Archive for the “Guitar Lessons” Category

We bought a 1/2 scale electric guitar for Jackson, our oldest son, for Christmas in 2006. He was only 4 years old at the time, so I knew that it was pointless to really work with him on it. Well, he’s 6 now and he has been expressing some interest in playing.

A few days ago, we sat down to have a guitar lesson. We’ve already spent a lot of time working on basic things like holding the guitar, holding the pick, and simple picking. One of his favorite songs is Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream, so I figured we could start with the main riff. Why not?

I don’t remember what key the original song is in, so I decided to go with E minor. This puts the song starting out on the 7th fret on the A string. I’m mostly trying to get him to develop enough strength and dexterity to go back and forth between two notes. In this case, it was the 5th and 7th frets on the A string. It turns out that that was a bit of a stretch for him, so I just asked him to play those two notes up on the high E string. That was much easier to handle.

He’s not extremely patient (what 6 year old is?), so our lesson only lasted about 10 minutes. All in all, he did pretty well. It’s funny to see him concentrating and mumbling things to himself like “let me get this situated…”

I’m looking forward to seeing his progress this summer. I’m hoping to do 2-3 of these mini-lessons each week if he’ll sit through it. He’s a crazy smart little guy, and I think he could make a lot of progress if he wants to. Here’s a picture that Jenny took during our lesson.

Continuing from the last post, we’re going to discuss how to connect pentatonic patterns. Let’s look at the first two patterns: C and A.
 

If you start at the bottom of the C pattern, play all the way to the top. Slide your pinky up two frets, then descend using the A pattern. Look at the tab to see what I mean.

E------------------------7-10/12-10---------------------------------
B-------------------8-10------------12-10---------------------------
G---------------7-9-----------------------12-9----------------------
D-----------7-9--------------------------------12-9-----------------
A------7-10-----------------------------------------12-10-----------
E-7-10----------------------------------------------------12-10\7---

To really get the relationships of these patterns drilled into your head, try isolation two or three strings at a time like this:

E||  --------7-10/12-10---------  ||
B||  --8-10--------------12-10--  ||
G||. --------------------------- .||
D||. --------------------------- .||
A||  ---------------------------  ||
E||  ---------------------------  ||

Practice this pattern repeatedly until you have completely absorbed it, then move on to the B and G strings, then G and D, etc. Before long, you will be able to play the pattern on all six strings ascending or descending.

Use this same technique on the other patterns, pictured below.

Notice that these two sets of scale patterns are identical, even though they are separated by an octave. The first one is in open position, and the second one continues the pattern up the neck.

The 5 pentatonic scale forms fit together like a jigsaw puzzle on the neck of the guitar. Where one form ends, the next one begins. I have created an image to illustrate this point. Click here for a direct link.

This may look kind of crazy if you don’t know what you’re looking at, so it may be easier to take things one step at a time. In the next lesson, I’ll talk about connecting two patterns and shifting between the two.

In my opinion, every guitar player needs to have a working knowledge the CAGED sequence and how it pertains to linking chords and/or scales together. It’s not necessarily about lead guitar. Knowing the CAGED sequence will open up the fretboard and enable you to get past the limits of playing open position and/or barre chords. [Of course, sometimes the best option is to play an open chord, but you shouldn't be limited to those chords.]

This post is going to deal with scale patterns for lead guitar – specifically, we’ll be discussing pentatonic scales. A pentatonic scale consists of 5 different notes. In this exercise, I will arbitrarily choose the key of G major (G A B D E G), and the relative E minor (E G A B D E). Both scales have the same notes; the only difference is where you start and stop.

Let’s jump right in. There are 5 different patterns in the CAGED sequence. The first one is the C shape. In the key of G, this would be in 7th position, meaning your first finger plays on the 7th fret.
 

The next shape is the A shape, and you start out in 10th position. The first note in the pattern should be played by your second finger.

Up next is the G shape, and this one is in 12th position. You could also play this in open position. This is probably the most commonly used pentatonic pattern.

The E shape is next, and you can either play this in 2nd position or in 14th position. Like we saw in the A shape, your second finger should play the first note.

The last shape is D, and it’s kind of a weird one. There are a couple of ways to play this one, but I would start out in 5th position and just stretch my first finger back to the 4th fret on the G string. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can also try this one up in 17th position.

