Guest post on Joe Gore/Seymour Duncan’s Tone Fiend and The Fortunate Demise Of The News Page

Posted on January 19, 2012 by GuitArchitecture

So, in typical GuitArchitecture “last thing first” style, the news page is gone. It seems to make more sense to just put updates about gigs, recordings, etc. here. I always forgot about the “news” aspect of the page anyway so (even with about 30 pages of updates and info in the hopper) it’s not much of an immediate loss. For those of you who subscribe to the blog, I’ll try to keep the news posts to a minimum. In the meantime, here are some recent items that may be of interest.

Guest Blogging for Joe Gore’s Tone Fiend

Big thanks to Joe Gore for posting my article (and editing my chicken scratches into something coherent) on the wild string sounds of Vietnam on his great tone fiend blog. If you want to see some crazy guitars (and some crazier phrasing) you can czech out that post here.

In other guest posting news, I have a (relatively) new post up on Guitar-Muse. If you’re looking for a warm-up lick (and some good playing advice) check it out! A cool interview with Mike Scuffham (of Scuffham Amps/S-gear) is also up here , and you can find all my posts (interviews, lessons, and more) here (it’s 3 pages so just tab through the bottom of the page.

Books. I just want to take a moment and thank everyone for their pdf orders (and kind words about the books in general). It’s simultaneously affirming and humbling at the same time. So thank you! If you’ve ordered a hard copy, I still hope to have print editions by the end of January. As soon as I get proofed editions – I’ll get one out to you!

There’s more to come!!

As always, thanks for reading!

-SC

Visualizing Video Game Licks Or An Intro To Symmetrical 12 Tone Guitar Patterns

Posted on January 14, 2012 by GuitArchitecture

Hello everyone!

Update: My updated 12-tone pattern book is out! I want to give you a precursor by showing you a cool approach to working 12-tone ideas into your playing. This is a really long lesson because it’s tough to distill 200+ pages of material into a web post, but just take it in bite sized chunks and come back to it as you need to and I’m sure you’ll get something from it.

First, a little bit about the book!

The physical book and the e-book pdf are available on Lulu.com or on Amazon.com (or any of the international Amazon sites).

Symmetrical Twelve Tone Patterns is a 284 page book with a large reference component and about 100 pages of extensive notated examples and instruction.

What makes this book different (apart from the cover) and what I’m most excited about offering is a bundle of files that will help readers maximize material in the book. The bundle contains:

Guitar Pro files of all the examples in the book (in GP6 and GP5 format). For those of you unfamiliar with this musical notation, tablature platform and playback program, having Guitar Pro files means that the reader can hear the examples without having a guitar handy and can work as a phrase trainer to help the reader get the examples to up to speed.

MIDI files of the musical examples.

PDFs of the musical examples.

MP3s of all the musical examples (again, exported from the same material).

Symmetrical Twelve-Tone Patterns presents 12-tone patterns in both improvisational and compositional contexts. It shows how to create various intervallic lines and creates the outline of a tune and dissects how all the parts were created using this method. If you’re looking for ways to explore new avenues in playing or in your writing this is the book for you!

Fire up the video game

When I heard the Praxis Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) record, I was blown away with Buckethead’s playing. It also came at a time that I was getting into a lot of 12-tone music and trying to figure out how to adapt those things to guitar and his intervallic/atonal tapping ideas in particular seemed to go in a completely different direction that the 12-tone ideas I heard Jason Becker and Marty Friedman throw into their playing.

Public Service Announcement (i.e. a brief note about playing out):

Playing out just means playing note choices outside of a given tonality. By its very nature, playing out requires an ability to play “in” because it requires a contextual contrast. So my suggestion is that you make sure you develop your ability to play in a tonality as well as outside of it. (Also as a FYI – playing out is easy, but musicians are often judged by how musically they get back in).

Every once in a while, I get a hankerin’ for what I call “video game licks” (or symmetrical interval legato licks with a lot of gain and an unclear harmony). Shawn Lane could veer into that territory when he wanted to but for me, Buckethead is pretty much the king of this approach.

In the lick below, I’ve worked all 12 tones into a two-handed idea that uses pick and fret hand tapping. I’ve kept it short so that you can focus on the coordination between both hands, but I’ve included a longer version of the lick after it. As the lick uses all 12 tones, it doesn’t belong to any one key so try playing it over various chords or riffs of your choosing.

Technical Notes:

If you want to get this lick under your fingers, pay attention to the 3 T’s (hand tension, timing and tone) as you practice this.

Try to make sure that the motion from the fingers for striking the strings comes from the large knuckle of the hand (for more information on this see the glass noodles post).

The pattern is a variation on the tapping figure Greg Howe uses in kick it all over. It’s written in groups of 6 to fit into one bar – but just practice it slowly as triplets to get the initial speed and coordination down.

I never got into muti-finger tapping on phrases like this one (I just use the middle finger of the picking hand while I hold the pick with the index finger and thumb), but using the ring, middle and first finger on the picking hand for the upper register tapping you could probably work the phrase up to a tempo 30 bmp faster than this one.

Short lick faster

Short lick slower

Here’s an extended variation that moves the fingering pattern to the B and D strings. While the pattern doesn’t keep all of the same intervals as the first example, it has enough continuity to sound like the same 12 tone idea. One recommendation I have is not to get into the dogmatic practice of having to use all twelve tones. If 10 notes work well, use ten notes. In any process like this, use the rules that work for you and discard the rest.

While not notated, this pattern uses all of the same fingerings and note attacks as the first example.

Longer lick faster

Longer lick slower

Here’s how I’m visualizing this and how you can generate a lot of ideas from this one approach.

The 12-tone pattern vs the 12 tone row

When I first got into 12 tone music and tried to think of a way to incorporate it into improvising, I grabbed some Webern and Berg tone rows (in an over-simplified description – a tone row is a restructured chromatic scale that is used for melodic and harmonic material) and tried improvising with them.

It was pretty dismal.

I found them really hard to improvise with because the row material was difficult to memorize and the number of notes made it difficult to use in an improvisation and then I thought about generating 12-tone patterns instead of working with rows.

Patterns can be useful in improvisation because:

they can be used to generate motifs, or themes
they can be manipulated in real-time and
they can establish recognizable elements of control in an improvisation.

The other advantage of a pattern is that its intervallic consistency adds an internal drive to melodic ideas. The notes of the pattern move in and out of various tonalities, so it sounds “out” but not random (although you can modify it to be as random as you’d like.

In the 12 tone pattern book I wrote, I used a chromatic scale as a template for generating symmetrical patterns for improvisation. Intervallically uniform, the 12 notes of the chromatic scale are evenly divisible by the numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12. Since divisions of 1 and 12 do not divide the row into a more useable set, they can be ignored. This leaves:

6 equal divisions:

(of a descending chromatic scale staring on C)

C B / Bb A /Ab G /Gb F / E Eb / D Db

Taking the first note of each division gives us:

C, Bb, Ab, Gb/F#, E, D

aka: Whole tone scale (any note root)

A 12-tone pattern can be created by putting notes in between the notes of the whole tone scale. Note that the intervals between all the 2-note divisions are symmetrical.

C B / Bb A /Ab G /Gb F / E Eb / D Db

C A / Bb G /Ab F /Gb Eb / E Db / D B

C G / Bb F /Ab Eb /Gb Db / E B / D A

C F / Bb Eb /Ab Db /Gb B / E A / D G

C Eb/ Bb Db /Ab B /Gb A / E G / D F

C Db/ Bb B /Ab A /Gb G / E F / D Eb

One advantage to symmetrical patterns is that they work off of divisions you probably already know. If you can visualize a whole-tone scale, for example, filling in the other notes of the pattern becomes relatively easy.

