An Update And A Lesson On Technical Recycling

Posted on June 19, 2016 by GuitArchitecture

“It’s been a long…long…time”

I just realized that it’s been a while since I posted anything here. Life has a habit of getting in the way of well laid plans. So here’s a bullet point list to create a quick update.

Korisoron – We are currently working on a new KoriSoron recording and our most intensive material will be on this one! Initial tracking is in progress and we expect to have the recording out in September. I’m also writing new material for the project and- Booking new gigs for the fall.

TEDx – Korisoron has been asked to perform at TEDx Schenectady this fall and I’ll be delivering a related talk.

Old Project – I don’t want to jinx anything but I should be getting together with some former band mates of mine and putting some finishing touches on a project that was very near and dear to my heart (and that I’ve mentioned in prior posts). Fingers crossed – that will be another EP out this fall.

“Eel-Ech!-trick-a-coup-stick” – is the tentative title of a solo acoustic recording I’ve been working on. I had previously recorded some tracks but wasn’t happy with them so I’ve been cleaning some things up and moving forward with getting that out the door by the end of the year.

The new pedagogy approach I mentioned a while back – I’ve been working on this but, quite honestly, I seriously underestimated the amount of prep I’d need to do to make this work so I’m just rolling up my sleeves and trying to pull ahead. I took some notes back from the presentation I did at the HVCC Guitar Festival and have been pulling the material together – but I’ve learned more in the last 6 months about how to deliver everything (and what to deliver) than I learned in all my previous years. I’m super excited about what this is becoming.

The other things – I have a few other musical things in the works that are too tentative to discuss, but, well, let’s just say that it’s a lot of electric guitar in various fashions that will be disruptive. Other things also include a lot of revision plans for this site as well.

A lesson while you’re waiting

One of the things that hold up posts are the fact that I don’t write them in an organized way. I write them in real time based on a theme in my head because it makes the writing more immediate and (hopefully) engaging for the reader. Good for the reader – bad for productivity. A post with any kind of lesson content typically takes 3-5 hours but some of the mode ones took 10-12 hours in editing, layout etc. so that’s why the posts get a bit sporadic for actual lesson material.

The value of recycling

One trap I still find myself falling into is the trap of “short attention span theater” or playing an idea, discarding it like a child’s toy and then picking up another idea and doing the same. Maybe it’s a little cultural ADHD kicking it – but it’s very easy to loose site of taking a theme and really developing it into something. (A great example of this for me is Bill Frissell’s Nashville where you can really hear each of the players take care in developing musical solos based on the melody).

From a technical standpoint, this approach can also be really useful. It can take a long time to really master technical aspects of performance (particularly at the early stages). Finding new ways to utilize the approaches you’ve been practicing will dramatically reduce the time it takes to learn new things. For example, alternate picking takes a long time to develop at the early stages of playing, but once you have it down it makes everything you have to lean to play with alternate picking easier to perform.

Optimize

Let’s take an A minor pentatonic lick.

Pentatonic Lick 1

Let’s say that you’re using hammer ons and pull offs to create a more legato feel.

For me, the most legato part of this passage is the last three notes. I’ll move the E on the B string to the 9th fret of the G string to put 3 notes to that string and make the pattern more fluid.

(Note the change in fingering)

Pentatonic Lick 1a

This is more of how I approach pentatonic fingerings so I adapted the first fingering for one that works better for me. Here’s the first part of the lesson – assuming that you have a base level of technique acquired – find fingerings that make sense for you!

If this fingering isn’t one that’s common for you and you want to practice the approach. Here’s how I would do it.

1. Isolate. There are two technical hurdles in this lick. Combining the 1 note per string and 3-note per string notes with picking

Lick 1C And this:

Lick 1D

And the transition between the two:
Lick 1E
2. Practice

The first step is to just get the initial fingering and picking down.

Set a metronome for 5-10 minutes.

Slow it down! Playing fast before you’re ready just adds tension and makes the lick sloppier and harder to play. The goal is to take something you can play perfectly and effortlessly and then systematically develop it so you can play it perfectly and effortlessly faster.

Lick 1 Slow

Pay attention to the 3 T’s (Timing, Tone and hand Tension). If you find your attention wandering this will get it back. Are there any biffed notes? (Watch that pinky!) Is any part of the hammer-on/pull-off uneven? (Bonus credit – make a video recording and listen back. Pay attention to what both hands are doing. Be critical but not judgemental. Imagine you are watching a friend play this. What constructive criticism could you add to help him or her play it better?)

