Learning the guitar neck with licks November 3, 2020 No Comment Learning the neck Here it is: Keep it in mind as we take a look at that Louis Armstrong solo again. What’s the first thing you see in the first bar? Nothing but C major chord tones. But where are those notes on the guitar? This is the crucial part. If you study the diagram above, you’ll find four practical locations to play it. Open position using an open E string to start.Fifth position starting with the E on the B string.Ninth position starting with the E on the G string.Fourteenth position starting with the E on the D string. Finding the notes in all the positions might take a little while. Be patient. It’ll be worth it. Play the lick in all of these positions, saying the names of the notes out loud as you do. Move randomly between positions, and see if you can play in each position five times. Do this every day for a week, and you’ll know where the four pitches in this lick are in all the practical positions on the guitar. You’ll also have a lick that you can use in a number of different places. Don’t like the lick? Find one you do, or better yet, invent one. Don’t make it longer than four pitches; you want to make it easy to learn where the notes are. Then learn two more four-note licks. Each of these three licks should have their own unique set of notes, different than the other two. Do this and you’ll cover all twelve pitches. Don’t worry about making licks that only use chord tones. Just make sure all twelve pitches are represented in the three licks. Learn each one in two different octaves, and you’ll have covered most, if not all of the guitar. Give each lick in both octaves a week, and in six weeks, you’ll have a reasonably solid knowledge of the fretboard. And you’ll have six licks you can use in your improvising. Six weeks is nothing in the scope of things. Then just keep learning new licks, and your knowledge will get stronger and stronger. UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Relationships October 27, 2020 No Comment I should say, before I go any further, that my intent with these posts is to emphasize the depth of relationships between notes and notes, and between notes and you. That’s implied in the last post, but as strongly as I would have liked. Music is not just about making cool sounds. That definitely happens, but it’s much more than that. Really paying attention to the sounds you make, and how they make you feel, is the first step in establishing your own, unique voice. Ok. So on to today’s post… Chord tones vs. arpeggios If you wanted to answer the question of who first started soloing over jazz changes first, good luck. Who did it best is a bit easier, and most people would say Louis Armstrong. So how did he approach things? If you look at the first 12 bars of his solo on Basin Street Blues, you’ll find a lot of chord tones, arpeggios, and chromatic neighbor and passing tones. Scales don’t dominate the picture, and this emphasis on chord tones and chromatic movement give his work drive, direction, and coherence. There are exceptions of course, but look at almost any jazz solo and you’ll find chord tones all over the place. They give cover for creating tension by providing places to resolve whatever tension you may have set up. Knowledge of chord tones give you solid control over what you’re doing. A lot of people enter the world of chord tones by learning all their arpeggios, but you don’t need to learn all your arpeggios to know your chord tones. You just need to know the note-name of every fret on the neck of the guitar (at least up to the 12th fret). Then you need to know what the chord tones are in any chord you encounter. Then, as you move through different chord charts, chord tones light up on the frets, alerting you to safe harbor. No matter what trouble you’ve gotten yourself in, you can get out of it by landing on a chord tone. This creates a lot of confidence. Arpeggios give you shapes. The guitar is really good at shapes, so it makes it easy to just memorize arpeggios without looking at the guts of things, without getting to really know your instrument. Knowledge of the neck combined with knowledge of chord theory gives you freedom and confidence that simply knowing shapes doesn’t. It’s work, and it takes time, but it’s worth it. And once you got that in place, go ahead and learn your arpeggios. They’ll mean more. In the next post, I’ll present a way to learn the neck through the use of licks. improvisationShare : Tweet
Chord tones October 17, 2020 No Comment There’s an old saying in jazz: “Someone made a mistake, and jazz was born.” That mistake led to a discovery, which led to questions about freedom and creativity, about form and content. Space was made for invention. Freedom to embellish became a thing. All from accepting a mistake and exploring it instead of running away from it (“Don’t fear mistakes. There aren’t any” – Miles Davis). The easiest (safest?) way to embellish – at least in terms of note choice – is to use the notes of the chord that you’re playing on. They never sound bad. And more importantly, each one has a specific emotional effect. The root of the chord, for instance, has a different level of tension – a different colour – than the 3rd, the 5th, or the 7th. Getting the feel of these colours in your ear and in your body is essential if you want to be as good as you can be improvising over jazz changes. That being the case, your job is to figure out how each chord tone