4 equal divisions of the row:

C B Bb /A Ab G / Gb F E / Eb D Db

aka: C, Eb, Gb, A (Bbb)

aka: Diminished 7 chord (any note root)

3 equal divisions of the row:

C B Bb A /Ab G Gb F / E Eb D Db

aka: C E G#

aka:Augmented triad (any note root)

2 equal divisions of the row yields:

C B Bb A Ab G / (Gb/F#) F E Eb D Db

aka: Tritone interval either note could be root

Using the divisions to create a 12-tone pattern

Here’s how I came up with the original example. Using a diminished 7th chord as a starting point, the rest of the twelve tones could be filled in by playing three additional notes off each chord tone. Let’s say you have D diminished 7th chord (since any note in a diminished 7th chord can be a root it’s also a B, F and Ab diminished 7th chord).

B D F Ab

By adding 3 notes not already in use to each starting pitch you can create a 12-tone row. If you work out the same intervals on these notes you get a symmetrical twelve-tone pattern.

B (Perfect 5th down) E, (minor 2nd down) D#

D (Perfect 5th down) G, (minor 2nd down) F#

F (Perfect 5th down) Bb, (minor 2nd down) A

Ab (Perfect 5th down) Db, (minor 2nd down) C

Adapting it to guitar

Where this gets cool part 1:

If we restructure the order of the first notes we get two tritones a minor 3rd apart. Since the E and G strings are a minor 3rd apart this means that the fingering pattern will be the same on both sets of strings.

Where this gets cool part 2:

As I’ve mentioned before, using standard tuning the guitar can be visualized as three sets of strings tuned in 4ths. So this means that the same fingering can be used to generate the same intervals on the G and D strings.

From here, you can see where the approach for the first lick came from.

Taking it further

Another nice thing about patterns is that they’re easy to manipulate and draw other ideas from. Let’s take a look at the first 12 notes:

You can change the last four notes to create new lines.

Here are these two ideas in notation and tab.

You could apply the same two-handed idea we’ve been looking at to any of these patterns or, better yet, apply your own!

Here are the last two patterns starting with F-Bb

The next step is to change the middle notes of the pattern.

This creates 4 new patterns that start with F-E-A, F-E-Eb/D#, F-E-C and F-E-F#.

Here’s the same idea applied to F-C#/Db

And finally, patterns starting with F-G.

To sum up, that’s 16 very different licks all pulled from one approach and one initial pattern. This is really the tip of the iceberg for this concept but as you can see, you really don’t need more than one approach to get the ideas flowing and use them on your own.

Note:

Sometimes you get an idea and think that you’re doing something unique. You get all excited about it until (if you’re me) you realize that Dave Creamer addressed many of these points back in the June 1989 issue of Guitar Player. Dave’s article inspired me to continue to research this book and try to present similar material my own way.

* (I should also mention in passing that (with the better part of a year’s worth of research) – The GuitArchitect’s Guide to Symmetrical 12-Tone Patterns shows all possible symmetrical patterns for the 2, 3, 4 and 6 note divisions above.)

I hope this helps and thanks for reading!

-SC

The physical book and the e-book pdf are available on Lulu.com or on Amazon.com (or any of the international Amazon sites)

Symmetrical Twelve Tone Patterns is a 284 page book with a large reference component and about 100 pages of extensive notated examples and instruction.

What makes this book different (apart from the cover) and what I’m most excited about offering is a bundle of files that will help readers maximize material in the book. The bundle contains:

Guitar Pro files of all the examples in the book (in GP6 and GP5 format). For those of you unfamiliar with this musical notation, tablature platform and playback program, having Guitar Pro files means that the reader can hear the examples without having a guitar handy and can work as a phrase trainer to help the reader get the examples to up to speed.

MIDI files of the musical examples.

PDFs of the musical examples.

MP3s of all the musical examples (again, exported from the same material).

I like physical books and the softbound version looks really good on my music stand – but I understand that some people like pdfs. The softbound copy GuitArchitect’s Guide To Symmetrical Twelve-Tone Patterns is $35 (though it’s currently selling for $31.50 on Amazon) and the e-book pdf is $15. Both are available from The GuitArchitecture Product page on Lulu.

2012: How Not To Repeat The Mistakes Of The Past (Or Nothing Ever Got Done With An Excuse)

Posted on December 27, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

(This is a repost of something I wrote for the end of 2010. The dates and information have been updated, and I suspect this will be one of the few yearly repost traditions I indulge in.)

I had hoped to get a few more things done before the end of the year, but decided instead to take the last week to wind down and center. I find that this not only helps me take stock of what worked and didn’t work for me in 2011 but also helps me make sure I’m on track for what I want to get done in the new year. As George Santayana said,

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

As 2011 draws to a close, I think back to many conversations I had with people at the end of 2009. At that time, it seemed like everyone I talked to said the same thing, “2009 was such a bad year. 2010 has to be better. It just has to.”

Now it seems I’m listening to the same sentiment with the same people about 2011 and the coming 2012. And in some ways they have a valid point. Listening to their circumstances, 2011 certainly offered some of these people a tough blow – but regardless of their circumstances, I believe that, unless they experience a windfall of good fortune, I will hear the same sentiments echoed at the end of 2012. There’s a reason for this:

“If you always do what you’ve always done – you’ll always get what you always got” – anon

While I fully appreciate the merits of planning and goal setting – life will throw you any number of curveballs that may make a meticulously laid out plan get derailed.

A good plan has to be countered with an ability to improvise (as need be) to make sure that even if your mode of transportation is disabled, that you are still on the path to achieve your goals.

“Improvisation as a practice is the focus of an idea through an imposed restriction. This restriction could either be self-imposed or be imposed upon the improviser through other means. Improvisation as it relates to common experience can be seen in the example of the car that stops running in the middle of a trip. A person experienced in auto repair may attempt to pop the hood of the car to see if they can ascertain how to repair the vehicle. Or they may try to flag down help. Or they may try to use a cell phone to contact a garage. The point being that within the context of a vehicle malfunction, different actions are improvised based on the improviser’s facility with both the situation at hand and the tools at their disposal….life is essentially an improvisation. As individuals we come into each day not exactly knowing what will happen. We know that there is an eventual end, but we don’t know when or how it will end. But we continue to improvise, because it is in both the active improvisation (the present), the skill set and knowledge of that improvisation (the past) and in the philosophical/worldview/goals guiding our improvisational choices (the future) that we create meaning.”

If you approach life’s problems with the same mindset you’ve always had

-and your new year’s resolution runs contrary to that mindset –

your resolutions are doomed.

I say this as a seasoned graduate of the school of hard knocks and as a person who found that while success felt a lot better – failure was a much more thorough teacher.

2011 had some great ups and downs for me and now there are a number of life and playing upgrades I’m going to put into practice in 2012 to address the things that didn’t work for me. For those of you who are interested in making a real change the new year – here’s what worked for me going into 2011 that I plan on using this year as well:

Know the big picture.

If you have a goal – know why you have the goal. As Victor Frankl once said, “He who has a why can endure almost any how.”

Take stock of what you have done and identify what needs to change.

Have you done things that work towards that goal? If so, what have you really done? What worked? What didn’t work? And what parameters can you put in place to make it work better?

What decisions did you make that set you back and how could you alter those decisions in the future?

Sometimes honesty is brutal but this isn’t about beating yourself up. It’s about taking a realistic stock of what worked and what didn’t work for you in the year, reinforcing that things that work for you and discarding what didn’t work for you.

Revolution not resolution

People typically make resolutions because they recognize a need for change in their life. For me – it really isn’t about making a momentary decision as a knee jerk reaction to something (which usually lasts as long as the time it took to make that decision). The long-lasting changes in my life have come from making lifestyle changes, setting priorities and working within those changes. It’s a revolt against what was done before instead of a compromise for a current mode of operation.