Write down what you just did.

Adapt this to the second lick and the transitional lick if need be. Get it to the point that the entire lick can be played without mistakes.

Repeat as long as time allows. Do daily (and if possible, multiple sessions daily).

Typically with something like this, I’ll also practice it as sextuplets and a few other rhythmic variations to have those at my disposal if need be.

3. Extrapolate.

This is something I improvised over a C minor-ish feel that uses the same technical approach that I used on the previous lick with a C Blues scale.

Click on image to see a larger version

From a technical standpoint – this is the same basic idea as the first 6 notes from the previous A minor example.

C min lick 1
(Ah – the fingering is missing here – I’m using 2-1-2-3 for each of these)

Sequenced here from the b7:
C Min Lick 2
And from the 5th here:
C Minor Lick 3

In fact the only new thing is the string skipping at the end:

(I got lazy here – I’m using the tritone F#/Gb interchangeably).

Cm String Skip
If the string skipping is unfamiliar to you you can just use the same approach to get it down outlined above.

(Yet another) Shawn Lane Observation

I was watching some footage of Shawn Lane that someone posted the other day and this technical recycling was VERY apparent to me in the footage. From a technical standpoint, it appears to me that he took six or seven technical approaches beyond the realm that anyone else was willing to develop them to (fretting hand taps as opposed to hammer-ons, rhythmic groupings variations (5,6,7,9, etc), wide interval string skipping, Hindustani / Carnatic slide playing and blues phrasing) and adapted those to all of the different music he was engaged in.

In Karate, it always comes back to the Kata. In boxing – the basics, the jab, the hook, cross, the uppercut. You can practice fundamentals your whole life and STILL find things to improve. New techniques take a long time to get down. Invest the time wisely to get the one’s you need REALLY down to help realize what you want to express and then explore your sonic world with the tools you’ve developed. (and if you’re not sure which techniques those are – a good teacher can help! You can email me at guitar (dot) blueprint at gmail if you’re interested in setting up skype lessons to help realize your goals.)

As always, I hope this helps!

Thanks for reading,

New Lesson PT II – Improv(e) and Applied Theory

Posted on February 20, 2016 by GuitArchitecture

Case Study

In Part I of this lesson, I laid some ground work for the idea that improvisation can be utilized as a tool for practicing and composition. You might want to read that post here.

In this lesson I’ll use a real world example to demonstrate how improvisation and applied theory led me to develop a lick.

Ganamurti Melankarta

I’ve written before about how theory can not only help you understand what you’re playing but can also expose you to new sounds you never considered before.

I was fortunate enough to have some studies with Aashish Khan at CalArts in Hindustani (Northern Indian) Music – the Carnatic (South Indian) has been of interest to me as well. In South I have a photocopy of L Shankar’s 1974 AWESOME Wesleyan dissertation, The Art of Violin Accompaniment in South Indian Classical Music (typically available through interlibrary loan – Reminder – SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY) but as that text is not accessible to some people I’d recommend fellow Berklee alumni Charlie Mariano’s An Introduction to South Indian Music as a really good source for making South Indian melodic material accessible to people who wish to adapt the music.

One Melakarta (this is an oversimplified definition but for discussion purposes here – a 7-note scale) I got exposed to was called Ganamurti

(scale formula: Root, b2, bb3, 4, 5, b6, 7)

or with A as a root:

A Bb Cb D E F G# A (aka A Bb B D E F G# A).

I feel the best way to internalize new scale ideas is to write a new tune with them. Here’s an excerpt of a new tune based on this idea I’m playing with KoriSoron. You’ll be able to find it on our next EP.

What’s notated below is what I wrote for Farzad’s part on the A section of the tune. I’m playing a counterpoint line and doubling some parts of the tune.

Ganamurti A section

So this gives you a basic idea of the melody and vibe of the tune.

Han(d) Solo

There are a few other sections of the piece and then some sections to solo over. One of those sections has a repeating pattern like this.

Ganamurti Ost

Now this is the basic form. There’s a lot of melodic variation and fills thrown in on the last beat so it’s not played robotically but you get the general gist of one of the ostinatos being soloed over.

So what I’m going to do now is walk you through the process of how I approach improvising over something like this and how I generated a new lick to add to my vocabulary.

To review the process from Part I of this lesson:

Improvise. (Create)
Record everything.
Listen back and find the new things that you improvised that you like. (Assess)
Learn (and when possible improve upon) the best ideas you came up with when improvising.

