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The Guitar Study Newsletter for 6/5/2002
By Darrin Koltow
Greetings once again from MaximumMusician.com. This is Darrin Koltow, guitar coach, gob stopper, flip-flopper, do-wopper, and generally good guy, bringing you more music making, guitar-playing tips. First I want to thank you again for signing up for the Guitar Study newsletter at www.MaximumMusician.com. You can unsubscribe any time using instructions at the end of this email.
Now, you know what happens when you keep all this cool guitar knowledge to yourself: it begins to get upset that you're not sharing it with your pals and friends. To keep that knowledge happy, tell your buddies and friends to sign up for the Guitar Study newsletter. Send 'em to www.MaximumMusician.com.
In this issue:
== One-string ii-V-I ==
== Two Five ideas for lunatics ==
== Chords, scales and puppy dogs' tails ==
== Love your mistakes ==
== Special Article Announcement ==
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== One-string ii-V-I ==
Here's a quickie one-string ii-V-I chord melody ditty for you. This tab will make you the greatest guitarist in the world! Well, no it won't. I'll tell you this, though: if you're stuck playing in one position, and need an exercise to break out, try this tab.
With this exercise, you're playing a melody over the all important ii-V-I progression, keeping to one string. We're just illustrating the high E string here, but you can easily adapt this tab to work the other strings.
Also, you want to add a couple of other variations to this tab so you won't get too accustomed to playing and hearing the same phrase of music: vary the starting degree. We started on the One of C major, which is C of course. Once you master this particular tab, start another with the third, E, as the starting degree. After you've conquered that tab, do another starting on G, and so on.
Here's another variation you'll want to add: go from ascending to descending. In other words, rather than start the melody by playing a C and moving up to E, play the C on the 8th fret, high E string, and move *down* to the next note, A.
If this tab is too complex for you, try this: eliminate the chords. Just play the melody. Then, go back and just play the chords without the melody. Once you get comfortable with both approaches, then go for the chord melody.
Have fun with this exercise. Add blue notes to it. Put a swing feel to it. Play it naked. The only limits to the fun you can have with music are those you set on yourself. Go forth and explore.
**Remember to set your mail reader font to Courier or Courier New to display tablature correctly**
|---0--3--5--|-8-5--3--0--| |-1----------|-5----------| |-0----------|-5----------| |-2----------|-5----------| |-3----------|------------| |------------|------------| |---1-5-8--|-10-8-5--1-| |-3--------|-10--------| |-2--------|-10--------| |-3--------|-----------| |----------|-----------| |----------|-----------| |---1-3-7-|-10-7-3-1-| |-3-------|--8-------| |-4-------|-10-------| |-3-------|--9-------| |---------|----------| |-3-------|----------| |-0-3-5-8-|-12-8-5-3--| |-1-------|-13--------| |-0-------|-12--------| |-2-------|-10--------| |-3-------|-----------| |---------|-----------|
== Two Five ideas for lunatics ==
I'm usually ranting and raving about the ii-V-I. Well, I've worn out that rant. I don't have the energy to rant about ii-V-I now. I just have enough energy to rant about the ii-V.
The ii-V is a mini progression. In C major, the ii is D minor and the V7 is G7. Are you with me so far? Good. Now, let's twist this baby a little bit. Let's say we want to play a ii-V-I in C major, but the only commitment we have is to keep the bass notes intact: D, G, and C. Everything else, the guts of the chords, is up for grabs. This approach can create some interesting sounds. Let's hear some of them by applying the following approaches:
- Make the ii a V and vice versa, but stay in C major
- Play "out": make the guts of ii and V the harmonies for a ii-V in Eb major
- Flat the 5 on D minor and sharp the 5 on G7
- Staying diatonic again, use other chords from C major
Remember our commitment: D, G, and C in the bass. Cool? Cool. Now, let's hit the tabs.
