292264062 Desi Serna Fretboard Theory Vol 2 PDF

Copyright © 2013 Desi Serna Guitar-Music-Theory.com. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/ publisher. Authored and Published by Desi Serna Guitar-Music-Theory.com Cover Design by Desi Serna Cover Photo Provided by Paul Reed Smith Guitars (prsguitars.com) Notation Examples and Fretboard Diagrams by Desi Serna Interior Layout and Design by Lorie DeWorken (mindthemargins.com) Edited by Desi Serna and Thomas Evdokimoff (evdokimoff.com) Made in the United States of America I thank God for the gift of music. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” John 1:3

Contents Introduction...................... i Chapter 6.......................91 Chapter 1.........................1 What is the “Key” of a Song?

Chapter 2.......................11 Renumbering Chord Progressions

Lead Patterns

Chapter 7.....................113 Lead Patterns With Major Scales and Modes

Chapter 8.....................129

Chords Chapter 3.......................43 Outlining and Chord Progressions Dominant Function, Harmonic Minor Chord Progressions, and Voice Leading

Chapter 4.......................59 Key Changes

Chapter 9.....................165 Using Harmonic Minor Scale Patterns

Chapter 10...................179

Chapter 5.......................79 Pedal Point Chromatic Passing Chords, Diminished and Augmented Chords

Chapter 11...................189 Conclusion: What to Do Next

About the Author.......193

Volume II

Introduction Welcome to Fretboard Theory Volume II! This book picks up where Fretboard Theory left off, taking your guitar playing and musical knowledge to the next level. You learn many advanced applications and new musical concepts. The information in this book is suitable for intermediate to advanced players of acoustic and electric guitars, including both rhythm and lead players. Bass players, improvisers and composers should also find this book useful.

What You Will Learn Chapter 1 explains different ways musicians refer to a song’s key. You receive additional insight on keys, modes and key signatures. Chapter 2 shows how musicians analyze chord progressions starting from a song’s tonal center, rather than from its parent major scale. This technique is essential for understanding how most musicians use Roman numerals for chord progressions. Chapter 3 demonstrates the use of dominant function and voice leading in both major and harmonic minor songs. Understanding the concept of a chord with a dominant function is crucial to understanding the theory behind both melody and harmony. Chapter 4 reveals the most common ways that songs change keys and combine scales. This includes discussions on modulations, borrowed chords and modal interchange. If you have ever wondered why some songs do not seem to fit into any one key, or have wanted to know how to add more variety to your compositions, you will find the answers here. Volume II

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Chapter 5 teaches how to fill the gaps between chords with chromatic passing chords, diminished chords and augmented chords. These chords are common in popular music. Knowing how to use them will also help prepare you to study more complicated styles of music like jazz. Chapter 6 explores skills useful to lead guitarists. You will learn how lead patterns are built out of sections of the pentatonic patterns that guitarists favor. By narrowing your focus to these few essential patterns, your playing will improve. These lead patterns will form the basis of the material in the remaining chapters. Chapter 7 simplifies the use of major scale patterns and modes by comparing them to the different lead patterns taught in Chapter Six. Chapter 8, the longest chapter in the book, combines lead patterns and CAGED arpeggios. Here you learn how to outline chords and chord progressions. Instead of just playing randomly up and down a scale pattern, you use chord tones as your guide, giving your solos more direction. Chapter 9 adds some exotic flare to your melodies and solos with harmonic minor scale patterns. Chapter 10 introduces you to a composition technique called pedal point. Sustained notes help create rich sounding harmonies out of familiar chord progressions. Chapter 11 wraps up the book with some tips on how to continue to develop your playing and further your understanding of music.

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Songs I could not write a book without referencing numerous popular songs. Each chapter includes lists of song titles that help you apply the material in a practical context. You discover new things about the songs and guitar players you know and love. Of course, I can’t notate and teach how to play the songs specifically. You’ll need to look up and learn the songs on your own. But I reveal many useful details that will help you in the process.

How to Use this Book As you work through this book, be sure to take breaks from your reading to practice and play what you learn in each section. You may also find that taking a break from a particular topic or concept all together, perhaps even reviewing an earlier one for a while, will prevent you from getting burned out, which could halt your progress. Remember that it is not necessary to completely master each topic, especially when you first see it. For some topics, you may simply consider the material as an introduction, saving a more comprehensive study for a later time. You may even find that you will skip a topic completely. For example, you may wish to focus only on what you are most likely to use or most comfortable playing. It’s more important that you understand and remember the main concepts. Then you can apply these ideas when the need arises.

Distinguishing Between Text and Musical Letters In order to prevent you from confusing note and chord names from the regular text, I use a bold font. For example, the notes A, B and C or an A chord. Also, flat and sharp signs are put in superscript for chords but not for notes or keys. For example, an F♯ chord in the key of F♯ uses the note F♯. Due to formatting limitations in some of the music software I have used, you may not see this formatting applied consistency in the examples and illustrations. My hope is that context will provide clarity.

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Graphic Illustrations

Special Thanks

I would like to mention and recommend the two programs I used for the graphic illustrations in this book. For fretboard examples I used the Neck Diagrams program available at neckdiagrams.com. For tab and notation examples I used Guitar Pro 6 available at guitar-pro.com.

I want to extend a very special thanks to Thomas Evdokimoff for his excellent editing skills and musical insight. I recommend that you learn about his classical guitar playing, writing and music instruction by visiting his website at evdokimoff.com.

Contact Me I’m online every day answering questions, writing new blog posts, sharing news and messaging with social media followers. Be sure to stay connected with me by joining my mailing list, subscribing to my blog, liking my Facebook page and following me on Twitter. Also, watch my videos on YouTube and listen to my podcasts. Blog: guitar-music-theory.com/blog Facebook: facebook.com/guitarmusictheory Twitter: twitter.com/MrGuitarTheory YouTube: youtube.com/GuitarMusicTheoryTab Podcast: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/guitar-music-theory-lessons/id258401691 You can subscribe to the Fretboard Theory Volume II customer mailing list by sending a blank email to: [email protected]

About Copyrights This book is a copyrighted work. I have spent years writing it, hundreds of hours researching topics and thousands of dollars to produce it and make it available for sale. Please do not reproduce it in any form or by any means (e-book customers have permission to print one copy for their own use). If you see others illegally sharing it, please notify me. Thanks!

GUITARS TUNED DOWN TO E b : Many of the recordings that I list have the guitars

tuned down to E b . This means that all the strings are tuned down one half-step lower. The open sixth string E is tuned one half-step lower to E b, the open fifth string A is tuned one half-step lower to A b , and so on. Players may choose E b tuning for few reasons:

1. They can play in a lower key while still using open strings. 2. They can lower a song’s key by a half-step to help the singer hit the high notes more easily. 3. String tension is lower on the guitar, allowing the player to bend notes more easily.

When you want to play along with a song in E b tuning you can either re-tune your guitar, or, in some cases, simply transpose your patterns one fret lower. You will need to re-tune if you will be using open strings and chords. Volume II

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Chapter 1

What is the “Key” of a Song? In this Chapter 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The tonic Major and minor keys Relative major and relative minor Key signatures The terms accidentals and diatonic

Fretboard Theory In my earlier book Fretboard Theory, I always referred to keys by the parent major scale and, when necessary, the mode. I did this because I wanted to train you as a guitarist to recognize the parent major scale, its chords, and modes. Probably more importantly, I also wanted to show that you do not need to learn a new pattern for each of the seven modes. Instead, you simply use the same parent major scale patterns, but play them over a chord or chord progression that focuses on a different scale degree. See Fretboard Theory, Chapter 8 for a full discussion. Now that you have been trained to identify a key by its parent major scale, I want to expand on that skill here in Fretboard Theory Volume II. You are going to begin to think about keys in a new way, and learn some new concepts and terminology along the way. Let’s get started by looking at an important idea explored in this book: the tonic of a song.

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The Tonic

Major and Minor Keys

I would like to clarify the meaning of a musical term that that I did not use in Fretboard Theory, but you will see quite frequently throughout this book: the term tonic. In this book I will use tonic in a way similar to the way I used the term root in my earlier volume. The tonic is the tonal center of a piece of music, the primary pitch or chord that the music centers around. As you will see, the tonic is not always the same as the parent major scale because of the possibility of modes.

If the tonic chord of a song is major, many musicians think of the music as being in a major key. Unfortunately, they do not always say which major mode. Similarly, if the tonic chord is minor, then players say it is in a minor key, although once again, not everyone identifies which minor mode.

Tonal Center A song’s tonal center includes the main chord and pitch that the rest of the music revolves around. It is usually where the music begins and ends. It is also the music’s main goal and point of rest or resolution, where the music has a sense of completion and stability. Nevertheless, we do occasionally find music that is intentionally left unresolved.

Major Scales A major scale has two main features that give it its sound quality. The interval from the first scale degree to the third is a major third. Secondly, the triad built on the first scale degree is a major triad. Three of the modes have both of these features and are considered a type of major scale. Ionian, Lydian, and Mixolydian mode all have a major third above their first scale degree as well as a major triad built on the first scale degree.

The tonal center of a song may be a major chord or a minor one. You also might find that sometimes it centers on just a pitch, while the chord’s quality, major or minor, either changes or is not clearly defined.

Usually we think of the Ionian mode as simply a major scale. Many musicians never even use the term “Ionian mode.” Instead, they think of the scale as simply a plain old major one. In practice, musicians only identify the mode when it is something other than Ionian. Even then, that is if they identify the mode at all!

Modes

Minor Scales

The actual key of a song is not always the same as the parent major scale. The tonic chord can be in any of the seven possible modes. Nevertheless, most musicians only consider the tonic chord when determining the main key of a piece of music.

A minor scale also has two main features that give it its sound quality: a minor third from its first to third scale degree, and a minor triad built from the first, third and fifth scale degrees. The Aeolian, Dorian and Phrygian modes are all types of minor scales because all three share these features. The Aeolian mode is actually what we usually call a minor scale. Technically speaking it’s a natural minor scale. You may be aware that there are also harmonic and melodic minor scales, which are variants of this basic one. We will look at the harmonic minor scale in some detail in another chapter.

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Just like with the Ionian mode, musicians usually do not use the term “Aeolian” to describe the mode of a piece of music. Instead, they simply call it minor. Musicians only identify the mode when it’s something other than a plain minor scale, such as Dorian or Phrygian. Again, that is if they identify the mode at all.

Relative Major and Relative Minor A tonic chord can be in any of seven possible modes. The most common modes are Ionian and Aeolian, the first and sixth modes. We often describe the relationship between these modes, the major and minor scale, as being relative to one another. This is also true for the first and sixth chords. For example, in the key of C the I chord is C major and the vi chord is A minor. C major is the relative major of A minor, and A minor is the relative minor of C major. This relationship is true in all keys. In the key of G I and vi are G and Em. They too are relative major and minor chords and scales. In written music, relative major and minor keys actually share the same key signature. Technically, all the modes are related, but I and vi get all the attention.

Key Signatures and Written Music Publishers usually write music as if it were in plain major or natural minor. For example, we usually see C major, C Lydian, and C Mixolydian songs written using the key signature of C major. Similarly, A Aeolian, A Dorian and A Phrygian songs are often written using the key signature for A minor. Notes that fall outside of the written key signature are notated in the staff with sharps, flats and natural signs. Santana’s rendition of “Oye Como Va” uses the chords Am7 and D9. These chords are clearly the ii and V chords from G major, which has an F♯. Nevertheless, we usually see this song notated with a key signature of C major/A minor, which has no sharps or flats. This is why when we are called to play a D9 chord, which requires an F♯, we see a sharp sign written next to the F note on the staff. Someone who is reading the music needs this information to play the correct notes in the chord, otherwise they would play a plain F natural that is reflected in the key signature, and in this case, a wrong note. We also see this sharp sign on the Fs during the guitar and organ solos, because they too are using notes of G major, not C. Between the indicated chords and the written music, “Oye Como Va” is clearly in A Dorian, not A Aeolian. The key signature for G not C would make the most sense here. Unfortunately, music publishers generally disregard the mode and write everything as if it were in a plain major or natural minor key. They then use any necessary accidentals (sharps, flats, or natural signs) for notes that fall outside of the key signature. Many musicians seem to think about keys in this way as well.

Figure 1-01

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Figure 1-02

Because of this discrepancy between the notated and actual keys, you need to watch for modal songs that are presented as in a natural minor key. Dorian is perhaps the most common one you will find, while Phrygian is rare, and the Locrian mode isn’t really used at all. The Mixolydian mode is almost always treated as plain major. More on this mode later on. Meanwhile, let’s take a look at the Lydian mode, which needs some explanation. I have found that artists often use the Lydian mode only temporarily in their songs. Because of its unresolved sound, the Lydian mode quickly dissipates when you move to a more stable tonic such as the I chord. In these songs it is very common for a section to focus on the IV chord creating a Lydian mode, followed by another section that centers on chord I creating an Ionian mode. This shift from the Lydian to Ionian mode often happens between a verse and chorus. Publishers usually notate the song according to the tonic in the chorus, which matches the true parent major scale. Nevertheless, musicians are still more likely to refer to these types of songs by their first chords. In other words, if a song starts on a IV chord and the chord is F, then they are likely to call it the key of F, even though the music may move to the written major scale of C later. For example “Just Remember I Love You” by Firefall starts with a progression that centers on an F chord before moving the tonic to C for the chorus.

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The parent major scale is really C throughout, but it is easy to miss that initially. Tom Petty writes something similar in E in “Here Comes My Girl.” This song has an opening section and verse centering around the IV chord, A. The chorus then moves to E. While songs like those mentioned here can cause confusion among musicians, I have always seen them notated with key signatures reflecting their true parent major scales. Although the practice of notating music as if it were plain major or natural minor is standard procedure for music publishers, you will occasionally come across a score that truly reflects the mode, such as the Lydian examples above. For example, if a song is in A Dorian mode, the score might actually use the key signature for G major, its true parent major scale. Perhaps the score will include a performance note such as: “A minor tonality” or maybe even “A Dorian mode.” Likewise, if a song is in A Mixolydian mode, we might see the key signature for D major and a comment such as: “A major tonality,” or maybe even “A Mixolydian mode.” I have come across these kinds of scores, but not very often, so don’t count on it! When a song is in a mode that does not correspond to the given key signature, it’s probably going to be up to you to figure that out. You may also find that other musicians, both those who read and those who do not, will disregard the mode of a song and think only in terms of plain major or natural minor.

Detective Work Since a key signature will only give you the tonal center of a piece of music, but not necessarily the mode, the parent major scale, or what scales to use, you will need to do some detective work. When you are learning a new piece of music, you can follow a few simple steps: 1. Locate the pitch center.

2. Determine whether the tonic chord is major or minor. 3. Sort out the rest of the chords in the progression.

4. Determine which parent major scale the chords belong.

Now you can work out the music’s correct mode and which scales to use. Knowing the key beforehand only helps you with the first and sometimes second steps. You have to figure out the rest.

THE TERMS ‘ACCIDENTALS’ AND ‘DIATONIC’:

Notated music uses sharps, flats and natural signs to show notes that fall outside of the written key signature. These symbols are also called accidentals. We can also describe notes as being diatonic or non-diatonic. Diatonic pitches are those found in the parent scale of the music. Non-diatonic notes are those that fall out-side of the parent scale or key. An example of a non-diatonic note is a chromatic passing tone. This passing tone requires an accidental when notated on the staff.

Major Key Songs Now that you know the term key only refers to the tonal center of a song, and you are beginning to realize that more work needs to be done before truly understanding the music, let’s take a closer look at some popular songs. We usually think of the following three songs as being in the key of F: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens, “Tequila” by The Champs,

and “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac.

Since we think of these songs as being in F, we might assume that they all use an F major scale. Let’s take a closer look at the main section for each of these songs.

“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” begins with an F major chord. F is the tonic and the music includes a B b and C chord.

b “Tequila” starts with an F major chord. F is the tonic and its progression includes an E chord. “Dreams” starts on an F major chord and it’s played together with a G chord.

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When you play the chords to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” on your guitar, you will immediately recognize that the chords F, B b and C correspond to I, IV and V from the F major scale. No big surprise, here, that’s what we expected. If you play the chords to “Tequila,” however, you will see that they do not fit into an F major scale. Rather, F and E b are V and IV from the B b major scale. Two major chords a whole-step apart can only be chords IV and V from a major scale. If E b is IV and F is V, then B b is I. You can work this out on the guitar using the chord patterns you studied in Fretboard Theory. Similarly, the chords to “Dreams” really do not fit into an F major scale either. Just as with “Tequila,” we have two major chords a whole-tone apart: F and G. They must be IV and V of C major. Go ahead and work this out on your guitar. We can now determine that “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is in F Ionian mode, or just a plain F major scale. “Tequila,” however, is not in F major, it’s actually in F Mixolydian, which has a parent scale of B b major. Similarly, “Dreams” does not use the F major scale. It’s actually in F Lydian, which comes from the C major scale. It is because each of these songs center on F, that we commonly think of them in F major. The different versions of the sheet music that I have seen for “Tequila” all have a key signature of F major, and then use accidentals for the E bs, both chords and melody notes. By contrast, “Dreams” is often notated with the correct key signature of C, no accidentals in the score. Go figure! You can now see that there can be more going on in a song than indicated by the key signature. I suspect this is why so many guitar players do not really understand modes and have trouble choosing what scales to play. When guitarists are taught to think only in terms of relative major or relative minor, they miss all the other modes. They try to improvise using a major or minor scale, and it clashes with the chords. Not understanding why, they get frustrated. Has this ever happened to you?

Minor Key Songs Now let’s take a look at a few songs in minor keys. We usually think of the following three songs as in the key of E minor: “Livin’ On a Prayer” by Bon Jovi,

“A Horse With No Name” by America, and “War” by Joe Satriani (guitars tuned down one half-step to E b).

The verse to “Livin’ On a Prayer” uses the chords Em, C and D. If you play these chords on your guitar, you should be able to see that they are vi, IV, and V from G major. Em is the tonic and vi is the relative minor, so we would think of this song as in the key of Em. That’s great, because that’s what we expected! “A Horse With No Name” uses the chords Em and F ♯m. If you play these chords you will see that they fit into the D major scale. Any time you have two minor chords a whole-step apart, they correspond to ii and iii of a major scale. Em must be ii and F♯m must be iii, making D I. This song is in E Dorian mode and its parent major scale is D.

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“War” begins with the chords E5 and F5. Since these chords are only a half-step apart, and since the E5 doesn’t have a flat fifth, they must be iii and IV. The only other two chords in the major scale that are a half-step apart are vii and I, but vii has a flattened fifth. Listen carefully to the guitar melody and you will hear that it uses notes from the C major scale. Since this song centers on the iii chord, it is in E Phrygian. Once again we can see that there can be more going on than just what is indicated in the notated key. A guitar player attempting to use only an E natural minor scale over these songs would run into trouble. This is why it’s so important to focus not just on the tonic of a song, but to take the whole chord progression into consideration. Then you will be able to pick out the song’s actual mode and parent major scale.

Other Considerations

The Blues

You will find that there are a few more ways in which musicians will refer to the key of a piece of music. Some musicians will always name the key after the first chord, even if it is not the real tonic of the song. Some musicians will identify a key without considering its major or minor quality. Some musicians think about the key based on the notes in the melody, rather than the chords. Guitar players might confuse the key of a song with the type of pentatonic scale they are playing.

Many blues songs feature minor melodies and solos over major chords. For example, the vocal melody in “Give Me One Reason” by Tracy Chapman outlines notes from F♯ minor played over an F ♯ major chord. For this reason, it is possible that a musician, particularly a singer, would think that the song is in the key of F♯ minor.

For example, “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd is tonally centered around a G chord and most of the guitar solos are based on G major pentatonic. Nevertheless many guitar players say that the song is in the key of D simply because the chord progression starts on a D chord. Often musicians don’t even use the terms “major” or “minor” when describing a key, creating further confusion. For example, many musicians would say that “Black Magic Woman” by Santana and “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles are both in the key of D. You would just have to know that one is minor and one is major, which have two completely different parent major scales.

“Pride and Joy” by Stevie Ray Vaughan is tonally centered around an open E major chord. (The guitars are tuned down a half-step to E b.) Much of the guitar solos, nevertheless, are based on an E minor pentatonic scale, leading some guitar players to say that the song is in the key of E minor.

Key Changes A piece of music does not have to stay in one key. In fact, it is fairly common for songs to change tonics or parent major scales at some point. Key changes do occur during some of the songs we have looked at in this chapter. I will be discussing this topic more in Chapter 4.

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No Parent Major Scale

How To Clarify What You Mean

I have a final situation for you to consider. Some pieces of music do not even have a complete parent major scale. They simply focus on a tonic by means of some basic intervals, but not enough to piece together full chords, a chord progression, or an entire major scale. We see this in the songs “Boom Boom” by John Lee Hooker, “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” by Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” All three songs use mostly minor pentatonic scales. In some hard rock and heavy metal songs, we see power chords and chromatic steps without any parent major scale represented in the chords, the chord progression, or even the melody itself.

We can see that the common usage of the word “key” may not correctly describe what is actually happening in a piece of music. Nevertheless, you certainly can give people more information when you speak about a song. Remember that everyone has their own way of thinking about music, and musicians will never completely agree on how to name keys. The more you can clarify what you mean, the better the chance that others will understand your intentions. You might find that during this process you can teach someone something new or maybe even gain new insight yourself! By the way, there are additional ways that the songs in this chapter can be described. I’ll be discussing these in Chapter 2.

NAMING MODES: Technically speaking, we should call modes by their tonics, not their

parent major scales. For example, if you’re playing notes and chords from the E major scale, but the V chord B is functioning as the tonal center, then you would call it B Mixolydian, rather than E Mixolydian. In B Mixolydian: B is the tonic and it is the fifth mode of E major. If B is V, then E is I. The parent major scale’s name does not become part of the mode’s name. You must figure this information out yourself! Remember, however, mode names are not usually used. We usually find the key named after the tonic chord while the mode is disregarded. Many musicians would simply say: “key of B,” not “B Mixolydian Mode.”

Sometimes It’s Best To Shut Up And Play Your Guitar When you are playing with others who might not know music theory that well, and they have little interest in learning about it, there is probably little point in arguing key names with them. In fact you might just irritate them instead. Sometimes you just need to shut up, play, and hope the other musicians follow. We see many great musicians who play primarily by ear and work musical concepts out in their own way.

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Conclusion

What’s Next?

As we have seen in this chapter, musicians use the term “key” in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. The key describes the tonal center of the music, but it may not be the actual parent scale, leaving you with some detective work to do: is the song in a plain major or minor key, or is it in a mode? The written key signature may not give you this information.

In Chapter 2 we are going to renumber the chords of the major scale according to which one is the tonic, a technique that is fairly standard procedure.

I have presented some ways for you to think about keys, as well as some techniques to help you sort out the actual mode of a song. Remember that the way you think about a song may be different from others, and the proof is in the playing, which is what we all really want to do anyways.

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Chapter 2

Renumbering Chord Progressions In this Chapter 1. Counting from key centers 2. Revisiting the modes 3. Comparing scales 4. Looking at popular songs 5. Renumbering chord progressions

Key Center As I taught in my earlier book Fretboard Theory, the major scale has seven notes, which serve as the root notes for seven different chords. Any of these chords could function as the tonic of a progression. A song can focus on the I, ii, iii, IV, V or vi chord. We rarely find the vii chord as the tonic. The focus of a progression on any one of these chords will result in different sound qualities of the progression, which we can describe as different modes.

Renumbering Chord Progressions In Fretboard Theory I always identified chord progressions relative to the parent major key regardless of which chord was functioning as the tonic, or the resulting mode. For example, if the progression was in a Mixolydian mode, the tonic chord was still identified as the V chord, rather than renaming it to I. The other chords in the progression were identified similarly.

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I identified the chord progressions in this manner to show you how the same major scale patterns and chords are used in the different modes. Thus a Mixolydian progression such as G-F would be identified as V-IV so that you could easily determine its parent key of C major. Believe it or not, this is not how most musicians think about chord progressions! Instead, they usually think of the tonic chord as “I,” and number the rest of the chord progression from this starting place. The G-F chord progression then becomes I-bVII.

In this chapter we will look at how to renumber chord progressions from the tonic chord, and make comparisons of the resulting chords to major and minor keys. We will be using popular songs as examples, starting with a selection from The Eagles.

ROMAN NUMERALS: Musicians use Roman numerals to represent the chords built on

different scale degrees of a particular key or mode. In this book I use upper case Roman numerals for major chords, and lower case ones for minor chords. See Fretboard Theory Chapter 6.

4 5 6 7 Scale Degrees 1 2 3 Upper Case (major chords):

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

Lower Case (minor chords):

i

ii

iii

iv

v

vi

vii

Major Scale: I ii iii IV V vi vii b5

Seven Bridges Road As I taught in the last chapter, just as the tonic in a progression usually determines what musicians call the “key,” the tonic also usually determines “I.” Let’s say that you are playing “Seven Bridges Road” by The Eagles. Its chord progression is: V-IV-I-V in the key of G. The V chord, D, is the tonic of the progression, giving us D Mixolydian mode. “Seven Bridges Road” by The Eagles V-IV-I-V

D-C-G-D

We will now rearrange the chords of the G major scale, setting D as I, and renumbering the rest of the progression from there. To begin, let’s look at the normal order of G major’s scale degrees and chords.

The first line in the chart below presents the pitches of G major arranged in a scale-like manner. The second line is simply the numbering of the scale degrees, first, second, third, and so on. The final line shows the chords as Roman numerals with the case representing chord-quality: upper for major chords, lower for minor ones: G Major Scale

G A B C D E F♯

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I

ii

iii

IV

V

vi

vii b5

Now the same notes, chords, and numbering beginning with D: D E F♯ G A B C

5 6 7 1 2 3 4 V

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vi

vii b5 I

ii iii IV

Finally the same notes and chords beginning with D, and with D renumbered as I. The remaining pitches and chords follow, also renumbered from this new I. To clarify, this ordering of notes and chords is not the D major scale. It is still the notes and chords of G major, but rearranged and renumbered beginning with D. D E F♯ G A B C

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 I

ii

b iii 5 IV v vi bVII

New Numbers

Since the D chord is the tonic chord in “Seven Bridges Road,” most musicians would say that it is in the key of D, even though the chord progression is built from the G major scale. They would also call D “I” even though it’s technically V in G major. If D is I, then the other chords in the progression, C and G, need to be renumbered as well. C becomes bVII and G becomes IV. That’s seven and four in case the Roman numerals are throwing you off.

Other Changes Keep in mind that the above chords and notes are still in G major. The only difference is that I have rearranged the chords beginning with D. Notice that I need to adjust the Roman numerals as well. In music, upper case Roman numerals usually represent major chords, while lower case ones represent minor chords. Since the major/minor sequence changes if you count the D as I, we adjust the case of the Roman numerals to reflect the correct chord quality for each scale degree. For the major scale, the chord qualities follow the pattern: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, minor-flat-five. If you start on the fifth scale degree, then the pattern shifts to: major, minor, minor-flat-five, major, minor, minor, major.

MINOR-FLAT-FIVE CHORDS: Minor-flat-five chords are also called diminished triads. More on diminished chords in Chapter 5.

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Now let’s go back to the earlier example where we renumbered the chords from G major with the Roman numerals starting on D. You should now see why some of the chords have different cases reflecting their different qualities. D

E

F♯ G A B C

I

ii

b iii 5 IV v vi bVII

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

In the G major scale, G is I. When you renumber the scale starting on D, this chord becomes I. Since D is still a major chord, the Roman numeral is still upper case I. Similarly, the ii chord in both G and D is minor, so the Roman numeral remains lower case ii. The iii chords are both minor as well. The iii chord in D has a flattened fifth, or diminished triad, so we identify it as iii b5. The IV chord is major in both G and D, so no change in the Roman numerals is necessary. The V chord, however, changes from major to minor in D, shown as v. Both G and D have a minor vi chord, so no change is needed in the renumbering. Finally, when you count from D, the chord on the seventh scale degree becomes major.

The Flat Seven Chord In a major key, the distance from the seventh scale degree to the tonic is a half-step. When we renumber the scale starting on the dominant as we have just done, the seventh changes to a whole-tone away from the tonic, a main characteristic of the Mixolydian mode. The seventh scale degree of this mode is often identified as a flattened seventh. When we write the chord found on this scale degree, we can use bVII which shows both the quality of the chord, major, and its distance from the tonic relative to a major scale.

THE NAMES OF THE DIFFERENT SCALE DEGREES: As you know, the

notes of a scale are usually numbered: first, second, third, and so on. We use Arabic numbers when we are talking about the notes themselves, and Roman numerals when we are talking about chords built on these notes. So in C major, “3” or the 3rd is the note E, and iii is the chord E-G-B. We also have names for the different scale degrees. “Dominant” is the name given to the fifth scale degree. G is the dominant of C major. B is the dominant of E major. We can also call the V chord a dominant chord. The dominant chord of C major is G-B-D. Here is a complete list of names for the different scale degrees in order: 1 Tonic 2 Supertonic 3 Mediant 4 Subdominant 5 Dominant 6 Submediant 7 Leading Note or Leading Tone

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We can now see that when we renumber chords from the tonic, not only do we need to change the Roman numerals to reflect each chord’s quality, but we also need to indicate any changes to the intervals between the chords. Let’s compare the original G major scale and the new D Mixolydian mode, sometimes also called a dominant scale. G Major Scale:

D Mixolydian Mode:

I

I

ii ii

iii

IV

V

iii b5 IV v

vi

vi

viib5

bVII

Moving now to the fretboard, you will see that in D Mixolydian we actually play the exact same notes, chords and patterns as in G major. We are simply naming and writing the chords in a different way. We renumber the notes and chords starting on the fifth, D.

Figure 2-01

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Figure 2-01 (continued)

The Major Scale as a Measuring Stick In music theory for popular styles, we use the major scale as our starting place for naming chords, scale degrees, and intervals. From this perspective, the pattern of whole-steps and half-steps between the scale degrees of the major scale, or Ionian mode, are what we think of as the naturally occurring ones. You may already know this pattern: scale degrees: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

step pattern:



W - W - H - W - W - W - H

If the distance between any two scale degrees is changed for some reason we can reflect this change with an accidental, typically a sharp or a flat. For example, a flattened third scale degree is written b3, and is a halfstep lower than that found in a regular major scale. A sharpened fourth, ♯4, raises the fourth scale degree by a half-step, and a flattened seventh, b7, lowers the seventh by a semitone.

We often see accidentals used this way when we are representing the scale degrees of different modes like Mixolydian.

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I-bVII-IV

Let’s return to the song “Seven Bridges Road.” While its chords are actually V-IV-I five-four-one, in G, we usually identify the chords as I-bVII-IV, one-flat seven-four, in the key of D. The D chord is I, C is bVII, and G is IV. Now you have two different ways of looking at this song: V-IV-I, or I-bVII-IV. Most musicians consider the chord progression to be I-bVII-IV.

