Fretboard Framework has a fancy new site:
http://www.fretboardframework.com
Check it out, lots of cool and fancy stuff!
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Saturday, December 28, 2013
I got an email question about Harmonic Minor from a friend; when's a good time to fit it in to general improvisation?
I responded with this. He seemed to find it very helpful. Enjoy.
---
Hey Charlie, how's it going, sure here's some info.
You can think of it a lot of ways. Yes, it's a good sub for Aeolian over a minor chord. That's a very straightforward way of thinking about it.
The deeper thinking for use of a scale, and the sign of a guitar player that really knows his stuff, is to know how a scale is harmonized. Like every scale, Harmonic Minor has modes starting every note of the scale. So yes, there are 7 modes of the harmonic minor scale (just like the major one), and seven chords. For instance, you know the standard Ionian (Major) scale is Maj7, min7, min7, Maj7, Dom7, min7, min7b5. And you probably know by now that the modes over those chords are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixo, Aeolian, Locrian. So, you know you can play those modes, over those chords (e.g. Dorian over a Min7 chord).
I responded with this. He seemed to find it very helpful. Enjoy.
---
Hey Charlie, how's it going, sure here's some info.
You can think of it a lot of ways. Yes, it's a good sub for Aeolian over a minor chord. That's a very straightforward way of thinking about it.
The deeper thinking for use of a scale, and the sign of a guitar player that really knows his stuff, is to know how a scale is harmonized. Like every scale, Harmonic Minor has modes starting every note of the scale. So yes, there are 7 modes of the harmonic minor scale (just like the major one), and seven chords. For instance, you know the standard Ionian (Major) scale is Maj7, min7, min7, Maj7, Dom7, min7, min7b5. And you probably know by now that the modes over those chords are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixo, Aeolian, Locrian. So, you know you can play those modes, over those chords (e.g. Dorian over a Min7 chord).
Harmonic minor, harmonized (so the chords from each note) is (assuming A Harmonic Minor)
- A min/maj 7
- B Min7b5
- C Maj7+
- D Min7
- E Dom7
- F Maj7
- G# Dim7
You see here, the fifth chord is a Dom7 chord. You might think "mixo for Dom7", and that'd work. But...you're not working with the Major scale, you're working with Harmonic Minor. For spice, why not try the scale that Harmonic Minor suggests over Dom7...which is, Phrygian Dominant. (You can figure out all the modes yourself; just start on the root note of the mode you want, and go up the scale. For instance, if in A Harmonic Minor, the fifth note is E, so you'd go E, F, G#, A, B, C, D, E).
Note that figuring out the logic of naming of scales, will drive you bezerk, because frequently there isn't any. Don't worry too much about it. Frequently you'll even see the same scale named differently in different books. I try to use the one that makes sense given the structure of the scale, for instance "Dorian #11" (keep reading).
You also see that, for instance, the fourth chord is a Min7 chord. Again, you might say, "Dorian," which would be D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D. But, do the same thing...in A harmonic minor, you'd go "D, E, F, G#, A, B, C, D". When you play it, this pattern will look like Dorian, but with a #4 (or alternatively, a Lydian scale with a b3). So you could use the fourth mode of Harmonic Minor over Min7 chords, as an alternative to Dorian.
So there's two applications; Dorian #11 (same as #4) over Minor7 chords, Phrygian Dominant over Dom7 chords.
All to be used with taste, resolving properly to the "tone" you're looking for (e.g. The Thrill Is Gone, is actually a Harmonic Minor progression. But if you blew A harm minor all over it, it wouldn't "fit", even though it'd be more or less academically correct. Better to just use the Harmonic Minor as spice, heading for the resolution to the Dorian or Aeolian scale when it comes back to the root).
So there's two applications; Dorian #11 (same as #4) over Minor7 chords, Phrygian Dominant over Dom7 chords.
All to be used with taste, resolving properly to the "tone" you're looking for (e.g. The Thrill Is Gone, is actually a Harmonic Minor progression. But if you blew A harm minor all over it, it wouldn't "fit", even though it'd be more or less academically correct. Better to just use the Harmonic Minor as spice, heading for the resolution to the Dorian or Aeolian scale when it comes back to the root).
Hope that helps, and happy holidays.
Tim.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Practice Deliberately...That's what I been sayin'.
Interesting article. I always believed that learning when you're a kid and all that, is generally bunk. The reason kids learn something faster is they are provided with instruction, errors are identified by that instruction, and they are forced to address those errors immediately. Sure there's probably some truth to not having predispositions and all that, but in general I think that's mostly just excuses.
Adults don't have the sort of forced guidance we impose on children, and it requires a great deal of self discipline to force yourself to work on things that are frustrating or currently beyond your ability. It's hard enough being an adult, so when we do things like play golf, go to the gym, or play guitar, we want to enjoy it, so we generally avoid anything that can compromise that. Most people simply won't do something they don't want to do unless they're forced by somebody else to do it.
Fortunately for me, the process of improving at anything is something I enjoy. But after reading this article I'm recommitting to my weaknesses as a guitar player; work has been picking up a lot lately and the quality of my practice has slipped, because I'm usually a little more tired and/or have a little less time.
http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/25/the-myth-of-practice-makes-perfect/
Adults don't have the sort of forced guidance we impose on children, and it requires a great deal of self discipline to force yourself to work on things that are frustrating or currently beyond your ability. It's hard enough being an adult, so when we do things like play golf, go to the gym, or play guitar, we want to enjoy it, so we generally avoid anything that can compromise that. Most people simply won't do something they don't want to do unless they're forced by somebody else to do it.
Fortunately for me, the process of improving at anything is something I enjoy. But after reading this article I'm recommitting to my weaknesses as a guitar player; work has been picking up a lot lately and the quality of my practice has slipped, because I'm usually a little more tired and/or have a little less time.
http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/25/the-myth-of-practice-makes-perfect/
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Drop 2 Root Position Chord/Mode Map
That's a mouthful, then again, when isn't a discussion about chords and modes.
Although you probably already know it, within every mode you play lies the basic chords that represent the underlying harmony. The reason I'm betting you already know this, is at some time when you were trying to figure out a chord, you probably did something like this:
"Hmm...I know I'm trying to make an Amaj7 (add 13). Let me see, if I fret it this way with the root on the 7th fret...yeah, all those notes under my fingers are in the A major pattern I know..."
That doesn't necessarily mean you have the chord right, but it probably does mean you're trying to figure out the chord based on the scale you already know. I think this is a good signpost along the way to really understanding how chords and modes relate. But, as was pointed out to me by one of my Berklee professors, it's a visual way of making the association, as opposed to aural. You should know what things sound like, and how they sound over other things, as opposed to trying to figure things out visually.
I studied martial arts for years, fairly seriously. I remember when we were learning to do backflips. The behavior is almost always the same; as soon as the never-backflipped-before student starts to turn over, the instinct is to turn the head to see the ground; you have no internal sense of your orientation, and you instinctively try to find it. This of course will not be a pretty backflip, and you'll probably not land daintily on two feet; that's because you're not supposed to have to look, you should just know where you are in the air at all times, ultimately being able to do it blindfolded. But you have to get that internal orientation started somehow, and if your instinct requires you to look at where you're going a few times, don't fight it; just remember not to stop there. You should be listening. Try closing your eyes when you finally get the chord right, and really listening to it, then try to play a couple of notes around it, maybe slide the seventh to the root (you know it's only a half step in a major 7 chord). Try playing the nine..."hmm so that's what the nine sounds like over a major seven hmm what if I play dominant same note but hmm...". Simple stuff, but it gets you moving in the right direction.
With that said, here's a document I call "The Drop 2 Root Position Chord/Mode Map", or "The D2RPCMM" (I've never actually called it that). What it does is, first shows a given drop 2 chord diagram, e.g. "Maj7", then, superimposes the basic harmonized mode shape it. For instance, the drop 2 A7 played using the D string as the root (so you're playing A on the 7th fret as the root) shows the Aeolian mode shape superimposed on top of it. This is because, on the fifth fret, you know the mixolydian shape and you probably use it over your A7 chords with the root on the low E string (A7 at fifth fret). But if you play an A7 higher up on the neck, do you always know the mode shape to play over that voicing of the chord...or do you run back down to the fifth fret to your familiar root shape? Why? You know the next mode position up from AMixo fifth fret, is A Aeolian 7th fret. If you know where the chord falls in that shape, you can hit the chord tones and so forth without moving positions. You also have access to the shape up from there, which is Ionian. And you have the familiar shape two frets back. Now you have a bigger area of the fretboard to work with. And so on.
Using this map, you can get a feel for playing an entire lead that moves with the harmony of a given chord structure, without changing position. For instance; you're playing an Amaj, fifth fret. So there's Ionian. You go to the IV chord, so Dmaj7. Are you still playing in A Ionion? That would give you G#...which is not in the Dmaj7 chord. That would in fact be a #11. Is that ok? It depends...how's it sound? Not sure? Then maybe you shouldn't play it. Have time to think about that when improvising with your friends? Probably not. But if you know, that a Dmaj7 chord at the fifth fret can have A mixolydian played at the fifth fret, then you have a guide to avoid it altogether.
Eventually, you memorize the sequences; for instance, I know that over a standard I7 IV7 V7 bluesy jam thing:
- I7 5th fret = mixo 5th fret
- IV7 5th fret = Dorian 5th fret
- V7 7th fret = Ionian 5th fret.
And by experimenting with this using a looper and whatnot, I learned that, if I play Mixo over the I7, then switch to the IV7, I drop the third of the Mixo down a half step (so I'm playing the C# on the high E string, then drop it down to C on the chord switch), it sounds great, and, I'm now in the third of the Dorian shape. So I run down Dorian to the third of D7 (F#), and I have a great, stable line over the harmony. To funk it up, throw in the beepop note, use an approach note, tap up an octave, hit your whammy bar, whatever.
Point is, I know it SOUNDS good. But I did indeed learn it visually. I'm not a pro player, on a good week I can probably find 10-12 hours to really practice, and these days it's been more like 5-6. I'm sure most pros play that much within a day or two tops. La dee da for them ;p
As always, thanks for visiting, here's the link to the map.
http://www.tcoz.com/fretboardframework/files/Drop2ChordModeMap_RootPositions.pdf
Although you probably already know it, within every mode you play lies the basic chords that represent the underlying harmony. The reason I'm betting you already know this, is at some time when you were trying to figure out a chord, you probably did something like this:
"Hmm...I know I'm trying to make an Amaj7 (add 13). Let me see, if I fret it this way with the root on the 7th fret...yeah, all those notes under my fingers are in the A major pattern I know..."
That doesn't necessarily mean you have the chord right, but it probably does mean you're trying to figure out the chord based on the scale you already know. I think this is a good signpost along the way to really understanding how chords and modes relate. But, as was pointed out to me by one of my Berklee professors, it's a visual way of making the association, as opposed to aural. You should know what things sound like, and how they sound over other things, as opposed to trying to figure things out visually.
I studied martial arts for years, fairly seriously. I remember when we were learning to do backflips. The behavior is almost always the same; as soon as the never-backflipped-before student starts to turn over, the instinct is to turn the head to see the ground; you have no internal sense of your orientation, and you instinctively try to find it. This of course will not be a pretty backflip, and you'll probably not land daintily on two feet; that's because you're not supposed to have to look, you should just know where you are in the air at all times, ultimately being able to do it blindfolded. But you have to get that internal orientation started somehow, and if your instinct requires you to look at where you're going a few times, don't fight it; just remember not to stop there. You should be listening. Try closing your eyes when you finally get the chord right, and really listening to it, then try to play a couple of notes around it, maybe slide the seventh to the root (you know it's only a half step in a major 7 chord). Try playing the nine..."hmm so that's what the nine sounds like over a major seven hmm what if I play dominant same note but hmm...". Simple stuff, but it gets you moving in the right direction.
With that said, here's a document I call "The Drop 2 Root Position Chord/Mode Map", or "The D2RPCMM" (I've never actually called it that). What it does is, first shows a given drop 2 chord diagram, e.g. "Maj7", then, superimposes the basic harmonized mode shape it. For instance, the drop 2 A7 played using the D string as the root (so you're playing A on the 7th fret as the root) shows the Aeolian mode shape superimposed on top of it. This is because, on the fifth fret, you know the mixolydian shape and you probably use it over your A7 chords with the root on the low E string (A7 at fifth fret). But if you play an A7 higher up on the neck, do you always know the mode shape to play over that voicing of the chord...or do you run back down to the fifth fret to your familiar root shape? Why? You know the next mode position up from AMixo fifth fret, is A Aeolian 7th fret. If you know where the chord falls in that shape, you can hit the chord tones and so forth without moving positions. You also have access to the shape up from there, which is Ionian. And you have the familiar shape two frets back. Now you have a bigger area of the fretboard to work with. And so on.
Using this map, you can get a feel for playing an entire lead that moves with the harmony of a given chord structure, without changing position. For instance; you're playing an Amaj, fifth fret. So there's Ionian. You go to the IV chord, so Dmaj7. Are you still playing in A Ionion? That would give you G#...which is not in the Dmaj7 chord. That would in fact be a #11. Is that ok? It depends...how's it sound? Not sure? Then maybe you shouldn't play it. Have time to think about that when improvising with your friends? Probably not. But if you know, that a Dmaj7 chord at the fifth fret can have A mixolydian played at the fifth fret, then you have a guide to avoid it altogether.
Eventually, you memorize the sequences; for instance, I know that over a standard I7 IV7 V7 bluesy jam thing:
- I7 5th fret = mixo 5th fret
- IV7 5th fret = Dorian 5th fret
- V7 7th fret = Ionian 5th fret.
And by experimenting with this using a looper and whatnot, I learned that, if I play Mixo over the I7, then switch to the IV7, I drop the third of the Mixo down a half step (so I'm playing the C# on the high E string, then drop it down to C on the chord switch), it sounds great, and, I'm now in the third of the Dorian shape. So I run down Dorian to the third of D7 (F#), and I have a great, stable line over the harmony. To funk it up, throw in the beepop note, use an approach note, tap up an octave, hit your whammy bar, whatever.
Point is, I know it SOUNDS good. But I did indeed learn it visually. I'm not a pro player, on a good week I can probably find 10-12 hours to really practice, and these days it's been more like 5-6. I'm sure most pros play that much within a day or two tops. La dee da for them ;p
As always, thanks for visiting, here's the link to the map.
http://www.tcoz.com/fretboardframework/files/Drop2ChordModeMap_RootPositions.pdf
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Beware Practice!
This might seem odd...beware practice? Practicing is a good, and you should practice as much as possible until you're so good you don't have to (Yngwie for example claims to not practice anymore after years and years of maniacal bedroom shredding). I'm certainly not that good yet, I'm still in the phase that, like Vito Bratta once said, "being a guitar player is like being a marathon runner...you have to be a guitar player to understand...you have to keep it every day or you start to lose it."
Then again, Vito allegedly practiced so much that he pretty much lost the use of a hand. Classical guitar or something. They say he practiced all day every day, even after a show.
As I think many guitar players, and just people in general, overlook, you have to constantly deconstruct your habits to make sure they're benefitting you. Bad practice can be worse than none at all. Again, I cite Vito. I would bet he injured himself by consistently doing something that hurt his hand. He probably tried to play through it, got used to doing it, and eventually exceeded the capability of physiology. Whether or not this is actually the truth for Vito, it most definitely can happen. Paul Gilbert says he deconstructed his picking technique because the way he was originally holding his pick was hurting his hand. For 18 months he slowed himself down (which for him means somewhere just shy of warp speed) and learned how to pick all over again, and all these years later he's still going strong. One damn fine guitar player, and educator, is PG.
Anyway, watching your practice carefully isn't just a way to avoid injury. Practice by it's nature is about repetition; you play something until you get it right. Start slow, build up to the tempo you want. Then do it again, a thousand times. You're not going to learn to play Presto by listening to it in the car.
So how's it apply to me?
Every single day, I practice at least four scales, and all their modes, up and down the neck, as a drill and warmup. For instance, today was Church, Harmonic minor, Melodic minor, and Pentatonic Mixolydian. Then I go through all drop 2 and drop 3 inversions of Major7, Minor7, Dom7, Min7b5, and Dim chords. Then I do the arpeggios of same with roots on three strings. I just use these as drills to warm up, and I get a lot of benefit out of it. I can rip up and down the entire neck in pretty much any scale and mode.
But recently, I caught myself doing something I didn't like; after running up and down a position, I found that when I got back to the root, or whatever tone I was targeting (it's often good to say, "I'll go up from the root to the third, then descend to the fifth"), I would vibrato the last note. Every single time. I didn't even realize I was doing it, it was just a way of concluding the run.
Vibrato is great; Steve Vai calls it "the soul of the note." You should practice vibrato entirely on it's own to really learn to control your timing and intonation. It's a lot harder to get right than it sounds.
But...you should be aware of it. ANYTHING that you do during practice that you don't even realize you're doing, means you're not really paying attention to what you're doing, and the sounds you're making. You're just going through the motions. You may as well just hold a baseball bat and twiddle your fingers on it, the exercise would be more or less the same.
Why is this alarming to me? Because I know that if I'm doing it in practice, it's probably working into my live performance. I practice WAY more than I gig (a sad truth). So without a doubt, my practice habits will show when I gig...even the bad, or unrealized, ones. So I know that, unless I deconstruct this habit, many of my runs will end with the same identical vibrato, unintentionally. Even if it sounds good, it should be intentional, not incidental; I should be listening and making sure that my resolutions make sense in the context of the music, not just to my fingers.
How am I working on it? I started by saying, "let me use no vibrato. I'll just sustain the note". Sound easy? Uh huh...try changing a simple picking pattern that you've done for so long that you don't even think about it anymore. You'll flub the run at any speed faster than your brain can keep up with, because your fingers and your brain take time to rewire habits.
Other things I'm doing; slide into the final note instead of picking it to work in some legato. Instead of landing on the note as usual, play the octave; work in some string skipping. These deliberate things force you think about what you're doing, and give you a greater instinctive arsenal; sometimes you'll find yourself sliding and sometimes sustaining without vibrato, and so forth, because you'll have more practiced options to satisfy your ear.
Anyway, that's where I'm at with this now, and so far, so good.
As always, thanks for visiting.
Then again, Vito allegedly practiced so much that he pretty much lost the use of a hand. Classical guitar or something. They say he practiced all day every day, even after a show.
As I think many guitar players, and just people in general, overlook, you have to constantly deconstruct your habits to make sure they're benefitting you. Bad practice can be worse than none at all. Again, I cite Vito. I would bet he injured himself by consistently doing something that hurt his hand. He probably tried to play through it, got used to doing it, and eventually exceeded the capability of physiology. Whether or not this is actually the truth for Vito, it most definitely can happen. Paul Gilbert says he deconstructed his picking technique because the way he was originally holding his pick was hurting his hand. For 18 months he slowed himself down (which for him means somewhere just shy of warp speed) and learned how to pick all over again, and all these years later he's still going strong. One damn fine guitar player, and educator, is PG.
Anyway, watching your practice carefully isn't just a way to avoid injury. Practice by it's nature is about repetition; you play something until you get it right. Start slow, build up to the tempo you want. Then do it again, a thousand times. You're not going to learn to play Presto by listening to it in the car.
So how's it apply to me?
Every single day, I practice at least four scales, and all their modes, up and down the neck, as a drill and warmup. For instance, today was Church, Harmonic minor, Melodic minor, and Pentatonic Mixolydian. Then I go through all drop 2 and drop 3 inversions of Major7, Minor7, Dom7, Min7b5, and Dim chords. Then I do the arpeggios of same with roots on three strings. I just use these as drills to warm up, and I get a lot of benefit out of it. I can rip up and down the entire neck in pretty much any scale and mode.
But recently, I caught myself doing something I didn't like; after running up and down a position, I found that when I got back to the root, or whatever tone I was targeting (it's often good to say, "I'll go up from the root to the third, then descend to the fifth"), I would vibrato the last note. Every single time. I didn't even realize I was doing it, it was just a way of concluding the run.
Vibrato is great; Steve Vai calls it "the soul of the note." You should practice vibrato entirely on it's own to really learn to control your timing and intonation. It's a lot harder to get right than it sounds.
But...you should be aware of it. ANYTHING that you do during practice that you don't even realize you're doing, means you're not really paying attention to what you're doing, and the sounds you're making. You're just going through the motions. You may as well just hold a baseball bat and twiddle your fingers on it, the exercise would be more or less the same.
Why is this alarming to me? Because I know that if I'm doing it in practice, it's probably working into my live performance. I practice WAY more than I gig (a sad truth). So without a doubt, my practice habits will show when I gig...even the bad, or unrealized, ones. So I know that, unless I deconstruct this habit, many of my runs will end with the same identical vibrato, unintentionally. Even if it sounds good, it should be intentional, not incidental; I should be listening and making sure that my resolutions make sense in the context of the music, not just to my fingers.
How am I working on it? I started by saying, "let me use no vibrato. I'll just sustain the note". Sound easy? Uh huh...try changing a simple picking pattern that you've done for so long that you don't even think about it anymore. You'll flub the run at any speed faster than your brain can keep up with, because your fingers and your brain take time to rewire habits.
Other things I'm doing; slide into the final note instead of picking it to work in some legato. Instead of landing on the note as usual, play the octave; work in some string skipping. These deliberate things force you think about what you're doing, and give you a greater instinctive arsenal; sometimes you'll find yourself sliding and sometimes sustaining without vibrato, and so forth, because you'll have more practiced options to satisfy your ear.
Anyway, that's where I'm at with this now, and so far, so good.
As always, thanks for visiting.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Dangers of the "Key Center"
You've heard it a million times: "find the key center".
If you're not familiar with the concept (and I'd find that hard to believe), it boils down to, "play in the key that best fits the chord progression you're soloing over." Almost every guitar player I know goes at improvisation this way. Teachers tell you to do it, books tell you to do it. But is it right?
I'd have to say, sometimes, but for the most part, it's a dumbed down version of the real deal.
Consider the following progression; "Blues in A". That's going to be a I IV V progression (forget things like quick change and such now, that's not what I'm talking about here). So, your typical guitar player leading it will say, "So it's A, D, E".
Ok...first, that's not enough info. Maj7? Min7? Dom7? Just use the 5ths (power chords)? There's all kinds of blues, the variety is endless (consider "The Thrill Is Gone"; that's pretty basic blues, but if you use Dom7 chords for everything, you're not playing the song correctly). Asking for this clarification seems to frustrate a lot of guitar players, but tough Toblerone, I want to know.
You get the condescending eye-roll and "dominant 7" reply (if the guy actually knows what a Dom7 chord is). So, A7, D7, E7. Right away, you say, "Ok, I'll use A to solo over it."
"A" what? If you know a little about modes and chords, you know a dominant chord is a major chord with a b7; so you're going to think Mixo (let's forget about subs, variations, and whatnot, keep it basic).
So, A mixo; A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G. I've got it, I know how the other modes connect to it up and down the neck, I'm ready to go, kick it over professor.
You're moving along nicely, got your major third and minor seventh going, you're a master of modal improv, flying all over the neck. But then the progression goes to the D7 (D, F#, A, C), and you hit the C# in your A mixo scale. You know it doesn't sound right (especially if the bass player is using the b7 from the root, which is very common), but you want to stick to your key center, so you fudge it, slide or bend or whatever. You're still alright, hey it's a "passing tone."
Now you go to the E7 (E, G#, B, D), and C# seems ok again, but you hit the G in A mixo. OMG something is wrong again, wtf is going on?
Then you do what most guitar players do when they're lost; you slide into the minor pentatonic scale. So you futz around with A pentatonic minor, bending liberally, and finally get out of your solo. Dang why don't I sound like all those great players, I was using the right mode...
...it's because you weren't using the right mode. Well, you were, but only over one of the chords. The key center concept failed you, because it's not enough.
Check it out:
A7 = A mixo = A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G
D7 = D mixo = D, E, F#, G, A, B, C
E7 = E mixo = E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D
The scales aren't drastically different, true, But assuming that any one of them will fit over all three chords is simply a mistake. You have to be aware of what notes don't fit (or rather, just make sure you are playing notes that do). Many great players may not actually know the science behind it, but they definitely DO know that the same scale doesn't work over all the chords, so they make the adjustments in their head, frequently just be years of hearing what sounds right and wrong, they remember it, and use it as needed. Note that this sort of player frequently does have a homegrown system of some kind and they work VERY hard at recognizing and cataloging "good" sounds.
Academically though, the more advanced way to think of this is: FOLLOW THE HARMONY (harmony = chords). That's how your solo will sing, and sound right. Always know what chord is under you, and if you're totally lost, don't just start wanking in a minor pentatonic scale; try to use your ear, stick to the roots, ninths and fifths (a ninth and a fifth is a pretty safe bet unless you're playing altered chords, and if you're playing over that kind of harmony, you've probably already stopped reading), or, STOP PLAYING (an option frequently forgotten).
Note that a key center can work well under certain conditions. If all the chords come from the same key, then it's great. In terms of the progression we mentioned before, that would be Amaj7, Dmaj7, E7, over which you'd play (at a fundamental level) A Ionian, because all the chords are from the A major scale. If they're Amaj, Dmaj, E7, you're fine too, now you're just leaving out the sevenths (which actually gives you some additional flexibility; this is a very common rock characterstic, using Mixo over a straight Major chord, look at guys like Neil Schon for some real mastery of this). If you're just using power chords, then you can make just about anything work, because now you don't have any thirds or sevenths to worry about conflicting with (though you should still understand what sound you're trying to get...happy major, gritty rock/blues, etc.).
However...if the chords are Amaj, Dmaj, Emaj, you have the key center problem again; Emaj isn't diatonic to the A major scale (you're raising the 7th of the chord, from D to D#, and D# is not in A major). But, D# is the #4 of A major, which puts you in A Lydian. Ionian and Lydian, although very different in terms of modes, are commonly mixed freely, subbing one for the other. So the effect can be interesting and probably won't train wreck. But you need to be conscious of it to really make it effective.
The more I solo, the more I force myself to acknowledge the chord I'm playing over to ensure that I know where I am. I try not to take anything for granted, and when I catch myself thinking in key centers, or slipping into default minor pentatonic, I know I'm either being lazy or just don't know enough about the arrangement, so I start listening, trying to use things I know fit over certain sounds, stick to the safety notes, and try to wind up my lead in a reasonable spot so I can get out without breaking anything.
As always, thanks for visiting.
If you're not familiar with the concept (and I'd find that hard to believe), it boils down to, "play in the key that best fits the chord progression you're soloing over." Almost every guitar player I know goes at improvisation this way. Teachers tell you to do it, books tell you to do it. But is it right?
I'd have to say, sometimes, but for the most part, it's a dumbed down version of the real deal.
Consider the following progression; "Blues in A". That's going to be a I IV V progression (forget things like quick change and such now, that's not what I'm talking about here). So, your typical guitar player leading it will say, "So it's A, D, E".
Ok...first, that's not enough info. Maj7? Min7? Dom7? Just use the 5ths (power chords)? There's all kinds of blues, the variety is endless (consider "The Thrill Is Gone"; that's pretty basic blues, but if you use Dom7 chords for everything, you're not playing the song correctly). Asking for this clarification seems to frustrate a lot of guitar players, but tough Toblerone, I want to know.
You get the condescending eye-roll and "dominant 7" reply (if the guy actually knows what a Dom7 chord is). So, A7, D7, E7. Right away, you say, "Ok, I'll use A to solo over it."
"A" what? If you know a little about modes and chords, you know a dominant chord is a major chord with a b7; so you're going to think Mixo (let's forget about subs, variations, and whatnot, keep it basic).
So, A mixo; A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G. I've got it, I know how the other modes connect to it up and down the neck, I'm ready to go, kick it over professor.
You're moving along nicely, got your major third and minor seventh going, you're a master of modal improv, flying all over the neck. But then the progression goes to the D7 (D, F#, A, C), and you hit the C# in your A mixo scale. You know it doesn't sound right (especially if the bass player is using the b7 from the root, which is very common), but you want to stick to your key center, so you fudge it, slide or bend or whatever. You're still alright, hey it's a "passing tone."
Now you go to the E7 (E, G#, B, D), and C# seems ok again, but you hit the G in A mixo. OMG something is wrong again, wtf is going on?
Then you do what most guitar players do when they're lost; you slide into the minor pentatonic scale. So you futz around with A pentatonic minor, bending liberally, and finally get out of your solo. Dang why don't I sound like all those great players, I was using the right mode...
...it's because you weren't using the right mode. Well, you were, but only over one of the chords. The key center concept failed you, because it's not enough.
Check it out:
A7 = A mixo = A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G
D7 = D mixo = D, E, F#, G, A, B, C
E7 = E mixo = E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D
The scales aren't drastically different, true, But assuming that any one of them will fit over all three chords is simply a mistake. You have to be aware of what notes don't fit (or rather, just make sure you are playing notes that do). Many great players may not actually know the science behind it, but they definitely DO know that the same scale doesn't work over all the chords, so they make the adjustments in their head, frequently just be years of hearing what sounds right and wrong, they remember it, and use it as needed. Note that this sort of player frequently does have a homegrown system of some kind and they work VERY hard at recognizing and cataloging "good" sounds.
Academically though, the more advanced way to think of this is: FOLLOW THE HARMONY (harmony = chords). That's how your solo will sing, and sound right. Always know what chord is under you, and if you're totally lost, don't just start wanking in a minor pentatonic scale; try to use your ear, stick to the roots, ninths and fifths (a ninth and a fifth is a pretty safe bet unless you're playing altered chords, and if you're playing over that kind of harmony, you've probably already stopped reading), or, STOP PLAYING (an option frequently forgotten).
Note that a key center can work well under certain conditions. If all the chords come from the same key, then it's great. In terms of the progression we mentioned before, that would be Amaj7, Dmaj7, E7, over which you'd play (at a fundamental level) A Ionian, because all the chords are from the A major scale. If they're Amaj, Dmaj, E7, you're fine too, now you're just leaving out the sevenths (which actually gives you some additional flexibility; this is a very common rock characterstic, using Mixo over a straight Major chord, look at guys like Neil Schon for some real mastery of this). If you're just using power chords, then you can make just about anything work, because now you don't have any thirds or sevenths to worry about conflicting with (though you should still understand what sound you're trying to get...happy major, gritty rock/blues, etc.).
However...if the chords are Amaj, Dmaj, Emaj, you have the key center problem again; Emaj isn't diatonic to the A major scale (you're raising the 7th of the chord, from D to D#, and D# is not in A major). But, D# is the #4 of A major, which puts you in A Lydian. Ionian and Lydian, although very different in terms of modes, are commonly mixed freely, subbing one for the other. So the effect can be interesting and probably won't train wreck. But you need to be conscious of it to really make it effective.
The more I solo, the more I force myself to acknowledge the chord I'm playing over to ensure that I know where I am. I try not to take anything for granted, and when I catch myself thinking in key centers, or slipping into default minor pentatonic, I know I'm either being lazy or just don't know enough about the arrangement, so I start listening, trying to use things I know fit over certain sounds, stick to the safety notes, and try to wind up my lead in a reasonable spot so I can get out without breaking anything.
As always, thanks for visiting.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Bounce Bounce Ouch, Why Can't I Play Faster?
As I continue to fine tune my picking, fingerstyle, and fretting technique, with the primary goal of developing articulation and tone, and the secondary (though equally important) goal of endurance and longevity, I've managed to isolate an issue that I haven't ever heard a teacher specifically point out to a student, and have never seen in any book, and I've got a PILE of them, classical, rock, fusion, eclectic, academic, you name it. I've often seen the general category the issue falls under referred to, but never this particular detail.
If your hands hurt when you play, assuming you don't have any other physical condition, or you're not managing to get the fluidity and speed you're looking for, you can have a combination of issues:
- You're not properly warmed up
- You're not relaxing your hands and arms when you play
- You're technique is causing you to repeatedly execute an unnatural motion.
I think it's the last one that gets most advancing guitar players. You're either going to learn to warm up and relax or you'll just always be in pain and you'll just stop moving forward. But when it comes to "unnatural motion", what specifically qualifies?
For me, one of the less obvious ones I found was "bouncing" with my right hand (my pick/fingerstyle hand). It applies to both my classical and electric playing.
By "bouncing", I mean, that you're not just moving your fingers, or the pick, when you fret. You're hand actually "bounces" away from the strings when you pluck, and/or, when moving your pick vertically from string to string, you "bounce" over one string to get to the next one.
"Bouncing" is insidious (as are most fine details of technique). It managed to make it's way into my playing even though I've focused carefully on both hands in my daily regimen for years. I believe this is because, when you're focusing on your hands and playing at a speed that allows your brain to lead your fingers entirely, you're conscious of unnecessary motion. We all know that conservation of motion is important, and we practice it when we focus. But when you "let 'er rip", the untrained elements of muscle motion take over.
Interestingly, it's not just guitar playing. I've seen this in all kinds of things. When I was a snowboard instructor, you'd get some hotshot guy that could rip down a hill all fancy. He gets back to the top all "check me out". Then you say, "carve four turns at these points along the hill, and nowhere else". They sneer and off they go. And they miss all of them; in fact, they go more or less the same way as the first time. They come back up the hill, usually saying, "alright I got it now," and try again. And fail again. They get angry and/or confused...is this some kind of trick? Nope. You just showed them that they're not in control of the board, the board is in control of them. And I see that a lot in guitar playing. Some guy in Guitar Center is ripping insane. But you say, "play 8th notes, and nothing else, without stopping", and they can't do it. They're not in control of their playing.
Anyway...
"Bouncing" causes a TREMENDOUS amount of tension in your hand, because of course, if you're playing fast, you have to get your fingers back to the strings. So your wrist goes rigid, which goes into your forearm; you start to stiffen up. Eventually you simply won't be able to play.
I wanted to validate this before writing about it, so for quite some time I've been watching other guitars players very carefully, and sure enough, I see it all over. Guys that are synonymous with technique, like Battio or Yngwie, are VERY in control of this sort of thing. Watch their videos; when they get down to the business of those unbelievable runs, their hands often don't even seem to really move.
As Philip Hii says in his essays on virtuosity (which every guitar player absolutely should read), a certain amount of sympathetic motion is to be expected and shouldn't be avoided (in favor of a completely unnatural stillness), and periodically, some inspired abandon is just fine. After all, your fingers are attached to your hand, and your hand is attached to your wrist. They're going to move. But having to stiffen your wrist and forearm to force your fingers to stay near the stings clearly isn't in your best interest. In fact, anything you do, like holding your elbow and shoulder high instead of letting them fall naturally while you play, is just bad news (but still you see so many classical guitar players do it for some reason).
I've analyzed and worked on this; I allow my fingers to do more of the work. I lightened up the pluck in fingerstyle, focusing on a clean strike with the nail and not a press/pluck (which is what I found was triggering the "bouncing"), and with a pick, I angle it a bit (thank you Paul Gilbert and Eric Johnson for verbalizing this), so that the pick can naturally slide over the string without an undue "lift and over" motion.
Without a doubt, it's allowed my speed to become more fluid. I've been able to play very fast runs for a long time, but since I've worked this, it's a hell of a lot less effort, and my overall attack just sounds more fluid. Naturally, this is opening up new possibilities for me since not only can I play cleaner, but I can play faster, and faster for longer, than ever. Discipline time; just because you can play fast doesn't mean you should. But that's a different conversation; I love to rip through phrases, and it's a damn powerful tool when used well.
So, if you're finding your hands hurt and you're struggling with speed, maybe look careful at "bouncing". It can be a major roadblock that makes it painful, or impossible, to get where you want to go.
As always thanks for visiting.
If your hands hurt when you play, assuming you don't have any other physical condition, or you're not managing to get the fluidity and speed you're looking for, you can have a combination of issues:
- You're not properly warmed up
- You're not relaxing your hands and arms when you play
- You're technique is causing you to repeatedly execute an unnatural motion.
I think it's the last one that gets most advancing guitar players. You're either going to learn to warm up and relax or you'll just always be in pain and you'll just stop moving forward. But when it comes to "unnatural motion", what specifically qualifies?
For me, one of the less obvious ones I found was "bouncing" with my right hand (my pick/fingerstyle hand). It applies to both my classical and electric playing.
By "bouncing", I mean, that you're not just moving your fingers, or the pick, when you fret. You're hand actually "bounces" away from the strings when you pluck, and/or, when moving your pick vertically from string to string, you "bounce" over one string to get to the next one.
"Bouncing" is insidious (as are most fine details of technique). It managed to make it's way into my playing even though I've focused carefully on both hands in my daily regimen for years. I believe this is because, when you're focusing on your hands and playing at a speed that allows your brain to lead your fingers entirely, you're conscious of unnecessary motion. We all know that conservation of motion is important, and we practice it when we focus. But when you "let 'er rip", the untrained elements of muscle motion take over.
Interestingly, it's not just guitar playing. I've seen this in all kinds of things. When I was a snowboard instructor, you'd get some hotshot guy that could rip down a hill all fancy. He gets back to the top all "check me out". Then you say, "carve four turns at these points along the hill, and nowhere else". They sneer and off they go. And they miss all of them; in fact, they go more or less the same way as the first time. They come back up the hill, usually saying, "alright I got it now," and try again. And fail again. They get angry and/or confused...is this some kind of trick? Nope. You just showed them that they're not in control of the board, the board is in control of them. And I see that a lot in guitar playing. Some guy in Guitar Center is ripping insane. But you say, "play 8th notes, and nothing else, without stopping", and they can't do it. They're not in control of their playing.
Anyway...
"Bouncing" causes a TREMENDOUS amount of tension in your hand, because of course, if you're playing fast, you have to get your fingers back to the strings. So your wrist goes rigid, which goes into your forearm; you start to stiffen up. Eventually you simply won't be able to play.
I wanted to validate this before writing about it, so for quite some time I've been watching other guitars players very carefully, and sure enough, I see it all over. Guys that are synonymous with technique, like Battio or Yngwie, are VERY in control of this sort of thing. Watch their videos; when they get down to the business of those unbelievable runs, their hands often don't even seem to really move.
As Philip Hii says in his essays on virtuosity (which every guitar player absolutely should read), a certain amount of sympathetic motion is to be expected and shouldn't be avoided (in favor of a completely unnatural stillness), and periodically, some inspired abandon is just fine. After all, your fingers are attached to your hand, and your hand is attached to your wrist. They're going to move. But having to stiffen your wrist and forearm to force your fingers to stay near the stings clearly isn't in your best interest. In fact, anything you do, like holding your elbow and shoulder high instead of letting them fall naturally while you play, is just bad news (but still you see so many classical guitar players do it for some reason).
I've analyzed and worked on this; I allow my fingers to do more of the work. I lightened up the pluck in fingerstyle, focusing on a clean strike with the nail and not a press/pluck (which is what I found was triggering the "bouncing"), and with a pick, I angle it a bit (thank you Paul Gilbert and Eric Johnson for verbalizing this), so that the pick can naturally slide over the string without an undue "lift and over" motion.
Without a doubt, it's allowed my speed to become more fluid. I've been able to play very fast runs for a long time, but since I've worked this, it's a hell of a lot less effort, and my overall attack just sounds more fluid. Naturally, this is opening up new possibilities for me since not only can I play cleaner, but I can play faster, and faster for longer, than ever. Discipline time; just because you can play fast doesn't mean you should. But that's a different conversation; I love to rip through phrases, and it's a damn powerful tool when used well.
So, if you're finding your hands hurt and you're struggling with speed, maybe look careful at "bouncing". It can be a major roadblock that makes it painful, or impossible, to get where you want to go.
As always thanks for visiting.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Strat/Seymour Duncan Pickup Replacement: Those mysterious inner wires.
Here's one for the pickup replacements folks, and it'll hopefully save somebody some anguish: after I put a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails in the bridge position of my strat, which was fairly easy, I decided to finish the job, and got a Vintage Rails for the middle, and a Cool Rails for the neck. Versatility, all that. I followed the wiring diagrams provided, it wasn't that hard...BUT....
There are two more wires in the strat, in the body, itself, that no Seymour Duncan schematic addressed, and I looked hard. The two wires to the jack are documented; but, evidently, there can be two more wires in a given strat. One is a black wire seemingly coming from nowhere in the body (not the jack), the other is just screwed onto the inside body itself (the wire is held by a "ring" that you just screw onto the wood.
Fender evidently has gotten greedy with schematics; they don't share these things anymore as I understand it, you have to buy their wiring book. I refused, and just kept looking and looking, and guessing. So....the black wire that runs into the body had to be a ground (because it's black). But soldering it to the volume pot as a ground breaks the tone knobs. It turns out, and I don't know the logic, that this must be soldered onto the center pot (the middle knob, a tone knob). The other black wire, that screws onto the body, must be soldered onto the volume pot like any other ground wire.
More research showed; the first black wire that runs mysteriously into the body, is actually grounded to the base of the tremolo; this is the one that gets soldered to the middle (tone) pot. The second black wire has to do with the "paint shielding", and requires a ground to be attached to the body to "ground the paint" as it was explained to me. It has to do with a particular kind of paint used on the inside of the guitar. I don't fully understand this but that's the best explanation I got.
Also, the way Fender wired my guitar stock, did not match any of the schematics I could find anywhere. The way the pots were wired to the switch was different than their schematics. So in the end, I just removed every single wire from the guitar and started from scratch, followed the Seymour Duncan schematic, finished the job with the two "mystery wires" the way I had figured out, and lo and behold, a working strat now graces my arsenal again. Sheesh!
Home electronics, what fun.
There are two more wires in the strat, in the body, itself, that no Seymour Duncan schematic addressed, and I looked hard. The two wires to the jack are documented; but, evidently, there can be two more wires in a given strat. One is a black wire seemingly coming from nowhere in the body (not the jack), the other is just screwed onto the inside body itself (the wire is held by a "ring" that you just screw onto the wood.
Fender evidently has gotten greedy with schematics; they don't share these things anymore as I understand it, you have to buy their wiring book. I refused, and just kept looking and looking, and guessing. So....the black wire that runs into the body had to be a ground (because it's black). But soldering it to the volume pot as a ground breaks the tone knobs. It turns out, and I don't know the logic, that this must be soldered onto the center pot (the middle knob, a tone knob). The other black wire, that screws onto the body, must be soldered onto the volume pot like any other ground wire.
More research showed; the first black wire that runs mysteriously into the body, is actually grounded to the base of the tremolo; this is the one that gets soldered to the middle (tone) pot. The second black wire has to do with the "paint shielding", and requires a ground to be attached to the body to "ground the paint" as it was explained to me. It has to do with a particular kind of paint used on the inside of the guitar. I don't fully understand this but that's the best explanation I got.
Also, the way Fender wired my guitar stock, did not match any of the schematics I could find anywhere. The way the pots were wired to the switch was different than their schematics. So in the end, I just removed every single wire from the guitar and started from scratch, followed the Seymour Duncan schematic, finished the job with the two "mystery wires" the way I had figured out, and lo and behold, a working strat now graces my arsenal again. Sheesh!
Home electronics, what fun.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Drop 2 Chord Mode Map, Root Positions
As usual, I've been thinking a lot about modes, and how to use them over a given chord.
One thing that's been evolving in my playing for quite some time; I have had countless guitar teachers tell me that switching modes over chords is a mistake. I've never understood it; if you stick entirely to a key center, you're going to miss out on a number of harmonic opportunities in any piece where all the chords aren't diatonic to a given key, and even if they are, it'll prevent you from taking interesting turns in your phrasing, be it composed or improvised (i.e., playing the octatonic scale built off the third of a dominant seven chord...I mean, there is a diminished triad in a dom7 chord, why not make it shine?). In a piece that gets a little more interesting, sticking to a key center often boils you down to pentatonics with an occasional passing tone, and that's where I've seen many guitarists stay for the long term.
Nothing wrong with it, but me, I'm going to try and work with the underlying harmony as much as possible. Tones that are common to chords are of course important, for voice leading and such, but otherwise, I want as many colors in my improvisational palette as possible at any given time.
The first thing you realize when you go this way; you need to match chords to scales and modes. The more evolved version of this is, knowing where all the chord tones, and extensions, are, in a given mode as well. And then add ear and taste, so that you're not just burning through modes over chords all the time, and you've set yourself up with some work, to say the least.
To get it rolling though, you learn things like, "Well, over a minor 7 chord, at a fundamental level, I can use Aeolian (or Dorian, we'll start with Aeolian). Mind the 6th degree as it can destabilize the underlying harmony."
So, you know your minor 7 bar chord, fifth fret, all six strings. As it rings out, you play A Aeolian from the low E string root (fifth fret) to the high E string root (fifth fret again). Sounds great. Aeolian and minor 7. Easy. Fifth fret...fifth fret. Same registers, you know how your modes connect. Pat Martino eat my dust.
Enter drop 2, drop 3, open, quartal, and who knows what else, chords. Now you're playing chords all over the neck, and you're not even into the inversions yet. An A minor 7 chord, just root position drop 2 chords, can have the roots on three different strings, which puts them in three different parts of the neck (six if you count the octave). No more fifth fret...fifth fret.
Hmm...a little thought shows you that, hey I can still use the Aeolian form starting at the chord root, no matter where it is. Just remember how the B string tuning effects the pattern. Problem is, now you don't have the perspective of the whole neck, just a fragment of a pattern. It's a great step, and a necessary one, but losing site of the whole neck is frustrating, and frequently you find yourself jumping back to your familiar position, or locking into a key center again, or worse, just burning through some approximation to land on the tonic.
To that end, I decided to find out where, exactly, these pattern fragments fit into the standard vertical modes we all know. For example, say you're playing A minor 7 as a drop 2 chord, which means you have a 1,5,7,3 degree stack starting on the seventh fret of the D string. What's the entire vertical pattern? It's not going to be Aeolian. Yes, the fragment starting from the seventh fret on the D string will be. But what about the A and E strings, and what full horizontal mode patterns connect to the left and right?
Answer: The full horizontal pattern the Aeolian fragment is in, is Locrian, starting on the second degree of A Aeolian (so B). If you know your modes, that means that Aeolian is to the left, Ionian is to the right. Suddenly that little drop 2 chord is sitting in a very large and familiar area for improvisation.
What if you play the A minor 7, drop 2, root on the A string? Answer: Phrygian. Which again, sets you up for Dorian to the left, Lydian to the right.
Where do I get this? I mapped it all out on paper. I created a reasonably high quality version of the first one; drop 2 chords, root position, major7, dominant7, minor7, min7b5, dim7. For each, I show the chord form, then below it, where it plugs into the overall horizontal pattern, what mode that is, and what all the degrees are (with the chord degrees differentiated).
There's a lot of ways I can take this; instead of assuming Aeolian for minor chords, use Dorian (probably my next one). Instead of assuming Ionian for major chords, assume Lydian (though either of these become pretty obvious from looking at this chart, raise the sixth for dorian, raise the fourth for lydian). Then, do the inversions. Then, do the Drop 3s.
Do I plan on memorizing all this? Errr....no. The idea is really to give me starting points and clues, which over time, I'll internalize into an ever-expanding framework. But, writing it all down and adding it to the practice regimen has already proven valuable to me. I'm thinking about modes over chords, and scale degrees. Jazzy.
Learned some pretty interesting things too...did you know that Melodic Minor seems to be a straightforward scale to play over minor7(b5) chords?
Note 1: regarding Melodic Minor, I know there are names for all the modes. They seem to change depending on what you read or who you talk to, with the possible exception of Aeolian Dominant. To that end, for my personal sanity, I just think of Melodic Minor as a b3 version of the standard Ionian mode, and refer to the subsequent modes as "Melodic Minor Ionian" (root mode), "Melodic Minor Dorian" (second mode), etc.
Note 2: For the diminished 7 chords, you'll see two "7" indicators, one filled with grey. Because the symmetrical scales (whole/half and half/whole) have 8 notes (a bb7, which is a chord tone, and a 7), I differentiate the two by color. The grey one is the "extra" note.
The Drop 2 Chord Mode Map, Root Positions, can be found at:
http://www.tcoz.com/fretboardframework/Drop2ChordModeMap_RootPositions.pdf
As always, thanks for visiting.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Determing Scale/Mode Discussion
I posted this in response to a fellow student's question at Berklee, which was, more or less, "I know that using the V7 chord to determine scale works for major modes. How does it apply to other modes/scales?"
My reply, which was evidently well received:
----------
I'll take a stab at this, as I've toyed around with it a bit; the same logic you mention seems to apply. Look for the structures that are characteristic of the scale, particularly as they relate to the dominant and tonic chord within it (if they are present...they aren't always).
Major:
I ii iii IV V7 vi vii(b5)
Minor:
i ii(b5) III iv v VI V7
Melodic minor:
i(maj7), ii, III(#5), IV7, V7, vi(b5), vii(b5)
Harmonic minor:
i(maj7), ii(b5), III(#5), iv, V7, VI, vii(b5)
So, you look at the chord structures, then determine the possibilities. For instance, say you got into a song that vamps on an E7 for the lead for 16 bars. You might say, "that's a V chord of A major. So my improv is A major" (modally, E mixo, 5th mode of A major). That's correct, albeit predictable. Nothing wrong with that though, a good mixo solo is a great thing.
BUT...E7 is also the V chord of A harmonic minor. So, to spice it up, I'll start in E mixo, and hit a tone common to A harmonic minor (G# is a good one, it's the third of E7, and the seventh of A harmonic minor), then play in E phrygian dominant (the 5th mode of A harmonic minor), then before the end of the lead, pivot off the G# again and come out in E mixo. Very dramatic and sets you apart from the penta minor crowd.
Single chord vamps have a lot of possibilities though. Here's something more structured:
i, VI, V7, i.
It's got a minor chord as the resolution; lot of possibilities there. But, I see it has a major chord on the VI, and a dominant chord on the V7. Look at the diatonic structures we know; that's harmonic minor (play that progression; you'll hear it loud and clear).
Alter it to this:
i, vi(b5), V7, i
And it's not harmonic minor anymore, because harmonic minor doesn't have a min7b5 chord on the vi...melodic minor does though. If you play this one, again, you'll hear it loud and clear (and might recognize it as a VERY common jazz progression...go 4 beats on the i, and 2 beats on the vi(b5) and V7).
So the original thinking is valid, you just keep applying it.
But what if no tonic, and/or dominant chord, is visible in the arrangement? For instance, one I frequently see the hippies get wrong:
Amaj, Bmaj (Fire on the Mountain).
I see this played in either A or B Ionian all the time. Both are basically wrong, because neither chord is the tonic. Two major chords in a row...that could be a few things, but straightforwardly, that's a IV-V progression. So, E f g A B...E major. To use the roots of the chord, use either the fourth or fifth mode; A Lydian or B Mixolydian. The hippy-in-the-know knows that Lydian was Jerry's favorite mode (the #4 is a huge part of Jerry's spacey lead style), so, you go for A Lydian. It sounds great. Don't try to explain it at the jam though.
Another example...two Dom7 chords in a row.
A7, B7.
What scale, diatonically, has two dom7 chords consecutively?
Melodic minor (on the IV7 and V7). So, if you hit a song that is just two dom7 chords like this in a row (or is mostly those two chords), you know that you E melodic minor is a possibility, even though no tonic chord is visible.
Everything is subject to interpretation, and the ear rules all, but as far as I understand it, this is the basic mechanics of making these kinds of determinations. Powerful stuff for the improviser.
My reply, which was evidently well received:
----------
I'll take a stab at this, as I've toyed around with it a bit; the same logic you mention seems to apply. Look for the structures that are characteristic of the scale, particularly as they relate to the dominant and tonic chord within it (if they are present...they aren't always).
Major:
I ii iii IV V7 vi vii(b5)
Minor:
i ii(b5) III iv v VI V7
Melodic minor:
i(maj7), ii, III(#5), IV7, V7, vi(b5), vii(b5)
Harmonic minor:
i(maj7), ii(b5), III(#5), iv, V7, VI, vii(b5)
So, you look at the chord structures, then determine the possibilities. For instance, say you got into a song that vamps on an E7 for the lead for 16 bars. You might say, "that's a V chord of A major. So my improv is A major" (modally, E mixo, 5th mode of A major). That's correct, albeit predictable. Nothing wrong with that though, a good mixo solo is a great thing.
BUT...E7 is also the V chord of A harmonic minor. So, to spice it up, I'll start in E mixo, and hit a tone common to A harmonic minor (G# is a good one, it's the third of E7, and the seventh of A harmonic minor), then play in E phrygian dominant (the 5th mode of A harmonic minor), then before the end of the lead, pivot off the G# again and come out in E mixo. Very dramatic and sets you apart from the penta minor crowd.
Single chord vamps have a lot of possibilities though. Here's something more structured:
i, VI, V7, i.
It's got a minor chord as the resolution; lot of possibilities there. But, I see it has a major chord on the VI, and a dominant chord on the V7. Look at the diatonic structures we know; that's harmonic minor (play that progression; you'll hear it loud and clear).
Alter it to this:
i, vi(b5), V7, i
And it's not harmonic minor anymore, because harmonic minor doesn't have a min7b5 chord on the vi...melodic minor does though. If you play this one, again, you'll hear it loud and clear (and might recognize it as a VERY common jazz progression...go 4 beats on the i, and 2 beats on the vi(b5) and V7).
So the original thinking is valid, you just keep applying it.
But what if no tonic, and/or dominant chord, is visible in the arrangement? For instance, one I frequently see the hippies get wrong:
Amaj, Bmaj (Fire on the Mountain).
I see this played in either A or B Ionian all the time. Both are basically wrong, because neither chord is the tonic. Two major chords in a row...that could be a few things, but straightforwardly, that's a IV-V progression. So, E f g A B...E major. To use the roots of the chord, use either the fourth or fifth mode; A Lydian or B Mixolydian. The hippy-in-the-know knows that Lydian was Jerry's favorite mode (the #4 is a huge part of Jerry's spacey lead style), so, you go for A Lydian. It sounds great. Don't try to explain it at the jam though.
Another example...two Dom7 chords in a row.
A7, B7.
What scale, diatonically, has two dom7 chords consecutively?
Melodic minor (on the IV7 and V7). So, if you hit a song that is just two dom7 chords like this in a row (or is mostly those two chords), you know that you E melodic minor is a possibility, even though no tonic chord is visible.
Everything is subject to interpretation, and the ear rules all, but as far as I understand it, this is the basic mechanics of making these kinds of determinations. Powerful stuff for the improviser.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Work out all drop 2 and drop 3 7th chord inversions of any quality (maj, min, min7b5, dim) without remembering shapes or where the roots are.
Came up with an interesting one here. I wanted an easy way to be able to compute drop 2 and drop 3 inversions up the neck (if you're not familiar with drop 2 and drop 3 voicings, you'll have to google it, it's a technique for building chords used heavily at Berklee), so that if I forgot a seventh chord shape, I could easily figure it out. From there, I could add the 9th, change it to an open chord, whatever; the idea is to get to the base 7th chord quickly and then do the extensions or alterations.
There are 12 basic inversions of a drop 2 chord available --per octave--. Drop 2 voicing are across four consecutive strings (no skipped strings), so the root of the chord can be on the low D, A, or E strings, and there's four inversions per string; that's 12 shapes. If the B string was tuned consistently, you'd only have to remember four, because they'd repeat from string to string...but that's not the case, so you have to know all the fingerings.
There are 8 basic inversions of a drop 3 chord available per octave. Drop 3 have a set of top 3 strings, then skip a string, and the root is on the next string (the low string). So, the root can either be on the low A string (skipping the D in the chord), or the E string (skipping the A in the chord). Four inversions per string, 2 possible strings to put the root on; 8 shapes.
And that's PER CHORD QUALITY, and we're just talking seventh chords (so major 7, dom 7, minor 7, min 7 flat 5, dim 7). Do the math:
- Drop 2 7th chords: 12 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 60 SHAPES.
- Drop 3 7th chords: 8 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 40 SHAPES.
Technically, because diminished shapes are symmetrical, there's only three drop 2 shapes, and two drop 3 shapes, to memorize. Even then, you're still dealing with dozens of shapes to remember. That sounds really hard...and it is. Interestingly, this seems to be how most guitar players try to do it (ergo the haphazard chord knowledge of your typical guitar player).
There has to be a better way, and I came up with this: note there may be different ways to describe the steps, but these steps are the ones I find easiest to visualize.
Drop 2: 1573. Move second degree from top, to bottom. Move new top degree, to bottom.
Drop 3, 1735. Move the second degree from the top, to the bottom. Switch the order of the new top 2 degrees.
Let's try it:
The drop 2 first inversion voicing for any chord quality is 1,5,7,3 (your starting point). It can be any quality, it doesn't matter, so we'll use minor 7; In E, that'd be E, B, D, G. That's 1, 5, 7, 3.
Apply the formula (algorithm really): Move second from top, to bottom. Move new top, to bottom.
3-3-5
7-5-1
5-1-7
1-7-3
Do it again, second inversion (over the fifth).
5-5-7
1-7-3
7-3-1
3-1-5
Do it again, third inversion (over the 7th).
7-7-1
3-1-5
1-5-3
5-3-7
That's four inversions, which incidentally, you can call, "573 over 1, 715 over 3, 137 over 5, 351 over 7"...which reveals more relationships, like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string in a drop 2, is always a 5th, and 5ths are always perfect unless they are altered, like a min7b5 or dim chord). Move the drop 2 form down a string (so start with first inversion voicing on A string) and start the formula all over again to get the four inversions on that string. Move down to the E string, repeat: 12 inversions.
For drop 3, let's start with the first inversion voicing of E minor 7 on the A string, and work the formula: move second-degree-from-the-top, to the bottom of the stack. Switch order of the new top 2 degrees. The starting degree order is 1, 7, 3, 5 (remember, drop 3...you are skipping a string).
5-5-7
3-7-5
7-1-1
1-3-3
Do it again to move from second to third inversion:
7-7-1
5-1-7
1-3-3
3-5-5
Do it again to move from third to fourth inversion:
1-1-3
7-3-1
3-5-5
5-7-7
Again, you could call these, "735 over 1, 157 over 3, 371 over 5, 513 over 7", which reveals relationships like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string, is always a 7th of one kind or another).
Now...how do you remember exactly what fret each inversion starts on (what's the inversion root?).
Fortunately, the answer lies in something you probably already know if your still reading, and it applies to both drop 2 and drop 3 voicings: interval stacks.
All interval stacks for 7th chords (chords are built in intervals of thirds, so these are stacked thirds):
- Maj7: maj, min, maj.
- Dom7: maj, min, min.
- Min 7: min, maj, min.
- Min 7 b5, min, min, maj.
- Dim: min, min, min (symmetrical).
In terms of frets:
Any major third is 4 frets away (5, if you include the start fret).
Any minor third is 3 frets away (4, if you include the start fret).
Take E maj 7, which is E, G#, B, D#. Start on first inversion; your are playing chord/root (chord over root). You want to:
- Start on E.
- move to second inversion (chord/3rd). The first interval in a major chord is major third...four frets away. You'll be on G#
- move to the third inversion (chord/5th). The second interval is a minor third....three frets away. From G#, you'll be on B.
-move to the fourth inversion (chord/7th). The third interval is a major third...four frets away. From B, you'll be on D#.
Take diminished chords. The interval stack is minor 3rd, minor 3rd, minor 3rd (symmetrical). Start with first inversion voicing (chord/root).
- Start on E.
- Move up a minor third. G.
- Move up a minor third. Bb
- Move up a minor third. Db.
Put it all together, let's take A maj 7, which is A, C#, E, G#:
- Start with a drop 2 first inversion, 1573. This is chord/root (so you should be fretting an A on the bottom string).
- First interval of a maj 7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (C#). The formula for drop 2 gives you 3715. So you've already got the third fingered, and you know what string to find the root on, so finger that A. Now just work out the 7th and 5th.
- Second interval of a maj7 chord, is a minor third. Move up three frets (E). The drop 2 formula gives you 5137. You already have the fifth fingered, you know what string the root belongs on, so finger that A, then work out the 3 and 7.
- Third interval of a maj7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (G#). The drop 2 formula gives 7351. You already have the 7th fingered, and know what string the root is supposed to be on, so finger that A, and work out the 3rd and 5th.
For improvising, say you can't work out the "remaining two" quickly; you still have the fundamental tone of the inversion you want to hit, and the root. You can comp that all the way up and down the neck over a given chord voicing. That's snazzy.
Anyway, I've been working with this, and it's paying off, so I decided to write it out, and if you find it helpful, cheers. Chords are starting to naturally look like collections of intervals with harmonic possibilities. And of course the more I do it, the more automatic the fingerings will get, and I'll internalize the order of degrees instead of having to apply the formula. This seems to be a path to where I want to get; seeing the neck as one pattern that applies to everything.
As always, thanks for visiting.
There are 12 basic inversions of a drop 2 chord available --per octave--. Drop 2 voicing are across four consecutive strings (no skipped strings), so the root of the chord can be on the low D, A, or E strings, and there's four inversions per string; that's 12 shapes. If the B string was tuned consistently, you'd only have to remember four, because they'd repeat from string to string...but that's not the case, so you have to know all the fingerings.
There are 8 basic inversions of a drop 3 chord available per octave. Drop 3 have a set of top 3 strings, then skip a string, and the root is on the next string (the low string). So, the root can either be on the low A string (skipping the D in the chord), or the E string (skipping the A in the chord). Four inversions per string, 2 possible strings to put the root on; 8 shapes.
And that's PER CHORD QUALITY, and we're just talking seventh chords (so major 7, dom 7, minor 7, min 7 flat 5, dim 7). Do the math:
- Drop 2 7th chords: 12 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 60 SHAPES.
- Drop 3 7th chords: 8 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 40 SHAPES.
Technically, because diminished shapes are symmetrical, there's only three drop 2 shapes, and two drop 3 shapes, to memorize. Even then, you're still dealing with dozens of shapes to remember. That sounds really hard...and it is. Interestingly, this seems to be how most guitar players try to do it (ergo the haphazard chord knowledge of your typical guitar player).
There has to be a better way, and I came up with this: note there may be different ways to describe the steps, but these steps are the ones I find easiest to visualize.
Drop 2: 1573. Move second degree from top, to bottom. Move new top degree, to bottom.
Drop 3, 1735. Move the second degree from the top, to the bottom. Switch the order of the new top 2 degrees.
Let's try it:
The drop 2 first inversion voicing for any chord quality is 1,5,7,3 (your starting point). It can be any quality, it doesn't matter, so we'll use minor 7; In E, that'd be E, B, D, G. That's 1, 5, 7, 3.
Apply the formula (algorithm really): Move second from top, to bottom. Move new top, to bottom.
3-3-5
7-5-1
5-1-7
1-7-3
Do it again, second inversion (over the fifth).
5-5-7
1-7-3
7-3-1
3-1-5
Do it again, third inversion (over the 7th).
7-7-1
3-1-5
1-5-3
5-3-7
That's four inversions, which incidentally, you can call, "573 over 1, 715 over 3, 137 over 5, 351 over 7"...which reveals more relationships, like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string in a drop 2, is always a 5th, and 5ths are always perfect unless they are altered, like a min7b5 or dim chord). Move the drop 2 form down a string (so start with first inversion voicing on A string) and start the formula all over again to get the four inversions on that string. Move down to the E string, repeat: 12 inversions.
For drop 3, let's start with the first inversion voicing of E minor 7 on the A string, and work the formula: move second-degree-from-the-top, to the bottom of the stack. Switch order of the new top 2 degrees. The starting degree order is 1, 7, 3, 5 (remember, drop 3...you are skipping a string).
5-5-7
3-7-5
7-1-1
1-3-3
Do it again to move from second to third inversion:
7-7-1
5-1-7
1-3-3
3-5-5
Do it again to move from third to fourth inversion:
1-1-3
7-3-1
3-5-5
5-7-7
Again, you could call these, "735 over 1, 157 over 3, 371 over 5, 513 over 7", which reveals relationships like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string, is always a 7th of one kind or another).
Now...how do you remember exactly what fret each inversion starts on (what's the inversion root?).
Fortunately, the answer lies in something you probably already know if your still reading, and it applies to both drop 2 and drop 3 voicings: interval stacks.
All interval stacks for 7th chords (chords are built in intervals of thirds, so these are stacked thirds):
- Maj7: maj, min, maj.
- Dom7: maj, min, min.
- Min 7: min, maj, min.
- Min 7 b5, min, min, maj.
- Dim: min, min, min (symmetrical).
In terms of frets:
Any major third is 4 frets away (5, if you include the start fret).
Any minor third is 3 frets away (4, if you include the start fret).
Take E maj 7, which is E, G#, B, D#. Start on first inversion; your are playing chord/root (chord over root). You want to:
- Start on E.
- move to second inversion (chord/3rd). The first interval in a major chord is major third...four frets away. You'll be on G#
- move to the third inversion (chord/5th). The second interval is a minor third....three frets away. From G#, you'll be on B.
-move to the fourth inversion (chord/7th). The third interval is a major third...four frets away. From B, you'll be on D#.
Take diminished chords. The interval stack is minor 3rd, minor 3rd, minor 3rd (symmetrical). Start with first inversion voicing (chord/root).
- Start on E.
- Move up a minor third. G.
- Move up a minor third. Bb
- Move up a minor third. Db.
Put it all together, let's take A maj 7, which is A, C#, E, G#:
- Start with a drop 2 first inversion, 1573. This is chord/root (so you should be fretting an A on the bottom string).
- First interval of a maj 7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (C#). The formula for drop 2 gives you 3715. So you've already got the third fingered, and you know what string to find the root on, so finger that A. Now just work out the 7th and 5th.
- Second interval of a maj7 chord, is a minor third. Move up three frets (E). The drop 2 formula gives you 5137. You already have the fifth fingered, you know what string the root belongs on, so finger that A, then work out the 3 and 7.
- Third interval of a maj7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (G#). The drop 2 formula gives 7351. You already have the 7th fingered, and know what string the root is supposed to be on, so finger that A, and work out the 3rd and 5th.
For improvising, say you can't work out the "remaining two" quickly; you still have the fundamental tone of the inversion you want to hit, and the root. You can comp that all the way up and down the neck over a given chord voicing. That's snazzy.
Anyway, I've been working with this, and it's paying off, so I decided to write it out, and if you find it helpful, cheers. Chords are starting to naturally look like collections of intervals with harmonic possibilities. And of course the more I do it, the more automatic the fingerings will get, and I'll internalize the order of degrees instead of having to apply the formula. This seems to be a path to where I want to get; seeing the neck as one pattern that applies to everything.
As always, thanks for visiting.
Work out all drop 2 and drop 3 7th chord inversions of any quality (maj, min, min7b5, dim) without remembering shapes.
Came up with an interesting one here. I wanted an easy way to be able to compute drop 2 and drop 3 inversions up the neck (if you're not familiar with drop 2 and drop 3 voicings, you'll have to google it, it's a technique for building chords used heavily at Berklee), so that if I forgot a seventh chord shape, I could easily figure it out. From there, I could add the 9th, change it to an open chord, whatever; the idea is to get to the base 7th chord quickly and then do the extensions or alterations.
There are 12 basic inversions of a drop 2 chord available --per octave--. Drop 2 voicing are across four consecutive strings (no skipped strings), so the root of the chord can be on the low D, A, or E strings, and there's four inversions per string; that's 12 shapes. If the B string was tuned consistently, you'd only have to remember four, because they'd repeat from string to string...but that's not the case, so you have to know all the fingerings.
There are 8 basic inversions of a drop 3 chord available per octave. Drop 3 have a set of top 3 strings, then skip a string, and the root is on the next string (the low string). So, the root can either be on the low A string (skipping the D in the chord), or the E string (skipping the A in the chord). Four inversions per string, 2 possible strings to put the root on; 8 shapes.
And that's PER CHORD QUALITY, and we're just talking seventh chords (so major 7, dom 7, minor 7, min 7 flat 5, dim 7). Do the math:
- Drop 2 7th chords: 12 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 60 SHAPES.
- Drop 3 7th chords: 8 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 40 SHAPES.
Technically, because diminished shapes are symmetrical, there's only three drop 2 shapes, and two drop 3 shapes, to memorize. Even then, you're still dealing with dozens of shapes to remember. That sounds really hard...and it is. Interestingly, this seems to be how most guitar players try to do it (ergo the haphazard chord knowledge of your typical guitar player).
There has to be a better way, and I came up with this: note there may be different ways to describe the steps, but these steps are the ones I find easiest to visualize.
Drop 2: 1573. Move second degree from top, to bottom. Move new top degree, to bottom.
Drop 3, 1735. Move the second degree from the top, to the bottom. Switch the order of the new top 2 degrees.
Let's try it:
The drop 2 first inversion voicing for any chord quality is 1,5,7,3 (your starting point). It can be any quality, it doesn't matter, so we'll use minor 7; In E, that'd be E, B, D, G. That's 1, 5, 7, 3.
Apply the formula (algorithm really): Move second from top, to bottom. Move new top, to bottom.
3-3-5
7-5-1
5-1-7
1-7-3
Do it again, second inversion (over the fifth).
5-5-7
1-7-3
7-3-1
3-1-5
Do it again, third inversion (over the 7th).
7-7-1
3-1-5
1-5-3
5-3-7
That's four inversions, which incidentally, you can call, "573 over 1, 715 over 3, 137 over 5, 351 over 7"...which reveals more relationships, like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string in a drop 2, is always a 5th, and 5ths are always perfect unless they are altered, like a min7b5 or dim chord). Move the drop 2 form down a string (so start with first inversion voicing on A string) and start the formula all over again to get the four inversions on that string. Move down to the E string, repeat: 12 inversions.
For drop 3, let's start with the first inversion voicing of E minor 7 on the A string, and work the formula: move second-degree-from-the-top, to the bottom of the stack. Switch order of the new top 2 degrees. The starting degree order is 1, 7, 3, 5 (remember, drop 3...you are skipping a string).
5-5-7
3-7-5
7-1-1
1-3-3
Do it again to move from second to third inversion:
7-7-1
5-1-7
1-3-3
3-5-5
Do it again to move from third to fourth inversion:
1-1-3
7-3-1
3-5-5
5-7-7
Again, you could call these, "735 over 1, 157 over 3, 371 over 5, 513 over 7", which reveals relationships like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string, is always a 7th of one kind or another).
Now...how do you remember exactly what fret each inversion starts on (what's the inversion root?).
Fortunately, the answer lies in something you probably already know if your still reading, and it applies to both drop 2 and drop 3 voicings: interval stacks.
All interval stacks for 7th chords (chords are built in intervals of thirds, so these are stacked thirds):
- Maj7: maj, min, maj.
- Dom7: maj, min, min.
- Min 7: min, maj, min.
- Min 7 b5, min, min, maj.
- Dim: min, min, min (symmetrical).
In terms of frets:
Any major third is 4 frets away (5, if you include the start fret).
Any minor third is 3 frets away (4, if you include the start fret).
Take E maj 7, which is E, G#, B, D#. Start on first inversion; your are playing chord/root (chord over root). You want to:
- Start on E.
- move to second inversion (chord/3rd). The first interval in a major chord is major third...four frets away. You'll be on G#
- move to the third inversion (chord/5th). The second interval is a minor third....three frets away. From G#, you'll be on B.
-move to the fourth inversion (chord/7th). The third interval is a major third...four frets away. From B, you'll be on D#.
Take diminished chords. The interval stack is minor 3rd, minor 3rd, minor 3rd (symmetrical). Start with first inversion voicing (chord/root).
- Start on E.
- Move up a minor third. G.
- Move up a minor third. Bb
- Move up a minor third. Db.
Put it all together, let's take A maj 7, which is A, C#, E, G#:
- Start with a drop 2 first inversion, 1573. This is chord/root (so you should be fretting an A on the bottom string).
- First interval of a maj 7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (C#). The formula for drop 2 gives you 3715. So you've already got the third fingered, and you know what string to find the root on, so finger that A. Now just work out the 7th and 5th.
- Second interval of a maj7 chord, is a minor third. Move up three frets (E). The drop 2 formula gives you 5137. You already have the fifth fingered, you know what string the root belongs on, so finger that A, then work out the 3 and 7.
- Third interval of a maj7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (G#). The drop 2 formula gives 7351. You already have the 7th fingered, and know what string the root is supposed to be on, so finger that A, and work out the 3rd and 5th.
For improvising, say you can't work out the "remaining two" quickly; you still have the fundamental tone of the inversion you want to hit, and the root. You can comp that all the way up and down the neck over a given chord voicing. That's snazzy.
Anyway, I've been working with this, and it's paying off, so I decided to write it out, and if you find it helpful, cheers. Chords are starting to naturally look like collections of intervals with harmonic possibilities. And of course the more I do it, the more automatic the fingerings will get, and I'll internalize the order of degrees instead of having to apply the formula. This seems to be a path to where I want to get; seeing the neck as one pattern that applies to everything.
As always, thanks for visiting.
There are 12 basic inversions of a drop 2 chord available --per octave--. Drop 2 voicing are across four consecutive strings (no skipped strings), so the root of the chord can be on the low D, A, or E strings, and there's four inversions per string; that's 12 shapes. If the B string was tuned consistently, you'd only have to remember four, because they'd repeat from string to string...but that's not the case, so you have to know all the fingerings.
There are 8 basic inversions of a drop 3 chord available per octave. Drop 3 have a set of top 3 strings, then skip a string, and the root is on the next string (the low string). So, the root can either be on the low A string (skipping the D in the chord), or the E string (skipping the A in the chord). Four inversions per string, 2 possible strings to put the root on; 8 shapes.
And that's PER CHORD QUALITY, and we're just talking seventh chords (so major 7, dom 7, minor 7, min 7 flat 5, dim 7). Do the math:
- Drop 2 7th chords: 12 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 60 SHAPES.
- Drop 3 7th chords: 8 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 40 SHAPES.
Technically, because diminished shapes are symmetrical, there's only three drop 2 shapes, and two drop 3 shapes, to memorize. Even then, you're still dealing with dozens of shapes to remember. That sounds really hard...and it is. Interestingly, this seems to be how most guitar players try to do it (ergo the haphazard chord knowledge of your typical guitar player).
There has to be a better way, and I came up with this: note there may be different ways to describe the steps, but these steps are the ones I find easiest to visualize.
Drop 2: 1573. Move second degree from top, to bottom. Move new top degree, to bottom.
Drop 3, 1735. Move the second degree from the top, to the bottom. Switch the order of the new top 2 degrees.
Let's try it:
The drop 2 first inversion voicing for any chord quality is 1,5,7,3 (your starting point). It can be any quality, it doesn't matter, so we'll use minor 7; In E, that'd be E, B, D, G. That's 1, 5, 7, 3.
Apply the formula (algorithm really): Move second from top, to bottom. Move new top, to bottom.
3-3-5
7-5-1
5-1-7
1-7-3
Do it again, second inversion (over the fifth).
5-5-7
1-7-3
7-3-1
3-1-5
Do it again, third inversion (over the 7th).
7-7-1
3-1-5
1-5-3
5-3-7
That's four inversions, which incidentally, you can call, "573 over 1, 715 over 3, 137 over 5, 351 over 7"...which reveals more relationships, like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string in a drop 2, is always a 5th, and 5ths are always perfect unless they are altered, like a min7b5 or dim chord). Move the drop 2 form down a string (so start with first inversion voicing on A string) and start the formula all over again to get the four inversions on that string. Move down to the E string, repeat: 12 inversions.
For drop 3, let's start with the first inversion voicing of E minor 7 on the A string, and work the formula: move second-degree-from-the-top, to the bottom of the stack. Switch order of the new top 2 degrees. The starting degree order is 1, 7, 3, 5 (remember, drop 3...you are skipping a string).
5-5-7
3-7-5
7-1-1
1-3-3
Do it again to move from second to third inversion:
7-7-1
5-1-7
1-3-3
3-5-5
Do it again to move from third to fourth inversion:
1-1-3
7-3-1
3-5-5
5-7-7
Again, you could call these, "735 over 1, 157 over 3, 371 over 5, 513 over 7", which reveals relationships like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string, is always a 7th of one kind or another).
Now...how do you remember exactly what fret each inversion starts on (what's the inversion root?).
Fortunately, the answer lies in something you probably already know if your still reading, and it applies to both drop 2 and drop 3 voicings: interval stacks.
All interval stacks for 7th chords (chords are built in intervals of thirds, so these are stacked thirds):
- Maj7: maj, min, maj.
- Dom7: maj, min, min.
- Min 7: min, maj, min.
- Min 7 b5, min, min, maj.
- Dim: min, min, min (symmetrical).
In terms of frets:
Any major third is 4 frets away (5, if you include the start fret).
Any minor third is 3 frets away (4, if you include the start fret).
Take E maj 7, which is E, G#, B, D#. Start on first inversion; your are playing chord/root (chord over root). You want to:
- Start on E.
- move to second inversion (chord/3rd). The first interval in a major chord is major third...four frets away. You'll be on G#
- move to the third inversion (chord/5th). The second interval is a minor third....three frets away. From G#, you'll be on B.
-move to the fourth inversion (chord/7th). The third interval is a major third...four frets away. From B, you'll be on D#.
Take diminished chords. The interval stack is minor 3rd, minor 3rd, minor 3rd (symmetrical). Start with first inversion voicing (chord/root).
- Start on E.
- Move up a minor third. G.
- Move up a minor third. Bb
- Move up a minor third. Db.
Put it all together, let's take A maj 7, which is A, C#, E, G#:
- Start with a drop 2 first inversion, 1573. This is chord/root (so you should be fretting an A on the bottom string).
- First interval of a maj 7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (C#). The formula for drop 2 gives you 3715. So you've already got the third fingered, and you know what string to find the root on, so finger that A. Now just work out the 7th and 5th.
- Second interval of a maj7 chord, is a minor third. Move up three frets (E). The drop 2 formula gives you 5137. You already have the fifth fingered, you know what string the root belongs on, so finger that A, then work out the 3 and 7.
- Third interval of a maj7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (G#). The drop 2 formula gives 7351. You already have the 7th fingered, and know what string the root is supposed to be on, so finger that A, and work out the 3rd and 5th.
For improvising, say you can't work out the "remaining two" quickly; you still have the fundamental tone of the inversion you want to hit, and the root. You can comp that all the way up and down the neck over a given chord voicing. That's snazzy.
Anyway, I've been working with this, and it's paying off, so I decided to write it out, and if you find it helpful, cheers. Chords are starting to naturally look like collections of intervals with harmonic possibilities. And of course the more I do it, the more automatic the fingerings will get, and I'll internalize the order of degrees instead of having to apply the formula. This seems to be a path to where I want to get; seeing the neck as one pattern that applies to everything.
As always, thanks for visiting.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Chord Tone Targeting Shortcut (sorta)
Chord tone targeting means, while playing a lead, you land your musical thoughts on a note in the chord you're improvising over. So, if you're improvising over a Cmaj triad, you'd target C, E, G.
The importance of practicing this, and getting really good at it, is extreme, for the same reason that when you are speaking, you don't just suddenly stop
Looks like a typo doesn't it? Although you can still get what I'm trying to say, the thought is clearly unfinished. If I was to train a few more sentences like that together, you'd eventually become confused as to what I'm trying to say.
Leads are no different. You're chaining together musical thoughts. Many of the same rules as speaking, or writing, apply; tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, tell 'em what you said. Stay on topic. Make every word count. And so on.
"Staying on topic", and "make every word count" are probably the ones I'd relate chord tone targeting to the most. If you consider the harmony (chord) to be the topic, and the topic is C major, then you can present your points as you like, as long as you come back to C major chord tones. Expanding on this basic soloing principal, to me, shows the wit, thoughtfulness, and experience, of the player. But just like somebody speaking, if they do nothing but tell jokes, offer personal insights, or talk about the old days, you'll probably stop listening.
Anyways, I've been working pretty hard on this, and along the way, came up with a practical way to make sure you do this without having to constantly be thinking about the notes in the chord.
It's all about knowing your five octave positions, and where they fit into the mode you're playing in. If you haven't yet, take a look at my CAGED, PMAID, 45123 article. What it discusses is how the five Caged octave patterns relate positionally to the five most commonly used modes, and the five pentatonic positions. I give enough in this article though to get you through it; as long as you more or less know the notes all over the fretboard, and know some basic positions (like a major scale, a minor scale, and your pentatonics), you can use this tip.
Here's a diagram showing the five octave positions. If you don't know this, you really, really should. It's an easy way of finding every place on the fretboard you can play a given note.
Here's the basics for an A blues jam (so an A7 vamp, making A mixolydian, and A pentatonic major, good candidates for improvising). Remember, when you just see a 7 with no other indication, it's a dominant chord (a lot of people call it a "blues" chord).
So...A7. You know right off the bat it's got an A in it. If you know a little about chords, you know a dominant 7 chord, is the same as a major 7 chord, but with a flatted 7th. So, A7 is A, C#, E, G (an Amaj7 would be A, C#, E, G#). You can also just play the chord and see where your fingers are, but it's good to know how basic chords are built.
If 7th chords aren't in your bag of tricks yet, just stick to A major (A, C#, E), and work with the third (C#)...keep reading.
Anyway, I've often read that the most important chord tones are the third (which determines if a chord is major or minor), and the 7th (which determines a lot of things, like if the chord is dominant, diminished, adds a major or minor 7th to create chords like Amin(maj7), etc.). This seems to pan out, because if you take any seventh chord of any kind, and cut out all the notes but the third and seventh, you can still hear the character of the chord (that's a great comping technique btw). If there's no 7th, play the root and third, or third and 5th. Extensions make it more interesting, but let's stick to the basics for now.
Based on that, let's target the third. So, A, C#, E, G....we want to target the C# in our lead phrases. Every time we play this note, it will sound very much "in", because it's "on topic".
Let's use A pentatonic major to get started (the number at the top is the starting fret of the diagram, R = root, so in this case A, and the numbers indicate the number of the note in the scale, NOT the finger or fret number). Remember that in pentatonic major, which is a five note scale, there is no 4 and no 7.
4
- R - 2 - 3 -
- 5 - 6 - - -
2 - 3 - - - -
6 - - R - - -
3 - - 5 - - -
- R - 2 - - -
Now, find an easy C# in that scale. Everybody knows that C is the third fret on the A string, so C# would be the fourth fret. If you look at this diagram, you see it pans out; the fourth fret is where the third note of this scale pattern is located. You probably play it with your index finger when playing this pattern. Note that, no matter where you play this scale pattern, the third (and all the other tones) will ALWAYS be in that same position relative to the root of the scale.
So, now look at the octave chart. Based on that, you should be able to see that if you play a note on the A string, you can find the octave of that note on the G string, two frets over. So, up two strings, over two frets, there's your first octave. You can also see that if you play a note on the G string, you can find the next octave up two strings and over three frets. Look at the diagram again, you see it works.
If you memorize the five octave positions, you can just find the note you want, anywhere, and your fingers will show you the octaves on their own, making it easy to find everywhere you can play any note on the fretboard.
So, play A string, 4th fret; G string, 6th fret; E string, 9th fret. You've played three octaves of C#.
Now, starting anywhere in the scale (the root is a good candidate, so start on A), play up the scale (or down it) until you get to one of those three C#. Try to make the C# land on a beat. Voila, you have just exercised chord tone targeting.
What if you wanted to target the flatted 7th (remember, A7 = A, C#, E, G). Well...there is no 7th in a pentatonic major scale, so in this case, no G. That doesn't mean you can't add it though; in fact, many, many guitar players have built their sound around using pentatonic scales with the correct 7th degree added, creating a 6 note scale.
Here's the pattern again with the flatted 7th added (this is building up to the mixolydian mode btw...). Note that we now start on the third fret so we can get that nice low G in there:
3
- R - 2 - 3 -
- - 5 - 6 7 - -
- 2 - 3 - - - -
- 6 7 - R - - -
- 3 - - 5 - - -
7 - R - 2 - - -
Look at the octave diagram again; you see if you play a note on the low E, you can find the octave two strings up, two frets over. From there, you can find the next octave 2 strings up, three frets over. So, E string 3rd fret, D string 5th fret, B string 8th fret. These are all Gs.
Do it again; start anywhere in the scale, land on any of the newly added G notes. Bam, you are now targeting the b7, which sounds great in leads over dominant chords.
Get creative from there; do a run to G, then from that G, go up to a C#, then from that C#, do a run to an A. You've chained three thoughts, targeting the b7, 3, and root. Once you can do that consistently (and one day, without really thinking about it at all, just because you've done this so much you just know where they all are), you're really well on your way to "staying on topic".
That's the basic mechanics, and you'd be surprised how just sticking to that can drastically improve the quality of your solos; you'd also be surprised how many people don't practice this; imho, it's one of the most important things that separates a player from the wanker. Of course you can experiment with landing in different places, or use really long thoughts that don't resolve exactly when expected, but remember, if you just ramble on and never get back to the topic in any way, people will stop listening (unless you can fool them into thinking your some kind of savant).
Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.
The importance of practicing this, and getting really good at it, is extreme, for the same reason that when you are speaking, you don't just suddenly stop
Looks like a typo doesn't it? Although you can still get what I'm trying to say, the thought is clearly unfinished. If I was to train a few more sentences like that together, you'd eventually become confused as to what I'm trying to say.
Leads are no different. You're chaining together musical thoughts. Many of the same rules as speaking, or writing, apply; tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, tell 'em what you said. Stay on topic. Make every word count. And so on.
"Staying on topic", and "make every word count" are probably the ones I'd relate chord tone targeting to the most. If you consider the harmony (chord) to be the topic, and the topic is C major, then you can present your points as you like, as long as you come back to C major chord tones. Expanding on this basic soloing principal, to me, shows the wit, thoughtfulness, and experience, of the player. But just like somebody speaking, if they do nothing but tell jokes, offer personal insights, or talk about the old days, you'll probably stop listening.
Anyways, I've been working pretty hard on this, and along the way, came up with a practical way to make sure you do this without having to constantly be thinking about the notes in the chord.
It's all about knowing your five octave positions, and where they fit into the mode you're playing in. If you haven't yet, take a look at my CAGED, PMAID, 45123 article. What it discusses is how the five Caged octave patterns relate positionally to the five most commonly used modes, and the five pentatonic positions. I give enough in this article though to get you through it; as long as you more or less know the notes all over the fretboard, and know some basic positions (like a major scale, a minor scale, and your pentatonics), you can use this tip.
Here's a diagram showing the five octave positions. If you don't know this, you really, really should. It's an easy way of finding every place on the fretboard you can play a given note.
Here's the basics for an A blues jam (so an A7 vamp, making A mixolydian, and A pentatonic major, good candidates for improvising). Remember, when you just see a 7 with no other indication, it's a dominant chord (a lot of people call it a "blues" chord).
So...A7. You know right off the bat it's got an A in it. If you know a little about chords, you know a dominant 7 chord, is the same as a major 7 chord, but with a flatted 7th. So, A7 is A, C#, E, G (an Amaj7 would be A, C#, E, G#). You can also just play the chord and see where your fingers are, but it's good to know how basic chords are built.
If 7th chords aren't in your bag of tricks yet, just stick to A major (A, C#, E), and work with the third (C#)...keep reading.
Anyway, I've often read that the most important chord tones are the third (which determines if a chord is major or minor), and the 7th (which determines a lot of things, like if the chord is dominant, diminished, adds a major or minor 7th to create chords like Amin(maj7), etc.). This seems to pan out, because if you take any seventh chord of any kind, and cut out all the notes but the third and seventh, you can still hear the character of the chord (that's a great comping technique btw). If there's no 7th, play the root and third, or third and 5th. Extensions make it more interesting, but let's stick to the basics for now.
Based on that, let's target the third. So, A, C#, E, G....we want to target the C# in our lead phrases. Every time we play this note, it will sound very much "in", because it's "on topic".
Let's use A pentatonic major to get started (the number at the top is the starting fret of the diagram, R = root, so in this case A, and the numbers indicate the number of the note in the scale, NOT the finger or fret number). Remember that in pentatonic major, which is a five note scale, there is no 4 and no 7.
4
- R - 2 - 3 -
- 5 - 6 - - -
2 - 3 - - - -
6 - - R - - -
3 - - 5 - - -
- R - 2 - - -
Now, find an easy C# in that scale. Everybody knows that C is the third fret on the A string, so C# would be the fourth fret. If you look at this diagram, you see it pans out; the fourth fret is where the third note of this scale pattern is located. You probably play it with your index finger when playing this pattern. Note that, no matter where you play this scale pattern, the third (and all the other tones) will ALWAYS be in that same position relative to the root of the scale.
So, now look at the octave chart. Based on that, you should be able to see that if you play a note on the A string, you can find the octave of that note on the G string, two frets over. So, up two strings, over two frets, there's your first octave. You can also see that if you play a note on the G string, you can find the next octave up two strings and over three frets. Look at the diagram again, you see it works.
If you memorize the five octave positions, you can just find the note you want, anywhere, and your fingers will show you the octaves on their own, making it easy to find everywhere you can play any note on the fretboard.
So, play A string, 4th fret; G string, 6th fret; E string, 9th fret. You've played three octaves of C#.
Now, starting anywhere in the scale (the root is a good candidate, so start on A), play up the scale (or down it) until you get to one of those three C#. Try to make the C# land on a beat. Voila, you have just exercised chord tone targeting.
What if you wanted to target the flatted 7th (remember, A7 = A, C#, E, G). Well...there is no 7th in a pentatonic major scale, so in this case, no G. That doesn't mean you can't add it though; in fact, many, many guitar players have built their sound around using pentatonic scales with the correct 7th degree added, creating a 6 note scale.
Here's the pattern again with the flatted 7th added (this is building up to the mixolydian mode btw...). Note that we now start on the third fret so we can get that nice low G in there:
3
- R - 2 - 3 -
- - 5 - 6 7 - -
- 2 - 3 - - - -
- 6 7 - R - - -
- 3 - - 5 - - -
7 - R - 2 - - -
Look at the octave diagram again; you see if you play a note on the low E, you can find the octave two strings up, two frets over. From there, you can find the next octave 2 strings up, three frets over. So, E string 3rd fret, D string 5th fret, B string 8th fret. These are all Gs.
Do it again; start anywhere in the scale, land on any of the newly added G notes. Bam, you are now targeting the b7, which sounds great in leads over dominant chords.
Get creative from there; do a run to G, then from that G, go up to a C#, then from that C#, do a run to an A. You've chained three thoughts, targeting the b7, 3, and root. Once you can do that consistently (and one day, without really thinking about it at all, just because you've done this so much you just know where they all are), you're really well on your way to "staying on topic".
That's the basic mechanics, and you'd be surprised how just sticking to that can drastically improve the quality of your solos; you'd also be surprised how many people don't practice this; imho, it's one of the most important things that separates a player from the wanker. Of course you can experiment with landing in different places, or use really long thoughts that don't resolve exactly when expected, but remember, if you just ramble on and never get back to the topic in any way, people will stop listening (unless you can fool them into thinking your some kind of savant).
Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Marshall JVM410h Head with Vintage Modern 4x12 cabinet.
This is what I've been playing out of nowadays. Holy moly. The reviews I've seen speak favorably of the head; the ones I've seen that slag it with "noisy" or "muddy", must be playing out of a bad cabinet or with bad tubes or something, I just can't find anything not to like about this amp head, and coupling it with a Vintage Modern cab is working out really well for me. I'm not going to compare it to older standard Marshall's, because for the most part, I always found the production ones somewhat limited in areas, preferring the sounds from custom spec'd or reworked ones. I always ended up using distortion and other EQ stuff to get the tones I wanted.
How I usually run the rig is, cabinet in stereo with 2x 8ohm inputs from the head, with a Line 6 M13 Analog Modeler run into the FX loop on the head with a 50% wet setting (the FX loop on the JVM410h has a dedicated FX level knob in the back). I run my wah, whammy pedal and POG2 octave harmonizer in front of the amp. No distortion pedals, just the amp, and believe me, I'm not a "bluebreaker-distortion-is-best" player at all.
The head has 4 channels, each with three gain modes (green, orange, red), and dedicated reverbs, as well as reverbration and presence (one is basically bass response, the other treble). Each of the modes adds another gain phase to the signal chain. You switch them with the fairly heavy duty footswitch that comes with it. You can program recalls from the footswitch for amp settings, and they'll transfer to another JVM410h head since they get stored in the footswitch's memory, but to be honest, that makes me sorta nervous. Footswitches get beat on, drinks spilled on them, etc. We'll have to see how this pans out.
Lot of people say they have no need for 12 total gain and tone modes; I'm finding use for almost everything except OD2 in red mode. What I do is, enable the FX loop for one clean and one dirty channel, leaving the other two with just front-of-amp pedals and reverb. My overdrive and distortion pedals, even my compressor, are all on the shelf, all the gain comes from the amp. I might incorporate a fuzz face or some such in the future, but right now I've got plenty to keep me happy, and I really want to get to know the gain tones of this thing.
- Ch1: Tone-then-gain (unusual for Marshall, which is always gain-then-tone). This gives a very fender, old-school clean signal. I have the FX loop enabled on this channel, the green mode with the post delay and mods is amazing; the green mode has no gain stage and takes the volume out of the circuit. The orange and red modes add one gain stage each, but still with tone first. Really pure and basic clean tube tone, refreshing for Marshall.
- Ch2: Gain-then-tone, which spans Marshall JTM1959 and JCM800, depending on the gain setting. Green is very "real" (JTM1959), orange is classic JCM800, red is like a hotrodded JCM, but NOT exactly, it's a little more modern, having something to do with the amp perhaps, but also the fact that I'm not playing through a default 1960. I use this channel mostly for raw clean and punchy blues rhythm and leads, with the Fx loop disabled. Great blues channel, just a little reverb and front-of-amp effects, and the volume/tone settings of the guitar.
- Ch3: Gain-then-tone, each mode adding gain stages. Orange sings amazingly. Red is a little, but not too, over the top. Again no FX loop on this channel, just front-of-amp effects and reverb. This is my primary solo and crunch rhythm channel.
- Ch4: GAIN-then-tone built for modern metal, with a scoop in the mids, but I turn down the gain levels and turn up the mid to be comparable to Ch3, and enable the FX loop, so I get a virtual copy of my lead channel (3), with all the time based effects, and a little more push to compensate for any signal sap. Really technical sound on this channel. The metal monsters would probably curse the way I use it (nu metal basically saps out all the mids), but meh that's not my bag. Having a stereo echo in the FX loop let's me get some really fantastic overdriven effect sounds here, and since I'm not using the gain full out, I don't get any noise (the M13 also has a noise gate in it that I keep active). High end Satriani-Vai like ballad leads for the taking.
As I mentioned, for the cabinet, I didn't go with the 1960a/b, which is what everybody is putting with the JVM410h by default; I wanted Celestion Greenbacks, which seem to sound better at lower volumes and have subtle tone characteristics that respond more to what I'm trying to get at, and these are available in the Vintage Modern cabinets. I demo'd a Vintage Modern half stack, and remember loving the tone characteristics of the speakers, but finding the head somewhat limited in options, and I'd read about people trying different cabinet and loving it with the JVM410h, so I decided to pair one of the Vintage Modern 450a cabs; for, me it paid off huge.
It's a lot of fun, and extremely satisfying to hear a tone in your head and be able to nail it. I tweak my sound endlessly, but right now am really satisfied. The JCM410 head is an amazing piece of tech that should fascinate anybody looking for a high-end tone and gain palette.
How I usually run the rig is, cabinet in stereo with 2x 8ohm inputs from the head, with a Line 6 M13 Analog Modeler run into the FX loop on the head with a 50% wet setting (the FX loop on the JVM410h has a dedicated FX level knob in the back). I run my wah, whammy pedal and POG2 octave harmonizer in front of the amp. No distortion pedals, just the amp, and believe me, I'm not a "bluebreaker-distortion-is-best" player at all.
The head has 4 channels, each with three gain modes (green, orange, red), and dedicated reverbs, as well as reverbration and presence (one is basically bass response, the other treble). Each of the modes adds another gain phase to the signal chain. You switch them with the fairly heavy duty footswitch that comes with it. You can program recalls from the footswitch for amp settings, and they'll transfer to another JVM410h head since they get stored in the footswitch's memory, but to be honest, that makes me sorta nervous. Footswitches get beat on, drinks spilled on them, etc. We'll have to see how this pans out.
Lot of people say they have no need for 12 total gain and tone modes; I'm finding use for almost everything except OD2 in red mode. What I do is, enable the FX loop for one clean and one dirty channel, leaving the other two with just front-of-amp pedals and reverb. My overdrive and distortion pedals, even my compressor, are all on the shelf, all the gain comes from the amp. I might incorporate a fuzz face or some such in the future, but right now I've got plenty to keep me happy, and I really want to get to know the gain tones of this thing.
- Ch1: Tone-then-gain (unusual for Marshall, which is always gain-then-tone). This gives a very fender, old-school clean signal. I have the FX loop enabled on this channel, the green mode with the post delay and mods is amazing; the green mode has no gain stage and takes the volume out of the circuit. The orange and red modes add one gain stage each, but still with tone first. Really pure and basic clean tube tone, refreshing for Marshall.
- Ch2: Gain-then-tone, which spans Marshall JTM1959 and JCM800, depending on the gain setting. Green is very "real" (JTM1959), orange is classic JCM800, red is like a hotrodded JCM, but NOT exactly, it's a little more modern, having something to do with the amp perhaps, but also the fact that I'm not playing through a default 1960. I use this channel mostly for raw clean and punchy blues rhythm and leads, with the Fx loop disabled. Great blues channel, just a little reverb and front-of-amp effects, and the volume/tone settings of the guitar.
- Ch3: Gain-then-tone, each mode adding gain stages. Orange sings amazingly. Red is a little, but not too, over the top. Again no FX loop on this channel, just front-of-amp effects and reverb. This is my primary solo and crunch rhythm channel.
- Ch4: GAIN-then-tone built for modern metal, with a scoop in the mids, but I turn down the gain levels and turn up the mid to be comparable to Ch3, and enable the FX loop, so I get a virtual copy of my lead channel (3), with all the time based effects, and a little more push to compensate for any signal sap. Really technical sound on this channel. The metal monsters would probably curse the way I use it (nu metal basically saps out all the mids), but meh that's not my bag. Having a stereo echo in the FX loop let's me get some really fantastic overdriven effect sounds here, and since I'm not using the gain full out, I don't get any noise (the M13 also has a noise gate in it that I keep active). High end Satriani-Vai like ballad leads for the taking.
As I mentioned, for the cabinet, I didn't go with the 1960a/b, which is what everybody is putting with the JVM410h by default; I wanted Celestion Greenbacks, which seem to sound better at lower volumes and have subtle tone characteristics that respond more to what I'm trying to get at, and these are available in the Vintage Modern cabinets. I demo'd a Vintage Modern half stack, and remember loving the tone characteristics of the speakers, but finding the head somewhat limited in options, and I'd read about people trying different cabinet and loving it with the JVM410h, so I decided to pair one of the Vintage Modern 450a cabs; for, me it paid off huge.
It's a lot of fun, and extremely satisfying to hear a tone in your head and be able to nail it. I tweak my sound endlessly, but right now am really satisfied. The JCM410 head is an amazing piece of tech that should fascinate anybody looking for a high-end tone and gain palette.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Quick Trick to Remembering Mode Structures
Here's a trick so that you'll never forget the interval formula for building any of the seven standard major modes.
It does require that you know two things:
- The order of the modes
- The interval formula for the major scale (which is the same as the Ionian mode). You can think of this as the "starting formula".
It's really simple, I find it hard to believe that every book on the topic doesn't lay it out this way. I haven't read every book, but the ones I've got, don't.
Anyway, here it is:
The order of modes:
Ionian
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian
Locrian
I used to remember this by saying, "I don't play lame music any longer". The first letter of each word is the first letter of each mode.
Nowadays I just have the order memorized without any gimmicks, mostly because I practice my mode fingerings as a warmup every day, and as I move through the different modes up and down the neck (all seven modes connect to each other in this order, so if you know the fingerings well, creating runs in any key up and down the neck is easy), I actually say the mode out loud to reinforce it.
Next, you know the formula for the major (Ionian) scale:
W W H W W W H
If you don't know what that's about, I suggest you go back to the basics of the major scale and don't worry about modes until you really understand how the major scale is built, but in a nutshell, "W" is a whole step interval, or two frets, "H" is a half step interval, or one fret. So, if you were to play C major (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) all the way up the A string, starting at the third fret (which is a C), you would find, if you followed the WWHWWWH formula, that you would end on the next C, one octave up (15th fret). The distance from C to D is "W", D to E "W", E to F "H", F to G "W", G to A "W", A to B "W", and B to C "H"). This works for any scale; start at the root, follow the formula, you'll end at the root again.
So, what's the trick? As you move along the order of modes, Just revolve the intervals by taking the first one off and putting it at the end.
Written out:
Ionian - W W H W W W H
Dorian - W H W W W H W
Phrygian - H W W W H W W
Lydian - W W W H W W H
Mixolydian - W W H W W H W
Aeolian - W H W W H W W
Locrian - H W W H W W W
Back to Ionian - W W H W W W H
It's handy to know for a number or reasons, not just passing a theory test; for instance, you know that the final interval before the root, if you are playing a major lead, is a half step (scales start and end on the root). So, anywhere you can find that root note on the neck, you know that you can play the fret immediately below it and be in key; sliding up from that fret to the root gives a real nice major resolving sound (in theory speak, you are resolving a major 7th to the root). In minor terms, you probably mostly play the Aeolian mode (which is the same as the natural minor scale). Same logic; you know that the note immediately before the root is a whole step, so anywhere you can find that root note on the fretboard, you know that you can play the note two frets below it; this is a great opportunity to bend that note up a whole step, resolving the bend at the root.
The more you know these structures, the easier it is to move around the fretboard at will, but, at least for now, this is an easy way to memorize those structures.
As always, thanks for visiting.
It does require that you know two things:
- The order of the modes
- The interval formula for the major scale (which is the same as the Ionian mode). You can think of this as the "starting formula".
It's really simple, I find it hard to believe that every book on the topic doesn't lay it out this way. I haven't read every book, but the ones I've got, don't.
Anyway, here it is:
The order of modes:
Ionian
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian
Locrian
I used to remember this by saying, "I don't play lame music any longer". The first letter of each word is the first letter of each mode.
Nowadays I just have the order memorized without any gimmicks, mostly because I practice my mode fingerings as a warmup every day, and as I move through the different modes up and down the neck (all seven modes connect to each other in this order, so if you know the fingerings well, creating runs in any key up and down the neck is easy), I actually say the mode out loud to reinforce it.
Next, you know the formula for the major (Ionian) scale:
W W H W W W H
If you don't know what that's about, I suggest you go back to the basics of the major scale and don't worry about modes until you really understand how the major scale is built, but in a nutshell, "W" is a whole step interval, or two frets, "H" is a half step interval, or one fret. So, if you were to play C major (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) all the way up the A string, starting at the third fret (which is a C), you would find, if you followed the WWHWWWH formula, that you would end on the next C, one octave up (15th fret). The distance from C to D is "W", D to E "W", E to F "H", F to G "W", G to A "W", A to B "W", and B to C "H"). This works for any scale; start at the root, follow the formula, you'll end at the root again.
So, what's the trick? As you move along the order of modes, Just revolve the intervals by taking the first one off and putting it at the end.
Written out:
Ionian - W W H W W W H
Dorian - W H W W W H W
Phrygian - H W W W H W W
Lydian - W W W H W W H
Mixolydian - W W H W W H W
Aeolian - W H W W H W W
Locrian - H W W H W W W
Back to Ionian - W W H W W W H
It's handy to know for a number or reasons, not just passing a theory test; for instance, you know that the final interval before the root, if you are playing a major lead, is a half step (scales start and end on the root). So, anywhere you can find that root note on the neck, you know that you can play the fret immediately below it and be in key; sliding up from that fret to the root gives a real nice major resolving sound (in theory speak, you are resolving a major 7th to the root). In minor terms, you probably mostly play the Aeolian mode (which is the same as the natural minor scale). Same logic; you know that the note immediately before the root is a whole step, so anywhere you can find that root note on the fretboard, you know that you can play the note two frets below it; this is a great opportunity to bend that note up a whole step, resolving the bend at the root.
The more you know these structures, the easier it is to move around the fretboard at will, but, at least for now, this is an easy way to memorize those structures.
As always, thanks for visiting.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Practice Your Upstrokes!
Quick post on an exercise I've created for myself that I'm finding to be helpful in my quest to master alternate picking.
BTW, that's been going well. It was tough at the outset; if you read my last post on alternate picking, you know that I decided to tear my technique apart and start all over, because I'd been watching too many Steve Morse and Paul Gilbert instructional clips on YouTube.
It's been worth it; in just a couple of months, I've found my reapplied techniques starting to emerge naturally in jams and rehearsals, which is gratifying, because I find that, even if you're nailing a reworked technique while you practice at home, it's really hard to stick to it when you get to rehearsal. You're paying attention to the band and your song, so 100% of your attention isn't focused on the technical aspects of your playing, so it's easy to slide back into habits you're trying to break.
One area in particular I discovered needing some strengthening was my upstrokes. Although I was hitting the notes in my runs effectively, I did find that, at higher speeds, my pick wasn't really cleanly executing the upstroke, I was depending a lot on the fretting of the string and a sort of implied half-pick to get the note. You really couldn't tell unless you were listening closely, but I decided to brand it sloppy and lazy; I mean, if I'm trying to get harmonic minor runs Steve Morse clean, it's all gotta be there.
Anyway, so as part of my regimen, I started playing scales and runs that I normally use alternate picking on entirely in upstrokes.
For example, ascending and descending up and down the Aeolian shape (start at any fret, but always try to know the key, for instance, if you start this at the 5th fret, you're playing A natural minor, or A Aeolian):
-R-xx-
-xx-x-
xx-x-
-x-R--
-x-xx
-R-xx-
Play it all the way ascending, then all the way descending, using upstrokes, all of it, first and last notes included. No downstrokes at all. Play it cleanly, to a metronome a few times, and then rubato (flexible, not entirely on the beat, but still resolving on the 1s properly). It's not as easy as it sounds.
I also work it with some simple arpeggios, like this A major one, starting with the 1, 3, 5 Ionian shape, and then just repeating the shape at the octaves (in this case, the roots are all A tones):
4
-----x--x----------
------R------------
--x--x-------------
---R---------------
x--x---------------
-R-----------------
This has a number of benefits:
- You are practicing you upstrokes.
- When switching strings, you are getting used to shifting your pick all the way over the last one, to the upstroke position of the next one. Being conscious of where your pick is at all times can be difficult to focus on, because so many of us take our picking for granted, so any exercise that makes you do something unusual with your pick hand will force you to focus on it.
- Upstrokes can give you a different tone than downstrokes; you can get a really sharp, staccato sound from upstrokes that is difficult to duplicate with downstrokes, which tend to be more legato (for my anyway). More options in tone is a very powerful tool, as it adds interest and variety to your playing.
- You're playing guitar, and thinking about it while you're doing it. That's good.
Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.
BTW, that's been going well. It was tough at the outset; if you read my last post on alternate picking, you know that I decided to tear my technique apart and start all over, because I'd been watching too many Steve Morse and Paul Gilbert instructional clips on YouTube.
It's been worth it; in just a couple of months, I've found my reapplied techniques starting to emerge naturally in jams and rehearsals, which is gratifying, because I find that, even if you're nailing a reworked technique while you practice at home, it's really hard to stick to it when you get to rehearsal. You're paying attention to the band and your song, so 100% of your attention isn't focused on the technical aspects of your playing, so it's easy to slide back into habits you're trying to break.
One area in particular I discovered needing some strengthening was my upstrokes. Although I was hitting the notes in my runs effectively, I did find that, at higher speeds, my pick wasn't really cleanly executing the upstroke, I was depending a lot on the fretting of the string and a sort of implied half-pick to get the note. You really couldn't tell unless you were listening closely, but I decided to brand it sloppy and lazy; I mean, if I'm trying to get harmonic minor runs Steve Morse clean, it's all gotta be there.
Anyway, so as part of my regimen, I started playing scales and runs that I normally use alternate picking on entirely in upstrokes.
For example, ascending and descending up and down the Aeolian shape (start at any fret, but always try to know the key, for instance, if you start this at the 5th fret, you're playing A natural minor, or A Aeolian):
-R-xx-
-xx-x-
xx-x-
-x-R--
-x-xx
-R-xx-
Play it all the way ascending, then all the way descending, using upstrokes, all of it, first and last notes included. No downstrokes at all. Play it cleanly, to a metronome a few times, and then rubato (flexible, not entirely on the beat, but still resolving on the 1s properly). It's not as easy as it sounds.
I also work it with some simple arpeggios, like this A major one, starting with the 1, 3, 5 Ionian shape, and then just repeating the shape at the octaves (in this case, the roots are all A tones):
4
-----x--x----------
------R------------
--x--x-------------
---R---------------
x--x---------------
-R-----------------
This has a number of benefits:
- You are practicing you upstrokes.
- When switching strings, you are getting used to shifting your pick all the way over the last one, to the upstroke position of the next one. Being conscious of where your pick is at all times can be difficult to focus on, because so many of us take our picking for granted, so any exercise that makes you do something unusual with your pick hand will force you to focus on it.
- Upstrokes can give you a different tone than downstrokes; you can get a really sharp, staccato sound from upstrokes that is difficult to duplicate with downstrokes, which tend to be more legato (for my anyway). More options in tone is a very powerful tool, as it adds interest and variety to your playing.
- You're playing guitar, and thinking about it while you're doing it. That's good.
Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Alternate Picking: Play with Intent, Don't Take It for Granted.
If you play, you probably know all about alternate picking. Down, up, down, next string, repeat. You've practiced it, can blow through scales all the way up and down the neck (or you're working on it). Some of you may even use a metronome when you do it (a very good idea; knowing how to move through a scale in time, instead of rushing it and just holding the last note until the 1, is imho one of the men-from-boys hallmarks).
Recently I've been listening to a lot of Paul Gilbert and Steve Morse; I cycle through players like this now and then, because one day I'll be in the gym or something, and once again just be blown away by the accuracy and dexterity of these players. They can play scales, arpeggios, skip strings, all that, perfectly in time, and they don't miss notes. Both of these players are considered very speedy; Gilbert is in the world's top 50 fastest, Morse is a five-time Guitar Player "of the year" guy (which means he had to bow out; he's no longer eligible for the award...and this was years ago), so when they say, "I used to do this but don't anymore, here's what I do now", I figure I should listen.
Interestingly, neither of these guys are huge fans of sweep picking; there's video lessons right on youtube of both of them saying they've done it, they get it, but they prefer alternate picking...EVERY time. That includes vertical arpeggios. If the pick direction is down on the E string, it should be up on the A string. Both Gilbert and Morse make that very clear.
I've always somewhat prided myself on my alternate picking; I've worked pretty hard at it, have taken direction from the Morse, Malmsteens, Gilberts, etc. of the world, and it's helped me differentiate, to a point, from most of the players I see at the jams and so on. I'm known as a "fast, technical" player (though I'm not one of the nu metal shredders, that use hammers/pulls and sweeps constantly to create what I call "blurs", etc., that's just not my style). But, I had to be honest with myself, after I got "good enough" at it, I sort of took it for granted. I find a new scale or run, I practice it cleanly and with a metronome a while, then instinct takes over and I just let my hands go. The results have always been more or less acceptable to me, largely because live, I tend to pull off what I know. But now and then, I know that my picking would sort of "get lost", and I would finish the run with hammers or pulls, then reset.
What was causing this? Were Gilbert and Morse telling me, "good...but get better. Look MORE closely at your picking, REALLY break it down." I figure they'll both tell themselves that until the day they die, so maybe I should to.
Back to the drawing board I went, and I found out a few things, the most important being, I was taking notes for granted. By this I mean, I wasn't consciously picking notes; I was taking for granted that my pick would find them, because I know the pattern I'm playing. Sort of like not consciously looking where I put my feet when I walk...we all do it, but you only have to visit the Fail Blog once in a while to know the hazards of it.
Take for example, this major arpeggio I like to play (the number is the fret so start, "R" indicates a root tone). I sort of consider it one of my signature riffs. This example is in A major:
4
-R---
-x-x-
x--x-
--x--
x--x-
-R---
I've shown that to a lot of people; it's a great way to open up a run in a major scale. You can play it up, down, start it in the middle, as long as you resolve to the root (or a chord tone), it's classy.
I sat down and played it, as usual, without thinking about it; I blew through it, clean. Here was the pattern I used (the arrows indicate the up/down strokes).
4
-v---
-v-^-
v--^-
--v--
v--^-
-v---
Surprise surprise; according to the wisdom of Morse and Gilbert, I'm not alternate picking. I guess I would call this "alternate sweeping". It was quite a revelation, because I realized that I was taking the picking pattern I was using entirely for granted. I was totally unconscious of the direction my pick was moving on any given note, I was just instinctively telling myself "If the next note is on a string below the current one, even if my last pick stroke was down, change the picking to a downward sweep. If the next note is on the string above, even if my last pick direction was up, change the pick direction to an upward sweep". Or taken another way, if you can just keep your picking going in the same direction, do it. Only change direction when you have to, which usually means, if your next note is on the same string.
Acceptable here; I knew that, although I should analyze this more deeply, that there was nothing wrong with this, when taken from the perspective of motion conservation, which instinctively makes sense to me...on paper. So, I said hmm...how am I actually blowing through my straight scales? Although not every time, I did catch myself doing this (no fret number here, this is just an extended Ionian mode shape):
v-^-v
v-^-v
-v^-v
-v^-v
v-^-v
v-^-v
Now, according to Steve and Paul, it should look like this:
^-v-^
v-^-v
-^v-^
-v^-v
^-v-^
v-^-v
In other words, entirely regardless of what direction the string is, if your picking is a downstroke on the current note, it should be an upstroke on the next note, and vice versa. ALWAYS.
Ok, I'm an alternate picker, I can drop the metronome to the bottom and still double the click on a good day. How hard can this be? I discovered that, while not beyond my ability as far as alternating went, it was pushing me to be absolutely aware of what note I was picking. In fact, I found that for turning scales around (so playing up, then down), it somehow flows better, and it certainly makes it easier to be conscious of the beat. This kind of precision is something I constantly strive for; when I move through a run or arpeggio, I want to be able to nail a chord tone, or switch modes, cleanly and with intent, exactly when I want to. What I discovered I was doing though, was just letting my hands get ahead of me, and sort of timing the stop on the target tone, not really being aware of what direction my pick was moving, doing a mental reset, and proceeding with a downstroke to begin my new phrase.
I also found this, and to me, this is the clincher; when sweeping, I hit the next note faster than when I alternate...but you can't play a whole lead without alternating, even if you alternate sweeps. I'm not talking about tremolo picking here, I'm talking about a conscious alternate to hit a particular note. This can make your timing jagged. Not good. When I switched to all alternates, I discovered that my timing was more consistent. Even though this is taking me out of a comfort zone that has served me well for years, just by doing this little exercise, I've found an opportunity to become a better player, and perhaps gotten a glimpse of how Steve and Paul think about what they do.
In the end, I believe that, if you were to tear apart their playing, you'd find even the most adamant alternate picker hybrids their technique to a point. But I think they might do it more for a certain tone or feel than out of habit; alternate picking can't get the fluidity of a legato run or the rake sound of a sweep. But if you default to one or the other simply because that's what your limbic system (sort of your unconscious learning/memory system) is telegraphing to your hands, and you're not REALLY paying attention to what exactly your left and right hand are doing and how you're syncing them up, then you're taking your technique for granted, which as I found, can probably lead to some bad habits.
Give it a try; take an arpeggio or run you love to play in front of people. Sit down and REALLY carefully look at how you're playing it, against a metronome. Then try alternate picking it without any sweeps at all; the pick should never move twice in the same direction. You might find out a couple of things about your playing.
As always, don't show up too drunk for gigs, and thanks for visiting.
Recently I've been listening to a lot of Paul Gilbert and Steve Morse; I cycle through players like this now and then, because one day I'll be in the gym or something, and once again just be blown away by the accuracy and dexterity of these players. They can play scales, arpeggios, skip strings, all that, perfectly in time, and they don't miss notes. Both of these players are considered very speedy; Gilbert is in the world's top 50 fastest, Morse is a five-time Guitar Player "of the year" guy (which means he had to bow out; he's no longer eligible for the award...and this was years ago), so when they say, "I used to do this but don't anymore, here's what I do now", I figure I should listen.
Interestingly, neither of these guys are huge fans of sweep picking; there's video lessons right on youtube of both of them saying they've done it, they get it, but they prefer alternate picking...EVERY time. That includes vertical arpeggios. If the pick direction is down on the E string, it should be up on the A string. Both Gilbert and Morse make that very clear.
I've always somewhat prided myself on my alternate picking; I've worked pretty hard at it, have taken direction from the Morse, Malmsteens, Gilberts, etc. of the world, and it's helped me differentiate, to a point, from most of the players I see at the jams and so on. I'm known as a "fast, technical" player (though I'm not one of the nu metal shredders, that use hammers/pulls and sweeps constantly to create what I call "blurs", etc., that's just not my style). But, I had to be honest with myself, after I got "good enough" at it, I sort of took it for granted. I find a new scale or run, I practice it cleanly and with a metronome a while, then instinct takes over and I just let my hands go. The results have always been more or less acceptable to me, largely because live, I tend to pull off what I know. But now and then, I know that my picking would sort of "get lost", and I would finish the run with hammers or pulls, then reset.
What was causing this? Were Gilbert and Morse telling me, "good...but get better. Look MORE closely at your picking, REALLY break it down." I figure they'll both tell themselves that until the day they die, so maybe I should to.
Back to the drawing board I went, and I found out a few things, the most important being, I was taking notes for granted. By this I mean, I wasn't consciously picking notes; I was taking for granted that my pick would find them, because I know the pattern I'm playing. Sort of like not consciously looking where I put my feet when I walk...we all do it, but you only have to visit the Fail Blog once in a while to know the hazards of it.
Take for example, this major arpeggio I like to play (the number is the fret so start, "R" indicates a root tone). I sort of consider it one of my signature riffs. This example is in A major:
4
-R---
-x-x-
x--x-
--x--
x--x-
-R---
I've shown that to a lot of people; it's a great way to open up a run in a major scale. You can play it up, down, start it in the middle, as long as you resolve to the root (or a chord tone), it's classy.
I sat down and played it, as usual, without thinking about it; I blew through it, clean. Here was the pattern I used (the arrows indicate the up/down strokes).
4
-v---
-v-^-
v--^-
--v--
v--^-
-v---
Surprise surprise; according to the wisdom of Morse and Gilbert, I'm not alternate picking. I guess I would call this "alternate sweeping". It was quite a revelation, because I realized that I was taking the picking pattern I was using entirely for granted. I was totally unconscious of the direction my pick was moving on any given note, I was just instinctively telling myself "If the next note is on a string below the current one, even if my last pick stroke was down, change the picking to a downward sweep. If the next note is on the string above, even if my last pick direction was up, change the pick direction to an upward sweep". Or taken another way, if you can just keep your picking going in the same direction, do it. Only change direction when you have to, which usually means, if your next note is on the same string.
Acceptable here; I knew that, although I should analyze this more deeply, that there was nothing wrong with this, when taken from the perspective of motion conservation, which instinctively makes sense to me...on paper. So, I said hmm...how am I actually blowing through my straight scales? Although not every time, I did catch myself doing this (no fret number here, this is just an extended Ionian mode shape):
v-^-v
v-^-v
-v^-v
-v^-v
v-^-v
v-^-v
Now, according to Steve and Paul, it should look like this:
^-v-^
v-^-v
-^v-^
-v^-v
^-v-^
v-^-v
In other words, entirely regardless of what direction the string is, if your picking is a downstroke on the current note, it should be an upstroke on the next note, and vice versa. ALWAYS.
Ok, I'm an alternate picker, I can drop the metronome to the bottom and still double the click on a good day. How hard can this be? I discovered that, while not beyond my ability as far as alternating went, it was pushing me to be absolutely aware of what note I was picking. In fact, I found that for turning scales around (so playing up, then down), it somehow flows better, and it certainly makes it easier to be conscious of the beat. This kind of precision is something I constantly strive for; when I move through a run or arpeggio, I want to be able to nail a chord tone, or switch modes, cleanly and with intent, exactly when I want to. What I discovered I was doing though, was just letting my hands get ahead of me, and sort of timing the stop on the target tone, not really being aware of what direction my pick was moving, doing a mental reset, and proceeding with a downstroke to begin my new phrase.
I also found this, and to me, this is the clincher; when sweeping, I hit the next note faster than when I alternate...but you can't play a whole lead without alternating, even if you alternate sweeps. I'm not talking about tremolo picking here, I'm talking about a conscious alternate to hit a particular note. This can make your timing jagged. Not good. When I switched to all alternates, I discovered that my timing was more consistent. Even though this is taking me out of a comfort zone that has served me well for years, just by doing this little exercise, I've found an opportunity to become a better player, and perhaps gotten a glimpse of how Steve and Paul think about what they do.
In the end, I believe that, if you were to tear apart their playing, you'd find even the most adamant alternate picker hybrids their technique to a point. But I think they might do it more for a certain tone or feel than out of habit; alternate picking can't get the fluidity of a legato run or the rake sound of a sweep. But if you default to one or the other simply because that's what your limbic system (sort of your unconscious learning/memory system) is telegraphing to your hands, and you're not REALLY paying attention to what exactly your left and right hand are doing and how you're syncing them up, then you're taking your technique for granted, which as I found, can probably lead to some bad habits.
Give it a try; take an arpeggio or run you love to play in front of people. Sit down and REALLY carefully look at how you're playing it, against a metronome. Then try alternate picking it without any sweeps at all; the pick should never move twice in the same direction. You might find out a couple of things about your playing.
As always, don't show up too drunk for gigs, and thanks for visiting.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Significantly expand your chord vocabulary with 7th chords...easily.
Probably one of the most frustrating things for any guitarist that really hasn't done the whole theory thing is chords; you know your major, minor, and dominant, and can probably play those three kinds in a few positions up and down the neck. But then one day you want to add a jazz tune to your repertoire, or you're at a party and somebody drops a lead sheet on you, and you see "Cmin7b5".
Erm...I dont know that one. You fiddle around with a chord you know that has the root, and in the end wind up saying, "sorry man I don't know it, let's do a blues jam." The other guy sighs and says sure, or starts showing you the fingering, which you try to get right but struggle with...
...so you go home, and once again break out that chord book, saying, "this time I'm going to memorize ALL of them in one key, which will show me the fingerings in all keys, I just have to move them up and down the neck."
The thought is right; you're trying to find a core position that you can use to play all your chords in relation to. "A major is here at the second fret, if I slide it up two frets it's B major..." and so on. You play those great chords, memorizing all those fingerings in one night, and man they sound great; pretty, expansive, "advanced" tones shimmer from the wood; now THIS is what it's all about.
Unfortunately, it won't work, because you don't use all the chords all the time. You may pick up one or two chords from the exercise, but in the end, you're trying to retain too much information. You'll go back to that party next year and once again end up doing a blues jam.
Not to fear, Fretboard Framework to the rescue. As always, the Fretboard Framework is about starting points; memorize the core idea and use it as a reference to build more advanced patterns and voicings. If you've read some of my past articles, you know it works for scales and modes; it works for chords too, and that's what we'll look at now. By the end of this article, you should be able to drastically expand your chord vocabulary.
Let's start with the following; these you'll need to memorize. Note that when I say "flat the..." I mean "drop it a half step (or one fret)", and when I say "sharp the..." I mean "raise it a half step (or one fret)". So flatting something twice would be a whole step (two half steps, or two frets).
For now, let's stick to expanding into all 7th chords. Extended chords (9, 11, 13), 6 and Sus chords, will come in a later article. Believe it or not, they're pretty easy as well if you know a couple of simple rules, but 7th chords are the reference for pretty much all advanced chord voicings, so let's make sure you know all about that first. Also, I'll assume you know how to play your basic plain-old major and minor chords well enough; we won't cover them here.
- Major 7th chords are built on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th notes of a given major scale. So, Cmaj7 = C E G B.
- To make that major 7th chord dominant (blues), you flat the 7th. So, C7 = C E G Bb.
- To make that major 7th chord minor, you flat the 3rd and 7th. So, Cmin7 = C Eb G Bb.
- To make that major 7th chord half diminished (also called "min7b5"), you flat the 3rd, 5th, and 7th. So, Cmin7b5 = C Eb Gb Bb. This is a very important chord that, surprisingly, many guitar players, even good ones, don't know.
- To make that major 7th chord fully diminished (also called "diminished"), you flat the 3rd, 5th as before, but flat the 7th twice. So, Cdim = C Eb Gb Bbb (notice the "flat flat" on the B). You may be wondering what "half dim" vs. "dim" is all about; that's a good observation, and has to do with the order of intervals in the chord; don't worry about it for now.
- To make that major 7th chord augmented, you sharp the fifth. So, C E G# B.
More simply:
aug7 = 1 3 #5 7
maj7 = 1 3 5 7
dom7 (or just "7") = 1 3 5 b7
min7 = 1 b3 5 b7
min7b5 = 1 b3 b5 b7
dim7 = 1 b3 b5 bb7
If you're thinking, "so all I need to do is memorize "aug, maj7, dom7, min7, min7b5, dim7", and what notes are flatted from one to the next", then you get it; it's that easy. As far as fingering them, the below tips are important:
- Practically in day-to-day use, all chords can be played on the top four strings (so the D, G, B, E strings). This is in fact frequently preferable, as the bass will hold the low end. Sure, ultimately you should know all chords on any combination of strings, but as a starting point, you can't go wrong this way. However, make sure you ONLY play those four strings. A stray tone can totally break your chord.
- Just because a note "number" is a higher than another DOES NOT MEAN THE NOTE MUST BE HIGHER THAN ALL THE REST IN THE CHORD. In other words, the 7th does not need to be a higher register/pitch than the rest of the chords and so on. You'll see this work later. I was confused about this when I started learning theory, because I studied for a while with a piano teacher. If you are in the same boat, jump out of it and get into the guitar one.
- Chords notes don't have to be played in the order you may write down on paper; keep reading, you'll see what I mean.
So, let's use it. For reference, I start with the easiest thing to finger on the top four strings, which is a min7 chord; you may think "start with major 7", but meh, this is easier to me. Let's do Cmin7; you just lay one finger across all four strings at the 8th fret. You probably already know this chord already.
Do it, and look at the notes (the top number is the fret, the numbers to the left of the notes are the note number, and "R" means "root"). Sure enough, as described earlier, you have a Cmin7 chord.
---8
R - C
5 - G
3 - Eb
7 - Bb
Interesting; they don't appear in the order you'd expect on paper (C Eb G Bb). That's ok; this gets into inversions and such, don't worry about it for now (though inversions are important). They don't have to be in the "straight" order, they just have to represent all the notes you need to make the chord "sound" right. Also notice that the Bb note is "lower" than the root, even though it's the 7th; again, the "height" or "register" of a tone isn't the key factor in playing it (in advanced harmony, this isn't always true, but for day-to-day it's true enough).
So...ok. From the formulas earlier, we know:
"- To make that major 7th chord minor, you flat the 3rd and 7th. So, C Eb G Bb."
This means that we started with a maj7 chord, but flatted the 3rd and 7th to get a minor one. So to get a maj7, we reverse the process; raise the 3rd and the 7th of the min7 chord a half step (so they are now on the 9th fret).
---8
R - C
5 - G
3 - x E
7 - x B
That's it...you have converted the min7 to maj7. You're now playing Cmaj7.
Now that we know how to get to our maj7 chord, let's convert it to dominant. Again, we know:
"- To make that major 7th chord dominant (blues), you flat the 7th. So, C E G Bb."
So, starting with the Cmaj7 chord, let's apply the formula...
---8
R - C
5 - G
3 - x E
7 - Bb
That's it; you're now playing C7 (note that, when you see a 7, 9, 11, or 13 on a chord, but no "maj" or "min", that means it's a dominant chord).
Moving along; let's make this a Cmin7b5. Start with the Cmaj7 again, and apply the formula:
"- To make that major 7th chord half diminished (also called "min7b5"), you flat the 3rd, 5th, and 7th."
---7
R - x C
5 - Gb
3 - x Eb
7 - x Bb
There you have it; you are now playing a Cmin7b5 (uncommonly called "half diminished"), a VERY important jazz chord that can even be used to spice up some blues numbers here and there. You can also look at this as "start with a Cmin7 (which already has the 3rd and 7th flatted), and flat the 5th".
Now let's do diminished (uncommonly called "fully diminished"). Start with the maj7 chord and apply the formula:
"- To make that major 7th chord fully diminished (also called "diminished"), you flat the 3rd, 5th as before, but flat the 7th twice."
---7
R - x C
5 - Gb
3 - x Eb
7 - Bbb
There you have it; you're now in the "fully diminished" world. Note that saying "flat flat (bb)" is correct; you're supposed to think of it this way. Again, there's a theory reason for it, we'll get into that another day.
On to augmented, again start with Cmaj7, and apply the formula:
"- To make that major 7th chord augmented, you sharp the fifth."
---8
R - C
5 - x G#
3 - x E
7 - x B
There you have it, Cmaj7 aug chord, commonly written as "Cmaj7+" or "Cmaj7#5" chord. You're a crazy jazz cat.
If you've really been thinking about what's going on here, you may have noticed that, just by knowing where to finger a min7 chord, which is easy, you don't have to know the notes you're playing. Just be knowing that, when played on the top four strings, that the root is on the first string, the 5th on the second, the 3rd on the third string, and the 7th on the fourth, and knowing what notes to flat to get to your desired chord, you can build these chords anywhere.
Bbmin7b5 used to look intimidating; now you know, lay your finger across the top four strings on the sixth fret; this is Bbmin7. Flat the 5th (which is "whatever note I'm playing on second string"), and you are playing that scary looking chord. Get really snooty and say, "ah, the half diminished chord". Juliard, Berkley, eat my dust.
This concludes the article, but I'll give some extra here, because it's so important:
Just in case it didn't sink in yet:
- KNOW THE CHORD TONES WHEN FINGERING A CHORD. IT'S THE PRACTICAL KEY TO KNOWING ALL CHORDS EVERYWHERE, EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWING THE NOTES.
Take the formulas given before, and try it anywhere you know how to finger a maj7 or min7 chord, whether or not it's on the top four strings. Let's look at Cmin7, played at the third fret. Again, we'll stick to four strings (and again, for these exercises, ONLY play those four strings);
---3
3 - x Eb
7 - Bb
5 - x x G
R - C
The order of chord tones has changed; the root is now on the fifth string, the 5th on the fourth string, the 7th on the third string, and the 3rd on the second string (so you're using the "middle" four strings).
Well, you know that to get to a maj7, you will have to sharp the 3rd and 7th.
---3
3 - x x E
7 - x B
5 - x x G
R - C
There you have it; Cmaj7.
Let's get out there and try Cmin7b5 this way; convert the maj7 (so starting with the maj7, flat the 3rd, 5th and 7th, or just start with the min7 chord and flat the 5th) and you get:
---3
3 - x Eb
7 - Bb
5 - x Gb
R - C
Blammo; you're playing a nice, rich sounding Cmin7b5. Compare it to the one on the top strings you learned before; note that they're the same chord, but you can imagine using one sometimes, and the other sometimes. You may play the Cmin7b5 on the top four strings, but the vocalist may say "I'm hitting the upper registers, can you play a different voicing?". Sure...I'll play this one on the middle four strings, I know how to do that easily enough now. Sure, they may get picky...no, play THIS exotic one. But at least you showed up knowing what the chord is, and you can play it a couple of different ways, which will usually do the job nicely.
So, applying the formulas to the chords based on where the tones are in the chord, you can build any 7th chord, anywhere, on the neck. It works for extensions and such too, like 9th and 11th chords, but there are a couple of other rules to know to build those properly; material for another article.
Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.
Erm...I dont know that one. You fiddle around with a chord you know that has the root, and in the end wind up saying, "sorry man I don't know it, let's do a blues jam." The other guy sighs and says sure, or starts showing you the fingering, which you try to get right but struggle with...
...so you go home, and once again break out that chord book, saying, "this time I'm going to memorize ALL of them in one key, which will show me the fingerings in all keys, I just have to move them up and down the neck."
The thought is right; you're trying to find a core position that you can use to play all your chords in relation to. "A major is here at the second fret, if I slide it up two frets it's B major..." and so on. You play those great chords, memorizing all those fingerings in one night, and man they sound great; pretty, expansive, "advanced" tones shimmer from the wood; now THIS is what it's all about.
Unfortunately, it won't work, because you don't use all the chords all the time. You may pick up one or two chords from the exercise, but in the end, you're trying to retain too much information. You'll go back to that party next year and once again end up doing a blues jam.
Not to fear, Fretboard Framework to the rescue. As always, the Fretboard Framework is about starting points; memorize the core idea and use it as a reference to build more advanced patterns and voicings. If you've read some of my past articles, you know it works for scales and modes; it works for chords too, and that's what we'll look at now. By the end of this article, you should be able to drastically expand your chord vocabulary.
Let's start with the following; these you'll need to memorize. Note that when I say "flat the..." I mean "drop it a half step (or one fret)", and when I say "sharp the..." I mean "raise it a half step (or one fret)". So flatting something twice would be a whole step (two half steps, or two frets).
For now, let's stick to expanding into all 7th chords. Extended chords (9, 11, 13), 6 and Sus chords, will come in a later article. Believe it or not, they're pretty easy as well if you know a couple of simple rules, but 7th chords are the reference for pretty much all advanced chord voicings, so let's make sure you know all about that first. Also, I'll assume you know how to play your basic plain-old major and minor chords well enough; we won't cover them here.
- Major 7th chords are built on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th notes of a given major scale. So, Cmaj7 = C E G B.
- To make that major 7th chord dominant (blues), you flat the 7th. So, C7 = C E G Bb.
- To make that major 7th chord minor, you flat the 3rd and 7th. So, Cmin7 = C Eb G Bb.
- To make that major 7th chord half diminished (also called "min7b5"), you flat the 3rd, 5th, and 7th. So, Cmin7b5 = C Eb Gb Bb. This is a very important chord that, surprisingly, many guitar players, even good ones, don't know.
- To make that major 7th chord fully diminished (also called "diminished"), you flat the 3rd, 5th as before, but flat the 7th twice. So, Cdim = C Eb Gb Bbb (notice the "flat flat" on the B). You may be wondering what "half dim" vs. "dim" is all about; that's a good observation, and has to do with the order of intervals in the chord; don't worry about it for now.
- To make that major 7th chord augmented, you sharp the fifth. So, C E G# B.
More simply:
aug7 = 1 3 #5 7
maj7 = 1 3 5 7
dom7 (or just "7") = 1 3 5 b7
min7 = 1 b3 5 b7
min7b5 = 1 b3 b5 b7
dim7 = 1 b3 b5 bb7
If you're thinking, "so all I need to do is memorize "aug, maj7, dom7, min7, min7b5, dim7", and what notes are flatted from one to the next", then you get it; it's that easy. As far as fingering them, the below tips are important:
- Practically in day-to-day use, all chords can be played on the top four strings (so the D, G, B, E strings). This is in fact frequently preferable, as the bass will hold the low end. Sure, ultimately you should know all chords on any combination of strings, but as a starting point, you can't go wrong this way. However, make sure you ONLY play those four strings. A stray tone can totally break your chord.
- Just because a note "number" is a higher than another DOES NOT MEAN THE NOTE MUST BE HIGHER THAN ALL THE REST IN THE CHORD. In other words, the 7th does not need to be a higher register/pitch than the rest of the chords and so on. You'll see this work later. I was confused about this when I started learning theory, because I studied for a while with a piano teacher. If you are in the same boat, jump out of it and get into the guitar one.
- Chords notes don't have to be played in the order you may write down on paper; keep reading, you'll see what I mean.
So, let's use it. For reference, I start with the easiest thing to finger on the top four strings, which is a min7 chord; you may think "start with major 7", but meh, this is easier to me. Let's do Cmin7; you just lay one finger across all four strings at the 8th fret. You probably already know this chord already.
Do it, and look at the notes (the top number is the fret, the numbers to the left of the notes are the note number, and "R" means "root"). Sure enough, as described earlier, you have a Cmin7 chord.
---8
R - C
5 - G
3 - Eb
7 - Bb
Interesting; they don't appear in the order you'd expect on paper (C Eb G Bb). That's ok; this gets into inversions and such, don't worry about it for now (though inversions are important). They don't have to be in the "straight" order, they just have to represent all the notes you need to make the chord "sound" right. Also notice that the Bb note is "lower" than the root, even though it's the 7th; again, the "height" or "register" of a tone isn't the key factor in playing it (in advanced harmony, this isn't always true, but for day-to-day it's true enough).
So...ok. From the formulas earlier, we know:
"- To make that major 7th chord minor, you flat the 3rd and 7th. So, C Eb G Bb."
This means that we started with a maj7 chord, but flatted the 3rd and 7th to get a minor one. So to get a maj7, we reverse the process; raise the 3rd and the 7th of the min7 chord a half step (so they are now on the 9th fret).
---8
R - C
5 - G
3 - x E
7 - x B
That's it...you have converted the min7 to maj7. You're now playing Cmaj7.
Now that we know how to get to our maj7 chord, let's convert it to dominant. Again, we know:
"- To make that major 7th chord dominant (blues), you flat the 7th. So, C E G Bb."
So, starting with the Cmaj7 chord, let's apply the formula...
---8
R - C
5 - G
3 - x E
7 - Bb
That's it; you're now playing C7 (note that, when you see a 7, 9, 11, or 13 on a chord, but no "maj" or "min", that means it's a dominant chord).
Moving along; let's make this a Cmin7b5. Start with the Cmaj7 again, and apply the formula:
"- To make that major 7th chord half diminished (also called "min7b5"), you flat the 3rd, 5th, and 7th."
---7
R - x C
5 - Gb
3 - x Eb
7 - x Bb
There you have it; you are now playing a Cmin7b5 (uncommonly called "half diminished"), a VERY important jazz chord that can even be used to spice up some blues numbers here and there. You can also look at this as "start with a Cmin7 (which already has the 3rd and 7th flatted), and flat the 5th".
Now let's do diminished (uncommonly called "fully diminished"). Start with the maj7 chord and apply the formula:
"- To make that major 7th chord fully diminished (also called "diminished"), you flat the 3rd, 5th as before, but flat the 7th twice."
---7
R - x C
5 - Gb
3 - x Eb
7 - Bbb
There you have it; you're now in the "fully diminished" world. Note that saying "flat flat (bb)" is correct; you're supposed to think of it this way. Again, there's a theory reason for it, we'll get into that another day.
On to augmented, again start with Cmaj7, and apply the formula:
"- To make that major 7th chord augmented, you sharp the fifth."
---8
R - C
5 - x G#
3 - x E
7 - x B
There you have it, Cmaj7 aug chord, commonly written as "Cmaj7+" or "Cmaj7#5" chord. You're a crazy jazz cat.
If you've really been thinking about what's going on here, you may have noticed that, just by knowing where to finger a min7 chord, which is easy, you don't have to know the notes you're playing. Just be knowing that, when played on the top four strings, that the root is on the first string, the 5th on the second, the 3rd on the third string, and the 7th on the fourth, and knowing what notes to flat to get to your desired chord, you can build these chords anywhere.
Bbmin7b5 used to look intimidating; now you know, lay your finger across the top four strings on the sixth fret; this is Bbmin7. Flat the 5th (which is "whatever note I'm playing on second string"), and you are playing that scary looking chord. Get really snooty and say, "ah, the half diminished chord". Juliard, Berkley, eat my dust.
This concludes the article, but I'll give some extra here, because it's so important:
Just in case it didn't sink in yet:
- KNOW THE CHORD TONES WHEN FINGERING A CHORD. IT'S THE PRACTICAL KEY TO KNOWING ALL CHORDS EVERYWHERE, EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWING THE NOTES.
Take the formulas given before, and try it anywhere you know how to finger a maj7 or min7 chord, whether or not it's on the top four strings. Let's look at Cmin7, played at the third fret. Again, we'll stick to four strings (and again, for these exercises, ONLY play those four strings);
---3
3 - x Eb
7 - Bb
5 - x x G
R - C
The order of chord tones has changed; the root is now on the fifth string, the 5th on the fourth string, the 7th on the third string, and the 3rd on the second string (so you're using the "middle" four strings).
Well, you know that to get to a maj7, you will have to sharp the 3rd and 7th.
---3
3 - x x E
7 - x B
5 - x x G
R - C
There you have it; Cmaj7.
Let's get out there and try Cmin7b5 this way; convert the maj7 (so starting with the maj7, flat the 3rd, 5th and 7th, or just start with the min7 chord and flat the 5th) and you get:
---3
3 - x Eb
7 - Bb
5 - x Gb
R - C
Blammo; you're playing a nice, rich sounding Cmin7b5. Compare it to the one on the top strings you learned before; note that they're the same chord, but you can imagine using one sometimes, and the other sometimes. You may play the Cmin7b5 on the top four strings, but the vocalist may say "I'm hitting the upper registers, can you play a different voicing?". Sure...I'll play this one on the middle four strings, I know how to do that easily enough now. Sure, they may get picky...no, play THIS exotic one. But at least you showed up knowing what the chord is, and you can play it a couple of different ways, which will usually do the job nicely.
So, applying the formulas to the chords based on where the tones are in the chord, you can build any 7th chord, anywhere, on the neck. It works for extensions and such too, like 9th and 11th chords, but there are a couple of other rules to know to build those properly; material for another article.
Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The POG2 (Electro Harmonix)
If you know the kind of guitar player I am, you'd probably be surprised to hear that one of the acts I'm working with these days is using me as a rhythm and acoustic player. You'd probably be further surprised to hear that it's a Led Zeppelin cover band. Is it going to go anywhere, I don't know, but it's good practice and shows promise, and besides, there's nothing wrong with killing a couple of hours in a studio on a weekday night.
One of the songs we targeted is "Since I Been Lovin' You". The lead guitar player is a total Jimmy Page disciple--in fact, it seems to be more or less all he's really interested in playing--so the song lets him showcase. The singer can pull it off, which is enough of a reason to hang in there and see where it goes, and of course if we actually can nail it in front of a crowd, it'll probably land well.
But...we don't have a keyboard player. So the guys were a little tentative when the lead guy pushed to get the song on the list. I understood the hesitation; if you listen to the song, there's no rhythm guitar, it's all keyboard swells and fills, and without them, the song would probably still work, but it wouldn't be the whole pig.
I'd actually been working on my synth/octave sounds recently, and had achieved some organ-like effects, and was looking at some other devices, in particular, the POG2, or "Polyphonic Octave Generator" from Electro Harmonix; it's brand new, and is an upgrade to their previous POG. I couldn't find it anywhere though, I'd only seen demos online, so figured "sooner or later", but I believed it was now my best chance to fill the keyboard void in this song.
I'm pretty heavily invested in Line 6 stuff; I've got a GuitarPort (if you don't have one and you're a guitar player, for shame, it's 80 bucks and, coupled with a GuitarPort Online seven dollar a month membership fee and a computer, is easily one of the best play-along, sound experimentation, learning tools ever made), a PodX3 (the BIG, BIG pro brother to the GuitarPort) for recording and sometimes stage work, and an M13 Stompbox Modeler for stage.
With all that digital wizardry, you'd figure I could get that organ sound; Line 6 offers a variety of octave, synth, etc. effects that I can mix and match pretty much any way I want. But, no; I tried and tried. I couldn't get the sound I wanted, simple though it may seem. Line 6 makes great distortion and time based effects, but IMHO, their octave stuff isn't really that strong.
I called the guys at Sweetwater (they're great, I mean they actually place follow up calls just to see "how it's going"), and inquired about the POG2; they said it was shipping in a few days, so I could reserve one, they'd send it to me, etc. It wouldn't make it in time for rehearsal though...hmm.
Suddenly the guy says, "well, you saw our online demo right? I could sell you that unit. It's been used only a couple of times and is in mint condition. We'll sell it with the full warranty, yada yada."
I did it; the pedal came the next day via overnight delivery. Man, am I glad I made that call.
In a couple of hours, I knew my way around this amazing device, and with some experimentation, got it up and running to do exactly what I wanted. It's got a dry sound level, -2, -1, +1, +2 octave volume settings, four Q settings, and three filters; Low Pass, Attack, and Detune. The Attack filter was of great interest to me; you can keep your dry signal strong, but set the attack filter to fade in to your sound, giving, at high settings, "ghost on drugs" swells, and at low settings, a very Holdsworth-like "I can't hear his pick" attack sound; it's also perfect for that Andy Summers-ish delayed attack thing. It's true bypass and such, so signal degradation isn't a serious consideration.
Anyway, my settings for the organ sound are a light -2 octave, pronounced -1 and +1 octave, and a semi-pronounced +2 octave, with no Q, a slight attack setting for a quick initial swell without losing the ability to "hit" a chord, no low pass, and no detune. I also run it in front of (on the M13) a lightly set Opto Trem for that organ tremolo effect, and a pretty "hall" reverb sound (though not exaggerated at all, just enough to fill it up a little). You can save eight presets on the POG2, and toggle them with a footswitch, so I saved everything and called it a night.
Note that I'm not mentioning what amp I use, because these days, I'm playing here, there, everywhere; I can't count on the amp for reverb or distortion. My personal amps are Marshalls (I'm looking at the new Vintage line in fact), but when you play in studios or a club, you have to use the backline, so one day it could be a Marshall, one day a Fender, one day a Bogner, one day a Mesa Boogie, or one day some piece of junk somebody kicked a lot. Bottom line, if all you need is a clean channel, and you otherwise walk in with your sound, you can stay consistent pretty much anywhere.
Anyway, I was pleased with the result of my M13/POG2 combo, so I brought it to practice and kicked on the preset I mentioned previously. The band mumbled a little about a keyboard player again, but when I started riffing a little to check my level, they were like...
"WTF IS THAT?!?!?"
I told them what I worked up for the rehearsal, and they immediately wanted to play the formerly maybe/maybe not "Since I Been' Lovin' You". I'd worked out a lot of the important keyboard fills and such, and they were completely blown away; all hesitation was gone. The singer went on and on about how he could finally "hear" the song, and so forth. It also opens up other possibilities; "Your Time is Gonna Come" for instance.
Aside from that though, I've set up some other octave/swell settings that are far more subtle than an organ (or are just really pure octave effects), and am pretty confident when I say that there is nothing else I've found that comes close to the quality of this pedal. It's really pretty much just amazing.
Maybe some day you'll hear me use it. If you play and have any interest at all in octave effects, GET THIS PEDAL.
As always, thanks for visiting.
One of the songs we targeted is "Since I Been Lovin' You". The lead guitar player is a total Jimmy Page disciple--in fact, it seems to be more or less all he's really interested in playing--so the song lets him showcase. The singer can pull it off, which is enough of a reason to hang in there and see where it goes, and of course if we actually can nail it in front of a crowd, it'll probably land well.
But...we don't have a keyboard player. So the guys were a little tentative when the lead guy pushed to get the song on the list. I understood the hesitation; if you listen to the song, there's no rhythm guitar, it's all keyboard swells and fills, and without them, the song would probably still work, but it wouldn't be the whole pig.
I'd actually been working on my synth/octave sounds recently, and had achieved some organ-like effects, and was looking at some other devices, in particular, the POG2, or "Polyphonic Octave Generator" from Electro Harmonix; it's brand new, and is an upgrade to their previous POG. I couldn't find it anywhere though, I'd only seen demos online, so figured "sooner or later", but I believed it was now my best chance to fill the keyboard void in this song.
I'm pretty heavily invested in Line 6 stuff; I've got a GuitarPort (if you don't have one and you're a guitar player, for shame, it's 80 bucks and, coupled with a GuitarPort Online seven dollar a month membership fee and a computer, is easily one of the best play-along, sound experimentation, learning tools ever made), a PodX3 (the BIG, BIG pro brother to the GuitarPort) for recording and sometimes stage work, and an M13 Stompbox Modeler for stage.
With all that digital wizardry, you'd figure I could get that organ sound; Line 6 offers a variety of octave, synth, etc. effects that I can mix and match pretty much any way I want. But, no; I tried and tried. I couldn't get the sound I wanted, simple though it may seem. Line 6 makes great distortion and time based effects, but IMHO, their octave stuff isn't really that strong.
I called the guys at Sweetwater (they're great, I mean they actually place follow up calls just to see "how it's going"), and inquired about the POG2; they said it was shipping in a few days, so I could reserve one, they'd send it to me, etc. It wouldn't make it in time for rehearsal though...hmm.
Suddenly the guy says, "well, you saw our online demo right? I could sell you that unit. It's been used only a couple of times and is in mint condition. We'll sell it with the full warranty, yada yada."
I did it; the pedal came the next day via overnight delivery. Man, am I glad I made that call.
In a couple of hours, I knew my way around this amazing device, and with some experimentation, got it up and running to do exactly what I wanted. It's got a dry sound level, -2, -1, +1, +2 octave volume settings, four Q settings, and three filters; Low Pass, Attack, and Detune. The Attack filter was of great interest to me; you can keep your dry signal strong, but set the attack filter to fade in to your sound, giving, at high settings, "ghost on drugs" swells, and at low settings, a very Holdsworth-like "I can't hear his pick" attack sound; it's also perfect for that Andy Summers-ish delayed attack thing. It's true bypass and such, so signal degradation isn't a serious consideration.
Anyway, my settings for the organ sound are a light -2 octave, pronounced -1 and +1 octave, and a semi-pronounced +2 octave, with no Q, a slight attack setting for a quick initial swell without losing the ability to "hit" a chord, no low pass, and no detune. I also run it in front of (on the M13) a lightly set Opto Trem for that organ tremolo effect, and a pretty "hall" reverb sound (though not exaggerated at all, just enough to fill it up a little). You can save eight presets on the POG2, and toggle them with a footswitch, so I saved everything and called it a night.
Note that I'm not mentioning what amp I use, because these days, I'm playing here, there, everywhere; I can't count on the amp for reverb or distortion. My personal amps are Marshalls (I'm looking at the new Vintage line in fact), but when you play in studios or a club, you have to use the backline, so one day it could be a Marshall, one day a Fender, one day a Bogner, one day a Mesa Boogie, or one day some piece of junk somebody kicked a lot. Bottom line, if all you need is a clean channel, and you otherwise walk in with your sound, you can stay consistent pretty much anywhere.
Anyway, I was pleased with the result of my M13/POG2 combo, so I brought it to practice and kicked on the preset I mentioned previously. The band mumbled a little about a keyboard player again, but when I started riffing a little to check my level, they were like...
"WTF IS THAT?!?!?"
I told them what I worked up for the rehearsal, and they immediately wanted to play the formerly maybe/maybe not "Since I Been' Lovin' You". I'd worked out a lot of the important keyboard fills and such, and they were completely blown away; all hesitation was gone. The singer went on and on about how he could finally "hear" the song, and so forth. It also opens up other possibilities; "Your Time is Gonna Come" for instance.
Aside from that though, I've set up some other octave/swell settings that are far more subtle than an organ (or are just really pure octave effects), and am pretty confident when I say that there is nothing else I've found that comes close to the quality of this pedal. It's really pretty much just amazing.
Maybe some day you'll hear me use it. If you play and have any interest at all in octave effects, GET THIS PEDAL.
As always, thanks for visiting.
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