makes you feel. Try this: Loop a single chord. Use a Cmaj7 chord for simplicity.Play the root and nothing but the root while the chord plays. Really figure out how that note makes you feel. Play it with the same articulation for a while (soft, hard, staccato, etc.). Then vary the articulation. Don’t vary the rhythm. Keep asking how it makes you feel. Don’t worry about coming up with an answer. The point is to feel, not explain.Do the same thing with the other chord tones.Improvise using only two chord tones. Your choices are 1 and 5; 1 and 3; 1 and 7; 3 and 5; 3 and 7, 5 and 7. Play with each pair.Use three chord tones in the same manner – 1, 3, 5; 1, 3, 7; 1, 5, 7; 3, 5, 7.Use all four chord tones. If you do all this, you should have a decent idea of how each chord tone makes you feel, and how the relationships between chord tones makes you feel. This is incredibly important. improvisationShare : Tweet
Circle of 5ths February 24, 2018 1 CommentI’ve had questions from students lately about the circle of 5ths, so I’m recycling this post, the 10th in a songwriting series that I wrote a while ago. Here it is. How to write chord progressions a pro would love, part 10: Circle of 5ths. Since you’ve looked at the first nine instalments in this songwriting series (right?), you can now can write a chord progression and place it in a song form. The problem is, you can only do it in the key of C. How do we take all this knowledge and apply it to any other key we want? Before we answer that question, we need to talk about a little piece of magic called the circle of 5ths. But before you read this, do yourself a favour and check out this great post about the circle of 5ths from Musical-U.com. Or read it after, if you want. Just read it. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-use-circle-fifths/ Circle of 5ths If you’re feeling queasy, you’re not alone. Musical jargon makes people think theory, and when people think theory, they think “no fun anymore.” But what you need to know is that with each new piece of knowledge you acquire, things get easier. And you become better than most of the other guitar players out there. And it’s not hard. Here it is. Just look at the top of the circle. The bottom will look scary. There’s a lot of information down there, and there’s something frightening about a lot of information all at once. Let’s make it easy. You’ll see a short 5-line staff at the top with a treble clef ( & ). Above it is the letter C. Notice there are no sharps (#) or flats (b). This lack of information should make you happy. This is the simplest key there is. We’ll use it a lot. Clefs I mentioned the treble clef in part 4 of this songwriting series. This is a symbol placed at the beginning of a musical staff so that those who care can tell what the note names are. You should probably care. It’s ok if you don’t. There are a lot of different clefs. Here’s four of them. For what we’re doing, you only need to know the treble clef. The rest is there for those of you who like more information. Back to the circle Go clockwise around the circle one step, and you come to a new key, the key of G. Look at the 5-line staff and you’ll see one sharp – F#. To spell the key of G we go in a circle (like we did for the key of C in part 1 of this series) from G to G, but now we add an F# to the alphabet. G A B C D E F# (G) Chords in G major Here’s what the chords in the key of G major look like. Compare this sequence of chords to the sequence in C major. See any similarities? The first chord in both keys is a major chord; the second chord is minor. Continue to compare, and you’ll see that all of the chords in both keys relate to each other in this way. And this is the same in every key! Just like before we label the chords with roman numerals. I ii iii IV V vi viii G Major A Minor B Minor C Major D Major E Minor F# Diminished The pattern you see there – maj, min, min, maj, maj, min, dim – stays the same for every key. Finding a key To find a key, all you need to do is choose a letter. That letter will be the name of the key. Then look on the circle of 5ths diagram. Find that letter, and look at the number of sharps or flats. Then spell the alphabet starting with the letter that you chose, and insert the sharps or flats. Example: key of A = A B C D E F G. Insert the sharps that you see beside “A” on the circle of 5ths and you get: A B C# D E F# G#. Some of you might be wondering how I know the names of those sharps. Check out Part 11 for that. songwritingShare : Tweet
Teaching rhythmic notation in guitar lessons January 27, 2018 No CommentSome teachers avoid theory in guitar lessons in favour of giving students something they like. No note-reading or rhythmic notation unless the student is interested in doing that. I get it. Make sure you give them what they want so that they enjoy themselves, have a positive experience, and keep coming back. But this can go too far, and it’s not necessary to eliminate all vestiges of theory. This strikes me as an unreasonable fear of losing students. Beginners I take the following approach with beginners. At the beginning of guitar lessons, I do what the teachers I mention above do: give them only what they want, and help them make sounds that they like. Students need to be motivated, and guitar is hard enough without being made to learn notation right at the beginning. It’s ok if the first six months are nothing but song after song, slowly adding more challenges. But once they get to