Positive habits

Making something a daily positive habit (like brushing your teeth) makes it easier to maintain over the long haul.

“Don’t make excuses – make it right” – Al Little

People make excuses for things all the time. No one cares about excuses because nothing ever got done with an excuse. People (typically) only care about results.

There will undoubtably be moments that you relapse into older habits. Instead of making excuses for why it happened – just acknowledge it and move past it. When you fall off the bike, it’s not about sitting down and nursing your scrapes. It’s about getting back up on the bike again. As it says in The Hagakure, “Seven times down – eight times up”

There is strength in numbers

Try to surround yourself with supportive people.

Not enabling people who will make changes more difficult for you.
Not negative or judgmental people who will scoff at your desire for change

Talk to the friends and family who will give honest and supportive feedback. Here’s another important tip – don’t burn those people out with your goals. The people around you have their own lives, so if every conversation becomes about you and your goals, you’re going to see less and less of those people!

In addition to (or in some cases in lieu of) that support, you may want to look into some free online accountability sites like Idonethis.com (post on this here) or Wunderlist.com which maintains a private calendar to help observe progress.

Be motivated to do more but be grateful for what you have

In a final 2011 observation, I’d like to thank everyone who took a moment to come here and read what I was doing. GuitArchitecture had a 800 % increase in web traffic this year! It’s going to get even bigger next year and it would all be impossible without the people reading. So thank you all again and I hope that 2012 is your best year yet.

-SC

A Holiday Thought That May Help The Whole Year

Posted on December 25, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Thanks for dropping by!

This post has moved to Guit-A-Grip.com!

You can read it right here.

-SC

Creating Chords And Lines From Any Scale – A Harmonic Combinatorics / Spread Voicings Lesson

Posted on December 18, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Hello everyone!

I wanted to post a lesson up that uses one of my approaches to harmonizing scales from my Harmonic Combinatorics book. It’s a cool way to not only get away from stock voicings but also to generate new lines as well!

I’m using C Major as the tonal center for this lesson but the approach can (and probably should be) be adapted to any scale.

A couple of lessons ago, I talked about the modal microscope – which was a term I used to discuss examining modes on multiple levels and the advantage of viewing modes as subsets of a parent scale. Before I get into the harmonization approach I want to expand on this idea of the microscope analogy and apply it to harmony.

The Harmonic Microscope

If I harmonize a parent major scale in the key of C, I’ll end up with the following chords on each scale degree.

So if you’re playing in the key of C and want to get into more harmonic depth on an E minor chord, it’s time to reach into your chord bag and pull out your stock minor 11 (b9, b13) voicing. Oh, you don’t have one? Don’t worry – most guitarists don’t. Learning stock voicings and inversions for this specific chord form probably isn’t the best use of your time anyway.

Using the microscope analogy, this is really looking at the chord on a 2x setting.

Here’s the 1x setting for this example:

playing any combination of the notes from C Major over the root E creates some variant of an

E min / min7 / min7 (b9) / min 11 (b9, b13) chord.

And here’s the bigger picture:

Once you are aware of the types of sounds that are created from various chord types, you can start thinking about chords and chord voicings on the macro (i.e. parent scale) level. This means that if I’m playing over a D minor chord and using notes from the C major scale, I don’t have to analyze each indidual chord because I know it’s all under some type of generic D minor 7/minor 9/minor 11 or minor 13 umbrella.

Harmonic Combinatorics

Harmonic Combinatorics refers to a process of identifying “countable discrete structures” harmonically. In other words, it examines unique combinations of notes on all of the possible string combinations for the purposes of develop harmonic and melodic possibilities. One way to do this is through a method that I use to generate unique ideas through a process that some people refer to as spread voicings.

A Systematic Method For Harmonizing Any Scale Or Mode On The Guitar

It’s important to state at the outset that the method I’m employing is only one possible way to approach this exploration. I’ve taken this approach to maximize the number of unique voicings, but you should feel free to take any of the rules that I’ve applied to this approach (like eliminating octaves) with a grain of salt. The object is to gain new sounds – so change the patterns here in whatever ways necessary.

Here’s an approach that will give you more voicings and lines than you might have thought possible.

Step 1: Write out a scale and write the scale degree under each note.

(Example: C Major)

Step 2: On a blank chord sheet – write out the scale degrees on each string up to the 5^th fret.

(To clarify: The numbers on the left hand side of the diagram are the fret numbers ).

Step 3: Starting with the lowest note on the lowest string, write out all the initial voicing of all possible 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 note harmonies by scale degree on different string sets.

For example, if I was looking at the G, B and high E strings, some sample initial voicings would be

573, 574, 576, 513, 514, 516, 523, 524, 526, 534, 536

673, 674, 675, 613, 623

713, 723

173, 174, 175, 176, 123

You may have noticed that I skipped some voicings:

If you want to save some time and increase the number of unique chords try the following parameters:

No doubling of chord tones (Ex. 363). (Again – if you like that sound – use it! but the point of this process is to generate unique voicings with unique notes.)

At least one note in the voicing has to be the lowest on a string. If you look at 614 on the G, B and high E strings you’ll see that it’s really the second voicing of 573 on the frets below it. Having at least one note be the bottom note on any string will help ensure that you’re not just working out voicings that you may have already done.

The highest fret to be used in the first voicing is the 5^th fret. This last step is going to produce some voicings that aren’t playable on the lower frets, but might work in the upper registers.

Step 4: Select a string set and move the voicing in scale-wise motion up the strings to the octave.

For the purposes of this lesson – I’m going to focus primarily on 3 string groups, but this idea is applicable on any 2-6 string set of strings. (It’s worth mentioning that – Harmonic Combinatorics does all the work for this process for all string sets – (it’s also why it’s over 400 pages long!!)).

(Again, while this book follows this process through the key of C Major, this process can be applied to any tonal center.)

I’ve written out an example based on the D, G and B string set (i.e. 432) and gone with an initial voicing of a F, G and D (or 452).

(Note: The reason I start with numbers instead of notes is 1. It’s a lot easier to see if I’ve missed a number in a sequence when working these things out and 2. It eliminates the initial step of wondering what harmony I’m creating. This is simply a process that I’ve used with good results. If the numbering is weird for you, just use what works for you.)

This creates seven different voicings which could be played as a modal chord progression, used as the basis for a melodic idea or even isolated into individual chords. If this process yields even one chord that you like it’s worthwhile.

The function of the voicings will depend on the root. If you want to dig deeper into this area, you can use other notes as a root (note Harmonic Combinatorics includes a chart which shows all chord tones based on scale degree). I’ve posted the sound of the chords being played against an A root below. A was picked as a root because it’s an open string, but you could just as easily tap any note from the C major scale to create various modal sounds:

Playing C as the bass note will give you C Ionian sounds
Playing D as the bass note will give you D Dorian sounds
Playing E as the bass note will give you E Phrygian sounds
Playing F as the bass note will give you F Lydian sounds
Playing G as the bass note will give you G Mixolydian sounds
Playing A as the bass note will give you A Aeolian sounds
Playing B as the bass note will give you B Locrian sounds

Check out these chord sounds over A. In addition to possible comping ideas, these can be arpeggiated for melodic ideas as well.

A few notes on working with voicings

Here are some additional points to consider when using this process:

Common sense is your friend. If a chord seems difficult to play:

there is almost always an easier way to play it on another string set.

.
Since the voicings presented are in the key of C Major with no sharps or flats, the information (and approach) here is easily adaptable to other scales, modes etc…

If you find a voicing in C Major you like, just move it to whatever other key you’re playing in.

To create all of the C Melodic Minor (i.e. Jazz Minor) voicings – just change any E to Eb.

To create all of the C Harmonic Minor voicings – just change any E to Eb and any A to Ab.

