Between 2000 and 2003, twice a year my job would take me to Anaheim and Nashville to attend the NAMM shows. The NAMM Show is one of the largest music product trade shows in the world. For a musician, it’s like being a kid in the largest candy store you can possibly imagine. I saw superbly crafted instruments, incredible new technology and I met amazing musicians like Victor Wooten, Alan Parsons and Bill Bruford to name but a few. While all of those things were very cool, what is forever etched … [Read more...]
Exercise and trust your ears!
July 4, 2009 by 2 Comments
Years ago, I jammed with an incredible pianist. Classically trained, he could play anything you put in front of him. Not only was he a great sight-reader, he would also put a lot of feeling into everything he played. His only problem was that without sheet music, he was lost. If we played a 12 bar blues, despite the fact that he had an exhaustive knowledge of scales, he had no idea how to improvise over it. It was very frustrating for him. In time, he learned to use and ‘trust’ his ears. This … [Read more...]
A Promenade With Your Muse
April 25, 2009 by 8 Comments
Have you ever had a dry spell? You know, where you can't get motivated or inspired to play your instrument? If you're like me, you might even put a few of your guitars out on stands and leave them where you will always see them hoping that the sight of them will encourage you to play. 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 … [Read more...]
Technique: Proper Thumb Positioning
April 11, 2009 by 2 Comments
A question that always comes up is where should my thumb be? Over the neck or behind it? The answer depends on what you are playing. If you are playing scales, there is a great benefit to having your thumb behind the neck as it allows you a much greater stretch. Conversely, having the thumb over the neck is the only way to play some chords and a great help when bending strings. Have a look at the following 3 pictures for an example of where your thumb should be when playing … [Read more...]
Exercises: Mirrors
April 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
This exercise is aimed at improving your technique, building strength in your hands and improving your double picking across strings. It may also help you to develop some interesting and original chops that you can work into your solos. 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 … [Read more...]
Scales: Exercises 123 234 345
April 10, 2009 by 4 Comments
This exercise is aimed at improving your technique and offering you extended scale phrasings. The basic idea in this exercise is to play the first 3 notes in the scale, then, starting at the second note in the scale play 3 more, then, starting from the 3rd note in the scale play 3 more etc. 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 … [Read more...]
Improvisation Blues in A (Swing Feel)
April 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
This is standard blues progression with a jazzy feel to it that is great to solo over. Work with the A Minor Pentatonic scale over this progression. Try to play it in all 5 positions mentioned in the A Minor Pentatonic lesson. 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 … [Read more...]
Improvisation: Am7 FMaj9 Progression with MP3
April 10, 2009 by 2 Comments
This is a slow and moody groove that is wonderful to solo over. Start of by working with the A Minor Pentatonic scale over this progression. Try to play it in the 3 positions mentioned in the A Minor Pentatonic lesson. Then work in these scales: (Over the Am7) A (Jazz) Melodic Minor .. Same pattern as the G (Jazz) Melodic Minor scale shown in lesson but played 2 frets higher. (Over the Am7) A (Dorian) Minor .. Same pattern as the G (Dorian) Minor scale shown in … [Read more...]
Scales: The D Major Scale Harmonized 3rd and 5th degrees
April 10, 2009 by 2 Comments
This lesson is almost identical to the A Major Scale Harmonized 3rd and 5th degree. I have added it in order to show how once one pattern is learned, it can often be used on a different set of strings. These are highly recognizable sounds often heard in rock and country playing but used also in all forms of music. The block below consists of chords moving up the fretboard. The first chord has a red line through it to highlight its pattern. The second is in … [Read more...]
Scales: The A Major Scale Harmonized 3rd and 5th degrees
April 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
These are highly recognizable sounds often heard in rock and country playing but used also in all forms of music. The block below consists of chords moving up the fretboard. The first chord has a red line through it to highlight its pattern. The second is in blue, the third in red and so on. These are the chords that are the result of harmonizing the A Major scale 3rd and 5th notes. The theory behind scale harmonization is covered in theory lesson 7. If you … [Read more...]
