If you have tried to play or write a song but it just doesn’t seem to be working out, then you are going to want to watch this video.  In it I’m going to show you how to play a song from start to finish, as well as, how to write a song...




Writing music is all about understand song structure and knowing how to organize the chords and melodic ideas of a key center so that what you compose has a decent continuity from section to section and operates in a balanced manner.

The key to successfully playing an entire piece or composing a complete song is all about knowing how to properly rehearse a piece in sections and then develop the parts through rehearsal with others (or by playing against the original recording).

WATCH THE VIDEO:




In this lesson, I’m going to teach you how to not only learn and play your way through an entire song, but you'll also learn how to write your own song.

Many of my older guitar students (who are 40+ years in age), come to guitar lessons still having trouble playing or writing a piece of music. Even if you’ve never been able to completely play through or write a song before, this information will help you.

These topics will help you understand what it means to organize a contemporary song’s most common song parts, (the Intro., Verse, Chorus and Outro.).

Plus, we’ll talk about a song’s key, along with its tonality, (like whether a song section is “Major” or “Minor”).

When we’re done, you’ll know how to compartmentalize each section of a song to learn it at a high level of skill, (so that you can eventually play through the whole song at once).

You’ll also understand how to take the most common song structure and use it as a template to be able to compose a song of your own. Let’s jump into this and get started.





SONG STRUCTURE:
Song structure has to do with the sections of a piece and how they’re arranged, (I’m sure you’ve heard someone comment before about a song’s “arrangement”).

This means how the; Intro., moves into the Verse, and how many of the Chorus passes will occur throughout the piece, stuff like that.

For example; Let’s say that we had an Intro that was 3-bars in length. And then, later in the same song that same group of chord changes actually shows up a second time, but it’s used as the song’s Chorus section.

Then, (at the end of the tune), the same riff shows up again as an Outro.

Now, that type of scenario actually happens in a lot in songs, so let me give you an example of exactly how this whole situation could work.

[1]. Intro. Section: (same as Chorus but the Chorus will be strummed).

Our first song section is going to be an intro. riff that offers up three chords that are all based out of the key of, “D Major.”

It sounds like this (play the example below):



Along with the Intro section (we also know can be used later as a Chorus section), the next thing to learn here is to understand what could happen with another primary song section – the Verse.

In our Intro. we have established a group of three chords from the key of “D Major.” Quite often in a piece of music the other principle song part, (in this case being the Verse), will apply chords from the key’s “Relative Minor” tonality.

This is where having an understanding of basic music theory can be incredibly helpful. So let’s get acquainted with tonality and harmony.





TONALITY:
[2]. Understanding the “D Major” Scale: (Major Tonality) 

In our piece, the “D” Major Scale establishes the framework of the piece.





[3]. Understanding the “D Major” Scale’s Harmony: (Harmonized Major) 
Harmony is what we use for creating all of the chords in our song.



[4]. Understanding the “Relative Minor” (“B Minor” Scale)
The 6th of a Major key is the Related Minor key. The 6th of “key of D” is “B”



[5]. Understanding the “B Minor” Scale’s Harmony: (Harmonized Minor) 
The harmony is what we use for creating all of the chords in our song.



Now that you’ve learned the basic theory behind how songs use musical keys (and how they are organized), the next step is to explore the use of chords from our songs next song section, the “Verse.”


                         ____________________________________________________

I wanted to take a minute to let you know, that if you want to learn even more about scales and theory I have a great offer for you.

With any donation over $5, or any merchandise purchase from either my Tee-Spring, or my Zazzle store, I’ll send you a free copy of THREE of my most popular digital handouts.

One is called, “Harmonized Arpeggio Drills” (it’ll train you on developing your diatonic arpeggios).

Another one is my “Barre Chord” Handout which includes a page showing all the key signatures along with a chord progression that applies barre chords.

Plus, you’ll get my Notation Pack! It has 8 pages of important guitar worksheets for notating anything related to; music charts, guitar chord diagrams, and TAB.

As a BONUS, (from my "Over 40 and Still Can't Play a Scale" video), I'll also throw in a breakdown of all of the chords that are diatonic to the "F Major" scale.

As an EXTRA BONUS for my Phrygian Dominant video, I'll also throw in a breakdown featuring all of the chords that are diatonic to the Phrygian Dominant scale.