Now I’ll talk about making melodic lines from this material.

Melodic Variations

As I mentioned earlier, these voicings can be played as melodies simply by playing the notes one at a time. In The GuitArchitect’s Positional Exploration and the GuitArchitect’s Guide to Modes: Melodic Patterns, I’ve outlined a series of methods for generating melodic variations. But since this approach is about combining things, it makes sense to at least look at some melodic possibilities with regards to note choice. I’ve decided to take a three-note voicing as it offers enough possibilites to be interesting, but not too many to be over-whelming and have chosen this pattern simply because I like the first voicing.

It sounds a little deceptive if you play it as is. This is because the first voicing is actually a G major chord in 1st inversion (i.e. with B in the bass). Here it is with the root of each chord added to the low E string (Try working them out and playing them!! There are come challenging chords there.)

but when you play it with the B as the lowest note it sounds like a B minor with the b3rd on the B string.

If you play it without harmonic backing, try changing any F natural to F # and it should sound more pleasing to you.

“Variety is the spice of life”

There are six unique melodic variations of any three-note chord or pattern.

These numbers represent note order. Assigning 1 as the lowest note and 3 as the highest – here are the unique variations on the first three notes.

Applying this idea, one possibility for 123 looks like this:

Two things to consider:

1. I’ve notated this as triplets for ease of reading, but the very first thing you should probably do (after getting the notes under your fingers is look for a more musical phrasing).

2. Again, if you play this without harmonic backing this may sound more “right” to you:

Alternating groups of 123 and 321 for each chord produces:

Combining the first 2 chords into a 6-note pattern allows even more flexibility. Here, I’ve moved the number order around and made a more interesting line.

One part of this phrase has caught my ear:

When I add a low E root, I get a cool little Phrygian phrase (with a couple of notes snuck in on the high E string).

The GuitArchitect’s Positional Exploration and the GuitArchitect’s Guide to Modes: Melodic Patterns, has a systematic approach to exploring these types of variations. Having said that, those of you who want to do the work, could just write down a collection of numbers and apply them to different ideas and see what happens.

The first important thing, however, is to experiment with different rhythms (including rests!), phrasings (like slides, hammer-on/pull offs) and make some music out this raw material.

The second important thing to consider is that with any approach like this you should:

take the things you like

use them in what you’re currently working on (songs, solos, etc)

make what you keep part of your sound and discard (or ignore) what you don’t use.

I cover some other approaches and break down the theory a little more in depth in Harmonic Combinatorics but I hope this lesson here helps and if you like this idea – you should check out the book (if you haven’t already)!

Thanks for reading!

-SC

If you like this post you may also like:

.

Books:

The Modal Microscope And A Sequenced Arpeggio Approach

Slash and Burn – Creating More Complex Sounds With Slash Chords

Making Music Out Of Scales

.

Chords/Triads/Superimposition/Arpeggios:

AUGMENT YOUR KNOWLEDGE: SONIC SHAPES AND GETTING MORE FROM AUGMENTED CHORDS

.

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 3

Getting Hipness From A Major Triad Or More Chord Recycling Part 2

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 1

.

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 3

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 2

GETTING THROUGH THE GIG – NEGOTIATING A CHORD CHART PART 1

.

RECYCLING CHORDS PART II: TRIAD TRANSFORMATION

RECYCLING CHORDS PART I OR WHERE’S THE ROOT?

.

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 2

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 1

.

RECYCLING SHAPES OR MODULAR ARPEGGIOS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

GLASS NOODLES – ADAPTING A PHILIP GLASS ARPEGGIO APPROACH TO GUITAR

.

Augment Your Knowledge: Sonic Shapes and Getting More From Augmented Chords

Posted on December 11, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Hi everyone!

I wanted to post a lesson that uses some of the material from my Positional Exploration book in a way that I didn’t get to cover in the text itself.

Back in November when Guitar-Muse posted the second part of my interview with Rob Balducci, Rob brought up a process he called chord morphing. When I saw it in the video, I slapped my head forehead loudly as I realized that while I mentioned that any of the melodic exercises in the Positional Exploration book could be played as a chord, I didn’t include chord tablature.

Anyway Rob had this cool idea of taking a 1-2-3-4 chromatic shape and playing it one note per fret on the bottom 4 strings which produces an Augmented chord like this:

Note:

Rob play this up on the 12-15th fret, but I’ve moved it to a low pitch of C for the purposes of explanation.

He then goes on to lower each note of the chord chromatically one at a time until he ends up with an augmented chord a 1/2 step away from where he started. I’ve detailed a sample of this below with analysis, when playing it the key to remember is keeping your fingers down and only moving finger playing the individual note that changes.

Sonic Shapes

So, I thought that was a cool way to:
.

warm up
find some new voicings (1 shape yields 4 chords total) and
see how different chord forms can be created by modifying existing voicings.

(You can check out my recycling chords post, for a pretty in-depth exploration of this idea with triads!)

And then I got to thinking about Sonic Shapes. Back in the day, Howard Roberts used to write a column for Guitar Player magazine and he had a whole series of columns that centered around an idea of sonic shapes, which is moving a fingering to different string sets to create different sounds. So here, I’ve taken the same 1-2-3-4 augmented shape and moved it to the 5th string:

And finally moving it to the top four strings:

Going Deeper

Then, because I couldn’t leave well enough alone, I started thinking about augmented chords in general. They’re neat little things because they’re intervallically symmetrical and any note in the chord can be the root.

You can also use them to visualize all of your 3-note major and minor inversions.

Here’s the first trick using augmented chords that I copped from Pat Martino:

If you sharp any note of an augmented chord you create a minor chord with the sharped note acting as the root

In the following chords, I’ve taken the original 4-note voicing I had (with doubled C) and sharped one note at a time which creates A minor, F minor and Db (or C#) minor.

Following through on this process, we can find voicings for every minor chord inversion. First I’ll go through the inversions of the 3-note augmented chord across each group of 3 strings:

With the augmented inversions outlined, try converting each voicing to a minor chord:

Raising C a 1/2 step creates a C#/Db minor chord
Raising E a 1/2 step creates a F minor chord
Raising G# a 1/2 step creates a A minor chord

Since augmented chords are symmetrical – the fingerings for inversions repeat every Major 3rd (i.e. 5 frets higher).

The next step is to move the entire pattern up 5 frets and repeat the process of converting the chords to minor.

Going up another 5 frets gives up the final inversion.

Once you get used to manipulating the augmented patterns to create all three minor chords, try taking one minor voicing (like A minor for example) and using the augmented visualization, try visualizing every inversion of A minor both across the fingerboard as well as on each string set.

Augmented visualization tip #2:

Here’s another cool trick from Mr. Martino:

if you flat any note in an augmented triad, the flatted note becomes the 5th of a major chord.

You can guess that the next step would be to apply this to all of the above inversions like you did with the minor.

To Review:

C / E/ G# (Ab) augmented can be transformed into:

A minor
F minor
C#/Db minor
C major
Ab major
E major

In a future post, I’ll talk about this as a melodic application, but in the meantime think about this:

If all of the above chords are related from C / E / G# augmented, then that augmented chord could be used as a bridge to cross bridge chords in very different key centers.

For Example:

A minor – C augmented – F minor.

A minor – C augmented – Db minor.

For those of you who have read my glass noodles post, you’ll see where this is going for a future lesson.

Enjoy the new voicings and thanks for reading!

PS – If you like this idea, you might find my Positional Exploration book, Harmonic Combinatorics Book, Chord Scale Book or Melodic Patterns book really helpful in generating new melodic ideas or approaches.

For posts here, you may also like:

.

Chords/Triads/Superimposition/Arpeggios:

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 3

Getting Hipness From A Major Triad Or More Chord Recycling Part 2

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 1

.

