Melody in A minor September 6, 2014 No CommentLet’s practice using the fixes I suggested in the last post. We’ll do this by making a progression in A minor, and by using some of the scales I talked about in earlier posts. http://davewallmusic.com/soloing/ http://davewallmusic.com/a-bunch-of-notes-for-the-blues-2/ Everything you’ve done with these scales should begin to give you a flexible sense of melody. Playing them over the blues gives you one sense of melody. Playing them over a progression in A minor will give you a different sense of melody. Chords in A minor Make a progression in A minor. Here are the chords you can use to do that. Amin Bdim Cmaj Dmin Emin Fmaj Gmaj If you’ve read one of my earlier posts, you’ll know that these are the same chords as C major. http://davewallmusic.com/improvisation/ In A minor you can use Emaj instead of Emin, and G#dim instead of Gmaj. Taking a look at my posts on songwriting (see main menu) will help you put a progression together if you need help. And remember to use the fixes I talked about in the last post. Playing the scales Use minor pentatonic, dorian, and the blues scale. Major pentatonic won’t work on a minor progression. After using the blues progression, soloing over a regular progression will be a bit of a revelation. Notice how your playing changes. The blues progression tends to make you play blues clichés. A progression in a minor key (or a major key) encourages a different melodic approach. Play around with this. Pay attention to the kind of melody each of the three scales make you want to play. This will give you a sense of what you like. songwritingShare : Tweet
Creativity, attitude, trouble-shooting September 4, 2014 No CommentAt this point, you’ve been making stuff for a while. Sometimes it’s great. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes you just want to quit. Consider the following and the process might be easier. Cancer and creativity Everyone’s creative. It’s obvious in some people, not so much in others, but everyone’s got it. Kind of like cancer. We all have cancer cells in our bodies, but they only grow under certain conditions. Of course, the conditions for cancer are different than the conditions for creativity. Cancer grows if you take stuff in that’s bad for you. Creativity grows if you take in stuff that’s good for you. If you have the right attitude, creativity helps you discover more of yourself. Bad attitude Try making something and see how you feel. What if it doesn’t turn out the way you wanted? Do you throw it against the wall, stomp around the room, agonize over what a pathetic failure you are? Do you try something else, but never that type of project again? Maybe you just quit. Maybe you say, “I’m just not talented.” Ugh. Good attitude Or maybe you look at what you’ve done, and you ask yourself, “How could I make this better?” This helps you look at what you’ve done objectively. If you can do that, you’ll see things in it that you hadn’t seen before. You start to see that the things you make aren’t you. They’re just things, and things can be changed, thrown away, whatever. You learn to keep going when you fail. Don’t get me wrong. This is hard. You have to look at stuff you care about when it’s not working for you. That’s not easy to do. And it’s not always easy to know what to do about it. Sometimes you just need to throw it away and make something else. But the more you make stuff, the less that happens. It becomes easier to see what’s wrong and easier to fix it. Fixing it If you have something that’s not working, there’s usually an identifiable spot where it starts to suck. Play through what you’ve got. Listen really carefully, and stop as soon as you hear that spot. Now clearly identify the problem. What might be wrong? Maybe the chord before it needs to be played for another bar. Maybe the chord in question needs to be placed on a different beat. Try playing it on every beat. Which is best? Maybe the strumming pattern needs to change. Try a slightly different rhythm. Maybe the whole thing should be in a completely different style. Maybe the whole thing needs to be faster/slower. If it’s a riff or a solo you’re writing, try using long notes if you have a lot of short notes. Or vice-versa. If it’s a riff or a solo, can you sing the rhythm or the notes? Always start by trying to sing the thing you’re trying to write. You’ll get to the right answer more quickly. The answer isn’t always as straight forward as these suggestions. But give them a try, and they might lead to other ideas. thoughtsShare : Tweet
DADGAD: Three-string open chords August 30, 2014 1 CommentBy now you’ll have noticed that not everything you’ve made sounds good. That’s normal. Don’t let it slow you down. Just document the stuff you like. Note on the D string Let’s add one more string that we can use to add to our collection of possible chords using the dorian scale as a resource. The notes for D dorian on the D string, starting on the 5th fret are: Fret 5 Fret 7 Fret 9 Fret 10 Fret 12 Fret 14 Fret 15 All of the ideas from the last two posts apply. Having three strings to deal with just makes it more complex. Possibilities You can make chords using only one fret on either the B (tuned to A), G, or D strings. Then you can move from string to string, playing a single fret on each string while strumming. With five open strings ringing in each chord, it might get