In this section I’d like to offer some insights to guitar playing. These insights will be very definite shortcuts to becoming a better, more efficient guitarist.
I’ve been helping serious students understand guitar playing for over fifteen years now. My guitar teaching business is called NAVIGATOR MUSIC, and you can find out more about that by visiting WHOLE NOTE TEACHERS.
My students cover the full range of guitar playing situations – from complete beginners to very advanced professional players and teachers. Country, folk, rock, classical, metal, jazz, fusion, reggae, funk, punk – you name it, I’ve taught it. At one point I was teaching seventy individual students each week. This was too many, but I still teach quite a few. The reason I cover so many styles of playing is not so much that I am so skilled (I wish!), but that I have, at some point, made a living from playing these styles. I know the mechanics of them, and how to make them work convincingly in a performance situation.
At one point when working in Sydney I was in my agent’s book as a “Panic Guitarist”. Panic Guitarists are a bit like live session players. Each week I would make my phone call and be told “OK – Wednesday it’s a country gig, Thursday it’s the Blues, Friday a metal gig, and Saturday its cocktails in a Chinese restaurant”. These were performances with bands whose regular guitarists were unavailable, due to illness, accidents, or whatever. In my cupboard I had the check shirt, the black t-shirt, the tux, etc.
How do you define success? Is it the million selling CD? Is it having fun with some friends on a Sunday afternoon, jamming over some old tunes and some cold beers in the garage? Ritchie Blackmore said that to be SUCCESSFUL in music, you have to be a good musician, while to be POPULAR, you just have to be fashionable. So how does one become a good musician?
One of the things I’ve noticed over the years is that there are patterns to be seen. There are things the good, successful guitarists do, and there are things they don’t do. The most important and consistent thing is that the good guitarists PRACTICE. By practice, I don’t mean that they sit and play their favorite tunes for ten minutes a week. I mean that they have a regular, consistent PRACTICE SCHEDULE. A Practice Schedule can be defined as “A Program of Maintenance and Improvement”. A Practice Schedule is NOT rehearsal. So, lets talk about Practice Schedules.
A Practice Schedule (PS) can be put into three areas: What you know, what you want to know, and what you need to know. The first step is to think about, or better still, write down, what you know already in regards to playing the guitar. Lets consider that you might be an aspiring rock/pop/metal guitarist. For example, you might say that you have a working knowledge of:
1 Open position chords
2 Five different bar chord shapes at each fret
3 Power chords from root 6 (Root note on the 6th string) and root 5 (5th
string)
4 Some Major and Minor Pentatonic scales
This is a reasonable place to be. It means that you can play along with a lot of popular music, probably figure out quite a few of the solos, and maybe even compose your own tunes. The second step is “What do you want to know?” Many players will say that they want to know how to play faster, how to figure out other player’s solos, and how to play better chords and rhythms. So, the big question is, what do you need to do this? Here is a list of some basic things that either you can learn now and move on, or learn later and wish that you’d learnt them now, or not learn at all – this is your choice as an artist. But, as an aspiring semi-pro or professional guitarist (who’s career extends beyond this month’s fashion), you at least need to know:
1 The names of all the notes on the 6th and 5th strings, and,
eventually, all the notes on the fretboard. This means knowing them cold. Have a friend test you – “third string 10th fret?” or “G# on the 6th, 5th,
4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings?” – how long does it take you?
2 At least nine “basic” chord shapes at each fret – major, minor, and
dominant.
3 Five positions to play the major scale.
4 A basic understanding of the harmonized major scale.
5 Six arpeggios – root 6 and 5 major, minor, and dominant.
6 Knowledge of economy, alternate, and sweep picking.
This would be a great place to be. It would really improve your soloing, both in your own improvising, and in figuring out other player’s solos. You’d have a better knowledge of chords and how they work (there are other chords besides power chords!), your composing would improve, you’d be able to play beyond your present musical imagination, and you’d be able to go to other resources (musical instruments and styles) for inspiration.
THE PRACTICE SCHEDULE.
A PS should be done at least four days a week, preferably seven days a week. There is, however, life beyond music (important). These are some things to do before you start:
Find a time where you have a spare one or two hours each day.
Find a place where you can work uninterrupted.
Do the things that might make you stop first (go to the bathroom, make a
phone call, get a cup of coffee, etc.).
Time yourself so that you can see improvement over time, and fit new
techniques into the schedule.
Don’t allow distractions.
Don’t stop playing for more than two minutes.
Be disciplined. This is work – this is where you say, “This is what it
is worth to me to be a better player”.
Have some sort of recording capability readily available.
My Practice Schedule looks like this (sort of):
1. I Major (Ionian) scales built from the root (root position) descending through all keys four times each. Ascending through all keys twice each.
2. II Minor (Dorian) same.
3. Ditto for III Minor, IV Major, V Dominant, VI Minor, and VII min7b5
(for those of you unfamiliar with these terms, check out my article “Modes
- How to Identify and Eradicate” at Improvise.com.au)
4. Melodic, Harmonic, Diminished, Whole Tone scales
5. Major9, Minor9, Dominant and Altered Dominant arpeggios from Root6,
Root 5, and Root 4, through all keys.
6. Triadic arpeggios – I Major, IV Major with added fourths. II Minor,
VI Minor, VII minor b5, Diminished, Melodic and Harmonic minor.
7. Mordents including Pedal points and string skipping.
8. Six, five, four, three, and two string sweep picking patterns
(Major, minor, dominant, and altered arpeggios)
9. Extended arpeggios
10. Extended scales, and segments, with alternate and legato picking.
11. Improvisation and application of specific ideas over trial chord
progressions (record some progressions).
12. Composing.
That is a summary of what I do at least four days a week. I make sure that I am also practicing the appropriate pick technique as it varies depending on what is being played. The whole PS takes about two and a half hours.
The big secret regarding the PS is this: Always name what you’re doing. Be thinking about the root note, major, minor, or dominant tonality, etc. I call this “tagging”, and it works like this: Imagine your name is ‘John’ for example. If someone asks you to write your name, you don’t say “Ok, let’s see – a J goes like this, and O sort of is like this…” (I hope not). As fast as you think the word ‘John”, your hand has done it. Tagging creates the same reflex response. By thinking ‘G I major scale’ as you play it, eventually by simply thinking ‘G I major” your hands will have all the notes under them with no effort. After then, you simply do something with it! If you have to think of where the next note is, or which finger goes where, there is no possible way you can use the scale (or whatever) constructively. I guess this is a bit like self-hypnosis. I find it does work well. I used to play games where I would read out loud from a book while friends asked me to play various things. The test was to not stumble in the reading while someone said “A minor 9 arpeggio!”
As time goes by, I’ll be setting up a question and answer section for guitarists on this site. I’ll try and give a reasonably helpful answer to all, or at least direct queries to a helpful source. For the time being, though........
Here are some of the more common questions I get asked.
Q. Do I need to learn to read music?
A. The short answer is ‘No’. There are heaps of great players who can’t read music. The long answer, is ‘No, but it can really help, so give it a go’. Also, don’t believe everything you read in the guitar magazines. Many players who say they don’t read, in fact DO, and many players who say they don’t read mean ‘I don’t read WELL’, which is a different thing, isn’t it? A little bit of reading skills will go a long way. Also, I’ve yet to see tablature for piano, or saxophone, and if those nerds can learn to read, what’s wrong us guitarists? If you do find yourself in a music reading situation, watch out for the players who say “My reading sucks!” They are usually very good. Conversely, watch out for those who say, “Yeah, I’m a great reader, man!” They are usually awful readers. You may also find yourself in the situation where, when applying for an audition, you will be asked if you read. This is code for “Are you a serious musician?” What will you say? (This apparently happened to George Lynch with his audition for Ozzy Osbourne. He said ‘Yes’, and taught himself the fundamentals on the plane trip to the audition).
Q. How long will it be before I can play the guitar really fast?
A. The short answer – I don’t know, but it won’t happen quickly (unless you’re talking about playing the guitar really fast BADLY!). It’s up to you. The long answer: Trying to get speed up on the guitar can be so frustrating, especially these days with so many fast players taunting us from videos and CDs. Speed is not easy. Firstly, make sure you know what pick technique is needed for the specific lick, as this varies, and speed usually is a pick technique more so than a fretting technique. You choices are Alternate, Economy, and Sweep picking. Secondly, make sure that you have the best position on the fretboard to play the lick. This is one of the problems with reading Tablature. Some of the positions I’ve seen transcribed for stuff have been totally wrong, and impossible to play at the desired speed. Move the lick around and see if there is an easier place to play it. Thirdly, make sure you are using the optimum fingering for it. Many players still use only three fingers for fretting. Nothing wrong with this, but four is much easier in the long run. Fourthly, practice the lick slowly. Include maybe ten minutes in your Practice Schedule for this. Be aware of your ‘Mistake Threshold’ – how fast can you go before a mistake happens – and always practice within it. When a mistake happens, analyse it – was it a right hand or left hand mistake? I’ve seen many players working on their fretting hand like crazy, when their picking is where the problem is. The reverse, also.
Q. I have a chord progression that goes A5 – D5 – G5 – E5. What would be some good solo ideas?
A. Those of you who have read the section called “Performance Notes”, and also my article at www.improvise.com.au will have a bit of an idea of where I’m coming from here. A highly important conceptual idea here is this: chord progressions move from left to right (event sequence), but we analyse them from Right to Left (logic sequence). It took me years to see this, but it makes chord progression analysis so much easier. The basic thing here is that the A Blues scale, the first scale that many guitarists learn will work reasonably well, but it will sound a bit dated over this progression. Attitude will help sell it – whammy bar, harmonics, angry expression, etc. The reason? – take a look at the notes of these chords (this is why its important to know all the notes on the fretboard). A5 is A and E, D5 is D, and A. G5 is G and D, and E5 is E, and B. This makes a scale (sort of) of A B D E G. One of the A blues scales is A B C D E G A. So most of the notes of these chords are in this progression. This is the fundamental reason why scales work over chords – the chords have the notes of the scales in them. The conceptual thing to get a handle on here is this: Firstly, chords work in keys – keys are the realization of scales. You don’t play scales over chords – you play scales over KEYS, indicated by chords. Secondly, voicing (how you play a chord) does not necessarily show what the true chord is. Let’s move it up a level.
If you know some basic stuff about Chord Function, you’ll know that chord progressions that make sense to the ear (they sound good) often come from a selection of chord families – keys – scales. The formulae for the major scale Chord Function is this:
I Major II Minor III minor IV Major V7 VI Minor VII min7b5.
So the C Major Chord Function looks like this:
C maj D min E min F maj G7 A min B min7b5.
So we see that our original progression of A5 – D5 – G5 – E5 is really in the key of C major, and the true chords are A minor– D minor – G dominant – E minor. It could also be in some other keys too, but for now, C major will do fine. In other words, playing in the key of C major will sound fine over this progression. Not only will any C major scale work, but also the arpeggios will work. The A minor arpeggio for the A5, D minor for the D5, etc. But can other keys be used? Let’s move up another level and see.
A5, for the same reasons listed above, might suggest that the A5 is really A dominant, the V7 chord which leads to D in the key of D major, being the next chord. So an A dominant scale, or any D major scale, would be classier here. So now our original progression of:
A5 – D5 – G5 – E5 has a KEY PROGRESSION of:
A5 and D5 = A dominant (K) = D major. G5 = (K) D major. E5 = E minor
(K) C major. Very classy!
There still are quite a few other ways of looking at this progression, but I hope these get you thinking for now.
Please contact me via '[email protected]' for any questions regarding guitarish things – gear, techniques, theory, or whatever. Thanks for visiting, and keep an eye out for future events here on the Current Projects page. Remember that CDs can be purchased from www.abstractlogix.com in the USA, and Vorticity Music in Australia.
Cheers, Clyde Schipke.