G Major Scale Patterns Now that you understand that “Seven Bridges Road” is based on the G major scale, you will play the appropriate G major patterns over it, and produce the proper modal sound. I’m sure you can see why many guitar players struggle with playing over songs like this one. Since they think it is in D, they will try to use a D major scale: D E F♯ G A B C♯. Every time they play a C♯, it will clash with the chords. Not understanding why this note sounds wrong, they get frustrated. Some musicians may realize that the C♯ does not work so well and flatten it to C n (natural). They also may be skilled enough to alter their D major scale patterns on the fly. The irony here is that they may miss the fact that they have just changed their D major scale patterns to G major ones! I’ll show you how to do this in a minute.

D Mixolydian Compared To D Major In addition to comparing D Mixolydian to its parent major scale G, you should also compare D Mixolydian to plain D major. First, let’s look at how the two modes differ as chord patterns.

Figure 2-02

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Notice in the diagrams how I, ii, IV, and vi are the same in both modes while the other chords are different. In D major, the chord on the third scale degree is minor, while in Mixolydian it is a minor-flat-five chord. The chord on the fifth degree is major in D major, but minor in D Mixolydian. The chord on the seventh is a minor-flat-five in the major scale, and major on the flattened seventh degree. Now let’s look at these two scales in terms of just their pitches. I have written out their scale degrees and notes, and have included a couple of fretboard diagrams in Figure 2-03. Notice that their only difference is their seventh scale degree. Also notice that when you play D Mixolydian, you are actually using G major scale patterns. D Major Scale

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D

I

E

ii

F♯ G A B C♯

iii

IV

V

vi

vii b5

D Mixolydian Mode

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

D

I

E

ii

F♯ G A B C

iiib5 IV v vi bVII

Figure 2-03

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The seventh scale degree is flattened in Mixolydian mode. It falls a semitone, or one fret lower than the seventh of a major scale. In some ways, Mixolydian mode is essentially a major scale with a flattened seventh. This flattened seventh is the most defining characteristic of the Mixolydian mode, both as it occurs in the scale and as a chord. I would like to point out here than many musicians are taught to play a Mixolydian scale by taking a major scale and flattening its seventh scale degree. While technically speaking this approach can work, it can also be misleading. We really build the Mixolydian mode by starting on the fifth degree of a major scale. Of course you know that you do not have to learn a new set of scale patterns and chords for every mode, as some guitarists may think. Yikes! That would be quite the undertaking. It’s more important for you as a player to understand that you use the same notes, chords, and patterns from the parent major scale to play in a Mixolydian mode, or any other mode for that matter. All of the modes are found in the major scale patterns and chords. With this in mind, it’s not a bad idea to compare the modes to the major scale.

Mixolydian’s Main Feature: bVII

While the Mixolydian mode and the major scale have several chords in common, the chord built on the seventh scale degree is, however, different: a minor-flat-five chord for D major, and a major chord for D Mixolydian, C♯mb5 and C. In addition, the seventh scale degree in the D Mixolydian mode is a semitone lower than that found in D major. To reflect these differences in the chord on the seventh degree, the chord is identified in the major scale as viib5, and as bVII in Mixolydian.

Nearly every Mixolydian song makes use of the chord. This chord is always one whole-step, that is two frets, below the tonic. Whenever you play two major chords two frets apart you are probably playing in Mixolydian mode. This is especially true when one of those chords is functioning as the tonic. We do find exceptions to this guideline, for example, in “Pinball Wizard,” which we will look at in Chapter 4.

bVII

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Mixolydian Songs We can renumber any Mixolydian song to reflect the tonic chord. I have listed some examples for you. “Fire On the Mountain” by Grateful Dead B-A. B Mixolydian.V-IV in E, or if you renumber: I-bVII in B major.

“But Anyway” by Blues Traveler B-A. B Mixolydian.V-IV in E, or if you renumber: I-bVII in B major.

“No Rain” by Blind Melon (intro/chorus/solo) E-D. E Mixolydian.V-IV in A, or if you renumber: I-bVII in E major. “Tequila” by The Champs (verse) F-E b. F Mixolydian.V-IV in B b, or if you renumber: I-bVII in F major.

“Sweet Child o’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses (verse) D-C-G. D Mixolydian.V-IV-I in G, or if you renumber: I-bVII-IV in D major. Guitars are tuned down one half-step to E b. “Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills & Nash A-G-D. A Mixolydian.V-IV-I in D, or if you renumber: I-bVII-IV in A major.

“Taking Care of Business” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive C-B b-F. C Mixolydian.V-IV-I in F, or if you renumber: I-bVII-IV in C major.

“Franklin’s Tower” by Grateful Dead A-G-D-G. A Mixolydian.V-IV-I-IV in D, or if you renumber: I-bVII-IV-bVII in A major. “What I Like About You” by The Romantics E-A-D-A. E Mixolydian.V-I-IV I in A, or if you renumber: I-IV-bVII-IV in E major.

“Cinnamon Girl” by Neil Young D-Am-C-G. D Mixolydian.V-ii-IV-I in G, or if you renumber: I-v-bVII-IV in D major. “Louie, Louie” by The Kingsmen A-D-Em-D. A Mixolydian.V-I ii-I in D, or if you renumber: I-IV-v-IV in A major.

“All She Wants to Do Is Dance” by Don Henley D-G-Bm-C. D Mixolydian.V-I-iii-IV in G, or if you renumber: I-IV-vi-bVII in D major.

Louie, Louie Another important feature of the Mixolydian mode is the minor chord on the fifth degree. We can hear it used in the song “Louie, Louie” by The Kingsmen. Many musicians mistake this song for being a common I-IV-V chord progression in a major key. If you listen carefully to the recording, however, you will clearly hear the chords A, D and Em, not E major. This progression is actually V-I-ii from the D major scale. Since the A chord is the tonic, the song’s mode is A Mixolydian. Renumbering the progression with A as I, it becomes I-IV-v. That’s one-four-five, showing the dominant chord as minor with a lower case Roman numeral.

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The Lydian Mode Now let’s take a look at how the Lydian mode, another major mode, is renumbered. I am going to be using F Lydian for the examples. First we will see how F Lydian compares to its parent C major scale. Following that discussion, we will see how F Lydian compares to the F major scale. We can build the Lydian mode on the fourth degree of a major scale. We will renumber from there. C major scale C

D

E

F

G

A

B

I

ii

iii

IV

V

vi

vii b5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

C major scale starting on F and not yet renumbered F

G

A

B

C

IV

V

vi

viib5 I

D

E

4 5 6 7 1 2 3

ii iii

F Lydian mode (C major scale starting on F and renumbered) F

G

A

B

C

I

II

iii

♯iv b5 V

D

E

vi

vii

1 2 3 ♯4 5 6 7

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Remember that on the fretboard you end up playing the exact same notes, chords and patterns for F Lydian that you would for C major. You are just naming and writing the chords differently starting on F. See Figure 2-04.

Figure 2-04

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F Lydian Compared to F Major In addition to comparing F Lydian to its parent major scale C, you should also compare the F Lydian mode to an F major scale. I have written out the scale degrees, notes and chords for you. F major scale

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 F

I

G

ii

A

iii

Bb C D E

IV

V

vi

b

vii 5

F Lydian mode

1 2 3 ♯4 5 6 7

F

I

G

II

A

iii

B

C

♯iv b5 V

D

vi

E

vii

Figure 2-05

Notice that in F Lydian the fourth scale degree is sharpened. This sharp tells us that the fourth degree is one semitone, or one fret, higher, than that of a major scale. In other words, the Lydian mode is essentially a major scale with a raised fourth. This ♯4 has a sound that creates musical tension with an expectation for resolution. This musical tension is probably the mode’s most defining characteristic. You can hear a ♯4 used in the theme music to The Simpsons, and The Jetson’s, as well as in the songs “Maria” from West Side Story and “Freewill” by Rush. When you are playing in Lydian mode, try emphasizing that ♯4 sound. It’s cool!

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In the following diagrams I compare major scale and Lydian patterns starting on F. Notice that the only difference between these patterns is the fourth scale degree. Notice also that when you play F Lydian, you are actually using C major scale patterns.

Figure 2-06

Lydian Songs We can renumber any Lydian song to reflect the tonic chord. I have listed several examples for you. “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac F-G. F Lydian. IV-V in C, or if you renumber: I-II in F major.

“Man On the Moon” by R.E.M. C-D. C Lydian. IV-V in G, or if you renumber: I-II in C major.

“Just Remember I Love You,” Firefall Fmaj7-G6. F Lydian. IV-V in C, or if you renumber: I-II in F major.

“Hey Jealousy” by Gin Blossoms D-E-F♯m. D Lydian. IV-V-vi in A, or if you renumber: I-II-iii in D major.

“Jane Says” by Jane’s Addiction G-A. G Lydian. IV-V in D, or if you renumber: I-II in G major.

“Space Oddity” by David Bowie Fmaj7-Em. F Lydian. IV-iii in C, or if you renumber: I-vii in F major.

“Here Comes My Girl” by Tom Petty A-B. A Lydian. IV-V in E, or if you renumber: I-II in A major. We should note that the Lydian mode is usually used temporarily in a song. Its unresolved sound quickly dissipates when you move to a more stable tonic such as the I chord of a major key. For example, the tonal center of “Just Remember I Love You” moves to C as soon as the chorus starts, changing the mode from F Lydian to C major. We see a similar change of mode from Lydian to a major key in the songs “Here Comes My Girl,” “Man On the Moon,” “Hey Jealousy,” and “Space Oddity.”

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The Natural Minor Scale (Aeolian Mode) Now that we have fully explored the different major modes, we can change our focus to the minor ones: the natural minor scale or Aeolian mode, Dorian, and Phrygian. Technically speaking, Locrian also belongs here, but composers really do not use this mode. We will begin with the natural minor scale, also called the Aeolian mode. It is probably the most common minor key that you will find. We will use the key of A natural minor, first comparing it to its parent C major scale, then to an A major scale. Since we can build a natural minor scale by starting on the sixth degree of a major scale, we will be renumbering from there. C major scale C

D

E

F

G

A

B

I

ii

iii

IV

V

vi

vii b5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

C major scale starting on A and not yet renumbered A

B

C

vi

vii b5 I

D

E

F

G

6 7 1 2 3 4 5

ii iii IV V

A natural minor. C major scale starting on A and renumbered A

1 i

B

2

b

ii 5

C

D

E

F

G

b3 4 5 b6 b7 bIII iv v bVI bVII

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Figure 2-07

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As you saw with the different major modes, instead of having to learn a new set of patterns for the natural minor scale, you simply play the exact same notes, chords and patterns of its parent major scale. For A natural minor, you use those of the C major scale. You are simply naming and writing them in a different way. In a minor scale, the chords on one, four and five are all minor. What were vi, ii and iii in the parent major scale are now i, iv and v, renumbered from the perspective of the natural minor scale. That’s one, four and five if the Roman numerals are throwing you off. What is handy to see is that a i-iv-v progression in a minor key has a similar feel on the fretboard as that as I-IV-V in a major key. As I show in the above comparison, this is because the fourth and fifth scale degrees in parallel major and minor keys are the same. This similarity should feel familiar to you, as progressions based on one-four-five chords are found in countless songs.

We can make a few more comparisons between the natural minor scale and its parent major. The natural minor scale has major chords on the sixth and seventh scale degrees. The chords that were originally IV and V in the major scale are now bVI and bVII when you renumber them in the minor. We need the flat signs because the intervals between the scale degrees are one fret lower than what would occur in a major scale. We frequently see bVI and bVII chords in songs based on a natural minor key. In addition to comparing A natural minor to its parent major scale C, you should also compare A Aeolian mode to an A major scale. I have written out the scale degrees, notes and chords for both keys. A major scale A

B

C♯ D E F♯ G♯

I

ii

iii

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 IV

V

A minor scale (Aeolian mode) A

1 i

B

2

b

ii 5

C

D

E

vi

viib5

F

G

b3 4 5 b6 b7 bIII iv v bVI bVII

Figure 2-08

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We can think of the minor scale as major with a flattened third, sixth, and seventh. This scale’s defining sound quality is actually its flattened third. In fact it is this flattened third that is the principle feature of any type of minor mode or scale. In Figure 2-09 I show a few different ways of playing major and minor scale patterns starting on A. Notice in the minor scale how the third, sixth, and seventh are flattened when compared the major scale. You should also be aware that when you play A minor, you are actually using C major scale patterns.

Figure 2-09

IMPLIED FLATS IN MINOR KEYS: In minor keys the flattened scale degrees such

as the third and sixth are often assumed, rather than being specifically mentioned or written. For example, in the key of E minor a musician might refer to the G as the “3rd” of the key without specifying that it is the “flattened third.” Likewise, the three-chord might be written simply as “III” with the minor key itself implying that it is “bIII.” The same is true for bVI and bVII. You may hear and see them simply referred to as “VI” and “VII.”

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Natural Minor Songs We can transpose all these minor scale and chord patterns, and renumber any song to reflect the natural minor key or Aeolian mode. I have listed some examples in various keys for you. “Maria, Maria” by Santana Am-Dm-Em. A minor. vi-ii-iii in C major, or if you renumber: i-iv-v in A minor. “Black Magic Woman” by Santana Dm-Gm-Am. D minor. vi-ii-iii in F major, or if you renumber: i-iv-v in D minor. “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin (guitar solo) Am-G-F. A minor. vi-V-IV in C major, or if you renumber: i-bVII-bVI in A minor. “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix C♯m-B-A. C♯ minor. vi-V-IV in E major, or if you renumber: i-bVII-bVI in C♯ minor. Guitars tuned down one half-step to E b.

“Layla” by Eric Clapton (From the album Unplugged) Dm-Bb-C. D minor. vi-IV-V in F major, or if you renumber: i-bVI-bVII in D minor.

“Paranoid” by Black Sabbath Em-D-G-C. E minor. vi-V-I-IV in G major, or if you renumber: i-bVII-bIII-bVI in E minor.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana b b b F5-B 5-A 5-D 5. F minor. vi-ii-I-IV in Ab, or if you renumber: i-iv-bIII-bVI in F minor.

“The Thrill is Gone” by B.B. King Bm-Em-G-F♯m. B minor. vi-ii-IV-iii in D, or if you renumber: i-iv-bVI-v in B minor.

“I Shot the Sheriff” by Bob Marley (also recorded by Eric Clapton) b Gm-Cm-E -Dm. G minor. vi-ii-IV-iii in Bb, or if you renumber: i-iv-bVI-v in G minor.

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The Dorian Mode Now let’s take a look at the Dorian mode. We will continue to use A as a tonic when we compare different scales to Dorian. First we will see how A Dorian compares to its parent major scale of G. We will then see how A Dorian compares to an A major scale, and finally, A Dorian to an A natural minor scale. We can build the Dorian mode from the second scale degree of a major scale, which will be our basis for renumbering chord progressions. G major scale G

A

B

C

D

E

F♯

I

ii

iii

IV

V

vi

vii b5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

G major scale starting on A and not yet renumbered A

B

C

D

E

F♯ G

ii

iii

IV

V

vi

vii b5 I

2 3 4 5 6 7 1

A Dorian mode. G major scale starting on A and renumbered A

1 i

B

2

ii

C

D

E

F♯ G

b3 4 5 6 b7 bIII IV v vi b5 bVII

When you play in A Dorian you use the exact same notes, chords, and patterns of the G major scale. You are simply renaming and rewriting them beginning with the note A. Notice that with the Dorian mode, the tonic chord is minor, i, and the chord on the fourth scale degree is major, IV. Together, these two chords make up one of the most common progressions in Dorian songs. We also often see Dorian songs with i-ii chord progressions.

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Figure 2-10

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In addition to comparing A Dorian mode to its parent major scale G, you should also compare A Dorian mode to an A major scale. A major scale

A B C♯ D E F♯ G♯

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I

ii iii IV V vi vii b5

A Dorian mode A B C D E F♯ G

1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 i

ii

bIII IV v

vi b5

bVII

When we compare these two scales, an A Dorian scale is like an A major scale with a flattened third and seventh. You could also think of it as a Mixolydian scale with a flattened third. I’ve prepared some examples for you in Figure 2-11. Remember that when you change to A Dorian, you are really using G major scale patterns.

Figure 2-11

In addition to comparing A Dorian to an A major scale, you should also compare it to a natural minor scale. A natural minor scale (Aeolian mode)

A B C D E F G

1 2 b3 4 5 b6

i

32

b

ii 5

bIII iv

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v

bVI

b7 bVII

A Dorian mode

A B C D E F♯ G

1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 i

ii

bIII IV v

vi b5

bVII

Figure 2-12

The natural minor scale has a flattened sixth degree while the Dorian mode does not. You can think of Dorian mode as being a natural minor scale with a major sixth. I’ve written some examples for you that compare these two scales. Notice that A natural minor uses C major scale patterns, while A Dorian uses G major scale patterns.

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Figure 2-13

Dorian Songs As with the other modes, we can transpose these chord and scale patterns and use them to renumber any song in Dorian mode. In the examples that follow, songs are either entirely in Dorian mode or at least contain a Dorian section. “Oye Como Va” by Santana Am7-D9. A Dorian. ii-V in G, or if you renumber: i-IV in A minor.

“Moondance” by Van Morrison (A section) Am7-Bm7. A Dorian. ii-iii in G, or if you renumber: i-ii in A minor.

“It’s Too Late” by Carole King (solo section) Am7-D. A Dorian. ii-V in G, or if you renumber: i-IV in A minor.

“Light My Fire” by The Doors (solo section) Am-Bm. A Dorian. ii-iii in G, or if you renumber: i-ii in A minor. Guitars tuned down one half-step to E b.

“Evil Ways” by Santana Gm-C. G Dorian. ii-V in F, or if you renumber: i-IV in G minor. “Spooky” by Atlanta Rhythm Section Em7-A6. A Dorian. ii-V in D, or if you renumber: i-IV in E minor. “I Wish” by Stevie Wonder b b E m7-A . E b Dorian. ii-V in D b, or if you renumber: i-IV in E b minor.

“Horse With No Name” by America Em-F♯m. E Dorian. ii-iii in D, or if you renumber: i-ii in E minor.

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“Stayin’ Alive” by The Bee Gees b b Fm-B -E . F Dorian. ii-V-I in E b, or if you renumber: i-IV-bVII in F minor.

“Who Will Save Your Soul” by Jewel Am-C-G-D. A Dorian. ii-IV-I-V in G, or if you renumber: i-bIII-bVII-IV in A minor.

“Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd Dm-G-F-C. D Dorian. ii-V-IV-I in C, or if you renumber: i-IV-bIII-bVII in D minor.

“Ecstacy” by Rusted Root Dm-C-G. D Dorian. ii-I-V in C, or if you renumber: i-bVII-IV in D minor.

The Phrygian Mode Now let’s take a look at the Phrygian mode. We will use the note B as a tonic for our examples. First we will compare B Phrygian to its parent G major scale, followed by a comparison of B Phrygian to a B major scale. Finally we’ll see how B Phrygian stacks up against B natural minor. Since we can build a Phrygian mode on the third scale degree of its parent major scale, we will renumber from there. G major scale

G A B C D E F♯

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

I

ii iii IV V vi vii b5

G major scale starting on B and not yet renumbered B C D E F♯ G A 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 iii IV V vi vii b5 I

ii

B Phrygian mode (G major scale starting on B and renumbered) B C D E F♯ G A

1

i

b2 bII

b3 4 5 b6 b7 bIII iv v b5 bVI bVII

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Figure 2-14

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You should be able to see from the above that when you play B Phrygian, you use the notes, patterns, and chords of the G major scale. You are just naming and writing them differently by starting on B. The sound of the Phrygian mode is characterized by its flattened second scale degree. Phrygian and Locrian are the only modes with a flattened second above their tonics. It creates a kind of Spanish flavor to music. Try a i-bII chord progression and you will hear what I mean. Nevertheless, the Phrygian mode is rarely used in popular music. We can now compare B Phrygian to the B major scale. I have written out the scale degrees, notes, and chords for both keys below. B major scale

B Phrygian mode

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1

B C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A♯

I

ii iii IV V vi vii b5

B C D E F♯ G A i

b2 bII

b3 4 5 b6 b7 bIII iv v b5 bVI bVII

The B Phrygian scale is like a B major scale with a flattened second, third, sixth and seventh. Some examples follow below. Notice that when you change to B Phrygian, you are just using G major scale patterns.

Figure 2-15

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In addition to comparing Phrygian mode to a major scale, you should also compare it to a natural minor scale. B natural minor scale (Aeolian mode)

B C♯ D E F♯ G A 1 2 b3 4 5 b6

i

b

ii 5

bIII iv

Figure 2-16

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v

bVI

b7 bVII

B Phrygian mode

B C D E F♯ G A 1

i

b2 bII

b3 4 5 b6 b7 bIII iv v b5 bVI bVII

You can think of B Phrygian as being a natural minor scale with a flattened second scale degree. I have written some examples for you in Figure 2-17 that compare these two scales. You would use D major scale patterns for B natural minor, and G major scale patterns for B Phrygian.

Figure 2-17

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Phrygian Mode Songs As I mentioned earlier, Phrygian mode songs are rare. A few examples follow that begin in Phrygian mode and have the chords renumbered from the tonic. “War” by Joe Satriani (guitars tuned down one half-step to Eb) E5-F5. E Phrygian. iii-IV in C, or if you renumber: i-bII in E minor.

“Symphony of Destruction” by Megadeath E5-F5. E Phrygian. iii-IV in C, or if you renumber: i-bII in E minor.

“Remember Tomorrow” by Iron Maiden E5-F5. E Phrygian. iii-IV in C, or if you renumber: i-bII in E minor.

“The Sails Of Charon” by Scorpions B5-C5. B Phrygian. iii-IV in G, or if you renumber: i-bII in B minor.

Locrian Mode We really do not need to spend any time on the Locrian mode simply because it is not used in popular music. You could build Locrian on the seventh degree of its parent major scale. The tonic chord has a minor-flat-five quality, which has a dissonant and unresolved sound. This instability of its sound makes it impractical to base a piece of music on it. I can’t actually remember hearing any song in Locrian. If you are curious, feel free to go through the process of renumbering the chords on your own using the same methods you saw with the other modes. You could try B Locrian, whose parent scale is C major, or F♯ Locrian which you can build using G major.

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FRETBOARD THEORY NUMBERING: If most musicians number chord pro-

gressions from the tonic like I have outlined here, then why were you taught differently in the last book? In the first volume, I did not want you to think that you had to learn a new pattern for each and every mode, but instead see how any one mode relates to the patterns and chord progressions of its parent major scale. I wanted you to see that, for example, a D Dorian progression uses the same patterns and chords as C major, only starting on C’s second scale degree. I have found that guitarists who learn modes as independent scale-types miss this underlying concept of modes, that they always can be related to a major key. In order to illustrate how this could be a problem, take a look at the following songs: “Seven Bridges Road” is V-IV-I-V in the key of G. If, however, if we number the chords from the tonic chord, it looks like D major: I-bVII-IV. “Paranoid” uses chords vi, V, I and IV in the key of G. Once again, counting from the opening chord it becomes i, bVII, bIII and bVI in E minor.

The progression for “Man On the Moon” by R.E.M. is IV-V in G. Nevertheless many musicians think of the progression in C major as I-II. The progression for “Oye Como Va” is ii-V in G major. Once again, however, many musicians think of the progression in A minor as i-IV.

If we only consider these songs’ keys from the tonic chord, it looks like they are each in a different key: D major, E minor, C major and A minor. This view however, completely misses the fact that these four songs are all based on the exact same scale and chord patterns of G major! This is really the confusion that I wanted to avoid in the first volume of Fretboard Theory. Now in Fretboard Theory II, we can go ahead and learn how to renumber chord progressions from their tonic, and work out which parent key to use in our solos!

Conclusion

What’s Next?

I did not renumber chord progressions in my earlier volume of Fretboard Theory because I wanted to first show you the underlying concept to using modes; that the major scale patterns and chords produce the different modes. Now we have taken this idea further. We have learned that while the notes and chords may not really change when we play in different modes, our perspective can.

In the next chapter we will look at a special class of chords, those that have a dominant function, as well as some chord progressions in harmonic minor keys.

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Chapter 3

Dominant Function, Harmonic Minor Chord Progressions, and Voice Leading In this Chapter 1. Chord function and the dominant chord 2. The leading tone of a scale 3. Secondary dominants 4. The harmonic minor scale 5. Harmonic minor chord progressions 6.Voice leading In my earlier book Fretboard Theory, and so far in Fretboard Theory Volume II, I have focused on teaching major scales and its modes, including pentatonic scales. As I have stated before, the majority of popular music is based on these scale patterns. There are, however, other types of scales that have pitches that fall outside of a major scale or pentatonic pattern. Most of these scales are rare in popular music, but one, the harmonic minor, occurs quite regularly. Understanding this scale will help you better understand both melody and harmony. Before diving into the harmonic minor scale, we are going to spend a bit of time on the dominant chord, the chord built on the fifth degree of a scale. The dominant chord is a fairly important chord in music. Its structure and its tendency towards the tonic chord really helps to define the tonal center of a progression. We will also take a look at secondary dominants, a way of using the dominant sound to strengthen a progression towards chords other than the tonic.

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After we have a solid understanding of the dominant chord, we can look at how it is used in conjunction with the harmonic minor scale. Along the way we will introduce the concept of voice leading, and look at some harmonic minor progressions. Since this is quite a bit of material in itself, we will save harmonic minor patterns on the guitar until Chapter 9.

Chord Function and the Dominant Chord In music we think of chords leading from one to another, rather than just being some random list. We naturally describe this phenomena by calling a group of related chords a progression. A basic chord progression is I-IV-V-I. We think of the I chord moving to IV, which in turn moves to V, which finally leads back to I. Each of the chords in this progression has a particular function. The chord function on V is incredibly important in music. Since it is built on the fifth scale degree, also called the dominant note, it has what is sometimes called a dominant function. In a chord progression like the one above, the dominant chord has a sense of movement, or instability, that makes the progression want to continue on leading back to the I chord. This leading quality of V is intensified if a seventh is added to the chord, making V7. We also call this chord a dominant seventh chord. Every major scale has a naturally occurring V7 chord. For example G7 in C major, D7 in G major and A7 in D major. Figure 3-01 gives you an example I-V7 chord progression in C.

Figure 3-01

I-V Chord Progressions

The Leading Tone of a Scale

Some songs are based on simple progressions containing only the I and V chords. Songs like “You Never Can Tell” by Chuck Berry, “Jambalaya” by Hank Williams, and “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus are all good examples of this most basic of chord progressions. Try playing any one of these songs and stopping on the V chord. If you do, you should notice that the music does not sound complete or resolved, but wants to continue on back to chord I.

As a listening experiment, play up a major scale starting from the tonic note, but instead of playing a full octave, stop on the seventh scale degree. Let’s use C major as an example. Play the scale from C up to the B and hold on the B. The scale sounds incomplete: the B wants to lead back to the C to sound complete. This is why the seventh scale degree is also called the leading tone or leading note of a scale.

In these songs the V chord leaves you hanging, expecting a resolution to the I chord. One of the reasons for this is that the V chord contains the leading tone of the scale.

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If we now turn to the pitches of the V chord, we would find that it contains the leading tone of its parent scale. This is one of the reasons why it has such a strong tendency towards I. For example, the V chord of C major is G. The G chord is made up of the pitches G, B and D, its root, third and fifth. The third of the chord is a B, the leading tone of C major.

The Tritone Earlier we noted that the tendency for V leading to I can be intensified by adding a seventh to the chord, making V7. This added pitch is from the fourth degree of a major scale. The interval from the fourth to the seventh of a major scale is called an augmented fourth. If we count from the seventh back up to the fourth it is a diminished fifth. Both of these intervals are made up of three whole-tones and can also be called a tritone: meaning three-tones. Examples of tritones are B-F in C major, and G♯-D in A major. If you play the above examples of tritones, then you will agree that a tritone is a fairly unstable, or dissonant sounding interval. It is so much so, that when it appears in a chord like V7, that chord will have a strong tendency to move to a more stable one. The B and F found in G7 want to move to the C and E of C. The G♯ and D of E7 want to move to the A and C♯ of A.

Figure 3-02

Figure 3-02 highlights in black the tritone found in two versions of a G7 chord.

Functioning and Static Dominant Seventh Chords We actually see dominant seventh chords used two different ways in popular music. First, where it leads back to the tonic chord of a progression, as we have been discussing. In popular music this type of dominant seventh chord is sometimes called a functioning dominant seventh chord. The other case is when musicians use it more for its sound-quality, or color. We see this use in blues based music, where the dominant seventh sound is a huge part of its style. These static dominant seventh chords do not necessarily need to resolve to a tonic chord.

The Dominant Function The dominant function is an important idea in music. It is usually the V7 chord that has this function in a progression because it contains the tritone of the key. It is this tritone and its resolution that gives V7 its harmonic driving force towards I. In traditional folk songs V7-I appears over and over again to close a section or phrase of music.

Figure 3-03

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Folk Songs We see many examples of functioning dominant seventh chord progressions in traditional folk songs. Think of songs like “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands,” “Skip To My Lou,” “Shortnin’ Bread,” “Go Tell Aunt Rhody,” “Down In The Valley,” “Clementine,” and “Buffalo Gals.” You can probably figure out the chords to most of these songs by simply singing or humming the melody while playing along with I and V7 in any key. Just pick a key, any key, and try it. For example: in C, I and V7 are C and G7. In the key of G, I and V7 are G and D7. You could also try D and A7, E and B7, or F and C7.

Figure 3-04

If you search the Internet for “two chord songs” you’ll find many more examples, including familiar country and bluegrass songs.

Mel Bay Most traditional guitar methods include songs and exercises that are based on very simple V7-I chord progressions, where the dominant seventh chord is a functioning dominant seventh. For example, every song that has written in chord progressions in Mel Bay’s Modern Guitar Method Grade 1 (the blue book) includes dominant seventh chords. In many of the songs these seventh chords are functioning as the dominant of another chord. For example, if we see a G7 chord, it is more often than not functioning as V7 of C. G7 will lead to C. D7 will function as V7 of G in the progression D7-G and similarly, E7 is used as V7 of Am. We will see how this last example works in a little while.

READING MUSIC: To be honest, books like Mel Bay’s Modern Guitar Method, the grand-

daddy of all guitar methods, are in my opinion really more about learning how to read standard musical notation than about learning how to play guitar. Nevertheless, you can still benefit from learning how to read music, making these books worth the time and effort it takes to work through them. Learning how to read notes and rhythms can influence how you think about music and play the guitar even when there is no sheet music in front of you. You do not have to learn to read like a concert violinist, just learn the basics. I recommend that you learn up to at least the point where you can count and play sixteenth notes.

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“Aura Lee” is an example of a song you might find in a Mel Bay book. It is an old American Civil War song that was adapted by Elvis Presley for his hit single “Love Me Tender.” The traditional version has several different dominant seventh chords.

