Well the tab site we are trying to use isn't working so I am racking my brain trying to figure out what I can do to make this page cool. This is one of the pages on my website that I had big plans for and I am frustrated that it has not gone the way I would have hoped for. The next two weeks are pretty easy weeks for me starting on Sunday so I am gonna try to figure out what to do to make this section a lot cooler. Thanks for the patience and hopefully within two weeks, this part of the website will be rocking. I will have an annoucement on the main page when this page get overhauled.
I came up with a great way to start make more sense of modes and improvising. Sometimes it's overwhelming to learn the modes but it's important to because you can move around the neck and get out of playing in the box. Starting next week I will have the modes in the key of gmajor up and ways to play the modes so they don't sound so much like scales but more like melodies.
We are still trying to figure out what the deal is with this tab site but I am kicking around another idea to get tab on the site. So for you guitar players that come by this section, have no fear because we will have some tabs up real soon. The lesson for today is to challenge yourself with a lick or exercise that is too tough for you to play. I guarantee by working on this, you will become a better player in areas that you need help in. A great tip for you guys is to by a folder at a grocery store or wal mart and rip out lessons and licks from guitar magazines that you own and put them in this folder. You'll find out you'll have plenty of material to practice when you get in a rut. It's a good way to make your playing a little more organized.
It's been a while for updates because me and RJ are trying to find a tab program that works. Hopefully the next update will include tab. My tip for the week would be to work on trying to incorporate scales with chords. Try using an eminor 7th bar chord and then sneaking in some notes from the B Phrygian scale. I will have tab to explain this further next week but for now give it a shot if you know how to play that chord and scale.
The first lesson will be about how to play over changes. Learning to play over changes is a big part of being a guitar player. Whether is a simple melody line or a full on guitar solo, there is a lot to playing over changes. We are gonna cover this topic quite a bit but I'm gonna take it easy on you guys for your first lesson. I think the most important thing to remember when playing over chord changes is to listen to what you are playing over. A lot of times we tend to just go for it and we don't use a lot of skills/techniques that we have learned. Listen to the progression, figure out the chords you will be playing over and then start to work from there. One thing that tends to help me out is to start from the middle of a scale when I am playing over a progression. The biggest reason for that is if I start from the first note of the scale, I'm probably going to play the second note next and then I sound like I'm playing a scale instead of playing a mel! ody/solo. Try something as simple as that and I bet you will hear a difference in your playing within ten minutes. We will talk more about this subject and what scales to use and what chords you can play them over next lesson. Hopefully by next week we will have some tabs up so you can pick up the lessons a lot quicker. Also the lessons will get longer as the weeks go on, but sometimes they might be short depending on my schedule and gigs. Hope today's lesson helped you out and I will have the Beginner lesson up tomorrow (cross fingers)
Hopefully last lesson gave you some pointers in the right direction when it comes to playing solos. Now it's time to give you an idea on how to put together a chord progression you can solo over and what scales you can use. We'll start today's lesson with a Cmajor scale. C major is an easy key to play in because there are no sharps or flats in the key. The notes of the Cmajor scale are as follows: C,D,E,F,G,A,B, and C. We can build chords with the notes of the Cmajor scale. These chords will work with the Cmajor scale because each chord we use will have only notes from that scale and no other notes. The chords we will build are: Cmj, Dmin, Emin, Fmj, Gmj, Amin, Bmin7flat5, Cmj. You can use those chords in any order and they will sound good together. I like to use roman numerals when talking in keys, it's an easy way to not confuse yourself. There are 8 8 notes in a major scale and I use roman numerals one thru 8 when talking about the notes of the scale! or the chords that go with the notes. So for example if I asked you to play a I, IV, V in the key of Cmajor, you would play a Cmj, Fmj, and a Gmj. You can use the Cmajor scale to solo over any of these changes. Here are the frets for a basic Cmajor scale: 5th string, 3rd fret and 5th fret, fourth string, 2nd fret, 3rd fret, and 5th fret, third string, 2nd fret, 4th fret and 5th fret. Hopefully you caught onto this concept so far, if not re read this lesson plan a couple times over or send me an email and I will answer any questions you might have concerning this lesson or any of the other lessons in this section. Here are a couple of progressions for you. I, VI, V, IV ------ VI, V, IV-------------II, V, I ------------I, VI, IV, V--- Try playing these chord changes and see which ones you like. Next lesson will be on soloing over these changes using some cool scales and adding more interesting chord s substitutions for basic chord changes.