a certain level, rhythmic notation can be introduced without fear. I find that, in general, students like to have some technical know-how. Rhythmic notation is relatively easy to learn, and it provides vocabulary for discussing more interesting rhythmic topics. Notes can wait; rhythm doesn’t need to. Besides, it can be enjoyable. Here’s what I do. Clapping quarter notes During guitar lessons, have the student clap at an even tempo that is comfortable for them. Then find that tempo on a metronome, and have them clap to the metronome. Tell them that you’re going to write down the rhythm that they’re playing, then do so. Make sure that they keep playing as you do this. This provides instant visual feedback for what they’re doing, and connects their bodily movement with the parts of the brain that process symbols. Give them vocabulary for what they’re doing, and for what you’re writing. For instance, “You’re clapping quarter notes, and this is what quarter notes look like.” Clapping eighth notes Now have them clap twice as fast; keep the metronome on quarter notes. This gives them the sound of notes between quarter notes. Make sure they’re clapping evenly. If necessary, have the metronome play the eighth notes, or clap along with the student to model the correct placement. As they’re clapping, write down eighth notes, and give them vocabulary for what they’re doing as you did with quarter notes. Change tempos so that they can get a feeling, both physically and emotionally, for what that is like. Once they can clap eighth notes in a few different tempos, place quarter rests in the flow of notes on the page. Do this gradually. They should be able to play a rhythmic figure with a single quarter-note rest in a single bar. Have them loop the bar until they can do it easily. Do it in different tempos. Now play that same rhythm on the guitar. So now you’ve covered quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests. They will now have a solid physical and cognitive understanding of these concepts. The key is to have them clapping or playing at all times during the process of learning. You’ve also given them some independence, since they’re now able to pick up guitar books, and understand what’s going on. This is the aim of guitar lessons – give the student the means to learn for themselves. Teaching and LearningShare : Tweet
Breaking things down January 22, 2018 No CommentAs a teacher, you must be able to break down even the most seemingly easy exercises. One of the easiest things to do on the guitar is to play the open high E string with a pick. Only your picking hand is involved, and you only need to play one string. But problems can emerge and the teacher needs to be prepared for them. Simply finding the string with the pick can be difficult. This is a basic spatial problem. For anyone who hasn’t picked up a guitar before, this can be difficult. If the student has difficulty with this, have them look at the string, place the pick on the string, and then play the string. Once you have played the string, bring the pick back to the string and briefly rest there. Then play. Repeat until this is easy. Then do the same thing with eyes closed. That will fix the problem. Do this with all the strings. Playing from string to string The next step is to move from string to string. Begin by using adjacent strings – E and B; B and G; G and D; D and A; A and E – and simply play one and then the other. Make sure to rest briefly on each string before playing it. Pressing frets For beginners, the 8th fret is a good place to start since it’s easier to press the string into the fretboard than at the 1st fret. Most teachers start in first position, and then move up the fingerboard after that. Reversing this makes the process less frustrating. Have the student press the string at fret 8 at the front, middle, and back of the fret, and play each time, making sure that their finger is in the proper curved position, looking as though it’s holding a grapefruit. Which place on the fret is easiest to press down? Which sounds best? Get them to do this with each finger. Once they can do this, get them to move from one fretted note to another, using different fingers. For instance, play the 8th fret with the index finger, and then play the 9th fret with the middle finger. Continue with the ring finger at the 10th fret and the pinky at the 11th fret. Moving from open string to fretted note The student needs to feel comfortable moving smoothly from an open string to a fretted note. Try the following: Play from the open E string to the note at fret 5. Play the E string, rest for a beat, press fret, play fretted note. Repeat until it sounds smooth. Once mastered, play alternating half notes. For example, alternate the E string with fretting the 5th fret. This requires more coordination; the student has to time the pick-stroke with each note. This is especially difficult when fretting; the pick has to meet the string just as the finger presses the note down. The slower you do this, the easier you can hear when it doesn’t work. When half notes are mastered, move on to alternating quarter notes. One string melody Now introduce a simple, one-string melody. Two string melody Now get them to play a melody between adjacent strings. The point of all this is to demonstrate how to break down something that seems to need very little explanation. Most skills developed on the guitar benefit from this type of scrutiny. Teaching and LearningShare : Tweet