Figure 3-05

Twist and Shout “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles is a great example that almost everybody has heard where a V7 chord has a dominant function. After the guitar solo, we hear six measures of the dominant seventh chord sung one note at time in turn by each of the band’s members. The root of the chord A appears in the first measure, followed by the third C♯ in measure 2, the fifth of the chord E in measure 3 and finally the seventh, G, in measure 4. After two more measures of climactic, rock ‘n’ roll screaming, this musical tension resolves to the I chord D, and the music continues on. Volume II

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Secondary Dominants The tonic/dominant relationship in music is so strong that composers sometimes use a dominant functioning chord on ones other than the tonic, like on the ii chord, or perhaps even the V chord itself. We saw this earlier in the “Aura Lee” example with D7 leading to G7, and A7 leading to D7. These chords are called secondary dominants. You will recognize them in chord progressions as a major chord when you are expecting a minor one, and especially a dominant seventh chord when you are expecting a simple triad. As an example, let’s look at the C major progression: C-Am-Dm-G7. A common variation on this progression is C-Am-D7-G7. We would normally expect a D minor chord rather than a D7 chord in C major. But if we think a little bit about this progression, we can see that the D7 chord is the dominant seventh of G!

Figure 3-06

Musicians can use secondary dominants on almost any chord in a key to provide some variety to a progression, and to give some temporary focus to another chord. The D7 chord in the above progression has a different sound quality than a simple D minor chord, which is what is normally found here. In addition, because the chord has a dominant function, it draws attention to the following G7 chord. It’s as if the chord progression has temporarily changed keys to G, but more on that topic later! As I just mentioned, you can lead to almost any chord with its own dominant. This chord will be a major chord or dominant seventh chord a fifth away. Building on the last example, you could lead to D with A7, which is five steps away from D, the interval of a fifth.

Figure 3-07

We can keep going! The fifth of A is E. An E7 chord can lead to any type of A chord. Earlier we saw E7 lead to Am in “Aura Lee.” Here now is an example of E7 leading to A7. Figure 3-08 shows a series of dominant seventh chords that begin on E7 and move to C.

Figure 3-08

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Another common secondary dominant progression is I7-IV. In C major, this progression is C7 moving to F. An example of this secondary dominant’s use is in the larger progression F-G-C-C7-F-G-C. The progression is in C major, but the C7 chord is functioning as a dominant seventh of the F chord.

Figure 3-09

The most common secondary dominants are the ones we have looked at here, those that lead to I, ii, IV, V, and vi. Musicians generally do not use secb ondary dominants that lead to vii 5. V7 of iii is possible, but it is not that common.

Let’s summarize the above. G7 is the dominant seventh chord of C major. When G7 appears in any key other than C and leads to a C chord, it is a secondary dominant. The same is true for any other functioning dominant seventh chord.

You can see from the chord symbols, especially with the Roman numerals, that secondary dominants are an altered version of an existing chord. This change to the chord is to create a dominant seventh. What gives it its secondary dominant function is that it leads to another chord a fifth below. The I chord is altered to I7 to create movement towards IV. The ii chord is altered to II7 to highlight V, and so on.

When playing over a secondary dominant you need to switch to its parent major scale. Let’s revisit the secondary dominants progressions we looked at earlier.

Secondary dominants are like mini key changes. Think of the chord progression in C major where G7 leads to C. This is a common V7-I progression in C major. But what if these two chords appear in F major, as in the progression: F-Dm-G7-C? Although the progression as a whole is in F major (I-vi-II7-V), the G7 chord has notes in it that do not belong to this key, but rather its notes belong to C major. For your solos to work in this chord progression, you would start out in F major, but when you get to the G7 chord, you would switch patterns to C major. Finally, when the C chord sounds, you need to switch back to F major patterns.

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Figure 3-06 C-Am-D7-G7

Figure 3-07 C-A7-D7-G7

This progression is I-vi-II7-V7 in C major. The D7 chord belongs to the key of G. Use G major patterns over D7 and then return to C major on the G7 chord. When you play G major patterns over the D7 chord, you are actually playing in D Mixolydian, the dominant scale of G. By the way, switching scales like this is no easy task! Generally speaking, you will only hear solos played over progressions like this in jazz and country styles.

This progression is I-VI7-II7-V7 in C. The A7 chord belongs to the key of D and D7 belongs to the key of G. Use D major patterns over A7, and G major patterns for D7. Return to C major on the G7 chord. A D major scale over A7 results in A Mixolydian mode, or an A dominant scale. Now you need to switch scales twice. Good luck!

Figure 3-08 C-E7-A7-D7-G7-C I-III7-VI7-II7-V7-I in C. E7 belongs to A major, A7 belongs to D, and D7 belongs to the key of G. Think “dominant scale” over each dominant seventh chord. That is, for each dominant seventh chord play its parent major scale. Of course, that’s if you are even playing at all. At this point you may have given up on trying to follow all these changes! It can be quite challenging to switch scales over secondary dominants, but it is not always necessary. With the right note selection, you can stay in one scale and avoid any troublesome notes. We saw this in the “Aura Lee” example. Notice that the melody remains in the key of C even though secondary dominants appear in the progression. It even uses an F note over an A7 chord to good effect, a note that is not part of the A dominant scale. Exploring the details of how guitarists play over secondary dominants is really beyond the scope of this book, but now at least, you should understand the basic idea. While approaching the progressions in this chapter as a lead guitarist may be challenging, playing the chord progressions themselves is not hard at all. You will probably begin to recognize that secondary dominants are fairly common in popular music. With some careful listening, you will hear that players often do not even attempt to solo over them. What a relief!

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Major Chords as Secondary Dominants Although secondary dominants work best if they are dominant seventh chords, in some cases they can be simple major chords. This approach works if you are altering a chord that is originally minor. For example, if you adjust a ii chord to II, it becomes a secondary dominant of V. If iii is changed to III, it is a secondary dominant of vi. For I to work as a secondary dominant of IV, however, you need to adjust the chord to I7.

Songs that use Secondary Dominants “Running On Faith” by Eric Clapton The verse has a I7 chord that leads to IV.

“Every Breath You Take” by The Police The chorus has a II chord that leads to V.

“Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffett The verse has a I7 chord that leads to IV.

“Patience” by Guns N’ Roses The verse has a II chord that leads to V.

“Hey Jude” by the Beatles The verse has a I7 chord that leads to IV.

“Faith” by George Michael The chorus has a II chord that leads to V.

“Out of My Head” by Fastball The chorus has a I7 chord that leads to IV. The verse and chorus have a II chord that leads to V.

“Heart of Glass” by Blondie The chorus has a II chord that leads to V.

“That’ll Be The Day” by Buddy Holly The verse has a II chord that leads to V. “Hey Good Looking” by Hank Williams The verse has a II chord that leads to V. “Honky Tonk Women” by The Rolling Stones The verse has a II chord that leads to V. “Act Naturally” by The Beatles The chorus has a II chord that leads to V.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” national anthem of the United States of America The verse has a II chord that leads to V. “Hello Mary Lou” by Ricky Nelson The chorus has a III chord that leads to vi, and a II chord that leads to V. “The Way” by Fastball The verse has a VI chord that leads to ii. Since this progression is in a minor key you can renumber it to a I chord leading to iv.

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The Harmonic Minor Scale As we now know from the above discussion, when we see II-V or VI-ii, the first chord in the progression is a secondary dominant. Another possible secondary dominant is III-vi. Sometimes, however, it is useful to think of this particular progression as V-i in the relative minor key with the major V chord a result of the harmonic minor scale.

Raised Seventh Scale Degree We usually think of a harmonic minor scale as an altered version of a natural minor with its seventh scale degree raised by a half-step. For example, if you play an A minor scale and raise the seventh G to G♯, you are now playing an A harmonic minor scale. A Natural Minor 1 2 b3 4 5 b6

b7

A B C D E F G A Harmonic Minor 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7

A B C D E F G♯

The chords of the A minor scale are the same as its relative major, C, only starting on Am. b

Am Bm 5 C

Dm Em F

G

If you renumber these chords with A as the tonic, you have the following sequence: i

b

ii 5

bIII iv

v

bVI bVII

Notice that the dominant chord is minor. In A it is an Em chord: E, G and B.

Changing v to V Now let’s take a look at how the raised seventh of the harmonic minor scale affects the dominant chord. In A harmonic minor the seventh scale degree is raised from G to G♯. This G♯ changes the Em chord, E-G-B, to E major, E-G♯-B. The v chord becomes V, making a much stronger dominant-tonic V-i chord progression. As with major keys, using V7 only intensifies the movement from dominant to tonic. In our example, this would be E7-Am. It is extremely common for songs in minor keys to use V7 chords.

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The Harmonic Minor is Only Temporary An important point to consider for soloists, is that you only need to use the harmonic minor scale temporarily. Typically you want to use the natural minor scale until the dominant chord sounds, which is when you need the raised seventh of the harmonic minor. When the V or V7 chord appears, use the harmonic minor. Use the natural minor for the other chords.

Harmonic Minor Chord Progressions Figures 3-10 to 3-14 present several examples of typical harmonic minor chord progressions. Notice that the progressions use chords from the scale of A natural minor, except for the V7 chord, E7. It is really only the E7 that uses the harmonic minor scale. If you are improvising over these progressions, you can use a G♯ over the E7 chord. When the progression cycles back to Am, G-natural becomes a better choice. We will look at soloing with harmonic scale patterns in more detail in Chapter 9.

Figure 3-10

Figure 3-11

Figure 3-12

Figure 3-13

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The Harmonic Minor in Other Keys The harmonic minor scale, like the natural minor scale, can be built off of the sixth degree of a major scale. Chord i in harmonic minor is chord vi from its parent major scale. You can play in any minor key simply by playing a minor chord and a dominant seventh chord a fifth above it.

Harmonic Minor Songs Whenever you see a V7-i type of progression, it’s the harmonic minor scale. Following is a list of songs in minor keys that use V7. Rather than showing the complete progressions, I have just identified the i and V7 chords. Am and E7 “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” by Santo & Johnny “Abracadabra” by Steve Miller Band “Smooth” by Santana “Walk, Don’t Run” by The Ventures “El Farol” by Santana “Still Got the Blues” by Gary Moore “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor b

B m and F7 “Runaway” by Del Shannon Bm and F♯7 “Hotel California” by The Eagles Cm and G7 “Stray Cat Strut” by The Stray Cats “Girl” by The Beatles

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C♯m and G♯7 “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas & The Papas Dm and A7 “Sultans of Swing” by Dire Straits “Hazy Shade Of Winter” by Simon and Garfunkel “Like The Way I Do” by Melissa Etheridge “Man Who Sold The World” by Nirvana “Thunder Rolls” by Garth Brooks Em and B7 “Paint it Black” by The Rolling Stones “People Are Strange” by The Doors “Secret Agent Man” by Johnny Rivers “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica “Hanuman” by Rodrigo y Gabriela “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” by KT Tunstall F♯m and C♯7 “The Way” by Fastball

V-VI in Minor Keys In the harmonic minor scale the V and VI chords are both major, and a half-step apart. Songs that take advantage of these features include: “Smooth,” “Runaway,” “Stray Cut Strut,” “Thunder Rolls,” and “Sultans of Swing.” Sometimes you might find a half-step progression that focuses on the dominant chord as shown in Figure 3-15. Here we see E and F from A minor. The V chord, E, draws on the harmonic minor for its pitches.

Figure 3-15

The Fifth Mode of the Harmonic Minor Scale

The Raised Leading Note in Other Minor Modes

The V-VI chord progression of Figure 3-15 is a modal application of the harmonic minor scale. We can think of it as a type of Phrygian mode with a raised third scale degree, making the tonic chord major instead of minor. This altered Phrygian scale has a strong Spanish flavor to it. It also appears in Jewish, Greek, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian music.

The use of a raised leading note is not limited to the natural minor scale. It can be applied to the other minor modes Dorian, and Phrygian as well. We see the raised seventh more in Dorian mode songs than in Phrygian based ones. The principle is the same, however. It is used on a dominant chord to create a major triad that leads back to the tonic chord.

This mode goes by many different names including: Spanish Phrygian scale, Spanish Gypsy scale, Phrygian major scale, Phrygian dominant scale, and Freygish scale. You can also hear this mode in the songs “Misirlou” by Dick Dale, and “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane. “White Rabbit” opens with an F♯-G chord progression, V and VI of B harmonic minor. You can play a B harmonic minor pattern over both of these chords.

Harmonic Minor Scale Modes We really do not see other modes of the harmonic minor used in popular music.

Dorian Mode The naturally occurring dominant chord in Dorian mode is a minor one. As we saw in minor keys, this chord is also changed to major or even a dominant seventh chord. Its diatonic v-i progression then becomes the now familiar V-i or V7-i. It is fairly common for a Dorian progression like i-IV to move to a V7 chord at some point. A couple of songs that do this include “Oye Como Va,” and “Evil Ways” by Santana. “Moondance” by Van Morrison features a section in A Dorian, a section in A natural minor, and a section in A harmonic minor, which includes its V7 chord E7. When a song in Dorian mode has a V7 chord, you have a few different ways to approach it as a soloist. I will be discussing these different ways in Chapter 9.

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The Melodic Minor Scale We have seen in this chapter that the harmonic minor scale is a natural minor scale with a raised seventh. If we also raise the sixth degree, we end up with what is called a melodic minor scale. Other ways to view the melodic minor scale is as a Dorian scale with a raised seventh or a major scale with a flattened third. The melodic minor scale can be applied in a similar fashion as the harmonic minor scale: over the V7 chord. Its other uses are not very common in popular music, and beyond the scope of this book. I will touch on this topic a little more in Chapter 9.

Voice Leading A final topic in this chapter that I would like to explore is the idea of voice leading. This topic is related to our earlier discussion on dominant seventh chords, and how they and other chords are connected from one to another. In music composition, voice leading is the technique for writing smooth transitions from one chord to another using common tones between chords, and stepwise motion between their different pitches. For example, if we look at the I and IV chord of C major, C-E-G and F-A-C, we can see that both have the pitch C in them. We can also see that the E of the C chord is only a step away from the F of the F chord, as are the G and A.

G-A



C-C

C:

E-F

I - IV

Figure 3-16

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Composers may choose to take advantage of these types of relationships between chords when connecting them to create more melodic lines. Let’s look at another example with the chord progression: C-E7-F-G7-C. With these chords’ pitches we could create a step-wise musical line G-G♯-AB-C. The fifth of the C chord, G, moves to the G♯ of E7, continues on to the A of the F chord, the B of G7, and finally the C of the C chord. In Figure 3-16 I have voiced this line in the higher part of the chords to clearly show it. In practice you may not actually play the chords with this particular voicing. Defining musical features of many songs are owed in part to similar voice leading techniques. For example, John Lennon’s “Imagine,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis, “Space Oddity” by David Bowie and “The Air That I Breathe” by The Hollies all feature an E7 chord leading to F in the key of C. “The Way” by Fastball has C♯7 to D in the key of A. “Interstate Love Song” by Stone Temple Pilots has G♯ to A in the key of E.

More On Voice Leading You can look for similar lines, both chromatic and diatonic, in the music you are playing. You can easily recognize voice leading techniques when they happen in the bass part. A good example is a progression like Am-E+/G♯-C/G-D/F♯-F-Am/E. You can hear this progression in the opening to “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. If you have ever wondered why these chords fit together so well, take a look at the chromatic bass line that moves down the fourth string.

Figure 3-17

The “+” sign in E+ is the symbol for an augmented chord, which I will introduce in Chapter 5. Another clear example of voice leading in the bass part is the progression Am-G-D/F♯-F-E. Here the bass line descends from A to E. Notice the half-step movement from G to E. Led Zeppelin used a similar progression in the song “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.” The Beatles also used something similar in their song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Figure 3-18

We see a similar descending chromatic bass line over the changes G-D/F♯-F-C/E-Ebmaj7 in the verse to “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots.

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A fairly common progression is I-Imaj7-I7-IV. In C major the chords are C-Cmaj7-C7-F. Here these chords are often connected with a descending chromatic line C-B-Bb-A; C from the C chord, B from Cmaj7, Bb from C7 and finally A from the F chord. In Figure 3-19 I have voiced the chords with this line moving along the third string. You can hear a similar chord progression in “Something” by The Beatles.

Figure 3-19

One final example is the progression I-I7-I6-I, C-Cmaj7-C6-C, in C major. Here the voice leading is purely diatonic. These chords are linked together with the descending line C-B-A-G. “Jingle-Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms connects its chords with a similar progression. See Figure 3-20.

Figure 3-20

Conclusion

What’s Next?

Now you know all about dominant chords, how they function, and how they are used on chords other than the tonic chord. You also learned when to raise the seventh scale degree in a minor scale or mode, and how that relates to the dominant chord. As an added bonus, you were introduced to the concept of voice leading, which will help you understand why seemingly unrelated chords fit together so well.

In the next chapter we will take a closer look at a few new topics including key changes, borrowed chords and modal interchange.

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Chapter 4

Key Changes

In This Chapter: 1. Modulations 2. Modal interchanges and borrowed chords 3. Circle of fifths and fourths 4. Blues changes In the first volume of Fretboard Theory you learned about chord progressions and how to play by numbers. Although a great approach to many songs, you may have realized that not all of them fit into this system of numbered barre chord patterns. In this chapter you are going to learn why. Here we will look at several related topics including: modulation, key changes, modal interchange, borrowed chords and the circle of fifths, also known as the circle of fourths.

Modulation We usually think of a song as having a main tonic chord or parent scale. Many songs, however, actually change their tonic at some point. For example, a song’s chord progression may be moved, or transposed up or down by a particular interval for a section. The song’s tonic will then change by that same interval. A bridge or other major section in a song may have a completely different set of chord changes in a new key or tonal center. The song may change from major to minor, or even from one mode to another.

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When a song changes key in any of these ways, music theorists say that the music has modulated. A modulation is really just a change in key, sounds fancy doesn’t it? Properly identifying key changes will help you better understand the music you listen to and play. If you are a composer or songwriter, then you will like the variety that key changes offer. Lead guitarists will know when to change their scale patterns for solos as the music modulates from one key to another.

Changing Tonics Within the Same Key Signature The first type of modulation, and perhaps the simplest, is when a song changes its tonic from one chord to another within the same parent key signature. Your patterns remain the same, but the tonic chord changes. One of the most common modulations of this type is between relative major and minor keys. In this key change the song may focus on the I chord, then switch tonics, or modulate to the vi chord. We also see this type of modulation the other way around, from vi to I.

Figure 4-01

Let’s look at a few songs that modulate between the I and vi chords. “Mr. Jones” by Counting Crows changes from a minor key to its relative major. The tonic chord is Am for the verse, which then modulates to C for the chorus. The parent major scale is C major, yet each section has its own focus on different chords: vi and I. “D’yer Mak’er” by Led Zeppelin is also in C. Here, the tonic chord is C during the verse and Am during the chorus. “Staring at the Sun” by U2 also moves between Am to C in the verse and chorus. “Girl” by The Beatles has a chord progression that starts out in C minor, but then changes to Eb major, the vi and I from the Eb major. “The Way” by Fastball begins with a tonic chord of F♯m for the verse, and A for the chorus, vi and I from A major. The tonic chord for the verse in “Runaway” by Del Shannon is Bbm, and Db for the chorus, vi and I in Db major.

Songs can not only change tonics between vi and I, but also between any of the chords within a parent key signature. For example, “Tangerine” by Led Zeppelin is primarily in the key of G, but begins with Am, the ii chord, as its tonic. “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac initially has an Eb tonic chord, but changes to Bb later in the song, IV and I of Bb major.

We can notice that the modulation in “Landslide” is a change in mode from Lydian to a regular major, or Ionian mode. A change from Lydian to major occurs in many of the Lydian songs we discussed in the last two chapters, including “Just Remember I Love You,” “Here Comes My Girl,” “Man On the Moon,” “Hey Jealousy” and “Space Oddity.”

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Modulations Where the Parent Scale Changes Not all the chords in a song will necessarily fit into one parent major scale like those above. A song may modulate through several different tonics from different parent key signatures. A common form of modulation with a change in parent key is the transposition of a chord progression up or down by step or other interval.

Whole and Half-Step Modulations Whole and half-step modulations are easy to follow when the pattern of the chord progression on the neck of the guitar remains the same, only moved up or down a fret or two. Figure 4-02 shows a progression in the key of C, then it modulates up a whole-step and repeats the same progression in the key of D.

Figure 4-02

We see (and hear) a whole-step modulation like the one in Figure 4-02 in the song “My Girl” by The Temptations. It is initially in the key of C, but later moves to D major. On the guitar we can use the exact same routing of the chords on the fretboard for both keys. The D major version will be just two frets higher than in C.

Let’s take a look at how you might figure out this modulation. The chords in “My Girl” are drawn from the key of C. The verse is C-F. The pre-chorus is C-Dm-F-G. The chorus is Cmaj7-Dm7-G7. At the 1:50 mark in the Temptations’ recording the chords begin to change. The verse is D-G. The pre-chorus is D-Em-G-A, and the chorus is Dmaj7-Em7-A7.

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At some point you may realize that a single key cannot have both C-Dm-F-G and D-Em-G-A progressions in it. You may remember that a particular key cannot have more than three major chords in it, nor could it have both D major and D minor. Your question then becomes, “What other key is present in these chords?” If you begin to match the shapes using the major scale chord patterns you will find that C-DmF-G belongs to the key of C, while D-Em-G-A belongs to D major. At the 1:50 mark, “My Girl” leaves the key of C and moves to the key of D. This section begins on the V chord of D: an A chord. Composers often use the dominant chord of a new key to help lead the music to a new tonic. If we compare the progressions from the two different keys with Roman numerals in our example, we can see that they are exactly the same: I-ii-IV-V, The chord progression in the new key is simply transposed up a whole-tone from the original. This type of modulation is very easy to follow.

Truck Driver Modulations We see many examples where a song’s chord progression is transposed up by a half or whole-step. Sometimes it happens near the end of a song when a chorus is repeated several times. Its final repetition is transposed to a new key to make it sound different. This type of modulation is precisely what we see in “My Girl.” Such a change can add a fresh twist to the music, making for a climactic end to a song. Some musicians call this type of modulation a truck driver modulation because the music feels like its shifting into a higher gear. The transposition does not need to be limited to a half-step, some songs move up two or three halfsteps. Fortunately for us guitarists, we can often simply move our patterns up the neck a corresponding number of frets for these modulations. Examples of truck driver modulations include “Crazy” by Patsy Cline, which modulates from Bb to B, “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and the Shondells, which modulates from B to C, “Surrender” by Cheap Trick, which modulates B to C, “Be With You” by Mr. Big, which modulates E to G, and then back down to E again, “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, which modulates from E to G, and “Play that Funky Music” by Wild Cherry, which modulates at the end of the song from G to A before it fades out. In all these examples, the chord progressions stay mostly the same in the new keys.

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This type of key change can also occur earlier in a song. “Spooky” by Atlanta Rhythm Section modulates up a semitone from E to F at the 1:30 mark, one fret on the guitar, and repeats the earlier chord progression. “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers modulates from Eb to E at 1:38, again a halfstep modulation, which on the guitar translates to playing the Eb chord progression one fret higher. “I Wanna be Sedated” by Ramones modulates from E to F♯ at 1:10, here a whole-step, or two frets on the guitar. “Good” by Better Than Ezra modulates up a whole-step from G to A at 2:12, and returns to G at 2:30. On the guitar we can move the G progression up two frets then back down again. “La Grange” by ZZ Top modulates from A to C at 1:11, three frets up on the guitar. Sometimes the new key is short lived. “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” by Lenny Kravitz briefly modulates from E to G at 00:46 by moving the riff up three frets. It quickly moves back to E at 00:54. “Funk #49” by The James Gang has an A minor pentatonic riff that starts at 0:37, is transposed up a whole-step to B minor at 0:38, and returns to A at 0:48. Sometimes a song modulates more than once. In “Play that Funky Music” by Wild Cherry, the same riff appears in the keys of E, G and A. “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks modulates from G to A to D. The same progression is repeated in each key. The song then returns to G to repeat the set of modulations again. The opening verse to “Pinball

Wizard” by The Who modulates down several times repeating the same chord changes. Starting in B using a Bsus4 to B chord riff, the riff then moves down two frets to A, down again two frets to G and finally down one fret to F♯. The chorus to “California Girls” by The Beach Boys also modulates downward from B to A to G, with a I-ii chord progression in each key. Whole and half-step modulations are usually easy to hear because we hear the same music repeated either higher or lower. This type of key change is very easy to play on a guitar if you are using barre chords. Simply shift your patterns up or down one or more frets. This works for both chord changes and solo lines. If you are using a capo, as is usually done in “The Gambler,” then you can follow the modulations by repositioning the capo on a different fret.

Describing Modulations by Their Interval Sometimes a chord progression is transposed by more than a whole-step. In these cases we can describe the modulation by its interval. In some of the examples above the progression modulated by three semitones, three frets on the guitar. We could also say that the song modulated by a minor third. “You Really Got Me” modulates up a perfect fourth from the key of A to D. So we can see that intervals can describe both distances between notes, and distances between keys. How you describe a key change is simply a matter of preference. For example, you could say that “My Girl” modulates up two semitones, one whole-step, or a major second. Let’s look at a few more examples. The verse to “I Walk the Line” by Johnny Cash is a I-IV-V chord progression. We first hear it in F, then the song modulates to Bb and again to Eb. Each key repeats the very same progression. Each modulation is up a fourth. The music then modulates back downward to the key of Bb, eventually returning to the original key of F. The instrumental introduction begins in the key of Bb before modulating to the key of F by starting on its V chord, C.

“My Generation” by The Who moves through three key changes; from G, up a tone to A, a semitone to Bb, and another tone to finish in C. “Wrong Way” by Sublime moves through E, A, F♯ and B. Both of these songs use I-bVII chord changes in each key.

John Mellencamp’s “I Need a Lover” is built from a I-V-IV-V chord progression in Bb, F♯, B and E, all before the verse even starts! The song finally settles in the key of F♯ for most of the verses and choruses, but modulates up to the key of A at the 4:35 mark before ending.

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Modulations that Change Keys and Progressions In the modulations we have seen so far, a chord progression is simply transposed from one key to the next. We also see many songs that will use new chord progressions when there is a key change. In Figure 4-03 the chord progression begins in the key of A. In the second line the music changes to C major with a new progression. The E chord in the last measure leads back to the key of A for the next repetition of the form.

Figure 4-03

We see a similar plan in Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman.” The song opens with the famous guitar riff that outlines an E7 chord. This extended dominant seventh introduction prepares the main key of A major for the verse that has a I-vi-I-vi-IV-V7 progression. The next section outlines a simple iiV7-I-vi progression in C major, a modulation up a minor third from the original key. A bridge connects back to the verse, returning to A major, but with a Dm chord borrowed from the parallel key of A minor. This technique of borrowing chords is one we will explore a little later on. Two other songs that include a modulation by a minor third are “Summer of ‘69” by Bryan Adams, and “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton. In “Summer of ‘69,” the bridge presents both a new key and a new set of changes. The main part of the song is in D major with a D tonic chord. The bridge moves to F major with a tonic F chord and a contrasting chord progression. The main key of “Tears in Heaven” is A major. The bridge modulates up to C and uses a slightly different chord progression.

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A few more songs that change both keys and progressions are worth mentioning. “What I Like About You” by the Romantics has a bridge that is completely different from the rest of the song. So does “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. “Stuck With You” by Huey Lewis and the News changes from C in the verse to D in the chorus with a slightly different chord progression. “Layla” by Derek and The Dominos starts out centered on Dm with F major chords, then changes to a completely different progression with C♯m and E using chords mostly from E major. “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper starts in E Dorian, but eventually settles into the chorus key of Gm with a completely different progression. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses is centered on D through the first half of the song, but switches to Em and a new progression just past the halfway mark (guitars tuned down one half-step to E b). In each of these songs just mentioned we see sections that are almost like mini songs in themselves. They are then put together to form a larger whole. What each of these sections have in common is their tempo, which is usually constant throughout the whole song.

Same Tonic with a New Parent Scale Sometimes a change in the parent key is harder to spot, because the tonic chord remains the same after the change. A good example of this is when a song mixes parallel modes, modes with the same tonic. For example, a progression like B-A-E-F♯ uses chords from both B Mixolydian and B major. B remains the tonic throughout the progression. Try out the progression shown in Figure 4-04.

Figure 4-04

Modal Interchange The three major chords found in B major are B-E-F♯, I-IV-V. The three major chords in B Mixolydian are B-A-E, I-bVII-IV. We can now see that the progression in Figure 4-04 is a combination, or mixture, of these two modes. In popular music this mixing of modes is called modal interchange. A progression like this would normally be viewed as being in the key of B, implying B major. The A chord is thought of as a result of modal interchange, and identified as bVII in the progression.

The concept of modal interchange lets composers choose chords from modes or keys with the same tonic, that is to say, from parallel keys and modes. For example, B major and B Mixolydian are parallel to one another. Similarly, B major and B minor are also parallel keys. Modal interchange is a music theory concept that comes up a lot in popular music, so let’s analyze it in more depth. Let’s say you want to play a song with a tonic of B. It can be B major, or B minor. Let’s choose B major.

The obvious choice for chords to use for a B major song are ones from the B major scale, Ionian mode. They are: B major I

b

ii iii IV V vi vii 5

F♯ G♯m A♯mb5

B C♯m D♯m E

Two other major modes also have B major tonic chords: B Lydian mode (F♯ major scale starting on the fourth scale degree, B) I II iii ♯ivb5 V vi vii

b

B C♯ D♯m E♯m 5 F♯ G♯m A♯m B Mixolydian mode (E major scale starting on the fifth scale degree, B) I ii iiib5 IV v vi bVII

b

B C♯m D♯m 5 E

F♯m G♯m A

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With modal interchange you can mix and match chords from these parallel modes. This allows you to create more complex progressions, while the music stays within a single tonic. One of the more common types of modal interchange includes a major keyed song using I, IV and V from plain major and bVII from the Mixolydian mode. In this kind of modal interchange, we usually see four different major chords in a song’s progression. For example, in the key of B these four chords would be B, E, F♯, and A. We can identify these chords with Roman numerals as I, IV, V and bVII. We actually do see many examples of this progression in many songs and other keys. I have grouped the following list of songs by key. B major and B Mixolydian B E F♯ A, I-IV-V-bVII “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and the Shondells “California Girls” by The Beach Boys “Touch of Grey” by Grateful Dead “Scarlet Begonias” by Grateful Dead G major and G Mixolydian. G C D F, I-IV-V-bVII

“Pink Houses” by John Mellencamp “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd “Ramblin’ Man” by The Allman Brothers Band (guitars tuned down a half-step to Eb)

“Heaven” by Los Lonely Boys (guitars tuned down a half-step, or just play in Gb)

“Don’t Do Me Like That” by Tom Petty “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

“Like A Rock” by Bob Seger (played with a capo at first fret creating key of G♯)

A major and A Mixolydian. A D E G, I-IV-V-bVII “Wild Thing” by The Troggs

“Tangled Up In Blue” by Bob Dylan “Shooting Star” by Bad Company “Bold As Love” by Jimi Hendrix (guitars tuned down a half-step to Eb) E major and E Mixolydian. E A B D, I-IV-V-bVII

“R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” by John Mellencamp “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones “With a Little Help from My Friends” by The Beatles “Hold On Loosely” by 38 Special “Living After Midnight” by Judas Priest “Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot (Capo at the 2nd fret)

“Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix

D major and D Mixolydian. D G A C, I-IV-V-bVII

“Baby, I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton

“Bouncing Around the Room” by Phish

“Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd

“Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival Notice that the two different modes may appear in different sections as in “Crimson and Clover,” while in other songs like “California Girls” the modes seem to be continually fluctuating.