a bit monotonous. Even so, it might provide a nice effect. Figure out how you can use it to create a contrasting section in a song you’re working on. Or strum only 3, 4, or 5 strings while fretting one note You can anchor one finger and move the other two. Or anchor two fingers and move one. You can move all three fingers together to create a progression of triads. You can choose a note on the D string and one on the B string. Leave the G string open. You can go from a chord where you’re fretting one note, to one where you’re fretting two notes. Follow that with a chord where you’re fretting three notes. Or go from a two-note chord to a three-note chord to a one-note chord. The scale And you have a three string scale. Like the 2-string scale you can make short riffs that complement the chord progressions you’re making. You now have resources to keep you busy for a long time. guitarShare : Tweet
DADGAD: Two-string open chords August 28, 2014 No CommentAdding a second string allows you to make more interesting chords. You know the notes in D dorian on the B string from the last post. Here they are on the G string, starting at the 4th fret: Fret 4 Fret 5 Fret 7 Fret 9 Fret 10 Fret 12 Fret 14 Fret 16 Play around with these like you did in the last post (playing the frets in sequence, making chords, etc). Now play from the G string to the B string. One way to do this is to play the 4th, 5th, and 7th frets on the G string in sequence. Follow this with the 5th, 7th, and 8th frets on the B string (It’s basically a two-string scale). There are a ton of ways to do this… Two strings together Strum all six strings while fretting notes on the G string and the B string together. There are a few basic ways to do this. Anchor a finger on one string and move a finger around on the other string. For example, place your index finger on the G string at the 4th fret. Now move between the 5th , 7th , and 8th frets with your middle finger (5th fret) and pinky (7th and 8th frets). Use the same idea, but anchor a finger on the B string and move fingers on the G string. Move two fingers together. For example, play the 7th fret on the G string and the 5th fret on the B string. Now move your fingers to the 10th fret on the G string and the 8th fret on the B string. There are lots of combinations here. Do some exploring. guitarShare : Tweet
Open chords and DADGAD August 23, 2014 No Comment DADGAD is an alternate tuning. Alternate tunings are pretty much what they sound like: an alternate way to tune the guitar. They’re a great way to come up with new ideas when standard tuning starts to get old. I’m going to talk about one of the most popular ones: DADGAD. Re-tuning the guitar Here’s how you tune the guitar for DADGAD: Low E string: tune to D a whole step lower than low E; should be an octave lower than the 4th string. A string: stays the same D string: stays the same G string: stays the same B string: tune to an A a whole step lower than B; tune to the 2nd fret of the G string High E string: tune to a D a whole step lower than E; tune to the 7th fret of G string Re-tune slowly so that you don’t break strings. I’ve broken more strings tuning down than tuning up. Releasing tension can do that. Strum all six strings. While you strum, play one of the following frets on the B string (which is now tuned to A): Fret 5 Fret 7 Fret 8 Fret 10 Fret 12 Fret 14 Fret 15 Fret 17 These frets outline the D dorian scale. You can play them as a sequence from fret 5 to 17. Or you can play them in any order you want. Chords and progressions Play each fret while strumming the other strings. Think of the result as chords by playing each one for at least four beats. This allows you to get a sense of each sound. Once you have a sense of what each fret sounds like with the other five strings, create some progressions. Try strumming the 5th fret for a bar, followed by the 10th fret for a bar, then the 7th fret for two bars. Repeat. This should give you some ideas for your own stuff. By the way, I haven’t tried that particular pattern. I like to write patterns away from the guitar then try them out later. This means that habits that I have when the guitar is in my hands don’t control what I do. New stuff happens more regularly. For those of you wondering about shapes that produce conventional chords with DADGAD, here you go. It’s good to know these if you want to go from a more conventional sound to an invented chord. Too much drone? The drone of the five unfretted strings might be too much for you after a while. Experiment with eliminating strings. Try strumming the first three strings. Or the first two. Or whatever. Find variety. Using notes on other strings is good for adding variety, as well. I’ll talk about this in the next post. guitarShare : Tweet
Mixing scales August 21, 2014 No CommentHere are some examples of how to mix minor pentatonic and dorian. Endless 8th notes I’ve used eighth notes to make the difference between minor pentatonic and dorian easier to see. Rhythmic variation Use the same lick and vary it rhythmically. Long notes Long notes are always effective. They act as milestones for listeners simply because they last longer than the notes around them. Notice that I removed a note from the original. It wasn’t working with the rhythm I was using. Repetition Repeated notes are also very effective. Next post: open chords and alternate tuning. guitarShare : Tweet
