QwikRiffs #014 - Altered Chords for Jazz Riffs in "Eb Major"


NEW: QwikRiffs Series - Video (014)

The latest QwikRiffs video, Altered Chords for Jazz Riffs in "Eb Major" is available in the members area. Includes PDF handout!

QwikRiffs are available to members at Creative Guitar Studio.com. Lessons in the QwikRiffs Series run through collections of rhythm guitar riffs covering all types of playing styles. I cover different 'famous artist' playing approaches and I will demonstrate ideas based on rhythm guitar techniques... 

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Episode #014 covers three "Altered Chords for Jazz" Riffs.

Riff one takes the V-chord of our key of "Eb Major," (the "Bb7" chord), and adds augmented 5th and 9th tones into the chord structure. These alterations are placed into a typical "II-V-I" chord progression, (Fm7 - Bb7 - Ebmaj7), within the key.

Riff two expands the chord movement within the key using a "IV-II-V7-I" progression, (Abmaj7, Fm7, Bb7, Ebmaj7). The V-chord is altered using a "flat-five." The alteration occurs on the "Bb7" chord as a, "Bb7b5."

Riff three examines the use of the Dominant 7th "flat-nine" on the keys "V-chord." This creates "Bb7b9." Plus, the progression also adds the passing chord sound of "Secondary Dominant." This occurs through the keys "VI-chord." The diatonic "Cm7" has been converted to "C7" and I've added a "b5" altered tone, producing a "C7b5."

Sign into the website (or create your free members account) to join the members site. Sign up for the Basic Monthly or Premium (annual) membership to download the PDF handout for this lesson and study all of the other classes available on the website. 

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The Best Interval Exercise You're Not Doing ...RIGHT

Guitar players use a lot of intervals. And, for good reason, they sound really cool, and they're versatile musically. The only thing is that their application is often clouded by misunderstandings to do with how to practice them along with how to use them easily and effortlessly...

Intervals are applied in highlighting melodic lines, we'll add them around vocal parts and they're especially useful in guitar solos. These areas are specifically what we're going to focus on in this lesson.

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In this lesson, I want to get you to the point of being able to take the two most popular intervals, (3rds and 6ths) and be able to use them anywhere on the neck in any key, be that major or minor...

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THIRDS:
The first interval we're going to study will be 3rds - often referred to as, "Diatonic 3rds" when studied within a key.

In our first example, we'll get organized on playing through 3rds from within the key of "F Major." Our focus will be on lining-up all of the thirds found in the key (horizontally) along the strings going laterally through the key signature so that they create the diatonic harmony for the key signature of "F Major."

click on the above image to enlarge full-screen


Practice Routine:
- Start with with a focus on playing a major scale along one string.
- Next, add the appropriate major or minor 3rd interval (above the scale tone) to form the diatonic 3rd interval for the key.
- Once you understand how the intervals work off of the "F Major" tonic, isolate the "D Minor" interval and repeat the study using that step as your Tonic. This will create the intervals from the "Relative Minor" perspective.



Once you memorize the diatonic intervals, and how they operate, try moving them over to other string sets, other keys, and also try using them to create melodies. Afterward, practice applying them within solos over jam-tracks to play some lead ideas with them.

SIXTHS:
Now that you've developed the use of 3rd intervals within a key, it's going to be easy to take this information and invert the interval to create another note distance called a 6th. In other words, by inverting a 3rd interval, we will be able create a 6th interval from the same notes.

We will keep the same key of "FMajor" and organize how this works using all of the same notes on the neck.

Just as we had made a study of 3rds intervals in the key of "F Major," we're now going to do the exact same thing for 6th intervals. The only difference will be a simple change of transferring the 4th string scale tones over to the first guitar string. This changes the distance of the lower note to the higher note from being that of a "3rd" to now being the distance of a "6th."

click on the above image to enlarge full-screen


Practice Routine:
- Start with with a focus on playing a major scale along one string.
- Next, add the appropriate major or minor 3rd interval (above the scale tone) to form the diatonic 3rd interval for the key.
- Once you understand how the intervals work off of the "F Major" tonic, isolate the "D Minor" interval and repeat the study using that step as your Tonic. This will create the intervals from the "Relative Minor" perspective.