Here’s the ostinato.

Ganamurti Ost

Thought Process #1.

I start negotiating the scale looking for melodic fragments to utilize.

I see D F G#

D F G#

aka D, F, Ab

D F Ab
which I recognize as a Diminished triad.

The scale also has a Cb (B) (This is going to be referred to as B from here on out for simplicity.)

D F Ab Cbb

Which makes it a Diminished 7th.

Thought Process #2:

This means I can play dimishished arpeggios over the ostinato.

As diminished arpeggios are made up of all minor 3rd intervals, the notes repeat over the same string groups every three frets. This is useful information because whatever I come up with melodically here:

D F Ab Cbb

Can be played at the 8th fret:

8th fret 4 note

And the 11th fret:

11th Fret 4 note revised

And so on to create a melodic sequence.

What’s your Position on That?

Before I look at developing a multi-positional lick I’m going to look at it in position. Since the intervals are made up of all minor thirds – this arpeggio:

D F Ab Cbb

will have a D on the G string as well:

D Dim 7 to octave

Thought Process #3.

THIS is useful information because if I have an arpeggio that’s contained on three strings (in this case using 2 notes-per-string, 1 note per string and 2 notes-per-string which I think of as a 2-1-2 form) then I can take whatever I’m using as picking and fingering for that shape and (with slight modifications to the fingering) apply the same basic idea (more or less) positionally.

So this:

D Dim 7 to octave

Becomes this:

Positional Ab

And this:

Positional D

**Note on playing with patterns: I find pattern playing to be extremely useful when improvising because it makes modifying those patterns (i.e. making music from them) in real time feasible. Having said that playing this as quintuplets (i.e. 5 notes to the beat)

Diminished 7th quint

will give you a very robotic feel. (This IS a really good way to practice getting quintuplets under your fingers but that’s another discussion). With arpeggios like this I typically play them as 1/16th notes to alter up the feel a bit.

With all this in mind – here is the lick I improvised initially:

four four sixteenth first

It basically involved:

Seeing a diminished shape
Seeing it on three strings
Manipulating it in position

While I’ve detailed a lot of the thoughts out BEHIND the scenes here, Once I saw the initial shape I arrived at this intuitively.

Then I just moved it up 3 frets:

four four positional sixteenth two

And three frets more:

11th Fret four four revised

Once I saw the whole thing – I tied it together into this monstrosity:

Ganamurti Diminished lick full

News Flash!

We play this tune around 100-110 BPM on acoustic guitars. What looks like a pristine metronomic moment of perfection in the example above was a train wreck when I first tried to pull it off.

In order to have it under my fingers (and at my disposal) when we play live I’m going to have to practice it and in Part III of this series, I’m going to show how I’ve been practicing this to get it up to tempo. If you’ve ever felt like practice lessons are not fruitful for you or wondered if you’re doing it the right way – Next week’s lesson will be an awesome one for you!

A call to action:

As always – thanks for reading. I hope that this helps!

I’d like to continue to keep the lesson content I put up here for free but, in addition to the amount of time it takes to generate lesson content this in depth, there are also expenses associated with putting any content online.

If you like this lesson, or the other material on the site, there are a number of ways you can contribute (and enrich your own quality of life) and help keep the information here free.

I have guitar books for sale here. $10 gets you a pdf of generally 200 pages or more (often much more). If you like the ideas in this lesson the Guide to Chord Scales, Melodic Patterns, or Harmonic Combinatorics books might all be helpful to you. The books are available in print editions as well.

You can schedule a private lesson. You can email me at guitar (dot) blueprint at gmail for information on skype or in-person lessons.

You can buy the KoriSoron ep or come out to a show.

Any and all support is appreciated. As always, thanks for reading!

-SC

Doing Something Versus Getting Something Done

Posted on January 23, 2015 by GuitArchitecture

Has this happened to you?

One thing I run into with students very often is a common sense that while they’re playing a lot or have played for years that their playing never got any better. Perhaps some of you have come across the same thing.

Generally they’ve confused doing something with getting something done.

Here’s the difference:

Buying a gym membership is doing something.

Going to the gym and getting a good work out accomplished is getting something done.

A golf story:

I’ve only been to a golf course once and I didn’t like it so feel free to take the following observations with a grain of salt.

One thing I noticed on the course was that most players weren’t very good. (I’m being kind in my description here – awful would be a more appropriate term for what I saw.) We’re talking about players that couldn’t approach par – but – and this was the part that was shocking to me – some of these guys had been playing for 20-30 years!

