Looking for a BIG beautiful guitar sound from a unique open tuning? Hey, You're in Luck... Look no further than "Open C" tuning. Open "C" offers guitar players deep bass and colorful intervals that are perfect for creating lush harmony combined with rich melodic overtones...
How often do you change the tuning of your guitar? Most of us will hardly ever do this. We tend to keep the standard tuning and we just leave the guitar like that. However, changing the tuning (into an “Open Tuning”), can be a great way to expand the knowledge of an important area of study, (the study of intervals on the guitar neck). When we tune to an open chord we have to view the guitar neck in a new way and we do that using intervals. In this lesson we’re going to check out a unique sound based upon the tuning of, “Open C.” WATCH THE VIDEO:
TUNING TO "OPEN C": The first thing to learn is how to place the guitar into open “C” tuning. Essentially what we’re really doing here is tuning all of our open strings into the harmony of a “C Major” chord. To do this, we’ll begin by dropping our low 6th string down from an open “E” note two steps lower into a “C” tone. Then, we’ll take our 5th string from an open “A” tone down a whole step to a “G”. Next, we’ll also drop our 4th string down a whole step from “D” down to an open “C” tone. The 3rd string will stay the same, but the open 2nd string will become raised up a half-step to a “C.” And then, finally, our 1st guitar string will remain the same - staying as the open 1st string “E.”
OPEN "C" CHORD SHAPES: Alright, now that we’ve established our open “C” tuning, the next thing to do is learn a few of the popular chord shapes that are common to Open “C”. The first thing that I like doing with an open tuning is learning the intervals of the relative quality chord of the tuning. The relative Minor for our tuning of “C Major” is going to be an “A Minor.” One of the more common shapes for “A Minor” in this tuning looks like this.
The next chord that I like to search for when I’m in an open tuning, is the 5th chord degree of the harmony. In “Open C” the fifth chord is “G Major.” Here’s a common “G” chord pattern for “Open C.”
The next chord that I like to scope out when I'm learning a new open tuning is the fourth degree chord, which in this case is an “F.” So, here’s a popular “F Major” chord that you’ll find in “Open C.”
And, finally, I also show you the “Minor 7th” second degree chord harmonized from this open tuning. In our case it’s the chord of “D Minor 7th.”
NOTE: Strumming all strings "open" generates a "C Major" chord.
At this point we have four chord types that are all important harmonic degrees off of the established open ”C” tuning. When we combine them with the open strings…(which of course generates our open “C Major” chord in this case), we now have five chords all together. This is more than enough to start composing some progressions within this “Open” tuning! We could also use these chords to harmonize other pieces of music that we might want to sing, or record, or perform with other musicians. Right now, for our example, I’m going to combine some of these chords and create a couple of chord progressions, so you can realize just how easy it is to apply these chords.
CHORD PROGRESSIONS: Example 1).
Example 2).
CONCLUSION: Both of these progressions are quite straight-forward with the small exception of the second one (that as you likely noticed in the video), I shifted a couple of our chord patterns laterally along the neck. This is one of the really cool aspects of using an open tuning. See, once we discover both the intervals and the harmonic qualities of a few chord patterns in our open tuning, we can slide chord patterns laterally around the neck and establish new sounds - that generally hold true to the overall harmonic function of our initial chord shape. In the second progression I moved that “F” chord up to a “G.” And, I also moved up that “Dm7” chord, giving me a “Cmaj7/E” (which is pretty much the same chord color and quality as an, “E Minor”). Now, of course, you don’t really need to know about all of the music theory behind the chord names, because in the end, you can always just use your ear to decide upon what sounds good, or perhaps doesn’t sound too good, from your open tuning. As always, thanks for joining me, if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more on YouTube, (and remember to hit that bell when you subscribe so that you’ll never miss any of my uploads to YouTube)… Until next time, take care and we'll catch up again on the next lesson.
VISIT THE WEB-SITE: Be sure to head over to review all of the guitar courses that are found on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com I’ve got step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses that work alongside of in-depth elective programs to form the best guitar course available. The courses have been designed so as to help you learn to identify where you're at, and what's required to get you up to that next level of guitar playing, in a very organized step-by-step way, that simply makes sense. So, I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com
Do you have a comprehensive guitar soloing practice routine? Most guitar students don't. The Blues scale and Minor Pentatonic scale are often the "go to" scales for students of guitar soloing. And, these scales tend to hardly ever become expanded for the average guitar player. If this sounds like you, there's a way to fix this. And, the solution is fun, as well as easy to apply...
This is going to be an incredibly helpful lesson because I’m going to show you how to practice soloing when chords show up that have nothing to do with the harmony. Most players never try this without being pushed into it by a music teacher. And, that's too bad because it's one of the best ways to practice getting better at soloing. WATCH THE VIDEO:
THE "DIATONIC" WORLD: When a musician has to play over a chord that is not in the key it’s called, playing over chords that are “Non-Diatonic.” Most guitar players rarely do this. For most guitarists, "Diatonic" soloing is the only style of soloing that they'll do. And, while "Non-Diatonic" soloing may not occur within every chord progression, it does occur often enough that you’ll need to have a game plan in the works to be able to play something that sounds decent in these non-diatonic soloing situations. When most guitar players encounter non-diatonic situations for the first time, it can be incredibly confusing. And, the reason for the confusion is generally that most guitar players are missing this type of practice in their "at home" study routine. So, unfortunately they are lost. Without training in this area, a player just wouldn't naturally know what to do.
BREAKING HABITS: The practice time that most guitarists typically spend on playing and improvising guitar solos (at least for most students of guitar), seems to revolve around either using the, “Blues” scale ideas, or using straight-ahead, “Minor Pentatonic.” While this is certainly alright, it obviously doesn’t cover a lot of other musical situations. And, that is why it is important to break the Diatonic "Blues and Pentatonic" scale /key habit. This can be done by building unique guitar soloing practice routines that encompass both the full 7-tone scale structures, along with some type of modal example. This approach is more or less the best way to stretch yourself as a soloist. Plus, this work will help prepare you for playing solos over ideas that present, "Non-Diatonic," (also sometimes called “Non-Functioning"), harmonic situations.
NON-DIATONIC PROGRESSIONS: I've created an example progression that does this exact type of situation. The chord changes in my example are all going to be made up of basic chord types that can be found from within the key signature of, “A Natural Minor.” However, I’ve slipped in a non-diatonic chord across these chord changes, by way of a chord that offers the color of Dorian Mode. So, before we dig into the progression, first, let’s check out some theory on this topic. DIATONIC KEY OF "A NAT. MINOR"
THE MODAL HARMONY OF "A DORIAN"
In the above harmony examples, you'll notice that aside from the "F#" tone, the two keys are almost identical. Almost all of the chords are shared and the chord qualities are nearly the same as well. However, one chord jumps out as being very distinguished. That chord is the fourth step chord of, "D." In the, "A Natural" harmony, that "D" chord is "Minor." However, in the harmony of, "Dorian" mode, the "D" chord's harmony changes over to, "D Major." Below is my example progression that applies this color shift from off of that fourth degree "D" chord. learn to play the progression. PRACTICE PROGRESSION:
You probably noticed the color shift that occurred in the 6th and in the 8th measures. That’s when the sound of the “D Major” chord enters into the harmony of my example progression. You probably also noticed how earlier on in the progression there was a “D Minor” chord used in the 3rd measure. That was the dead giveaway… How can both a “D Major” and a “D Minor” chord exist within the same key’s chord progression? It doesn’t make harmonic sense. As you saw in our theory examples, the correct chord for the harmony within the key of “A Minor,” should be, “D Minor.” We’ll have to use a mode to be able to solo over the appearance of the “D Major” chord. And, as we’d discussed earlier, that mode is the mode of, “A Dorian.”
NON-DIATONIC MELODY: Now you’ve got a better idea for why the chord of “D Major” is unique within our practice progression. And, through my theory explanation you’ve come to realize that the way we can get some nice soloing going on with that unique out of place “D Major” chord, is to cover it with “A Dorian” Mode. Now that you’re gaining a better understanding for how to cover non-diatonic chords – let’s get you an example guitar solo so that you can try playing some melodic ideas that apply the use of “Dorian Modes” raised sixth tone (which is “F#” in this case). Dorian is the way you can play over the unique color of that “D Major” chord… SAMPLE GUITAR SOLO:
SUBSCRIBE ON YOU-TUBE: Hey guys, as always, thanks for joining me, if you liked this lesson, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more on YouTube, (and remember to hit that bell when you subscribe so that you’ll never miss any of my lesson uploads)… Until next time, take care and we'll catch up again on the next lesson. Bye for now!
VISIT THE WEB-SITE: Be sure to head over to review all of the guitar courses that are found on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com I’ve got step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses that work alongside of in-depth elective programs to form the best guitar course available. The courses have been designed so as to help you learn to identify where you're at, and what's required to get you up to that next level of guitar playing, in a very organized step-by-step way, that simply makes sense. So, I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com
NEW This unique Creative Guitar Studio course explores exercises for increasing dexterity and coordination between the hands. The goal of the course is to increase awareness, mobility and control.
Lesson 020 of Guitar Technique studies the technique and practical application of performing Bottleneck Slide Guitar technique.
This lesson plan will help even the most beginner slide player start getting used to playing the guitar using a slide. The lesson will cover the performance of both chords and melody lines.
The video lessons (along with the PDF handout), will help to clarify how note and chord vibrato techniques can be developed and then applied onto the guitar in several unique ways.
Parts one and two of the lesson will focus on learning to play slide accurately, along with tracking single notes laterally using the slide located on a single guitar string.
Parts three and four of the lesson will venture into open tunings with the "Open D" and the "Open G." These tunings will be used to learn guitar riffs that are based upon common techniques of the Bottleneck slide style and sound.
Paying members of the Creative Guitar website can watch both video lessons and download the PDF handout...
Join the member's area to download the PDF handout and start study of these exercises. Study all of the examples with full access to both video lessons...
PART ONE: (Free on YouTube) Exercise one begins with the how to basics of learning how to use a slide. It progresses on to playing a simple linear melody on a single string.
PART TWO:Exercise two adds more tones with studies that apply two and three notes in both small chords and across short arpeggiated melodic phrases.
PART THREE:
Exercise three explores slide playing further with a new harmony from the guitar that applies an open tuning. The popular "Open G" guitar tuning is introduced along with a slide riff composed using this tuning set-up.
PART FOUR:Exercise four adds one more common open tuning into the mix with a slide guitar riff built from the fantastic sounds of "Open D" tuning.
Most guitar players like to believe that they're "Musicians" but generally their skills are so poor when compared to highly trained musicians that upon meeting one, they will run through a whole range of emotions - many of them not so good...
Back almost 30 years ago I had a very strict guitar teacher. He used to ask me this really harsh question at least once a month. He’d say, “Do You Want to be a Musician or Just a Guitar Player?” Obviously, "Just a Guitar Player" was the WRONG answer... The first time he asked me this, I didn’t even know what he meant! And, when I asked him what he meant by that, he grabbed a piece of paper and wrote out some theory idea on it, like maybe an interval and he said, alright “is this an Augmented 4th or a Diminished 5th?” When he did that to me, it really put me on the spot. But, as I said, he was a very stern teacher. Not a nice guy. I think his whole intention was that he wanted to make me feel like I had a lot to learn. I recall him saying (often) that “A Guitar Player Just Plays the Guitar, But a Musician Knows and Understands Music – Even When the Guitar is Put Away in the Case at the Back of the Room.” WATCH THE VIDEO:
So, before we go any further take a moment out and see if you can answer that theory question that I just posed. Do you know what interval that is?
It’s actually a fairly straight-forward question of any music student who’s been working on the key signatures and learning about how the musical intervals operate. So, take a moment out and see if you can you answer it?
NAMING AN INTERVAL: Intervals are the distance between two notes and they are named from their lower pitch to the higher. In this case the lower pitch is the "E." The higher pitch is "Bb." The other part of naming intervals has to do with what is called "Quantity" and "Quality." The Quantity of an interval is the letter-name distance from the lower letter name to the higher. In this case the lower letter name is "E," and the upper is "B." The flat does not matter in this step. The distance from the "E" up to the "B" is five steps. So, this interval is some type of fifth. The next step is the determine this intervals "Quality." This involves two steps. The first step is understanding the total number of half-steps, (this is where the flat matters). The "B" tone contains a 'flat' so we need to understand if that degree exists in the "Major Scale of our lower note. Is there a "B flat" in the "E Major Scale?" The answer is NO. So, the interval is altered. Is it higher or lower than the interval located within the key? It is Lower. Therefore the "Perfect 5th" located in the key of "E Major" has been "Diminished" The answer is "Diminished 5th."
NEVER "COP-OUT" I hope you tried to understand that instead of just copping out of answering it. If you cop out and say something like, “Well Jimi Hendrix Probably Couldn’t Answer That – And Are You Gonna Say He Wasn’t A Musician?” You've chosen the easy path, that’s the path of not answering, of getting defensive and really... it’s the path of giving up! ENHANCE WHO YOU ARE: Who cares if Jimi Hendrix knew that answer, or if Santana knows that, or if BB King would have known that. What matters is if you know that, and even more important is actually if you care about learning the answer. There’s hundreds of other musical questions just like that one - waiting to be understood. I know that there’s going to be thousands of players out there who get their back up and want to argue and scream at the top of their lungs that this stuff doesn’t matter. Players who will fight this and say, nobody needs to know that because theory is stupid and nobody good knows theory anyway cuz Slash Rocks. I’ve heard it all over the years. And, while I do think people can just go about their guitar playing life and do whatever they’d like to. The interesting thing to me is that I meet and talk with older age guitar players every week, who are usually in their 50’s, 60’s and even in their 70’s who wish they would have learned about this!Luckily, they're learning now!
CONCLUSION: I want to leave you with something important to consider. When I was younger and initially studying music, I wanted to learn and know about everything. I had a whole bunch of different teachers and I eventually decided to pack my bags and head down to Hollywood California and attend the Musicians Institute. I was music knowledge hungry and I wanted to learn everything I could. That was just my personality and that was who I was as a player back then. I never thought anything of it. What I want to leave you with is a consideration of what learning more about music theory and music reading and harmony and complex styles like classical and jazz, just think of what pursuing that might end up giving you and the benefits that would be associated with that kind of knowledge.
As musicians, we grow more and more through exposure to new musical situations, new topics new songs, so be sure to ask yourself how much musical exposure you’re giving yourself. These days with the internet and all of the information we have access to, you can actually learn a lot without even leaving the comfort of your home! So, ask yourself if you want to be a guitar player or if you want to be a musician. And, think about what it could give you to really fully and completely understand music, even when the guitar is tucked away in the case at the back corner of the room.
VISIT THE WEB-SITE: I also for sure want to let you know about the guitar courses available over on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com. I’ve got step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses that work alongside of in-depth elective programs to form the best guitar course available. The courses work to help you learn to identify what's required to get you up to that next level of guitar playing, in a very organized step-by-step 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 video. Bye for now.
Posted by Andrew Wasson
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
In this post we’re talking about 9 ways that your soloing is wiping you out on the guitar... Are you having difficulties with gaining better skill when it comes to soloing? Does there seem to be the same collection of areas that never seem to improve? When these areas are understood and then targeted and developed, you’ll quickly start seeing results...
My advice right from the start of this discussion is that you never want to sacrifice any of the soloing rich practice areas like; Music Theory, Rhythm Skills, Ear Training, and Technical development. If any of those area are sacrificed, then your soloing will continue to sound mediocre - rather than head down a path of constant improvement.
SCALE KNOWLEDGE (TOO LIMITED): (1). The first area I want to cover is “Scale Knowledge.” If your scale knowledge is weak – your solos are going to be really compartmentalized. In other words, if all you know is the Minor Pentatonic, you’ll want to expand on that. Even if you’re soloing style will be really basic… You’ll still benefit in a big way by learning about the full 7-tone Major Scale, the Nat. Minor Scale and the basic ideas behind how Modes work. Don’t sacrifice this stuff. It really helps to know how to apply these scales, even if you only use the smallest amount of them for your style of playing.
POOR ABILITY TO PHRASE LINES: (2). The next area is having a poor ability for phrasing music, and if you don’t bother working on it so you can get better you'll stagnate as a soloist. Phrasing is the ability to smoothly connect musical ideas from one to the next. It’s not the easiest thing to do. Whether you’re composing or improvising – phrasing is a serious skill that takes a great deal of; time, study, and many hours of at home practice to get good at. So whatever happens, don’t neglect soloing. Practice with jam-tracks, learn all the famous solos that you can, and record yourself as much as possible. WEAKNESS IN HARMONY AND THEORY: (3). The next area that tends to drag down a Guitar players soloing ability is when there’s a weakness with knowledge and application of harmony and theory. If you have no clue as to what key a songs solo section is in, then you won’t know the scales or modes that are available. If you don’t know that stuff, then you’re going to be lost. All of us, (at some point) have experienced that feeling of being lost in a song and it sucks. If your knowledge of Harmony and Theory is bad, start studying that topic. Learn how to analyze music so that you have more flexibility as a guitar player. UNDERDEVELOPED RHYTHM SKILLS: (4). The next area is going to be that of Rhythm skills. Quite often if a player has very limited knowledge for rhythms like the rhythm feel of; straight time beats, or syncopation, shuffle beats, the swing rhythm, Latin beats and all types of others, then as a musician you’re going to have limited rhythmic creativity. This means you won’t be able to bring more unique aspects of rhythmic feel into your solos. What's really interesting is that, it doesn’t matter the style you want to play, or how technical the guitar ideas are going to be that you play. Rhythm plays a role with everything musical. Rhythm is such a huge factor that you absolutely can’t ignore it in your soloing. LOW TECHNICAL ABILITY: (5). The next area has to do with playing skill /technique and in particular weakness with aspects of technical ability. Guitar technique and especially guitar soloing is about being able to play all kinds of hand movements with ease. Plus, it’s also about having great right and left hand dexterity. However, if you never work on this topic, you’ll ultimately end up coming across a lot of music for solos and melody lines and rhythm riffs that you won’t be able to play very well. Be sure to dedicate a period of each day to the study of guitar technique. Because, there’s a lot of freedom and happiness that comes from being able to play music easily with little to no effort.
GUITAR NECK IS MISUNDERSTOOD: (6). Being misunderstood is never fun, because in social life it could lead to humiliation. When you take this to the guitar neck, things can get really bad. If you’re all mixed up and misunderstood about how the neck is laid out, you'll have a lot of trouble soloing. You need to study how the geometry of the neck works and how the intervals operate. If this area is confusing then you’re going to feel humiliated if and when someone who does understand the neck asks you to do something basic in a songs solo, or for a guitar riff. And, for that reason alone, that’s why it’s super important to work hard at learning exactly how the guitar neck functions. TOO FEW MUSICAL PATTERNS: (7). Musical patterns or what we’ll often just refer to as “Guitar Licks and Riffs,” are generally what we learn during our earliest days of playing the instrument. These ideas are fun, they motivate us, and they help us improve our skills. But, in far too many cases, guitarists do not stretch themselves far enough when it comes to learning musical patterns. What I mean specifically, is that we often limit the musical styles, the variations possible through techniques and the musical artists who we expose ourselves to. This is not very good when it comes to being a balanced - well rounded player. It is important to stretch yourself when it comes to learning musical patterns. It’ll help to push you towards much higher levels of overall playing skill and musical awareness. LACK OF STUDY FOR CLASSIC PLAYERS /SONGS: (8). The next area that I want to mention has to do with the necessary ongoing musical study of the classic players and classic songs. Whether that's Miles Davis, Eric Clapton, Mozart, Beethoven or Slash. The classic players and their music is vital. I cannot stress enough how important it is to study as many of the famous players and their music /songs that you can possibly fit in during your lifetime here on Earth. It's not enough to only learn a few styles and songs. You really do need to learn, learn and learn some more. It cannot stop. Study the legends of Jazz, of Classical music, of pop, rock, folk and country. And, learn as many songs as you possibly can from the artists that have become household names around the globe. The legends are famous for a reason, and it pays to learn why!
NOT ENOUGH STAGE TIME: (9). My final point has to do with public performance. If you only play guitar solos at home, you’ll never train your body to have the control over itself that it needs in order to be able to perform both solos and music with both confidence and rock solid intention. This is especially true with regard to learning how to control mistakes and gain confidence over your thoughts and learning control over your body’s natural adrenaline rush when you play live in front of an audience. These physical and psychological elements will occur naturally when you perform in front of an audience. But, even if they drive you crazy at first, the nice part is with more and more time on stage they can be controlled. Every live performance that you do will help your live playing skills, and the more stage time that you have will help you take charge over your sense of focus along with your overall confidence. And, for those reasons, you need to get up and play live up on a stage in front of audiences. It is the most powerful way that we have at our disposal as musicians to be able to perfect our craft up to the highest skill levels. VISIT THE WEB-SITE: As always, thanks for joining me, if you liked this post and its video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more on YouTube, (and remember to hit that bell when you subscribe so that you’ll never miss any of my lesson uploads here on YouTube).
Until next time, take care and we'll catch up again on the next lesson post. Bye for now!
