Most of us have grown up listening to music characterized by the familiar time signatures of 4/4 or 3/4. 4/4 is the most common time signature in rock, blues, country, funk, and pop while 3/4 is often used for country & western ballads, not to mention waltzes, minuets & scherzi!

Both of these time signatures are considered ‘simple time signatures’. But what about ‘complex time signatures’?

When I was very young, I listened to a lot of pop, rock and folk. Almost all of it was written in 4/4 time. When I turned 14, I was introduced to the progressive rock bands King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and Gentle Giant. One of the first things I noticed was that I could not easily tap my foot to some of the tunes. When I tried to count them out, I realized that many of these songs were written in complex time signatures and some even used mixed meters, moving from 9/8 to 4/4 to 13/8 etc.

As my internal clock became familiarized with these new meters, I eventually became very comfortable with them and as I began to write songs, I found that I often gravitated towards 7/8.

To me, 7/8 is a wonderful time signature in that it is not necessarily locked to a solid down beat. As I tend to focus more on melodic phrasing than meter, I found that 7/8 was a wonderful pallet on which to compose and improvise because it allows me to play extend melodic phrases.

The following piece called Cogitation is a raw sketch for a song I have yet to finish. I hope you will enjoy it. I offer it as an example of the musical possibilities offered by 7/8 (Don’t mind the cheesy drums and very average mix..remember it’s a raw sketch!)

Cogitation (click to play)

One other thing I will mention about 7/8 is that its possibilities are greatly expanded by where you place the accents. Cogitation is counted with the accents emphasized as follows:

1  2  3  4  5  6 7

However, I also have written pieces with the following accents. (Try taping them out emphasizing the bolded number)

1  2  3  4 5  6  7

and

1  2  3 4  5  6 7

If you want a wonderful example of 7/8, have a listen to the long synth solo in the song The Cinema Show by Genesis from the album Selling England By The Pound. Here is a live version of that solo from YouTube though personally, I prefer the studio version.

Have fun with 7/8!!

P.S.

Here is a good article from Wikipedia on Time Signatures ..

© Gil Namur, 2009

The following 5-minute bass solo is from a live performance with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. The first 1½ minutes are a wonderful example of his technical abilities. Amazing Grace starts at about 1:38 of this clip and is incredibly rich, original and so very melodic!

Enjoy, and, the next time you think you have explored everything you and your instrument are capable of, come back and watch this again.

Visit Victor Wooten’s Website:

Visit Bela Fleck and the Flecktones:
(If you are not familiar with Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, I highly recommend you check them out!)

This video is amazing and a great place to start!

© Gil Namur, 2009

This short piece is simply exquisite. If there were such a thing as a dictionary that used music to define words, I would use this piece to explain the word, pretty!

Visit Pat Metheny’s web site:

More on Pat Metheny from Wikipedia:

© Gil Namur, 2009

I wrote this song in 1996 as a personal tribute to a guitar player who over the years has had an influence on me. That guitar player of course is Carlos Santana.

I hope he gets to hear it one day! The song is track 2 on my CD, Old Dog New Tricks which I released in 2007.

Thank you Carlos for all you’ve done to inspire so many of us, both musically and personally.

This is for you

Song for Carlos

Visit the Carlos Santana website:

Photo Credits

Carlos Santana at Cow Palace, San Francisco © David Gans

Sourced from Wikipedia article on Carlos Santana

© Gil Namur, 2009

At the 2002 NAMM show in Anaheim, I was walking the halls of the second floor looking for companies that might have a need for our fiber-optic based touch pads.

As I was walking past one of the smaller booths, an energetic and cheerful man wearing a huge red and white top hat approached me. His simple booth had a round logo carrying the slogan, ‘Little Kids Rock’. As this was a product show, I imagined that they must have been selling some kind of software or books aimed at the younger market. I stopped and asked him what his company did. Smiling broadly, he invited me into his humble booth, introduced himself and began to tell me all about his organization and its vision to provide the students of underserved schools with free musical instruments and instruction. Afterwards, David asked if I would pose for a photograph with himself and Jon E. Gee who plays bass with John Mellencamp. Of course, I said yes!