It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but eventually I figured out that they were following Einstein’s model of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. For example, let’s say one player learned a basic stroke from another player. Well, what had happened was this player never examined what they were doing. He simply learned the stroke and then repeated it over and over with the assumption that since the stroke must be “right” that it was simply a matter of mastering it. So he went out and hit thousands of balls for hours on end over the course of years using the same poor stroke over and over again and then wondered why he wasn’t getting any better. A lot of these guys there talked about new clubs and more expensive gear – but the issue wasn’t the gear – it was poor muscle memory that came about from ingraining a bad practice model!

There are a number of things that separate professional and amateur players – but here’s a big one that I’ve noticed in a lot of pro (and pro level) players that isn’t intuitive:

Pro players don’t tend to operate on some of the assumptions that amatuer players have.

For example – Many times when I’m teaching a lesson to a beginning or intermediate player who wants to get into lead playing I’ll bring up the major scale and nine times out of ten, they’re completely dismissive and say, “Oh I already know that.” and proceed to play it in one octave in position. I’ll start taking the student through the paces of the scale, “just humor me…” and within 5 minutes or so most of them realize that they don’t know the scale as well as they thought they did.

“The tyranny of the shoulds”

One related lesson I had to teach myself involved getting rid of the “shoulds” in my thinking. Should is an amateur concept. “I’ve been playing arpeggios for the last day, I should be able to play this other form ( even though I haven’t practiced it before) because it’s also an arpeggio – and I know those!” “I can play sextuplets at 120 so I should be able to play this sextuplet at the same speed.” Pro players move away from should and focus on can.

Can I play this?
If not, why not?
What do I have to do to play it better?

Pro players examine WHY something isn’t working and then address it.

The dojo story

I saw a Karate demonstration once. While the young guys were showing off the flashiest moves they had, the master was in back doing Kata – which (in a reprehensible over simplification) are the basic starting points for the style. in other words, fundamentals.

Guess what happened to the flashy kids in the demonstration? Strewn all over the place.

Everything you do on guitar is based on cumulative development. The better you can execute basic techniques, the better you’ll be able to adapt to new techniques as they’re thrown at you.

That means really being present in practicing. Really focusing on hand tension, timing and tone and using the “Do – Observe – Correct” model to make sure you’re practicing it the right way. Pro players do what it takes to make things better. Sometimes that’s practicing something at a VERY rudimentary level to make sure that it’s fundamentally sound before trying to get it up to tempo. In other words, they’re willing to humble themselves and do some (often) unglamorous work that other people aren’t willing to do.

A lot of players who play guitar have been playing the same tunes the same ways for the last 30 years and then never wonder why they don’t get better. If you’re one of those people, don’t assume that a new guitar will make it better. It might be as simple as taking a lesson and getting a handle on what you’re doing wrong and developing a proper methodology and practice schedule to get something done towards achieving your playing goals. It may require getting out of a comfort zone – but that’s where the rewards are!.

That’s it for now! I hope this helps and as always, thanks for reading!

-SC

My New (Free) Melodic Minor Extraction Lesson Is Now Up On Guitar-Muse

Posted on October 23, 2013 by GuitArchitecture

Hello everybody!

The Power of Pentatonic Extraction

I’ve posted a few times about one of the new books that I’m working on, Pentatonic Extractions, and I’m really psyched about how its coming together so far. It’s going to cover a lot of material in an easy and accessible way and make a great addition to the series.

But you’ll get to see what I’m talking about yourself as the good people at Guitar-Muse.com have been kind enough to allow me to adapt some material from Pentatonic Extractions for a lesson on the site. There’s theory, audio and tab for some ideas that will probably get you shooed of the next open blues jam – but I really dig ’em and I hope you will too! You can check that out here.

More on that Muse of Guitar

All of the audio examples were recorded with the JamUp Pro app by Positive Grid which is just an incredibly useful app. I’ll have a full review for that coming up for Guitar-Muse, along with some other reviews, player profiles and interviews.

And For those of you who wish to guit a grip….

Guit-a-grip is going to be serializing chapters from my book, Nothing Ever Got Done With An Excuse, which chronicles the processes and observations I used to release the first four books of the GuitArchitecture series in 5 months. If you want to get a hold on a project (or a late new-years resolution), this series will definitely help motivate you and keep you on track. Look for a new podcast this week.