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MODAL INTERCHANGE AND MODULATIONS: I should point out that

in traditional music theory modal interchange, also called modal mixture, is not, technically speaking, a modulation. Modulation involves a change in tonic, while modal interchange is a way of introducing a greater variety of chords into a key.

Playing Over Modal Interchanges You may notice that in more complicated chord progressions you hear less guitar solos. Keep this in mind while you are building your solos; that its a valid option to not play at all during more complicated changes. Nevertheless, you can play over songs that use modal interchange in a few different ways. The most obvious method is to switch parent major scales when the progression changes to a parallel mode. Another possibility is to simply use a major pentatonic scale that works for both modes. You will learn more about applying scales in this way in Chapter 7.

Modal Interchange between Major and Lydian Modes We also see modal interchange between a basic major key and the Lydian mode. Here a major II chord, borrowed from the Lydian mode, could be used to once again build a progression with four major chords, for example: D-E-G-A, I-II-IV-V in D. The D, G, and A chords are from D major, while the E chord is from D Lydian. Notice how again we have four major chords used in the progression.

Figure 4-05

Both of the songs “American Girl” by Tom Petty and “Eight Days a Week” by the Beatles use modal interchange in D in a similar fashion.

Borrowed Chords Another way of thinking about modal interchange is that chords are borrowed from a parallel scale. In the example above, the E chord is borrowed from the D Lydian mode, with the parent scale of A major. It’s important to remember that when you borrow a chord, you are also borrowing its parent major scale. With a progression like D-E-G-A you need to change your pattern on the E chord from D major to A major, or the G from D major will clash with the G♯ note in the E chord. You may be wondering why we do not just switch to an E major or B major scale. An E chord appears in more keys than just A major, after all. Choosing which key to borrow chords from usually depends on which key will create the smoothest sounding transition. The smoothest transition will be between keys that are closely related. The keys of D and A are closely related because they share all but one note in common. On the other hand, to modulate to an E or B major scale is not as smooth because these scales have fewer notes in common with D major. Volume II

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Using Perfect Fourths Over IV Chords While we are on the topic of changing scales and major modes, let me explain a type of key change that often occurs, but at the same time, is often overlooked. It is when a progression moves to the IV chord. Instead of the player using a raised fourth degree that would naturally occur over this chord, the player instead chooses to use a perfect fourth. A great example of this kind of change is in the opening to “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison. The song starts off with the guitarist playing a G major scale in thirds. When the progression moves to the IV chord, C, the lead guitarist uses a C major scale in thirds, not G. We can identify this change by the new note in this section: the F-natural, whereas G major has an F♯. In this song the lead guitarist treats the C chord as a key change to C major. Another example where we here a perfect fourth over the IV chord instead of a raised fourth is in the song “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses (guitars tuned down one half-step to E b). If you listen carefully to the bass at 0:20, you will hear an F-natural over the C chord, rather than an F♯ from G major. Anytime you hear a perfect fourth used over a IV chord, this type of key change is occurring. We can also include here the use of a suspended fourth chord on IV with a perfect fourth above the root. “Angel Of Harlem” by U2 and “Yellow Ledbetter” by Pearl Jam both use suspended fourth chords over IV.

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More on Modal Interchange Now that you have been introduced to the concept of modal interchange, let’s explore some more possibilities. Below I have written out the chords for all six of the useable modes beginning on A. I have also included A harmonic minor. Notice that only the V7 chord has the raised seventh scale degree. A major (Ionian)

A Dorian

A B♯ C♯ D E F♯ G♯ A B♯m C♯m D E F♯m G♯mb5 I ii iii IV V vi viib5 A B C D E F♯ G Am Bm C D Em F♯mb5 G i

A Phrygian

ii

A Bb

bIII IV v

vi b5

bVII

C D E F G Am Bb C Dm Emb5 F Gm bII bIII iv vb5 bVI bvii i

A Lydian

A B C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A B C♯m D♯mb5 E F♯m G♯m I II iii ♯ivb5 V vi vii

A Mixolydian

A B C♯ D E F♯ G A Bm C♯mb5 D Em F♯m G I ii iii b5 IV v vi bVII

A natural minor (Aeolian)

A B C D E F G b Am Bm 5 C Dm Em F G i iib5 bIII iv v bVI bVII

A Harmonic Minor

C D E F G♯ A B b Am Bm 5 C Dm E7 F G i iib5 bIII iv V7 bVI bVII

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Major Tonic Modal Interchange Now it’s time to have some fun. Let’s start with an A major chord and see the different kinds of progressions we can make by borrowing chords from different parallel modes. We have already mixed chords between the major and Mixolydian modes. We have also touched on mixing major and Lydian modes. Let’s try a different combination, like the major and natural minor scales, Ionian and Aeolian. See Figure 4-06.

Figure 4-06

In this progression the A-D is I-IV from A major and F-G is bVI-bVII from A minor. We see a similar progression in “Lady Madonna” by the Beatles. “Suffragette City” by David Bowie also mixes A major and A minor plus a B chord from A Lydian as well. “Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers has a bridge section that mixes A major and A minor with the chords A-C-G-F, also interpreted as A-Am-G-F, around the 2:52 mark and Fmaj7-E7-G near 3:08.

bVI-bVII-I Progressions The progression bVI-bVII-I is a fairly common one. It is three major chords a whole-step apart that finish

on the tonic chord. This sequence is a mixture of major and natural minor keys. The first two chords are from a minor key and the final chord is from the parallel major. Some songs that include this set of chord changes are “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen (Bb-C-D), “Running Down a Dream” by Tom Petty (C-D-E), “With a Little Help from My Friends” by The Beatles (C-D-E) and “Home Sweet Home” by Motley Crue (Ab-Bb-C).

Another well-known example of a bVI-bVII-I progression is found in the video game Super Mario Bros. Sometimes known as the “Mario cadence,” we find this progression in the fanfare that sounds at the end of each level with the chords Ab-Bb-C and in the main theme.

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Modal Interchange Starting From A Minor Tonic Let’s turn our attention to some examples where the tonic chord is A minor. The natural minor and Dorian mode are the two most commonly mixed minor modes. The main difference between them is that the natural minor has a minor iv chord, while Dorian has a major IV chord. One way to mix these modes is to use both these types of IV chords in a song as is shown in the next example. You may notice that this progression creates some chromatic voice leading.

Figure 4-07

We see a similar progression in “Fly Like an Eagle” by Steve Miller Band. The song is in the key of A minor and we hear both a D major and D minor chord. “All My Love” by Led Zeppelin does the same in the same key: A minor with both a Dm and D chord. “Tangerine” also by Led Zeppelin starts in A Dorian, switches to G major for the chorus, and later changes again to A natural minor for the guitar solo. “Staring At The Sun” by U2 uses chords drawn from A natural minor during the verse, and C major with a borrowed D chord during the chorus. “Ecstasy” by Rusted Root mixes D Dorian, D natural minor and D major. In Figure 4-08 we see how Dorian and harmonic minor chords can be used in a natural minor key.

Figure 4-08

The traditional folk song “House of the Rising Sun,” shown in Figure 4-09, shows another progression that mixes these different modes, natural minor, Dorian, and harmonic minor.

Figure 4-09

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Other songs that mix A minor modes and the harmonic minor include “Wild World” by Cat Stevens, “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” by Led Zeppelin and “Moondance” by Van Morrison. “Straight On” by Heart mixes B natural minor, Dorian and harmonic minor. “Crazy On You” by Heart and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by The Beatles both mix A natural minor, Dorian, and the harmonic minor, plus A major, the relative major of A minor.

All Minor Modes

The Minor Four-Chord

Two songs, “Smoke On the Water” by Deep Purple and “Grease” from the musical motion picture Grease, have chord changes that mix all three minor modes: the natural minor scale, Dorian and Phrygian. “Smoke On the Water” has the chords Gm and F from G minor, C from G Dorian and Ab from G Phrygian. “Grease” has the chords Bm, E and F♯m7 from B Dorian, Em7, D, C and Bm from B Phrygian, Em7 and F♯m7 from B minor, and even E7 from B harmonic minor.

Another type of chord change that should be pointed out is when a minor four-chord is used in a major key as shown in Figure 4-10. Normally, IV is a major chord in a major key. For example, as in a I-IV-V chord progression. It is common to put a iv chord in between IV to I and create some kind of chromatic voice leading. For example: in the progression F-Fm-C in C major, the third of the F chord A, could lead to the third of Fm, Ab, which in turn moves to the fifth of the C chord G. We can see the minor four-chord as borrowed from C minor, the parallel minor key.

With modal interchange, the parent major scale changes but the tonic pitch remains the same. For example, “Crazy On You” may use A minor, A Dorian, and A major, each of which are built from different parent major scales, but the tonic pitch remains A throughout the song. Some songs such as “All My Love,” “Staring At The Sun” and “Wild World” are minor keyed songs that use modal interchange in the verses, but modulate to the relative major for the chorus. “Tangerine” begins in A Dorian, and modulates to G major.

Figure 4-10

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Minor Four-Chord Songs The Beatles liked to use this minor four-chord voice leading trick quite a bit. You can hear it in “Nowhere Man” where a iv chord, Am, is leading to the I chord of E, and in “Across the Universe” where iv is Gm leading to D (guitars tuned down one half-step to Eb). Below I list several more songs that feature iv chords. “Space Oddity” by David Bowie, Fm in the key of C “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis, Fm in the key of C “Sleepwalk” Santo & Johnny, Fm in the key of C “The Air That I Breathe” by The Hollies, Fm in the key of C

All Dominant Seventh Chords

“You’re My Best Friend” and “Play The Game” by Queen, Fm in the key of C “That Thing You Do” from the film That Thing You Do! Am in the key of E “Don’t Do Me Like That” by Tom Petty, Cm in the key of G “More Than Words” by Extreme, Cm in the key of G with the guitars tuned down a half-step to Eb

In the last chapter we learned about secondary dominants, which are dominant seventh chords applied to scale degrees other than V. Secondary dominants are major chords and dominant seventh chords that resolve up a fifth. I have already listed several examples of secondary dominant songs in Chapter 3. We can add two more to the list here: “Pencil Thin Moustache” by Jimmy Buffett and “Country Boy” by Ricky Skaggs. These songs are almost entirely made up of secondary dominants. Sometimes major chords and dominant seventh chords are not used as secondary dominants. In Figure 4-11 we see a progression that moves through a series of major chords that do not have a dominant/tonic relationship to one another.

Figure 4-11

Two songs built out of all major chords, including those usually minor, are “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding and “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce.

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The Circle of Fifths No discussion on keys would be complete without mentioning the circle of fifths, sometimes also called the cycle of fifths. In music theory, the circle of fifths is used to represent relationships between the different key signatures. This information may not be really relevant to how guitar players approach music on the fretboard, but knowing how to move in fifths, and recognizing songs that use chord progressions that follow this pattern certainly is useful. The circle of fifths can work two ways, moving up by fifths and moving down by fifths. Let’s look at the ascending version first. If we start on an F major chord and play its V chord C, we have moved up a fifth: F-G-A-Bb-C, one-two-three-four-five. In a similar way a fifth above C is G, and so on. If we continue in this manner we can cycle through all twelve possible roots and return to our starting place. Figure 4-12 presents the complete circle of ascending fifths starting on F.

Figure 4-12

We could also play through the circle of descending fifths. Starting on F if we count down five we wind up on Bb. Just play through Figure 4-12 backwards.

Now this circle, or cycle, of fifths is useful not only for learning key signatures for reading music, but as players we can also use it to learn chords. You could start on any chord, play its dominant, or V chord, and cycle through all twelve chromatic chords, whether major, minor, or otherwise. You could use either the ascending fifths version or the descending one. Starting on different roots in the cycle will teach you different ways of patterning and routing chord progressions on the guitar. Figure 4-13 shows you one way that you can build a circle progression based on fifths. Here the tonic is E, the goal of the progression. A sequence of ascending fifths precedes it starting with C.

Figure 4-13

Many songs feature circle chord progressions. “Hey Joe” by Jimi Hendrix is based on the progression in Figure 4-13. “Hush” by Deep Purple has the fifths progression: Ab-Eb-Bb-F-C during the “Nah, nah-nahnah, nah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah” section. “Time Warp” from the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show has the progression F-C-G-D-A during the chorus as they sing “Let’s do the Time Warp again.” The chorus to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones has the chords D, A, E, and B. The bridge of “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles moves in fifths with C-G-D-A-E.

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The Circle of Fourths Now some of you may have noticed something about the circle of fifths. It’s also a circle of fourths! In C major, C to F is a descending fifth: C-B-A-G-F, one-two-three-four-five, but we could also count up to F: C-D-E-F, one-two-three-four. Although we do not need to go into why the circle works this way, both views are correct, descending fifths, or ascending fourths. A musician’s particular view is a result of training, preference and use. Classical musicians usually talk about the circle of fifths, while jazz and popular musicians will talk about the circle, or cycle, of fourths. Songs also use sections of this fourth pattern. For example, the chords in “Spinning Wheel” by Blood, Sweat & Tears moves in fourths with A7-D7-G7-C. “Country Boy” by Ricky Skaggs has a solo section that moves in fourths: E7-A7-D7-G7. The opening to “Light My Fire” by The Doors is built from the progression G-D-F-Bb-Eb-Ab-A. Starting with the F chord though to Ab, we have an ascending cycle of fourths progression.

Diatonic Circles The potential of the circle of fifths/fourths as we have seen it so far is to cycle through all twelve possible pitches. We can also move up by fourths through the chords of a particular key while keeping to diatonic chords. Take for example C major. We could cycle through its seven possible diatonic chords by ascending fourths, as shown in Figure 4-14.

Figure 4-14

“Still Got the Blues” by Gary Moore and “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor are built on this progression in A minor: Am-Dm-G-C-F-Bm7b5-E7. The final E7 chord is from A harmonic minor and leads back Am to start the progression over again. “El Farol” by Santana is nearly the same as the two previous song examples using Am-Dm-G-C-FDm-E7. “Wild World” by Cat Stevens uses AmD-G-C-F-Dm-E7, almost all fourths. “Yesterday, When I Was Young” by Roy Clark is built from the chord progression Gm-C-F-Bb-Gm-A7-Dm. Gm-C-F- Bb moves in fourths. Sometimes songs move through the cycle of fourths using a combination of diatonic chords and secondary dominants. “Still the Same” by Bob Seger has

the changes Em-Am-Dm-G during the verse and E-A-Dm-G in the chorus. In the chorus we see the secondary dominants E and A. Both sets of chord changes move in ascending fourths. We can look at two more examples of circle of fourths progressions. “Rocky Raccoon” by The Beatles: Am7-D7-G7-C. A C/B chord leads back to Am to begin the cycle again. “No Matter What” by Badfinger moves in fourths starting on F♯m7: F♯m7-B7-E7-A7-D7. This section of the song finishes off with Bm and A. It also features some chromatic voice leading.

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Playing Over Circle of Fifths/Fourths Progressions We have covered various chord progressions built out of root movements of fifths and fourths, but how is a lead guitarist supposed to play over these types of progressions? As you saw in Chapter 3, secondary dominants borrow not only their chord function from another scale, but their notes as well. We treat them as V chords and use the dominant scale, Mixolydian mode, for our solos. Figure 4-15 presents a tab of a simple sequential bass line that works with the progression E-A-D-G.

Figure 4-15

Notice that a root, third, fifth, sixth and flat seventh are played over each chord. These scale degrees belong to a Mixolydian mode. The flat seventh should give it away. As a lead guitarist, you could play complete Mixolydian scales over each chord. Jazz and country players often take this approach to dominant chords. On the other hand, most blues and rock players take a different approach. Generally speaking, blues and rock guitar players like to keep things simple, both technically and musically. You probably will not hear them trying to chase a series of dominant chords by changing scales for each one. Instead they may choose to use one scale that works over the complete progression, often a minor pentatonic. Let’s take a quick look at “Hey Joe” by Jimi Hendrix. As we saw earlier, it uses an ascending fifths progression, C-G-D-A-E. The roots of these chords are all found in the E minor scale. In fact, the chords themselves belong to either E minor or E Dorian, the two most popular minor modes. For these reasons the E minor pentatonic scale can work over the complete progression. It even works over the E major chord, creating a minor-over-major blues sound. Jimi Hendrix built many of his guitar solos out of E minor pentatonic pattern one. Perfect!

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Blues Chord Progressions The final key change idea I would like to cover in this chapter is how the parent scale changes in blues music. Most blues songs are based on the I, IV and V chords arranged into the familiar twelve bar blues progression. Often, however, players use dominant seventh chords on any or all of these changes: I7, IV7, and V7. Since dominant seventh chords are the dominant of a particular key, the chords in the blues could in some way be thought of as a series of secondary dominants: V7 of IV, V7 of bVII, and V7 of I with each dominant seventh chord drawing from a different parent major scale. Take “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry for example, which is a standard twelve bar blues with the chords Bb, Eb and F; I, IV and V in Bb. If the player uses dominant sevenths instead of just major chords, they become Bb7, Eb7 and F7; V7 of Eb, V7 of Ab, and V7 of Bb. If you use their corresponding parent major scale patterns for your solos, you will be using Bb Mixolydian, Eb Mixolydian and F Mixolydian. It is often up to the player to choose whether or not to play dominant sevenths over a blues progression. Nevertheless, dominant seventh chords have become such an important feature of the blues sound, it’s almost implied by its very nature. In a band situation, the rhythm player may choose to play straight major chords, while the bassist creates lines out of a dominant seventh chord, or, the other way around. You likely will not hear a major seventh chord over I, but someone will probably be playing a dominant seventh! So what about the soloist? Do you really need to chase the chords with three different parent keys? Well, the reality is most players simply use pentatonic scales for their blues solos. You could play a Bb major pentatonic over all three chords in “Johnny B. Goode.” You could also use Bb minor pentatonic over the form. If you use both the major and minor pentatonic scale patterns, then you will be using the same combination of notes that Chuck Berry used for his famous introduction and solo to this song. Playing the third from the minor pentatonic scale over a major chord clashes a bit, but this clash is an important part of the blues sound. Elements of the blues can be found in jazz, country, pop, and of course, rock.

Conclusion

What’s Next?

Now you know how a song can change keys, or modulate. You also know that chords may be borrowed from other keys, that is modal interchange, to make more interesting progressions. With this information you will be able to take songs that have seemingly unrelated chords and figure out their structure. As a composer you will be able to introduce a lot more variety into your compositions. As a musician in general, you will be able to study more complex styles of music.

In the next chapter we will learn how to use passing chords, chords that fill in the spaces between the main ones. We will look at different types of chords that are used this way, including diminished seventh chords. We will also touch on augmented chords.

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Chapter 5

Chromatic Passing Chords, Diminished and Augmented Chords In This Chapter: 1. Filling spaces and using half-step motion 2. Playing diminished chords and inversions 3. Playing augmented chords and inversions 4. Creating chromatic voice leading In this chapter, I am going to explain how chords a whole-step apart are sometimes connected with passing chords, similar to the way players use chromatic passing tones to connect different scale degrees. We will look at both chromatic passing chords and diminished seventh chords. We will also take a look at V7 substitutions and augmented chords. This chapter will help you understand chords that seem to neither belong to the parent key nor to be borrowed from another one.

Chromatic Passing Chords Composers and players use passing chords in a progression similar to the way they use passing notes in a scale. Just as you can use chromatic passing notes between different scale degrees, you can use chromatic passing chords to connect different chords. A common approach is to simply move by half-steps as you change from one chord to another. For example, if a progression moves from V to IV, you could add in another chord between them. See Figure 5-01 for an example in the key of F.

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Figure 5-01

You can hear a chromatic passing chord like this used in the song “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix. The chord progression is based on the tonic chord F. In the verse’s chord progression, C-B-Bb-F, B is a chromatic passing chord connecting the C and Bb chords, V and IV. There is also chromatic movement in the introduction with the chords Eb-E-F. Hendrix also uses chromatic passing chords in other songs including “Bold As Love.” This song is in A major with borrowing from the Mixolydian mode, guitars tuned down a half-step to Eb. A G♯ chord is placed between G and A, bVII and I, at the end of measure eight just before the beginning of the chorus.

Figure 5-02 presents another example that uses chromatic passing chords. Here the key is E minor. The progression starts with a G major chord and moves downward by semitones to Em through F♯ and F. While the G chord belongs to E minor, F♯ and F are simply being used as passing chords as the progression moves to Em.

Figure 5-02

We see the same progression in the song “I’m a Man,” by The Spencer Davis Group. Listen to the vocal melody and harmonies to hear that they do not change keys for each of the chords, instead they simply stay in the chords. Lead guitar players can do the same, or simply use an E minor pentatonic pattern over the complete progression. “Life Without You” by Stevie Ray Vaughan also connects the relative major and minor chords like in the last example, only this time in the key of A (guitars tuned down a half-step to Eb) with the chords A-G♯G-F♯m. These chords also appear in an ascending fashion as F♯m-G-G♯-A. Stevie Ray Vaughan uses this type of chromatic movement throughout the song. In other parts of the verse, we see chromatic chord movement from I up to a major III chord, and from IV down to a major II chord.

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Figure 5-03 presents chromatic passing chords in the key of G. The progression uses all major chords with chromatic passing chords between G and A, and A and B.

Figure 5-03

A great example of a song that’s similar to the progression in Figure 5-03 is “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce. It uses the progression I-II-III-IV-V in the key of G, all major chords with chromatic passing chords between I-II and II-III. “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder uses a chromatic passing chord between VI and V in the key of B. We see more chromatic movement in the pre-chorus with ninth chords focusing on chords IV and V. We often hear blues players using half-step motion to move into the main chords of a twelve-bar blues. It is very common to approach a I chord or IV chord by either a half-step above or below. In the third phrase, the V chord can be connected to the IV chord with a passing chord as well. A common ending to a blues song is to play the I chord, move up a fret, and move back down again. Sometimes this ending is reversed, moving from I down a fret and back up again. See Figure 5-04.

Figure 5-04

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This technique carries over into rock and roll. Both “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley and “Heartache Tonight” by The Eagles have progressions where their main chords are approached by a half-step. Figure 5-05 presents another example of a twelve-bar blues in G with a more complex and jazzy progression. This includes chromatic movement in several places.

Figure 5-05

“Stormy Monday” by The Allman Brothers Band, a blues in G, uses chromatic chords in a similar manner to the last example. Both a ♯I chord and a ♯II chord appear in this song. Several versions of this song exist. Depending on how it’s played, the IV chord is often approached chromatically from above by one fret, as is the V chord. Approaching the main chords of a blues progression from a half-step above or below, especially with ninth chords, is fairly common. Funk is another style of music where we see a lot of half-step movement in its chord changes. It’s very common for a tonic chord to be moved up or down a fret as shown in Figure 5-06.

Figure 5-06

Sometimes a chord will be moved up or down more than one fret with a couple of chromatic steps. “Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry has an E 9 chord played with F ♯ 9 and F 9. Stevie Ray Vaughan plays an E9 together with an E b 9 and F 9 in “Wall of Denial.”

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Figure 5-07 presents a jazzy example in C that features a chromatic passing chord in between the Em7 and Dm7 chords.

Figure 5-07

“Changes” by David Bowie includes the chords C-Dm7-Em7-Ebm7-Dm7-G7 in C major during the section where he sings, “So I turned myself to face me.” The Ebm7chord is a nice chromatic passing chord between iii and ii. The song’s introduction also has similar half-step movement. Although not a guitar part, the “easy come, easy go, little high, little low” section in “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is built from the chords B-Bb-A-Bb, the Bb chord passing between B and A. One final, and very well-known, example that uses chromatic passing chords is the popular Christmas song “White Christmas.” The beginning of each verse contains the progression Cmaj7-Dm7-Cmaj7-B maj7C maj7-Dm7-D♯m7-Em7. This includes a half-step into the I chord and another one in between the ii and iii chords.

Diminished (Seventh) Chords Diminished chords are also sometimes used as passing chords. They sound very dissonant and unstable by themselves, but can make for a very strong and pleasant sounding transition when placed between the right chords. Generally speaking, diminished chords have a jazzy flavor to them and are used in styles that emphasize voice leading and dominant functions. In jazz and popular styles diminished chords usually appear with sevenths. The two types of diminished seventh chords are fully diminished seventh chords and half-diminished seventh chords. Usually when we say diminished seventh chords, or even just diminished chords, we mean fully diminished seventh chords. Half-diminished seventh chords are usually stipulated in some way, and are often notated in chord progressions as m7b5.

Fully Diminished or Diminished Seventh Chords A fully diminished seventh chord consists of a root, minor third (b3), flattened fifth (b5, or diminished fifth) and double flattened seventh (bb7, or diminished seventh). In popular music this chord is often just called a diminished chord with the seventh assumed. Note that there is a diminished triad as well, which we will look at a little later. One of the interesting features of diminished seventh chords is that we can also think of them as being built out of a series of minor thirds. For example a Bdim chord is built from the notes B-D-FAb. Each chord tone is a minor third, or three frets, above the previous one. If we continued another minor third above the Ab, we would return to B.

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In order to combine the notes of a Bdim to make chord shapes on the guitar you need to transpose some pitches up an octave. The most common diminished chord fingerings are shown in Figure 5-08.

Figure 5-08

Diminished Seventh Inversions Another interesting feature of diminished seventh chords is how we play their inversions on the fretboard. Since diminished chords are built out of minor thirds, you can simply move any fully diminished seventh chord fingering up or down three frets for an inversion. Move the same chord fingering three frets again and you have the next inversion, and so on until you cycle back to your starting inversion an octave higher or lower as shown in Figure 5-09.

Figure 5-09

You will find that diminished chords have many different abbreviations in a piece of music. For example 0, 07, dim, dim7, o can all represent fully diminished seventh chords.

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Diminished Triads

Half-Diminished Seventh Chords

The first three chord tones of a diminished seventh chord, the root, minor third (b3) and flattened fifth (b5) create a diminished triad. Diminished triads are sometimes used interchangeably with fully diminished seventh chords, although my preference is to use the fully diminished version. In tradition theory, diminished triads are one of the four types of basic triads: major, minor, diminished and augmented.

Half-diminished seventh chords are built out of a root, b3 (minor third), b5 (diminished fifth) and b7 (minor seventh). Notice the only difference from a fully diminished seventh chord is the seventh itself. We can find this chord in the major scale on vii. See Fretboard Theory, Chapter 6: Guitar Chord Progressions and Playing By Numbers. Many musicians refer to half-diminished seventh chords as m7 b 5 chords, minor-seven-flat-fives. Half-diminished chords and songs are covered in the first Fretboard Theory book.

Diminished Chord Progressions Diminished seventh chords are also used as passing chords. A common usage is to connect I and ii. In Figure 5-10 we see an example in A major where a chromatic passing chord is added between the A and Bm chords.

Figure 5-10

We see this use of a diminished chord in Garth Brooks’ “Friends In Low Places.” The guitar introduction is based on the verse’s chord progression I-ii-V in G. A diminished chord is added between I and ii, creating the progression A-A♯dim-Bm7-E, played with a capo at the second fret with the chord shapes G-G♯dimAm7-D. In a similar manner, “Shower the People” by James Taylor uses the chords C-C♯dim-Dm, played with a capo at the third fret as A-A♯dim-Bm. Here the diminished chord is connecting a V and vi chord.

In Figure 5-11 a diminished chord is used to connect ii and a first inversion I7chord in the key of Bb. The chord changes are shown in two positions.

Figure 5-11

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Similar uses of diminished chords like the last two examples appear in “Crazy” by Patsy Cline. At the end of the first verse we hear a I-ii-V turnaround in the key of Bb. The I and ii chords are connected with a diminished chord creating: Bb-Bdim-Cm7-F7. This song also features a diminished chord between ii and an inversion of the I chord at the end of the second verse: Bb-Cm7-C♯dim-Bb7/D. The bridge to “Ain’t Gone ‘n’ Give Up On Love” by Stevie Ray Vaughan features a keyboardist playing the chords D-Em7-Fdim-D7/F♯ followed by A7-Bm7-Cdim-A7/C♯ (guitars tuned down one half-step to Eb).

In this next example, shown in Figure 5-12, a diminished chord is used to connect IV and I in the key of C. Here the voice leading moves from the root of the IV chord to the root of the diminished chord, and finally to the fifth of the I chord, F-F♯-G. The diagram shows this progression in two different positions. We can clearly see this line on the sixth string in the second version. The song “Crazy” also connects IV and I like this in the key of Bb.

Figure 5-12

Other songs that use diminished chords include “Ten Years Gone” by Led Zeppelin, “Every Time You Go Away” by Paul Young, “Don’t Look Back In Anger” by Oasis, “Private Investigation” by Dire Straits, “Michelle” by The Beatles, “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison and “Dance with Me” by Orleans. I should also mention that diminished chords are found throughout jazz standards. I usually do not reference jazz songs because most guitar players who listen to popular music may not be familiar with the old standards from the jazz era. Nevertheless, if you have a jazz songbook like The Real Book, you will find diminished chords in many of its selections. Two good examples that you may have heard are “Stormy Weather” and “The Way You Look Tonight,” both of which are performed by many different artists. In addition to jazz standards, the popular guitar-driven Christmas song “Jingle-Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms has several jazz elements including diminished chords. In fact, this in itself is a great reason to learn this song. Do it!

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Diminished Chords As V7 Substitutions Diminished chords are often used as substitutes for dominant seventh chords. For example the typical jazz progression Cmaj7-A7-Dm7-G7 could be played Cmaj7-C♯dim-Dm7-G7. The C♯dim chord replaces A7. We actually saw this kind of progression earlier that connected I and ii. This substitution works for a couple of related reasons. First, C♯dim has many of the same notes as A7: C♯dim has C♯, E, G, Bb and A7 is A, C♯, E, G. Notice their three notes in common: C♯, E and G. It is as if the C♯dim chord is like an A7 chord, but missing the root-note A. The second reason that we can use C♯dim as an A7 chord is that it contains the leading note of the chord of resolution, the C♯ is the leading note of D.

Jazz musicians often replace dominant seventh chords with diminished chords. In popular music we also see diminished sevenths used in place of dominant sevenths: V7-I becomes viio7-I, or as in our original progression: VI7-ii becomes ♯io7-ii. How do we work out how to substitute diminished chords for dominant sevenths? The root of the diminished chord will be the third of the dominant seventh chord. A few examples. The third of A7 is C♯, our substitution for A7 is C♯dim. The third of G7 is B. Bdim could be used in place of G7. Similarly, Edim could be used in place of C7, which has E as its third, and so on.

INTERNET TABS: It is probably no surprise to you that many of the free guitar tabs that

you can find on the internet are not accurate. This is especially true for songs that include advanced musical concepts like diminished chords. As I was doing research for this chapter, I was disappointed to see that many of the songs that I reference are not written out correctly on the free guitar tab sites. It seems that many of the people posting free tabs do not really understand diminished chords. With this in mind, when you look up these songs you are probably going to need to consult professionally transcribed tabs.