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 3

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 2

GETTING THROUGH THE GIG – NEGOTIATING A CHORD CHART PART 1

.

RECYCLING CHORDS PART II: TRIAD TRANSFORMATION

RECYCLING CHORDS PART I OR WHERE’S THE ROOT?

.

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 2

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 1

.

RECYCLING SHAPES OR MODULAR ARPEGGIOS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

GLASS NOODLES – ADAPTING A PHILIP GLASS ARPEGGIO APPROACH TO GUITAR

.

Books

Mas Modeling!! POD Farm, POD HD, Scuffham Amps And A Whole Tone lick

Posted on December 4, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Computers, and models and amp sims – OH MY!

There’s been a lot of interest in the posts on this site regarding modeling, POD Farm and POD HD. When I made my initial post about this, I didn’t have the 2 units to compare, but I do now and here are my thoughts.

POD FARM

I still like POD FARM. For tonal flexibility – it’s really cool.

The first thing about POD FARM to recognize is that the amps are more like specific snapshots of amps than fully realized models. By that I mean, if you have a Marshall sound with a killing setting that you dig, then that’s great. But if you roll back on the volume, it’s not going to clean up the way a real Marshall would. There are ways to circumnavigate this (and you can definitely adjust your playing around it), but when playing through it, you’re definitely playing a good sounding model rather than an amp.

The second thing is that there’s a BIG sonic difference in the distorted sounds between 44 and 96k. This is to be expected, but there are certain models that are unusable at 44k.

On the plus side the laptop functionality of POD FARM is awesome. I can get sounds out of this rig that I could never get out of a conventional amp. I can run two rigs with more pedals than I could ever run live and, furthermore, when I run it through the Atomic tube amp – even the 44k sounds come alive and works well live.

Breaking out POD Farm into individual elements is really smart – and very cool. It means that I can run (for example) pre-amps or compressors in my AU LAB shell anywhere in the signal chain. A nice touch.

I love AUs. Why? Because when the power goes out at my place for 4 days and I have to type this from a coffee shop, being able to discretely pull out an electric and play in a corner with a set of headphones (and not take up multiple tables) is a GOOD THING!

Conclusion #1: If you’re the type of person who like’s to get a great tone and park it – this may be a good option for you.

Conclusion #2: If you’re the type of person who wants to reference guitar tones (clean, dirty etc.) but then go beyond that into the stratosphere tonally – this is the unit for you.

Conclusion #3: If you want more amp, effect or cab options than you ever imagined – you know the drill.

Conclusion #4: If you expect different tones from your guitar when you roll off the volume, or the thought of using a laptop guitar on stage makes you nervous, this may not be the unit for you.

POD HD 500

This review is specific to the 500 as it’s the only unit I have (and have played through). Comparing this to POD FARM is kind of like comparing apples and onions. They may have a similar shape, but they’re very different things.

The POD HD has substantially fewer models than POD FARM. Having said this, the architecture of the modeling is completely different and the tonal detail is stunning. There may be much fewer amps – but they all sound really good. The amps themselves have controls like BIAS, BIAS-X, HUM and SAG that the POD FARM amps do not and when plugging in the guitar signal feels like it’s plugging into an amp. You can roll off the volume and the signal acts in a musical way. As of this writing, Line 6 updated the HD500 and HDPRO w. a new variable input impedance that affects the tone of certain distortion pedals when you back off the volume (so they behave more like the real thing).

While the unit supports 96k as an output, the distortions sound good at 44k. Much better than the POD FARM distortions at that setting.

As a hardware unit – it has a number of ins and outs. It’s extremely flexible in that way, has a built-in expression pedal and a looper. I’ve never liked USB recording, but the USB recording in the HD works well.

The unit has some tricks up its sleeves that are unique. Particularly the particle verb, which is a gorgeous sonic mangler.

On the down side – the unit doesn’t have the horsepower that a laptop has so you can’t use any combination of amps cabs and effects on the unit. If you’re using a DSP intensive amp and effect, you can get the DSP limit screen pretty easily.

I have some minor global EQ and loop quibbles that you can read about here.

The POD HD Verdict

For the price point this is a great sounding unit.

If you want an all-in-one unit that has the potential to create really musical guitar tones – this may be the unit for you.

If you like to get under the hod and mess with things like SAG and Bias to get a good tone – this may be the unit for you.

If you need more outrageous non-guitar tones, there are some excellent possibilities on this unit.

If you’re the type of person who needs specific distortions, eq, compression or delays to get your tone, and don’t have the patience to chase tone to do so, this may not be for you.

PODFARM HD

So in my mind, PODFARM HD would really be the best of everything. All of the CPU/DSP resources of the laptop mixed with the sounds of the HD unit. Unfortunately, there’s no word on when this is coming out (there’s a lot of new Line 6 gear coming out right now – but even so I’m guessing you may see a demo version at NAMM and then a release in 2013).

(A few tips for Line 6 between now and NAMM.

Please add global EQ and allow looper wet volume to be pedal assignable.
Please release all of the LINE 6 Model amps in POD FARM (Like Bayou) for POD HD.)

And why do I think that Line 6 may step up the time-table on PODFARM HD?

Because despite what the forums say, in terms of hardware, I don’t believe that Line 6 is in the competing market with Fractal Audio. They’re at completely different price-points. AVID’s Eleven Rack however is a completely different matter. Software wise, you have Amplitube and Guitar Rig as probably the two closest competitors. Both sound good for different things. Both have a lot of the modelling issues that Line 6 has. Only Guitar Rig comes close to the number of effects that POD FARM has though.

So why do I have Scuffham Amps in the title of this post?

Because Scuffham Amps has something neither of these do. They have the nearest thing to a PODFARM HD AU on the market.

Scuffham Amps

I understand that Mike Scuffham was one of the guys behind the JMP-1 (Which was a great sounding pre btw). He’s done something several really cool (there’s that word again – but it’s applicable) things with the design of this plug-in.

Limited amps – and specialized limits at that. His “Duke” amp is based on Robben Ford’s amp (a DUMBLE) and has three channels to choose from. The “Stealer” is loosely based on a PARK and the “Jackal” is based on a Soldano. This is cool only because – they’re all really good sounding amps.

PRO Convolver and RED-WIREZ IRs. The 64 bit convolver hosts a slew of really good sounding RED WIREZ IR’s (or you can load your own). For someone like me who typically runs IRs in LA Convolver – having them bundled in the AU is a nice feature.

Dynamic Power Amp. In addition to the amp drive switch, you all get tweak controls like SAG High Frequency cut and Presence Frequency.

FX are limited. It’s got a nice sounding delay, and the gate also works well the amp drive switch acts as like a distortion pedal – but no other fx onboard.

This might seem like a small thing, but the presets sound good. There’s a lot of gear a I use where the presets range from ok to trash, but the presets here have really had some attention given to them.

I’m not going to put a million mp3s up here as there are already a bunch of them on the site here.

I am going to put up what I can get away with in a coffee shop. First here’s the AU Lab session I’m using. The only external effect is a spring reverb.

The Stealer has great blues/classic rock tones. But here’s the odd thing, The Jackal has the 80’s metal vibe – but I REALLY dig it’s punchy clean tone and I’ve never really been into any Soldano clean tone I’ve heard. Maybe I’m just not hearing the right ones. For rhythm/lead distortion – I’ve been into the Duke.

Breaking up is (not so) hard to do

I think I’ve used that title before….

Anyway, here’s the Duke and a favorite voicing of mine – an open E min 9 chord in the 7th position.
.

With many distortions – anything beyond a root-5th craps out and looses all definition. Here, I’m going to play an mp3 with full distortion and then keep strumming the chord bringing my volume know down a notch or so. Notice how:

1. Everything cleans up as I lower the input volume and

2. how even at full volume and distortion you can still make the notes out!

Note:

For those of you interested in the tech side – this was recorded with an FnH Ultrasonic guitar, neck pickup through an Apogee Duet into AU LAB and Scuffham Amps’ THE DUKE model.

.
Let’s see how cleaning these things up sound with an actual lick.

That Whole Tone Idea

In the previous lesson, I talked about my concept of the modal microscope and how looking at things at multiple levels can help open new perceptions.

Let’s take a look at this with the Whole Tone Scale.

If I have C Whole Tone (C, D, E, F#, G#, A#(Bb) one chord that can be extracted from that is a C7+ (R, 3, #5, b7). However, If we focus on the other chord tones of C7 (C, E, Bb), we can play it over a regular C7 chord with just a little bit o’ dissonance.

Since I’ve always done things in C – I’ll move it to G and play a G whole tone (with a few chromatics) over G7.

Here’s the lick (with some extra rubato, legato, vibrato and other atos):

And here’s an mp3 of the lick – with the same volume drop approach as the E min 9.

One thing that those of you who follow this blog might notice is that I’ve adapted my pentatonic 3-note-per string/1-note-per string – fingering to the whole tone scale (which I think is a cooler way to finger it and maybe you’ll agree!)

Conceptually, I’m thinking G whole tone from B for visualization purposes (but moving back to the A on the D string for a little melodic velocity). The point is as long as I resolve to either the B (3rd) or G (root) I can sneak this in even if G7 is the I chord in a I-IV-V blues.

When I went to Berklee the best harmony lesson I learned was in Harmony IV, when the teacher told me that the whole point of Harmony I-IV was to teach students that any chord can precede or follow any other chord. That means that you can superimpose anything over any chord – but the keys are 1. having the knowledge to resolve it and/or make it work and 2. having the experience and the confidence to go for it.

This has been kind a weird lesson/review post (indicative of a few weird days) so please bear with me as I get back to the review aspect of the Scuffham Amp for a moment.

On the minus side – I wish this AU had a tuner and a separate reverb built-in. I understand why they’re not – but it’s nice to have a self-contained amp sound.

On that note – the amps sound really good and they’re unlike anything else really out there.

The list price is $90 – but they sell it online for $75. Some people may balk at the lack of effects, but price-wise this is extremely reasonable for the quality of the amps and the red wirez bundle.

Don’t take my word for anything regarding YOUR tone. You can download a fully working demo for 15 days and take it through the paces. Some things will underwhelm you and there some things you will probably dig – particularly for blues/rock tones.

I’m still waiting for Line 6 POD FARM HD – which I hope is everything I expect it to be, but in the meantime, I’m using this. If you’re even remotely interested in getting decent guitar tones out of your computer , give the demo a try.

As always thanks for reading!

-SC

PS – if you like this post you may also like:

POD HD FLASH MEMORY UPDATE, POD HD500 IN LIVE USE AND MORE THOUGHTS ABOUT GEAR

.

SOME THOUGHTS ON MODELING, GEAR ACQUISITION AND THE POD HD500

LINE 6 POD FARM 2.5 UPDATE AND POD FARM FREE ANNOUNCED

.

POD HD VS POD FARM: A COST COMPARISON

LINE 6 FBV EXPRESS MK II REVIEW

POD HD500 AND POD FARM CONJECTURES

RIG AROUND THE ROSIE OR MEDIATIONS AND MEDITATIONS ON GEAR

.

SOOPERLOOPER LIVE LOOPING AU UPDATE 1.6.18 ANNOUNCED

HARDWARE VS. SOFTWARE – OR PRAISES AND PERILS IN LIVE LAPTOP USE

.

X CODE 3.2.5 / AU LAB 2.2 NOW AVAILABLE – CAVEAT EMPTOR

AU LAB/POD FARM 2.0/LIVE LAPTOP RIG TUTORIAL PART 6 – DUAL RIG DISTORTED TONES

LAPTOP GUITAR SETUP OR NOTES FROM A LIVE SHOW

.

AU LAB/POD FARM 2.0/LIVE LAPTOP RIG TUTORIAL PART 5

AU LAB/POD FARM 2.0/LIVE LAPTOP RIG TUTORIAL PART 4

AU LAB/POD FARM 2.0/LIVE LAPTOP RIG TUTORIAL PART 3

AU LAB/POD FARM 2.0/LIVE LAPTOP RIG TUTORIAL PART 2

AU LAB/POD FARM 2.0/LIVE LAPTOP RIG TUTORIAL PART 1

SETTING UP “TESTING ENVIRONMENTS” OR MULTI LAYERED TONES IN AU LAB

.

BUILDING BLOCKS – OR MORE EXAMINATIONS OF A LAPTOP GUITAR SETUP

A QUICK LICK – AND A RIG DU JOUR UPDATE FROM HO CHI MINH CITY

TECH LIMBO (NEITHER HEAVEN NOR HELL R.I.P. RONNIE JAMES DIO)

.

The Modal Microscope And A Sequenced Arpeggio Approach

Posted on November 30, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Hello everyone!

I’ve been cleaning up a lot of the text for the GuitArchitecture book releases and wanted to post a lesson that uses some ideas and approaches from my Melodic Patterns book (available here). But first, I need to talk about…

The Modal Microscope

When I explain using modes to students – I typically use the analogy of a microscope to discuss viewing modes conceptually on multiple levels.

Let’s say I want to solo over a D min7 chord. So I’ll put that “under the microscope”.

On the 2x setting, I see that a number of minor modes will work over D min7. In this case, I’ll choose Dorian.

Going to the 4x setting on the microscope, I see that Dorian is made up of a series of interlocking 2-string patterns.

Note:

If you’re unfamiliar with the 2-string approach I’m discussing I definitely recommend that you check out part 2, part 3a or part 3b of my guide to modes posts.

If I go to the 8x setting, I can break the 2-string patterns down into 1 string shapes and going to a higher resolution (16x) I can see those shapes as individual notes. At the 16x setting – maybe I’m looking at the individual notes of D min7 (D, F, A and C) and thinking about accenting those notes in my playing.

If I now go out to the 1x setting – I see that D Dorian is just a subset of C major. The thing is if you go playing a bunch of C major scales over D dorian and don’t resolve anything (or focus on the chord tones) – you’re missing a big piece of the puzzle.

It’s good to understand modes on multiple levels but if you see how all of the related modes interlock with each other, then (using the microscope analogy), you can deal with using modes with chords on the 1x or 2x level but use information from the higher levels in your playing.

Putting this to use:

I’ve posted a number of technical things here and decided to use a much lower gain approach than normal and slow things down a bit. The same practice points as before (Tone, Tension and Timing) apply – but this exercise is all about how to find variations in small things. (If you like the technical things don’t worry I’ve included some deceptively tricky variations as well!)

Let’s take a 2-string G Major shape.

The nice things about 2-string patterns like this is that the fingering repeats at each octave. (So you only need to remember one fingering for a multi octave run).

One process I explore in my Melodic Patterns book is systematically breaking down patterns to get new sounds out of them. In this case, I’m going to remove the 2nd and 4th note from the pattern which leaves me with this shape:

Looking closely at the notes reveals that I have a G, B, C and E which is a C maj7 arpeggio. By limiting it to a 2-string shape, I can move it in octaves and the fingering stays the same.

Note:

The drums are the same pattern I’ve used on my other posts, so you can play against it for any other the things I post here (more info below).

.(I’ve added a C maj7 chord in front of this to give a sense of tonality.)

Going to a higher resolution

I know that G parent major also contains A Dorian – which works well over A minor chords. So playing this shape over A minor the notes – now become: b7 (G), 9 (B), b3 (C) and 5th (E). Which has a cool sound associated with it. (I’ve subbed out A min7 for C maj 7 here for the opening chord).