More soon! As always, thanks for reading!

GuitArchitect’s Guide to Modes Part 10 – Getting into Modal Arpeggios – Triads

Posted on February 27, 2012 by GuitArchitecture

Hello everyone!!

I’ll be delving into individual modes in more depth in the coming weeks and months ahead but as a preliminary step, I wanted to get into modal arpeggios a bit as they’ll be important components in future lessons.

Scales = Chords

Since chords and scales are made up of the building blocks (notes), they are essentially 2 sides of the same coin.

For example, let’s look at an ascending C major scale on the B and E strings:

If we remove every other note of the first for notes we can see arpeggiated versions of the triads associated with those modes.

While 2-string arpeggios are often neglected by guitarists, they are certainly worth investigating for helping with visualization.

2-String Triadic Visualization

The major scale is made up of three types of triads: major, minor and diminished. Played as unique notes, any triad has three typical voicings:

Root position with the root as the bass note: (i.e. Root, 3rd, 5th)

1st inversion with the 3rd as the bass note: (i.e. 3rd, 5th, Root)

2nd inversion with the 5th as the bass note: (i.e. 5th, Root, 3rd)

Here are some sample fingerings of each of the chord types played as 2-string arpeggios in each inversion:

2-string Major Scale Triads

Now I’ll apply each of these arpeggio shapes to the C major scale starting with the root position.

As a reminder here are the triads of the C major scale.

Since the fingerings are on 2-strings, they’ll be the same on the E/A, D/G and B/e strings.

Here are the arpeggios in 1st inversion. Again, since the fingerings are on 2-strings, they’ll be the same on the E/A and B/e strings as well.

C major scale triads in 1st inversion ascending by scale degree

And finally, here are the arpeggios in 2nd inversion.

Putting it together positionally

At the top of the page, I showed how I extracted arpeggios from ascending 2 string patterns. This same process can be applied positionally. For example, here’s a 3-note per string C major scale played in 8th position.

Now I’ll apply each of these arpeggio shapes to the C major scale starting with the root position. To create a modal arpeggio, simply remove every other note. Doing so with this scale creates a C Ionian modal arpeggio.

Modal arpeggios are sonically cool because they convey the full sound of the mode but break it out of a scalar pattern.

Modal arpeggios are cool in this method, because if you can visualize a scale then making the arpeggio is relatively easy.

The trouble with Ionian

The “problem” with the Ionian mode in general is that the natural 4th is an avoid tone over major 7th chords with the same root. (i.e. C Ionian played over C maj7). For this reason, I generally avoid Ionian as a mode and instead focus on the major scale for visualization purposes.

With that in mind, here ‘s another approach for using this arpeggio.

I really dig playing this particular arpeggio over D minor – to create a D Dorian type of sound. In the example below, I’ve used the C and the E pitches on the low E string to encircle the D (one note above and one below) to help emphasize the D minor 13 sound of the arpeggio and end it on the 9th.

The final visualization trick

If we look at the positional arpeggio again:

Take a close look at the positional modal arpeggio! If you look at it as a group of 3-note shapes you’ll see that it’s actually made of of 3 triadic arpeggios: C Major, B diminished and A minor.

C Ionian = C maj + B dim + A min

Going back to the 2-string scalar observation in part 3 of this post, as the pitches ascend, the related arpeggios descend. This is true of any of the modal arpeggios – so it might be a cool way for you to visualize it! Try it with your own arpeggio forms!

In the next post, I’ll go through 7th chord arpeggios. In the meantime, try practicing the 2-string arpeggios over all of the chords of the C major scale:

C maj 7
D min 7
E min 7
F maj 7
G7
A min 7
B min7 b5

and then over whatever other tonal centers inspire youI hope this helps! As always, thanks for reading!

-SC

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

Books:

Lessons

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

.

The Ballad Of Cigar-Boy Or Threading Unlikely Connections Together Through Unison Tapping

Posted on November 5, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

The Story of Cigar Boy

has moved! You can find the all new and improved version here! (http://www.guitar-muse.com/unlikely-connections-unison-tapping-7805)

Slash and Burn – Creating More Complex Sounds With Slash Chords

Posted on October 28, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Hello all,

I wanted to take a break from the excerpts from the modes book I’ve been posting and post a lesson that’s based on material from my new Harmonic Combinatorics Book. In that book, I have an entire section about using triads and 7th chords to create more complex sounds.

