.Or soften it: the borrowed 4- is secretly the new 2-.Or breakdown, then detonate the +3 out of silence.Follow — where it usually goesRun the new key's axis loop to plant the flag.Jump again later — two +3 cuts equal a tritone's distance.Or mirror home: −3 at the last chorus closes the loop.
After the +3 cut, the old melody's shapes still work — minor-third jumps preserve pentatonic fingering families.Target tones (in C)G7 — lean on B (3) · F (b7)Eb — lean on G (3)Bb — lean on D (3)Half-step wiresB ↘ Bb · D → Eb · Eb ↘ DAcross the borderhold these into Eb: G