CONCLUSION:
Once you memorize all of these diatonic 6th intervals, and how they operate, try moving them over to; other string sets, other keys, and also try using them to create melodies by building some solos over jam-tracks with some lead ideas.


It is relatively easy to begin applying these 3rd and 6th intervals into your music. They're very intuitive to create music with. And, since they're locked into the key center, they're also very melodic as well. As long as you know how to apply the "fretting layouts" and how they set themselves up within keys, it won't take any time at all to start using them melodically.



If you'd like to Find Out What You Should Learn Next on Guitar - take a look at the courses over on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com.

My step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses will cover what you need to know, along with how to be able to move forward and become the best player that you can be. I've worked on these courses since 1992 and I feel that all together they're the best guitar program you'll ever find.

The courses will help you learn to identify what's required to get you up to the next level of guitar playing, in a very organized way, that makes sense. I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com ...Until next time - take care and we'll catch up again on the next lesson. Bye for now!
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🌟 #1 Best Musicianship Workout Tip EVER!

No matter where you're at as a player, you can improve. There's always room for never ending improvement. But, where most guitar players focus their attention, may not actually be the best areas that can offer the highest forms of improvement to overall skill and musicianship... 



Are you wondering how you might be able to improve on your musicianship in a simple yet highly effective way? I've got a great practice idea I can show you that will help you learn how to make rapid improvements to your musicianship. 

It is easy to understand and it uses nothing more than the most basic, common-place melodies. These can be any melody-line that you've been listening to for many years now - anything...

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THE POWER OF LEARNING A COMMON MELODY:
Have you ever sat down and slowly picked apart a common place melody? If not, you're really missing out. This type of study does wonders for your ear training, for your sense of timing, and for your understanding of the balance that exists between melody and harmony.

In this episode of the, "Guitar Blog Insider," we're going to look at a classic piece of music that is about as simple as it can get. Plus, it is a melody that has also has recently been placed back into the public domain. 

It is the piece "Happy Birthday to You," which was only recently (as of Jan. 01, 2017) placed back into the public domain, (European Union - Global Copyright). 


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Step #1). PLOT THE MELODY:
In getting started with any piece of music, (no matter how simple), the best initial plan of action is to plot out the melody line. This would first require you to go and locate a good quality audio recording of the piece you want to analyze. 

Find a good recording, however long it takes you, make sure that you do this step. I would not recommend going from memory, because as you spend more and more time analyzing where you believe a melody is actually headed, there's a better and better chance (the longer you work at it), that you're going to get lost in the overall structure.

Play through the melody of, "Happy Birthday to You."

 click on the above image to enlarge full-screen




PLOT THE CHORDS (I-IV-V):
Once you understand the structure of the piece, start breaking down the connection of harmony to the melody so that you understand the most simple application of a group of chords that will match up to the melody.

Since pretty much every song on Earth can be broken down to a "I-IV-V" progression, that is where I would suggest you should begin from. Let's review the chord changes matched to the songs lyrics for, "Happy Birthday to You."

LYRICS and CHORDS:





DEVELOP CHORD MELODY:
Once you've organized how the chords fit against your melody and you've developed a rough sketch of how the piece operates rhythmically, the next step is to take things a step further and develop a guitar chord melody arrangement of the piece.

This is where knowing a lot of chords and having a good ear for matching up chords to a harmony (over top of a melodic arrangement) can really help. 

You'll need to spend a good amount of time on determining chords that can be used to stack up notes from a melody line into a series of chord changes.

I've organized something like that for our rendition of "Happy Birthday to You."

  click on the above image to enlarge full-screen




CONCLUSION:
I hope that this exercise makes you think a little bit more about how much value can be had from the study of simple common-place melodies. 

By working through melody lines that we've heard hundreds of times, whether that's; children's songs, holiday melodies, cultural pieces, TV show theme songs, or maybe famous melodies from Movies, whatever it may be - the study of these sorts of melody parts can be incredibly valuable to the further development of ear training, (along with your sense of rhythm and your application of chords).

If you want to make your musicianship better, this type of work is absolutely fantastic.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on all of this in the comment section below... if you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more on YouTube.

Thanks again and we'll catch up next week , for another episode of the, "Guitar Blog Insider."