Here’s the two sentence synopsis:

Playing a minor chord (or arpeggio) a 1/2 step below a major triad implies a Lydian sound by giving you upper chord tensions (7, 9, #11) of that major chord. (i.e. B minor/C).

Playing a minor chord (or arpeggio) a step above a minor triad implies a Dorian sound by giving you the upper chord tensions (9, 11, 13) of the minor chord. (i.e. playing B minor over A minor).

Seeing (and making sense of ) the bigger picture:

When beginning players see a 3rd position C major chord they see something like this:

But an experienced player sees something more like this:

One of the secrets to seeing more of the fretboard is to see chord tones relationally. I’ll show you how to do that by applying some of the approaches from a previous Triad Transformation lesson:

Taking a C major chord:

C Major Triad

(here’s a reference chord):

Lowering the root a 1/2 step gives you a major 7 chord:

C Major 7

C Major 7:

Lowering the 3rd a 1/2 step gives you a 9th. Since there’s no other 3rd in the chord – this becomes a slash chord of G Major over C (written G/C). It has a lot of the sound of a major 9th chord – but because it’s missing the 3rd it really only implies the tonality.

G / C

G/C:

If you want this to sound like a Major 9th, we’ll need to add a 3rd in as well.

C Major 9

C Maj 9

Lowering the 5th a 1/2 step gives us the #4 (aka the # 11). Here I’ve kept the 3rd to make it a Major 9 (#11) chord.

C Major 9 (#11)

C Maj 9 (#11)

Notice that if we lower the root a 1/2 step – we have a B minor triad:

B Minor

So, as a short cut, playing a B minor over C we imply the sound of a C major 9 (#11) chord without having to memorize a separate voicing.

Melodic Application

This extends into lead playing as well. Rather than just playing a C major arpeggio over a C chord, here I’ve replaced the bottom note of a B minor arpeggio with a C and resolved it to C:

B min / C or C Lydian Lick

C Lydian lick (louder than the chord mp3s- FYI):

Here’s another chord voicing of B minor/C:

B minor / C

When I see voicings that use the middle notes of the 7th fret, I generally try to think of ways to incorporate harmonics into it. In this example, I’ve added harmonics in to fill out a B minor arpeggio with some encircling to resolve it to C. I forgot the fermata on the first chord – but you’ll figure it out when you hear the mp3.

B min / C aka C Lydian Lick 2

C Lydian Lick 2:

Now we’ll take this in a different direction: playing B minor over A minor implies a cool A minor 13 sound. I’ve added an A to lick #1, and a semi-chromatic run that skips the 3rd and makes it a more open sound.

B min / A min – A Dorian Lick

B min/A Dorian Lick:

I’ve resolved the lines to the root notes of the chords I’m playing over – but you may want to stay on a tension depending on the context.

With any approach like this – always use your ears as a guide for what sounds good and what doesn’t.

The Quiz:

Did you notice anything about the C major voicings? Using a B minor triad doesn’t take it to the 13th.

In any chord tone voicing, raising the 5th a step gives you the 6th (if no 7th is in the chord) or (in this case) the 13th So using our initial voicings, the easiest way to bring in the 13th is to raise the G on the high E string to A.

B min 7 / C Implying C maj 13 (#11)

Looking at at a little deeper,

if we fully spell out this chord:

C (root)
E (3rd)
G (5th)
B (7th)
D (9th)
F# (#11) and
A (13)

the top 3 notes form a D major chord. As a modified rule for playing over a major chord:

Playing a minor chord (or arpeggio) a 1/2 step below a major triad implies a Lydian sound by giving you upper chord tensions (7, 9 and #11) of that major chord. (i.e. B minor/C).

Playing a major chord (or arpeggio) a step above a major triad also implies a Lydian sound by giving you the upper chord tensions (9, #11 and 13) of the minor chord. (i.e. playing D/C).

As with any material here, pay attention to the 3 T’s (Timing, (hand) Tension and Tone) and just go through the lesson at your own pace and return to it as you need to.

I hope this helps and as always, thanks for reading!

-SC

P.S. If you like this post – you may also like:

.

MAKING MUSIC OUT OF SCALES

SOME USEFUL ONLINE PRACTICE TOOLS

.

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

A BRIEF THOUGHT ABOUT MUSIC THEORY

.

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

Posted on October 15, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Welcome to the part eight of the GuitArcitecture Mode Visualization lesson series.

