Posted by Andrew Wasson
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
I want to give you the single best tip I know of for getting better with playing chord shapes on the guitar. Especially for developing the ability to perfect the fretting hand application of the fingerings and then being able to move your chord fingering shape anywhere on the guitar fingerboard...
Moving chords around the neck effortlessly is the main element that becomes the biggest issue for most guitar players.
Most practicing guitarists can certainly understand how to create a fingering. But, it's moving that fingering to other locations around the guitar, and also switching from one chord fingering over to another effortlessly, that can cause a lot of frustration for the practicing player...
GENERAL CHORD TRAINING: The key to getting better at playing chords all over the neck has a lot to do with training your hands to make solid chord changes, (without you having to focus on the precise details of everything that's happening with your hand on the guitar neck). When a player starts placing too much conscious effort on what the hand has to do when switching from one chord over to another - that's when things can go wrong. A while ago, I gave you guys a system to develop your basic fingering in a YouTube video I titled, "Master Any Chord on the Guitar (the On /Off Switch)." That lesson will help you get the fingering down for a chord pattern, but the next step is moving that chord pattern all over and all across the entire guitar neck.
LEARN A SONG: A lot of guitar teachers out there will just tell you that all you need to do is to learn a song, and study switching one chord - over to other chords in the song that you're practicing. And, yeah sure... doing that over time will help you get better at the use of the chord within that song. But, that practice, won't do very much for getting the chord you want to perfect up to a really high level all over the guitars fingerboard. You need more than what a song can offer you. The next stage of chord study pushes you further to get your chord patterns up to a level where you can perform them anyplace on the guitar neck. Learning a chord within a song tends to work the chord only from within one key signature and only within generally one position on the fingerboard. If you're doing serious chord practice, your goal needs to be mastering that chord shape all along and across the guitar neck in every possible fret-board location.
THE NEXT LEVEL OF CHORD PRACTICE: Take a chord pattern and learn to fret it out in the middle of the neck. Our example chord shape (of the fingering pattern we're going to use for this lesson) looks like this... CHORD SHAPE TO LEARN FOR THIS DRILL:
STAGE 1). RELAX - FRET THE CHORD Start by having your hand at ease, and make the shape (shown above) slowly and perfectly in the middle of the fingerboard. Remember to use the tips of each of the fingers. Keep your hand, wrist and arm relaxed and support the pressure of the fingertips with the pad of the thumb in around the middle of the back of the neck. Test each fretted note by picking or plucking your way across the chord. And, if you have notes that seem to be flubbed out, re-balance your fingers, your hand, your wrist, and your arm until the chord becomes as clear sounding as you can possibly get it.
Next, practice moving the chord shape all around the guitar fingerboard. And, when I say all around I really do mean, all around. Once the chord is able to be well fretted, (no matter where you place it), the next step is to turn on a metronome.
STAGE 2). TURN ON A METRONOME - PLAY EVERYWHERE Use the steady beat of time to start your practice of playing the chord shape in time moving fret by fret along and across the fingerboard. Play the chord everywhere. This chord is a fairly popular pattern. Especially off of the 5th and 4th strings. When this shape is performed off of the 5th string, it is a voicing for a "Major 7," and if it was moved to be played off of the 4th string, it becomes a "Dominant 7th." And, when played off of the 6th string, the shape becomes a "Maj.7 sus4" chord. Practice performing these chord patterns everywhere along and across the neck. Then, use this system with every new chord that you need to perfect on the guitar.
CONCLUSION: Developing this type of chord drill will help you truly nail down chord patterns on the neck. But, as you've noticed, the chord pattern needs to be engaged all along and across the neck as one fluid moving shape. And, it needs to be developed off of every string set that would be possible. Not all chords will be able to be practiced off of the; 6th, 5th and 4th strings. Some chords, will be limited to only the 6th and 5th. Yet some of the smaller 3-note chords can be engaged off of even more string groups. So, put this study to work, be sure to turn on your metronome and always strive for the highest chord clarity as possible. The results of this study are absolutely going to make a difference for you when it comes to perfecting your chord patterns on the fingerboard.
VISIT THE WEB-SITE: Well, hey, thanks for joining me, 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 with your playing and with practice you can eventually become the best guitar 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, practice long, and we'll catch up again on the next video. Bye for now!
Clawhammer strum technique was originally a banjo strum method, however in the early 1930's Clawhammer was adopted to the guitar and ended up taking on a more serious role with guitarists of the era. Guitar players performing in the style of "old-time North American Folk Music," developed a guitar-based method of strumming formatted upon the banjo Clawhammer concept...
In this lesson, we'll explore how to start applying the Clawhammer technique. Our examples will run through how to develop this style of playing, how to start adding melody and how to take the technique further. A final example will demonstrate how to work the Clawhammer into an old-time traditional folk riff in, "Double drop-D Tuning."
PART ONE: Example one, will help players start applying the strum approach of Clawhammer. The focus is on the use of all down-strum attacks. The thumb will play the low strings, and the top of the fingernail (of the index finger), will strike at the guitars interior strings, (producing the rhythm-strum attack). .
Example two, starts adding melody to the Clawhammer strum technique. Old-time folk music includes many different kinds of passing tones ranging from lines that highlight phrases through scale passages and by including interior chord tones. The example two strumming drill mixes chord tone highlights with bass-tone inversions across a chord progression in "E Major."
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PART TWO: The exercise in example three involves gaining a deeper understanding of phrasing along with the introduction of new harmony, (the guitar is placed in a different tuning at this point of the lesson). The exercise in example three features the interesting sound of, "Double Drop D Tuning."
Example four, wraps up our lesson plan on "Clawhammer" strum technique by formulating a traditional sounding riff that applies all of the concepts we have covered throughout the lesson. In example four, the riff functions using the tuning introduced back in example three, (Double drop-D).
Do you ever feel like you're getting bogged down when learning your scales by a lack of awareness for certain areas of the neck that exist "in between" the scale layouts that you know well, and those areas of the neck that you don't know as well?
We could simply call those areas of the neck that you're still learning, "Gray Zones." These "Gray Areas," are going to generally be locations found "in between" the scale patterns that initially become well known to you as you learn your neck better. In other words, the issue to overcome as you learn your neck, would be to start clarifying any playing area on the neck that you feel is a "Gray Area." Even if it's only using a few notes at first, you need to start filling in those gray zones with around 4-5 scale tones. After some time and practice, you'll have a much better awareness for notes on the neck in your weak playing areas. In this lesson, I'm going to cover ways for "connecting the heck, outta the guitar neck." WATCH THE VIDEO:
COMMON SCALE PATTERNS: Let's begin with a general understanding that many students of guitar start from. Most guitar players who have started learning their scales on the neck form a working knowledge of at least two guitar scales that they tend to start from. To keep things simple, we'll go with two patterns that would generally be found as the most common among guitarists, the 6th and 5th string root minor pentatonic shapes...
Minor Pentatonic - 5th String Root...
Minor Pentatonic - 6th String Root...
These scale patterns make up two of the most popular scale shapes known to practicing guitar students. This is especially true for students who are just beginning their study of scale shapes on the guitar neck. However, the problem that tends to occur, (after a few common shapes are developed), is that there are gray areas on the neck that form in between the popular shapes. The solution to this "dead zone" problem lies in the introduction to and the development of small "scale pieces" that can help the player connect the gray zones that end up existing in between those more popular scale shapes.
DEVELOPING GREATER AWARENESS: Once you have formed a basic awareness for how to begin introducing a few small groups of scale tone layouts and you comprehend how those smaller scale layouts can be used (as a way for connecting one pattern that you already know, over to another scale pattern you know), the next step is putting the new knowledge into action, by composing a few licks and runs to help with bridging the gap between the shapes. This approach will help you to start clearing up the gray areas that exist between the full patterns that you know on the neck, and areas that are still under development. Let's learn a couple of connecting licks that I've come up with in the key of "D Minor." These licks should help you with getting started for using this connecting procedure... Lick #1). Ascending lick connecting several neck regions
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Lick #2). Descending lick connecting the neck patterns
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CONCLUSION: As we're learning our guitar fingerboard, a lot of us simply do not practice scales enough when we're first exposed to the study of them. I know I was guilty of it as a teenager, and I've read articles by famous players like; Steve Vai, Larry Carlton, Al DiMeola and Neal Schon, as well as, many others, who've all said the same thing. In the early days of studying guitar, there probably isn't a single guitarist out there who hasen't said to themselves, "I should have practiced my scale more than I did." Eventually, all the famous pros did their scale practice, and so did I, and so will you... but for the guitar players who are still working on all of this information, the method that I've described in this lesson, will go a long way to helping you learn scales faster along with being able to apply scales on the neck with more success. Of course there's a lot you'll need to work on if you want to have tons of control with doing Guitar Solos, (and my Guitar Soloing Course can certainly help you with that), but in the meantime, develop small segments of adjoining pattern scales, using 4-5 notes, and what you'll find is that the neck will start coming together a heck of a lot faster!
VISIT THE WEB-SITE: Well, I'd like to end the discussion by 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.
Also, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on all of this in the comment section below... if you enjoyed this video on YouTube, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more through my YouTube channel. Thanks again and we'll catch up again, on the next episode of the, "Guitar Blog Insider."
Posted by Andrew Wasson
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
NEW: QwikRiffs Series - Video (020)
The latest QwikRiffs video, Hard Rock Riffs in "F Minor" 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...
Riff one applies a 2-note power chord idea in the neck's low register. The rhythm is a steady 8th-note driven Rock feel. Both the 5th (power chord) and its inversion the 4th are used in this riff. Take note of how the 4th offers a different tonal effect.
Riff two includes the use of syncopation within a 16th-note feel. Along with the syncopated groove, scratch-rhythm is also included to emphasize the arrival of the beat of three.
Riff three takes our Hard Rock feel up into the higher fret registers on the fingerboard. This high fret-register riff is focused on primary color tones including the "b3" (Ab), and the "b7" (Eb). An "F Minor Pentatonic" lick ties it all together.
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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.
Become a FREE member of the website, sign up today!
Posted by Andrew Wasson
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
This lesson discusses and demonstrates the benefits of practicing with a looper pedal for enhancing your overall feel and for developing better phrasing into the backing chords of progressions...
IMPORTANT: Before we get started, if you own a looper, but you're not all that great at using it, and you need a little help perfecting its application, then before watching this video, take 10 min. out and watch my YouTube video titled, "THE ART OF THE LOOP Why You're NOT Able to Use a Looper Pedal." The many benefits of using a looper pedal are multi-faceted when it comes to
teaching yourself how to obtain better feel and better phrasing.
If you
don't own a looper, I'd highly suggest buying one, and if you do own a
lopper, but you're allowing it to collect dust in the corner of the
room, I hope this video gets you to grab that dusty looper pedal, plug it in and start using it a
whole lot more when you practice. Loopers are not very expensive with excellent base-models such as the TC Electronics Ditto and the BOSS RC-1 priced at under $100. And, more powerful /robust units like the DigiTech Jam-man pedal priced under $125. There's no excuse for not owning a looper! WATCH THE LESSON VIDEO:
Tone Targeting with Your Loops: Whether you're working on your phrasing, or you're working on your ability to feel time (and the sub-divisions of a beat), there's almost nothing better than starting out by simply looping a single chord and then targeting into that chord's color-tones. All you need is to have a chord being played back from off of your looper. Just record a single chord quality, and then work at targeting into the; Root, 3rd and 5th. The seventh is also viable (even if the chord is a triad). NOTE: The chord's 7th's are easier to hear in the early days when they're actually included within the chord voicing that you've recorded onto your looper pedal. Example #1). Practice jam over a single chord loop that's using an "Em7" chord for the jam.
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Relative Major and Minor: The next step with your chord jam loop practice is to add another chord into the routine. With my own private students, I always suggest working within a four bar progression and then adding the second chord at measure three. That way, you'll have two bars over the first chord, and then two more bars for playing over the second chord. Applying each chord for two measures will allow you a little more time, when trying to discover phrases to connect into each of the chords of your jam. Another suggestion that I like to make, is to use the Relative Major or Relative Minor chord; in the third measure. For example, if we keep the, "Em7," as our chord for measures 1 and 2, then we would switch over to playing, "Gmaj7" on measures 3 and 4. Here's an example of doing - just that - with a loop track. Example #2). Two chord jam loop using two measures of "Em7" and two measures of "Gmaj7."
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Hitting the Resolutions: One of the important concepts that comes up time and time again in progressions that we're learning how to play over is successfully making it to a clean, "Resolution." If you've spent time studying harmony, I'm sure that you already know how chord changes "point" at what most music instructors will call the, "Home Chord," of the key that you're song is based in. That drop which occurs into, "Home Chord," comes along in the music with a strong sense of completion throughout the span of the chord progression. And, that strong sense of completion in our music makes this situation in playing melody or solos, one of those excellent practice areas. As an example of this, I'm going to use a "IV," "V," "I," progression in the key of "A Major." This means that we'll be moving from a "D," to an "E," with the resolution occurring on our tonic chord of "A." Here's an example of doing that with a loop track. Example #3). "IV-V-I" progression in the key of "A Major."
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Conclusion: Owning a loop pedal is an amazing opportunity to apply backing riffs in a manner that helps you hear chord colors and improve your sense of time. Each chord found in a progression allows for us to tastefully target into specific color tones. And, that skill can make a big difference for all those people who are listening to what we're doing as musicians. Plus, when we are working with a chord progression loop, it helps practicing musicians understand far more about our own sense of timing. This can be especially helpful when we want to explore the down-beats and the rhythmic sub-divisions implied across a chord progression. When we develop this skill up to a high enough degree, we will be able to perform improvisations in a very natural way. The music will start to feel effortless to produce and it will slowly become easier to play in front of others when your turn arrives on stage to play a lead melody or to perform a guitar solo.
SIGN-UP TO THE WEBSITE: Well, hey, thanks for joining me, 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!
Certain guitar players seem to be able to fit together chord progressions that offer a lot of inspiration. The sound of specific note combinations on the neck can resonate with a collection of intervals that while sounding simple enough, at the same time, these chord tone arrangements are very unique and in turn inspire us...
Whether it's; Tommy Emmanual, David Crosby, James Taylor, or Lindsay Buckingham, many guitar songwriters have found a way of blending note combinations that can instantly inspire us by changing our state of mind and our mood within seconds of us hearing these types of chords. WATCH THE VIDEO:
THE 2nd INTERVAL: One of the top abstract sounds that guitar players can rely on to produce that inspirational dreamy "cloud-9" sound-effect are chords that add on 2nd or 9th intervals. C add2: One of the most common of these is the "Cadd2." In this chord, the "C Major" chord tones of (Root, 3rd and 5th) are all present, with the addition of the "C Major" scales 2nd note of "D." Here's popular chord pattern shape for it...
G add2: Another dreamy chord effect from the world of the add two color is the sound of using the "Gadd2" chord. This chord (when played in the open position), once again includes all of the, "G Major" chord tones and it adds the second scale degree of the "G Major" scale, which is an "A" tone. Here's a popular open position chord voicing for this inspiring chord sound...
E add2: The effects of including the added second interval can also exist off of placing the second degree into a lower register location of a chord. A great example of this sound is the open position,"E add2" performed with the overall shape of a typical, "E Major" chord voicing from open position.
COMPOUND INTERVALS: Extensions can be taken up an octave and included within seventh quality chords creating a compound interval of a "9th, 11th or 13th." And, they can be combined to produce calming and abstract extended chord sounds. Bm9/add11, (Bm11): One of the most popular chord voicings for this sound is the "Bm9/add11." Often called the "James Taylor" chord. Here's the voicing that James Taylor will often use in his music...
SUSPENDED: Another chord idea that can be included in this group of inspiring, relaxing chord effects, is the sound of the suspended 2nd. And, one of the most popular of these is the "Dsus2." Dsus2: Suspended chords, have no quality, since their 3rd chord tone, (the defining note), is missing. Here's an easy to play dreamy sounding, "Dsus2"
ADD CHORDS: Along with those dreamy suspended sounds, there's also the abstract effects of one of my personal favorites the "add4" chord. The "add4" chord in our example takes a common "C Major" open position chord voicing that includes all of the chord tones, and slides it up to 3rd position. Once in this 3rd position, the shape adds in the scales 4th degree. The end result (when its played), is a very captivating sound that certainly doesn't come off sounding like very many of our typical open position chords.
EXTENDED INVERSIONS: I have one more "INSPIRING chord" that you'll really enjoy using. This one (in particular) is an inversion of "D Major" that also inverts the chords third chord tone (F#), into the bass, (which is referred to as a first inversion voicing). To further enhance the effect of this chords' color even more, the open "B" string can be included for an extension of a "6th." Practice playing the voicing I've provided below...
VISIT THE WEBSITE: Well, I'd like to end the discussion by 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.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on all of this in the comment section below... if you enjoyed this video (on YouTube), 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."