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GUITAR SOLOING #013 - Soloing with Dorian Mode



November 24, 2017:
Lesson 013 - Soloing with Dorian Mode

Dorian mode is one of the most common colors of the minor modal sounds. It can be applied over any minor tonality situation that establishes the use of a "Major 6th" interval from the tonic of the scale... 

Lesson 013 explores this... 

Dorian mode scale phrases, chord progressions and modal riffs will take advantage of the unique sound that Dorian's raised 6th interval offers. Each example throughout this Guitar Soloing lesson will make detailed reference to the various ways which the "6th" is applied.

Watch the Part One Video FREE on YouTube:



PART ONE:  In example one, an upper-string chord progression follows above an underlying open "A" 5th string. It is accompanied by a melody line that is built from the "A" Dorian mode. In example 1a, I've composed a 2-bar progression that can learned and then recorded for jamming over. In example 1b, I've included a line to fit with the jam that is composed from the "A Dorian" mode.

Example two moves away from the bass-note drone approach (used in example one), and switches to spreading the color of this mode through its unique Major 6th interval. The second example progression focuses specifically upon two chords. They are the "Dominant IV-chord" and the "Minor 9th V-chord." These chord qualities and extensions promote the color of the "Major 6th" in the minor tonality. 





PART TWO:
In example three, the focus is on the three primary color-tones associated to the application of Dorian for both harmonies and melodies. These include; "Minor 3rd," "Major 6th," and "Minor 7th." In Dorian mode progressions and single-note melody lines, these three tones work together to establish the sound of the minor character for performing Dorian mode.

Example four, covers the unique application that the Dorian mode can provide over, "Non-Diatonic" minor chords. Many chord progressions in Soul music, Jazz, or Fusion will introduce chords that do not relate to the overall key center. 


These chords are often called, "Non-Functioning," or "Non-Diatonic." These chords do not fit into the key. When these chords are either "Minor" triads, or "Minor 7th" quality, they can be covered by using the "Dorian Mode."

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The chord progression in example four is in the tonality of, "C Minor." The first two measures (Cm7, F7), can be covered using the, "C Dorian," mode. However, the "Em6" chord in measure three is non-functioning to the established key center. It can however be covered by using "E Dorian." To play over the final chord in measure four, use "Eb Major" scale, "Eb Major Pentatonic," or "Ebmaj7" arpeggio
.

Paid members can download the handout along with the MP3 jamtrack in the members area at: CreativeGuitarStudio.com

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7 Things to NEVER Do When Practicing Scales!

Scale practice is one of the most popular areas of practice that we spend time on as we develop our intermediate and advanced playing skills. This is why it's so important to approach scale practice correctly and develop a series of habits involved with scale practice that will help us gain a very high level of skill...



Proper scale study done through an organized plan of action, will benefit us greatly, so that over time we can start using scales to compose and perform improvised solos.

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In this video I'm going to run through seven things you need to avoid as you spend time developing your scales to higher and higher levels...

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1). NEVER GET DEVOTED TO "NEEDING" SCALES ON PAPER:
The first important point I want to highlight is how vital the total memorization is to your development of scales on the neck (and all of the future skills that will go along with your scale development).

These of course all come together at the point of being able to improvise. If you allow yourself too much time (continuously staring at a scale layout page) on the music stand, you'll start to become reliant on seeing that shape in front of you. So commit the scale pattern to memory as soon as possible.

2). NEVER "JUMP" INTO SCALES - FEEL YOUR WAY IN:
The next important area of scale development is the ability to feel your way into scales rather than just jumping into performing them. Your execution of notes, your accuracy and your sense of recall will all be much higher if you feel your way into a scale prior to performing it.

The easiest way to do this in the early days of practice is to simply count in. Turn on your metronome or drum machine, give yourself a count in to lead you into the scales start, and your overall performance will be much better, than as if you just jumped in without giving yourself any justification toward the feel of time.



3). NEVER PERFORM SCALES AT ONLY ONE RHYTHMIC DURATION:
Another important area of scale development is continuously changing the note duration as you practice. Never perform your scales as only quarter-notes, or eighth-notes, or just as sixteenth-notes. Vary the rhythmic meters, include triplets, and once your scales are well memorized and under good control begin freely using the notes in melodic ways. Be inventive, improvise lines and let the scale flow from your fingertips. This will allow the scale to feel natural.