- Make the ii a V and vice versa. I translate this to mean, "Put a note from Dm into G7, and vice versa." Well, what's in G7 that's not in Dm? G and B. What's in Dm that's not in G7? C and A. Dig it:
|-----|----| |-3-3-|-1--| |-5-2-|-2--| |-5-3-|-2--| |-5---|-3--| |---3-|----| Dm with G, G7 with A |-----|----| |-3-3-|-1--| |-4-5-|-2--| |-3-3-|-2--| |-5---|-3--| |---3-|----| Dm with B, G7 with C
That Dm with a G, also called a Dm11, is pretty, isn't it? How did you like that Dm with a B in it? Sounds a lot like G7, except it doesn't sound as stable, at least to my ears.
- Next approach: play "out." Make the guts of ii and V the harmonies for a ii-V in Eb major
|-----|----| |-6-3-|-1--| |-8-1-|-2--| |-6-3-|-2--| |-5---|-3--| |---3-|----|
The result is this progression: Fm7/D, Bb7/G, C . Where the heck did we come up with that? Well, the D and the G in the bass let us continue our commitment to a ii-V-I in C. The Fm7 and Bb7 come from an answer to this question: what other key can I build a ii-V on? Well, the answer is any key. I chose Eb. A ii-V7 in Eb is Fm and Bb7. I chose Eb because it has two notes that sound bluesey in C major: Eb and Bb.
I admit this last progression is an acquired taste. It's not for everyone. But it does rock your world a bit, and get some new sounds in your ear, doesn't it?
- Next approach: flat the 5 on D minor and sharp the 5 on G7
|-----|----| |-3-4-|-1--| |-5-4-|-2--| |-3-3-|-2--| |-----|-3--| |-4-3-|----|
This is a Dm7b5, G7+5, C. It's an oldie but a goodie. I look at it as pretending we're going to C minor. When you flat the five on a ii chord, and up the five on the V7 chord, you feel like the I you're going to is a minor chord. Remember that. There will be a quiz next week. Not.
- Next approach: staying diatonic again, use other chords from C major
|-----------|----| |-5----5----|-1--| |-4----4----|-2--| |-5----5----|-2--| |-5---------|-3--| |------3----|----|
This one might not raise any eyebrows or win any prizes, but it can still help you create some musical options for yourself. This is Em/D, Em/G, C. We stayed with C major, choosing an Em minor to stuff our D and G bass notes under.
Play around with these ideas for spicing up your ii-V progressions. Keep in mind that you may create ideas that don't work in music you're currently working on, but they may work in a future situation. Also keep in mind that creating and applying ideas like these are activities only for lunatics, crackpots, bohemians and *artists.* Why be normal?
== Chords, scales and puppy dogs' tails ==
"What scales go with this chord?" This is the timeless question every serious aspiring lead guitarist asks, sooner than later. It's a good question, and deserves some answers, or at least some approaches to create answers. Let's have it!
I think we need to improve our question a bit. Let's turn it from this: "What scales go with this chord?" to "What notes will sound good over this chord?"
Are you ready for the short answer? It's an eye opener, or might be for some of you. Here it is: forget scales; dig arpeggios. You can't actually forget scales for long. You're gonna wonder what's in those sometimes long brown stretches from one chord tone to the next. But, when you're starting out learning lead, ya gotta simplify. Arpeggios help you do that.
The beauty of lead soloing with arpeggios comes from several factors: you don't have to know theory, for one thing. At least, not gobs and gobs of it. All you need to know is this: the chords for the tune you want to solo over, and some basic arpeggio shapes. You'll want to know these qualities: major, minor and diminished. If you get good at these, tackle the augmented triad's arpeggio. Then, go for broke and learn 4-note arpeggios: minor 7ths, major 6ths and 7ths, and the must have, super dooper, funkadelic, sine qua non dominant 7 chord. Heck, learn the dom 7 first.
This subject is a bit wordy, and I know you need solid, real, practical advice. So, let's get to a simple procedure to begin learning to play lead with arpeggios:
1. Learn arpeggio shapes for these triads: major, minor, diminished
2. Pick a tune you dig that has reasonably normal chords and chord changes. So, that excludes anything over 500 bpm. No offense, thrashers.
3. Get the chord progression for the tune you chose. Get it from the 'Net, from a library, or even from what you *think* the chords are
4. Once you have these chord changes listed, pick just the first two chords in the tune.
5. Play the arpeggio shape for the first chord. Play one note per beat. So, assuming you're working with triads and the tune is in 4/4 time, you'll be playing four notes per bar. Now, triads have 3 notes and you have 4 beats to fill, so you're gonna repeat a note. No biggy. Repeat away.