Augmented Chords Since we have been looking at jazz style chords and techniques, now is probably a good time to take a peek at augmented chords. We see augmented chords used as both functioning dominant chords and as passing chords. An augmented triad is one of the basic four types of triads: major, minor, diminished and augmented. It is like a major triad with a raised fifth, having a root, major third and augmented fifth: 1, 3, ♯5. We do not find this chord naturally occurring in the major scale, so we usually think of it as an altered chord: a major triad with a sharpened fifth. Figure 5-13 compares four different D chords with Daug chords in different positions on the neck.

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Augmented Chord Inversions Like diminished seventh chords, you can simply move an augmented chord shape up or down the neck to produce their inversions. This is because when we look at its structure, we can see that it consists of a series of stacked major thirds. For example Caug is C, E, G♯. C to E is a major third, as is E to G♯. If we add another major third above G♯ we get B♯, which is the same as C. Because of this property, to invert an augmented triad on the guitar all we have to do is move the chord’s shape up a major third, two whole-steps. Similarly we could move the shape down a major third on the neck and we also get an inversion of the chord. Figure 5-14 presents the inversions of two common augmented chord shapes on Daug. Try playing them to help you understand how these inversions work.

Figure 5-14

Augmented Dominant Chords Augmented chords, having a strong sense of harmonic movement, can function just like dominant seven chords, resolving up to a tonic chord. Like V7, an augmented chord built on V has a leading tone in it that moves to the tonic pitch. The raised fifth also creates harmonic tension that resolves upwards, here to the third of the tonic chord. As shown in Figure 5-15, in the key of G, a Daug chord moves to the tonic chord G. The pitches in Daug are D, F♯, and A♯. The F♯, leads to G, the root of the tonic chord. The raised fifth, A♯, leads to the third of the G chord, the pitch B.

Figure 5-15

You can hear a Daug chord, which is also written D+, and its resolution at the very beginning of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s version of “The Things That I Used to Do” (guitars are tuned down one half-step to Eb). This same chord also appears in the famous live version of “Stormy Monday” by The Allman Brothers Band. “School Days” by Chuck Berry begins with this chord an octave higher. A first inversion Gaug chord leads to C in “No One Needs To Know” by Shania Twain.

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In “Crying” by Roy Orbison we see the chord progression D-Daug-G-Gm-D-A7-D. Here the Daug chord grows out of the D chord, functioning as a secondary dominant of G in a manner similar to that of a D7 chord. Orbison’s choice of chords allows for an interesting chromatic line starting on the fifth of the D chord through to the third of the Gm chord: A-A♯-B-Bb. Other songs that feature augmented chords include “The Warmth of the Sun” by The Beach Boys and “From Me to You” by The Beatles.

Other Uses of Augmented Chords Another common use of augmented chords is to connect a major triad to a sixth chord as in the progression I-Iaug-I6. Here the augmented chord connects I and I6 with a chromatic line. The fifth of the I chord moves to the sixth of the six chord through a sharpened fifth. Figure 5-16 shows this progression in C major: C-Caug-C6. We see the chromatic line G-G♯-A, on the third string of the first three measures. Let’s take a closer look at pitches in these chords. C is built out of the pitches: C-E-G, Caug is: C-E-G♯, and C6 is C-E-A. We can now see how this progression naturally gives rise to this chromatic line. Add a C7 chord and the chromatic line can continue up an additional semitone to Bb. In measures 5-8, this line appears on the second string.

Figure 5-16

Many songs use augmented chords in this way. One appears in “It’s All Been Done” by Bare Naked Ladies in the bridge with the chords D-Daug-D6-D7-G and in “Laughing” by The Guess Who with A-Aaug-A6A7-Dmaj7-Dm7-C♯m7-E. “Because” by The Dave Clark Five has the chords G-Gaug-G6-G7 at one point, and augmented chords as dominants with G-Gaug-C-Cm-G, and D-Daug-G at another. “( Just Like) Starting Over” by John Lennon opens with A-Aaug-A6-Aaug. We see a related use of an augmented chord in the verse to “Baby Hold On” by Eddie Money. Built out of the chords D and Daug, the augmented chord here comes in on the second half of each line of the verse, creating a sense of harmonic tension that resolves back into the D major chord at the beginning of each new line. We get the real goal of the augmented chord in the last line of the verse: D6 and finally a D7 chord, preparing the next section of the song. We also see augmented chords resulting purely from the voice leading. In the famous opening to “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, we see two lines moving in opposite directions in the outer voices in the first three chords: A-B-C played on the first string, and A-G♯-G on the fourth string functioning as a bass line. The pitches C, and E on strings three and two are held throughout. The first chord is clearly A minor, while the chord on G♯ is augmented G♯-C-E, the C representing a B♯ enharmonically, all of which supports the upper B-natural.

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THE OPENING CHORDS TO “STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN”:

Probably the most recognizable acoustic guitar bit known, the chords of the opening four measures of “Stairway to Heaven” can be notated as: Am-E+5/G♯-C/G-D/F♯-Fmaj7-G/B-Am. Alternately, we also see the second chord written as G♯+add B, and other related notations. Slash chords and other complicated looking chord symbols are good indicators that a melodic line in either the bass or an upper voice is important to the progression. This is the case in this song. In the opening to “Stairway to Heaven” we hear a series of arpeggiated chords accompanying a descending bass line on the fourth string, A-G♯-G-F♯-F, that then cadences with a low B-A on string five. This descending bass line supports a melodic line on string one that at first moves in contrary motion to it: A-B-C, then down to F♯-E, before the phrase ending. Which way we choose to name the second chord in the progression, then, is ultimately not that important. As we mentioned, complicated chord symbols are usually a compromise attempting to show melodic lines to the player. In the opening three chords of “Stairway to Heaven,” it is the descending chromatic line in the bass A-G♯-G against the ascending melodic line on the first string A-B-C that really creates the character of the opening to this classic song.

Conclusion

What’s Next?

In this chapter we looked at different types of passing chords, chords that can fill in the spaces between two chords typically a whole-step apart. First you can simply move chord shapes up or down by step. This works well with major chords and dominant seventh chords: G-A becomes G-G♯-A, or D7-C7, as in a blues, becomes D7-Db7-C7. In addition, we saw how diminished and augmented chords, perhaps new chord qualities for some of you, can also be used as passing chords.

In the next chapter we will take a look at pentatonic lead patterns, which are used for riffs and solos. In fact, the remainder of this book will generally focus on using different scale and arpeggio patterns.

We also saw how diminished and augmented chords could be used as substitutes for functioning dominant seventh chords, creating a more jazz-like sound. Understanding these concepts will help you understand more complicated music, music that at first glance may seem to not belong to any key. You can also now add these ideas to your own compositions!

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Chapter 6

Lead Patterns

In This Chapter: 1. Major and minor lead patterns 2. Riff boxes 3. Reference barre chords 4. Blues scale patterns

About Lead Patterns In my previous book and DVD, I teach the pentatonic scale as five separate patterns. These patterns cover every position on the neck and connect together to make one giant fretboard pattern. This method is how many guitar players initially learn pentatonic scales. But when it comes to actually using the scale to play melodies, riffs, lead guitar solos, and bass lines, it’s not necessary to utilize every position or every part of every pattern. Most guitar players, including some of the most famous ones, favor only a few particular sections of these different patterns that work well together. When viewed together, these sections are sometimes called lead patterns. Lead patterns make it easier for you to keep track of the root note of a chord, shift from position to position, duplicate licks in different registers, and use the first three, and strongest fingers of your fretting hand. You will also be able to find your way around the neck better, becoming more proficient at what you play as you narrow your focus to a few essential patterns. In this chapter I am going to teach you two lead patterns, each one having a major and a minor form. In the following chapters you will see how these lead patterns are filled in with major scales, harmonic minor scales, modes and arpeggio patterns. Volume II

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Reference Chords Lead patterns use sections of pentatonic patterns built from common “E form” and “A form” barre chords. Let’s look at a few reference barre chords used with the A minor pentatonic scale to help us understand how lead patterns are constructed.

Figure 6-01

Now let’s focus on the root of these chords, A, which is the tonic of the scale. There are three occurrences of the root A that are typically used for riffing and jamming. The first root used is at the fifth fret of the sixth string, obviously. The second root is located an octave higher at the seventh fret of the fourth string, also obvious because it’s directly in the reference chord forms. You might think that the next root is at the fifth fret of the first string, and you would be correct that this root is used, but we’re going to focus on the A note at the tenth fret of the second string instead for reasons that you will see in a moment.

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Riff Boxes The next diagram illustrates an idea I call “riff boxes.” A riff box, in my mind, is a box-shaped group of notes, usually pentatonic, that the majority of guitar licks and phrases are based on. Each riff box has four different scale degrees making up the corners. Beginning with the corner with the root in it, each box also has the b7 below the root, and the b3 and 4 scale degrees above it. Also notice that the three different positions of the boxes are identical in their shape and scale degrees.

Figure 6-02

Many guitar riffs and lead licks are formed out of these boxes. One of the advantages to these boxes is that you can easily play any lick or phrase in another register, or octave, by simply moving to another box position and repeating its note pattern. Another advantage is that you only need a few fingers. Most guitarists use only their first and third fingers for these boxes. Solos can be built out of these boxes, connecting the different registers with the other notes from the lead pattern that you’ll learn in a moment.

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Bending the Fourth Scale Degree We can bend the fourth scale degree up a half or whole-step. If we bend up a whole-step we wind up creating the pitch of the fifth scale degree, which, when combined with the other scale degrees in the riff box, completes the pentatonic scale. If we bend up a half-step, we are playing the flattened fifth from the blues scale.

Riff Boxes With The Fifth Figure 6-03 illustrates two of the riff boxes with the fifth of the pentatonic scale added on the string directly below the tonic. In the first box, the tonic is on the fourth string, seventh fret, with the fifth of the scale directly below on string five. In this way you have access to all five notes of the pentatonic scale in a simple shape on the guitar and can easily target the tonic note in your solos. A great deal of riffing and jamming can be, and has been done with this simple box shape. In the second riff box we have also added the fifth below the tonic, here on string three. Because of the way the guitar is tuned, the fifth’s position on the neck is one fret lower than the tonic’s. Nevertheless, this slightly altered shape for a riff box on these strings is extremely useful to know.

Figure 6-03

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Lead Pattern One Many a famous guitar player has made a living playing in these positions, sometimes playing in them exclusively. Usually guitar players will fill in with pentatonic scale notes as they shift from riff box to riff box. The connector in this case is pentatonic pattern one. Figure 6-04 shows pentatonic pattern one in its entirety along with a small portion of patterns five and two, which include the riff boxes. Together these form what I call Lead Pattern One.

Figure 6-04

Applying Lead Pattern One

Playing Through the Lead Pattern

Use this lead pattern over any song or progression in the key of A minor. You can also use this pattern over an A major blues.

If you have tried playing through Lead Pattern One, you will quickly realize that there is no single way to route your way through its different pitches. This is partly because some of the pitches are repeated on different strings in different positions. For example, the C on string five at the third fret is also found on the eighth fret of string six. It is this possibility of different ways to shift through the lead pattern that will ultimately bring variety to your solos. Let’s look at one possible way to play the lead pattern in an ascending and descending scale-like manner.

I think you’ll enjoy playing through this lead pattern more if you have some music behind you. Some songs in the key of A that can work for this purpose include “Maria, Maria” by Santana, “Breakdown” by Tom Petty, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, “Crossroads” by Cream, “Fred Bear” by Ted Nugent, “One” by U2, “Mr. Jones” by The Counting Crows or any other songs that are in the key of A minor. You don’t need to learn the parts of these songs, just use them like backing tracks as you practice playing through the lead pattern.

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Lead Pattern One as a Scale If you want to play through Lead Pattern One straight up and down without repeating or skipping any notes like a scale, then you can do so with two shifts. Start in pattern five on the sixth string. Shift up into pentatonic pattern one on the fifth string. Continue in pattern one until the third string and shift up again into pattern two. You have now played through the three different positions of the lead pattern with the pitches arranged in an ascending fashion. To play the pattern descending from its highest to lowest note, start with the highest note and shift down in the same places as before on strings three and five. Playing through the lead pattern like a scale is shown in the following tab. The example starts you on G at the third fret of string six just to cover the full range of the lead pattern, but you can start on A at the fifth fret if you want to hear the scale beginning from its first degree.

Figure 6-05

Left-Hand Fingerings Guitarists like to play through this lead pattern using mostly their index and ring fingers, shifting from position to position. For example, the notes in fret three are played with the first finger and then the notes in fret five are played with the third finger. To get to the seventh fret of string five, simply shift your ring finger to it and then continue using fingers one and three as you ascend. You can shift again from fret seven to fret nine on the third string with your third finger or, better yet, fret the seventh fret on string three with your second finger and shift it to the ninth fret. Using your second finger as you shift from pentatonic pattern one to two sets you up to finish pattern two with your first and third fingers. Whatever you do, there is really no one correct way to finger this lead pattern. Your choice of fingering will depend on your personal preference, and any different articulations or stylistic ideas you may be applying such as slides, bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and so on. Ultimately, the fingering that makes you play and sound the best is the right fingering for you to use. The following diagram illustrates one fingering that I suggest you try. In this example, the numbers represent the four fingers on your left hand.

Figure 6-06

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CORRECT FINGERINGS: You will often hear different opinions about how guitarists

should or should not finger certain passages. Some might even allege that there is always a proper fingering for each musical situation. Maybe you find yourself falling into this way of thinking. For example, you might think that it’s more “correct” to use the pinky, or at least it’s a bad habit to avoid using it. Many players, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen, and Eric Johnson, however, are famous for doing most of their guitar soloing with just the first three fingers. I tend to favor these three fingers as well, although I do use my pinky in my instructional guitar videos to make it easier for the viewer to see where I am fretting the notes. Obviously the idea that there is a universally correct and proper fingering for everything is not true. You have to find the fingerings that work best for you. If you play well, and sound good, then you’re using the correct fingering.

The Blues Scale

Other Chromatic Passing Tones

Returning now to the complete Lead Pattern One, we can take a look at how the flattened fifth of the blues scale can easily be added in. In the diagrams below, the flattened fifth is shown in grey. I also included an example of how to play through the blues scale in an ascending and descending fashion like a scale. I would use fingers 1-2-3 for the 4-b5-5 degrees.

Players may add other chromatic passing tones in addition to the flattened fifth. One that is frequently used occurs between the flattened seventh degree and the tonic. Examples of songs using these passing tones include “Wipe Out” by The Surfaris, “Manic Depression” by Jimi Hendrix, “Groove is in the Heart” by Dee Lite & World Clique, and “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin.

Figure 6-07

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Octave Transposition Before I talk about transposing Lead Pattern One to different keys, I would like to point out that you can shift the entire lead pattern up an octave, that is up by twelve frets. This puts the tonic note A at the seventeenth fret of string six. You may not have enough frets on your guitar to complete the lead pattern up an octave, or if you’re playing an acoustic guitar, you may not be able to reach up that high comfortably. Nevertheless, you should play what you can if only to make sure you understand this concept of octave transposition. Other keys that start lower on the fretboard will be easier to transpose up by the octave. Remember to try the passing tones and the riff box forms up an octave as well.

Figure 6-08

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Transposing Lead Pattern One Once you have memorized this first lead pattern you can begin to transpose it to different keys. You do this by simply shifting the pattern to different positions on the neck. In the diagrams below, I illustrate some examples. The higher up the neck you play this pattern, the less likely you’ll be able to transpose it up an octave as described in the last section. But played lower down the neck, the easier it becomes to transpose it up an octave. Notice that the pattern in F♯ minor includes open strings on five and six. You can add bends and chromatic passing tones to the pattern in any key. Remember that in addition to playing this minor lead pattern over minor key songs, you can also play it over blues-based songs that have a dominant seven chord as a tonic.

Figure 6-09

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Lead Pattern One Songs When guitarists use the pentatonic scale in popular music it’s frequently in the form of Lead Pattern One. Keep in mind that they do not necessarily use this lead pattern in its entirety. Sometimes they use just parts of pentatonic patterns five and one, while other times parts of pentatonic patterns one and two. Many of the pentatonic scale songs I referenced in the first Fretboard Theory book and DVD, Getting Started with the Pentatonic Scale, use this first lead pattern to some degree. Some examples include “Lowrider” by War, “Money For Nothing” by Dire Straits, “La Grange” by ZZ Top, “Tweezer” by Phish and “Breakdown” by Tom Petty. I recommend that you go back and review the pentatonic songs listed in my previous book and DVD. Play through all the pentatonic scale riffs, solos and melodies that you know. If at first they do not fall directly into this lead pattern, I bet you can rework them so that they do. Try it!

Lead Pattern One: The Major Pentatonic Scale Now that you know how to use Lead Pattern One over minor keys, lets shift our focus to major keys. The major pentatonic scale will use the same notes and patterns on the neck as its relative minor. So, C major pentatonic will have the same notes as A minor pentatonic, the only change will be where the tonic note falls in the pattern. As shown in the next set of diagrams, the tonic changes to the C at the eighth fret of string six. We also find this tonic in the same register at the third fret of string five, up an octave at the fifth fret of string three, and finally, one more octave at the eighth fret of string one. The remaining scale degrees are renumbered in relation to the new tonic. You can also play straight up and down like a scale. Playing through the lead pattern like a scale is also in the diagram. You can start on G at the third fret of string six to hear the full range of the scale in this position or start on the first scale degree, C, to hear the pattern from tonic to tonic.

Figure 6-10

Play this pattern over the songs “Let it Be” by The Beatles, “La Bamba” by Los Lobos, “Down on the Corner” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Blue Moon” by Chris Isaak, “All The Small Things” by Blink 182, “Dyer Maker” by Led Zeppelin or any other one in C major.

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C Major Reference Chords Just as we associated barre chords with the minor form of Lead Pattern One, I recommend that you associate the major version with an “A form” C barre chord on string five and an “E form” C barre chord on string six. You could also use a “G form” C major barre chord in the fifth position, but most rhythm guitar players simply use the two shapes shown in Figure 6-11.

Figure 6-11

LEAD PATTERN LICKS AND PHRASES: One of the most frequent questions

people ask me about using scale patterns is, “How do I learn how to improvise, creating my own licks and phrases?” In other words, how do good guitar players come up with cool ways of using scales so that they don’t sound like they are just playing patterns? The answer is so simple that many people miss it. You learn and copy songs! All guitar players should learn and copy parts of songs regardless of whether their goal is to play their own music or not. Each guitar riff, solo, and bass line you learn will teach you something new about improvising. After you develop a foundation in guitar technique, and a good repertoire of licks, you can begin to develop your own sense of phrasing. Eventually you’ll be able to compose and improvise in your own unique style. This is why I include so many song references in my guitar theory books and videos. Some guitarists feel that copying others is not a legitimate way to create an original style, but nothing could be further from the truth. You’ll never develop lead guitar technique or understand how to use and apply scales correctly without first learning some examples from other players. Think about it. Why do people say you can hear Albert King in Stevie Ray Vaughan’s playing? The answer is because Stevie Ray learned how to improvise by copying, among other things, what he heard on King’s records. To further demonstrate my point, listen to “Hideaway” by John Mayall’s Blues Breakers featuring Eric Clapton. Many parts sound nearly identical to the original version of the song by Freddie King. Albert King and Freddie King are just a few of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s and Eric Clapton’s many influences. Both of these guitar legends spent their early years mimicking other guitar players. Is it any wonder that they both became so proficient? Do you honestly think that you can skip this step and still progress yourself? Think again! If you want to develop good technique, draw from a varied arsenal of licks and phrases, and become a good improviser, then you absolutely must learn songs and copy other players. There is no short cut to getting good. It is a process requiring patience, hard work, dedication, and lots of practice. In time you’ll start to rely less on copying and more on your own creativity. This will ultimately lead to you composing and improvising in your own unique style. But first, imitate to create.

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No Major Scales Over Minor Chords The major lead pattern is for playing in a major key, or over a major chord, including dominant seventh chords. Unlike the minor pentatonic, which is sometimes played over major chords to create a blues sound, the major pentatonic does not work over minor chords. You can still use it in a minor key, however, if the chord progression includes a major chord. You just need to change to the appropriate major pentatonic scale over the chord. For example, in a progression like Am-G you can play A minor pentatonic over Am and G major pentatonic over G, if time allows. I like to play over the solo section to “Stairway to Heaven” (Am-G-F) using F major pentatonic over the F chord.

Figure 6-12

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Major Riff Boxes Just as the minor pentatonic is used in boxes that center on three different positions of the tonic note, so too is the major pentatonic. In Figure 6-12 we see the three different positions of the C major riff box found in this lead pattern. As before, the three positions shown cover three different octaves. Take note how the tonic, second, fifth and sixth scale degrees are placed in the “corners” of the box. Since we are now thinking in major pentatonic we should take care to learn the placement of these scale degrees.

Note Bends The same note that is bent in the minor lead pattern is also bent in the major lead pattern. Here, because of our orientation to the major pentatonic, we are bending on the second degree of the scale. If we bend up a whole-step to the third, we have the complete five notes of the pentatonic scale available to us in this riff box form. Sometimes we only bend up a half-step to the flattened third scale degree creating the major blues scale. You can apply either bends to any of the three different octaves of the riff box.

The Blues Scale The next two examples show the major blues scale as derived from the major form of Lead Pattern One. The added flattened fifth of the minor key becomes a flattened third in the relative major shown here in grey.

Figure 6-13

Players will also add a chromatic passing tone between the fifth and sixth scale degrees. These are in the same place on the fretboard as those identified in the minor key. Notice that while the scale degrees between the minor and relative major scales are named differently, the patterning on the guitar, including the chromatic passing tones, remain the same.

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Transposition Just like the minor lead pattern, you can transpose the major lead pattern up an octave by shifting the pattern up twelve frets, assuming you can reach this high on your guitar. For the C major pattern we have been using so far, this would put you in the fifteenth position on the guitar. You can transpose this pattern to other major keys by shifting the pattern to different tonics. You can even play the pattern in A major using the open fifth and sixth strings. A few different keys are given below.

Figure 6-14

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Major Lead Pattern Songs Some great songs that use this major pentatonic lead pattern are “My Girl” by The Temptations, “Blue Sky” by Allman Brothers Band, “Amie” by Pure Prairie League, “Yellow Ledbetter” by Pearl Jam, and “Maggie May” by Rod Stewart. I recommend you look up and learn the lead guitar parts to these songs. They can teach you a lot about how to create different phrases in a major key. Remember that these songs are in different keys. Some may only use a portion of the lead pattern, and some may have other musical ideas in the mix.

Lead Pattern Two The other lead pattern that guitarists use is based on the fifth string. Unlike the first lead pattern, this one only uses two pentatonic patterns: patterns three and four.

Figure 6-15

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Reference Barre Chords Lead Pattern Two is associated with an “Am form” Am barre chord on string five at the twelfth fret, as shown in the diagram. In blues applications you can use a dominant seventh chord, one of which I have also shown in the diagram.

Figure 6-16

Riff Boxes The position of Lead Pattern Two is based on two riff boxes. In its minor form, each box has a tonic with three notes below it, the flattened seventh scale degree, the fifth and the fourth, and the flattened third and fourth. These two riff boxes include the same notes in two different octaves. The pattern in the higher octave has the notes on the second string shifted up a fret due to the tuning of the guitar.

Figure 6-17

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Tonic Notes

Bending the Fourth

In Lead Pattern Two the tonic note only appears twice, at the twelfth fret of string five, and an octave higher at the fourteenth fret of string three. Like the first lead pattern, this one also features riff boxes that are a staple of rock riffs and solos.

In Lead Pattern Two, we can bend the fourth scale degree in a similar manner as we did in Lead Pattern One. Note that in our new riff boxes, we have two fourth scale degrees: one below the tonic, and one above. It is the higher one that we usually bend. Bend up a whole-step and you’ll produce the fifth, a half-step and you’ll produce the flattened fifth.

The Blues Scale The next diagram adds the flattened fifth to create a blues scale. Players may also add a chromatic passing tone between the flat seventh and tonic.

Figure 6-18

Applying the Scale You can use this lead pattern when playing in a minor key or over a minor chord. You could also use Lead Pattern Two when playing a major blues. I think you’ll enjoy playing through this lead pattern more if you have some music behind you. Some songs in the key of A that can work for this purpose include “Maria, Maria” by Santana, “Breakdown” by Tom Petty, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, “Crossroads” by Cream, “Fred Bear” by Ted Nugent, “One” by U2, “Mr. Jones” by The Counting Crows or any other songs that are in the key of A minor. You don’t need to learn the parts of these songs, just use them like backing tracks as you practice playing through the lead pattern.

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Transposition You can transpose this lead pattern simply by moving the pattern to a new position on the neck. I’ve given you E minor and D minor to get you started. You can also transpose the pattern up the octave by moving it up twelve frets if room on the neck allows. You may find this easier in a key like C minor, which is centered on C at the third fret. Acoustic guitar players still might have trouble reaching up past the twelfth fret. Remember to practice a key’s reference barre chords, riff boxes, bends and blues scale along with its lead pattern.

Figure 6-19

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Minor Key Songs With Lead Pattern Two

Lead Pattern Two: Major Pentatonic

Some famous guitar riffs that can be played in Lead Pattern Two include “Purple Haze” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” by Jimi Hendrix. Both songs are typically played in E minor in the seventh position, with E on string five. The guitar part in “Voodoo Child” has all strings tuned down a half-step (Eb tuning).

Now let’s take a look at Lead Pattern Two as a major pentatonic pattern. Since a minor pentatonic scale and its relative major use the same pitches, all we need to do is reorient the tonic of Lead Pattern Two to a different place in the pattern, just as we did with the previous lead pattern. We will be working with C major, the relative major of A minor to learn the pattern in this way.

I recommend that you play through all the pentatonic scale riffs, solos and melodies that you know, including those referenced in my previous book and DVD. If they do not immediately fall into this lead pattern, I’ll bet you can rework them so that they do. Try it!

Looking at the following diagram, we can see that the tonic is now changed to the note C at the tenth fret of string four, repeated on the fifteenth fret of string five, and up an octave at the thirteenth fret of string two. The other scale degrees are numbered according to this tonic.

Figure 6-20

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Reference Major Chord The main reference major chord used in Lead Pattern Two is the “C form” barre chord, which you can see next. Though not shown, you can also fit a bit of a “D form” over pentatonic pattern three. You can also use dominant seven chords.

Figure 6-21

C Major Riff Boxes The next set of diagrams show the riff boxes in C major. Notice that the box on strings two and three doesn’t line up on the fretboard as neatly as the other riff boxes we have learned. Nevertheless, it is still quite common and very useful to know.

Figure 6-22

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Major Bends

Major Blues Scale

The same note that we usually bend in the minor lead pattern is also bent in the major version. Here it is the second scale degree, a whole-step, or two frets above the tonic C. The second can be bent up to the major third. Sometimes we only bend the second up a half-step to the flattened third, lending a blues flavor to our solos.

If we add a flattened third to the major form of Lead Pattern Two we get a major blues. Although not shown here, players will also add a chromatic passing tone between the fifth and sixth scale degrees. These are in the same place on the neck as those chromatic notes in a minor key.

Figure 6-23

Applying the Scale If you are playing in C major, you could use this lead pattern over a C major chord, a C7 chord, or a C major progression. As part of your practice, play this pattern over the song “Let it Be” by The Beatles, “La Bamba” by Los Lobos, “All the Small Things” by Blink 182 or any other song in C major. As we have seen, we have two ways of thinking about a lead pattern: as a minor pentatonic pattern, or as a major pentatonic pattern. In either case, the patterns and fingerings on the guitar, as are the actual pitches, are exactly the same whether we are playing them as scales, in box forms or adding in chromatic passing notes to form blues flavored licks. What changes is where we orient the tonic note in the pattern. This will influence our improvisations, giving them the appropriate minor or major quality for the chords we a playing over.

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Outlining Chords With Lead Patterns In addition to using these lead patterns to play over songs in both major and minor keys, you can also use them to outline the different chords within a song, which is an idea I touched on earlier. In this approach, you match each new chord in a progression to a different pentatonic scale. This technique emphasizes the notes that belong to a particular chord as they change over the course of a progression. A great example of this technique is in “My Girl” by The Temptations. The main guitar riff that opens the song is built from a C major pentatonic over the C chord, and F major pentatonic over the F chord, even though both chords belong to the same key. Stevie Ray Vaughan changes pentatonic scales in the opening to “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” following the chords Bm-A7-G7 all with minor pentatonic scales (guitars tuned down one half-step to Eb). Like I said earlier, blues players often use the minor pentatonic over dominant seven chords. A big part of Jimi Hendrix’s style is based on using different pentatonic scales over corresponding chords. You can hear some of this in “Little Wing” and “Bold As Love”. Stevie Ray Vaughan also has a rendition of “Little Wing” that features the same technique. You can try this technique for yourself. Simply change your pentatonic scale to match the root of a particular chord in a progression. Just be sure to pick simple progressions in the beginning. One that only uses a few chords that change relatively slowly would be best. Obviously, the C-F section in “My Girl” works. “Maria, Maria” by Santana is also good for practice. Here you would use A minor, D minor and E minor pentatonic scales.

Conclusion

What’s Next?

In my first Fretboard Theory book you learned how to play across the entire neck of the guitar with full pentatonic patterns. Here in Volume II you have learned the most used parts of the pentatonic patterns that players combine and use for riffs, solos and bass lines. As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, sometimes it’s better to narrow your focus to a few key patterns rather than trying to cover the entire neck.

Guitar players favor these lead patterns so much that they use them even when playing something other than a pentatonic scale. In upcoming chapters you will learn how to combine these lead patterns with major scales, harmonic minor scales, modes and arpeggio patterns.

The lead patterns that I presented here are a good way to simplify the pentatonic scale and create smaller box-shaped patterns that are easy to use and remember. You are also free to either venture out into other areas of the pentatonic patterns, or simplify the patterns further. You could also create your own lead patterns to use.

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Chapter 7

Lead Patterns With Major Scales and Modes In This Chapter: 1. Using lead patterns, major scales and modes 2. Comparing parallel scales and modes 3. Playing in thirds and sixths In the last chapter I showed you how to narrowed your focus down from pentatonic scales that cover the complete neck to smaller sections like the lead patterns and riff boxes that many players commonly use. In this chapter I will show you how to use these same patterns for major scales and modes. I will also cover a little theory on how the pentatonic scale relates to the major scale. But first, let’s figure out which pentatonic scales will work with what major scales and modes. You can think of a major pentatonic scale as a mini version of a major scale. Let’s look at C major pentatonic. Its notes are C-D-E-G-A. The complete C major scale is C-D-E-F-G-A-B. We can see that the C pentatonic scale is contained within the major one. Similarly, we can find this pentatonic scale in any of the major modes with the same tonic: C Lydian is C-D-E-F♯-G-A-B and C Mixolydian is C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb. Below shows the different C major-type scales along with the pentatonic for a more visual comparison: C major:

C D E F G A B

C Mixolydian:

C D E F G A Bb

C Lydian:

C D E F♯ G A B

C major pentatonic: C D E

G A

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We can clearly see from the the previous scale list that it is actually the C major pentatonic scale that is common to all three major modes, something that we will take advantage of in a moment. The same property can be seen when we compare the minor pentatonic scale to the different minor modes. Using the tonic A as an example, we can see how it is a part of all the minor modes: A natural minor:

A B C D E F G

A Phrygian:

A

A Dorian: A B C D E F♯ G A minor pentatonic:

Bb C D E F G

A

C

D

E

G

The only mode that does not contain a pentatonic scale in this way is the Locrian mode. For example: The Eb in A Locrian is neither a part of A major nor A minor pentatonic.

