This week's GuitarBlog covers a "Minor Pentatonic Guitar Solo."
When a guitar student begins spending their time learning scale patterns and developing the required technique to play them easily, they also need to start applying that information as soon as possible.
And, although learning a few guitar licks and a couple of riffs can be a pretty good start, what really challenges the student (and eventually brings their guitar playing up to a much higher level of skill), will be learning longer lead guitar lines.
The "lead guitar solo" will combine several licks (and longer melodic runs) into full solos. that will end up really. This week's lesson contains a 12-bar Minor Pentatonic Guitar Solo that is intended to help start players off on a path for further developing the Minor Pentatonic Scale on the guitar.
Throughout the solo, there are different techniques, rhythms and fingerboard locations to learn how to navigate. Take your time developing each idea and commit the parts to memory prior to building the speed.
Above all else, don't stop here - with this lesson. Learn as many guitar solos as you possibly can. It will help with so many areas of your guitar playing and that will make all of the work so well worth it. Enjoy!
Welcome to... "Micro-Lesson 209" This Micro Lesson explores the sounds of the "Mixolydian Mode" with a melody line from "C Mixolydian."
This melody starts with a full-step bend off of the 15th fret of the second string. After the bend, scale tones follow-up the next phrase into the tonic of the scale (C).
A unique modal sound occurs at this point by way of a sustain of the tonic note over the 7th chord of the Mixolydian mode (in this case a "Bb" major). Although this may seem strange theoretically, (since "C" is not a chord tone of that "Bb" chord), it does offer up an interesting sound for the melody against the harmony.
The melody carries on next through a rapid hammer-on / pull-off / slide lick that descends into our third measure. Here, the melody takes on a more arpeggiated concept by way of the serious targeting of chord tones. The notes of "G, C and Bb" are target tones throughout this measure.
The phrase wraps up by applying the major 3rd and the root of the key center, (C). Take your time memorizing the line. It is not a technically challenging idea, but it may take some study to bring up to speed and become fully developed. Enjoy!
Posted by Andrew Wasson
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Welcome to... "Micro-Lesson 208" This Micro Lesson runs through a fast-paced Jazz-Fusion style lick in the minor mode of "A Dorian."
Dorian is the second mode of the Major scale, and exibits the tonality of "Minor." The "A Dorian" mode comes from the "G Major" scale. The lick operates using a majority of sixteenth-notes, which makes it quite a fast moving phrase when played up to speed.
Even though it is only two measures long, there is a lot to watch for along the way when initially studying it. Beginning at the seventh fret of the 4th string, this first part of our lick surrounds a chromatic segment of "A Dorian" mode, taking this concept up to our 3rd string. A brief resolution occurs into the fifth chord tone of the, "Am7," chord at the end of measure one.
In measure two, the 2nd string gets some nice bends with pull-off's bringing on a position shift down to the fifth position. At this point the phrase resolves into the intervals of a 6th and a 9th related to the underlying second measure chord of, "E Dominant 7th."
When it comes to performing this lick and building it's speed, be careful of the chromatic sections if playing outside of scales is new to you. Even though this approach is popular to Jazz-Fusion, many students just learning this style will feel that, "outside," tones will sound "off-base," from the key's diatonic tones. And, although this eventually becomes easier to hear, it initially does take some getting used to. Enjoy!
Welcome to... "Micro-Lesson 207" This Micro Lesson covers the use of small arpeggios within the key of "D Minor" to create an arpeggio melody line.
The arpeggio melody functions around a drone-bass note off of the open 4th string "D." Under this constant drone we find small two-note arpeggiated ideas presented in a way that end up highlighting small segments of each moving harmony.
In measure one, the "D Minor" chord starts this descending progression, but this chord quickly drops down the neck horizontally introducing new chord types. These new chords include the "C Major" as well as, the "Bb Major."
In measure two we find a turnaround idea on our "C Major" chord acting with a sustain. Measure three starts a fresh new line, however this part ascends through one of the same chords we saw before, (Bb Major) and we are introduced to a new arpeggio covering a "G Major" harmony.
Measure four introduces the final turnaround phrase, operating once again off of the "C Major" harmony. This entire arpeggio melody is fairly easy to perform. Just be sure to arch up your fretting hand's knuckles to provide clearance for each arpeggios notes to "let ring." Enjoy!
Welcome to... "Micro-Lesson 206" This Micro Lesson covers a catchy sounding funky-jazz groove in the "B Dorian" mode.
The riff operates around a 7th position, "B Mi7," chord and shifts the harmony over to an "E dominant 9th" chord in measure two. Then from another hit on "B m7" in measure three to another "E Dominant 7th" harmony in measure four.
The groove is comprised primarily of small double-stop chords played between 4th to 2nd guitar strings. To jazz things up a bit the riff applies both slide and hammer-ons to add highlights to the sound of the part.
Take your time developing the ideas, (especially if the chord forms are new to you.). Use a metronome or drum machine to build the speed. Enjoy!
This week's GuitarBlog covers the nightmares of running a Partnered and Monetized YouTube channel that deals with posting music instructional lessons.
In doing something like this, there is one terribly frustrating aspect to have to contend with and that is copyright claims.
According to YouTube policy, you cannot be a Monetized YouTube Partner earning money from your videos, (music lesson videos in this case), if your video content is not 100% "original content."
That means, no charts, no music, no examples... nothing by anyone other than you! Everything in your video, (all of the screen images and the audio together), must be your own content. And, if it isn't, or even if someone "thinks" it isn't, you'll be hit with a, "Copyright Claim Notice."
So, to help you understand this, I've put together a screen narration of how this Claim Notice thing works and how in 95% of the cases, it's a total scam! Enjoy!
Welcome to... "Micro-Lesson 205" This Micro Lesson works through a picked and plucked Guitar-Pop Rhythm Riff pattern in the key of, "G Major."
This riff uses a lot of open strings between 5th through 2nd and applies a good deal of, "G Major Scale," tones along the second guitar string.
In measure one, the riff begins from chords based off of the Root of, "G," and an extended chord of, "G Maj.7." The melodic idea (centered within the riff) brings out the first part of its phrase in measure two where the 2nd string produces the highlights around this idea.
Measure three is more complex in how the melody comes to life. An eighth-note phrase covers interesting sounds centered around the very cool effect of the, "Dadd4," chord.
The turnaround idea in measure four is simple but effective in its use of an, "E Minor," arpeggio into a second inversion of the "D Major" chord (D/A). Overall, this riff is fairly straight-forward to perform and can be developed smoothly in a relatively short period of time.
Memorize the sections and commit the different parts of this riff along-side a metronome pulse as soon as possible. Enjoy!