“In 1996, an elementary school teacher, David Wish, grew frustrated with the lack of funding for music education at his school. Realizing that he would have to take it upon himself to make sure his kids got a chance to explore music, David began offering an after-school guitar class to interested students. The classes became wildly popular, and as more kids sought to enroll, he decided to take the program national.

In 2002, with initial support from musical luminaries BB King and John Lee Hooker, Little Kids Rock was born. What began as an informal project led by a single school teacher and a handful of volunteers has since evolved into a nationally recognized not-for-profit organization that has served thousands of students…”

In an e-mail recently, David told me that they would reach 50,000 low-income kids this year!

I have only met David Wish once. Since then, I have spoken to him once on the phone and we have exchanged 8 or 9 e-mails. While I do not know him very well, what I do know is that this is a man filled with purpose, light and love. He is responsive, and always demonstrates a humble heart. Not once have I heard him say “I did this”. Rather, it’s always about ‘Little Kids Rock’ and recognizing the efforts and contributions of others.

Little Kids Rock is the realization of a vision with an outward focus to help and bring joy into the lives of those who so desperately need it.

“Little Kids Rock believes that learning to play a musical instrument can be a transformative experience in students’ lives, with the power to inspire the creativity and confidence that are critical to success in school and beyond.”

I agree with them! I salute their accomplishments and I salute David Wish for his perseverance and his dedication to a most noble endeavor.

David, what you and Little Kids Rock have accomplished is truly inspirational. I cannot even begin to imagine the many challenges and hardships that you and your team have faced in the pursuit of your vision. From my heart, to you and your amazing team – thank you for what you have done. Best wishes to you all as you move forward with Little Kids Rock!

Photo Credits

All Photos © Little Kids Rock

© Gil Namur, 2009

I, on the other hand am a terrible sight-reader. When I was learning to play the guitar, I learned everything by ear. The internet was not even imagined at that point and tablature was just starting to show up in publications.

When I was 17, I was a huge Yes and Genesis fan. I loved their guitar players, Steve Howe & Steve Hackett. Both wrote and played some lovely solo acoustic pieces. My favorites were ‘Mood for A Day’ from the Yes album Fragile, ‘The Ancient’ from Yes’s Tales of Topographic Oceans, and ‘Horizons’ from the Genesis album Foxtrot.

It wasn’t easy, but I learned all three pieces, by ear. There are some great advantages to doing this:

1. It forces you to use your ears and try things in different places on the neck of your instrument. It’s a great exercise. Not only will it develop your ears but it will also teach you to trust them.
2. Each time you learn something by ear, your ears will improve at picking things out and subsequent pieces become much easier to learn.
3. Ultimately, it will help with your improvisation skills. Imagine being able to play ‘what you hear’ as you improvise instead of relying on a repertoire of licks.
4. It helps you to memorize the song. I found it easiest to memorize the song first so that I did not have to constantly hit play and rewind on a tape deck or worse, lift the needle from the record over and over and over. Memorizing the song will also cause you to pay more attention to the subtle nuances of the performance. I found that this gave me an even deeper appreciation of the musician.
5. Often, the tablature you will find is not accurate. Your ears know that so you have to work it out for yourself anyway. For example, I want to add Paul Simon’s ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’ to my repertoire but the tabs I have found are not close enough to what I want. What I want is to replicate those great piano inversions, on guitar. I will learn it by ear. Maybe I will tab what I learn for you one day

I am not suggesting that you stop using tablature or sheet music. If I felt that way, there would be no tablature at this site! What I am suggesting is that you pick a few songs you really like and learn them by ear.

A few years ago, I decided to re-visit and polish two of the songs I mentioned above. The Ancient, and Horizons. If you have come here looking for the tab for those songs, sorry, I am not tabbing them out, but, I did record them and have placed a link to each one below. These are not simple tunes so I hope they will inspire you to use your ears and learn some challenging pieces. If you do, you will realize a great sense of satisfaction and you will become far more confident in your musical abilities.

Horizons

The Ancient

If you are stuck, try a combination of tablature and using your ears. Do what you can to use as little of the tab as possible. As well, seek the help of other guitar players. A very good friend of mine (hi Mark!) helped me learn some pieces and I helped him as well. I recall those learning sessions with a great deal of  fondness!