If you see anything unfamiliar here, you may want to check out:

part one,

part two,

part 3a

part 3b

part 4

part 5

part 6 or

part 7 of the series

In the last lesson, I took a look at adapting minor chords to modes and modal interchange. In this lesson – I’m going to apply the same process to major chords.

Note:

I’ve outlined this process thoroughly in part 7, so if you have questions – just check the instructions there.

One Chord Modal Interchange Exercise – Major

Of the parent major scale modes I’ve been covering – there are 3 that can be used over an A major chord:

A Lydian (E major):

A Lydian – Click to enlarge

A Ionian (A Major):

A Ionian – Click to enlarge

A Mixolydian (D major):

A Mixolydian – Click to enlarge

Here’s the major-based chord progression:

Repeat each bar 2-4 times ** Click to enlarge**

Here are the steps (repeated from Part 7):

Record or loop the pattern in time

Playing over the loop practice switching modes each bar. I’ve outlined the fingerings above (see earlier posts in the series if you want to see how I derived them) with a sample rhythm. As an initial step – just practice ascending and descending the patterns in a scalar fashion.

As the level of familiarity with the modal interchanges increases, try removing the repeats and increasing the tempo (thus increasing the difficulty level).

Note:

Make sure you don’t start every bar with the low A root!

The goal of this is to be able to switch between modes “mid-stream”. As a first step, when playing these ascending and descending make sure that wherever you are in the pattern ascending or descending that you transition into the next mode smoothly. The initial goal here isn’t speed – it’s fluidity and being in control of switching between modes.

(See the melodic note below for some other tips once you get comfortable with the transition).

Now let’s examine each chord (and mode) individually:

First measure: A Major

A Major – Play A Lydian, A Ionian or A Mixolydian – Click to enlarge

The modes could be played over this chord are:

A Lydian (recommended), A Ionian (be careful of the 4th) and A Mixolydian

Measure 2: A Major 7

Lowering the root to G# creates an A major 7 chord – which works with either A Lydian or A Ionian.

A Major 7 – Play A Lydian or A Ionian – Click to enlarge

Measure 3: Lowering the G# to G produces an A7 – stick with A Mixolydian for this one.

A7 – Play A Mixolydian – Click to enlarge

Measure 4: I’m going to start the process of chromatically ascending certain pitches rather than descending. So I’ll go back to A Major here.

Measure 5: Raising the 3rd (C#) a 1/2 step to D produces an Asus4 chord. The #4 in Lydian will clash with the natural 4th – so go with Ionian or Mixolydian for this one.

A sus4 – Play A Ionian or A Mixolydian – Click to enlarge

Measure 6: Raising the 4th another 1/2 step results in an A major (add #11) – a chord firmly in the domain of A Lydian.

A Major (add #11) – Play A Lydian – Click to enlarge

The chord progression then goes back to A major where any of the 3 modes could be used.

Notes:

Harmonic – If you’re playing with another musician try taking this one chord vamp idea and using your ear to change the chord when the soloist changes modes. You can make other chordal alterations as well creating melodic movement in the voicing – is a great approach to use both in comping on a single chord as well as creating melodic movement between 2 chords (more on that in another lesson).

Melodic – As the soloist in this approach – try to change modes then the rhythm player changes chords. As soon as you get comfortable with the shapes – try making melodies and taking them through each modal change. (See part 5 for an example of that process with one modal shape).

The nice thing about playing with human beings (rather than sequences) is that people can introduce random factors into playing. A person can make all kinds of melodic or harmonic decisions that require the other person to change and adapt. It develops a dialog and allows people to become more attune to playing with other people (and ultimately more musical).

The next lesson will cover a go a little deeper into modal chord progressions and offer some new challenges. As before, just go through the lesson at your own pace and return to it as you need to. Also please feel free to post any questions you might have (or pm me at guitar.blueprint@gmail.com).

I hope this helps and as always, thanks for reading!

-SC

P.S. If you like this post – you may also like:

.

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

.

Making Music Out Of Scales

A BRIEF THOUGHT ABOUT MUSIC THEORY

.

PRACTICE MAKES BETTER AKA PRACTICING PART I

PROPER POSTURE IS REQUIRED FOR PROPER PERFORMANCE – PRACTICING PART II

TENSION AND THE SODA CAN OR PRACTICING PART III

DEFINITIONS AND DOCUMENTS OR PRACTICING PART IV

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PLAY OR PRACTICING PART V

TESTING YOUR VOCABULARY OR PRACTICING PART VI

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

SOME USEFUL ONLINE PRACTICE TOOLS

.