Sequencing the ideas:

However cool any scale or arpeggio is, playing it in a linear up and down manner will only get you so far. By playing groups of notes in short sequences, the arpeggio gains a little melodic drive.

In this first variation I’ll play groups of 3 (So I’m playing 3 ascending notes from each note of the arpeggio). One way to immediately make this more interesting is to break the 3 note grouping out of the triplet rhythm. Playing the same pattern in 16ths – displaces the first note of each pattern across different beats.

Here’s the same idea descending: (This is another case where the microscope idea comes into play. The A note ending the phrase isn’t part of the 4 note arpeggio – but gives the descending line a sense of resolution. Since I’m seeing and hearing the phrase as an A minor tonality – I’m resolving it to the tonic (A), third (C) or 5th (E).

For a little variety – I’ve taken the same idea but played it as sextuplets instead. I’ve notated the first bar of it (as the notes are the same as the patterns above) – but I play it ascending and descending on the mp3 below.

5 alive

To get a little more mileage out of this arpeggio, I’m going to play the notes in groups of 5. Here it is in a 1/16 note rhythm (I’ve left off the last 2 notes to keep it on one line).

Technical note:

Watch the position skip on the A/D and the B/ G strings!!

Here it is as septuplets (5 notes to the beat).

Changing the note order

You may have noticed that all of these arpeggios use a linear note order in the sequence. So if G is the first note of the 1st pattern and B is the 2nd note – every pattern moves in straight ascending or descending order.

3 Note Pattern: G, B, C/B, C, E/C, E, G

in note order = 1,2, 3/2, 3, 4/ 3, 4, 1 etc.

But what if we varied up the note order? In this example, I’m going to take play groups of 3 descending notes on each ascending note of the arpeggio. (So instead of playing note numbers 1,2 3 – I’m playing 3-2-1).

Here it is descending:

Displacing the rhythm by a 1/16 makes it cooler.

And again, descending:

Obligatory Plug

I’m only scratching the surface of what’s possible here. The big takeway here is – if you really go deep on even something small – you can probably find interesting things that will work in your playing.

I would also be remiss in not mentioning that my melodic patterns book shows every possible unique combination of notes (and rests) in 1 – 6 note shapes and then shows how to combine them into longer sequences (up to 9 note patterns). It is a deep resource that can open all manner of melodic and compositional doors (and makes a great gift as well!) ; )

Tones

I went with another tonal variation here and tried some of the lower gain settings on the Scuffham amp AU. It’s a cool product and I should have a review up soon. In the meantime – he’s a screenshot of the laptop set up I used to track this:

Click to see full size

I‘ve mentioned this in the laptop guitar posts – but the varispeed is a useful plug-in! When I get bored with a metronome sound – I’ll throw a drum loop into the AU fileplayer and then use the varispeed to control the speed of the loop.

As always, I hope this helps!

-SC

If you like this post, you may also like:

Books:

LESSONS

.

Slash and Burn – Creating More Complex Sounds With Slash Chords

The GuitArchitect’s Guide to Modes Part 8 – Major Positional Modal Interchange and Complimenting Modes with Chords

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 7 – MINOR POSITIONAL MODAL INTERCHANGE AND COMPLIMENTING MODES WITH CHORDS

.

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 6 – THE CIRCLE OF 5THS AND MODAL INTERCHANGE

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 5 – MAKING THE MOST OF ONE PATTERN

The GuitArchitect’s Guide To Modes Part 4 – Modes and Chords

.

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 3B – SEEING THE SIX-STRING MAJOR SCALE

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 3A – SEEING THE SIX-STRING MAJOR SCALE

THE GUITARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO MODES PART 2 – SEEING THE TWO STRING MAJOR SCALE

.

The GuitArchitecture Guide To Modes Part 1 – Seeing The Single String Major Scale

Making Music Out Of Scales

.

Chords/Triads/Superimposition/Arpeggios:

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 3

Getting Hipness From A Major Triad Or More Chord Recycling Part 2

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 1

.

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 3

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 2

GETTING THROUGH THE GIG – NEGOTIATING A CHORD CHART PART 1

.

RECYCLING CHORDS PART II: TRIAD TRANSFORMATION

RECYCLING CHORDS PART I OR WHERE’S THE ROOT?

.

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 2

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 1

.

RECYCLING SHAPES OR MODULAR ARPEGGIOS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

GLASS NOODLES – ADAPTING A PHILIP GLASS ARPEGGIO APPROACH TO GUITAR

.

Practicing:

MELVILLE, MADNESS AND PRACTICING – OR FINDING THE DEEPER LESSON PART 2

Some Useful Online Practice Tools

POSSESSION IS 9/10S OF THE LAW BUT PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING OR PRACTICING PART VII

TESTING YOUR VOCABULARY OR PRACTICING PART VI

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PLAY OR PRACTICING PART V

.

DEFINITIONS AND DOCUMENTS OR PRACTICING PART IV

TENSION AND THE SODA CAN OR PRACTICING PART III

PROPER POSTURE IS REQUIRED FOR PROPER PERFORMANCE – PRACTICING PART II

PRACTICE MAKES BETTER AKA PRACTICING PART I

.

Melville, Madness and Practicing – Or Finding The Deeper Lesson Part 2

Posted on November 23, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Condensed Cliff Notes

Years ago, I found a back issue of National Lampoon that had a faux ad for Condensed Cliff Notes (“for people who didn’t have time to read the original”). The joke was that major literary works were just boiled down into one sentence descriptions that couldn’t possibly encompass the scope of the book. The Condensed Cliff Notes for Moby Dick was, “A whale bites off a man’s leg and he can’t forget about it.”

I don’t know how many of you have read Moby Dick. I hated it when I had to read it in high school but really got to appreciate it when I was in college and read it again. One of the central characters in the book was Captain Ahab, a man who not only couldn’t forget about the whale that bit his leg off – but was on monomaniacal mission of revenge that enveloped everyone around him in its wake. At the end of the book, it’s also his undoing.

The Ahab effect and practicing

The nature of practicing music (seemingly endless repetition) makes it easy to fall into the Ahab role of obsessively trying to get a musical passage under your fingers. I once had a lick I couldn’t get down. It was challenging, but it certainly was something that was well with in my skill set.

But the more I worked at it – the worse it got.

I’d work on this lick everyday for hours and get the metronome to a certain point. When I came back to it, I’d have to knock the metronome back down 20 bpm – often 10 bpm lower than where I started the lick the day before!

You can imagine what this did for my sanity.

After a week of this – I started noticing a few things:

My goal line kept changing. As I was working on the lick, I kept finding things wrong that I wanted to correct. I was playing it clean, and then hear other technical issues when I switched to distortion. I was flubbing certain notes, and would go back to fix those. I was rushing the parts where there were position changes. I was over thinking it and the more energy I was putting into it the worse it got. I was actually getting better at playing it, but because I kept adjusting the standard of what I was hearing I seemed further and further away from the goal.

I was in a rush. I was putting all of this emphasis on this lick because I wanted to use it in a live context and (finally)

I was hung up about the fact that I SHOULD be able to play it.

The operative terms here are, “hung up” and “should”.

Should is a faulty term. It implies value judgements that are hard, if not impossible to live up to and negates reality. This might sound really touchy-feely to some people but this is the type of mindset that trips up musicians. It’s why people get carpel tunnel (or Focal Dystonia) – because they go all Ahab on something and assume that if they just work harder, that they’re going to get results quicker.

Everyone is different and this approach may work. for some people but it never worked for me.

Here’s what did work for me.

I got some distance and took a break. I stopped playing for a couple fo days and came back to it fresh.

When did come back to it I had the lick down, but it taught me to try to approach all practicing more meditatively. I noticed things that were wrong and worked on adjusting them rather than beating myself up about why I couldn’t do something. When I did slip up and get angry or riled up – I made a note of that and tried smiling instead.