Of the six different scale types that do contain a pentatonic scale in this way, we will be focusing on the four most common ones: the major scale or Ionian mode, Mixolydian, the natural minor scale or Aeolian Mode, and Dorian. Let’s start applying all this theory to the guitar!

C Major Pentatonic Lead Pattern One with the C Major Scale The first diagram below presents a C major pentatonic scale using Lead Pattern One from the previous chapter. In Figure 7-01 I’ve added in the remaining notes of the C major scale, which are shown in gray.

Figure 7-01

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You can probably see that you could fill in a few more notes of C major around the lead pattern, but this is good starting place. Notice that I am using C major scale pattern five and part of pattern one, which are located in and around Lead Pattern One. You may wish to review the five major scale patterns found in Chapter 5 of Fretboard Theory.

C Major Pentatonic Lead Pattern Two with the C Major Scale Figure 7-02 shows Lead Pattern Two. First we see it as a C major pentatonic scale, then the remaining notes for C major are added in, again in gray. As before, you may find other notes from C major that will work with this lead pattern, but what I’ve shown here is a good starting place.

Figure 7-02

C Major Songs

Transposing To Other Keys

Practice these C major lead patterns over any song in the key of C major. For example, try playing them over “Let it Be” by The Beatles, “La Bamba” by Los Lobos, “Down On The Corner” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Blue Moon” by Chris Isaak, “All The Small Things” by Blink 182 or “Dyer Maker” by Led Zeppelin, just to name a few.

You can transpose these major scale lead patterns to other keys. As you practice duplicating these patterns in new positions be sure to practice playing along with songs in as many different keys as possible. For example, move a pattern up two frets and you can play along in D major with “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles and “With or Without You” by U2. In the key of E you can play along with “Yellow Ledbetter” by Pearl Jam and “Beast of Burden” by The Rolling Stones. Transpose a pattern to F major to play along with “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens. In the key of G you can play along with “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton and “Heaven” by Los Lonely Boys (guitars tuned down a half-step to E b).

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A Minor Lead Pattern One with the A Minor Scale Now let’s take a look at what a minor pentatonic scale looks when you add in the notes from the parallel natural minor. Figure 7-03 shows Lead Pattern One in A minor pentatonic followed by the same lead pattern with the remaining notes of A natural minor added in gray. Notice that we use the exact same notes and patterns as the C major version with the tonic note now as A.

Figure 7-03

Even though the tonic note changes when you change your focus from a major key to a its relative minor, the patterns themselves remain the same. By changing the tonic note to a different place in the pattern, your solos will better outline the quality of the key. With your awareness of the tonic note’s placement in the pattern, you will more easily finish your phrases on this note.

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A Minor Lead Pattern Two with A Minor Scale Figure 7-04 shows Lead Pattern Two as an A minor pentatonic scale, followed by an A natural minor scale. As with the previous patterns, study these ones carefully.

Figure 7-04

A Minor Songs Practice these A minor lead patterns over any song in the key of A natural minor. For example “Maria, Maria” by Santana, “Breakdown” by Tom Petty, “Fred Bear” by Ted Nugent, “One” by U2, “Californication” by Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, and “Mr. Jones” by The Counting Crows” just to name a few.

Transposing A Minor Lead Patterns You can transpose the A minor versions of these lead patterns to any key by shifting them up and down the neck. As you practice duplicating these patterns in new positions, be sure to practice playing along with songs in as many different keys as possible. Shift it up two frets and you can play along with “The Thrill is Gone” by B. B. King in the key of B minor. Moving the tonic to C♯ minor, and you can play along with “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix (guitars tuned down one half-step to Eb). In D minor you can play along with “Black Magic Woman” by Santana and “Layla” from the album Unplugged by Eric Clapton.

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Mixolydian Lead Patterns Just as we filled out the major pentatonic lead patterns with notes from the major scale, we can do the same with notes from the Mixolydian mode. Working with C Mixolydian as a reference, we can add its notes to both Lead Pattern One and Two as shown in Figure 7-05. Remember that C Mixolydian uses notes from the F major scale. Specifically, major scale patterns three and four in Lead Pattern One and major scale patterns five and one in Lead Pattern Two. These new patterns look pretty similar to the ones you studied for C major earlier. You will find that only one note is different, the flattened seventh scale degree. Take care when you are practicing these patterns to play this note correctly!

Figure 7-05

Transposing Mixolydian Patterns You can transpose the C Mixolydian lead patterns to other keys by moving it up and down the neck. When you do so, try to keep track of the where the tonic is in the pattern. Practice them in different keys, and with different songs. For example, transpose a pattern down one fret to B Mixolydian and you can play along with “But Anyway” by Blues Traveler, and “Fire On the Mountain” by Grateful Dead. Move the pattern up two frets to D Mixolydian to play along with “Seven Bridges Road” by The Eagles and “Sweet Child o’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses (guitars tuned to Eb). In E Mixolydian you can play along with “No Rain” by Blind Melon. In F Mixolydian you can play along with the verse to “Tequila” by The Champs. In G Mixolydian you can play along with “Take the Money and Run” by Steve Miller Band. In A Mixolydian you can play along with “Two Tickets to Paradise” by Eddie Money, “Southern Cross” by Crosby Stills & Nash and “Franklin’s Tower” by Grateful Dead.

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The Major Scale Compared With The Mixolydian Mode If we compare a major scale with a Mixolydian one, we can see that there is only one note different between them, the seventh scale degree. In a major scale this note is a semitone below the tonic, and in a Mixolydian mode the seventh is a whole-tone below the tonic. In popular music and jazz, this scale degree is often called a flattened seventh, and it is really what distinguishes a Mixolydian mode from a major scale. All the other scale degrees are the same between these two types of scales. With C major and C Mixolydian as examples, we can see that the difference is B versus Bb: Scale Degree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Scale Degree

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

C major:

C Mixolydian

C-D-E-F-G-A-B C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb

Figure 7-06

On the guitar, this similarity translates to both having very similar patterns. Typically the first six scale degrees are the same. Sometimes their sevenths will be on the same string, other times the flattened seventh of the Mixolydian mode may be on a lower string than that of the parallel major. If you are playing over a major chord in a song, it is likely either a major pattern or a Mixolydian one will work. It will be worth your well practising major and Mixolydian lead patterns you have studied here, separately, and transitioning between them as a kind of ear training exercise. As you begin to apply these patterns over music, you may be able to determine which major mode is correct by simply playing both patterns and listening to which sounds better. This is how some guitarists “play by ear,” knowing which patterns to play without analyzing a chord progression ahead of time. If the major seventh works, then use a major scale, if the flattened seventh works, use Mixolydian. Volume II

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Dorian Mode Lead Patterns Let’s look at the Dorian lead patterns. We will start with the minor pentatonic lead patterns that you already know, and add in the extra notes to complete the Dorian mode. Starting with A minor pentatonic lead patterns, we add in the notes from G major to make it an A Dorian scale. Specifically, major scale patterns two and three in Lead Pattern One and major scale patterns four and five in Lead Pattern Two. Remember that A Dorian is the second mode of G major. Both lead patterns follow below:

Figure 7-07

These patterns work for songs in A Dorian, that is songs using the chords from G major with Am as the tonic chord. These progressions are often ii-V, or i-IV if you renumber.

Transposing Dorian Patterns You can transpose these Dorian patterns to other keys by moving them up and down the neck. The key you will be playing in will correspond to the pitch found on the tonic note in the pattern. Play along with “Oye Como Va” by Santana, “Brickhouse” by The Commodores, “Le Freak” by Chic, the solo section to “It’s Too Late” by Carole King, and the verses to “Moondance’ by Van Morrison in A Dorian. In Ab Dorian you can play along with “Light My Fire” by The Doors. In D Dorian you can play along with “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd, the guitar solo to “Your Body is a Wonderland” by John Mayer, and the verses to “Ecstacy” by Rusted Root. In E Dorian you can play along with “Horse with No Name” by America and “Spooky” by Atlanta Rhythm Section. In Eb Dorian you can play along with “I Wish” by Stevie Wonder.

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Comparing The Natural Minor Scale With The Dorian Mode If we compare the natural minor scale with the Dorian mode, we can see that they have only one note different, the sixth scale degree: Scale Degree



1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Scale Degree



1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7

A natural minor: A-B-C-D-E-F-G

A Dorian:

A-B-C-D-E-F♯-G

With a tonic note of A, the difference is an F versus an F♯, a minor sixth, and a major sixth above the tonic note respectively. We can also see that both have an A minor pentatonic scale embedded within them: A-C-D-E-G. When we compare their patterns on the guitar, they will be very similar, except for the sixth scale degree. The sixth degree of the Dorian mode will typically be one fret higher than that of the natural minor scale.

Figure 7-08

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3 Makes 4

Other Scales and Genres

So far in this chapter we have looked at four different modes presented as different lead patterns, two major and two minor. The two major modes are the major scale, also known as the Ionian mode, and the Mixolydian mode. The two minor modes are the natural minor scale, or Aeolian mode, and Dorian.

Other than the pentatonic scales, and the four different scales presented in this chapter, the next most likely scale you may come across is the harmonic minor scale. I introduced this scale and its chords in Chapter 3, and we will take another look at it and its scale patterns in Chapter 9.

Since the major scale and the natural minor scale are relative to one another, their notes are exactly the same. This means that any major pattern we use will be the same for the natural minor pattern. All we have to do is change where we view the tonic note in the pattern. So for any pattern we learn, we only need three variations: major/minor, Mixolydian and Dorian.

All other scale-types are rarely used in popular music. When I search the Internet for the top one hundred guitar tabs, I see artists such as Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink Floyd. Their songs are mostly based on pentatonic and major scales, with the occasional harmonic minor scale.

If you play popular music, you probably only need to learn these modes and their patterns. We rarely need to use the other modes: Phrygian, Lydian and Locrian. So I will not be showing them as lead patterns in this chapter. If you do master what I have taught in this chapter, you probably could figure out how to build lead patterns for the remaining modes using the same process as a presented here: start with the pentatonic lead patterns and fill in the remaining notes. This method works well for Phrygian and Lydian modes, as they contain minor and major pentatonic scales within them. Locrian, however, will not work this way as it does not contain a pentatonic scale.

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You probably will not come across other scale-types unless you venture into jazz and some other genres of instrumental music. If you do have the opportunity to explore these kinds of music, and I hope you do at some point, then you better make sure you have mastered all the theory behind pentatonic and major scales. You will need it as a base for the more complicated music found in these other styles.

Major Pentatonic With Added Fourth As you now know, the two most common major scale-types are the major scale itself and the Mixolydian mode. The only difference between these two is the seventh scale degree. The major scale has a major seventh above the tonic, while the Mixolydian mode has a minor seventh, often thought of as a flattened seventh (b7). In all other respects these two scales are the same.

If we remove the seventh from our major and Mixolydian lead patterns, they will resemble a pentatonic lead pattern with an added fourth degree. Figure 7-09 shows the lead patterns in C major pentatonic with this added fourth.

Figure 7-09

You can use these lead patterns over both major scale and Mixolydian progressions. The main advantage is that you can treat most major chord progressions the same without worrying about whether it’s in a plain major key or in a Mixolydian mode. For example, if you’re playing over a song and you have at least figured out that it’s in a major key, but perhaps are unsure of the exact mode, go ahead and use a major pentatonic lead pattern with the added fourth. The odds are pretty good that the chord progression is either based on a plain major scale or a Mixolydian mode. If a song uses modal interchange between a major scale and Mixolydian, you can safely use these lead patterns as well. If a major pentatonic with an added fourth does not seem to work, and you are sure the song is in a major key, its probably in Lydian mode or maybe it’s actually a blues. To adjust the pattern to a Lydian mode, raise the fourth degree one half-step, a single fret. For a blues, play a minor lead pattern over the major chords.

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A Few Examples Good examples that use this major pentatonic with an added fourth include songs by The Allman Brothers Band. “Ramblin’ Man,” “Jessica” and “Blue Sky” have chord progressions that mix Ionian and Mixolydian and guitar solos based primarily on major pentatonic scales with frequent use of a fourth.

Minor Pentatonic With an Added Second Players also frequently use six note versions of the different minor scales. Let’s see what these scales look like on the guitar. The two most used minor scale-types are the natural minor scale and the Dorian mode. The only difference between these two scales is their sixth degree. The natural minor scale has a minor sixth above the tonic, while Dorian has a major sixth. If we remove the sixth from both, then these scales are exactly the same. When we look at their patterns on the guitar, they now also resemble a pentatonic scale with an added second degree. Below you will see both minor lead patterns with this added second.

Figure 7-10

You can use these patterns over both natural minor and Dorian progressions. This means that you can treat most minor chord progressions the same without worrying about the mode. If you are sure that the progression is at least in a minor key, you should be able to use the pentatonic patterns with the added second without any trouble, even if the progression uses modal interchange between the natural minor scale and the Dorian mode. If these patterns do not work over a minor key progression, it may actually be in the Phrygian mode. Try lowering the pattern’s second degree a half-step. If this still doesn’t seem right, the progression may be built out of a harmonic minor scale.

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Minor Pentatonic With Added Second Songs Two great examples that use this altered minor pentatonic scale are “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos and “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd. The well-known lead guitar riff in “Layla” is based on D natural minor, but simply uses D minor pentatonic with an added second, the note E. The guitar solo to “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) is built out of the D Dorian mode, but mostly uses the same D minor pentatonic with an added second.

Lead Patterns in Thirds and Sixths Now that we have covered several variations on our two basic lead patterns, it is a good time to show you how to play some of them in thirds and sixths. To begin, let’s play in thirds and sixths with C major pentatonic, drawing pitches from the C major scale. The following tabs show you a handful of ways to do this using the lead patterns.

Figure 7-11

Figure 7-12

Notice that in some measures the thirds are inverted to sixths. When a third is inverted, the lower note moves up an octave to become the higher note in the pair. The third C-E inverts to a sixth E-C. If we count from E to C, then we get six steps (E-F-G-A-B-C, one-two-three-four-five-six). With sixths a string often separates the two pitches. Harmonically speaking, as in chords, you hear the higher pitch as the root and the lower pitch as the third, but, technically speaking, these interval shapes should still be counted low to high. You may want to pull out your copy of Fretboard Theory and turn to Chapter 9 to review some of the theory for thirds and sixths (which I taught as inverted thirds), and for a list of different songs that use them.

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Next, let’s play thirds and sixths in the same C major lead patterns, but this time in Mixolydian mode. Here the parent major scale is F. All the B notes from the previous example have been changed to Bb notes.

Figure 7-13

Figure 7-14

Next, we’ll look at the relative minor key, A. Figures 7-15 and 7-16 show you how to play in both A minor lead patterns using thirds and sixths from the A minor scale.

Figure 7-15

Figure 7-16

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Finally, let’s play thirds and sixths in the same A minor lead patterns, but this time as Dorian mode. Here the parent major scale is G. All the F notes from the previous example have been changed to F♯ notes. I also changed slightly how you move through the scale in order to touch on the F♯.

Figure 7-17

Figure 7-18

Conclusion

What’s Next?

In this chapter I have shown you that you can incorporate the notes from complete major scales and modes by simply using the pentatonic lead patterns that you learned in Chapter 6. You also saw that you can use these lead patterns to play in thirds and sixths.

In the next chapter you will learn how to map out arpeggio patterns over these lead patterns. This will help you in your solos to outline chord progressions more clearly, and emphasize the tones within a chord.

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Chapter 8

Outlining Chords and Chord Progressions In This Chapter 1. Targeting chord tones 2. Outlining chord progressions 3. Using lead patterns with CAGED arpeggios 4. Playing along with tracks and songs In this chapter you are going to learn how to use CAGED arpeggio patterns to target chord tones while using pentatonic lead patterns. Specifically, you will target the root, third and fifth of each chord as you work through a progression. Targeting chord tones helps you to connect scales more closely to their related chords, as well as outline a particular chord progression. You will intentionally be emphasizing each note of the chord, creating a lead line that relates to the music. This approach is sometimes better than just randomly playing scales through a set of changes. You can apply this outlining technique to improvising, as well as to composing guitar solos, riffs, melodies and bass lines. We target chord tones by mapping an arpeggio pattern over a particular scale pattern. You will remember that we choose a scale that is related to the chord we are playing over. I presented CAGED arpeggio patterns in Fretboard Theory, Chapter 3 and The CAGED Template Chord System DVD. As you play through a scale pattern visualize each chord change with an arpeggio pattern, then emphasize, or target, the notes found in the arpeggio pattern.

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To begin with, we will work with a single chord. We will then add a simple chord change, eventually moving towards complete progressions in both major and minor keys. In the first half of this chapter I will focus on Lead Pattern One. In the second half I will cover Lead Pattern Two. Along the way you will get introduced to some solid examples of songs and different progressions. Use them for practice and developing your skills.

C Major Pentatonic with C Major Chord Our first example will be the C major pentatonic pattern one played over a C major chord. In the first fretboard diagram, all the clear dots represent the C major pentatonic scale with its scale degrees. In the second diagram, the black dots represent a C major arpeggio pattern, “G form.” The root (1), third (3) and fifth (5) notes of the chord are identified. The third diagram combines both of the previous ones. Here the black circles represent the C arpeggio within the scale. Both the black and clear dots, present the complete scale. Notice that the C chord fits quite neatly over top of the pentatonic pattern.

Figure 8-01

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GUIDE TONES vs CHORD TONES: Some musicians use the term guide tones

instead of chord tones. We often use both terms interchangeably, but we should be aware that there is a technical difference. Guide tones is a jazz term that refers to both the third and seventh of a chord. Jazz players prefer to target these notes. Chord tones refer to any of the notes found in the chord. In this chapter you will be learning how to target the notes of the basic triad: the root, third and fifth.

Changing Positions and Keys One of the nice things about fretted instruments is that you can learn a single chord shape or scale and transfer it to other positions on the guitar. This allows you to play in different keys without having to learn a new pattern for each one. For us, this means that this major pentatonic and C arpeggio combination that you just studied looks the same regardless of which key or position you wish to play. For example, to play in D major pentatonic and around a D major chord, simply shift the patterns up two frets. To play in B major pentatonic and around a B major chord, move the original patterns down one fret.

Targeting Chord Tones When playing over a particular chord you can emphasize its notes. With an arpeggio pattern such as the one above, this becomes easy because you have a kind of map of all the chord tones in a particular position on the neck. As you play through a pentatonic scale pattern, visualize the arpeggio and target these notes. It doesn’t matter which chord tones you play or even the order. You do not have to limit yourself to playing only chord tones. Go ahead and use the other notes in the scale pattern, but come back to a chord tone now and then. In this way your solos will support the underlying chord. A good place to target a chord tone is on the first beat of each measure. You should try doing this as you work through the material in this chapter. The opening riff to “My Girl” by The Temptations is a good example that outlines a C chord. The riff starts with the root note C on the first beat, then moves up through a C major pentatonic scale. The third of the chord, E, falls on beat three, another good place to play a chord tone. Whenever the progression returns to a C chord, the riff also returns to C on the downbeat.

STRONG BEATS: Jazz players are taught to target chord tones on beats one and three

of the measure. These are the stronger beats in common time. You may have learned its accent pattern: strong-weak-medium-weak. Playing chord tones on beats one and three will more clearly outline a chord and the progression.

Eventually, you can try targeting both beats one and three, but don’t get ahead of yourself. You have your hands full right now just trying to hit beat one with a chord tone. Get comfortable targeting beat one and then you can experiment with targeting beat three later on down the road.

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Play Over Chord Changes The real goal of this chapter is to get you outlining the different chords as they change through a progression. The first chord change you are going to learn to outline is C to F, a I-IV chord progression. You just learned how to play C major pentatonic together with a C major arpeggio pattern earlier in this chapter. Now let’s take a look at the same C major pentatonic scale pattern with an F arpeggio. The F chord that works best with the scale pattern we have been working with is a “C form” chord. If you learned the CAGED system from the first book and DVD then this should make sense to you. The “C form” F chord arpeggio pattern fits perfectly over the C major pentatonic pattern one, but a few of the notes are outside the scale: the two occurrences of the root note F. These new notes added to the pattern gives you more melodic possibilities. See the following diagrams.

Figure 8-02

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How to Practice Now that you have learned how to play both C and F arpeggios over C pentatonic pattern one, it’s time to practice switching between them. I would recommend that you follow these steps: 1. First practice playing the newer F arpeggio, ascending and descending, making sure that you have worked out both the fingering and picking, committing this arpeggio completely to memory. 2. Practice playing the C arpeggio on its own, followed by the F arpeggio.

3. Alternate between the two arpeggio patterns until you can comfortably change from one to the other at anytime on any string. 4. Create improvisations using the C major pentatonic pattern one, switching between targeting notes in the C arpeggio and the F arpeggio.

As you work with step 4, remember that you do not have to play only chord tones. Any note in the scale is fair game at any time, but outlining a bit of the chord now and then better connects what you’re playing to the chords, something that you should be able to hear rather quickly. The chord tones work especially well on the first beat of each measure when the chord changes. When done right, outlining the chords will give the listener an impression of the progression even if there is no rhythm player. If you ever thought your solos and melodies sounded too random or disconnected, you should notice a huge improvement in them when you are using arpeggios to target chord tones. Plus, chasing chord changes like a connect-the-dots game is pretty fun to play!

Strumming Barre Chords Sometimes you can be so focused on scale patterns that you lose sight of the chords that you are playing over. This is especially true when the pattern you are using for your solo does not correspond to the form of the chord you would normally use for rhythm playing. To address this you may wish to play through the barre chords that do correspond to the scale pattern you are using as a practice technique. You would not necessarily use these chords when you are playing rhythm guitar, but taking a minute right now to try them will help you with outlining chords in your solos. For the I-IV progression in C major, you can use a “G form” barre chord for the C chord and a “C form” barre chord for the F as shown in Figure 8-03.

Figure 8-03

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I often run through chord changes in this way before I start to solo. It helps remind me how to approach the chords within a scale pattern. If I were strictly playing rhythm guitar over this I-IV progression, then I probably would use the more common “E” and “A form” barre chords, or even just play open position chords. But the patterns we are now learning for outlining the chord progressions in our solos are based on chord forms that mirror a particular pentatonic pattern as closely as possible. Strumming through these chords as part of your practice will help you mentally prepare these patterns. So, before you attempt to outline a progression, take a minute to strum through the changes with chord shapes that correspond to the solo patterns. This is a good rule to follow throughout this chapter.

Practising With An Accompaniment Once you can comfortably change between the I and IV arpeggio patterns, its time to work with an accompaniment. You can create a simple accompaniment by recording yourself playing rhythm guitar over changes like those I have notated in Figure 8-04. Play your accompaniment using whatever chord forms make sense to you. Be sure to make your recording long enough so that you have enough material to work with. When you play back your recording, you can practice the scales and arpeggio patterns we have just covered. The example suggests two measures for each chord.

Figure 8-04

CREATING PLAY-ALONG TRACKS: It’s really quite easy to record you own play-

along rhythm tracks. The electronics market sells many different types of hand-held recorders. In addition, most computers have recording software and built in microphones. Simply record yourself playing a steady rhythm for a minute or two and then use it for playing over. Another possibility is to get a looping pedal for your guitar set-up. Once you add it to your effects chain, stomp on it and it begins recording what you are playing. Stomp on it again to stop recording and continuously loop back what you have just played. You can then solo along with the loop. Several types of software programs have sound banks of pre-recorded instrument parts that you can paste together in your own track. Aside from creating your own play along tracks, you can always play with other musicians.

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Playing With Songs After you’ve done all this rehearsing you’re ready to play along with some songs. You can solo over the verse to “My Girl” or any other song you can think of that has a C to F chord change. “I Melt With You” by Modern English works well because most of the song is C to F with two measures per chord at a moderate tempo. You will have plenty of time to work with each arpeggio pattern and change between them.

I-IV in Other Keys Once you are comfortable playing over this I-IV progression in C major, you should transpose the arpeggio patterns to other keys. As with most patterns on the guitar, simply move these ones up or down the neck to change to different keys. For example, move down one fret from C and you can play along to “Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen. This song is in B major with a I-IV chord progression: B and E throughout. Each chord is four measures long. Move the original patterns up two frets to D major to play over the solo section to “Jessica” by The Allman Brothers Band. Here the chords are D and G beginning around the 3:45 mark. You can clearly hear the players outlining the chords using various patterns. Shift the pattern up two more frets to E major and you can play over the solo section of another song by the Allman Brothers Band, “Blue Sky.” Beginning around the 1:07 mark we hear the chords E and A being outlined in the solos, I and IV of this key. If you find that these songs are too fast for you to follow, record yourself playing similar progressions at slower tempos or with more measures for each chord.

Figure 8-05

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Figure 8-05 (continued)

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Blues Songs Some blues, rock and other genres with a blues flavor are based on what appears to be I-IV or I-IV-V chord progressions. But there’s more to blues songs than just chasing these chords. Usually the rhythm section plays these chords as dominant sevenths and the soloists improvise with minor pentatonic scales. For these reasons, playing the major pentatonic as I have instructed here may not sound right. So I would avoid practicing this material with blues songs for now.

The Six-Note Scale

Using the Fourth Scale Degree

When you add the notes of the IV chord to a pentatonic scale you will have a scale with six notes, a major pentatonic scale with an added fourth. This scale is just one note shy of a full major scale; only the seventh is missing. Some people might think to call it a “hexatonic” scale, but there is no agreed name for it. Usually hexatonic refers to other types of scales, such as whole-tone and augmented scales, both of which are not used that much in popular music.

Players often use major pentatonic scales with an added fourth. You can use the fourth over a I-IV chord progression, as we have been, or you can even add the fourth over the I chord. When you add the fourth over the I chord and resolve it down to the third, your solo will be outlining a sus4 chord. We hear this use of the fourth scale degree quite a bit in the music of The Allman Brothers Band.

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Pentatonic Pattern Five in Lead Pattern One Returning to the key of C major, let’s focus on the I chord, C, found in the lower part of the lead pattern. Here the lead pattern corresponds to pentatonic pattern five. The C chord itself is “A form” of the CAGED barre chords. The first diagram below presents the full C major lead pattern you learned in Chapter 6. Following is the notes we will be working with first, the lower part of the lead pattern drawn from pentatonic pattern five. Next you’ll see a full C major arpeggio pattern “A form.” A diagram that combines the portion of the lead pattern and arpeggio that we are working on follows.

Figure 8-06

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The next two diagrams present the IV chord, here an F major chord, in a similar way. First, the complete F major arpeggio using a “D form” arpeggio. Then the extracted bit that works with the lower part of Lead Pattern One.

Figure 8-07

Practice Use the same steps here as you did earlier to practice these new arpeggio patterns. Memorize these new patterns and alternate between playing the C and F arpeggios. To prepare for playing these arpeggios, you may want to try playing some rhythm guitar in the same position and with the same chord forms you’re using for outlining.

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Pentatonic Pattern Two in Lead Pattern One The final section of Lead Pattern One draws from the first three strings of pentatonic pattern two. In C major this section appears between frets 8 and 10. For outlining the I and IV chords we can use C major “E form,” and F major “A form.” The first two diagrams in Figure 8-08 present the C major arpeggios: the complete arpeggio followed by the section that corresponds to the lead pattern. In the next two diagrams we see the same for F major. Memorize the shapes and patterns and then practice targeting the notes of the chords as you improvise. Remember to try playing along with recordings and practice tracks.

Figure 8-08

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Figure 8-08 (continued)

Working With The Complete Lead Pattern One

Transposing Patterns To Other Keys

Once you become comfortable with outlining the I and IV chord in each of the three sections of Lead Pattern One, it’s time to start integrating them into the complete lead pattern by playing along with some music. Have fun while exploring the different arpeggio patterns and linking up the sections with scale-like passages. Take your time and enjoy the learning process. The next step will be transposing these patterns to new keys, which will be as easy as shifting the same patterns to new positions on the neck of the guitar.

Part of the beauty of the guitar fretboard is that different chord shapes and other patterns are moveable up and down the neck. Once you know how to outline a I-IV chord progression in Lead Pattern One, you can simply shift the patterns, including the arpeggios, to different positions on the fretboard in order to play in different keys. No need to learn a new set of patterns for each new key, just duplicate the exact same ones you already know at the right fret. Be sure to keep track of the tonic note, because that’s the key you are playing. Remember that while the actual notes and chord names change as you change keys, the relationships between the scale degrees and those of the chord progressions remain the same.

Staying Within The Patterns In these patterns I am only using the specific section of each arpeggio pattern that corresponds directly with a particular section of the lead pattern. We can clearly see this with the last two sections that are drawn from pentatonic patterns five and two. For the most part, this gives you plenty to work with. Nevertheless there is no rule that says you must confine yourself to only these notes. You may decide to wander off into the remaining sections of the arpeggio patterns, which is fine. You could also play notes that belong to the pentatonic patterns, but are outside of the lead pattern as well. Perhaps for now it is better to stick with the patterns I have presented here. You will become proficient in finding your way around the neck when you set some initial boundaries. This is why so many guitar players use these lead patterns in the first place.

You should be able to figure out other keys on your own. You could focus on the keys of A, B, C, D, E, F and G major. Later perhaps you can explore keys like Bb major and F♯ major. Work your way up the fretboard as high as you can go. Then work your way down towards the nut. As you move closer to the nut, you can use open strings with some of the keys. Others you may not be able to complete in the open position. Figure out what you can. Remember to play along with some recorded music in each key that you explore.

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Practice Makes Perfect

Licks and Phrases

Getting good at targeting chord tones requires a great deal of practice. Spend a few days or even a whole week developing your skills outlining chords. Play along with different songs, tracks, your own recordings or loops and other musicians. Any music that is based on a I-IV chord progression will do. Once you feel like you’ve got the hang of it, come back and we’ll add the V chord.

One of the most common questions guitar players ask me is: “How can I play cool licks and phrases so that it doesn’t sound like I’m just playing up and down a scale pattern?” It seems every guitarist recognizes that good guitar playing is not just a matter of using the right scale; it’s a matter of creating something with the scale that sounds good. This requires the use of licks, phrases, different techniques and tone color. Where do you learn how to use these ideas? From songs! Every part of a song that you learn, including its chord changes, riffs, solos, bass lines and so on, will teach you about phrasing, style and technique. This is why I include so many song references throughout my books and videos. You should look up and learn those songs on your own. You can learn songs from tab books, tab websites, DVDs and video websites. You can also learn by simply using your ear and watching others. I have spent countless hours pressing my ear against a stereo and rewinding video players trying to figure out what the guitar was doing in a song. It helped make me what I am today. Every single great musician got good by learning songs and copying others. You should do the same.