If you’re totally unfamiliar with these patterns, just start with the first one and play it over and over. Try isolating 2 or 3 strings at a time to facilitate memorization. Try playing sequences, such as up 3, down 1, or just make up your own.

I’ll continue this series over the next few weeks, so make sure to subscribe to my feed if you’re interested.

We’ve played this song a few times in the last couple of months, so I thought I’d share it here.

  1  2  3  4  1  2     3  &  4  &
E------------|--------------------|
B-12-12-12-12|12-12-12------------|
G-15b16-15b16|15b16-15b16r15-13-11|
D------------|--------------------|
A------------|--------------------|
E------------|--------------------|

 1  2  3  &  4  &  1  2  &  3  &  4  &
|---------11------|---------------------|
|---12-14----14---|---17----17----16----|
|13-------------16|---------------------|
|-----------------|14----14----14----14-|
|-----------------|---------------------|
|-----------------|---------------------|

There are other ways of playing this, of course, but this feels the most comfortable for me. You could play the opening m2 unison bend on the E & B strings in 7th position, but it doesn’t feel quite as natural. It may be different for you.

Bending with precision is really critical. If you put too much pressure on the strings you will bend too far. It’s really easy to overcompensate on the bends, so you’ll need to work on developing your muscle memory.

Over the last couple of days, I have been attending a training session put on by an organization called Little Kids Rock. LKR was started by a guy named David Wish, a former elementary school teacher who was frustrated by the lack of funding for music programs in public schools. He started an after school guitar program, and it has grown into a nationally recognized non-profit organization that serves thousands of students in seven states. There are currently about 700 teachers involved with the project. Basically, LKR provides instruments and curriculum to lower income areas.

I am a teacher in the Houston Independent School District, one of the largest districts in the country. I received an email last month asking if I was interested in becoming involved with the organization. At first I was ambivalent, but as I read the entire email I noticed that LKR provides 30 guitars to each school involved with the program. That was the clincher – I signed up.

After two days of training, I have realized that LKR is designed to supplement the existing music program. It is not meant to take over. Their suggested approach is very much geared to the “Rock & Roll” aesthetic – power chords, blues progressions, basic improvisation, etc. This is all good stuff, but it’s only part of what a well-rounded musician needs. As a trained musician, I’m able to fill in the gaps, but I am somewhat concerned that some of the other teachers in the room would not be able to.

The thing is that LKR accepts any accredited teacher into the program as long as they have some skill level on guitar. Unfortunately, their standards are pretty low. There were several teachers in the room that were having trouble changing from an A chord to a D chord. When the trainer introduced pentatonic scales, he may as well have been speaking Aramaic to those teachers. I’m not trying to be an elitist or anything, but sometimes you have to leave this stuff to the experts. I wouldn’t sign up to start an after school physics program or something like that. Sure, I’ve heard about Newton’s Laws – gravity, inertia and all that stuff – but that doesn’t make me qualified to run a program.

Anyway, it sounds like a good program, and I think that they’re doing a lot of good for a lot of underprivileged kids. I’m looking forward to jumping into the curriculum and seeing how it turns out.

As a guitarist music major I was required to take classical guitar lessons. Up to that point, I had strictly been a pick guy. As you may know, classical guitarists play with their fingers, so I had to grow out my nails and learn some fingerstyle technique. It was somewhat awkward at first, but I grew to really enjoy both the music and the technique.

I pretty much stopped playing electric guitar while I was in college, but after graduation I started picking it up again. When I did, I went back to the pick-only approach, but I felt it to be somewhat limiting. I tried ditching the pick and going to an electric fingerstyle approach a la Jeff Beck, but I couldn’t get the right attack and I couldn’t play the fluid scale runs like I could with a pick. My conclusion was to combine the picking styles.

Hybrid picking is a technique that involves playing with a pick and your fingers at the same time. A lot of fast guitar players use this technique to play really fast runs with pedal tones (like the intro to Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover), but I like to use it with chords.

The most basic approach is to hold the pick between your thumb and index finger and use your middle, ring, and pinky fingers to pluck. One application of this technique is to play 4 note chords all at once, which kind of sounds more like a piano attack. You can also play arpeggios using this style of playing.