Just send me an email off of the contact page of CreativeGuitarStudio.com to let me know about either your donation or your Merchandise purchase and I’ll email you those digital handouts within 24 hrs.     
                       ____________________________________________________


VERSE:
Our verse section is in Minor. It is 4-bars long and goes like this.

[6]. The “B Minor” Verse Section: (Minor Tonality) 
The Verse of our song is in the Tonality of “B Minor” (Built from off of the 6th degree of the "D Major" scale).




With our learning of the Intro and the Verse complete, and our explanation for basic music theory out of the way, let’s revisit the Intro chord harmony once again so that we can format those chords and use them for the Chorus section.






CHORUS:
[7]. The “D Major” Chorus Section: (Major Tonality) 
The chord progression for our Chorus section applies the same collection of chords that we had used in the Intro. section. The chords are just showing in a different style of performance. You’ll find this happens a lot in songs!


Now that you have an understanding for what happens through the intro and the body of a piece, it is also important to understand that the arrangement can (and often will) flow between the Verse and Chorus repeatedly several times to form the core of the piece itself.

Sometimes within this structure we’ll find a short segment added, and that’s what’s generally called the “Bridge.” But, if it’s an instrumental part, we’ll call it an interlude. Of course if there’s a lead part (for a soloist), in there, i.e., a guitar solo, we’d obviously call that part - the "solo" section.

Once your song is ready to wrap up and finish off, it’s time to start considering how it will actually end. Sometimes the song just fades out on the Chorus, but other times we’ll find that a song will have a more defined ending.

Completing the song into its ending will obviously be totally up to you on how you’ll want the song to end, but quite often it simply comes down to whether you want the song to fade away, or if there might be a more solid ending, (a more abrupt ending part).






CONCLUSION:
In wrapping up, I wanted to touch on how you can use what we just covered here to help yourself become better with learning how to perform a piece from start to finish.

The bottom line is that you’re going to need to segment the piece into its various sections and work on each section one at a time. Then, you’ll need to begin linking each section together.

Ultimately, the most important aspect of learning to play through an entire song will come down to finding somebody to actually work together on it and play the song with you. If you don’t know anyone, then you’ll need to use the original recording to play along with the track from beginning to end.

If you're a guitar student searching for perfection but you struggle to put sense to the traditional major and minor scales, you are going to want to watch this video and start doing the exercise I show here every single day. This is something you can do whether you know scales or not and it is going to provide you with benefits beyond just understanding the notes and the scale intervals...




I have an incredibly helpful lesson for you today. It’s directed at all guitar players so that you guys can learn the sound and note layout on the neck of the most important color tones of the major and minor scales along with a couple of the popular modes.

This work will train your ear, it’ll help you better understand notes and intervals on the neck and you’ll be able to fully understand the effects of musical sound…

WATCH THE VIDEO:



For most students who are practicing guitar, the major or minor scale is a scale in name only. For new students of scales and music theory, there’s generally no complete high level understanding of why one scale might be used in a song over and above the other.

But, after today’s video you’ll not have an understanding of what each scale does, and why we call them major or minor, but you’ll also better comprehend the most important part of learning scales, and that’s the emotional effect they can produce in music. Let me show you exactly what I mean…

1). Basic Major Scale – Core Tones…


Across the notes of a key we have certain degrees of “scale tones” that together end up producing the scales tonality. In a “Basic Major” scale the interaction of the scales Root note with the 4th and 5th plus the relationship to the third and 6th notes will produce the scales tonality.




As you can tell when you play these tones isolated, the Major sound is very uplifting, triumphant and happy sounding.

Let’s also play it up in another register of the fingerboard to hear it played elsewhere…



In music, a scales third and sixth degrees work together to create the scales tonality. In the basic major scale the 3rd and the 6th tones are called “Major 3rd” and “Major 6.”



Everything operates in combination with the scales 4th and 5th (as well as with the Tonic), to form the entire tonal response, which also creates a sound effect we call the “emotional effect.”

Next, let me show you how all this works with the Minor scale…




2). Natural Minor Scale – Core Tones…



The Natural Minor scale lowers the 6th and the 7th scale degrees to restructure the sound and the emotional effect of the music that we would arrange and compose with this scale type.

As you can tell the effect of the scale is darker, with a sad /negative sound as compared to what we heard with our sound of the major scale.

                         ____________________________________________________

I wanted to take a minute to let you know, that if you want to learn even more about scales and theory I have a great offer for you.

With any donation over $5, or any merchandise purchase from either my Tee-Spring, or my Zazzle store, I’ll send you a free copy of THREE of my most popular digital handouts.

One is called, “Harmonized Arpeggio Drills” (it’ll train you on developing your diatonic arpeggios).

Another one is my “Barre Chord” Handout which includes a page showing all the key signatures along with a chord progression that applies barre chords.

Plus, you’ll get my Notation Pack! It has 8 pages of important guitar worksheets for notating anything related to; music charts, guitar chord diagrams, and TAB.

As a BONUS, (from my "Over 40 and Still Can't Play a Scale" video), I'll also throw in a breakdown of all of the chords that are diatonic to the "F Major" scale.

As an EXTRA BONUS for my Phrygian Dominant video, I'll also throw in a breakdown featuring all of the chords that are diatonic to the Phrygian Dominant scale.

Just send me an email off of the contact page of CreativeGuitarStudio.com to let me know about either your donation or your Merchandise purchase and I’ll email you those digital handouts within 24 hrs.     
                       ____________________________________________________


Here’s the Minor tones played once again, but this time up in the necks higher register…



As we just saw and heard the minor scale’s lowered third and six degrees work together to create the minor tonality. These tones are called “Minor 3rd” and “Minor 6.”




The lowered tones produce the minor scale's sound in combination with the 4th and 5th (as well as with the Tonic), forming the tonal response, or the “emotional effect.”

Next, let’s find out what happens with “2” popular modes…





3). Mixolydian Mode



The Mixolydian mode drops the 7th note of the scale down a half-step mixing the Major 3rd sound against the sound of a Minor 7th.

This creates an interesting blend that’s fantastic for styles which don’t fall into the conventional sounds of basic Major or Minor. I’m talking about styles like; Blues, Soul music, Funk, R and B, Motown as well as, Jazz and Jazz-Fusion music.

4). Dorian Mode


The Dorian mode drops the 3rd tone down a half-step creating a Minor third sound, but the really unique sound is actually created by the scales 6th degree.

The 6th is Major and the unique tonal response comes from the blend of the minor 3rd against the major 6th.

The thing that’s really important to understand is that scales create an emotional effect that’s not just tied to music theory, or to the way that the scale makes us feel when we play through it.




There’s another level at work here, and it has to do with the way that our emotions are affected by the sound. And, how that sound is directly tied to a specific musical style...

So, the scales we choose, combined with the knowledge of the scales emotional effect will help us as musicians to be able to decide the emotional direction of the state of mind that we’re hoping for in the person listening to our music.

And, once we fully comprehend how all of this happens, we will truly perfect our sound, our style and how we compose and arrange music for others to enjoy…

The Blues Box Shape is one of the simplest scale patterns for soloing that is also one of the most often under-performed. All too often players only learn the basic "BB Box" but never touch on the "Albert King: box. 




In this lesson, I’m going to show you how to completely understand EVERYTHING about the Blues Box and make sure you get it right every solo by using a simple 3 step checklist.

The 3-step checklist covers the "Albert King," Blues Box, the "BB King" framework pattern and the color tone layout for the "BB Box."

You’ll learn how and where to place your notes, and how to control the sound in relation to the harmony, as well as how to solo the damn thing right off the charts with the coolest note choices you can handle.


WATCH THE VIDEO:




THE BLUES BOX-SHAPE:
We’re talking the Blues Box Shape today and this study is some of the best Blues Shape studying that you can do if you do it right, so we’re breaking out the check list so we can break this down step-by-step so we can make sure that you learn it all quickly and easily.

Okay, any good Blues shape studying starts with how you prepare the understanding for the shapes application on the neck. The shapes for Blues Boxes may indeed have their foundation within the Major and the Minor Pentatonic. But, two of the world’s greatest Blues Players have lead the way with their own approach which has essentially become the gold standard of Blues Boxes.

Those players are Albert King along with BB King. The first shape on our check list will be the Albert King shape so let’s work this one out so we can check it off and move through two other shapes as well.






THE ALBERT KING BOX SHAPE:
Our first box shape on the check-list is the Albert King shape. This shape is a simple modification to the Minor Pentatonic scale that adds a Major 3rd color tone.

It includes the scale degrees of: 1, ♭3, ♮3, 4, 5, ♭7
In the key of "G" this produces, (G, B♭, B♮, C, D, F)

Keep in mind that this pattern is nothing more than a simple modification of adding a Major 3rd note into the layout of a standard Minor Pentatonic. Don’t let the fact that this shape is simple fool you in any way. This shape can offer up some really cool ideas.

Let's analyze how it sits on the fingerboard. After you learn it, be sure to have some fun with its sound over a vamp performed using a static “G Dominant 7” chord.



Now that you’ve learned how the Albert King box shape is used in Blues, let’s next jump over to checking out a slightly more complex approach that was used by legendary Blues guitarist BB King.






THE BB KING BOX SHAPE:
This next Blues Box starts out based on the neck as a rather ambiguous group of tones that are neither Major nor Minor as a shape.

Where the magic happens lies in what we do with the shape. We’ll have a couple of options with this one, so we’ll need to break it into two separate ideas.

Here’s the first one BB King used this box-shape as his foundation.

The BB Box Framework:



On our check-list - we’ll call it shape "Number 1 BB Box" The number one box acts as BB’s framework. And, it only applies the scale degrees of; 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.

This layout acts as a framework so that he can apply more color tones around it to be able to highlight chords and melodic ideas in whatever way he saw fit to do.

Memorize the shapes layout on the fingerboard.

NOTE:
Keep in mind that this shape is neither Major nor Minor and it will get its musical direction from however BB would want to highlight the sound.

Alright, now that you have an understanding for what BB’s foundation was for his Blues Box on the neck, the next idea we’re going to cover will get a little more involved.

This next level idea includes making modifications to the framework by using additional degrees of: ♭3, ♮3, ♭5

Use the chart below to distinguish the options for applied use on our diagram.

                         ____________________________________________________

I wanted to take a minute to let you know, that if you want to learn even more about scales and theory I have a great offer for you.

With any donation over $5, or any merchandise purchase from either my Tee-Spring, or my Zazzle store, I’ll send you a free copy of THREE of my most popular digital handouts.

One is called, “Harmonized Arpeggio Drills” (it’ll train you on developing your diatonic arpeggios).

Another one is my “Barre Chord” Handout which includes a page showing all the key signatures along with a chord progression that applies barre chords.

Plus, you’ll get my Notation Pack! It has 8 pages of important guitar worksheets for notating anything related to; music charts, guitar chord diagrams, and TAB.

As a BONUS, (from my "Over 40 and Still Can't Play a Scale" video), I'll also throw in a breakdown of all of the chords that are diatonic to the "F Major" scale.

As an EXTRA BONUS for my Phrygian Dominant video, I'll also throw in a breakdown featuring all of the chords that are diatonic to the Phrygian Dominant scale.

Just send me an email off of the contact page of CreativeGuitarStudio.com to let me know about either your donation or your Merchandise purchase and I’ll email you those digital handouts within 24 hrs.       
                       ____________________________________________________


The second BB King shape, (we’ll call it shape number 2 on our check-list), has several different note options.

Here’s what happens when this is apply all of these options on the neck.


The second BB Box Shape is actually just a modified version of our first shape. But, in order to keep track of what’s happening, I’ve highlighted the other color tone selections in; Red, Green and Blue.

You’ll see a reference chart on the video to help you better identify each tone. Memorize how the shape sits on the fingerboard.

Spend time on jamming out with this shape and have some fun with its sound over a vamp performed using a static “G Dominant 7” chord.





CONCLUSION:
Once you learn how the Blues Box Shapes work and how easy they can be applied over any Blues, R and B, Funk or Motown riffs, you’ll find yourself adding these sounds into your music more and more as you get better (and, more familiar with them).

The Blues Box ideas offer a wide selection of sound between the Albert King layout, combined with those two directions we covered from the BB King shapes.

Be sure to memorize these patterns that I've shown here in the lesson and develop new patterns as you take these shapes along the neck while you’re enjoying them during your at home studies.

There’s no doubt that these shapes are really cool and they offer guitarists a wide option of sound over any type of Blues-based idea.

Have you ever felt that no matter how hard you studied guitar soloing it was still confusing to you? In this video, I’m going to show you the main reasons why I believe you're still feeling confused about guitar soloing and why your solos are probably not where you'd want them to be...




Between the number of times that you've unknowingly missed a progressions "Home Chord" along with the missed importance of a resolution (in a backing track progression), there are also other vital soloing concepts that I can guarantee you've never applied.

Along with that, every guitarist needs to understand how to hit the right notes when they solo and that means developing; good technique, a great ability to compose melodic lines from scales, and it also means having a solid feel when it comes to your sense of rhythm.

WATCH THE VIDEO:



So, you’re having trouble understanding how to create a guitar solo and you’ve come to me… I think I can help you. I’ve taught guitar players how to solo for many years now and in this lesson I’m going to break down the steps you need to understand what it takes to create a guitar solo. Let’s get started with step number one.




BACKING PROGRESSION ANALYSIS:
90 percent of the time, guitar solos are played behind a group of chords that musicians call the backing progression. This progression of chords will generally use; 2, 3 or 4 chords from a key center (like the key of “E” or the key of “A”), and the key of the chord progression will also end up establishing a tonality for us - of either Major or Minor.

For some of you, all of that information might sound kind of complicated. But, it can be made much easier if you simply use your ear and listen for the overall effect of how a group of chords sound when they’re played. And, what we’re listening for is the one chord which sounds like the home chord of the group. Let me demonstrate exactly what I mean…


1). Example Progression
Play this chord progression, it is an example of a progression for playing a solo over…



Across any group of chords that are being used within a backing progression, there’s always a sense of one chord being the central chord. This chord is what musicians call the “Home” chord. As you listen to the progression above, which chord seems to come across as sounding like “Home?” If you guessed the “D Minor” chord, you’d be correct!

In our backing chord example, the first chord of “D Minor” gives us the strongest sense of being the most central chord to the overall feeling of how the progression loops around and how it establishes itself musically. Plus, since this home chord effect happens in pretty much every chord progression we’ll ever want to play a solo over - it is important to understand.






DISCOVER THE HOME CHORD SCALE:
Once you discover the central “Home” chord of the progression. The next step is simple. You just confirm the quality (of whether the chord is Major or Minor)! In our case that central “Home” chord was Minor. It was a, “D” Minor chord.

This leads us to the next step, which is learning how to play a fingerboard pattern for a, “D Minor” scale so that we can use the notes of that Home Chord to create a solo!


2). Example Scale - D Minor:
The most popular scale layout for playing guitar solo’s is the scale called the Pentatonic. Here’s a nice easy to play centrally located scale shape for the “D Minor” Pentatonic scale…



Once the basic shape for the Home Scale is mapped out, it's time to expand on the shape by looking for unison note options. The optional note locations are shown below for the notes of "F" and "A."



                         ____________________________________________________

I wanted to take a minute to let you know, that if you want to learn even more about scales and theory I have a great offer for you.

With any donation over $5, or any merchandise purchase from either my Tee-Spring, or my Zazzle store, I’ll send you a free copy of THREE of my most popular digital handouts.

One is called, “Harmonized Arpeggio Drills” (it’ll train you on developing your diatonic arpeggios).

Another one is my “Barre Chord” Handout which includes a page showing all the key signatures along with a chord progression that applies barre chords.

Plus, you’ll get my Notation Pack! It has 8 pages of important guitar worksheets for notating anything related to; music charts, guitar chord diagrams, and TAB.

As a BONUS, (from my "Over 40 and Still Can't Play a Scale" video), I'll also throw in a breakdown of all of the chords that are diatonic to the "F Major" scale.

As an EXTRA BONUS for my Phrygian Dominant video, I'll also throw in a breakdown featuring all of the chords that are diatonic to the Phrygian Dominant scale.

Just send me an email off of the contact page of CreativeGuitarStudio.com to let me know about either your donation or your Merchandise purchase and I’ll email you those digital handouts within 24 hrs.        
                       ____________________________________________________


So far, the ideas I’ve presented, are ones that most practicing guitar players are probably aware of. But, it’s the next few steps that are really important and often overlooked.

One very important thing which generally will get ignored, is that when you look into some of the world’s greatest lead guitar players, like; Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eddie Van Halen, or Joe Satriani - what you might not consider is that these lead guitar players are also incredible rhythm guitar players.

Even though you might more or less understand a chord progression that you’re going to solo over, you’ve got to be better than that! You’ve got to be able to play it and play it with great feel and a great sense of time.




3). Take a Closer Look at the Backing Track
Let’s take a deeper look into the chords and for our backing chord progression. I want you to learn all the chords and practice the shapes and the groove for them until you’re absolutely fantastic at them.










The final idea that I want to share with you has to do with how to go forward (and really use all of this information to start soloing). This has to do with melody creation.

All too often, a guitar student who’s trying to learn how to solo will just noodle around and never really create a worked out melody part.

To show you how easy this can be, I’m going to supply a simple melody that you can learn (and then use as a springboard), to take you off to even more melody lines of your own.


4). Melody example
Learn the melody below and perform it over the jam track progression.