4). NEVER PLAY AT ONLY ONE TEMPO - SPEED IT UP :
Practice with a metronome is critical to developing speed and accuracy. However, make sure that you push yourself through different tempos. Change the beats per minute, quite often and be sure to push yourself faster, because becoming comfortable at one time frame, and spending too long at that tempo on the metronome will sometimes do more harm than good. I've had far too many students over the years who've complained that they have no speed, yet they've never pushed their skills to play at faster & faster tempos on the metronome.

5). NEVER IGNORE THE SCALE DEGREES (INTERVALS):
Knowing where to put your fingers is one thing, but knowing the scale degrees will allow you to do so much more with the scale. Awareness for the scales' degrees on the fingerboard will help you; identify chord tones, build extensions, understand where notes fall for the creation of different harmonies, and so much more. See, as you play through your scales and you practice the fingerings, say the degrees out loud. Also, spend time drawing degrees on fret-board diagram paper - draw out the scale degrees on the neck so you'll really know them.



6). NEVER PICK /PLUCK THROUGH SCALES IN THE SAME WAY:
Be sure to practice playing through the notes of the scale differently by working with your picking hand using a number of different variations on how the attacks will occur. Try playing without a pick, (finger-plucked style). Try performing the scale with strict alternate picking, try using all down picking and even try playing the scale using successive up-picking.

Also, try picking just one note per string, and using the fretting hand to perform a series of hammer-ons or pull-offs to generate legato technique.

7). NEVER NEGLECT ALTERING THE WAYS YOU STUDY A SCALE:
Never get caught up in habits of performing the scales in the exact same way day in /day out. You've absolutely got to change the way you practice those scales and you'll need to do that as often as possible.

Change keys, change fret-board location, play really low on the neck, play really high. Notice what you need to do differently in order to feel comfortable all over the guitar. Play scales using open strings and combine patterns laterally. This type of work will really bring the scale to a whole new level for you. And, your sense of control over the scale will improve dramatically from this type of practicing.



If you'd like to Find Out What You Should Learn Next on Guitar - take a look at the courses on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com. My step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses will cover what you need to know, along with how to be able to move forward and become the best player that you can be.

I've worked on these courses since 1992 and I feel that all together they're the best guitar program you'll ever find. The courses will help you learn to identify what's required to get you up to the next level of guitar playing, in a very organized way, that makes sense. So, I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com ...Until next time - take care and we'll catch up again on the next lesson. Bye for now!

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ACOUSTIC GUITAR 012: Acoustic Blues - Harmonies & Riffs


Acoustic Guitar 012: 

Acoustic Blues - Harmonies and Riffs...

Playing Acoustic Blues ideas offers the guitarist much more than what strumming an eight or twelve bar blues progression (with a few dominant 7th chord patterns) can provide. 

Many guitar players get stuck performing the same chord types or the same boogie ideas when it comes to blues. The harmonies and riffs of Acoustic Blues will take guitar players into many new and unique directions... 

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This lesson sets several Acoustic Blues concepts into motion. We will introduce new ways of performing Blues changes in non-traditional formats. And, we'll learn how to add originality into Acoustic Blues progressions with different applications of the "I-IV-V" Blues harmony. 

Plus, there will be several riff examples that demonstrate different variations of performing Acoustic Blues ideas for this styles chord changes and for the turnarounds that are used throughout the style...

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PART ONE:
In example one, we study how to play through a series of chord changes in a non-traditional way compared to a typical "I-IV-V" Blues progression. This riff introduces several unique directions over the changes of a key of "E" Blues. The goal is to gain an understanding of how Acoustic Blues riffs can take on different directions in harmony.

Example two demonstrates how the ideas used in Acoustic Blues can be strong enough to support performances by soloists, or can be used as Acoustic Blues instrumentals.
The key of "A Blues" progression in example two covers several passing chord ideas along with filler runs to support an evolving harmony. The chord changes, arpeggiated lines and filler licks all work together to create original harmonies that are strong enough to be played on their own. The phrases can also be used to support vocal parts sung by a single vocalist playing solo guitar.