6. Now things get juicy: notice what note you're playing on the last beat of the first bar.
7. You need to figure out the first note of the second chord, which is in the 2nd bar. What's it going to be? It's going to be whatever note is closest to the one you're currently on. Example: you're going from C major to D minor, and you're on the C note. What note in D minor is closest to the C note?
8. Once you've figured out this first note in the second bar, play the remaining notes in that arpeggio just as you played the notes in the first arpeggio/bar.
9. When you get to the end of bar 2, do step 7 again to figure out your first note for bar 3.
10. Continue this process until you have a flowing line of notes for a phrase, then for the whole tune.
Believe me, this is a *lot* easier than it reads. Keep in mind the basic idea: flowing arpeggio notes from one measure to the next. (No theory needed. License, insurance, mileage, and gas fees may apply. Small children and rodents may begin dancing during this process. This is normal. Continue playing.)
Need books on scales? Check these out.
You're working on that song or arpeggio or chord, and you keep making the same mistake. It's as if your fingers have a mind of their own, and that mind has decided to be a royal pain in the butt.
Mistakes, errors, hitches and problems are a part of making music. And believe it or not, they are necessary to your growth as a musician. Let's offer some ways of looking at "mistakes" that ultimately help your playing, even if a particular mistake seems to be dragging your playing down.
First of all, mistakes have a special place in my heart, because I *am* a mistake. I don't want to get too personal, here, but my birth was not planned by the people who made me. I wasn't supposed to be conceived. I wasn't supposed to happen. But I did, and with the exception of a few old girlfriends and a jerk back in college whose face still bears the impression of my knuckles, most people are pretty happy how this "mistake" turned out.
But what about mistakes in music? How are we supposed to look at them in a way that helps our playing? Let me ask you this: have you ever made a mistake that introduced a new sound to you? Haven't there been times when you wanted to play a particular chord, and ended up playing another, and the unexpected sound made you say, "Oh, wow! That was cool! Let's do that again!"
I *know* you've experienced this, if you've been playing for any length of time. When you make such cool sounds from so-called "mistakes," you begin to appreciate mistakes. In fact, you begin to see that mistakes deserve a more accurate, positive name. Maybe we ought to call mistakes "alternatives," or "options." Instead of saying, "Darn. Why do I keep making the mistake of playing that C#m in stead of the D major," you might ask, "What would happen if I continued pursuing this alternative? What new sounds could I get if I followed this unexpected option?"
This is not easy at first. Most of us have been conditioned to see mistakes as bad, or as something that has to be corrected or rectified immediately. We see mistakes as cockroaches, instead of rays of insight that they really are.
If you're hard at work on a song you love, and you continue to make a mistake during a particular part each time you play it, it's hard to be understanding and calm toward that mistake. Yet, you need to be, if you want to play that song well. You need to take a deep breath the next time your hit a #9 instead of a natural 9, and say, "Okay, Mr. Mistake. I acknowledge your presence. I see that you want me to pay attention to you. What is it that you want me to play?" Then, spend just a bit of time exploring the path that the mistake/option is introducing you to. You may find, after you've done this with sincerity, that the mistake disappears.
- Mistakes in Transcription -
Mistakes can be highly valuable when you're doing transcription. I once worked on a transcription program, which had a CD of about 10 jazz tunes to transcribe, and sheet music for those tunes. I listened to the CD, doing the best transcription I could, listening to every note.
After I completed each song I would compare my transcribed notation with the sheet music. The problem wasn't my accuracy. I did pretty well, hitting 85% and up in relation to the sheet music. The problem was that I was getting too stressed out over that 15% of "mistakes." It was getting to the point that I no longer wanted to transcribe, so I wouldn't have to face seeing these mistakes.
That's not productive. And it sure as sheetcake was not fostering a positive psychological environment to learn in. I needed to adopt a new attitude, and I did. I adopted the attitude that my mistakes were simply other methods of creating music that sounded good. Comparing my version of the music with the "actual" sheet music was instructive, but not absolutely critical for learning music. The critical part was turning my mistakes into music, and creating many options that were similar to -- or better -- than the sounds I was hearing in the tune I was transcribing. Today, transcribing music is a pleasure for me.