I found that I was really listening on a deeper level than I was before and using practicing to get to a deeper part of myself. I was really getting into the nuances of what I was playing and digging deeper into the pocket than I every had. I noticed technical things that weren’t working and ultimately – I made a series of changes that had major technical ramifications for me in the long run.

All from one lick.

Anything has that potential to open the door to deeper expression. But you won’t find it if all of your energy and attention is fixated on something.

In the next post, I’ll have some lesson material that uses approaches from my Melodic Patterns book, and we’ll get a glimpse into just how tricky playing 4 notes can be.

Thanks for reading!

-SC

If you like this post – you may also like:

POD HD Flash Memory Update, POD HD500 In Live Use And More Thoughts About Gear

Posted on November 18, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

I was going to wait a week and post this – but I want to break the lesson/gear/motivational posts up a little more evenly, and the Line 6 firmware update that was released yesterday provided a good reason to talk about gear.

Line 6 V 1.4 firmware update

Line 6 announced a new firmware update for POD HD PRO and HD 500. (No word on updates for the 300/400). Here’s what you get in the update (all text is from the Line 6 website):

What’s New?

Variable Input Impedance – This feature affects tone and feel because the guitar’s pickups are being “loaded” as they would be by an effect pedal or a tube amplifier. There are eight selectable options which can change the analog circuitry affecting the impedance of the Guitar Input. The options include seven discrete resistor values: 22k, 32k, 70k, 90k, 230k, 1M, 3.5M. There is also an Auto setting. When set to Auto the input impedance can automatically change depending on which amp or effect model is first in the signal chain of the current preset. Impedance settings are saved as part of each preset’s input selection.

Preset or Global Input Selection – When set to Preset, recalling a preset automatically selects which of the device’s audio inputs are used as the “source” – sort of like a built-in, programmable patchbay. The saved input impedance value will also be recalled with each preset. When set to Global, the input selection and impedance value saved with each preset will be ignored as presets are recalled; allowing presets with a variety of saved input settings to be heard from a single source without having to manually reprogram each preset’s input settings one at a time.

Hard Gate – An advanced gate capable of extremely quick response. With controls for hold time, decay rate, and separate open/close thresholds, Hard Gate is ideal for any genre including Metal. It can even be abused to create erratic “sputter” and “splat” effects.

Enhanced MIDI Control – Offers control of POD HD500 and POD HD Pro from external standard MIDI controllers. A variety of functions including Footswitch 1-8, Tap Tempo, Tuner, Looper Controls, and Expression Pedals can all be accessed via MIDI. For more details please refer to the latest version of the Advanced User Guide.

New Presets – This firmware includes lots of new presets. Many of the pre-existing Set Lists have gotten new presets and reordered based on customer feedback. The “BASS/ACO/VOC” Set List includes presets which provide a starting point for bass, acoustic guitar, and vocal processing. The Set List titled “L6LINK <-> DT” provides a starting point for users connecting a POD HD Pro to a DT Series amplifier. Note in this Set List presets 7A-D may not produce audio without a Variax connected and/or monitoring the FX Send output – these particular presets were created to illustrate just one of the approaches to getting amplified electric and direct (FOH) acoustic instruments from a single guitar and preset.

Some bugs were fixed as well. I haven’t tried out the new presets yet (I tend to just mod ones I like from the customtone page or build them from scratch). But the input impedance variability is interesting. I’ve never used the Digidesign 11R – but a lot of the input comments that I’ve read about that seem to parallel this option. There’s a lot of tonal options that come out in variations on this setting – but I’ve set mine to Auto and it seems to work well.

So in short – no new amps or cabs – but some nice features.

One thing this has done is create a bigger divide between the 300/400 and 500/PRO.

Here’s my $.02:

If you’re the kind of person that has 3-4 tones you typically use, and don’t run a lot of additional fx (and are okay with the cab sims Line 6 uses) – save some money and go with the 300/400.

If you want more tonal flexibility or the ability to bypass cabs – go with the 500.

I’m happy I have the 500. It’s a good unit that largely works well – but you can get some good tones out of the 300/400. In fact, some of the better tones I have are 300 tones that I adapted to my unit. This is the best unit that they’ve made and the fact that the tones now respond to my roll off is putting me closer and closer to going ampless live entirely.

Having said that, the unit does have three things that prevent it from being the box it could be.

#1: The DSP issue

This is a minor quibble, because you can still get really good sounds out of the unit but it’s is the biggest issue because it’s the one that doesn’t have an easy fix. If you run a lot of effects, or use amp/cab combinations that use a lot of CPU, you will get a message that the DSP limit is reached and you’ll need to use FX, amps or cabs that use less resources. From an architectural standpoint, this should have been run with the most DSP intensive amps, cabs and FX on the unit and then had chips that could accommodate that. It’s difficult to anticipate what will happen with anything, but there’s really no excuse for reaching a DSP limit as that should have been engineered out of the unit before it went into production.

#2: The looper

One thing that’s also a huge difference between the 500 and the 300/400 is the available loop time on the looper. However, I haven’t listed this as a sell point because in its current incarnation the looper has a fatal flaw in that you can’t adjust the volume of the wet/dry signals of loops.

In other words, if I’m creative a live loop I won’t be able to fade it out while bringing in a new part I’m playing. My options then are to either stop the loop abruptly (which is usually jarring) or bring the whole unit volume down, turn off the loop and bring it up again.

It’s a problem – and it essentially limits the onboard looper to being a riff device. Which is a drag, because it could be a lot more (particularly with the reverse and 1/2 speed options). You’ll never have the flexibility of something like Sooperlooper on it – but when they get this simple thing fixed, it will make a big difference in the functionality of the looper on the unit.

#3: Global EQ

Another small point, but an irritating one. As I mentioned in my taming the EQ post, the Atomic amp I use tends to have an EQ bump in the 90-100HZ range. It’s also the range that a lot of what Chris Lavender uses when he’s playing Stick – so carving out some sonic space is important. Having a global EQ would allow me to make one tweak to go between using an amp live and going direct to a PA. Not the end of the world, but an inconvenience that can be fixed.

Know what gear to hold onto

Steve Morse once had a great observation about gear. He said that he knows that the good effects are, because they’re the ones that rarely sees in the used sections of guitar stores.

My Digitech Space Station is a pain in the ass. The A/D/A isn’t that great, the power supply is iffy at best and the only parameter control is the volume pedal. It’s also a great unit. It’s reverse function is the most musical one I’ve heard and it has a couple other sounds on it I just can’t get from other FX combinations. I’ve had a lot of offers for it, but it’s one of the few pedals that’s not going anywhere.

Likewise, I’ve had my Akai Headrush E1 for a while. It was my main looper in Visible Inc. and I never got rid of it because frankly the resale value was so low that there was no point in selling it.

At the CalArts gig I had with Dumb and Drummer back in October, holding on to the headrush was really a lifesaver, because I was able to set up small loops on the POD HD, record them with the headrush and then build multiple textures between the two loopers and go back and forth between them. It wasn’t the most elegant solution, but it worked well and allowed me to reference early material and loop more thematically (and accompany the film better ultimately).

To deal with the EQ issue, I broke down and spent $60 on an MXR 6 band eq. Spending an extra $40 would have gotten me the 10 band EQ, but in reality the 6 band works fine. I like the compactness and durability of it and it allowed me to really bring my guitar out more in the trio format.

Fixing the loop and EQ issues on the HD would allow me to just bring just the HD instead of and HD and a couple of extra pedals, but as I’ve mentioned before 3 pedals is a long way from the 88 key keyboard case that served as my previous pedalboard. And (for now) I’m really glad I held onto that headrush!