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

.

WARMING UP: FINGER EXERCISES, THE 3 T’S AND THE NECESSITY OF MISTAKES

.

The GuitArchitect’s Guide to Modes Part 7 – Minor Positional Modal Interchange and Complimenting Modes with Chords

Posted on October 8, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Welcome to the seventh installment of the GuitArcitecture Mode Visualization lesson series.

If you see anything unfamiliar here, you may want to check out:

part one,

part two,

part 3a

part 3b

part 4

part 5 or

part 6 of the series

In the last lesson, I took a look at the modes and the circle of 5ths. In this lesson, I’m going to:

show how to modify a minor chord to cover minor modal interchanges and
show how to switch modal patterns in position

Complimenting Modes with Chords

A lot of print has been used to describe how modes fit with chords but substantially less has been written about modifying chords to fit various modes. I’ve developed this approach as an introductory way to work on modal interchange it does three things:

Limits harmonic content to simplify the modal interchange process
show a way to modify chords to work with modes and
develops the skill set for changing modes in position.

(All useful skills to have – btw). Since I’ve been dealing with C major – I’m going to look at A minor (the relative minor chord) first.

One Chord Modal Interchange Exercise – Minor

Before we get into the exercise, let’s make sure we’re clear about the modes we’ll be using. Of the parent major scale modes I’ve covered – there are 3 that can be used over an A minor chord:

A Dorian (G major):

Click to enlarge

A Aeolian (C major):

Click to enlarge

A Phrygian (F major):

Click to enlarge

Here’s the accompaniment pattern:

Repeat each bar 2-4 times ** Click to enlarge**

Here are the steps:

Record or loop the pattern in time

Playing over the loop practice switching modes each bar. I’ve outlined the fingerings above (see earlier posts in the series if you want to see how I derived them) with a sample rhythm. As an initial step – just practice ascending and descending the patterns in a scalar fashion.

As the level of familiarity with the modal interchanges increases, try removing the repeats and increasing the tempo (thus increasing the difficulty level).

Note:

Make sure you don’t start every bar with the low A root!

(See the melodic note below for some other tips once you get comfortable with the transition).

Now let’s examine each chord (and mode) individually:

First measure: arpeggiate a minor chord in 4/4 time (in this case A minor).

A minor – Play A Dorian, A Aeolian or A Phrygian – Click to enlarge

In order of increasing darkness, the modes could be played over that chord are:

A Dorian, A Aeolian and A Phrygian

Measure 2: adapt the chord to a specific mode using the mode’s characteristic note.

The first mode explored in this example will be A Phrygian. Since Phrygian’s characteristic note is the b2, I’ll change the 2nd root (A) with the b2 (Bb) creating an A minor (add b9).

A minor add b9 – Play A Phrygian – Click to enlarge

Measure 3: I’ll continue the chromatic motion on the G string changing the Bb to B natural. This produces an A minor (add 9).

A minor add 9 – Play A Dorian or A Aeolian – Click to enlarge

Measure 4: Now the 5^th of the chord (E) will move chromatically to F, emphasizing the b6 of the Aeolian mode creating an A minor (add 9, b6) chord.

A minor add 9 add b6 – Play A Aeolian – click to enlarge

Measure 5: The 6th of the chord will now move chromatically to F# emphasizing the natural 6 of the Dorian mode and creating an A minor (add 6, 9) chord.

A minor add 6, 9 – Play A Dorian – Click to enlarge

The chord progression then goes back to A minor where any of the 3 modes could be used.

Notes:

Harmonic – If you’re playing with another musician try taking this one chord vamp idea and using your ear to change the chord when the soloist changes modes. You can make other chordal alterations as well creating melodic movement in the voicing – is a great approach to use both in comping on a single chord as well as creating melodic movement between 2 chords (more on that in another lesson).

Melodic – As the soloist in this approach – try to change modes then the rhythm player changes chords. As soon as you get comfortable with the shapes – try making melodies and taking them through each modal change. (See part 5 for an example of that process with one modal shape).

The next lesson will cover Major chord variations in this same style. But if you want to get a head start the process is the same as what I just covered, the characteristic notes for the major modes are:

Lydian: #4

Major: Natural 7

Mixolydian: b7

As before, just go through the lesson at your own pace and return to it as you need to. Also please feel free to post any questions you might have (or pm me at guitar.blueprint@gmail.com).

I hope this helps and as always, thanks for reading!

-SC

P.S. If you like this post – you may also like: