Ric Emmet - for the love of the guitar Book 1

D E D I C AT I O N ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To my wife, Jeannette, and my family, who tolerate, sustain, support, humor, inspire, counsel, and best of all, most amazingly and wonderfully, love me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE BASICS BOOK

BOOK ONE

CONTENTS Page Foreword and Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .IV Preamble - How It All Began . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .VI The First Column - Dressing Up A Plain Old C Chord . . . . . . . . . . . .VIII Notational Symbols Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .X The Selection and Purchase of a Guitar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 The Restless Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Face the Music - How to Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 What to Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 How to Get the Most out of Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Warming Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 The “Heat” - The Reason Why . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Philosophy and Fundamentals of Good Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 The Consequences of Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Chromatic Finger Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Take Your Pick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Technique as Idiosyncrasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Two Basic Pick Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Flat Pick Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Strumming Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Rhythm is the Foundation of Every Musical House . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Outlining The Numbers Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Major Key Diatonic Triads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Inversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Alternate Fingerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Minor Key Diatonic Triads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

II

• • • • ••

TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont’d)

Introduction to The Blues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Improvising with The Blues Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Swinging a Blues Feel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Bending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Everyone’s Self-Taught . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 The Courage of Instinctive Convictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Muting and Damping: How Not to Play Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Licks, Tricks, Fills and Thrills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Total Personal Commitment vs. Rote Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 FOR THE LOVE OF GUITAR in 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 The Dedication, Discipline and Duty of a Performer Introduction to Barre Chords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 The Circle, the Cycle: The Cycle of Fifths, Part One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Part Two - Circling and Cycling - Technical Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Part Three - Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Bend Rules - Modify to Suit Your Taste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 On Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

III

FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Basically, I started out as a guitar player. But it got kind of complicated, with all the roles, labels, and identities that the guitar spawned: from singer, songwriter, entertainer, performer, recording artist, magazine columnist, published cartoonist and clinician to an “Old Fart Music Business Minor League Celebrity.” Agh!!! But somewhere deep in the temporal lobe of this mutant there still resides the vestige of a boy who started out in 1964 with a simple love of the guitar. Back in November of 1983, when I was offered the opportunity to add another guitar-related slash and tag to my c.v., I became the “Back to Basics” columnist for Guitar Player magazine. The editorial mandate? 1. Attempt to offer insights and enlightenment to all guitarists, beginners and pros alike, from the “Basics” platform. 2. Include something of a “hands-on” bit in every column. 3. Present it in what they assured me was my “naturally entertaining and humorous style”; and 4. Keep it all short enough to fit on one page! In my customary long-winded fashion, I assured them that after torturous multiple rewrites on my part, they would undoubtedly still have their editorial work cut out for them. So much for Mr. Natural! Surprisingly, the columns were a popular success for the magazine, and after more than a decade of monthly installments, many topics and concepts appeared to be recycling and organically interconnecting. An anthology seemed like the next logical step. Result: FOR THE LOVE OF GUITAR, a series of four books. Most of the materials in the books are updated and revised versions of the original columns. Great big thank yous go out to the editorial staff at Guitar Player Magazine, who over the years helped turn my ravings into printable copy. The principal guy to “blame” for my public exposure is Tom Wheeler, but along the way I know the dirty deed of column and music example editing often dropped into the laps of Tom Mulhern, Jas Obrecht, Don Menn, Jim Ferguson and Joe Gore. This group also deserves credit for the influence and guidance that their work offered by example over the years in the magazine. I also should acknowledge GP’s illustrator Rick Eberly, and, in the latter stages of my columnist career, the music editing of Jesse Gress. This list would be incomplete without the addition of Lonni Gause and Tricia Pickens, who, pardon the pun, were instrumental in the process.

IV

• • • • ••

FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (Cont’d)

FOR THE LOVE OF GUITAR would never have gotten off the ground if it hadn’t been for the Good Doctor, Lee Olsen (drink straw extraordinaire). The technical support, the computer programs and the long distance telephone consultations with my friend Lee kept this labor of love airborne whenever it looked like it might crash and burn. After that, along came Jeanine Leech, the Pennsylvania wonder woman, with her artistic skills, her computer graphics and her printing knowledge. I thank her for taking so many strange layout ideas of mine and using her amazing patience and experience to convert them into a cohesive reality. At the end of the process, my cousin Nancy Wood allowed me to rope her into an editing gig where she would be overworked, overqualified and underpaid. She tidied these books up and made them presentable, and I am very grateful for her charming cooperation and guidance. What would any self-respecting foreword be without the customary warning/disclaimer/apologia? This is not meant to be The Universal Standard Ideal Manual for Guitar Instruction and Theoretical Music Education. This isn’t intended as a stand-alone, graded, complete course of study. It’s a purely subjective collection of opinion and observations - a supplement, perhaps, to some more legitimate educational program, to provoke or inspire a reader’s ongoing affair with the guitar. This book is dedicated to the proposition that everyone in life deserves the opportunity, every now and then, to just sit back and Pick and Grin. And I remain, The Biggest Opportunist You’ll Ever Find,

V

PREAMBLE - HOW IT ALL BEGAN... Back in the summer of ’83 came a phone call from Tom Wheeler, the editor of GUITAR PLAYER magazine, asking if I’d be interested in writing a column called “Back to Basics”. This immediately led to an internal schizoid ego conflict: Me #1: “Hey, cool, columnist for the guitarists’ Bible! Credibility! Profile! Exposure!” Me #2: “Butwaitasecond: Basics?!? Oooh, I dunno... a limited kindergarten scope of sandbox topics,...what about my Image, appearing month after month to the guitar community without mystique, and without being able to promote my authority on concepts of advanced substantial artistry and technical virtuosity, like a lot of those other columnists get to do?” Me #1: “Oh, please!!! What are ya, an egomaniac??? Who’re you tryin’ to kid here? Get off it, number two! Surely you recall . . .

. . . The Jobbing Musician’s Credo!?!

“WHEN

IT COMES TO THE GRO CERY BILL ,

PRIDE

C A N ’ T P AY , B U T A

STEADY GIG W I L L .”

So between Me #1 and #2, we picked up a pencil and got busy. And surprise, surprise: the process of writing and teaching is a constant education, a discipline, a labor of love that always delivers new ways to humble, and occasionally, inspire. It reinforces that old adage - the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. Or maybe it’s just an unintentional kindness of senility coupled with the short life cycle of rock and roll, making everything old seem new again. Whatever.

Continued • • • • • • VI

• • • • ••

PREAMBLE - HOW IT ALL BEGAN (Cont’d)

In part, here’s what Tom Wheeler’s editorial blurb said back in November of 1983:

K

“

nown to millions of rock music fans as an imaginative, virtuosic lead player,... Rik Emmett has been the subject of one... feature story and the author of another.

He has also had essays, critiques, and guest columns published in the magazines and dailies of Toronto, his home base. A multitalented artist, Rik pens a monthly cartoon feature for Hit Parader Magazine (“Rocktoons”), and participates in graphic design aspects of promotion. Starting this month our new columnist delves into the basics of guitar playing. With trenchant wit, a sense of fun, and a thorough grasp of his subject, Rik brings fresh insights into these subjects for beginners and experienced players alike.” -Editor

I’m still up for a little trenchant delving every now and then. Right now, for example, I should delve into my dictionary, under T for trenchant. Anyhow, enough with the preamble, already. Let’s begin at the beginning, with the first column published, exactly as it appeared in the November of 1983, GUITAR PLAYER magazine. Watch out for that first step. It’s a doozy...

VII

The First Column

DRESSING UP A PLAIN OLD C CHORD Take a seat, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Back To the Basics class of ’83. For starters, I’ll assume you’re not an extraterrestrial, or saddled with the I.Q. of one of the lower primates - and hope that in return you’ll give me the moderate, slightly respectful attention my experience might possibly have earned. So, let’s skip the kindergarten, “Row, Row Your Boat’ stuff and move right along like the dedicated, motivated, overanxious scholars we truly are to the heavy-duty stuff - like the C major firstposition chord (see Ex. 1). Sure, you know this guy. But have you met his extended and altered family? Just by removing Ex. 1 Ex. 2 Cmaj7 C our 1st finger from the second string (see 1 Ex. 2), we are blessed 2 2 with the sweet3 3 sounding sister of C, Cmaj7 (C major 7). Or, if we remove Ex. 3 Ex. 4 the 3rd finger from C Am7 the fifth string 1 (see Ex. 3), we 1 2 2 discover a minor 3 4 relative, namely Am7 (A minor 7).

Ex. 5

T A B

3

0 1 0 2

0 1 0 2 3

3

0 1 0 2

0 1 0 2 3

The accompaniment pattern shown in Ex. 5 also works with the beginner’s nightmare, the F major chord (See Ex. 6 and 7). As I recall, that two-string barre at the 1st fret of the first and second strings in an F chord is a toughie. Try rotating your hand around the back of the neck a little, bringing your thumb up to the top of the neck, and your palm up and in towards the back. Don’t use your fingertip for the two-string barre; use the flat, fatty pad of the first joint (think of trying to leave Ex. 6 your fingerprint on the fretboard F across under the two strings). 1 Having mastered the physical 2 difficulties of F major, you’ll find 3 4 you can slide it anywhere up the neck, and (ta da!): instant major barre chord! Ex. 7

Now let’s try a slightly altered fingering of the C chord, adding a G bass note with the 4th finger, as shown in Ex. 4. Allow me to put on a lecturing tone when I admonish all you backers (aren’t Back To Basics readers my, uh, backers?) to develop your lefthand pinky. Do not neglect this invaluable asset: the 4th finger may be weak and awkward at first, but it accounts for 25% of your left-hand potential, so don’t give up on it. Commit yourself with steely resolve to give the little guy an equal one-fourth partnership. Besides, without his aid you won’t be able to master Ex. 5, a country and western, alternate bass and chord accompaniment (which may also be applied to stuff like the Beatles’ “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” “Hava Naghila,” or even a polka).

T A B

3

1 1 2

1 1 2

3

1 1 2

1 1 2 3

3

Back to that C major now. Try your newly developing pinky at the 3rd fret on the third string, adding a B b note, and you’ve created a funky C dominant 7, known to close friends as just C7 (see Ex. 8). In Ex 9., you’ll find yet another way to use your 4th

Ex. 8 C7 1 2 3

4

Continued • • • • • • VIII

• • • • ••

DRESSING UP A PLAIN OLD C CHORD (Cont’d) Ex. 10 A7sus4

Ex. 9 Cadd9

2

2 3

4

4

finger - a Cadd9 chord. The extra flavor of that 4th finger D note (the added 9th in the chord name) makes Cadd9 a widely-used substitute for a regular C chord. Finally, hold that Cadd9 for a second, and then just lift off the 3rd finger, releasing the fifth string (see Ex. 10). Congrats, backers, you’re now the proud owners of an A7sus4 (sus is short for suspended; the role D is playing in this chord is that of a suspended 4th, but, for now, don’t ask me to get more technical than that). This basic guitar stuff is amazing, ain’t it? A finger here or there, more or less, and it’s a whole new ball game. Before signing off, I want to mention the honor of being on the pages of this, the guitarist’s bible (and I’m not just a rookie columnist kissing up to the editors). Even though I’m quite willingly cast in a role of responsibility, guidance and some influence here, I want you to know that we’re all in this thing together - all of us should always be students. Well, I thank you for your considerate attention, and warn you I shall return in a month or so. For now, class dismissed.

A

nd so the column had its humble beginnings.

From here on out, through the course of the four books in this series, I’ve attempted to lay out a common-sense kind of progressive “journey” from the available materials. That doesn’t mean you have to go sequentially. Please be my guest and take some potshots at the list of contents. By all means, pick your own tempo, and count yourself in wherever you like.

IX

KEY TO NOTATIONAL SYMBOLS THE FOLLOWING SYMBOLS are used to indicate fingerings, techniques, and

2

3

effects commonly used in the guitar music notation in this series of books.

1

4 4 T

q

g

ras

Left-hand fingering is designated by small Arabic numerals near note heads (1 = 1st finger, 2 = 2nd finger, 3 = 3rd finger, 4 = pinky, T = thumb).

////

In some music examples, the fingerings appear in the space between the standard notation staff and the tablature staff. i

p

5

q

q

³ CV CV

3

a

p

Pick upstroke.

IV

The C indicates a full barre; the Roman numeral designates the proper fret.

1

The C indicates a first finger half-barre covering either the first three or four strings, depending on what is called for in the notation.

R

(7) 5

1 2

3

In chord diagrams, vertical lines represent the strings, and horizontal lines represent the frets. The following symbols are used:

Bend; play the first note and bend to the required pitch (bent note is in parentheses). See tab explanation.

Nut; indicates 1st position.

A reverse bend; strike an already bent note, then allow it to return to its unbent pitch (bent note is in parentheses).

H

5 7

2

Chord Diagrams

Left-hand finger vibrato. 5 (7)

2

3

Partial barre with the designated finger. B

E B T G A D B A E

The horizontal lines represent 0 the guitar’s strings, the top line represents the high E. The numbers designate the frets to be played. For instance, a 2 positioned on the first line would mean to play the 2nd fret on the first string (0 indicates an open string). Time values are indicated on the coinciding lines of standard notation seen directly above the tablature. Read the music from left to right in the conventional manner. D D9

A circled number (1-6) indicates the string on which a particular note is to be played. Pick downstroke.

Indicates desired rhythm for chordal accompaniment (the choice of voicings is up to the player).

How Tablature Works

m

l

Right-hand fingering is designated by letters (p = thumb, i = index, m = middle, a = ring, l = pinky).

Rasgueado.

x

Muted string or string not played.

o

Open string.

Hammer-on (lower note to higher).

Barre (partial or full).

P

7 5 T

Pull-off (higher note to lower).

•

Placement of left-hand fingers.

Indicates right-hand tapping technique.

V

Roman numerals indicate the fret at which a chord is located.

1

Arabic numerals indicate left-hand fingering (e.g., 1=index, etc.)

S

5 7

Slide; play first note and slide to the next pitch (in tab, an upward slide is indicated with an upwardly slanting line, while a downward side is indicated with a downwardly slanting line).

Note: For more info on understanding chord symbols, check out the chapter entitled “Outlining The Numbers Game” on page 29.

Strum (an arrowhead is often used to indicate direction).

X

THE SELECTION AND PURCHASE OF A GUITAR Concerned parents often ask for advice on the selection and purchase of a guitar for a young beginner. Should it be a nylon-string classical, accompanied by formal classical lessons? How about a decent-quality electric guitar, or a fairly decent (meaning expensive) acoustic that’s encouragingly easy to play and has the potential for great tone? Typically, a good initial response is actually a bunch of questions. How old is said beginner? Any previous music lessons? Is this interest in guitar self-motivated, or something being suggested? What kinds and styles of music does our prospective picker like? Any heroes? Is this a conscientious kind of kid who might have a go at this seriously, or an average kid checking it out as a potential hobby? After this information has been gathered, the guitar purchaser should then be enlightened as to the Four Stages of Guitar Ownership.

*A

NOTE S ’ R O UTH

:

Stage One

a arily as nt prim a e m e is r o ter music st his chap nts and e r a ttle out p r a e fo y be li a m h c referenc u ing as s ger, aspir es, and a e y E lo . p n m e ollectio in this c have an of place already t b nd u o d hands, a ns no le ia t t ic s li u t o m h the e rest of t in their h n t e o t m u in r inst ahead g us youn nt to skip impetuo may wa y m is all , k d o ahea he bo o t G is . h t k o r bo se afte rs, becau pters pluckste es - cha m a g & just fun kin’ and rs of pic e t p a h c and E LOVE FOR TH ’, in n in r g ITAR. OF GU I didn’t ing that in h w k c ba Stage ’t come vanced d a t u o Just don u ab ution yo hooked. try to ca you got e r fo e b .S. Four G.C

M

T

any local music stores have music-school programs where a parent can enroll their young child (say, under 13) for several weeks worth of beginners’ lessons at a reasonable cost. A small class or group situation is usually fine, since private lessons may be unnecessarily expensive at this stage. Initially, Mom and Dad should consider simply renting an inexpensive student-model guitar something small, comfortable and uncomplicated. Another route is a short-term loan of cousin Ernie’s neglected six-string, and getting it “set up” (having the strings replaced, the intonation and the playing action of the guitar adjusted) at the aforementioned local music store. These suggestions have appeal as cost-effective plans. It doesn’t really matter whether the first guitar has nylon or steel-strings.

ly e the on . b y a m s t.. Thi you’ll ge g n i n r a w 1

• • • • ••

THE SELECTION AND PURCHASE OF A GUITAR (Cont’d)

Yes, nylon strings are probably a little easier on the non-callused fingertips of beginners, but classical necks and fingerboards are almost always wider and thicker than the more sleek and manageable steelstring necks and fingerboards. It’s advisable to string a beginner’s guitar with low-tension, light-gauge strings so as not to discourage them with unnecessary physical challenges in the formidable first stage. (Hey, I even put really light-gauge electric strings on an old Harmony Stella for my own kids to bang around on. It ended up under a bed, gathering dust, and none of my own four kids have pursued the guitar, even though there are literally dozens of good ones spread all over the house. They have, however, shown keen interest in playing other instruments, and their Mom and I encourage this. The point is, don’t force it too much. It’s supposed to be fun, right? If it’s going to happen, it should happen, er, For the Love of Guitar…)

Fender amp. A move up to private lessons around this time will provide new challenges and plenty of opportunity for musical growth. Parents coughing up cash at stage two should still cover the basics. The axe (that’s a musician’s slang term for their instrument) should stay in tune and be comfortable to own and operate. It’s now important to get an instrument that’s capable of giving encouraging tonal reinforcement. And it’ll need a decent case so it doesn’t get trashed going back and forth to lessons and basement band rehearsals and stuff. It’s also important that your virtuoso-in-the-rough has something that can be a source of pride in the peer group. For yourself, it’s important that you don’t go Chapter 11 on something that could end up being a passing fad (like that time you shelled out for the complete Wayne Gretzky hockey outfit, only to have Junior quit the team after the second game because, all of a sudden, jocks were uncool goofs and U2 had assumed mythological proportions).

At any rate, a heavy-duty, high-quality guitar isn’t necessary at this initial stage. A functional student instrument that will pretty much stay in tune and doesn’t take an inordinate amount of effort to squeeze the strings down is fine. If, after a few months of lessons and experiments, our student is still going gung-ho, maybe even showing a little aptitude, then it’s time for...

Often this pride and peer-group thing is the crux of the matter. It can prematurely push the young student guitarist through stage two directly into the third stage of guitar acquisition, but without the proper musical basics to warrant it. A brand-name, good-quality - but plain - used guitar (and amplifier, if we’re talking electric) is recommended. No bells and whistles like locking tremolos, fancy electronics, or custom paint jobs are necessary. No racks or Marshall stacks. No solid spruce tops or specially selected rosewood sides and backs.

Stage Two Now the answers to the original questions will really come into play. If Junior idolizes Stevie Ray Vaughan, then let’s not crush his enthusiasm with a nylon-string classical guitar and an Aaron Shearer method book because Mom and Dad prefer the conservative, old-fashioned approach. On the other hand, if Julian Bream’s interpretations of Bach fire Junior’s spirit, don’t let the music store salesman hype you and yours into buying a brand-new Strat and a

In anywhere from six to twenty-four months, the young guitarist will probably have faded on the dream of being the next great axe hero or heroine, or will have begun to make noises about moving up to... 2

• • • • ••

THE SELECTION AND PURCHASE OF A GUITAR (Cont’d)

Stage Three Call the notion old-fashioned, but if Junior’s got

comes off the rose a little. Oh, your ES-335 is warm, sweet, and easy to play, but you realize that a solidbody with single-coil pickups gets those very different tones that you’ve just got to have sometimes. Then again, you need an acoustic to do that Neil Youngmeets-Pete Townshend stuff you’ve been writing lately. And you’ve absolutely got to have a wowie bar and two-octave neck for your gonzo shred lead playing, and then, of course, there’s that vintage jazz arch-top you’ve always been dreaming about, and... yep, welcome to Stage Four!

expensive tastes and runs with an upscale crowd, his stage-three instrument is going to mean that much more if it has been earned, whether paid for on a coop basis, or over time with shekels scrimped from his or her part-time gig. A professional-quality acoustic or electric guitar with amplifier is a considerable investment, and if Junior expects your financial backing, then you’ve definitely got a right to be in on the decision. But in the end, I think it’s mostly Junior’s call, and should be mostly Junior’s debt to pay off. Of course, this depends on how much of a soft touch you choose to be and on your point of view on the relative values of a gift bestowed as opposed to a possession earned. If the love affair with six strings survives the Stage Three tests of personal responsibility, there’s a good chance that Junior’s not so Junior anymore, and this passion will begin to extend to the entire guitar family, which brings us to...

One has to admire professional guitarists who are able to forge a career using only one special guitar, and envy their uncomplicated live-performance requirements. But somehow, very few have ever been able to find one guitar that can deliver all the tones and textures that they want to hear. As a victim of G.C.S. (Guitar Collector Syndrome), I can tell you from personal experience that the One Perfect Guitar is a Holy Grail myth. The search is never-ending and the spectrum just continues to broaden. (This is another good reason why a stage-two guitar for a beginner-turning-intermediate should be a basic, versatile, no-nonsense instrument.)

Stage Four I

t starts out with the purchase of that longawaited instrument, the One Perfect Guitar that you’ve dreamed about, coveted, saved for, and finally possessed. But then, a few months later, the bloom

Continued • • • • • • 3

• • • • ••

THE SELECTION AND PURCHASE OF A GUITAR (Cont’d) bar shred machine. Some would prefer to double this category to ensure a choice between 25-1/2" and 24-3/4" scale length, each of which has unique physical and tonal characteristics. They’d also like a choice between active and passive pickups, but for the sake of this list, we’ll exercise—um—restraint.)

Hang on - oh, For the Love of Guitar, there’s a DIGRESSION coming on - the first of many. Let’s call this little detour …

• One electric 12-string.

THE RESTLESS SPIRIT

• One lap or pedal steel for slide work.

Even when it comes to something as basic and practical as the “tools” the guitarist uses, there seems to be this insatiable, restless, searching and evolving nature an instinct to constantly rethink processes, re-examine accepted standards, and seek out new challenges.

• One Dobro/resonator-style guitar.

GRAND TOTAL = 13 GUITARS. That’s a pretty full trunk on the way to sessions. To help you in your search for the One Perfect Guitar, here are a few tips from a Stage Four veteran. Remember that any guitar worthy of your consideration deserves a decent set-up—with accurate intonation and a new set of strings—before you should have to decide whether to buy it. Remember that a simple thing like different string gauges can have a profound effect on tone and action. Remember that electronics and pickups can be changed, usually with no threat to the intrinsic value of the guitar. (If you harbor the slightest doubts, you should consult a qualified repair person to do your dirty work.)

This is, I think, the artistic, creative spirit at work. It is not always a blessing.

And now, back to the regularly scheduled programme.

o

Professional guitarists usually own several members of the guitar family. A basic short list would include one acoustic and two electrics—one Fenderstyle and one Gibson-style. But most professionals now can’t imagine facing an album project and subsequent tour without being able to choose from the following Stage Four (and counting) long list:

What you can’t change are the tonal characteristics, and the feel and action differences between, say, a guitar with a 24-3/4" versus a 25-1/2" scale, a solidbody versus a semi-acoustic, or a conventional stop tailpiece versus a locking tremolo bridge. It’s hard to change fingerboard width, neck thickness, or body shape and weight.

• Three acoustics (6- and 12-string steel-strings and a nylon-string classical model)

Try out as many different guitars as possible to form your own opinions on these kinds of features. Don’t be hasty. In your imagination, think of yourself as a composite of your role models. Invent your dream guitar, and then try to find the one that comes closest. Chances are, your quest for The Six String Holy Grail has just begun. Happy hunting.

• Three acoustic-electrics (same as above, but equipped with pickups and designed to discourage feedback in stage situations). • Four electric 6-strings (a solidbody with single-coil pickups, a solidbody with double-coil pickups, an acoustic or semi-acoustic arch-top, and a whammy4

FACE THE MUSIC - HOW TO PRACTICE As one gets down academically, the natural

Practicing under less-than-ideal conditions isn’t always worth the effort, but at times it can teach you important things about self-discipline, concentration, and overcoming adversity. Every now and then, for example, your best use of practice time could be (dare I say it?) without a guitar in your hands - perhaps an intensely focused intellectual exercise, or a listening session, heavy on concentration and analysis.

initial focus is on WHAT to practice; the practical, technical, physical things necessary to becoming a better guitar player. We’ll get to that, but even more basic is HOW you should practice and study to improve your playing.

Some guys say they “practice” while they watch TV. Well, if that’s the only way they practice, it will undoubtedly reveal its effectiveness in their results. But if they’re already spending a few hours a day in a more conventional practice situation: if their goal is to develop strength and endurance using unconscious motor-memory patterns, or to foster some kind of brain hemisphere-splitting ability that enables them to do two things at once: even if they’re just trying to become more at one with their instrument (you know how people love the image of the musician who sleeps with his or her axe), then who’s to say it isn’t of value to them?

P R A C T I C E P R E PA R AT I O N

Y

ou’ve got to prepare for a practice session in much the same way you’d prepare for a performance. If you want to maximize the benefit of individual practice, you have to be rested, alert, and ready to work and learn. You should develop a practice routine - same time, same place, same agenda - so that you establish a familiar habit that is hard to break or falter from.

How To Get The Most Out Of Practice Time

Sometimes, something is better than nothing, and sometimes it’s not. Just don’t sell yourself short with a lot of cheap cop-outs because circumstances were less than ideal (you know: the dog ate your homework, your sister’s radio was too loud, you’re too tired, it’s too late, it’s too early, blah, blah, wooly bully). Where there’s a will, there’s an old cliché It’s u p way, people—and willpower find t to you to doesn’t come from words in kind he right of a book, or as a gift from insid will e someone else. y

“Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.” Martha Graham (1895-1991), in 1986

ourse lf.

W

e go through a learning process called “practice” in order to develop the physical, mental, and emotional facilities that help us shape our current interpretation of what our music ought to be.

Continued • • • • • • 5

• • • • ••

FACE THE MUSIC - HOW TO PRACTICE (Cont’d)

IDEAL CONDITIONS

• TUNE UP

Where were we? Oh yeah—the ideal practice

• WARM-UP EXERCISE • SCALES

environment. A quiet place, well-lit and properly ventilated, with no distractions, surrounded by the necessary equipment, including: a decent guitar with a strap, a sturdy chair, a music stand, a metronome, extra picks and strings, and all study materials (books, music paper, pencil and eraser, and especially your diary/notebook). A tape recorder, too, can be very useful. You can tape yourself playing a chord progression, and then improvise over the playback. Also, it’s great to undergo the humbling experience of hearing yourself back—it’s guaranteed to make you gag, cringe, and shrink.

• ARPEGGIOS • BASIC MECHANIC EXERCISES • NEW TECHNIQUES EXERCISES • TUNES AND PIECES • CONCENTRATION ON PROBLEM AREAS (e.g., endurance, meter, speed, phrasing, awkward chord changes, position shifts, etc.) • SIGHT-READING • IMPROVISING

Why the notebook? Because, being a great student, you’re going to write down any questions that arise from your efforts. You’re going to keep a record of every creative thought with potential value, and you’re going to be following two written agendas. The first, a short term agenda, is a flexible daily practice plan. It might look something like this:

• ROTATION TOPIC (areas you don’t work on every practice session, but turn to regularly, such as theory and harmony, ear-training, transcribing, and analysis)

Continued • • • • • • 6

• • • • ••

FACE THE MUSIC - HOW TO PRACTICE (Cont’d)

Naturally, your own needs and choices will determine the plan’s content and the length of time you spend in each area. When you’re first starting out, even a well-spent half-hour is worthwhile, but most good practice sessions range from one to four hours. Longer sessions are not unusual, but rest periods and breaks for snacks or meals should be built in to allow for the physical and mental intensity required to make the process rewarding. Value common sense, and try to recognize the point of diminishing returns. Don’t harm yourself with continual non-stop repetition of physically demanding passages without rest. “No pain, no gain” does not extend to sadomasochistic self-mutilation. Give your fingers, hands, and forearms the opportunity to recover from being pushed to their limits.

goal-oriented (gigs, concerts, and recitals convert you from student to performer), you’ll be forced to rehearse most of the time. But practice time should focus primarily on basic mechanics and techniques, on recognizing weaknesses and working on them, and on breaking new ground and searching out refreshing, new challenges. Here’s a good example of the difference between rehearsal and practice. You are rehearsing a piece of music that keeps falling apart at a particular spot (train wrecks, we call ‘em at band rehearsal). You retreat back up the chart a safe distance to get up a new head of steam, only to crash again and again in the very same place! Instead, you should isolate the trouble spot, work it out by repeating it over and over (at extremely slow, and then faster tempos) until you’re up to speed with no danger of crashing. That’s practice. Once you’ve got it together, you can start to rehearse again, moving on to other problems like interpretation or dynamics.

S E T T I N G G OA L S

T

he second agenda is a long-term one. It specifies goals, however modest, and allows you to chart your progress. This agenda might have stuff on it like, “finish Mel Bay Book IV by Xmas,” “Learn Bach’s ‘Jesu’ for Easter,” or “sight-read in positions by next New Year.” (The four seasons of the year make a nice natural timetable.) Consult your teacher, if you have one, to ensure that your goals are realistic.

Having a routine agenda makes the whole selfdiscipline thing come a little easier, but don’t turn yourself into a robot. Music is about communicating, sharing thoughts and feelings, transcending the notes: you need to bring some humanity and spirituality into what you’re doing, and to accomplish that, you need to be expanding your heart, mind and soul beyond the practice room. Technical virtuosity is a wonderful thing to behold, and if you keep it at your service, it will help you make your music better. But if you make it your raison d’etre, you will surely limit your audience and drastically reduce the emotional value of your endeavors. Remember that ANY singular, primary focus is still only one piece of a total picture, not the be-all and end-all.

THE DIFFERENCE BET WEEN PRACTICE AND REHEARSAL

Make a distinction between practice, which is a learning process, and rehearsal, which is the physical and mental preparation for performance. Some practice time should be given over to the rehearsal of pieces of music, and as your schedule becomes more

7

TUNING tension UP until you are in tune. String tension is the operative thing here. Strings that have been lowered into pitch have a nasty habit of wandering around again when you begin playing. This is because there’s unequal tension along the string at its stress points the windings around the string peg, between the peg and the nut, between the nut and the bridge, and between the bridge and the tailpiece.

Once you’ve finally got the guitar in your hot little hands, the agenda begins, naturally enough, with tuning. Tune the guitar with an electronic device, if you can. If not, get a fixed pitch from a tuning fork or a pitch pipe, and start the following process. Don’t be in a hurry: relax. The age-old process of “relative” standard tuning goes as follows:

B A D G

E

Even if you used a tuner, you should check the 5th fret harmonic of E (sixth string) against the 7th fret harmonic of the A string, which should be a smooth unison sound (no waves or dips in the sustain of the two notes). Then check the 5th fret harmonic of A against the 7th fret of the D string, etc. Another method of checking tuning by harmonics uses octaves: the 12th fret harmonic of the E string with the 7th fret harmonic on A, etc. Again, both systems break down between the G and B, but if your ear is a little more advanced, you can check the tuning by striking the major third interval that exists between the 12th-fret harmonics of the open G and B strings, again checking for a nice, smooth sustain.

The note found in the 5th fret of your E or 6th string is the note you want for the open 5th string: the 5th fret of the A or 5th string gives you a D, with which you can tune the 4th (D) string: the 5th fret of the D string gives you a G, so you can tune the 3rd string: and now the blip arises.

So far, the intervals between all the strings have been a perfect fourth; 6th string(E) to 5th (A), 5th (A) to 4th (D), and the 4th (D) to the 3rd string (G). But between the 3rd and 2nd strings, the interval is lowered to a major third. Therefore, to find the correct note, you would play the note found in the 4th fret of the G string, a B, and tune your 2nd string to that. The final E or 1st string reverts back to form, and is again the interval of a perfect fourth away from our open B string, so the correct pitch is found back in the 5th fret on the B string.

Always double-check tuning by playing the four chord forms shown in Ex. 1-4, listening for nice, smooth sympathetic vibrations between all the roots and fifths and open Ex. 2 Ex. 1 strings. Don’t forget A (no 3rds) E(no 3rds) that the guitar is an instrument of 1 1 EQUAL TEMPERAMENT, 3 4 4 and therefore needs to be “settled” so that Ex. 3 Ex. 4 the strings will sound D(no 3rds) G(no 3rds) good in different chords from different 1 keys. Technically, the 2 2 3 4 pure physics of sound waves and the 4

TIP #1: When fretting the strings down to get the notes to tune the next adjacent open string, don’t push down too hard, or bend the string a little crooked. Pushing too hard, or bending, will raise the pitch of the note and give you an inaccurate pitch. Just push gently, straight down, until the note rings out clearly. TIP #2: Never tune a string by winding the peg DOWN to get it to the correct pitch. Always drop the string BELOW the note you want, and raise the string

Continued • • • • • • 8

• • • • ••

TUNING (Cont’d)

harmonic overtone series, dictates that the open B string, for example, would actually be a slightly different note when functioning in different keys. As the tonic in the key of B (5 sharps), for example, it would actually be pitched fractionally different than it would as the leading tone major 7th in the key of C, and would be much different again when functioning as, say, a C b when it’s the flat seventh in the key of D b. This whole process of tuning also gives you the chance to tune your ears up, and to get mentally and physically in tune with the instrument, too. This probably sounds a little cosmic, but consciously reviewing all the basic techniques - hand positioning, posture, instrument balance, and related factors such as string tension and response, sound projection, and those sorts of things, gets you ready to face the music, as it were.

9

WHAT TO PRACTICE? Start with a checklist outline of a good, practical,

Here are some more suggested study materials

basic knowledge of theory and harmony. Call it

for your reference library: • Modern Method For Guitar by William Leavitt (Berklee Music Study);

E V E R Y T H I N G YO U ’ L L N E E D T O F E E D YO U R

• Single String Studies For Guitar by Sal Salvador (Belwin-Mills);

N E E D TO K N OW

• Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method by Mel Bay (Mel Bay Publishing).

BUT DIDN’T FEEL THE

My home library also includes some of Barry Galbraith’s books, and all of Ted Green’s; wellworn copies of the Mickey Baker jazz guitar books and Frederick Noad’s Solo Guitar Playing (Schirmer). For the advancing guitarist, I recommend The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick (Hal Leonard) and Improvisation And Performance Techniques for Classical And Acoustic Guitar by Ralph Towner (21st Century Music).

NEED TO ASK!

Memorized: Bass and treble clefs, note and rest values; the

Every student of music should own a music

chromatic scale; time and key signatures - the order of sharps and flats (circle of fifths); names of tempos and corresponding metronome numbers, common progressions; intervals (train your ear to recognize and sing most of them); scales and arpeggios (major and minor): later on, modes.

dictionary and one or two History of Music reference books. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to have a text that deals with the history of guitar. Here’s a list of recommended titles:

The average person would benefit from a good teacher in acquiring the above knowledge. As recommended resource material:

Dictionary Of Music (Harvard University Press) or the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (Oxford University Press).

• Gordon Delamont’s Modern Harmonic Technique, Vol. 1

History. Donald J. Grout’s A History Of Western Music (W. W. Norton and Co.)

Music Dictionaries. The Harvard Concise

• Two good, basic theory texts that are quite useful are: Harmony by Walter Piston (W. W. Norton and Co.) and Nicholas Slonimsky’s Thesaurus Of Scales and Melodic Patterns (Charles Scribner and Sons; dist. by Belwin-Mills).

Guitar History. Tom Wheeler’s American Guitars: An Illustrated History (Harper and Row). or The Guitar - the History, the Music, the Players Kozinn, Welding, Forte, Santoro (Musson).

Continued • • • • • • 10

• • • • ••

WHAT TO PRACTICE? (Cont’d)

O

Feel. Work on tempos and rhythms that are difficult, grooves that lead to improvisatory ideas. Work with the metronome to establish solid, reliable meter.

ne could never over-emphasize the importance of a basic, general knowledge and familiarity with music history. It gives you perspective and depth, and provides a groundwork for your own creative endeavors that reinforces them with a credibility and a sense of purpose and direction. Don’t think of it as dry, boring, dull, and uninteresting: that kind of preconceived attitude will destroy the benefits. You’ve got to be hungry for it like you need it and can’t live without it. That’s the attitude of a successful student. That’s the attitude that a good teacher must try to instill, because . . .

Sight-reading. Studies have shown that over 80 per cent of guitar players NEVER practice this.

Sight-singing. Even with a voice like a dying bullfrog, if you can’t look at the music and croak your way through it, your brain doesn’t comprehend it and your hands will never play it. Ear training. Try singing an arbitrarily chosen interval; then play it to see how good your ear is. Try lifting chord progressions (not always just the solo melody notes) from records, with their appropriate bass lines.

. . . the

LOVE OF LEARNING is a

HIGHER PREREQUISITE than the accumulation and

Technique. Physical, hard labor-stretching of

MEMORIZATION

fingers, use of the left-hand pinky, up-and-down picking, clean speed, legato, hammer-ons and pulloffs, fingerpicking, drastically foreign four-finger jazz chord voicings, etc., ad infinitum.

of data, for the

LATTER will surely follow the former. (An ordering-of-priorities concept copped from Edward Hill in “The Language of Drawing”, 1966, where he talked of self-expression arising from understanding.)

Writing and creating. Develop your ability to think musically in your head and on paper without your instrument. A teacher could really help here with assignments that address specific harmonic and theoretical analysis areas - transposing, writing harmonies to melodies, finding chord substitutions, etc.

Warm Up with some finger exercises, scales, and a picking study or two, (check out the chapter, “Warming Up”) and then proceed to review the material from your last session, treating études as if they were performance pieces. You might record complete takes of these to help pinpoint the problem areas. Select study materials that challenge you in the following specific areas:

Having fun. Practice is hard work. It requires discipline and mental toughness. But music must have life in it. The joy of playing - the love of music has to be there. Don’t leave practice sessions hating the work or yourself. Do something for the sheer hell of it, crank it up and blow a bit, and get to where you are pleased with yourself and what you’ve accomplished, so that you’ll be eager to come back to it.

Phrasing and lyrical interpretation. How sensitive are you to the markings of composers and the proper use of ornaments?

11

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF LESSONS

Be a good student. Show up well-rested and alert, and, like the Scout motto says, “be prepared.” Bring your notebook, full of questions. Develop a rapport, but don’t waste your teacher’s time and your money with gossip and chit-chat. Be humble, but don’t be nervous.

Pick a good teacher, one who’s right for you: someone who’s good at the stuff you really, truly like, and whose playing you admire; someone who’s tough enough to help you learn selfdiscipline, but sensitive enough to relate to you and help you find your own musical personality, as well as someone who can make learning a fun adventure in addition to the intense diet of hard work that it surely is.

M

any great musicians are self-taught, and just as many are formally trained. The vast majority of guitarists can benefit from some combination of both approaches, and great teachers (and great students) know this. As far as there being any conflict between the technical / academic / reading / writing method and the instinctive, self-taught / soul / ear method, the best lessons happen on the middle ground, because the best music a person can make comes with elements from both orientations.

12

WARMING UP T R Y I N G T O P R E PA R E F O R

W H AT YO U K N O W AND

W H AT YO U N E V E R K N O W. . . “Secret Agent Man,” and the inevitable degenerations into comic parody that have become part of a great dressing room tradition). Before we get into this, let’s just remember the three simple, common sense things that one is trying to accomplish with a warm-up: 1. PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PREPARATION 2. RELAXATION 3. CONFIDENCE FOR THE TASK AT HAND Why even bother with a ritual? Because you’d like to trick yourself into believing that you’re ready for anything, that’s why. The truth is, of course, that you just never really know what’s going to happen.

One of the many positive things that can come from being thrust into the role of teacher is that students inevitably present a challenge, forcing you to analyze things you’ve taken for granted or grown unconscious of. If you’re open to it, this role reversal can bring about rediscovery and an opportunity to acquaint yourself with the most up-to-date modifications and new points of view. Case in point: at a seminar, a student asked me to show him some warm-up exercises. I didn’t know what to tell him, for I had never consciously analyzed what the heck I did, or been forced to explain why. I’d always just fiddled and diddled around until I felt ready (or not).

But ain’t that THRILL a part of the APPEAL?

So, after exhaustive research, I have developed a “greatest hits” package of essential basic warm-ups (minus the usual unconscious noodling, the impromptu cover versions of “Wipe Out’ or

Continued • • • • • • 13

• • • • •• Ex. 1

Ex. 2 G Major

II

Ex. 3 G Dorian

1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 4 4

II

WARMING UP (Cont’d)

G Aeolian II

1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1

1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 4

3 3 4 4 3 4 4

First, lightly run a few scales, starting very slowly and methodically, and then increasing the tempo and adding dynamics. Employing something like examples 1, 2 and 3, try to mix them up a little from a picking point of view, warming up with hammer-ons and pull-offs for the left hand (Ex. 4) and cross-string picking for the right (Ex. 5). This tends to jump-start the coordination between both hands. Ex. 4

4 4

Ex. 5

4 4 P

H

H

T A B 3 2 3 5

P

H

H

2 0 2 3

P

H

P

5 3 5

H

etc.

H

1

2

2 4 2 4 5

2

T A B

4

2

3

5

1

4

1

2

3 2 5 3

Ex. 6

P

3 2 T A B

P

5 3

P

P

5 4 2

P

5

4 2

P

P

5

4

1

1

3

2

4 2 5 4

4

5

etc.

4 4

P

5 3 2 0

3

4

2

P

3

P

P

8 7 5

Then begin to concentrate on meter and timing, getting a feel for finding the pocket. The “pocket” is the deep, solid center of the rhythmic groove - steady, secure, and locked in. Try some scalar-type licks and runs (like Ex. 6), and then you could perhaps try to play something in triplets (Ex. 7). A little exercise like this helps you get comfortable with shifting and changing positions. At this point, you might begin to have a little fun, throwing in some of your favorite stuff, like a few Steve Cropper or Albert King licks, or jamming a 12-bar blues with yourself, using straight lead and some jazz chord-melodies.

T A B

8

P

7 5

8 6

Ex. 7

3

4 4 3

1 P

H

5 3 5

1

3

P

H

1

3

1

1

3

3

3

T A B

3

P

3

3

1

P

3

5

3 7 5 7

H

5

7

5

57

Continued • • • • • • 14

etc.

8 6 5 8 6 5

etc.

3 1

P

5

7

WARMING UP (Cont’d)

• • • • ••

Once the motor is idling fairly smoothly, prepare your hands by practicing a few of the strenuous licks you might have to play on the gig (say, Ex. 8 and Ex. 9). Then get back into a rhythmic groove kind of idea, perhaps by jamming on a little Hendrix-y chord scratch improvisation (Ex. 10). Ex. 8

8va T

4 4

T

T

T

T

T

T

T

4 1

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3 etc.

P

P

P

P

P

P

P

P

P

14 10 7 14 10 7 14 10 7 12 10 7

P

P

P

P

P

P

P

14 10 7 14 10 7 15 10 7 15 10 7

T A B

Ex. 9

8va etc.

4 4

3 18 17 15

T A B

Ex. 10

3

3

18 17 15

3

17 15 13

3 15 13 12

17 15 13

15 13 11

Em7

3

13 12 10

x x x

H

13 1110

S

7 78 7 79 7 0

8 7 9 7

8 7 9 7

7

7 8 7

9

x x x

7 8 7

x x x

H

x x x

P

H

12 14 12 1214

Play Simultaneously

Ex. 11

C x x x

T A B

5 5 5 3

etc.

Damp

4 4 T A B

3

3

5 5 5

5 5 5

5 5 5 5

7

15

5 5 5

x x x

x x x

x x x

H

5

P

7

S

5

7

S

• • • • ••

WARMING UP (Cont’d) Naturally, this will be the gig that convinces everybody in attendance to vote for you as the Best New Guitarist in the next popularity poll.

After this point, it’s time for stretching out the left hand and working the muscles in both hands with wide interval scale things that are done as fast as possible, with double picking, until you feel the little burn that lets you know that your hands are, quite literally, warmed up.

Still another night, you’ll warm up conscientiously for two-and-a-half hours because it’s your first hometown headline concert extravaganza. All the record company executives and your family and friends are there, along with all the local celebrity guitarists (read “judges”). On this night, your hands will feel like concrete. You’ll fumble picks and your D string will break in the third bar of the first song. Your amp will blow up by the first chorus. You’ll feel nauseous and confused, you’ll forget everything you ever learned about music, and it will come across like you’re trying to play somebody else’s poorly set-up guitar, left-handed and upside down.

And that usually takes care of that. Except, of course, for those occasions when unexpected events upset the routine. Some nights you pick up that cursed/blessed guitar and - don’t ask me why - your hands feel like omnipotent Vise Grips. You don’t have to warm up at all, because you feel possessed, like some multiple-personality Eddie Lang/Charlie Christian/Django Reinhardt/Jimi Hendrix/Randy Rhoads reincarnation. This kind of thing happens once or twice every millenium or so, inevitably on something like a Tuesday-night club gig in Lower Beaver Flats with 12 people in the place, and the bartender asks you to cut your set short because the seventh game of the American League championship series is on the tube, and everyone wants to watch it (including the other guys in the band). Later, as you sit there basking in the inner glow of a mystical experience and marveling at your own physical prowess, the bass player will casually mention (as your friend, and only in the most constructive sense) that lately your playing has been getting way too busy, you’re pushing ahead of the beat all the time, and your tuning was suspect all night.

Afterwards, backstage, you’ll be lookin’ for a rock to crawl under, and some critic will sidle up and suggest that you’ve revolutionized rock and roll guitar with your radical new approach.

There’ll be other unpredictable circumstances, too, like when you miss your connecting flight and they strip-search you at customs. You’ll arrive at the gig without having slept for two days, you’re a good three-and-a-half hours late and you have to go directly onstage and play on borrowed gear.

Student: “So? What’s your point?” Teacher: “I guess it’s that you just never know. You Know?”

16

GENERATING THE “HEAT”: FINDING YOUR REASON WHY

You warm up because you want to be ready for what you’re going to try and do. You warm up because you want to try and better your odds against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and because you want to be limber and supple enough to try and catch a divine moment in eternity, and then be strong enough to hold on to it for a while. THAT kind of heat doesn’t come from finger exercises: it comes from somewhere else, deeper inside. Some musicians meditate: some say a little prayer. Others might listen to some inspiring music that lifts them up to a performance plane. Only you know what moves you - and only you can figure out how to incorporate it into your warm-up routine.

17

PHILOSOPHY AND FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TECHNIQUE J

Example: Teacher says “Keep your left-hand thumb low, centered in the middle-back of the neck, while you finger the strings with a straight-down, tip-of-the-finger approach. Keep the wrist down and forward, the hand bent up and in.” (See Fig. 1 and Fig. 2)

ust for a second, let’s accept the premise that there’s no such thing as the “right way” to do things, and whatever gets results is kosher. As examples of the success of this approach, you might cite Pete Townshend’s or Wes Montgomery’s use of the lefthand thumb for chording. You could also point to Jimmy Page’s ultra-low-slung Les Paul, Django Reinhardt’s partially disabled but virtuosic left hand, or Jimi Hendrix’s upside-down, backward guitar position. An unorthodox approach to technique never prevented any of these guitarists from earning legendary status.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Pupil says, “Aaugh! Why? It’s damned uncomfortable, and I can’t finger the strings as easily as when I let my thumb slide up and I squeeze the neck like a baseball bat!” (See Fig. 3 and Fig. 4.) Now the teacher explains with infinite patience and the wisdom of experience Fig. 3 that indeed it’s true the thumb-high, left-hand squeeze approach is unrivaled for strength, and when playing Fig. 4 leads and bending strings, the thumb should swivel up higher for more stability. But the vast majority of playing is not stringbending leads: scale runs, arpeggios, chords, barres, and widereaching intervals requiring the stretch of the pinky are all greatly facilitated by the hand position shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, and severely hampered by a position such as shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4.

Okay, sure, but (a great, big, wide “but”), these are all artists - gifted individuals. Perhaps they grew into strange habits and styles because they never knew any better: in some cases they were driven by that mother of invention, necessity. But you, gentle reader, are (assumedly) just beginning your musical quest in a marvelous, modern media and telecommunications era - there’s no reason for you to be uninformed, no reason why you should have to START OUT making up techniques as you go. So know thy place, and, at least initially, heed a humble and highly available voice. Your time will come - for now, let experience talk to you with the wisdom of pure, unadulterated common sense, which is the voice of good technique.

Continued • • • • • • 18

• • • • ••

PHILOSOPHY AND FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TECHNIQUE (Cont’d)

So, here in the

CLASS OF BASICS, one must

L E A R N N O T T O TA K E S H O R T C U T S just to produce results.

Why? (Pay attention, now - this is the moral of the story...)

The Consequences of Choices T

Even when you are sitting, a strap is a good idea it keeps the neck positioned well in relation to your upper body, prevents the guitar from wandering around on your lap, and allows you to simply play the instrument without being concerned with holding and supporting its weight. (See Fig. 9 and Fig. 10.)

he traditional, fundamental aspects of physical technique can be expanded on infinitely, but shortcuts taken at the preliminary stages can become bad habits not easily broken, often leading to dead ends. Every learning step you take now has far-reaching consequences in your playing later. Why limit your options?

As far as technique goes (and no one who loves and understands good music believes it’s the be-all and end-all of guitar playing), one should envision classical guitar technique, and then modify it to apply to acoustic or electric playing, whether pickstyle or not. Classical technique is traditional, time-tested, and true. Centuries of examination and refinement have made it the technical art closest to perfection, so if you’re going to develop your own style, habits, and techniques (which is inevitable if you hang in long enough), it certainly won’t do you any harm to start out from the most logical, commonsense base: the classical approach. (see Figures 5 - 10: STANDARD PLAYING POSITIONS.)

Learn to sit before you stand, and walk before you run: Rock Stars may jump around the stage with their guitars dangling down around their kneecaps and look cool, but lots of them are also probably working their way towards de-tox and rehab, destined to have increasingly lower-profile agents, managers and record company pundits trying to convince the public that their limited primitive hacking is the work of genius. Should you be interested in MUSIC, as opposed to STARDOM, you might choose to consider some basic techniques first, before you cop a stylistic megaattitude.

Continued • • • • • • 19

• • • • ••

PHILOSOPHY AND FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TECHNIQUE (Cont’d) Fig. 5

Don’t get all hunched over. Just tilt your head and upper body (from the waist) forward enough to have clear sight lines down to the hands. Tilting up the face of the guitar, and the plane of the strings can also help.

Classic Sitting Position

The forearm rests gently on the upper bout.

Keeping the neck angled up helps the left hand and arm position. The guitar rests in the lap on the left thigh. The plane of the strings crosses in front of you, somewhere between your navel and your sternum.

Don’t hug it so hard that it suffocates! Let it breathe: let it speak. You control the position of the guitar between your left thigh and your right forearm, but it should be balanced, and you should be able to remain relatively comfortable and relaxed.

The left leg is slightly elevated, to get the guitar angled up.

Fig. 7

Fig. 6

Triangulations

Range of Motion

Range of motion relationships between Mr. Crash Test Dummy’s hands, his head, and the plane of strings.

The key here is to maintain a center of balance between one’s crash testing head and the plane of the strings. 20

• • • • ••

PHILOSOPHY AND FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TECHNIQUE (Cont’d)

Fig. 8

Fig. 9

Standing with a strap

Fig. 10

Sitting with legs crossed

Sitting with legs apart

Now that you’re holding the instrument correctly, let’s play G something on it! Look at the G major chord shown in Ex. 1. A lot of players 2 finger it with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fingers, 4 3 but try using the pinky (as shown) for reasons stated last chapter: utilizing your full potential. Besides, using the 3rd, 2nd and 4th fingers for G makes possible all the interesting variations shown in Ex.’s 2 - 5.

Ex. 1

Ex. 2 Ex.3 No one likes C/G Dsus4 unmusical exercises 1 and studies: 1 2 obviously, technical, 4 3 4 3 physical things that are married to musical concepts can Ex. 4 Ex. 5 have a more Fadd9 Am7 profound influence. However, sometimes 1 1 2 2 an unadorned, 4 3 4 unvarnished focus can address a specific weakness or problem. So with that in mind, and the fretting fingers as our focus, it’s on to the next chapter.

21

CHROMATIC FINGER EXERCISES Here’s a version of a finger-independence study

Some other techniques, introduced through variations on the theme:

from many years ago that has many variations. It’s relatively simple, but its applications are many. This is what it looks like: Fig. 1

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

Hammer-ons: Pick the open string (say, the E, or sixth), then “hammer” down your 1st finger at the 1st fret hard enough to make the F note ring out without picking the string. Then pick the F note and hammer down the 2nd finger at the 2nd fret of that sixth string to produce the F# note, etc. Initially, the hammer-ons sound more like slurs, but it’s a start at a very important aspect of modern guitar playing, and eventually the goal is for the hammer-ons to sound as loud as picked notes.

If you start at the bottom and go all the way to the top, but skip playing the open B String, it’s a chromatic scale climb through the first position and, you’re right, it sure doesn’t sound like much. But it’s a practical little exercise.

Pull-offs: start with all four fingers down in place, fretting along the string. Pick the 4th-finger note, then snap or pull off that string with the 4th finger hard enough to make the note being held by the 3rd finger ring out (without picking the string). Pick the 3rd; then pull off without picking the string, etc. This is a toughie, and awkward at first, but the strength in those fingers will come, and with it the command of another new and useful technique.

One version of this requires that you put all four fingers down on, say, the A string. Then choose any other string you like (the more masochistic you are, the farther you stretch - initially, just try moving one string over), and individually move one finger at a time over to that other string. The trick is, of course, to keep all fingers down, in place, and in control at all times. You can vary the game by changing the order of finger movement: say, 3, 1, 2, 4: then 2, 4, 1, 3 or whatever. (This is strictly for left-hand independence, so don’t even worry about picking just yet this is something you can do while sitting around watching TV.)

Other variations on the original scale include up-and-down right-hand picking and alternate fingering - e.g., open, 2nd 1st, 3rd, 2nd, 4th, 3rd, next string open, back to the 4th on the original string, next string 1st finger, and start up the new string repeating the pattern. (Starting with the open A string, for instance, this would read: A, B, A#, C, B, C#, C, open D string, C#, D#, - up a whole-step, down a half-step each time.)

Another version gives us an opposite approach: locate and anchor the thumb for first-position fingering, then slam the digits down one at a time, never having any more than one finger on the board at one time. Shift to other positions up the neck and repeat the exercise in order to develop speed and accuracy in fingering single-note lines.

This will get you started on developing your left hand finger strength. Now let’s take a look at that right hand picking.

22

TAKE YOUR PICK Fig. 1

Whilst pondering and researching the ups and

strings as you pick or strum (Fig. 1). Try it. If it works for you, great.

downs and ins and outs of guitar pickin’, up surfaced these comments from Robert Fripp in an old GUITAR PLAYER magazine (Miller Freeman Publications) feature written by Jas Obrecht from Sept. of ‘79:

But wait. Here, in the reference library, there’s an old, dusty manual from Joseph M. Estella and George Roberts, “Guitar Chords Made Easy For Everyone” (Wm. J. Smith Co., Inc.), which contains this statement:

“Little attention is paid to either the pick or picking...the act of picking is, in general, a shambles.” By coincidence, a recent collaboration onstage and in the studio with Steve Morse, gave ample proof of a guitar player who, among many other musical, artistic, and technical talents, can also quite easily pick your brains out, pick them right back up off the floor, and then carefully picking his spot, plunk ‘em right back into your head pretty well exactly where he wants.

“The little finger should rest on the guard plate of the sound box and the pick held in a slanting position.” Fig. 2

Anyway, this combination of circumstances sends us on the fly to the guitar reference library to reexamine picking, this most basic component of guitar playing, and to address two questions:

1 2

Hmmm. Now let’s get back to that guy Morse. He holds his pick between his thumb and two fingers (Fig. 2)! And what about a certain Eddie Van Halen? He has said,

“I hold my pick in two ways; with my thumb and middle finger (Fig. 3) and with my thumb, index and middle (the same as Morse in Fig. 2). Remember that most players don’t pick the way I do, so what works for me might not work for you.”

Whatever one’s style of pick (or “ill-designed plectra,” as Mr. Fripp might have it), just how should one hold it?

Once you’ve got a grip on your choice of a little piece of plastic, nylon, stainless steel graphite, agate, coin, washer, or Sharkfin, just what the hell are you going to do with it in order to avoid creating a “shambles”?

Hmmm again. Perhaps we should go back to the erudite teacher (and critic) of guitar craft, Robert Fripp, for another very Fig. 3 telling comment:

Answer to the first question: Get a grip on yourself. Conventional general wisdom says to curve all your fingers in toward the palm and lay the pick on the side of your 1st finger. Then press your thumb down, allowing just the tip of the pick to extend beyond your 1st finger’s nail. Don’t squeeze. Just relax. Try to let the whole right hand “float” above the

“My position is an awkward one. The only authority I can present for my approach to the right hand is my own.”

23

• • • • ••

TAKE YOUR PICK (Cont’d)

Technique as Idiosyncrasy

The Two Basic Pick Strokes

W

T

ell, there you have it, then. We can definitely draw a conclusion from these observations. “The act of picking” only appears to be a shambles because it is a physical act of individual personal expression, and therefore will not submit to consensus or conform to any specific general standard. As we are all students of our art and craft, we must continue to experiment with our techniques and challenge conventional accepted wisdom when we feel it does not fulfill our personal needs. So, if you’re unhappy or unsure of your choice of pick, and the way you’re using it, try lots of different types of picks, and give them all a conscientious effort, with varied technical approaches. Eventually you should find or develop something that suits you. Perhaps you’ll discover, as I did, a simple eloquent truth in this statement of Al Hendrickson:

here are two basic types of pick strokes: the free stroke and the rest stroke. The free stroke starts above the string(s), flows across, and lifts away at the end. (see diagram - Fig. 9)

Fig. 9

Free Stroke

Pick action strumming across all six strings

Picking one string

“I have always used

DIFFERENT PICKS for different

The rest stroke starts inside the plane of the strings, and ends “resting” against an adjacent string. (see diagram - Fig. 10)

PURPOSES and

SOUNDS.” Fig. 10

Rest Stroke

Pick starts stroke In answer to the question of what to do with it once you’ve got a grip: get it goin’, out of the shambles, on the edge of a diagonal inside a circle. Like Messrs. Van Halen and Fripp, or anyone else who momentarily engages in this line of work (i.e., teacher of technique), one is only really qualified to demonstrate their own way of doing things, with the disclaimer that it is neither right nor wrong, but merely that it seems to work for them most of the time. A teacher’s suggestions should only form a part of the equation that leads you to self-discovery.

Pick ends resting on adjacent string

Plane of strings

Continued • • • • • •

24

• • • • ••

TAKE YOUR PICK (Cont’d)

Flat Pick Techniques CIRCLE PICKING

Fig. 4A

M

uch early and often seemingly aimless experimentations with a flat-pick for the purposes of executing single-note licks and lines jelled in the fall of ‘81 through a series of Guitar Player magazine columns by Jimmy Stewart:

Oscillated picking, which is also known as

“

circle picking, uses a small circular movement produced by the thumb and index finger. The use of oscillated picking can give you a variation in sound because of the changing angle of the pick as it strikes the string; by angling your pick in different directions, you can achieve rounder sounds. It also enables you to keep the pick “in the strings” continuously. By using the pressure point between the pick and the index finger, you can also create a lot of tone color.” Sept. ‘81

VA R I AT I O N - # 1 For example, Jimmy described a clockwise motion. Perhaps because I’m naturally left-handed (author’s note: so is Steve Morse) and therefore brainreversed to the majority of the population (I can’t speak for Steve), I tend to think counterclockwise moving through the strings (Fig. 4A and 4B). Hence, the circular aspect of the technique becomes modified more towards an angled slash of the string.

“The fi rst join t of the thumb is not lo c k ing in p as it dra lace ws a ha lf circle fr left to r Jimmy went on to om ight. T his chan the ang explain his theory that g e s le of the pick, this technique of utilizin g its blu nt picking was very similar edge ra ther to handwriting, like than th e drawing little round circles tip.” ‘81 in a clockwise motion. This v. o N made perfect sense, and helped to explain much of what had been a blind struggle. Still, this only serves as a departure point, and one must continue to modify the technique to personally suit oneself.

Fig. 4B Clockwise

Counterclockwise

Continued • • • • • •

25

• • • • ••

TAKE YOUR PICK (Cont’d) VA R I AT I O N # 2

Speaking of angled string slashing, here’s a quote from Eric Johnson:

Fig. 6

H

owever, most players’ technical evolution leads them away from this technique. In the interest of being relaxed and having right-hand balance, some start to pick with the 2nd finger extended out of the way, as opposed to on the pick or curled into the palm (Fig. 6).

“As you’re picking down, instead of going from top to bottom, try to pick at an angle so that you go diagonally from the left horn of the guitar down to the control knobs. On the way back up, do the opposite diagonal. If you were to look at someone doing that real fast, it would be a circular technique.” (Fig. 5). Also, “I don’t use the pointy end as much as the side of the pick to brush the note.”

Quite often, for intense passages, the ulnar (inner, little finger) side of the hand rests firmly on the bridge, JUST behind the strings, and the 4th finger anchors against the face of the guitar below the strings. Frequently the 3rd finger curls around under the 1st string, and then sometimes the whole right hand rests against and/or slightly off and IN FRONT of the bridge to create a damping effect on strings that are being picked. This “damps” (dulls and cuts) any sustain from the notes produced, and mutes all the rest of the strings at the same time. Fig. 7 Whereas common conventional descriptions of right-hand pick technique tell us to lay the pick on the side of the first finger, some prefer to rotate the right hand position until the nail of the first finger is angled the way that the pick is in Fig. 5. Then they lay the pick on the thumb side of the distal phalange of the index finger, wedging the pick up into the crease behind the knuckle of the distal and middle phalange (Fig. 7). This facilitates the whole idea of thumb pressure squeezing or relaxing the grip on the pick for variations in tone color.

Fig. 5

Bingo! Confirmation from a modern master that this, indeed, is no shamble. Take note, readers, that Figures 4 and 5 are greatly exaggerated for the sake of clarity. The pick and hand motion should actually be minimal and confined. Now, as for this thing where Steve and Eddie hold the pick between the index/middle and the thumb: that also makes perfect sense. After all, the middle finger is often a good three-quarters of an inch longer and more warped than any other finger on the hand. And it’s just as strong, if not stronger, than the index. Also, an additional finger really does help to stabilize and lock the pick as its edge slices across the string, as opposed to the tip snapping flat through it.

So, in conclusion, if you were to ask which way one avoids creating a shambles, there’s plenty of ready evidence to suggest that you could just about take your pick, and that brings us just about full circle, so let’s move on. 26

STRUMMING PATTERNS Strumming is one of the most overlooked but

never stop that continual eighth-note, down-up motion, even though you are playing different rhythms. One possible mistaken tendency of beginners is to attempt accented rhythms by hammering them out with downstrokes, but you can see in the examples (with the exception of Ex. 3, which starts with two quick downstrokes, then settles into form) that all of the rhythms can be accomplished by maintaining a continuous down-up motion and merely lifting the pick away from the strings, and omitting a stroke where an accent is not required.

important lessons for a beginner. Numero uno, before you ever try “Pinball Wizard,” turn on your metronome at a comfortable tempo. Then you get an easy, loose down-up, down-up strum going on eighthnotes (1-and, 2-and, down-up, down-up, etc.). Once you can do this smoothly (and in your sleep) you can graduate to Ex. 1. through Ex. 4. But please note: Ex. 1A

4 4

RHYTHM

1 and 2 and (3) and (4) and

IS THE

Ex. 1B

F O U N DAT I O N

4 4

O F EV E RY

MUSICAL HOUSE.

1 and 2 and (3) and 4 and

The feeling that you have for the tempo of the music, the sympathy that your body has for the groove: this is where your musicality begins. You are “dancing” with your instrument. You are interpreting the sensual and the intellectual, sound, emotion, and idea, through the physical act of playing your guitar, and rhythm is almost always the exclusive lowest common denominator in the process. Remember, as a guitarist, that the physical groove, your connection to the music, never stops - just the string contact.

Ex. 2

4 4 1 (and) 2 and (3) and 4 (and)

Ex.3

4 4 1 and a 2 and (3) and 4 and

Ex. 4

ur o y k Pic and spots your take ts. sho

3 4 1 (and 2) and

3

and

27

THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR

28

OUTLINING THE NUMBERS GAME C Major Scale Note Names Scale Degrees

C I

D II

E III

F IV

G V

A VI

B VII

C

Major Scale Intervals Major 2nd

Major 3rd

C D

C E

Perfect 4th

Perfect 5th

C F

C G

T

Major 6th

C A

Major 7th

C B

Behold the simply labeled F chord in Ex 1. In Ex. 2, we see an F6. Ex. 3 is an Fmaj7, and in Ex. 4 we see an Fadd9. So where did those little words and numbers come from? What do they mean? How did they get there?

ake an ascending C major scale and give each note a successive number (generally, Roman numerals are used to indicate chord progressions, while Arabic numbers are used to indicate scale constructions): C-I, D-II, E-III, F-IV, G-V, A-VI, B-VII. Now, two notes played at the same time is called an interval the space, or distance, between two notes. In the key of C, the space from C to D is a major second. C to E is a major third. C to F is called a perfect fourth, and C to G is a perfect fifth. C to A is a major sixth, and C to the B above it is a major seventh. Nice and straightforward.

All we have to Ex. 1 do is look at the F notes in an F major 1 scale to find the 2 relatively simple 3 4 answer. We’ve added a D note to the F major chord in Ex. 2 (the 4th Ex. 3 finger at the 3rd Fmaj7 fret), and D 1 happens to be the 2 sixth note in an F 3 4 major scale. And the interval between F and D in the key of F - is a major sixth.

Now, three or more notes sounding out at the same time is a chord, which is the harmonic sum of all its parts. In the key C Major Chord of C, a C (the root), E (the major third), and G (the perfect fifth), is PERFECT FIFTH THIRD MAJOR ROOT called a C major chord. In the formative years, chords with a one-letter name are approachable and conquerable, while chords with a letter followed by numbers and/or small m’s, sharps (#), or flats (b) are scary, intimidating, and mystifying. Let’s take a shot at The Numbers Game, and see if we can’t banish bewilderment!

Ex. 2 F6 1 2 4

3

Ex. 4 Fadd9 1 2 3

Continued • • • • • •

29

4

• • • • ••

OUTLINING THE NUMBERS GAME (Cont’d)

If we keep going up that F scale, E is the major seventh, which explains the open E string in the chord of Ex. 3. The next note up, F, is the octave - the eighth, although nobody calls it that. It’s always called an “octave,” a term derived from the Latin octi, which means “eight” (as in octagon and octopus). As we extend that scale into a second, higher octave, we find a G note, which was the major second and now repeats as the ninth note. Will wonders never cease? The 4th finger at the 3rd fret in Ex. 4 is a G sitting atop an F (root), A (major third), and C (perfect fifth), all combining to give us an Fadd9. This leads to the first little bit of confusion to be thrown in your path. (Gazillions will follow, but somehow one must persevere.) You’re going to be reading a chart and see symbols like F7, G9, or C13. In those cases, you are supposed to know that the chord has a major 3rd in it (even though it doesn’t say major), and usually has a minor 7th in it. We’re moving out of basic realms and into a more heady atmosphere here, but you shouldn’t be left hanging without an explanation of chords that have lower case m’s or “min”. It stands for minor, which in turn means that instead of using the major scale to select notes to build chords, you use one of several minor scales. And we’ll get to that in the next few chapters.

10

V

13 II

XII

6

3

IX

IV

7 VII

8

9

30

2

MAJOR-KEY DIATONIC TRIADS Understanding the relationship of triads in a key

Now let’s transpose (change the pitch or key of) our example into three different keys, F major, B b major, and E b major (Ex. 3, 4 and 5).

is essential to a well-rounded knowledge of the guitar. Again, we’ll start this exploration with a look at a simple major scale. The notes are numbered with Roman numerals and given fancy names so that their function can be discussed. Here’s the familiar C major scale again (Ex. 1).

Ex. 3 Diatonic triads in F major F

Gm

Am

B

C

Dm Edim

F

1 2 3

1 1 3

1 1 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 1 3

1 2 4

1 2 3

1 2 3

3 3 5

5 5 7

6 7 8

8 9 10

10 10 12

11 12 13

13 14 15

Dm

E

F

Ex. 1 C major scale 4

SuperTonic SubDominant SubMediant Tonic Mediant Dominant Leading Tone

Fingerings

T A B

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

I

Ex. 4 Diatonic triads in B b

Now let’s build the simplest chord harmony available by using notes only found within the scale itself. Because these three note chords are built in this fashion, they’re called DIATONIC TRIADS. (DIATONIC means something is based on the notes of the prevailing key that you’re in. A TRIAD is a 3 note chord - with a root, third and fifth.) Here are diatonic triads in C major (Ex. 2).

B

C

Dm

Em

F

Fingerings

T A B

G

Am Bdim

Gm Adim

3

Ex. 2 Diatonic triads in C Major Chord Symbols:

Cm

B

1 3 2

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 3 2

1 3 2

1 2 3

or 1 1 2 3 3 4

1 3 2

1 3 3

3 4 5

5 6 7

6 8 8

8 10 10

10 11 12

11 13 14

13 15 15

Gm

A

B

Cm Ddim

C

Ex. 5 Diatonic triads in E b E

This Roman numeral and naming system of labeling can now transfer to the chords for purposes of theoretical harmonic analysis of chord function within its context. We can also introduce the more common system of chord symbols that exists for use in performance situations such as actual song charts or transcriptions.

Fm

5 Fingerings

T A B

E

1 3 4

1 2 4

1 2 4

1 3 4

1 3 4

1 2 4

or 1 1 2 3 4 4

1 3 4

3 5 6

5 6 8

7 8 10

8 10 11

10 12 13

12 13 15

13 15 17

15 17 18

Continued • • • • • • 31

• • • • ••

MAJOR-KEY DIATONIC TRIADS (Cont’d)

Inversions

Alternate Fingerings

I

L

f we invert these triads (meaning to change the notes of the chord around so that the root, or tonic note is not at the bottom, as shown in the following example), we have a different-sounding way of saying the same thing. Our next examples (Ex. 6, 7 and 8) show the triads of the keys of F major, B b major and E b major, respectively, in the second inversion. Root position is when the root or tonic sits at the bottom of the chord. First inversion is when the 3rd is on the bottom, and second inversion is when the 5th is at the bottom.

et’s examine the aspect of fingerings for a moment. The ones given are merely suggestions, and you may want to experiment and use others that suit you better. But there can be a logic and simplicity in learning and using certain fingerings in certain circumstances, so it is wise to be flexible and practice alternate chord fingerings. For example, let’s look at the B b portion of the previous example. If one were playing the example from top to bottom (from the 15th fret down to the 3rd) and wanted to give it a lyrical treatment, they could finger it—

Ex. 6 Diatonic triads in second inversion in F F

Gm

Am

B

C

42214121

Dm Edim

F

43414341 41314231

5 Fingerings

T A B

2 4 3

1 4 3

1 4 3

2 4 3

2 4 3

1 4 3

or 11 43 32

2 4 3

2 3 3

3 5 5

5 7 7

7 8 8

9 10 10

10 12 12

12 14 13

14 15 15

as they could pick or strum the B b and pull off to the A diminished already fingered behind it. Then they could sound the Gm and pull off to the F, and repeat the same technique throughout. Or, if they were ascending through the chords and wanted to keep fingers free to add on hammered melody notes, they might use this scheme:

Ex. 7 Diatonic triads in second inversion in B b B

Cm

Dm

E

F

Gm Adim

B

11111111 13311321 12211211

4 Fingerings

T A B

1 1 1

or 21 43 32

or 21 43 32

or 431 431 431

or 13 13 13

or 21 43 32

or 2 11 3 23 1 12

or 43 43 43

3 3 3

4 5 5

6 7 7

8 8 8

10 10 10

11 12 12

13 14 13

15 15 15

Triads can be used very effectively in ensemble settings (playing in a group). With a bass player, a keyboard or another guitarist, and vocalists all competing for space in a fairly narrow range, fullsounding 5 or 6 string chords are often too dense, and clutter up the mix. Often, thinking smaller can make your part more effective and precise.

Ex. 8 Diatonic triads in second inversion in E b E

3 Fingerings

T A B

Fm

Gm

A

B

Cm Ddim

E

or 1 3 2 2 1 1

1 3 2

1 3 2

2 3 1

2 3 1

1 3 2

1 3 1

2 3 1

3 4 3

4 6 5

6 8 7

8 9 8

10 11 10

11 13 12

13 15 13

15 16 15

32

MINOR-KEY DIATONIC TRIADS For this topic, we start with a problem: there are

minor and a basic, simple major scale. The harmonic minor is distinguished from the major by the b 3 and b 6, while the natural minor has a b 3, b 6, and b 7.

three basic minor scales. Behold (Ex. 1). Ex. 1 C harmonic minor

We can see that the II chord of the melodic minor distinguishes itself from the other two examples by being a minor instead of a diminished chord. Likewise, the III chord of the natural minor is a major instead of an augmented. The IV chord of the melodic minor scale is major. The V chord of the natural minor is minor. The VI of melodic minor is diminished, and the VII of natural minor is major.

SuperTonic SubDominant SubMediant Tonic Mediant Dominant Leading Tone

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

C natural minor

Ex. 2 C harmonic minor Diatonic triads I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII Cm Ddim E aug Fm

G

A

Bdim Cm

IV

V

VI

VII

E

Fm

Gm

A

B

III

IV

V

VI

VII

F

G

IV

V

C (ascending) melodic minor I I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

II

III

C natural minor Cm Ddim

Well, so much for life being simple. You might be wondering what that “ascending” melodic minor stuff is about. Essentially, it’s this: the ascending form of a melodic minor scale is its own unique combination of notes, but technically the formula is altered in the descending form, and those altered notes are the same ones found in the natural minor scale formula. Not to confuse the issue, but this particular scale formula of notes that we’ve identified as the natural minor (or the descending half of a melodic minor) can also be referred to as the “pure” minor, or the Aeolian mode. Ah, a rose by any other name...or two or three or four.

I

II

Cm

C melodic minor Cm

I

Dm E aug

II

III

Adim Bdim Cm

VI

VII

There are some general tendencies in basic minorkey diatonic harmony, but there are also several variables. The use of the minor triad on the tonic (I) and perhaps on the subdominant (IV) as well, is pretty standard. The major triad is almost always used on the dominant chord in both major and minor modes a major triad. The III chord is often a major triad, and the II, VI, and VII chords are variable.

Let’s look at the three different minor scales and the sets of diatonic triads based upon them to see what distinguishes them from each other (Ex.2). You’ll notice that they’ve all got lowered thirds: that’s the big distinguishing characteristic of all minor scales. And that’s the only difference between the melodic

Continued • • • • • • 33

• • • • ••

MINOR-KEY DIATONIC TRIADS (Cont’d) E b harmonic minor

Here’s a list of the tendencies - obviously, you can season according to personal taste.

E m Fdim G aug A m

I

Almost always minor

II

Usually diminished or minor

III

Usually major, sometimes augmented

Fingerings

IV

Almost always minor

T A B

V

Almost always major

VI

Usually major, sometimes diminished

VII

Usually diminished or major

B

B

Ddim E m

1 2 4

1 2 4

1 2 3

1 2 4

1 3 4

1 3 4

1 2 4

1 2 4

3 4 6

4 6 8

7 8 9

8 9 11

10 12 13

11 13 14

13 15 17

15 16 18

A natural minor diatonic triads in second inversion Am Bdim

We’ll finish with a series of examples of minorkey diatonic triads in different keys and inversions (Ex. 3), so that you’ll have fingering patterns to transpose into all keys. Go for it. Or perhaps you prefer the more world-weary 90’s motivational catchphrase of some big time ad agency: just do it.

Fingerings

T A B

C

Dm

Em

F

G

Am

1 2 4

1 3 2

2 3 1

1 1 1

2 4 3

1 1 1

1 1 1

2 4 3

1 2 2

3 4 3

5 5 5

6 7 7

8 9 9

10 10 10

12 12 12

13 14 14

Am

B

C

Dm

Ex. 3 D natural minor second inversion

Diatonic triads in F harmonic minor

Dm Fm Gdim A aug B m C

Fingerings

T A B

D

1 1 3

1 2 4

1 1 2

1 1 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 4

1 1 3

Fingerings

1 1 3

2 3 5

5 5 6

6 6 8

8 9 10

9 10 11

11 12 14

13 13 15

T A B

B b natural minor B m Cdim

Fingerings

T A B

Edim

F

Gm

1 3 2

1 3 1

2 3 1

1 3 2

1 3 2

2 3 1

2 3 1

1 3 2

1 3 2

3 5 3

5 6 5

6 8 7

8 9 10

10 11 10

12 13 12

13 15 14

Edim Fm

F natural minor second inversion

D

E m

Fm

G

A

B m

1 2 3

1 3 4

1 4 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 4 3

1 4 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

2 4 5

4 6 6

6 7 8

8 9 10

9 11 11

11 13 13

13 14 15

Fm Gdim

Fingerings

T A B

34

A

B m

Cm

D

E

Fm

1 4 3

1 4 2

2 4 3

1 4 3

1 4 3

2 4 3

2 4 3

1 4 3

1 3 3

3 5 4

5 6 6

6 8 8

8 10 10

10 11 11

12 13 13

13 15 15

INTRODUCTION TO THE BLUES: Fig. 1 Standard 12 Bar Blues Progression I

IV

I

V

IV

I

V

An Improviser’s Best Friend Now for those of you in need of a translation of all the above... a verse of a standard blues song usually last 12 bars, which is 48 beats, or foot taps. In one of its simplest forms, those 12 bars have three chords that follow the order shown in Fig. 1. Don’t let those Roman numerals throw you. This is just a way of giving you a theory lesson - which everyone usually fears and hates, because it’s egghead stuff and not as much fun as learning the changes to last week’s hit, or taking the seemingly shortest shortcut and copping the solo off a record by ear. Well, surprise, surprise! You’ll be amazed at how much faster and easier it is to cover new material when you understand the howwhat-when-why-and-where of it all.

Your basic beginning guitarist watches a professional axe-slinger jamming and blowing away, improvising and effortlessly composing on the spot, flying soulfully and skillfully by the seat of his pants, as it were, and exclaims, “How the hell does he do that?” Well, if you break it right down and analyze it, the basis for improvisation in almost any form or style of today’s western music starts from a thorough knowledge of, and a sympathetic feel for, the blues. The “theory” behind traditional blues goes something like this (please read the following in a subdued, scholarly tone): THE BLUES is a stylized harmonic, melodic and rhythmic musical structure, which, in its most common, standardized form, extends 12 bars (measures), contains a harmonic progression consisting of the three basic chords (the tonic I chord, bars 1 through 4, the subdominant IV chord, bars 5 and 6, a return to the tonic for bars 7 and 8, the dominant V chord for bars 9 and 10, and a second return to the tonic for bars 11 and 12, often referred to as the “turnaround”), and serves as the foundation for a melody or improvisational solo based on the blues scale (root, b 3, 4, b 5, 5 b 7, octave).

You see, in theory, you take an ordinary major scale (known in academic circles as the Ionian mode), and then give each “degree” of the scale a number. (We did this back in the chapter on Major Triads, too.) For example, the C major scale goes like this: C-I, D-II, E-III, F-IV, G-V, A-VI, B-VII. Then, using only notes found in the scale, you build chords on each scale degree. So that stuff you learned in grade school about doh, re, mi, etc. (that name-calling is solfeggio, by the way), which later in practical application became a limited alphabet (A to G, sharped or flatted, repeating ad infinitum), now enters another parallel universe called theory - where the chords that are built on those aforementioned scale degrees simply get the same corresponding numbers. (Whew! Okay, now go back and slowly read this paragraph once more, skipping all the junk in the parentheses, and you’ll have absorbed your first theory lesson!)

Then you throw in the magic ingredient - call it personality, call it creativity, inspiration, emotion and courage. Greats like B.B.King, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker have helped define it for us by laying it down as the joys and sorrows, the blood, sweat, and tears of their hearts and souls.

35

• • • • ••

INTRODUCTION TO THE BLUES:

(Cont’d)

Fig. 2 In C C(I)

F(IV)

C(I)

G(V)

F(IV)

C(I)

G(V)

C

G

D

C

G

D

A

E

B

A

E

B

In G G

In E E

Fig. 2 shows that three-chord 12-bar progression in C. For variations, you could substitute some funky dominant 7th chords for the majors in any of these progressions, or if you’re really sad and low-down, you could play all the changes as minor chords for a whole new mood and sound. There are elements of this structure that will come naturally, and eventually you’ll develop an instinctive feel for them: the move up to the IV chord in the fifth bar, then the return to the root chord in the seventh bar; then the move to the V chord in the ninth bar, and the return to the root chord in the 11th bar, often achieved gradually by going down through the IV chord in the 10th bar. The last two bars, the turnaround, is a musical place that ties off the 12-bar package and returns you to the top to start all over. There are hundreds of variations that exist for turnarounds, but a unique statement in the 12th bar is an important compositional aspect of 12-bar blues. Some good, classic, and popular examples of 12-bar song structures are: “ I Can’t Quit You, Baby” by Led Zeppelin (a slow blues with a unique turnaround), “Thrill Is Gone” by B.B. King (down-tempo with minor chord changes), “Tush” by ZZ Top (a shuffle feel) and “Mercury Blues” by David Lindley (with a straight-eight rock and roll feel and a slightly altered chord structure instead of V, IV, I, its last four bars go VIm, V, I). How are you doing so far? Let’s look at melodic content.

36

IMPROVISING WITH THE BLUES SCALE Here’s what the Blues scale looks like in the key

One of the first positional shifting variations of the scale that you might want to learn goes like this (Fig. 3).

of E (Fig. 1). Further up the neck, say, in A, it goes like this (Fig. 2). Don’t forget to try to develop your 4th finger. This represents good positional technique, a building block for the future.

To be one hundred per cent accurate, the actual notes shown in the last example are the notes of a C pentatonic (five-note) scale. You could say it gave birth to the A blues scale - adding through evolutionary genetic mutation that weirdo extra note, the flat fifth.

1 2 2 2 3 3 3 3

Fig. 1 (

)

III

1 1 3 3 1 1 3 3 3 1 1 3 3 3 3

Fig. 3

T A B 0 3

0 1 2

0

2

0

2 3

0 3

0 (3)

T A B 3 V

1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 4

Fig. 2

(

T A B 5 8

5 6 7

5

7

5

7 8

5 8

5

3 5 7

5

7

5

7 9

8 10

8 10 12

The Blues takes me back to the basement and garage band days, when my high school guitar cronies and I started learning and teaching each other. We didn’t know from squat about pentatonics or subdominants; we were just trading random discoveries (mostly by scribbling chord charts and licks on notes in math class). But we felt we’d stumbled upon nirvana when we took those old blues scales and discovered skinny-gauge strings and bending! (For some weird reason, in our self-taught ignorance, we called it “smearing.” I’ve also heard it referred to as weaving.) Man, we hardly ever played a straight-picked blues-scale note after that - we bent, weaved and smeared ‘em all! And actually, that’s another thing that’s crucial to the blues: the notes should slide, and bend, and have a natural, liquid malleability that makes them so imitative of crying, or laughing. It’s primitive, and as basic as the sounds of nature - birds, animals, the wind - or the bending call of a far-off train whistle.

)

5 (8)

In the same way that you have a feel for the changes in a 12-bar progression (memorized to the point of pure instinct, like breathing in your sleep), you’ve got to know this scale intimately, in many positions with infinite variations, to become a skilled improviser. 37

SWINGING A BLUES FEEL Ex. 1 1 2 4

3

4 4

1

2

2

3

3

G

G7

1

1 2

2

3

G

1

C

Now that you’ve been introduced to one of the guitar’s oldest, “baddest” friends, The Blues, you should know that it’s only proper to make a blues pilgrimage on a regular basis, to pay your respects, and to make a fresh donation to the bloodlines. At the very least, the Blues “vibe”, especially its focus on emotional honesty and intensity, should influence your work in other styles. Here’s a slightly more elaborate version of the blues progression (Ex.1), one that incorporates some common “secondary” characteristics. Notice, and hear, how the dominant seven chords give the progression a little more character. And in Ex. 2, a little more evolution makes a different chord appear in each measure. Listen to how the G7 in bar 4 brings a feeling of tension and expectation that makes the IV chord sound and feel good when it arrives in bar 5. Bars 11 and 12 feature a standard turnaround formula.

38

4

3

3

D7

2

2

2

4

3

C

G

D7

3

SWINGING A BLUES FEEL (Cont’d)

• • • • ••

Ex. 2 III

1

III

1

III

1

2 4

3

3

4 4

G7

III

C7

1 2

III

1

2

3 4

1 3

3

G

G7

IV

1 2

III

1

2

2

C7

III

1 2

3

A7

Gdim7

1 III

1

III

1 III

D9

G7

4

C7

3

G7

D7

Now let’s look at some more elaborate versions designed to challenge anyone who considers the 12-bar blues a “simple” or “limited” art form.

4 4 3

3

Ex. 4

4 4 Ex. 5

4 4 Ex. 6

4 4

39

2

3

Ex. 3

Try playing these progressions with the rhythm shown in Ex. 3. It’s important to develop an implied triplet feel on every beat, and then accent certain notes. You can get a feel for the rhythm by saying it aloud and accenting certain syllables, as shown in Ex. 4. The idea is to give it the rhythmic feeling commonly called “swing.” Ex. 5 and 6 show two, less precise ways of notating the swing triplet feel. (Notation such as that in Ex. 3 will no doubt have the instruction to ‘swing’ written above it.) Once you’ve mastered the rhythmic feel, try applying it to the progressions.

1

2 3

3

E7

4

3

2

3

3

G7

2

4

3

3

3

3

TRIP-uh-let

TRIP-uh-let

TRIP-uh-LET

TRIP-uh-LET

4

SWINGING A BLUES FEEL (Cont’d)

• • • • •• Ex. 7 IX

III

1 2

VIII

1 2

3

2

2

4 4

Db9

G9

V

IV

1

1 2

3

3

3

C9

III

1

IX

1

1

3

F#9

IX 2

1

G9

VIII 2

3

3

2 3

3

V

3

Bm7

IV

C7

VI

1 2

C#m7

VI 2

1 2

3

D#9

III 3 2

Bbm7

2

III

3

1

Am7

3

1

1

3 2

2

3

2

3

C#9

1 V

III

1 2

3

D9

V

3

2

1 III 2

1

Cm7

3

E9

1 2

4

3

Db7

Dm7

VII 2

4

IV

1 2

3

1 2

3

1 3

2 3

3

F#7

G7

Db9

C9

F#7

G7

The progression in Ex. 7 introduces chromatic motion. Approaching chords from a half-step above or below is a very common technique for “coloring” a progression. If a sharp or flat is needed to name a passing chord, notice that when you approach from above, the “passing” chord is named as a lowered version of the note above (e.g., Db9 to C9), but when you come from below, the passing chord becomes a raised version of the note below (e.g., D# to E9). As Mr. Spock might say, “it’s only logical, Captain.”

Continued • • • • • •

40

Eb9

D9

Ab 7

• • • • ••

SWINGING A BLUES FEEL (Cont’d)

Ex. 8 j III 1

III

2

V

1 2

3 4

2

V

3

V

1 2

3

VII

1

1 2

3 3

2 3 4

4 4

Gmaj7

G#dim7

Am7

A#dim7

G/B

Em7

C 7 V

III

1

VIII 1

1

2

2

3

VII

2

VIII 2

1 2

3 4

III

3

3

1 2

3 4

4

3 4

Dm7

III 1

G7

2

III

V

1 2

3 4

Cmaj7

2

3

3

Cadd6

1 VII 2

V 2

3

VII

VI

1

3

Db9#11/Ab

Cm7

2

3

VI 1

1 2

3

III

2

4

Gmaj7

G#dim7

Am7

A#dim7

Bm7

F9

1

3 2

4

Bb13

E7#9

3 4

Am11

7 III

1

1 2

2 3

III

4

D7

VII 2

3

VI

3

V

1 2

3

E7#9

3

Am7

Ex. 8 offers a very advanced concept of chord movement, just a few of the infinite options that exist within the familiar 12-bar structure. Maintaining common tones can make a chord progression sound smoother. Even though the chords change two or more times per bar, the voicings suggested use common tones to provide melodic “glue.” Notice that the IIm7-V7-I progression (“the most important musical sequence in modern jazz,” according to educator Jamey Aebersold) appears in bars 4-5, 9-10, and 12. Most readers will probably find Ex. 8 next-to-impossible to play. (Geez, that statement is surely the equivalent of a hurled gauntlet.) If you struggle through the suggested fingerings, your ears will learn lessons in voice-leading that no words can express. Besides, this progression serves as an object-lesson to any disrespectful miscreants of The Blues.

41

1 2

4

Bm7

III

3

4

Ab7b5

2

D7

4

BENDING It cries, laughs, sings, moans, wails, screams,

down. In Fig. 2, notice how the 2nd finger has a tendency to slide to the front part of the fret space, and tuck itself up lengthwise to the 3rd finger. That’s how one achieves the extra strength and stability needed to accomplish the bend, and then to CONTROL it, either by holding it, putting some vibrato on the note, or releasing it at any chosen speed to suit the phrasing of the musical passage being played.

whispers, talks... descriptions that come from the most common, and undoubtedly the most idiosyncratic technique in modern guitar playing. Along with vibrato, it’s arguably the most fundamental building block in constructing your personal sense of a physical “style” in playing electric steel string lead. What we’re talking about is BENDING. Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the two most common bends. Fig. 1 shows the 3rd finger pushing the G (3rd) string up a full tone, and Fig. 2 portrays the 3rd finger pulling the 3rd string down, again raising the pitch of the note by a full tone.

You can also see that the thumb has come up and hooked over the top of the fingerboard, providing a position of strength for the controlled power necessary to accomplish this squeezing and stringstretching movement. Figure 3 shows the Fig. 2 pull-down action of the bend from another angle. Check out how the position of the left hand has rotated almost a quarter turn, so that the fingertips are almost sideways on the string, and the joint where the 1st finger meets the hand is banging up hard and tight against the bottom side of the neck and fingerboard. This provides a solid pivot point for the bending action, and any subsequent vibrato movement that might take place. (Check the “Vibrato” chapter in Book Three, The Basic Brainstorming Book.)

There are some other specifics in the pictures - notice how the 1st and 2nd fingers are in behind the 3rd finger, both fretting down and helping out on the bending action Fig. 3 of the string, while remaining in their respective, consecutive frets. Some players often forego using the 2nd finger behind the 3rd to push the bend up in this particular circumstance, as they find that the 1st finger alone provides enough stabilizing behind-the-scenes support. Likewise, they often skip using the 1st when pulling the G string

When to push, and when to pull; that is the question. The answer is that it’s really up to you, but obviously, some circumstances logically dictate one direction over the other. In Ex.1, for instance, to accomplish these “unison” bends, where the 3rd string gets bent up to Ex. 1 match the pitch being sounded on the 2nd, and the 2nd string gets pushed up to B B match the pitch 5 5 8 (10) being sounded on T (9) 7 A B the 1st, it would Continued • • • • • • 42

BENDING (Cont’d)

• • • • ••

too flat, i.e., rotated too far down and around to the back of the neck, you’re going to get some unwanted string noise.

be practically impossible to achieve the same sonorous effect by bending with a pull-down action. By the same token, experimentation can sometimes provide interesting results.

Which is not to say that sometimes it can’t be a cool effect: the wide vibrato on the first note that grows into feedback at the beginning of Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” has plenty of intentional adjacent string rattle noises. One of the sublime moments in Jeff Beck’s version of “Pork Pie Hat” from “Wired” is a repeating, crying overbend that’s pushing into the adjacent string way up the neck, creating a really unique-sounding de-tuned unison. But we’re not really discussing exceptional exceptions here, in a book about basic technique, are we? Most of the time, basics can serve our musical and artistic purposes most admirably - and that’s what this book is all about. We’ll get around to some of the fancy stuff somewhere down the line, right?

Ex. 2 is an old Chuck Berry-esque chestnut of a lick: if you employ a pull-down action on the 3rd string bend, it slides over and gets muted by the tip of my left hand’s first finger, which is laying kind of sideways across the 2nd and 1st strings, awaiting their subsequent plucking. That 3rd string gets muted at the instant of releasing the bend, too. So, in this instance, the pull-down action provides an interesting, unintentional by-product: articulation. Ex. 2

4 4 3

1

1

B

T A B

7 (9)

3

1

1

B

5

5 7 (9)

3

1

1

4

1

3

1

B

5

5 7 (9)

5

5

8 5

They say a few pictures are worth a few thousand words. Okay, look at Fig. 4. Now, most players use the bending technique illustrated in Fig. 5, where you can see the 4th finger Fig. 4 bending the B string up and the upper part of the callused fingertip pushing INTO the adjacent G string. But being largely a “self-taught” guitarist I always preferred to use the Fig. 4 technique, Fig. 5 keeping the bending

7 5

Articulation is one of the most difficult and critical aspects of any technique, but bending in particular. Looking at Fig’s. 1 and 2 again, you can see how the action of bending the string just runs it over into the adjacent ones. How do you keep them from sounding if you don’t want them to? (Check out the next chapter, entitled “Muting and Damping: How Not to Play Stuff ”.) The trick is that you must use the exposed fleshy tip of your principal bending finger’s callus (the one that’s fretting down on that bending string) to touch and push against the SIDE of adjacent strings, WITHOUT pushing them down into contact with the frets so that they’ll actually make any sound. When you’re pulling to bend a string down, it’s the fleshy pad on the back of your finger just below the callused tip that provides the muting function. The angle at which your fingers contact the string is the crucial element here: if the string “action” on your guitar is adjusted low, and the finger angle where you bend is

finger a little more erect as I pushed the bend upward across the fingerboard, so that the nail of my bending finger slid UNDER the adjacent string (or strings).

Continued • • • • • • 43

• • • • ••

BENDING (Cont’d)

Everyone’s Self-Taught

And there you have it: simple words, but at the time they were an epiphany for me. Discovering that paragraph (with accompanying photo, worth a thousand words, at least) let me know that I was not alone, that there was a completely rational method in my madness. Even now, it reassures me about learning. Of course, there are qualifications to be made here, as there are in most technical approaches.

T

he term “self-taught” is in quotation marks because, as with many casual labels, it’s misleading. As renowned guitarist and educator Mick Goodrick has said, “...people learn in their own way.” Most of my guitar education didn’t come from academic institutions or paid private instruction (still doesn’t). But guitarists whose experience includes a more formalized education are still, in a very real sense, “selftaught” players, and always will be. How we learn depends on what we personally choose to digest from the world that spins ever faster and closer around us.

• This technique isn’t too good for players with big, thick fingers. However, if you’ve got monster hands, you’ve probably got enough strength that you can make the conventional technique work for you. • It’s obviously easier to get under adjacent strings if your action is set high. I know that a lot of modern two-hand tappers like their action as low as possible, so that may preclude your ability to give this approach a decent shot. Fig. 6

Speaking of which, back to the advantages of this bending technique, and an interesting point of view on “self ” instruction. Here’s Mr. Lee Ritenour from a GUITAR PLAYER magazine (Miller Freeman publications) column he wrote in September of 1979:

• Look at Figures 6 and 7, and you can see why I have calluses on my CUTICLES.

The second type of bending that I use is

“

more accurate (in terms of reaching notes and keeping them in tune), and it makes it easier to sustain the notes bent. With this method, it is also easier to add vibrato to the bent notes. The string you’re bending is pushed up and under the other strings. In other words, if I want to bend the top string, instead of pushing the first string INTO the second and third strings, I bend UNDER them while lifting the second and third strings with my fingernail. I can now actually push a string up an interval of a fourth or fifth because I’m only moving one string, and I don’t have the weight of the other strings pushing against me. When I was very young, I started to bend strings in this fashion, and some of my teachers told me that it was incorrect and a bad habit. Only in recent years have I returned to this style.”

Despite these potential drawbacks, you should give this little idea a try. You’ll Fig. 7 find it less tiring, and a welcome relief late in a tough piece, or late in a set. Look at Figures 6 and 7 again, and notice how in Fig. 6 the 2nd and 3rd fingers, and in Fig. 7 the 2nd and 4th fingers, are “flying” away from the board, straightening out. (This little quirk exists in Eric Clapton’s technique, too.) These positions for fingers that aren’t actively involved in string-fretting are a completely inadvertent reaction to what the other fingers are up to, but they offer tremendous relief from that tense, cramped, burning feeling that so often turns flying fingers into hands of stone. Continued • • • • • • 44

• • • • ••

BENDING (Cont’d)

The Courage of Instinctive Convictions

Okay, never mind, let’s just cut to the graphics. Check out Figure 8, pulling down that wound 4th (or D), which has considerably more tension than the plain, unwound strings. You’ll notice that the first finger has slid up into Fig. 8 the same fret as the second finger, in behind the third, and that all three fingers are wedged tight together like pigs in a blanket. It’s the Three Musketeers approach to getting a big bend accomplished.

Do you think your unconscious choices reveal anything about your psychological makeup? Hmmmm... well, again from that seminal 1979 column:

For the most part, I do not bend the

“

strings downward except for the sixth (low E) string, which cannot be bent upward. Besides, bending downwards gets confusing, since the first string always has to be bent upwards. Still with me?”

Now look at Fig. 9. It’s the same principle at work here, except sometimes those big wound string bends require all Four Fig. 9 Musketeers on deck, hauling metal together. In fact, notice how the third finger isn’t even really in contact with the bent string in question, as much as it’s backing up the 2nd and 4th with rear support.

Lee Ritenour (Guitar Player magazine, Miller Freeman publications, Sept. 1979)

Still “with” him, but personally, not buying this approach. That’s okay, though: one of the most important lessons to be learned from his words is to have the courage of one’s own technical and musical convictions, as long as you have a sense that they’re bearing artistic fruit. And so, it’s no big sacrilegious deal if I report that, for the most part, I do not bend most strings UPWARD, except for the 1st and 2nd (E and B) strings, which haven’t got enough fretboard to accommodate the pull-down bend. For all the rest of the strings, I just naturally prefer to pull ‘em down, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I’m dextrosinistral, (a natural southpaw who writes with his right hand, not to be confused with someone who is fully ambidextrous), and therefore perhaps a little right brain dominant. Now, here’s a thought: you know the way water has a tendency to circle down the drain in a counter-clockwise direction in the southern hemisphere? Consider for a moment that some natural (unconscious, or subconscious) tendencies are like geophysical realities, or even universal inevitabilities! Yoicks! Gettin’ too cosmic for ya?

Fig. 10 is included to illustrate that bending is not something to be confined to your strongest and longest middle fingers: Fig. 10 numbers 1 and 4 can do some really cool things, too. Notice how the hand has rotated down and almost vertical to the plane of the strings. This leveraged position is excellent for that “B.B. King” blues vibrato that has come down to us via Clapton, Santana, etc.

Continued • • • • • • 45

• • • • ••

BENDING (Cont’d) Fig. 11

Fig. 12

Fig. 11 shows a full tone bend at the 2nd fret. Just like the heavy tension problems you encounter when bending the heavier gauges of strings, the closer you get to the nut, the tougher it gets. Fortunately, the fret spaces are wider there, too, so it‘s easier to fit two or three piggies into the blanket and make ‘em work together. Finally, Fig. 12 is included to reiterate a preference for the “nail-under-and-lift” bend up technique. It’s easier to get those really big loopy “over”-bends of intervals like a third, fourth or even a fifth. The picture shows the 8th fret 2nd string A note being bent up to the equivalent of the 13th fret C note, a fairly common overbend of a minor third interval. This also shows what happens in terms of finger positioning sometimes. Let’s assume, for example, that in this case there was an A Dorian scale in the VIIth position being played, and the A note provided the launch point for the bend up to the C. Notice how the first finger has slid up from the seventh fret position it would normally occupy for the scalar activity, in order to provide strength support for the bending done by the third finger.

T E C H N I Q U E should be

A C T I O N FOR A REASON, not unreasonable action. Remember that BENDING is a physical expression of an emotion, or an intellectual, musical thought. Remember that ANY method or technique is a means to an artistic end. As such, it is always worth re-considering and re-examining in order to maintain the bond between the ACTION and the REASON. BREAK IT DOWN, and, by all means,

KEEP IN TOUCH...

46

MUTING AND DAMPING How Not To Play Stuff

the string to sound the note and releases the pad that keeps the string from vibrating. As soon as you release the key, the felt pad returns against the string and dampens it. Your right hand’s palm edge (pinky side) is your felt pad, and you have to develop the unconscious, mechanical muting action of that piano.

In dictionary definitions and common usage, the terms damp and mute seem interchangeable, sometimes referring to a muffling, softening of tone and vibration, other times referring to an out-and-out “extinguishing” of oscillation and vibration.

Again, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then let’s save each other a lot of writing and reading and let the camera do most of the work.

For clarity here, let’s refer to the total deadening of a string so that it doesn’t sound at all as muting, and to the muffling of a string so that it has little or no sustain as damping.

Fig. 1 Fig. 1 shows a full damp by the right-hand backside muscle of the palm. This is the most common method of damping, and is used extensively (especially on electric guitar) for a chunky pick attack with no sustain. It’s perfect for Al Di Meola staccato style running of notes or for that Chuck Berry two-string rock and roll rhythm chording. It’s also evolved into a heavy metal powerfifth chord style of rhythm chunking.

Damping is the technique of using your fingers and hands to stop unwanted notes and strings from sounding. Often, this is an aspect of playing that tends to be much more unconscious than conscious, which is to say that damping and muting organically evolves out of efforts to play the notes of the part correctly and just to get it all to “sound” right, letting necessity be the mother of invention. Basically, most of the time players use the back outside edge of the right palm to mute, damp, and stop strings. Sometimes after a downstroke or strum, the right wrist rotates through and damps with the muscle-pad below the thumb on the other side of the palm. In some instances, the 1st finger on the left hand rests across the treble-side strings (mostly on the E, or first), to keep them silent during passages. But what it really boils down to is a continuous coordination between the attack (left-hand finger, right-hand pick), the release (left-hand finger), and the damp (soft finger stop by left-hand fingers and/or the backside fleshy muscle of the right hand).

Fig. 2 shows a common right-hand position for lead playing on “inside” strings (the D, G, and B). Notice how the picking hand has flattened out and the fleshy muscle-pad below the thumb rests against the bass strings to keep Fig. 2 them from vibrating, while the 2nd and 3rd fingers have curled around to deaden the first string. This hand position uses the “front” edge of the pick to downstroke the string.

Try playing familiar scales and exercises, but damp every note after you play it. The faster you go, the more you’ll need to utilize the backside of your right hand as a damper. Think of a piano: every string has a felt pad resting against it until you strike a key, which simultaneously drives a hammer against

Continued • • • • • • 47

• • • • ••

MUTING AND DAMPING (Cont’d) Fig. 6

If one were to play on the low A or E strings (and sometimes the D), the right wrist would curl around to release the damp on the bass strings, and the right hand would rest with the back edge of the hand across Fig. 3 the treble side, as in Fig. 3. Notice how the 3rd finger still rests anchored and curled against the first string and the “back” edge of the pick provides the downstroke.

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

The concept behind the widespread fingers of Fig. 6’s full-hand mute is to eliminate any unwanted harmonic overtones. A Fig. 7 casual one-finger mute across the strings at certain places may not kill the string vibration completely, but will merely divide the string oscillation proportionately, creating an overtone. Widespread soft pressure ensures that all oscillation stops.

Fig. 4 shows a different fingerstyleand-pick technique, and consequently a different muting approach. The outside edge of the right thumb mutes on the bass strings, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers of the right hand rest, up against and mute the treble-side G, B, and E strings, respectively. Fig. 5 demonstrates a pickless approach, but the idea is more or less the same. These are both primarily hand positions that favor chording and brokenchording (arpeggiating ) passages, but some jazz and rock players exploit them for other things, as well.

Fig. 7 is perhaps the most common mute of all - where the flesh pad of the finger that’s fretting a note leans over and rests against an 1 adjacent string to deaden it. Many 3 2 4 times on chord diagrams, such as in Fig. 8, you’ll see an “X” over an “inside” string. Fig. 2 is how you mute that sucker.

Fig. 8

G6

Fig. 9 is a good example of that “unconscious” natural evolution of muting mentioned earlier. Good left-hand positional fingering leads you towards maintaining a natural, four-fret spread with the four fingers of the left hand. So if fingers 2, 3 or 4 are busy doing

In addition, there are a few types of mutes that are so obvious, you might forget about them. A rest stroke (up or down), where you pick through a string and come to rest against an adjacent string, is an effective method of muting a noisy neighbor - in this case, with your pick.

Fig. 9

Continued • • • • • • 48

• • • • ••

MUTING AND DAMPING (Cont’d)

something, but #1 is at rest, it can do so in a useful fashion by laying across some unwanted strings behind the action and muting them. Once you’ve developed some experience, you often unconsciously keep the 1st finger resting against the first string when you’re not using either that finger or string (Fig. 10), just as you don’t really think about the fact that your thumb is rotating up and over the top edge of the fingerboard to mute the sixth string for such things as the very common C chord of Fig. 11 and 12. Fig. 11

Fig. 10

There’s no right or wrong way to get the job done. These examples are just a few suggestions, which may seem perfectly sensible to you, or completely lunar. In any case, they are only offered as a basic foundation upon which you may build and progress. As you develop, your need for more techniques could very well lead you to fresh discoveries and personal creative invention.

Fig. 12 C 1 2 3

Keep in mind that some of the subtlest, trickiest things that a conscientious musician is always learning are the hows, whens, wheres, and whys........................... of silence.

Rests used in notation and their corresponding time values four beats in a measure

4 4 whole four beats

half two beats

quarter one beat

eighth 1/2 beat

quarter note gets a beat

49

sixteenth 1/4 beat

thirty-second 1/8 beat

LICKS, TRICKS, FILLS AND THRILLS The following licks, tricks, fills, and thrills (all in the key of A, a common heavy rocker’s key) might prove useful to those of you looking to venture forth from the confines of a blues scale. Ex. 1

4 4

B = bend

T A B

Ex. 2

B

7

P

(9)

5

5

8

P

5

7

5

4 4 H

T A B

5

7

5 5

7

7 7

7

5 5

7

COOL Ex. 1 can flow nicely into Ex. 2. Ex. 3 is a real stretcher, all done with pull-offs, while Ex. 4 has two simple, effective pull-off licks to repeat (ad nauseum).

Ex. 3

Ex. 5 and Ex. 6 are two variations on the same physical theme. In Ex. 5, for that bend on the G and B strings at the 7th fret, try pulling the strings down instead of pushing up. For pushing bends, there’s Ex. 6, where you’ve got to let the 4th-finger G on the B string ring out till the last note of the lick.

4 4 P

T A B

Ex. 4

Ex. 7 is a trill with a thrill, obtained by reaching behind your left hand, grabbing the G string with your right hand, and while you’re still trilling, giving the sucker a yank. Or reach up to the headstock behind the nut and depress the string you’re trilling. This is a great effect for those without wang bars.

P

P

8 5

8 5

50

8 5

P

P

11 5

8 5

P

10 5

8 5

4 4 P

T A B

P

P

10 5

8

P

5

P

8 7

5

P

5

8

5

• • • • •• Ex. 5

LICKS, TRICKS, FILLS AND THRILLS (Cont’d) Ex. 7 In addition, here are a couple of cheap thrills for you Les Paul etc. heavy-duty rockers: H P H Turn off the volume on your rhythm pickup; T 14 17 14 17 A crank out a big power B chord at 10 on your Ex. 8 lead pickup; then flick the pickup selector back and forth in a rhythmic pattern of your own choosing. B B Instant stutter. And 5 there’s nothing like a 8 (10) 5 T 7 (9) A good glissando - the B old trick of wiping the fingerboard clean after a passage, crunching the bass strings with the pick, and sliding the left-hand 1st finger down the sixth string, usually as a pick-up to a bar of chording or as a means of getting from one end of the fretboard to the other. It’s effective. These kinds of little tasty touches, after all, help define style. Another trick is to exploit a nifty little lick (say, Ex. 1 or Ex. 4) by repeating it over and over, while dropping or climbing chromatically (one fret at a time) till you arrive at a new position for your next little gem.

vib.

4 4 B

T A B

Ex. 6

5 5

7

7 7

7 7

(9) (9)

7 7

5 5

vib.

4 4 B

T A B

7

7

5 5

7 7

5 5

7 (9)

R

8

(9) 7

5

7

And here’s a fave rave: Hendrix used to get a lazy, “voicy” sound with Ex. 8. These little bends into unison are haunting, especially as a slow ascending or descending melody line. Try them with a wah-wah very cool!

These are all simply some examples of entries in a catalogue, or a trick bag - every improviser has to have them. The challenge, of course, is when, how and how often you employ them to supplement your musical, melodic ideas - which is to suggest, sparingly, tastefully: provocatively, effectively. Keep this in mind: IN THE END,

TO O MANY EFFECTS MEANS THAT YOU’RE NOT

T R U S T I N G YO U R M U S I C TO BE

EFFECTIVE, OR THAT YOU JUST HAVEN’T GIVEN IT

E N O U G H T H O U G H T.

UNCOOL 51

ROTE LEARNING VS. TOTAL PERSONAL COMMITMENT

It’s only human to look for shortcuts and the easy way around things. But music that is merely technically memorized and/or physically accomplished ends up sounding two-dimensional. Music that is fully understood, that has your total personal commitment, has the chance to live and breathe, to become something spiritual. Put another way: musicianship on the guitar is the stuff of head, heart, and hands (the 3H’s of The Love of Guitar). If you’re only teaching your hands the instrument, you’re overlooking some of the real magical, artistic stuff that comes from a total commitment, which is when the 3H’s go into 3D! 52

GUITAR PLAYING IN 3D The Dedication, Discipline, and Duty of a Performer Are you one of those guitarists who suffers from “Soundbite Syndrome”, or “Bits and Pieces Pathology”? These afflictions can prevent you from learning and playing complete songs and pieces. If your goal is to become a performer, you’ve got to have the discipline to learn a selection right from top to bottom - not just the solo, or the head, or the little fill in the tag. The disease hits when you get bored, or a little frustrated, or feel that you’ve learned enough of something to impress others. So you drift on to something else and proceed to do a half-baked job on it as well. But you really should build character, and stamina, and a strong body 12 ways, by toughing it out and going all the way. Music, by and large, is created and played to fill up the spaces inside and between people, to make connections. As a working, performing musician, it’s your responsibility and duty to try and fill up those spaces. So you try to find the best way you can feel comfortable doing it, the best music to accomplish this task. A great performance captures something of the infinite, and makes it accessible to those who are ready, willing and able to hear. The performer and the audience “connect” through space and time, and share in something transcending, that feels bigger than both of them. It’s a physical and spiritual act. This connection is only possible when you, as a performer, have made the total commitment in your dedication, discipline, and duty to the music. This is what transforms your music-making into something three dimensional, something that reaches out to your audience, enveloping and involving them. Let us leave the cerebral for the moment and proceed to the physical.

53

INTRODUCTION TO BARRE CHORDS Let’s get started here with the seemingly

Ex. 1

Ex. 1 shows the first-form major barre chord. Once you’ve got that, congratulations, because you can now play at least one form 1 of every major chord that exists, 2 simply by shifting up and down the 3 4 fingerboard from the 1st fret to the 12th. The note on either E string (which is being fretted by the 1st finger) is the root of the major chord, so memorize the chromatic chart of Ex. 2 showing enharmonic Ex. 2 equivalents, and you’re off on your E sixth attempt to master the fingerboard. First form major

impossible task of depressing all six strings across one fret with the soft, fleshy side of the left hand 1st finger - the Grand Barre. Straight off, be aware that this is a feat of strength for your left hand, and it will probably take a while for you to build up the muscles to accomplish it successfully, and to be able to play barre chords for long periods of time (like, a full verse and a chorus of a tune!). Be patient. Practice ‘til it hurts a little, then rest. Then try, try again. Build up your endurance.

Simply by F removing your 2nd F# First form finger from Ex. 1, G minor you have the firstG# form minor barre A 1 chord of Ex. 3. A# Congratulations 3 4 B again - you now C know every minor C# Ex. 4 chord that exists, D First form simply by applying D# minor seventh the same system E shown in Ex. 2. 1 Remove your 4th finger, and you’ve got the minor 7th first form of 3 Ex. 4, and (you guessed it) the system of Ex. 2 applies here, too. Ex. 3

Eventually, what we want is the cheapest, most efficient, shiftable, portable capo in existence: ah, yes, the human touch. (A capo, by the way, is one of those string-squeezing thingamabobs that guitarists sometimes use on the neck of the guitar to change the “open” key and pitch of their strings. You’ll often see folk or rock players employ them so that they can take advantage of a few familiar “open” sounding chord forms in a key, or at a pitch, that suits the tune they’re playing.)

But who wants to be shifting all over the neck to make changes? Let’s localize the activity to speed it up and smooth it out. Let’s learn the second-form major barre chord of Ex. 5 and its related chart of Ex. 6 where the notes barred on the A string (and also fretted on the G string) are roots of the chord. Now you can play two versions of every major chord that exists without having to shift five frets to get from, say, an A to a D - by simply lifting and repositioning three fingers. 54

E first

F G G A A B B C D D E E

• • • • ••

INTRODUCTION TO BARRE CHORDS (Cont’d) Ex. 5

Ex. 5 is a tough nut for beginners to crack, Second form major but it’s worth the effort, because it’s your welcome to the world of positional playing 1 provided by the 1st finger grand barre, the human capo. A little repositioning Ex. 6 2 3 4 of your fingers is required to achieve A G fifth third the second-form minor barre chord of Ex. 7. You’ll notice, however, how the shape and actual finger positions are identical to the A# A first-form major barre chord of Ex. Ex. 7 B A 1, but shifted across the finger C B Second form board by one string. The secondminor C# B form minor 7th barre chord of Ex. D C 8 is as easy as lifting off your 4th 1 D# D finger. The chart of Ex. 6 applies 2 E D 3 4 to Ex. 7 and 8, as well. F E F# E Now, since you’re holding that F G second-form minor 7th barre chord of Ex. 8, let’s G# G make the simple alteration of adding the 4th finger G A again, only on the A string, three frets Ex. 10 above the barre. Ex. 9 A B Ex. 8 (Simple, sure, fifth second Third form Second form but physically major minor seventh demanding. C A# Hey - no pain, D B 1 no gain: within 1 2 2 D C reason, natur3 3 E C# ally. ) You now 4 E D have Ex. 9, the F D# third form of a major barre chord, and its positE G ional fingerboard chart, Ex. 10. In this instance, F G the 4th finger on the A string and the 2nd finger on # F A the B string provide the roots of the chord and G A follow up the neck as laid out in Ex. 10. G# B A B

55

THE CIRCLE, THE CYCLE What Goes Around Comes Around It makes a beautiful, symmetrical picture, doesn’t it? Like a clock, or a compass, or an ancient drawing of the planet, or the universe. Our little wheel, called the circle of fifths, is an important visual aid that can help you understand and remember key signatures, the order of sharps and flats as they appear in key signatures, the relationships of relative major and minor keys, and the concept of enharmonic equivalency. It illustrates a perfectly wonderful cycle-of-fifths pattern that proves, no matter where you start, that what goes around comes around. It also provides an excellent structure for practicing scale and arpeggio exercises. Now let’s take a look at our musical clock.

Counterclockwise, go down by fifths for flat ( ) keys

F

Clockwise, go up by fifths for sharp (#) keys

C

G

down minor third

Am Dm

B Gm

1 flat 2 flats

Cm

E

3 flats

4 flats

A#m Bm

1 sharps

The Circle of Fifths

D#m Em

C# D

D Bm

2 sharps

4 sharps

C#m

E

G#m Am

B F# G 56

A

F#m

3 sharps

7 sharps 5 sharps 5 flats 7 flats 6 sharps 6 flats

Fm

A

Em no sharps or flats

C

• • • • ••

THE CIRCLE, THE CYCLE

Key Signatures

Relative Keys Ex. 3

Start at the C (12 o’clock: no sharps, no flats) and head out in a clockwise direction. The next seven notes are the sharp keys, appearing in order according to the number of sharps that each contains. If you go counter-clockwise, you’ll hit the seven flat keys, also in order. Notice how each clockwise step takes you up an interval of a perfect fifth (e.g., C to G, five scale steps above C, see Ex. 1), while every counterclockwise step goes down a perfect fourth (e.g., F to B b; see Ex. 2).

2

3

4

major sixth

1

2

3

4

minor third

5

6

1

2

3

T

hese are pairs of major and minor keys that share the same key signature. To find a major key’s relative minor, just move in along the same spoke of the wheel to the inner circle. The interval (the measured distance from one note to another) from the root of a major key to that of its relative minor is up a major sixth or down a minor third (see Ex. 3).

Ex. 1

1

(Cont’d)

5

Enharmonic Equivalents

Ex. 2

Check out how the cycles overlap and get busy 1

7

6

5

lookin’ down there between 5 and 7 o’clock. That’s because notes like B and C b, F# and G b, and C# and Db are enharmonic equivalents, notes that sound exactly the same (at least in Western music’s commonly accepted equal temperament tuning system ), but are “spelled” differently. For example, the note at the 2nd fret of your B string could be labeled C# or D b, depending on its function.