One of the main reasons that I use hybrid picking is the variation in tone production. Playing with your fingers (flesh and/or nail) produces a significantly different tone than a pick. It’s a softer, warmer timbre, and it can really help to add new texture to a song.

I’ll post some examples of how I use this technique along with some sample chord voicings in the next few posts.

When one plays a guitar solo, it can be difficult to make it musical. This can be true of any musical genre, but it’s especially true in a worship setting, since you never have an extended amount of time to stretch out and really shape the solo. Usually, you have about 8 measures (sometimes less) to do your thing, and then you’re back to doing accompaniment stuff.

8 measures go by very quickly.

The showoff in me wants to use that time to show everyone how many notes I can fit into those few seconds. Unfortunately, that part of my personality wins over from time to time, even though it’s obnoxious and doesn’t add anything to the music. I want to talk about some ideas that we can use to make the most of our solo time while still playing musically.

• First off, don’t feel like you have to play a ton of notes, especially at the beginning of the solo. I like to start out the solo by playing a longish (at least a half note) sustained note. It can be really dramatic if you start out by playing a slow bend up to a note and then just hang onto it for a second or so before releasing it. Add some vibrato to the end of the note just before you release it and then maybe play a quick little descending lick (think about using one of the pentatonic scale forms for the fast stuff).

• Use chord tones! Don’t just look at the key and spend all of your time playing that scale. Take advantage of the chord progression and focus on the chord tones. For example, a G chord has the notes GBD and a D chord has the notes DF#A. If you start on a G note on a G chord, think about moving down a half step to the F# in the D chord. Of course, there are many different possibilities, so experiment with different chord progressions and voice leading.

• Limit your note selection. Just because your guitar has 22 frets (or 24 if you have a shredder guitar) doesn’t mean that you have to use all of them. Can you play a solo with just 5 or 6 notes? Try limiting yourself to a single string. Get away from patterns and boxes and start thinking melodically. Don’t let your fingers do the work that your brain and ears should be doing.

• Think about the contour of the line you’re playing. Where is the peak or climax? Many composers/artists/designers/architects/etc throughout the years have used what is called the Golden ratio, derived from the Fibonacci sequence. Basically, many artists have placed the climax of their work at about 61.8%. What this means for you is to think about making the high point happen at about 2/3 through your solo. It’s just a good place for it.

• Don’t have more than one high point. In other words, the highest note that you play should only be played once, and it’s a good idea to accent that note in some way. It should be longer or louder or something to make it stand out as being more important than the surrounding notes.

• Use different types of rhythms. Use long tones as well as quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes. Throw in some triplets or sextuplets for some extra flavor. Mix things up – variety makes things interesting, and rhythm is just as important (if not more so) than melody or harmony.

Okay, that’s a lot of seemingly random information that I’m asking you to absorb. Don’t try to do all of it at once. Do one thing at a time. and don’t feel rushed to start combining these elements. Eventually, it’ll start to come together. Bookmark this page and revisit these ideas. I’ll try to do some basic recordings over the next few weeks demonstrating some of these concepts.

Alright, now get to work!

I’ve been thinking about going all-out and just writing a book. I mentioned a few days ago that I would be doing a series of posts dealing with the CAGED scale pattern thing, but I think I may go a little more in-depth. I’ve been throwing around in my head the possibility of writing a book directed at electric guitarists in worship bands.

The book would have chapters dealing with chord voicings in upper registers, lead patterns, note reading, basic music theory, gear settings (delay, distortion, etc), tone shaping, etc. I would make it available as a PDF with audio clips. This is probably going to be kind of a long-term project that will take a couple of months (assuming that I get to work right away), so I’ll probably feel the need to charge something for it (probably in the $5-10 range). Is that presumptuous of me?

Anyway, is this something that any of you would be interested in? Is it too specific to be useful to more than a handful of individuals? Are there any topics that you would specifically like me to address? Please leave me some feedback in the comments.

I’m going to start a series soon about the CAGED method and how it pertains to playing lead guitar. You can find these patterns in a lot of places, such as the book Fretboard Logic. There is a lot of good info in that book, but it’s padded with so much worthless fluff that you really have to know what you’re looking for to get anything out of it.

Anyway, my aim is to give you nothing but the good stuff. I’ll show you the patterns, how they fit together, and I’ll try to show you how to use them effectively to build interesting solos.

Stay tuned.