If you know these songs, and have a good (accurate) source for the tabs, feel free to leave them in a reply to this article.

Good luck with your playing and the development of your ears!

Visit Steve Howe’s Web Site

Visit Steve Hackett’s Web Site

Photo Credits

Steve Hacket Live © Jean-Luc

Steve Howe Live – public domain photo from Wikipedia

© Gil Namur, 2009

When you pick up your guitar and start playing, you feel as if you’ve played these chords a million times and there is no creative spark to continue. It’s like driving on a road you have traveled many times and there is nothing new to see. You put the guitar down and tell yourself that you will get back to it later.

“Where did my muse go” you ask yourself. You’re dry! You can’t write and you just can’t find a groove. At the worst of times, at least for me anyway, the instrument doesn’t sound in tune, even though it is. The neck feels foreign. I get bummed and I find myself humming B.B. King’s version of ‘The Thrill Is Gone’.

What to do? I have a few thoughts that might help.

Revisit old favorite grooves and work them into a song.

Most of us come up with chord progressions or hooks that we really like. Many of those stay just that, a progression or a hook. We have played them many times and they are always favorites but they go nowhere. We promise ourselves that we will do something with them one day. Taking one of those ideas and working it can re-energize your creativity.

Years ago, I wrote a chord progression inspired by the theme song for Hill Street Blues written by Mike Post and Larry Carlton (one of my favorite guitar players). Anytime I tried out a new guitar, I would play it. Often people would come over and tell me what a great groove it is. I had always thought it would be fun to solo over but never got around to it. A few years ago, I decided to record it with Bruce Davies playing bass. A simple recording with no edits. I practiced over it a bit, hit the record button and then just improvised. I then handed the recording over to my friend and engineer Eric Brad who did a nice mix for me.

Here is the result. It’s called ..

Promenade (click on name to play in a new window)
© 1995, Gil Namur
2 minutes 30 seconds

Every time I listen to this, it makes me smile and makes me want to play my guitar. It’s not really a complete song, it’s just a happy groove, an idea that I breathed some life into with Bruce’s help. Am I happy with all my improvisational choices in the piece? Not entirely. If I was going to record this for a CD, there are a few bars where I would have made different improvisational choices. It doesn’t matter though. It’s raw and it speaks to me each time I hear it. When I record my next instrumental CD called ‘Next Exit’, a new version of Promenade will be on it. I have a vocal CD to do first though!

Change the scenery

If you have one, take your acoustic guitar and head off to the woods or the beach. Remember to bring along some paper, a pen and if possible, a portable recorder.

Try to find somewhere you won’t hear people, cars, cell phones, or jets flying overhead. A change of environment can have a profound impact on your creativity. Start by playing single notes or single chords and listening to how they blend in with the natural sounds of the environment. Let them sustain and hang in the air. Let your ears and your heart guide you as to what to play next. Don’t forget to hit the record button!

Play a different instrument for a few days

I have four guitars for a reason. Each plays and sounds different from the next. They each lend themselves to distinctive styles, which leads me to play different melodies and rhythms.

If you have access to a piano, tickle its keys for a while. Pianos are such inspiring instruments. Alternatively, go buy a nice clay flute. They are inexpensive and can be very expressive. The idea is to get your ears hearing different things. This exercise will often unlock your creative juices.

Unplug or Plug-in

If you are playing your electric guitar constantly, put it in its case and pull out your acoustic. Conversely, if you are always playing your acoustic, then give it a rest and play your electric guitar.

Try an open tuning that you have never played with before. It will force you to explore your instrument in unfamiliar ways and you will hear new musical possibilities.

Unfinished Songs are Unfinished Business

I believe that when we have unfinished songs or tasks, we have dissonance and clutter in our lives. Finishing songs brings resolution and creates the space for new songs. Think of it as musical Feng-shui! You need to discipline yourself to do this. Even if you don’t feel like it, you eventually need to get to the business of finishing the things you have started. If you don’t, you surround yourself with dissonance and clutter.

I wrote an article on this concept at my motivational site. The article is called Look after the little things. I encourage you to read it as well.

By the way, you are not alone. I have written well over 100 songs. About half are actually finished!

Go see a concert

Hearing a gifted musician play can really be inspiring. Often after a concert, I find myself driving home longing to play my guitar. You will often hear sounds or rhythms that are new to your ears. Exploring these on your instrument can open up a deep well of creative possibilities.

Practice

My final idea to share with you is to rely on discipline. It’s so easy to use a dry spell as an excuse not to play at all. What I have learned over the years is that if I pick up my guitar and ‘practice’ for at least 15 minutes, things begin to happen. I will hear something new and that will spur me on to play for an hour or two. That’s when the magic happens. That’s when your muse and you can have a delightful promenade together.

Photo Credits

B.B. King in concert in France 1989 © Roland Godefroy

Woods and moon photos © Gil Namur

© Gil Namur, 2009

Click here if you’re not sure how to read the scale blocks.

The basic idea is to find a pattern ..

and then make a mirror of it ..

Now, play them together. In this example, I am starting on the 4th finger of the first block.
Notice the fingering suggestions across the top of the tableture.

Click on the tableture for an MP3 audio example.

Now, lets extend this somewhat by mirroring all the notes between the the first set of notes we just played.

Click on the tableture for an MP3 audio example.

I am providing a 3rd audio example here. The first 2 were played slow and with a clean sound. If I play the previous example faster and with distortion, we end up with perhaps a great intro for a rock song or a nice fill for a solo.

Click here for example 3 ( faster with overdrive )

In my opinion, it is best to practice your scales and exercises with a clean sound as you will more easily hear the mistakes that distortion hides so nicely. Play it correctly with a clean sound, and your over-driven playing will sound way better.

Suggestions:

Mirrors can be a lot of fun to play with. Remember that this exercise can be played anywhere on the neck. If you find that this pattern is to big of a stretch for you, play it higher up the neck.

For  a GREAT s t r e t c h, move it down and play it on the 1st fret to the 5th fret.

Experiment. Invent your own mirrors. They can be on 2 strings, 3 strings, any number of strings really. Just let your imagination go and above all else, trust your ears. They’ll let you know when you have found something musically interesting.

When practicing any exercise, always start off slowly. Play precisely and cleanly remembering to double pick ( pick .. down, up, down, up, down etc.). Speed will come but you will see much better results if you work on precision first.

© Synaptic Systems Inc., 2000

If the scale was numbers, the pattern would be:

123 234 345 456 567 678 789 etc

Remember that these exercises can be played anywhere on the neck using any scale.

The examples below use the A Minor Pentatonic scale ( 3rd position ) and the G Major scale ( 1st position ).

When practicing any exercise, always start off slowly. Play precisely and cleanly remembering to double pick ( pick .. down, up, down, up, down etc.). Speed will come but you will see much better results if you work on precision first.

Click on the tableture for an MP3 audio example.

A Minor Pentatonic scale ( 3rd position ) example

G Major scale ( 1st position ) example

(If the tab image is not rendering nicely on your browser, right mouse click on it and choose the save image option. Save it to your desktop and open it there. It will display just fine and you can print it for reference.)

As further exercise, try the following pattern on these (or any) scales.

1234 2345 3456 4567 5678 etc.

© Synaptic Systems Inc., 2000

The chords for this progression can be found in the page of all the chords used at this site.

For the Bb13, play the A13 chord block shown on that page but play it on the 6th fret.

For the E9, play the D9 chord block shown on that page but play it on the 7th fret.

For the F9, play the D9 chord block shown on that page but play it on the 8th fret.

Click the progression to download the sound file you can solo over. It is 3.8MB.
It is 4 minutes and 23 seconds long. You wont be disappointed.

A longer version is available here that is 8 minutes and 43 seconds long. It is 6.1MB.

Click here for an Improvisation example: 815 KB – 1 minute 9 seconds

Here is an example of some improvising I did over this progression. I stayed within the A Minor Pentatonic scale but I did throw in some accidentals. For now, think of accidentals as notes that are in between the notes in the scale as represented below in the diagram with red dots. As an exercise, experiment with all the positions of this scale shown in the A Minor Pentatonic lesson and find accidentals that work for you.

Click here if you’re not sure how to read the scale blocks.

Let your ears guide you, be creative, play, play, play, and above all else, have fun!

© Synaptic Systems Inc., 2001