It's critical to your success in music that you take a more objective, sympathetic view of your mistakes. To help you acquire this perspective, I want to offer some resources that show what great things can occur when mistakes are made.
There you will learn how Coca-Cola, Post-it notes and other things we value in this loony society were the results of mistakes.
Here's another way of looking for inspiration about mistakes while you're surfing the Web: enter this exact search term in the Altavista.com search engine: "title:inventions and text:mistake" You'll find a bunch of sites that will tell you about inventions that were the results of mistakes.
I want to wrap up this mistake business with a final thought: life itself is the result of a series of mistakes. Evolution theory tells us that species become adapted to their environment in part because of genetic mistakes to organisms of that species. I don't want to ruffle anyone's religious feathers. I just want you to have a more understanding perspective of your musical mistakes.
== Special Article Announcement ==
Okay, Guys, Gals and Undeclareds. I have a special new lesson designed to seriously enhance your playing, while you have a hoot of a time doing it.
I call this lesson the Chord Melody Workout. Can you guess what it's about? Chord Melody Workout, or CMW, or "Yo, man, you're stepping on my toe," is a set of exercises for intermediate level guitarists to improve their chord melody playing with. These exercises help you play chord melody arrangements; flow a melody line over the crucial ii-V7-I progression; train your dog to bake brownies; teach your fingers to "see" the chords connected to arpeggios and the arpeggios connected to chords; find that drill bit that fell behind the workbench last July; play basic chord substitutions; learn how chords work together; create solos; read a newspaper upside down; apply intervals as chord substitutions; improvise; learn chord voicings; learn the fretboard better; tell Aunt Sophie what you *really* think about her, and much, much more.
Coming up after this intro is the tab for the first part of the Chord Melody Workout. This tab is a chord melody phrase using just one CAGED form: the C form. Learn this tab to flow a pleasing arpeggiated melody, with chord accompaniment that *you* provide, over the crucial ii-V7-I phrase. There are two tabs here: one for ascending from the root of the tonic (I) chord, and the other for descending from the root.
Here's the ascending phrase:
|-----------------|-----------------| |---------6-------|-------6-8-6-----| |-----5-7-5-7-5---|-----7---7---7---| |---7-----7-----7-|-5-8-----8-----8-| |-8-------8-------|-5---------------| |-8---------------|-6---------------| |-----------------|---------5--------| |-------5-8-5-----|-------6-6-6------| |-----5---5---5---|---5-7---5---7-5--| |-5-8-----8-----8-|-7----------------| |-7-------7-------|-8----------------| |-6---------------|-8----------------| Here's the descending phrase: |-----------------|-----------------| |-6---------------|-6---------------| |-5-7-5-------5-7-|-7-7-----------7-| |-7-----7---7-----|-8---8-5---5-8---| |---------8-------|---------8-------| |---------5-------|-6-------6-------| |-----------------|------------------| |-5---------------|------------------| |-5-5-----------5-|-7-5-----------5--| |-5---8-5---5-8---|-7---7-------7----| |---------7-------|-8-----8-5-8------| |---------6-------|---------5--------|
The complete CMW lesson contains *40 tabs*: eight for each of the 5 CAGED positions. You can get more freebie tabs here: www.MaximumMusician.com/cmw.htm . If you want the complete lesson, you can get it for only a buck at TrueFire.com. Here's the link.
If that URL is too long, try this: surf to TrueFire.com, and enter "Chord Melody Workout" in their search engine. That will pull it up.
Contact me if you have *any* questions about the Chord Melody Workout.
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Well, folks, you've done it again: ripped all the guitar calluses from my fingers and worn out all my strings. And you know what? I'm ready for more if you are. *You* can get more guitar info at MaximumMusician.com. You can learn or improve a skill and have a blast while doing it.
I'm off to get more guitar knowledge for you. Have a melodious, euphonious week. May the Frets be with you, and for Peter, Paul and Mary's sake, get a buddy to sign up for the Guitar Study newsletter, at www.MaximumMusician.com, will ya?
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