When to Outline Chords It’s not necessary to use this outlining technique all the time. You could just think C major even when you’re playing over an F chord if you want. Any note in the scale is fair game at any time. While some notes will sound better than others depending on what is happening in the music, there are no rules. Note selection is still a matter of personal preference. It’s up to you to decide what sounds good or what is appropriate for the musical situation. If you want to rock out in a loose, somewhat disconnected fashion, then just rip freely through the scale and forget about the chords. If you want something more melodic and tightly woven with the chords, then use target notes. Sometimes not putting much thought into your solo is the right decision, while other times you may need to plan out every note. Perhaps some situations call for a combination of approaches. Also, you can improvise as you go or plan out something specific beforehand. Don’t forget about guitar techniques such as slides, bends, hammer-ons and pull-offs. If you are playing an electric guitar, you can add even more variety by using different tone settings and effects. Outlining chord tones is a useful technique for both improvising and composing. Use it in building guitar solos, riffs, melodies and bass lines.

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The V Chord Now that you know how to play over and outline the IV chord with Lead Pattern One, let’s go through the same process again but this time with the V chord. To do this we will return back to the key of C major where the V chord is G. In the diagrams below you can see the C major pentatonic pattern one, followed by a “D form” G arpeggio pattern and finally a combination of the pentatonic pattern and the arpeggio of the V chord.

Figure 8-09

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V Chord Songs Two songs that are perfect for practicing a I-V chord progression in C are “You Never Can Tell,” some times called “C’est La Vie,” by Chuck Berry and “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” by Hank Williams. The chord progression in “You Never Can Tell” is C to G with eight measures for each chord. “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” is C to G with four measures for each chord. With both songs you have plenty of time to outline each chord. You can also create your own tracks to play over, just use something similar to the chord chart below.

Figure 8-10

Transposing and Practising I-V Progressions Once you become comfortable playing over a I-V chord progression in C, try it in other keys. For example, the entire song “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus is based on a I-V chord progression in A major. The changes are slow enough to give you plenty of time on each chord. The same is true for “Rainy Day Woman” by Waylon Jennings. “Me and Bobby McGee” as performed by Janis Joplin has a section beginning around 1:30 that includes the changes A to E with a full eight measures on each chord. Many folk songs are based on I-V chord progressions including: “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands,” “Skip To My Lou,” “Shortnin’ Bread,” “Go Tell Aunt Rhody,” “Down In The Valley,” “Clementine” and “Buffalo Gals.” If you search “two chord songs” on the Internet you will find more examples like these, as well as some traditional country and bluegrass songs.

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Other Keys At this point you should be able to figure out on your own how to play in keys other than C. As you explore new keys, try different tempos and different harmonic rhythms, the rate at which the chords change. For example, the chords could change every eight measures, four, two, one or even every half measure. After working out some different keys, find a few I-V songs to play along with. Perhaps you know of songs other than the ones I mentioned earlier. They do not need to be entirely based on a I-V progression. You could choose a verse, chorus or even a bridge section. You might have a piece of audio software that you can use to make a loop out of a particular segment for practising. Once you get the hang of outlining the V chord in pentatonic pattern one, come back and I’ll show you how to cover the area over pentatonic pattern five.

V Chord: Pentatonic Pattern Five Let’s move on to the section of Lead Pattern One built out of pentatonic pattern five. Here the V chord shape we would use is the “E form.” In the next three diagrams, I first show the section of the lead pattern that corresponds to pentatonic pattern five, followed by the complete G arpeggio “E form,” and finally, the scale and arpeggio patterns combined together. Memorize and practice these patterns using the same steps as with the earlier ones. When you are ready, try playing over a song, rhythm track or loop. Take your time and have fun.

Figure 8-11

You can now go back and rehearse the songs and sample progression from earlier in various keys using this new position.

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V Chord: Pentatonic Pattern Two Now let’s add the V chord to the third and final section of Lead Pattern One. You may recall that this part of the lead pattern is derived from pentatonic pattern two. The chord shape that we can use for the V chord is the “C form.” The first diagram of Figure 8-12 shows the section of the lead pattern we are working on. The complete G major arpeggio “C form” follows this. Finally, the two are combined. Now, memorize the patterns and practice! Remember to play along with songs and practice tracks.

Figure 8-12

You can now go back and rehearse the songs and sample progression from earlier in various keys using this new position. So far we have worked on targeting the three primary chords, I, IV and V within Lead Pattern One. We have seen how to combine them in progressions like I-IV and I-V in C major as well as other major keys. Before moving on to the next section in this

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chapter, be sure that you are completely comfortable with this material. It’s fine at this point, or at any point in any chapter in this book, to take a few days, a whole week or more to practice and really let the material sink in to the fingers and brain. There are no deadlines here. Take your time, take breaks and enjoy the learning process. In the next section we will work on combining all three chords in larger progressions.

Chord Progressions With I, IV and V Now it’s time to combine what you have learned to outline progressions that use all three of the primary chords. Different combinations of these three chords, I, IV and V, make up the most common progressions in music. The first diagram of Figure 8-13 shows an F major pentatonic scale as Lead Pattern One. The following diagrams show the arpeggio patterns for the I, IV and V chord of F major: F, Bb and C.

Figure 8-13

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I-IV-V Songs As you begin playing over and outlining songs with these three chords be sure to pick songs that have simple, repetitive progressions that spend plenty of time on each chord. A sample progression follows in Figure 8-14.

Figure 8-14

Notice how this example returns to the I chord after the IV chord and before continuing on to the V chord. This makes it great for practice at this stage because you have an opportunity to settle back into the tonic chord before making another change. Trust me, this will better help your brain keep track of what you are playing. A great song that is similar to this example is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens. I suggest you start your practice with it or something similar.

I, IV,V Equals The Complete Major Scale When you combine all the notes of the primary triads, you wind up with a complete major scale. Starting with the pentatonic scale of F major: F-G-A-C-D, the IV chord adds a Bb to the scale and the V chord adds an E.

Practising and Transposing I, IV,V Progressions Once you get the hang of playing over I, IV, V progressions in F major, start transposing the patterns and progressions to new keys and keep practicing. Over time, as you get better at keeping up with I, IV, V chord changes, you’ll find that you can increase the tempo and even reduce the number of beats for each chord.

SEEING SPOTS: Right now you may be wondering if this is really how guitar players view

the guitar neck while they play. The answer is yes, but each player visualizes the neck to a different extent. Some guitar players are blessed with a really good ear. They can hear how the music changes and relate that to the fretboard instantly. Most of us, however, need to map out different concepts on the fretboard as patterns to visualize how the music works. I’m definitely a visualizer, but the longer I play the more my ear directs my playing. That’s the beauty of this system. If you can’t hear it, you can still get there by following the patterns. Over time your hearing will develop. Eventually your ear will start to lead you.

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Songs With I, IV and V

I As the Tonic in I, IV,V Songs

As you practice playing in other keys, try to start with really easy, slow songs that give you plenty of time for each chord. Good examples include traditional songs like “Silent Night,” and “Amazing Grace.” Popular songs include “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton in G major and “Yellow Ledbetter” by Pearl Jam in the key of E.

As you choose different songs to practice three chord progressions, be sure that the I chord is functioning as the tonic. This is important to consider because the patterns you have been studying are built from a pentatonic scale where the tonic note of that scale corresponds to the I chord.

In time you should be able to gradually increase the tempo. Try songs like “Brown Eyed Girl” in G major by Van Morrison and “Down on the Corner” by Creedence Clearwater Revival in C. Eventually you may be able to keep up with faster chord changes like the ones found in “La Bamba” by Los Lobos, C major, “Twist and Shout” in D by The Beatles, “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, G major, “When the Sun Goes Down” by Kenny Chesney, A major, and “Free Fallin’” in F by Tom Petty. “Mother” in G major by Pink Floyd is another good three chord song to play over if you can follow the unusual time signatures. One final song that I should mention is “Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin, a great song to practice with! It has long sections on each chord during the verses. It also has some quicker changes during the chorus and a key change from G to A, the solo section at the end that is simply a I-V progression in A with eight measures on each chord. These songs are just a few examples to help you get started, but of course there are countless I, IV, V songs you could try. Find them and play along with them. If you have trouble keeping up, then try slower songs or make your own tracks. Gradually try to increase your tempo and decrease the number of measures or beats on each chord.

If, for example, you choose a song that uses a I, IV, V chord progression, but has the V chord as the tonic chord, as would be for a Mixolydian song, you will find that your solos will not work so well. Songs in Mixolydian mode need to be handled differently. We will see how to work with this mode shortly. Incidentally, “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd is not in Mixolydian mode. Even though it starts on the V chord, D, the I chord, G, is actually the tonal center. The progression is V-IV-I in G. You can improvise over it with G major pentatonic patterns outlining the progression V-IV-I.

Blues Songs Remember that blues, rock and other types of songs with a blues flavor are based on what appears to be I, IV, V chord progressions, but there may be more going on in the music. These styles often use dominant seventh chords and minor pentatonic scales. For these reasons playing the major pentatonic scales as instructed here may not sound right. It may be best to avoid blues songs for now.

Minor Chords As you know, there are six chords that are commonly used in a major key: the I, ii, iii, IV, V and vi chords. Now that you have spent some time working with the major chords, let’s add a minor chord. We’ll focus on the vi chord since it’s the most common.

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The vi Chord The following diagrams show you how to place a vi chord into the key of D and over pentatonic pattern one. Here the vi chord is Bm and its arpeggio is the “Em form.” Bm is the relative minor to D major. You’re essentially changing the pentatonic from its major to minor form.

Figure 8-15

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Full Lead Pattern With vi The next diagram fills in the whole D major lead pattern. In the position of pentatonic pattern five you can play part of a “Gm form” for Bm. In the position of pentatonic pattern two you can play part of a “Dm form” for Bm.

Figure 8-16

You can practice by playing over the sample progression given below.

Figure 8-17

I-vi Songs A few songs that have sections perfect for practicing a I-vi chord progression are “Shout” by The Isley Brothers, F-Dm, “Trinity” by Santana Featuring Kirk Hammett & Robert Randolph, G-Em, and “Life Without You” by Stevie Ray Vaughan, A-F♯m, guitar tuned to Eb.

I-V-vi-IV Songs A common progression that uses the vi chord is I-V-vi-IV, which adds in two major chords to the mix. Below is a chart of these chords in D major for you to use in your practice.

Figure 8-18

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The following diagrams show the different patterns for the chords on the neck of the guitar. Once you are comfortable with this progression in D major, try transposing it to other keys.

Figure 8-19

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“With or Without You” by U2 is built out of this progression in D major. Each chord lasts a full measure in a nice slow tempo. The progression is used throughout the song. The instrumentation is quite sparse in some sections leaving you plenty of room for playing along.

Transposing I-V-vi-IV

Other Types of Chord Changes

The I-V-vi-IV chord progression and its variations is extremely common in popular music. A short list of songs follow to get you started, but there are many more. By now, you should be able to figure out how to transpose the patterns for this chord progression on your own. Remember, if a key falls close to the open position, try it up an octave above the twelfth fret.

We have covered three major chords and one minor chord using some of the most common types of chord progressions found in popular music, but of course there are many more types of chord changes that you can play over. Using what you have learned, you should now be able to map out other options on your own.

Move the patterns down two frets to C major and you can play over “Let It Be” by The Beatles, which is I-V-vi-IV, I-V-IV-I. Also in C and with a similar progression is “No Woman No Cry” by Bob Marley. In B you can play along with “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz. In A major, “Blessed Be Your Name” by Matt Redman and “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by Bob Denver. Transpose the progression to E major and you can play along with “Beast of Burden” by The Rolling Stones.

I-vi-IV-V Songs Another popular progression that includes the vi chord is I-vi-IV-V. It’s the same chords as in the previous progression, only in a slightly different order. Songs based on this progression include “Every Breath You Take” in Ab by The Police, “Stand By Me” in A by Ben E. King, “Earth Angel” in B b by The Penguins, “Unchained Melody” in C by The Righteous Brothers and “Runaround Sue” in D by Dion.

For example, you could map out chord ii and practice playing over progressions and songs that use it. With its G and Am chords, “Heaven” by Los Lonely Boys would be perfect for practicing a ii chord. It would use G major pentatonic with G and Am arpeggios. You can also try mapping out a bVII chord. “Fire on the Mountain” by The Grateful Dead uses B and A in B Mixolydian mode. That would be B major pentatonic with B and A arpeggios. I’ll leave it to you to figure out the specific forms.

Minor Pentatonic Lead Pattern Up until now we have been working with major key patterns and progressions. Now it’s time to turn our attention to minor keys. We will start with an A minor progression, the relative minor of C major.

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i-bVI Chord Progressions

Recall that when the tonic chord of a progression is the vi chord, the progression is in a natural minor key or Aeolian mode. The following diagrams get you oriented to the A minor Lead Pattern One, then add an F major chord to make a vi-IV chord progression. You can also renumber this progression with Am as i to i-bVI. The resulting patterns are very similar to a I-IV progression in C major. It might be a good idea at first to focus your attention on a single section of the lead pattern and slowly work through the rest of the pattern.

Figure 8-20

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i-bVI Songs

A couple of great songs for practicing i-bVI chord progressions in A minor include “Californication” by Red Hot Chili Peppers and “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. The chords for the introduction and verses of “Californication” are mostly Am to F. The solo section to “Stairway to Heaven” has a G chord in it as well, but it goes by so quickly that you can focus on Am and F in your own solos. You can also create your own tracks using the following sample progression.

Figure 8-21

i-bVII Chord Progressions

Now let’s see what it looks like to combine i and bVII. For this example I am using E minor pentatonic. The i chord is Em and the bVII chord is D. In its parent major scale of G these same chords are vi and V.

The following diagrams present the E minor pentatonic Lead Pattern One with D major arpeggios. This is very similar to what the lead pattern looked like when you played over a I-V progression in a major key. Again, it might be a good idea to focus your attention on just part of the lead pattern at first, like the part based on pentatonic pattern one. You can add the rest of the lead pattern into your practice one section at a time.

Figure 8-22

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i-bVII Songs

There are several great songs for practicing i-bVII progressions. In Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine” you can treat both the introduction and verses as a measure each of Em and D. You can identify this progression as vi-V in G major or i-bVII in Em. “Planet Caravan” by Black Sabbath also uses Em-D. The guitars in “Come As You Are” by Nirvana are in an alternate tuning, but the pitches match Em and D. You can also create your own tracks using the following sample progression.

Figure 8-23

Transpose the lead pattern to Cm and you can play over the verses to “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5. “Ain’t Talking’ ‘Bout Love” by Van Halen is Am and G with guitars tuned down one half-step to Eb.

COCAINE: You can actually play over “Cocaine” by Eric Clapton in a couple of different ways.

Clapton himself generally uses minor pentatonic scales. On his live album Just One Night at 2:45 into “Cocaine” Clapton interprets the progression as ii-I in D major, playing solos based on E Dorian. You can clearly hear him playing this mode in its entirety in the recording. You can choose different modes for your solos in this song because the tonic chord in the progression is a power chord, having only a root and fifth without a third. This allows you to treat it as either a major or minor chord. At 4:33 in this same live recording, Clapton’s sideman, Albert Lee, uses E Mixolydian mode for his solo, playing over the progression as if it were E major to D, I-bVII or V-IV in A major.

A final possibility is to treat the progression as vi-V in G, giving you E natural minor scales to work with. This is the approach I take in this section on minor keys. Incidentally, it’s only in circumstances like this, when the mode is not already clearly defined, that you can choose which mode to use.

Songs With i, bVI and bVII Now that you’ve practised playing i-bVI and i-bVII chord progressions, you can try outlining i, bVI and bVII

together.

The progression to the introduction and guitar solo sections to “Layla” by Eric Clapton, from the album Unplugged, is Dm-Bb-C, i-bVI-bVII in D minor or vi-IV-V in its relative major scale, F. All of “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix is C♯m-B-A-B, with guitars tuned down one half-step to Eb. The ending solo to “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam is Em-D-C. The verses and the solo section to “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica uses the progression Em-D-C. All of “Fred Bear” by Ted Nugent is Am-F-G.

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If the songs are too fast for you to keep up with the changes, then make your own tracks and slow the tempo down for your practice. Perhaps you know of other songs based on i, bVI and bVII that you are able to keep up with. In any case, practice different combinations of these chords in a variety of keys until you can play over them well. The following is sample chord progression in D minor. I’ve also included fretboard diagrams for this example.

Figure 8-24

Figure 8-25

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i-bVI-bVII Chord Progressions

In addition to outlining major chords in a minor key, you can outline other minor chords. In the key of A minor it’s common to use the chords Dm and Em. All together these chords make up a minor one-fourfive chord progression. The next set of diagrams present Lead Pattern One in A minor pentatonic with Dm and Em arpeggios.

Figure 8-26

You should see that A minor lead pattern with Dm arpeggios looks the same as C major lead pattern with Dm. The same can be said for the Am lead pattern with Em, and C major with Em arpeggios.

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i, iv, v Songs Two great songs for practicing outlining these minor chords are “Maria, Maria” and “Black Magic Woman” both by Santana. The chords for “Maria, Maria” are Am, Dm and Em with each lasting two complete measures at a nice and slow tempo. The chords for “Black Magic Woman” are Dm, Gm and Am. You can play over this song by moving the lead and arpeggio patterns up five frets to play in D minor. Practice outlining these minor chords by playing over the two Santana songs or by creating your own track using the following sample chord progression.

Figure 8-27

Other Types of Chord Changes

Em Chord Progression 1

There are other types of chord changes that can occur in a minor key. Probably the most popular is a change from a minor tonic to a major four-chord as occurs in Dorian mode. “Oye Como Va” by Santana is i-IV in A minor or ii-V in G if you prefer to view it in its parent major scale. To play over this song use A minor pentatonic and map out Am and D major arpeggios. Some other chord change options will be explored next.

The first example is “Heart of Gold” by Neil Young in the key of E minor. It uses the chord progression Em-C-D-G. Take the E minor pentatonic and add arpeggios to it.

Putting It All Together You have added both major and minor arpeggio patterns to the minor lead pattern and worked on outlining simple progressions. Now you’re ready to outline progressions that have more changes in them and a mix of major and minor chords. I have a handful of examples to get you started on, but it will be up to you to map everything out.

Bm Chord Progression This next example is “The Thrill is Gone” by B. B. King in the key of B minor. It uses the chord progression Bm-Em-Bm-G-F♯m. Take the B minor pentatonic and add arpeggios to it. Starting to get interesting, huh?

Em Chord Progression 2 This second E minor example is “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix. It uses the chord progression EmG-Am-Em-Bm-Am-C-G-F-C-D. Take the E minor pentatonic and add arpeggios to it.

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“Little Wing” not only includes chords from E minor (relative to G major) but also a borrowed chord, F, from E Phrygian. If you look at “Little Wing” as being in G major, then the F chord is borrowed from G Mixolydian, a common modal interchange. There’s a lot to keep track of here, almost too much, but it’s both a great exercise to practice and song to learn.

G Major Chord Progression This final example is “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd in the key of G major. It uses the chord progression G-D-Em-F-C-D. The F chord is borrowed from G Mixolydian. Take the G major pentatonic and add arpeggios to it. Now you’re flying high!

Before Moving On Once you understand how to outline chord changes in Lead Pattern One, the next step is to repeat the process you just did with Lead Pattern Two and the different arpeggio patterns. Before you move on, however, be sure to give yourself plenty of time to practice, play and let everything you have learned so far sink in. Remember to play along with recordings or create your own tracks. You can improvise your way through the scale and arpeggio patterns as you go, or plan out your solos ahead of time. You can use this technique of outlining chord progressions for: improvising, composing guitar solos, riffs, melodies, bass lines and even writing parts for other instruments. You can play on either acoustic or electric guitar. If you are playing on an electric, then you can experiment with using different tones and effects. You can play something simple, like The Edge did on “With or Without You,” or play something complex, like Jimi Hendrix did on “Little Wing.” Whatever you do, take your time and enjoy the learning process.

Lead Pattern Two We build Lead Pattern Two on the fifth string using pentatonic pattern four and half of pattern three. The corresponding barre chords are either a “C form” chord for a major scale or an “Am form” for a minor key. Since you already understand how the process of mapping out arpeggios works, I’m going to really simplify the presentation in this section. In fact, I’m just going to provide diagrams for the most common chords used in a major key and the most common chords used in a minor key. The rest is up to you! As you work with Lead Pattern Two, use it over all the examples presented earlier in this chapter. This includes all the sample chord progressions and song references. I’m going to start you in the key of E major, which puts you between the lower and middle section of the guitar neck. Here now is E major Lead Pattern Two with some chords that it is commonly played over. These patterns are perfect for playing along with “Beast of Burden” by The Rolling Stones, which is also in E. After you memorize these patterns, transpose them to new keys. Play over any songs that use these chords.

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Figure 8-28

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Now we can switch to the relative minor. The patterns will be moved up one fret giving us the key of D minor, which is perfect for playing over “Black Magic Woman” by Santana and “Layla” Unplugged by Eric Clapton. After these patterns are memorized, transpose them to different keys and practice them over songs that use these chords.

Figure 8-29

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Figure 8-29 (continued)

Other Types of Chord Changes

Other Scales and Chords

In addition to the two groups of chords that you just learned, you can map out other types of chord changes in Lead Pattern Two. For example, in a major key you can play over a bVII chord as is done in Mixolydian mode. In a minor key you can play over a IV chord as is done in Dorian mode. And you can map out songs with modal interchange like “Little Wing” and “Free Bird.” By now you know the drill and ought to be able to map out new chord changes on your own.

You can use the outlining technique you have learned here with any scale type. Whether you’re using pentatonic scale patterns, major scale patterns, modes, or harmonic minor scales, you can always use CAGED type chords mapped out as arpeggios to create solos that follow different chord changes. You can also outline more complex chords than the basic triads we have seen here. For example, jazz players prefer to use seventh and ninth chords rather than just simple triads. Now that you understand the process, you should be able to figure out on your own how to apply these techniques to other types of chords. Try not to get ahead of yourself, however. Stick with triads for now and then gradually add more complex chords as your skills develop.

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Conclusion

What’s Next

Wow! What a chapter! Normally seeing spots is an indication of an eye disorder, but for guitar players it’s how we visualize arpeggios within a scale and outline chords. You will never look at the fretboard the same again. Instead of just playing randomly up and down a scale pattern, now you can use the chord tones as your guide, playing with more direction. This will tie your solos, riffs, melodies and bass lines more strongly to the song’s chord progression. In fact, many players, especially jazz players, do not think scales as much as they think chords; everything is arpeggios to them. But remember that outlining is just one option and sometimes a different approach may be better.

In the next chapter you are going to learn harmonic minor scale patterns and how to use them. You have already learned about the origins of the scale and its chord progressions way back in Chapter 3, but that chapter did not cover using the scale to play melodies, riffs and solos.

You do not have to completely master every chord change and every position illustrated in this chapter. It’s fine to just focus on what you are most comfortable with playing, or what you are most likely to use. The important thing is that you now know how to outline chords when the need arises. Happy jamming!

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So get ready to add harmonic minor scale notes to the lead patterns and outline harmonic minor chord progressions!

Chapter 9

Using Harmonic Minor Scale Patterns In This Chapter: 1. Building the harmonic minor scale 2. Using lead patterns 3. Outlining V7 chords 4. Play harmonic minor scale patterns I introduced the harmonic minor scale to you in Chapter 3 where we looked at the dominant function and minor chord progressions with a V7 chord. In this chapter we will pick up where Chapter 3 left off, teaching you harmonic minor scale patterns and how to use this scale for improvisation. Be sure that you have completed Chapter 3 so that the material we work with here will make sense.

Building a Harmonic Minor Scale The harmonic minor scale is a variation on the natural minor scale. To make a harmonic minor scale, start with a natural minor and raise its seventh scale degree a half-step. For example, to make an A harmonic minor scale, start with A natural minor and raise the pitch G in the scale to G♯. A Natural Minor

1 2 b3 4 5 b6

b7

A B C D E F G A Harmonic Minor

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7

A B C D E F G♯

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Learning Harmonic Minor Scale Patterns Raising the seventh in the minor scale creates new scale patterns to learn. But, believe it or not, I do not recommend learning all the patterns of the harmonic minor scales on the fretboard in the beginning. As we shall see, it’s more important to understand when and why it appears.

V7 and the Harmonic Minor Scale What we see in music is that the harmonic minor scale appears only for the V7 chord in a minor key progression. The natural minor scale is employed on the other chords. For example, in progressions like Am-E7, Am-F-E7, and Am-G-F-E7, we only need to use the G♯ of the harmonic minor scale over the E7 chord. For the remaining chords, a G-natural will work better. We see this in the song “Smooth” by Santana. The song’s main progression is AmF-E7. Carlos Santana only uses the A harmonic minor scale in his solos over the E7 chord. He uses the pitches from A natural minor over the Am and F chords.

DO YOU HAVE TO USE THE HARMONIC MINOR SCALE?

You do not always have to the use harmonic minor over a V7 chord in a minor key. You can continue to play the natural minor scale or just a minor pentatonic scale. When you do, its seventh scale degree will create a dissonance with one of the pitches in the V7 chord, but in a musically agreeable way. For example, in the key of A minor, the minor seventh scale degree G will sound against the E7’s G♯. But guess what? It still works! In music theory terms, the sound you are creating is an E 7♯ 9 chord. A chord like this can be a big part of a bluesy sound. If, however, you want to get the full effect of the harmonic minor sound, then use the raised seventh. This will be our focus throughout the chapter.

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THE E7♯9 CHORD: An E 7♯9 chord is built with the chord tones 1-3-5-b7-♯9. It’s a dominant

seventh chord with a sharp ninth added above the seventh. Let’s look at this chord’s pitches:

1

3 5

b7

♯9

E G♯ B D F-double-sharp As we can see, the interval of a ninth is actually a compound second, E-F-double-sharp, only with an added octave. Although we usually think of this pitch in the chord as a sharpened ninth, it is useful to read this pitch enharmonically to understand why it works the way it does. The F-double-sharp is actually the same note as G-natural. So now we can see that the E 7♯ 9 chord contains both a G♯ and G, a major and minor third in the chord! These two pitches create a dissonance that makes for an edgy, bluesy, even mean type of sound with a lot of musical tension in it. Various styles of music including jazz, blues, funk and rock employ altered dominant chords like this one as part of their basic sound. This chord is sometimes nicknamed the “Hendrix Chord” or the “Purple Haze Chord” among rock guitarists. It was a favorite chord of Jimi Hendrix, and he did a great deal to popularize its use in mainstream rock music. You can also hear an E7♯9 chord in “Born To Be Wild” by Steppenwolf, “The Lemon Song” by Led Zeppelin, “Testify” by Stevie Ray Figure 9-01 Vaughan and “Funk #49” by The James Gang. Now that you know the harmonic minor scale is used only temporarily in a piece of music along with the natural minor scale, you can understand why I do not recommend learning the scale by starting with its full patterns across the neck. Instead, I think it’s better to take the two lead patterns I taught you in Chapter 6 and learn how to add the raised seventh when you need it. This will be mostly for playing over the V7 chord, and this is how most guitar players use the harmonic minor scale anyway. After you can incorporate the harmonic minor scale into the lead patterns, I will go ahead and show you how to cover the whole neck, which you may or may not decide to learn. I will use the following process to teach you how to use the harmonic minor scale. First you will learn how to simply add a raised seventh to the minor pentatonic lead patterns. Next, you will learn how to outline the V7 chord with an arpeggio pattern. Then you will learn to fill in the notes that complete the harmonic minor scale within the lead patterns. Along the way you will work on switching between the natural and harmonic minor scales. Finally, I will encourage you to practice each step over harmonic minor chord progressions and songs. After you work through these stages, you will be using entire natural minor and harmonic minor scales. I will end this chapter with an optional section that shows you how to play across the neck with these patterns.

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Lead Pattern One with Raised Seventh The best way to get started is to play over a simple minor chord progression, using the lead patterns and adding a raised seventh over the V7 chord. We will start with A minor pentatonic in Lead Pattern One with the chords Am and E7. In Figure 9-02 you will see Lead Pattern One in A minor followed by the same lead pattern with the raised seventh scale degrees shown in gray.

Figure 9-02

Next is a simple chord progression with a measure each of Am and E7.

Figure 9-03

Now record yourself strumming the chords in Figure 9-03 for a couple of minutes. You will use this recording as a backing track for practice. You can also use a looping device or a program that allows you to assemble pre-recorded tracks. Once you have a recording to work with, play the A minor pentatonic lead pattern over it. Whenever the progression moves to E7, try to play the raised seventh scale degree. If you can, try to play this note on the first beat of the E7 measure. When the progression returns to Am, leave the raised seventh out of your solo, just using the A minor pentatonic. If you find your recording changes chords too fast, either re-record your play-along track at a slower tempo, or increase the number of measures per chord in the chart. As you work with this simple exercise you should begin to hear the sound-quality of the harmonic minor. You will also be able to use this sound, created mostly by the raised seventh degree, without having to learn a whole new set of patterns.

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Figure 9-04 shows A minor pentatonic Lead Pattern Two with the raised sevenths in gray.

Figure 9-04

Now use the recording you made earlier to practice targeting the raised seventh degree using Lead Pattern Two. You can also practice by playing over any song in A harmonic minor. Some examples include “Smooth” and “El Farol” by Santana, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” by Santo & Johnny, “Still Got the Blues” by Gary Moore, “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, and Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra.” Whenever the E7 chord comes up in the chord progression, try and use the raised seventh. For the rest of the chords, use the pentatonic scale without the raised seventh.

Transposition

Outlining the V7 Chord

As you could with everything else you have studied in this book, you can transpose these lead patterns with the added raised seventh to other keys simply by moving them up and down the neck. Whatever key you choose to play in, use both the minor tonic chord and its V7 in your practice progressions. For example, use Em-B7 in the key of E minor, Gm-D7 for G minor, and in D minor the chords for I-V7 are Dm-A7. You could also try playing along with any of the harmonic minor songs listed in Chapter 3 such as “Smooth” by Santana, “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica or “Sultans of Swing” by Dire Straits. Remember that Chapter 3 also has many sample harmonic minor chord progressions.

The raised seventh in the harmonic minor scale is the same pitch as the third of the V7 chord. For example, in A harmonic minor the G♯ is also the third of E7. When you play the G♯ over E7, you are outlining this chord by emphasizing one of its chord tones. You can also outline E7 by emphasizing any of its other chord tones. We are now going to look at the E arpeggio patterns in the two lead patterns and practice targeting chord tones of the basic dominant triad in A minor: E, G♯ and B.

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Figure 9-05 shows you an E major arpeggio pattern combined with Lead Pattern One in A minor. The CAGED form used here for the E chord is the “C form.” The arpeggio is shown in black and the rest of the scale in white. The numbers identify the root, third and fifth of the E chord.

