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: Looking for patterns and the A Minor Pentatonic Box Scale
April 9, 2009 by 6 Comments
If you took all the notes from all the 5 positions shown in the A Minor Pentatonic lesson and placed them into one block, this is what you would end up with. This is a great exercise to do with any of the scales we (or anybody else) show you in multiple positions. By doing this, you can now see all of the notes of that scale across the neck. Often, when learning a new scale, I will do this. I sit with my guitar in front of this scale block and play the … [Read more...]
Scales: A Minor Pentatonic ( 5 positions )
April 9, 2009 by 16 Comments
One of the most commonly used scales in improvisation is the Minor Pentatonic scale. Shown below are 5 positions of the A Minor Pentatonic scale. The second position shown is probably the most commonly used shape of this scale. While learning all five is highly recommended, start off by learning the adjacent positions (1 and 3) as this will offer you far more variety in your playing. Remember that these scales can be played anywhere on the neck. In the case of this … [Read more...]
Some Thoughts on Improvisation
April 8, 2009 by 1 Comment
Literally, volumes have been written on the subject of improvisation. These are some of my thoughts on what I find to be one of the most pleasurable and satisfying aspects of playing music. Be Musical: Being musical is a very difficult statement to try to quantify for everyone. The reason of course is that there are so many different types and styles of music that it is almost impossible to make a definitive statement about what being musical means. But … [Read more...]