 
PART TWO:  The exercises in example three take a key of "E Blues" progression and explore the way that an Acoustic Blues player would approach playing over the "I and IV" chord changes. Ideas are explained that relate to the rhythm structures, techniques and phrasing. Example 3a covers a single measure breakdown for the tonic chord, (E7). Example 3b demonstrates how a near duplicate of the initial line can be stretched out to cover two measures over the four-chord (A7).

Example four focuses on the Acoustic Blues turnaround concept with a phrase that develops the sound of the Blues "V-IV-I" turnaround progression. The example uses a key of "F Blues" turnaround phrase that maps out an arpeggiated finger-picked idea over the keys "C7" (V7), and "Bb7" (IV7), chords.

The Acoustic Blues study in example four stresses the value that comes from learning how to not only outline Acoustic Blues chord changes, but also embellishing how the chords switch from one harmony to the next
.




Related Videos:

RELATED VIDEOS for:
Chordal Picking Technique... 

ACOUSTIC GUITAR 011: Chordal Picking Technique

Acoustic Guitar 010: Classical Guitar Proficiency

Acoustic Guitar 009: Chords and Patterns of DADGAD Tuning


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Guitar Chords | F Chord | Guitar Notes | G Chord | C Chord | D Chord | Guitar String Notes

Stop Thinking About Triads Like This!

Want to get the most mileage out of using small triads for riff building and for soloing? 

One of the best ways to accomplish this won't be by trying to learn dozens and dozens of small triad ideas as smaller-chords and licks. That would be a MISTAKE! 



Instead, take a simpler and smarter route to learning the shapes by analyzing the guitar fingerboard from within the larger triad template system. Using this approach makes it easier to understand all of the common smaller moveable triad chord patterns and how they can be cherry picked to custom design other smaller shapes.

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Plus, what's really cool - is that with this system of taking just the 5 common moveable chord outlines, (these are the patterns that will often be explained from the neck layout concept known of as the "CAGED" system), all you need to do is isolate and apply any smaller segment of triad idea that you'd like to use for riffs or solos.

WATCH THE VIDEO: It will help you get started with understanding the shapes and how to begin using this principle...



MAJOR TRIAD LAYOUTS:
The first group of chord templates I want to cover are the, "Major Triad," group. There are five primary chord patterns, and keep in mind, that some can be split apart to reflect the upper and lower string sets. Here's how you can study them if you're still working on committing any of these shapes to memory...

click on the image above to enlarge full-screen


MINOR TRIADS:
Next we're going to check-out the neck patterns for the "Minor Triad," chord shapes. Just like the majors, there are 5 shapes to learn on the fingerboard... Here's what they look like...

 click on the image above to enlarge full-screen




CREATING TRIAD RIFFS:
Now that you're aware of these common triad chord pattern templates for major and minor, we can use small pieces of them to create riffs and licks for song sections or for solos. Let's put some of these ideas to work right now and start by creating some nice triad riffs that could be used in a song section like a; verse, bridge or a chorus...

TRIAD RIFF EXAMPLE:

 click on the image above to enlarge full-screen

As you can tell, just by taking small chunks of the larger triad chords we can create really nice riffs with smaller versions of the big triad shapes. And, what's really cool is that you can do the exact same thing when you want some nice sounding triad licks to apply within a solo section of a song as well... Here's an example of something like that...

TRIAD LICK EXAMPLE:

  click on the image above to enlarge full-screen

So, quit thinking about triads as if they're some kind of really complicated series of shapes that'll take you months and months of practice to be able to memorize and use. These shapes can be applied rather quickly if you just take your basic triad chord patterns and use them as a template to begin viewing the smaller triad patterns as "segments" of the larger chords, that you can apply in riffs or solos.


Well, I'd like to end by just saying, thanks for joining me... If you want to learn more about what I do as an online guitar teacher, then head over to my website at creativeguitarstudio.com and sign up your FREE lifetime membership.

When you want more, you can always upgrade to either a Basic, or a Premium lesson package and start studying the guitar courses I've organized for the members of my website.

As I said, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on all of this in the comment section below... if you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more. Thanks again and we'll catch up next week , for another episode of the, "Guitar Blog Insider."

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