Figure 9-05

Return now to your play-along recordings for A minor and the songs I listed for you earlier. Practice outlining the complete E major arpeggio over the V7 chord in your solos. Try to target one of its chord tones on beat one of the V7 chord. You can also play several of the chord tones during the measure as time allows. When the progression returns to the Am chord, stick with A minor pentatonic notes. When the progression returns to Am, you mostly need to avoid the raised seventh of the harmonic scale, the G♯. The root and fifth of E should still work over the Am chord. The note E belongs to A minor pentatonic, and the B belongs to the A natural minor scale. So in some ways, you just picked up an extra note for your pentatonic patterns, here B, which you can use over both the tonic and dominant seventh chords. Figure 9-06 shows E major arpeggios combined with A minor Lead Pattern Two. Here the chord form that works best is an “E form.” Use your play-along recording and songs from earlier to practice these patterns.

Figure 9-06

In the figures above I have only shown one arpeggio pattern with each lead pattern. You could play a few more arpeggio patterns that work with them. For example, you could play a “D form” E arpeggio over pentatonic pattern five, and an “A form” E arpeggio over pentatonic pattern two in Lead Pattern One. Similarly, a “G form” E arpeggio works with pentatonic pattern three in Lead Pattern Two. You could also play the third of the dominant chord, here G♯, at the sixteenth fret on strings six and one. Once you have spent some time with the arpeggios as I have shown them, you should be able to figure out on your own the other arpeggios. But before you explore these other patterns, be sure to thoroughly practice what we have covered here.

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So far we have been using major triad arpeggios to play over dominant seventh chords. You could also use a complete dominant seventh arpeggio. Dominant seventh arpeggios are shown in Figure 9-07 as A minor lead patterns with E7 arpeggios. There is only one note to add to an E chord to make E7, the note D. D also belongs to both A minor pentatonic and natural minor scales, so you can use it over both the Am and E7 chords.

Figure 9-07

At this point in your practice, you may find a full dominant seven arpeggio a little too much to keep track of, especially in two different lead patterns. If so, I would suggest that you simplify your practice. Just use a part of the arpeggio instead of trying to cover all of it. For example, you could focus on strings one, two and three. Or you can skip the dominant seventh for now and just work with the basic major chord arpeggio for a while. Over time you can gradually add in more notes as you become more proficient. Volume II

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Transposing Patterns Once you are comfortable with the V7 chord in the key of A minor, begin to transpose its patterns to different positions on the neck in order to play in different keys. As you begin to do this, remember to try some of the harmonic minor progressions and songs listed earlier in the chapter and in Chapter 3.

Completing the Harmonic Minor Scale With the notes of the V chord added into the lead patterns, we are only one note away from having complete natural and harmonic minor scales. In A minor we only need to add in F. Figure 9-08 shows Lead Pattern One, first with the entire A natural minor scale, followed by the entire harmonic minor scale. You will see that their only difference is the seventh scale degree, G vs. G♯.

Figure 9-08

The following tab shows one way that you can play up and down this scale.

Figure 9-09

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Guess what you should do now? More practice! Well, I actually like to consider it more “playing” than “practicing,” but whatever you call it, just be sure to work with these patterns for a while, taking the time to alternate between the natural and harmonic minor scales. When you are ready, you can begin to work with Lead Pattern Two shown in Figure 9-10. I extend the Lead Pattern Two tab example to complete the scale.

Figure 9-10

Figure 9-11

Using The Natural and Harmonic Minor Scales You should now see that in minor key chord progressions you only need to use the harmonic minor scale over the V7 chord, and the only real difference to you is remembering to use the raised seventh degree instead of the natural seventh. By targeting the raised seventh degree over V7 you will get the complete sound of the harmonic minor scale. You could, of course, use the other notes of the V7 arpeggio and that of the complete harmonic minor scale as well. How you choose to play over the V7 chord is a matter preference. You can even ignore it and continue to use a natural minor or minor pentatonic pattern.

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One Step at a Time

Harmonic Minor Scale Patterns

I hope you now see that learning complex ideas by breaking them down into simpler ones and covering them one step at a time makes it easier to understand, play and apply them. By starting small and gradually adding a little more information at each step you have the opportunity to commit new information to memory. You develop your skills to play and target new notes and then practice applying what you learned in a musical context. If I had just given you a whole page of harmonic minor scale patterns, I doubt that I really would have taught you anything.

Now for the grand finale. In Figure 9-12 you will find the complete harmonic minor scale patterns covering the entire fretboard. As with the major scale, you will find the notes of the harmonic minor scale all over the neck, which you can organize into different ways. In order to keep the presentation simple, I will show you five patterns. A sixth pattern below is a variation of the first. If you memorize these patterns, and learn different ways to combine and shift between them, you will figure out how to make other patterns.

Remember to use this learning process with any new concept. It is what you need to do if you really want to develop your knowledge and skills in a usable way. This becomes even more apparent as you explore more advanced subjects.

Over time you may stop thinking of these patterns as only five patterns. Remember that it is not necessary to use all patterns or all parts of each pattern. What is important is for you to be able to play the harmonic minor scale comfortably. The process of learning patterns becomes exploring your options and deciding what works best for you. If you want to work with what you already have studied and not add any more new patterns right now, then that’s fine. You can always come back to these patterns at a later time.

Blues Scale In addition to the patterns you have been using here, you can also use a blues scale any time you are playing in a minor key. We covered adding the blues and chromatic passing notes to the pentatonic scale in Chapter 6. You may want to review this material at this time.

Figure 9-12

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Figure 9-12 (continued)

Notice that there is no need to number these patterns. Also notice that with the harmonic minor scale some strings have four notes on them. You can try fretting groups of four using fingers 1-1-3-4, but as with all fingerings, it is really a matter of preference and figuring out what works best for you.

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I have given you one fingering example in the Figure 9-13. This is the pattern that fits over an “Em form” barre chord and Lead Pattern One.

Figure 9-13

Licks and Phrases By now you should understand how to play the harmonic minor scale. Nevertheless you may be unsure about how to actually use it to make your solos sound good. This is where learning different songs that use the harmonic minor will help you. All the harmonic minor songs that I mentioned in both this chapter and Chapter 3 have melodies, riffs, guitar solos and bass lines that can teach you different licks and phrasing. Get their recordings and guitar tabs to start working out their various parts. Once you learn a particular part, practice playing it along with the song. Mix the licks and phrases up, playing them in different orders. Try similar licks and phrases on different songs in the same key, or transpose them to other keys. The learning process is a slow, gradual one that requires a lot of work, but these methods are exactly how all great players develop their skills, build their own repertoire of licks, and create their own style. Carlos Santana’s style is heavily based on his use of harmonic minor scales. His songs would be a great starting place. Two more songs you could work with are: “Detroit Rock City” by Kiss and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. The guitar solo to “Detroit Rock City” is in the position of C♯ minor with the guitars tuned down a half-step to Eb. In the original recording the solo starts around the four minute mark with just drums, and one lead guitar. Although we do not hear the chords played by a rhythm player, the melody outlines the progression C♯m-B-A-G♯, with G♯ being the V7 chord of the key. The first lead guitarist never plays the raised seventh of C♯ harmonic, but the second lead guitarist clearly plays B♯ just before the rest of the band comes in at around the 4:20 mark. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” has a key change to E minor around the 3:35 mark. The lead guitar soloist plays the raised seventh, here a D♯. We would expect the D♯ to be played over the V7 chord B7, but the soloist also uses it over Am at the 4:04 mark. Sounds good to me!

THE NOTE B♯: Why did I say that “Detroit Rock City” uses a B♯? Isn’t B♯ really the note C?

Yes, B♯ and C are enharmonically related, that is, they sound and are played exactly the same, but can have different names. In some situations we call this note B♯, as in this case. Here is why. The C♯ minor scale uses the notes C♯-D♯-E-F♯-G♯-A-B. If we raise the seventh degree B for the harmonic minor scale it becomes B♯. If we instead named it C, then we would have two Cs in the scale and no B: C♯-D♯-E-F♯-G♯-A-C. We would then loose the sense of a harmonic scale with seven different scale degrees. So in this case the seventh needs to be B♯.

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Harmonic Minor Modes

The Melodic Minor Scale

Unlike the major scale, we usually only use one mode of the harmonic minor scale. This is when the V chord is functioning as the tonic. We covered some examples in Chapter 3 that are worth re-examining here.

The melodic minor scale is a variation of the natural minor scale that is used more often in jazz and classical music than in rock. The form of this scale is 1-2-b3-4-5-6-7. It is a natural minor scale with a raised sixth and seventh scale degree. It can also be thought of as a Dorian scale with a raised seventh, or a major scale with a flattened third.

“White Rabbit” opens with an F♯-G chord progression, V and VI of B harmonic minor. You can play a B harmonic minor pattern over both of these chords. What is interesting about this progression is that it focuses on the V chord, not the harmonic minor tonic, Bm. This focus on V is a type of modal application of the harmonic minor. We can think of this mode as a type of Phrygian mode with a raised third scale degree, making the tonic chord major instead of minor. This altered Phrygian scale has a strong Spanish flavor to it. It also appears in Jewish, Greek, Turkish, Arabic and Persian music. This mode goes by many different names including: Spanish Phrygian scale, Spanish Gypsy scale, Phrygian major scale, Phrygian dominant scale and Freygish scale. You can also hear this mode in the song “Misirlou” by Dick Dale, which is based around an E chord. The E chord is the V of A harmonic minor. The guitar melody is using the notes of A harmonic minor, but the tonic chord is E. You can think of this usage as the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale or any of the names mentioned above.

In classical theory this scale is usually taught as having an ascending and descending form. For its use in improvisation, we only need to know the ascending form, that is with the raised sixth and seventh degrees, which is used in both directions. We can use this scale over V7 chords in a minor key. A really great example of this scale is the Christmas song “Carol of The Bells,” which uses the natural minor scale over most of the chord progression, but changes to melodic minor over the V7 chord. Another good example is “Yesterday” by The Beatles, which uses part of the D melodic minor scale over the Em-A7-Dm chords during “all my troubles seem so far away” (guitar tuned down one wholestep to D). Different modes of the melodic minor are common in jazz, but that is really beyond the scope of this book.

Dorian Mode The Dorian mode is like a natural minor scale with a raised sixth. So if you take a Dorian scale and raise the seventh as well you end up with a melodic minor scale. It’s just as common to use a V7 chord in Dorian mode, as it is to use one in natural minor. When a V7 chord occurs in Dorian mode you have a few options for your solos. You could ignore the chord completely and keep playing the minor pentatonic scale, or the Dorian scale. You could also target the raised seventh, or outline the V7 chord. You could play the whole Dorian scale with a raised seventh. And finally, you could play the harmonic minor scale. I have heard and used all of these options. You also can choose which option to use. Learning Dorian mode songs with a V7 chord will help you learn which options work best in different situations. Two songs that I recommend are “Oye Como Va” and “Evil Ways” by Santana. Volume II

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Conclusion

What’s Next?

Now you know the harmonic minor scale, and how to play over V7 chords in minor keys. The harmonic minor scale is actually quite common, even though it only occurs temporarily and often only briefly in a progression. It plays a very important role in popular music and is essential to understanding melody and harmony. It is useful for rhythm and lead guitarists, as well as composing and improvising.

In the next chapter you will learn about a composition technique called pedal point. This technique uses sustained notes or repeated figurations that support familiar chord progressions, creating rich harmonies and textures.

You need to understand this scale and its application to be able to play more advanced music. If you ever want to explore other styles of music like jazz and classical, then you are definitely prepared to do so now!

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Chapter 10 Pedal Point

In This Chapter: 1. Sustaining bass notes 2. Sustaining notes throughout a series of chord changes 3. Repeating a melodic figuration over a chord progression A pedal point in music is a sustained or repeated note sounded against chord progressions and melodies. Pedal points are also called pedal tones and simply, pedals. The term originates from organ music where the player sustains a low tonic or dominant pitch with the foot pedals allowing them to easily play chords and melodies above this note on the keyboards. In its simplest form, a pedal tone is a sustained or repeated note in the bass register on the tonic or dominant pitch that supports a melodic line as shown in Figure 10-01. Here we see a repeating tonic note D on an open string that acts as a simple accompaniment to the D minor melody.

Figure 10-01

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We hear a similar approach in “Paint in Black” by The Rolling Stones (capo at the third fret), and J. S. Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor.” Bach also employs pedal points in the “Toccata” section in the upper register, that is, repeated notes above the melodies and harmonies. Search for the bar-graph score on YouTube for a great audio and visual example. Another way to accompany a melody with a repeated tonic pedal is to play the melody and the pedal tone on a single string as shown in Figure 10-02.

Figure 10-02

You can hear this technique applied during the guitar solo in “Let the Praises Ring” by Lincoln Brewster. “Wasted Years” by Iron Maiden does something similar in the key of E minor. “Running Down a Dream” by Tom Petty plays off of the open sixth string, E. “Thunder Struck” by AC/DC pedals on the open second string, B. A pedal point does not have to be an open string, it can also be a fretted note. Around the 0:17 mark in “Cliffs of Dover,” Eric Johnson repeats the G at the fifteenth fret of the first string while playing a melodic idea below it. This is a great example where the pedal tone is in a higher register while the moving line sounds below. If you have never heard this guitar instrumental before, it’s spectacular! Pedal points can function as simple accompaniments as shown in the above examples. They can be in any register relative to the moving lines. They can also support chord progressions and more complex ideas. Here the pedal creates a sense of musical tension as chords move above or below it. In this way, they create more complex harmonies out of familiar chord shapes and progressions. Pedal points do not have to be limited to a single note. A bass line may alternate tonic and dominant notes while chords, melodies, and even solos sound above it. A repeating riff or figuration can also function as a pedal. As we will see, the notes used in a pedal will sometimes be added to a chord’s name to reflect the rich sounding harmonies created by this technique.

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Pedal Point in the Bass A very common use of a pedal tone is where a pitch is sustained in the bass during a set of chord changes. Either the bass or guitar player holds a note in a low register while the other instruments play the chords. In Figure 10-03 an A pedal point in the lower register played on the open fifth string sounds under the progression A-E-D-A. Notice that this pedal creates alternate bass notes on the E and D chords: E/A and D/A. The E and D chord shapes are drawn from the “C form.”

Figure 10-03

The interlude to “Jack and Diane” by John Mellencamp is based on these same chord shapes and pedal point. We hear something similar in the verses to “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne with sixteenth notes played on the open fifth string in between the chord changes. In my DVD, CAGED Template Chord System, I opened with a figuration in A that pedals on the open fifth string throughout. You hear an A pedal point supporting a set of chord changes in the songs “Cold Gin” by Kiss, “All Right Now” by Free and “Metal Health (Bang Your Head) “ by Quiet Riot. “Fly like an Eagle” by the Steve Miller Band features an A pedal in a minor key. The bass player focuses on A as the keyboard plays the changes Am-D-Dm-Am. This could also be accomplished on one guitar by playing the chord changes while sustaining the open fifth string, A. Figure 10-04 shows a pedal on the open fourth string, D.

Figure 10-04

In “Substitute” by The Who we hear something very similar to Figure 10-04. The interlude to “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin has a section that pedals on D under the chords Em/D-D-C/D. You also hear D pedalled in the introduction and pre-chorus to “Hole Hearted” by Extreme (guitars tuned down one half-step to Eb). “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin pedals on the open sixth string in a drop D tuning.

“Unchained,” “Running with the Devil” and “Jump” all by Van Halen feature pedal tones. In “Running with the Devil” it’s the bass player sustaining a pedal point. “Jump” is a good example of this technique used on a keyboard.

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In Figure 10-05, you see a pedalled C on string five fretted at the third fret while chords change above it.

Figure 10-05

You hear something similar during the verse to “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. The guitar and bass play the b b minor tonic note C while the keys play the chords Cm, A and B . In the bridge to “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield the progression G-Bm-A is played over a G pedal.

Bass Motif Pedal Tones Sometimes a motif, a recurring musical figure also called a motive, is used in a pedal-like fashion. In Figure 10-06 the guitar plays the chords Dm and C while the bass plays a repeating figure that focuses on the notes D, A and C. You can record yourself playing one of these parts, then play it back while playing the other part.

Figure 10-06

Beginning at the guitar solo section in “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” by Pink Floyd, about two minutes into the song, we hear a repeating bass line and a synth pad supporting an extended guitar solo. The bass line itself is a simple structure in D minor built from the notes D, C, and A. The synth pads play Dm and C chords through most of this section. When the synth sounds a Dm chord, the combined harmony with bass part becomes Dm7, the seventh being the C from the bass line. When the synth sounds a C chord the combined harmony becomes a D9sus4 chord (D A C E G), though it’s not usually thought of or written this way. In “Thriller” by Michael Jackson we also hear a repeating bass motif used as a pedal point with the notes B, C♯, E and F♯ over C♯m7 and F♯7 chords.

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Inverted Pedal Tones Most of the examples covered so far have had the pedal point in the bass voice, but pedals can appear in a higher register while chords and melodies change underneath it. This technique is sometimes called an inverted pedal tone in popular music. In Figure 10-07 you see a simple progression in G: G-Em-C-D, which is followed by the same chords with the note G, third fret of the first string, repeated on each chord.

Figure 10-07

G, Em and C are chords that already include a G note in them (the third string open in the case of Em and C). So adding another G on top doesn’t change their names. The D chord, however, becomes Dsus4 with the added note. Figure 10-08 presents another example based on the same chords as Figure 10-07, but this time sustaining both a G and a D above the chords. This technique is sometimes called a double pedal tone. Notice how the Em and C are renamed to reflect the added note. Adding a D to Em makes Em7 and adding D to C makes Cadd9.

Figure 10-08

In “Wonderwall” by Oasis the verse is based on a chord progression first played on acoustic guitar. It’s played with a capo at the second fret, however the chords are usually still thought of as if they were played without a capo in the open position. The basic progression uses the familiar open position chords Em-G-D-A. In addition to these chords, the notes D and G of strings one and two, third fret, are pedalled throughout the progression, creating Em7 plus sus4 chords on D and A. The pedalled G of string one creates the Dsus4 chord, and both pedal tones on strings one and two make the A7sus4 chord. To account for these pedal tones in the chord symbols the progression becomes Em7-G-Dsus4-A7sus4. Something similar happens in the opening of “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd with the chords Em7, G and A7sus4.

It’s important to note that complicated chords are often the result of a simple pedal tone. Em7G-Dsus4-A7sus4 is much easier to play that it looks. The composers may not have even had these chord names in mind when they put the progression together. You can also hear pedal tones used in the upper register in “Spirit of Radio” by Rush and “Crash Into Me” by Dave Matthews Band, both in the key of E. “Just Remember I Love You” by Firefall features the chords F and G with the first string, E, played open over both chords, making Fmaj7-G6.

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The bridge to “Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers uses the changes A-Am7-G6-Fmaj7. These chords are played with the open E of the first string pedalled throughout. In the opening to “What’s My Age Again” by Blink 182 we hear a basic one measure arpeggio pattern built out of an F♯ barre chord in the ninth position. The F♯ and A♯ of strings three and two are pedalled throughout the pattern, while the lower notes change, creating a bass line and a series of apparent chords (IV-I-V-vi). This moving line starts on B of the fourth string and continues through F♯, C♯ and D♯. The resulting chords of the pattern become Bmaj7-F♯-F♯/C♯-D♯m (you might also think of the F♯/C♯ chord as C♯6sus4). If you play through this guitar riff you should notice: first how it is built out of an F♯ major barre chord, and second, how well it fits under the hands.

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Speaking of Blink 182, you can hear pedal point used in almost every one of the band’s songs, including “All the Small Things,” “First Date,” “Adam’s Song,” “I Miss You,” “The Rock Show” and “Anthem Part II.” Pedals are a significant part of the band’s sound. “Your Body is a Wonderland” opens with John Mayer holding the notes C and F while the bass notes change between F, C and Bb (drop D tuning) b making the apparent chords F5-Csus4-B sus2.

Inverted Pedal Tones With Two Guitars Although a single instrument can play a pedal and chord, in many cases one instrument will play the pedal tone while other instruments play standard chords. We saw this already in Figure 10-06 with a bass guitar playing a repeated motif, while the guitar played a progression. The pedal could also appear in the upper register. For example, one guitar holds or repeats notes on upper strings, while another guitar plays through chord changes on the lower strings as shown in Figure 10-09. To hear the musical effect, record yourself playing one of the parts, then play the other part along with it.

Figure 10-09

You can hear a similar technique used in “All the Small Things” by Blink 182. “Cinnamon Girl” by Neil Young features a one-note guitar solo that is essentially a D note pedalled over the chord changes D-Am7-C-G. It’s the best one-note guitar solo ever! At the end of “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, two guitars play through the chord progression E5-A5-B5, while a third guitar plays E octaves. The beginning of “Everything You Want” by Vertical Horizon features multiple guitars as well. One of them plays a repeating melodic idea as a pedal pedal point in E minor (guitars tuned down one half-step to Eb).

The original theme song for the show 3-2-1 Contact features a funk guitar part holding A octaves as the rest of the orchestra plays a descending scale. “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang also features a funk guitar part pedalling on the tonic note in octaves while the band plays the chord changes. The verses in “Celebration” also feature a pedal in the bass. In Figure 10-09 the second guitar repeats the tonic note C over the chords. In Figure 10-10 the second guitar employs a double pedal point with the notes D and A, the root and fifth of the tonic chord.

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The combined harmony of the two guitars becomes more complex than the individual parts. The first guitar may only be playing D5-A5 -B5 -G5, but the addition of the pedal tones by the second guitar creates the harmonies D5-Asus4-Bm7 -Gsus2. This technique of sustaining the root and fifth of the tonic chord as other guitars play chord changes is extremely common in popular music, especially the alternative genre. It also occurs quite a bit in contemporary Christian music.

A Motif as an Inverted Pedal Point Just as a short repeating motif in the bass can function as a pedal, one in a higher register can work just as well. Figure 10-11 shows an E minor figuration against a descending scale in power chords. “Last Resort” by Papa Roach and “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden have similar ideas.

Figure 10-11

Pedal tones built out of a riff or motif can appear in both major and minor keys. Perhaps the most recognizable and famous example is “Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2. The song features an electric guitar playing a figuration in D major while the bass plays through the changes. In fact, pedal points are used extensively by U2. They are found in their songs “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “Pride (In the Name of Love),” “With or Without You,” and “Miracle Drug” just to name a few. Like Blink 182, pedal points are a part of U2’s unique sound. Two more good examples of pedals built out of a melodic idea are “Today” by Smashing Pumpkins and “I Am Free” by Newsboys. “Today” features a progression in E major played over a melodic figuration in the twelfth position. “I Am Free” is also in E major with a figuration in the ninth position.

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Internal Pedal Tones Sometimes pedal tones are found in the middle register of a chord. Notice in Figure 10-12 that the open third string is repeated while the upper and lower voices of simple chord shapes move through a scale-like passage.

Figure 10-12

You hear this same technique used throughout “Blackbird” by The Beatles. In Figure 10-13 we see two notes pedalled in the inner voices, while the upper and lower voices move.

Figure 10-13

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin used this same technique in the opening of “Stairway to Heaven.”

Drone vs. Pedal Point You may hear musicians use the term pedal point and drone almost interchangeably. Technically, there is a difference, although the distinction is not always that clear. A drone is a note that is repeated or held throughout a piece of music or entire song. Unlike a pedal tone, which usually appears for a short section, a drone continues on and usually does not change notes. Think bagpipe music. These instruments have a number of pipes used specifically as drones, giving the instruments and the music they play their characteristic sound.

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Conclusion

What’s Next?

Now you know that pedal points can add new chord tones to basic chord changes. This technique can help make a harmonically richer sound and musical texture. It can also create harmonic tension that increases a chord progression’s push back to the tonic, lending a sense of excitement to the music. Sometimes the pedalled notes are added to a chord’s shape; sometimes the pedals are played by other instruments. Bass players will often pedal the tonic or dominant pitch, or play a melodic figuration that supports a set of chord changes.

In the next chapter we will wrap up this book with a discussion on what you can do with the material you have learned here, and how to continue to progress as a guitar player.

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Chapter 11

Conclusion: What to Do Next If you have made it this far and completed all the material in the book, then congratulations! I know you have taken your guitar playing and musical knowledge to the next level. You can continue to learn and progress by practicing everything you have learned and playing as much as you can. You can also study additional resources, learn more songs and find more opportunities to play with others.

Learn Songs I’m not sure I even need to say this, but learning songs is, in my opinion, the best way to learn and develop as a musician. This is easier than ever to do today. You can get complete and accurate tabs to most popular songs in either songbooks or as individual scores. You can even download songs one at a time. Finding the music to a song today is as easy as searching its title in a search engine. Some resources I recommend include musicnotes.com, sheetmusicplus.com, musicdispatch.com and guitarinstructor.com. There are also play-along guitar books and tracks, instructional videos and software programs that make the song learning and practicing process easier and more enjoyable. There are a few resources that catalog songs by their chords and progressions that I found helpful as I compiled some of the material for this book. These include the website chordmine.com and the books Money Chords and Chord Progressions For Songwriters, both by Richard Scott.

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Additional Resources You now have a foundation of music theory solid enough to to allow you more in-depth study and ventures into other styles. There are countless books, videos, websites and programs on this topic for you to explore. Perhaps you would enjoy taking a traditional music theory class or studying with a private instructor. You can even learn how to read standard musical notation. You don’t need to read like a concert violinist. Just learning the basics can be very beneficial. I would also like to mention and recommend the two programs I used for the graphic illustrations in this book. For fretboard examples I used Neck Diagrams available at neckdiagrams.com. For tab and notation examples I used Guitar Pro 6 available at guitar-pro.com.

How Long to Practice Each Day

Be Reasonable

In order to develop new skills and get good at anything, you must do it a lot. If you want to grow as a guitar player, then you need to work at it. This means getting your instrument in your hands as much as possible. Obviously, the more you play the better. But, realistically, it may be difficult to find time each day.

During busy times in your life when there seems to be no opportunity at all to play, you can probably still get a few minutes in here and there. Grabbing your guitar before you go to bed and reviewing things for 5 minutes will at least help you to retain what you have learned and keep your finger calluses from getting soft.

You do need to practice at least thirty minutes each day in order to progress. Your daily practice time does not have to be all at once. Consider breaking it up into ten or fifteen minute sessions.

Whatever you do, just don’t force it on yourself. Playing guitar should be relaxing and enjoyable above all things. Don’t put unreasonable expectations on yourself or beat yourself up when you’re not playing much. You don’t need to be a virtuoso--most successful guitarists aren’t. Life gets in the way, especially work, family and other interests. Be reasonable and keep things in perspective.

It’s inevitable that you miss days of guitar playing now and then. But if you play regularly, then occasional days off won’t be a big deal. When you have more time available, use it. I’m sure that you can get in an hour or more at least one day a week.

Get Involved and Play With Others Another key to being successful as a guitarist is getting involved with some type of music activity or commitment. For example, schedule jam sessions with other musicians, start a band, book a gig, study with an instructor, take a guitar class, play at church, or take any other opportunity you may have to participate. Opportunities like these increase the time you spend with your guitar in hand, and you can enjoy the social interaction and fellowship.

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Record Yourself Recording yourself is great for improving your practice, monitoring your playing and having something to show for all your hard work. You can use recording or looping programs and devices to lay down tracks, and then play over the tracks to practice. Listening to a recording of yourself playing allows you to hear things from a different perspective and critique your playing. Layering tracks, creating jams and compositions is often the most rewarding part of playing music for people.

What to Practice Each Day Choosing what to practice each day depends on what you enjoy and need to improve on. I don’t prescribe rigid, structured practice routines that guitar players must strictly follow. I’m not saying that you can’t practice this way, I’m just saying that it’s up to you to decide what works best for you and suits your needs. If you want to divide your practice time into individual blocks that focus on a different technique and run through timed drills with a metronome, then go ahead. It’s also fine if you casually play through a few songs each day. I generally spend more time playing than practicing, stopping only to work out things that I get stuck on. But I have had periods in my life when I was very intent on developing a new skill. I disciplined myself with a great deal of repetition and long practice sessions. Sometimes this included following routines from method books and instructional videos.

Play to Your Strengths Take advantage of your strengths and accept your limitations. If you’re unable to make progress with certain guitar styles or techniques, then move on to something else that comes more naturally to you. Have you ever seen B.B. King play chords? Not one of his strengths! And Dave Matthews doesn’t take solos. Yet both are accomplished guitar players in their own right because they have something they can do uniquely well. Don’t expect to be able to play everything you want to play. And don’t get hung up on things that seem impossible. You can’t be all things. No one can. Make the process a journey to discover what you CAN play and play it well.

Stay Connected I’m online everyday answering questions, writing new blog posts, sharing news and messaging with social media followers. Be sure to stay connected with me by joining my mailing list, subscribing to my blog, liking my Facebook page and following me on Twitter. Also, watch my videos on YouTube and listen to my podcasts. Blog: guitar-music-theory.com/blog Facebook: facebook.com/guitarmusictheory Twitter: twitter.com/MrGuitarTheory YouTube: youtube.com/GuitarMusicTheoryTab Podcast: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/guitar-music-theory-lessons/id258401691 You can subscribe to the Fretboard Theory Volume II customer mailing list by sending a blank email to: [email protected] Volume II

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Please Tell a Friend Like the first volume of Fretboard Theory, I’ve poured my heart and soul into the completion of this book. I have spent years writing it, hundreds of hours researching topics and thousands of dollars to produce it and make it available for sale. I’m not a big corporation. I’m merely an independent, self-employed guitar player trying to make his way with his own business. I could use your help in promoting my work. Please tell a friend about Fretboard Theory Volume II. If you have your own web site or blog, then you can post a link to Guitar-Music-Theory.com along with some details about the book. Also, consider joining an online guitar theory discussion group or becoming a member of a guitar theory forum and sharing your experience with others. Real testimony from actual customers is the best promotion I can get! I would also like to add that this book is copyrighted information. Please don’t reproduce it in any form or by any means (e-book customers have permission to print one copy for their own use). If you see others illegally sharing it, please notify me. Thanks!

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About the Author Hailed as a “music-theory expert” by Rolling Stone magazine, guitarist Desi Serna is the author of Fretboard Theory Volumes I and II plus several instructional DVD programs. Desi honed his craft through decades of guitar teaching, performing and publishing. He currently lives near Toledo, Ohio where he enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters. When not working he can usually be found… playing guitar!

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Music/Guitar/Instruction

Take Your Playing to the Next Level! • Apply new number systems • Discover the harmonic minor scale • Use the lead patterns preferred by the pros • Gain new perspective on keys and tonalities • Change keys, borrow chords and mix modes • Target chord tones and outline chord progressions • Bring dominant function and voice leading into play • Employ chromatic passing, diminished and augmented chords

Advanced Applications, New Concepts & Song References Fretboard Theory Volume II picks up where the first volume left off and takes your guitar playing and musical knowledge to a whole new level. You learn many advanced applications and new musical concepts. There is information for rhythm guitarists, lead guitarists, improvisers and composers. Each chapter focuses on applications found in popular music and includes familiar song references. Get started today!

PLEASE NOTE: This material is suitable for intermediate level players on up and works on both acoustic and electric guitar. Most of the presentations work for bass too.

Guitar-Music-Theory.com