4

The Order of Sharps and Flats Father Charlie Goes Down And Ends Battle. Battle Ends And Down Goes Charlie’s Father. When you write in a given key, you must indicate the key’s sharps or flats on the staff in a prescribed order, which these nonsense sentences can help you remember. Sharps go F, C, G, D, A, E, B; flats are B, E, A, D, G, C, F. Traveling around the circle clockwise and counterclockwise yields the two sequences. Order of sharps for key signatures:

Order of flats for key signatures:

F, C, G, D, A, E, B

B, E, A, D, G, C, F

T H E C O M F O RT O F L O G I C A L PAT T E R N S Here’s a philosophical thought: the circle of fifths is aesthetically pleasing because it is complete and tidy. It takes some of the chaos out of the incomprehensible infinite, making it cyclical and orderly, an established logical pattern that is safely closed and selfperpetuating. As long as there is human and Mother Nature, IT SEEMS ONLY NATURAL that the circle remains unbroken, and what goes around will surely come around again.

57

CIRCLING AND CYCLING Technical Studies - Drawing Musical Geometry H

ere’s a suggestion. Take those boring, monotonous arpeggios that you’ve been practicing, one at a time, and loop them together in a more musical kind of way, by flowing through a cycle of fifths, as in Ex. 1. Ex. 1 C

G

D

A

1

1

4

1

2

2

H

2

3

2

T A B

10

8 12

1

4

P

9 12

10

2

1

4

H

13

10 7

12

E

1

1

1

2

P

8

7

4

9 5

5

1

4

11

10

2

1

4

H

7 12

F#

B

1

H

5 9

7

2

4

1

H

1

4

P

10 14

1

1

2

P

12 9

C#

10

9

11 7

7

9

A

5

1

1

3

1

1

1

4

4

4

1

1

4

2

1

1

4 2

H

T A B 7

H

7 11

9

9

P

9 12

12

11 7

E

P

7

4

1

4

2

1

1

H

8 4

4

6

7

3

4

1 4

B

3

2

4

4

1

H

P

2 6

4 1

2

3

4

1

2

3

1

3

1

4

2

1

1

H P

2

1

3

4

F

4 1

3

4

4 H

1 6

5

4 8

4

C

10

4

1

2

1

4

1

1

1

4

1

4

1

1

1

4

4

1

2

1

4

1

1

2 P

6 3 T A B

H

P

4

3

5 1

1

3

1 5

H

3

3 7

6

H

P

6 10

8 5

58

2

6

5

7 3

1

4

1

H

P

3

5

3 7

4

1

1

H

5

5 9

1

4 H

8

8 12

• • • • ••

CIRCLING AND CYCLING (Cont’d)

Ex. 2 C 1

E

B

F

A

D

6 8 4

3

1

3

2

1

4

4

4

1

3

2

4

3

1

3

2

1

4

4

4

P

T A B 8

5 10

7

9

8

G

10

10

1

3

2

4

3

1

3

2

1

4

4

4

P

10 7

8

8

6

5

3 8

6

7

E

B

8

8

1

3

2

P

8 5

6

6

A

4

3

1 6

5

4

D

6

6

6 3

4

4

G

7

2

1

4

4

2

1

4

4

T A B 2

4

4 4

1 3

H

1 4

P

4

3

2

4

4

4 1

2

2

2

P

0 H

1 H

0 4 7

1

4

1

3

2

H

7

6 9

6

7

7

4

4

3

1

3

2

1

4

10

12

4

4

1

1

3

1 0 P P

9 5 0

10

9

7 12

11

12

12 9

10

10

Bar 2 would go M, I, P, pull-off, M, I. Bar 12 would be M I P M I P.

Ex. 2 is in a 6 / 8 time signature, but you’re more than welcome to think of it as triplets in 4 / 4. In 6 / 8, the feel is counted “1 2 3 4 5 6”, whereas in 4 / 4, every 2nd bar line would disappear and you’d count the eighth note groupings as “1 trip-let, 2 trip-let, ...”, etc.

Once again, here’s the standard disclaimer about suggested fingerings and picking patterns. Give the markings in the examples a decent shot, but then, please, feel free to go with whatever feels right and more natural for you, as long as you’re confident that it’s truly working successfully.

There are a few extra concepts added in to Ex. 2, beyond the counterclockwise cycling around the Circle of Fifths. One of them gives you some picking options. If you’d like, you could try and exploit a little “sweep” picking technique here, where your pick stays in the strings and basically “drags” across little 3 note groupings, using a continuous downstroke where the arpeggios ascend (odd numbered bars) and dragging in an upstroke direction where the arpeggios descend (even numbered bars).

Here are a few more things to watch out for in Ex. 2: • In bars 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12, the 4th finger should be a partial barre, laid flat in a back-bent knuckle fashion across the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd strings. • By combining some hammer-ons and pull-offs into the exercise, you’re developing a fluidity with a combination of techniques. You should be attempting to get your hammered and pulled off notes to sound consistent, in terms of level and tone, with regularly picked notes.

Another picking option you might want to try: ditch the pick. On ascending arpeggios, try a fingerstyle picking, going P, I, M, (thumb, 1st, 2nd), P, I, M. On descent, reverse and go M, I, P.

59

• • • • ••

CIRCLING AND CYCLING (Cont’d)

• Bars 9 and especially 10 have long left hand fingering stretches playing arpeggios horizontally on one string, as opposed to the vertical movement across the strings found elsewhere. These are included to illustrate how there are many fingering options available to the creative and flexible guitarist to get from one position to another. Notice, for example, how the pull-off to the open E at the end of bar 10 facilitates the left hand shift up to the VIIth position for the 4th finger 10th fret D note on the 6th string at the beginning of bar 11. • At the asterisks in bars 7 and 9, the 4th finger is performing a mini-barre of two adjacent strings, actually using the fleshy pad at the back of your finger, further down from the callused tip you’d normally use. As you pick the second note in these situations, you’re also using your 4th finger as a PIVOT, as you swing your hand position underneath to prepare for the new fingering position that follows. And so, as another chapter fades slowly off into the west, we can see how, as Virgil said, the great cycle of the ages is renewed. And for the last word on circles, offered up for your consideration, this thought from the great writer, Henry James:

Really, universally, relations

“

stop nowhere, and the exquisite

PROBLEM OF THE ARTIST is eternally but to draw, by a

GEOMETRY OF HIS OWN, the circle within which they shall happily appear to do so.”

60

• • • • ••

CIRCLING AND CYCLING (Cont’d)

Ex. 1 C

F

B

E

A

D

G

B

E

A

D

G

6 8 2

1

4

2

1

4

2

1

4

2

1

4

2

1

4

2

1

4

2

1

4

2

1

4

1 0

T A B 8

7 10 8

7 10 6

5 8 6

5 8 4

3 6 4

3 6 2

1 4 2

3 H

1 4 0 4

3

0

1

H

2 0 4

0

3

1

1

1

2

0 4

2

5

5

Sequences Anybody that’s ever had anything to do with

If you alter some of the notes in a sequence in order to keep it in a specific key, you’d have yourself a TONAL sequence. But if you stick to your established pattern of interval distances come hell or high water accidentals, you’d be looking at a REAL sequence. The equal opportunity employer of tonal and real elements earns the label MIXED. All this info can help us build some slightly more interesting and complex arpeggio exercises, if we go back to our Circle of Fifths illustration wheel (from a couple of chapters ago) and start moving back and forth between the outer MAJOR rim and the inner MINOR one.

keyboard synthesizers and music computers knows something about SEQUENCES. By the book, (Webster’s, in this case), amongst many different definitions, the word SEQUENCE can mean; a continuous or connected series, a succession of repetitions of a musical phrase each in a new position, an episode, a methodical arrangement or consecutive order, subsequent development, consecutiveness, progression, . . . you’re getting the idea. Ex. 1 illustrates a SEQUENCE. A pattern is established through the repetition of a phrase, or passage, moved up or down, both musically, and (usually, quite happily, for us guitarists) physically on the fretboard. Music dictionaries identify different kinds of sequences: Melodic, Harmonic, Tonal, Real and Mixed. To save you a trip to the shelf for the old trusty dog-eared Concise Oxford, a MELODIC sequence, quite obviously and naturally, is a repetition of a melodic phrase, moved up, or down. HARMONIC sequences follow a chord pattern. Due to the dull, boring, completely literal nature of Ex. 1, it qualifies as an illustration of both a melodic and harmonic sequence right up to the turnaround in bar 6, where the melodic direction changes on you, just so you won’t fall asleep at the wheel (so to speak).

For example, starting at C, set out on a pattern that goes C, Am, Dm, F, and then moves counterclockwise to B b to follow the same pattern, (B b, Gm, Cm, E b). You’ve established a sequence that offers a little more harmonic color than the straight ahead Ex. 1. The full pattern around the circle would go; C Am Dm F: B b Gm Cm E b: Ab Fm B bm D b: G b E bm A bm B: E C#m F#m A: D Bm Em G.

Continued • • • • • • 61

3

H

7

• • • • ••

CIRCLING AND CYCLING (Cont’d)

Ex. 2 C

3

Am

2

0

1

1

F

1

4

4

3

Dm

3

1

2

1

B

2

4

H

T A B

3

2

0

1 5

A

3

5

7

2

1

1

1

8

4

1

7

5

1

4

3

5

6

D

1

2

1

1

1

E

1

1

6

5

4

1

3

4

C m

E

4

1

3

1

2

1

6

7

8

7

B m

3

1

1

2

3

1

4

3

3

1

2

2

7

6

G

4

3

3

3

3

2

3

3

7

6

4

5

4

5

6

6

6

E m

3

1

2

2

1

1

4

F m

2

1

1

1

1

2

4

3

1

3

4

1

3

2

4

3

4

5

5

G m

3

1

1

1

1

4

3

P

4

3

2

2

D

1

5

3

B

4

3

H

4 1

4

Bm

3

1

2

1

6

4

4

G

2

4

S

T A B

5

7

A

2

4

S

6 3

S

T A B

3

Cm

S

7

Fm

3

3

Gm

3

3

4

4

6

6

Em

2

1

1

0

3

0

0

0

2

P

7

6

5

5

2

2

2

4

Another sequence that works nicely to cycle arpeggio or scale studies with would be Ex. 2: C Am, F Dm, B b Gm, E b Cm, A b Fm, D b B bm, G b E bm, B G#m, E C#m, A F#m, D Bm, G Em. Try these sequences with one and two octave arpeggios, up and down, in three and four note groupings. Additional personal variations would indicate an encouraging self-motivated ambition.

Go for it! 62

5

4

2

3

2

3

4

4

5

4

3

0

0

2

BEND RULES MODIFY TO SUIT YOUR TASTE

o

As we examine the interesting phenomena of sequencing by a fixed, almost mathematical pattern, try to remember: a conscious decision to follow a formula and the somewhat rigid structure it imposes on us, is still just an arbitrary one, and as such, always leaves us the freedom to modify a sequence to suit our musical purposes. Where are your ears leading you?

“Also effective are

modulating sequences generated by the descending chromatic bass…”

o

(see Ex. 4): D7/C to G/B; C7/Bb to F/A. Effective when it ascends, too... F to D/F#, G to E/G#, ... and so on.)

The quotes in this chapter are from the delightfully opinionated “Lectionary of Music” (McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1989) by Nicholas Slonimsky. On the subject of “sequences”, he notes that...

Ex. 4

D7/C G/B C7/B F/A

D/F

F

G

E/G

“Real sequences are effective when they modulate through major and minor keys in the direction of flats in the cycle of fifths, making use of dominantseventh chords.”

T A B

3 5 4 3

3 4 5 2

1 3 2 1

1 2 3 0

2 3 3 1

1 3 1 0 3 5 4 0 2 2 0 0 2 2 0 4 3 2

(See Ex. 3): C7/E (1st inversion), F major; A7/C# (1st inversion), D minor; F7/A (1st inversion), B b major; and so on. “It is particularly

Ex. 3 C7/E

F A7/C Dm

F7/A

EFFECTIVE

B

when the

LEADING TONE is in the

M E L O D Y.” T A B

0 1 3 2

1 1 2 3

0

1

3 2 2 2 4

1 3 2 0

1 1 2 1 0

3 3 3 1

Continued • • • • • •

63

• • • • ••

BEND RULES - MODIFY TO SUIT YOUR TASTE (Cont’d)

Ex. 5 A7

Dm

G7

C

F

B

Dm/A

A

Dm

G

C

F

B

Gm Dm/A

This concept of modified tonal and mixed sequencing continues to be exploited in modern pop music quite often. Check out the progression in Ex. 5, as much at home in Yngwie Malmsteen’s music as in Bach, Vivaldi, or Corelli. Sequences can be very valuable compositional tools. As illustrated in Ex. 5, they can provide entire harmonic structures for sections of music. Cleverly employed, they can help you achieve transitions from one section of music to another, or provide a modulation or key change. With the right choice of inversions, they can give your music a very literal sense of dramatic movement. So c’mon, people, step right up (or come on down, as the case may be) and give that wheel a spin... For some famous last words, here again is the inimitable Mr. Slonimsky and some of his highly entertaining thoughts on the subject dearest to all our hearts, “Guitar.” (One of the things he’s about to teach some of us is how to thicken our skin...)

Toward the mid-20th century, the guitar

“

was electrically amplified to compensate for its tonal weakness and became a primary instrument of modern rock musicians. In its new role it underwent a change in anatomy. Its folk-like outlines were abandoned in favor of a gaudy androgynous thing, ... sprouting a pair of tinselled shoulders. ...Simultaneously with its degradation by rock musicians, great guitar players such as Segovia and Atkins maintained its classical and folk traditions.”

Well, well. With thoughts of evolution, innovation, traditions and degradation swirling in our heads, we’ve come to the end of THE BASICS BOOK, Book One in the series. There’s more to tweak your tender sensibilities awaiting in Book Two, THE BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS BOOK. But before you go, here are some final thoughts on “success,” academic, commercial and personal. 64

A7

D5

ON SUCCESS At clinics, gigs, and in conversation, people

The clichés about luck, networking and knowing or meeting the right people and being in the right place at the right time are all true, too. Perseverance, dedication, and a strong dose of common sense will help you survive the rough times and deliver under pressure-filled “big break” times, when you recognize the knock of opportunity at the door. Or have to deal with the Big Bad Wolf.

always want to know the “secrets” to “making it.” It seems to be human nature to look for shortcuts, or someone else’s magic formula that brings fame and fortune. The wonder and marvel of it all never goes away. Part of “making it” is having the desire (the ego? the ambition?) to win acceptance and approval by entertaining. A lot of it is character and personality, and your abilities to compromise and get along with people. You must have the resources and the organizational skills to display your talents in ways that capture the public’s attention and imagination. The dark side of that same equation would be the ability to manipulate and exploit people. There’s certainly plenty of both sides in show biz.

But ESSENTIALLY, isn’t “making it” really just arriving at a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment inside yourself? We should all be striving for a sense of that feeling every time we pick up our guitars to play. It’s not everything, but it’s the main thing.

If there is a genuine love for all kinds of music, a love for your instrument, and the ability to communicate that feeling in your work, then you’ve already got it made. If you practice and work hard on the guitar, and love to create, write, arrange and make recordings as well, you’ll always be spreading out a little, hedging your bets, maybe developing other creative facets in addition to guitar playing that might make it easier to get jobs and work gigs. Try to pay enough attention to the business of music to learn to weigh the advantages and disadvantages in deals and contracts, to differentiate between opportunities and dead ends, and to maintain enough determination and mental discipline to keep on “keepin’ on.”

65

YO U C A N C O N TA C T :

at P.O. Box 97522 Highland Creek, Ontario M1C 4Z1 Canada www. rikemmett.com

Book One

The Basics Book Book Two

The Basic Building Blocks Book Book Three

The Basic Brainstorming Book Book Four

The Beyond Basics Book

Design:

Jeanine Leech & Mr. E.

Editorial Assistance:

Nancy Wood

Technical Assistance:

Lee Olsen

Cartoons and Illustrations:

Rik Emmett

Figures and Illustrations:

Jeanine Leech

Music Examples written by:

Rik Emmett

Photography:

Jeannette Emmett Jeanine Leech

OHB-FTLOGB1 Copyright ©1998 Open House Books Rockit Sounds Publishing [SOCAN]. A Division of Rockit Sounds, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

A B O U T

T H E

A U T H O R

R

ik Emmett is one of Canada’s most respected musicians; a virtuoso professional guitarist since 1970, a multi-talented singer, songwriter and prolific producer. His career as an award-winning recording artist began in 1976, and over the years he has also been a published cartoonist, a popular magazine columnist for Guitar Player, and an educator. Currently, he lives in Mississauga, ne Ontario with his wife and four Book O Book children, and continues to write, s c i s a B The record and tour. For up-towo Book T date, comprehensive sic information, you can The Backs Book visit his official website g Blo n i d l i u B k hree at www.rikemmett.com. Book T ing Boo

nstorm i a r B c i s our The Ba Book F s Book c i s a B yond The Be