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| View Poll Results: what process mostly guides your riffing? | |||
| geometry: I have a fretboard pattern I follow, & use my ear |
   
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23 | 60.53% |
| I know where the root, 3rd 4th, flatted 7th are (etc)..I use them |
  
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3 | 7.89% |
| I know where the notes (C, E, G, etc,) are, I use them |
  
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3 | 7.89% |
| other (please share) |
  
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9 | 23.68% |
| Voters: 38. You may not vote on this poll | |||
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#16
09-03-2002, 01:34 PM
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If I was going to have only one chance to teach someone music theory on the guitar, this the process I would recommend...
STEP A: Learn the notes on the neck of the guitar! 1. Memorize the alphabet from A thru G (that should be easy) 2. Memorize the fact that the letters B & C and the letters E & F a stuck right next to each other with no space in between them. All the other letters have spaces between them. 3. The spaces between letters are called half-steps. The half-step between A & B has two names - A# and Bb. The half step between D & E has two names - D# and Eb. Etc., etc., etc. 4. Memorize this pattern: A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A 5. Memorize the names of the open strings (E A D G B E) 6. Start with each open string and go up fret by fret using the letters from step 4 above. For instance if you started at the open D string and went up one fret at a time, you'd find that.... The open string is the note D The 1st fret is the note D#/Eb The 2nd fret is the note E The 3rd fret is the note F The 4th fret is the note F#/Gb The 5th fret is the note G The 6th fret is the note G#/Ab etc., etc., etc. Once you have the pattern from step 4 memorized, you should be able to go to any fret of any string and tell me what note is at that fret. 7. Memorize what notes are at each fret of each string on the guitar. STEP B: Learn how to spell! 1. Learn how to spell all the major and minor triads (learn what notes are in major and minor chords). For example... A = A C# E Am = A C E G = G B D Gm = G Bb D Eb = Eb G Bb Ebm = Eb Gb Bb etc. (there are plenty of books/web sites that have this info) 2. Learn how to spell the 12 major scales. For example... C Major Scale = C D E F G A B C G Major Scale = G A B C D E F# G etc. (there are plenty of books/web sites that have this info) 3. Learn how to add notes to a chord for color... A G Major scale has 8 notes... 1 - G 2 - A 3 - B 4 - C 5 - D 6 - E 7 - F# 8 - G The G major chord uses the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale (G, B, D). A G major 7th chord adds the 7th note from the scale (F#) and is spelled like this: G B D F# A G major 6th chord adds the 6th note from the scale (E) and is spelled like this: G B D E etc. (there are plenty of books/web sites that have this info) 4. Learn the "diatonic" chords of each major scale. The diatonic chords are the chords which occur by playing acsending triads in the scale. For example in the key of G the diatonic chords would be: I - G major ii - A minor iii - B minor IV - C major V - D major vi - E minor vii - F# minor b5 etc. (there are plenty of books/web sites that have this info) STEP C: Learn how chords and scales relate to one another! How in the world to jazz players do it? The concept is not difficult to grasp, but the content requires years of study and memorization. Basically, a great jazz player knows what scale(s) work over which chords (for instance an A-Harmonic minor scale will work over a E7b9 chord). Every chord may require a different scale to use when improvising, however if all the chords fall into the diatonic pattern of a single scale, then only one scale would need to be used when improvising. I would recommend a book by Dan Hearly called SCALES FOR JAZZ IMPROVISATION to learn these relationships (warning - this is written in standard music notation and is not a "guitar" book). Also, check out this web site: http://www.outsideshore.com/primer/p...-primer-4.html STEP D: Put all this onto the neck of a guitar! OK - it seems mind boggling and confusing, but there are some systems which work very well for coming up with chord voicings and scale fingerings for guitar. At some point I hope to put up a web site with alot of this info on it. Jack Peterson is supposed to be writting a book for Mel Bay which should be pretty good, but I don't know when it will come out. Hope that helps. Remember, learning theory on the guitar is just remembering a thousand simple things, one at a time. Peace. Last edited by 815C; 09-03-2002 at 01:40 PM. 
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#17
09-04-2002, 08:48 PM
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I play through the chord changes. I know what positions all the keys are in, and I know what the intervals sound like. So when I'm soloing, I try for some variation of the melody while going through the changes.
__________________
Hondo stuff The future's uncertain and the end is always near. Jim Morrison
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#18
09-06-2002, 01:21 PM
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I think a lightbulb really clicked for me 10 or so years ago when I read a Jeff Beck interview (I think.. either that or Steve Vai) where they revealed a really good brainstorming trick for soloing and/or coming up with a decent melody:
Take a sentence, or a piece of it, and say it out loud a few times. Pay attention to how the syllables sound rhythmically and which parts are stressed, and try playing some notes on your guitar using the syllables that are now in your head. I think the sentence used in the example was "Hello, how are you doing today?" and he managed to convert it into a really cool guitar line. If you catch onto it, it will open up a lot of new doors!
__________________
http://www.mp3.com/finnegan
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#19
10-29-2002, 12:11 PM
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Video recommendations for improvisation instruction?
I wanted to thank 815C for a very informative post. I have played for 8 years or so and have always been stumped where to start improvisational playing. There just seems to be so much information. I took a few lessons on separate occasions from two different teachers and neither pointed me in the right direction. Anyways, I wanted to ask, I have learned that I learn best by watching videos, I am a very visual learner, can you recommend any videos to help tie steps C & D together?
And while I'm professing my ignorance, I wanted to ask an opinion as to how you would describe the difference between blues and jazz style guitar. Chords? Flavor? Thanks, Lee
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#20
10-29-2002, 01:42 PM
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Re: Video recommendations for improvisation instruction?
Quote:
Playin' the Blues (might show up as "Playing" on the internet) and Robben Ford's The Blues and Beyond book/cd packs or videos are available.... don't skip the first book...learn to 'speak' while the material is simple....only a fool begins at a spot other than the beginning...
__________________
Indeed, there is something in the current DC/NY culture that equates a lack of unthinking boosterism with a lack of patriotism. As if not being drunk on the latest Dow gains is somehow un-American. - Arianna Huffington May 11, 2009
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#21
10-30-2002, 05:39 PM
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Other -
For a starting place, I usually go straight for a chord tone, and I know that ending on a chord tone will give a phrase some resolution. I know some notes that create tension, such as the blue notes - b3, b5, and b9 over a major chord. The rest is just putting together musical phrases that make some kind of sense. Phrasing to me is using tension and release in a way that fits over the song form. Another name for it is question and answer, or call and response. I know where to start, and then I listen for a good place to end my phrases, both rhythmically and harmonically. Doing some of these things consciously is a good way to begin, but my best improvisation happens when I can just feel the phrases. Of course, I could be full of myself and just playing things I already know, but it sure feels like I'm improvising 
__________________
The Dude. 6 & 12 string guitar fretted & fretless bass
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#22
10-31-2002, 05:49 AM
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lead rifs
From a very early age I learned to play lead parts from chord formations when possible. Sometimes requiring less movement from my left hand.
And since I learned to do it in the upper or lower strings, it makes it easy to change to a different register every 3-4th verse to give the melody a different voicing. I also learned to play in harmonics or douple stop form to create a fuller sound. I got into this style on my own around 1965, not knowing that anyone else did it, because I played solo a lot and wanted a fuller sound, but after hanging around and setting in with Scotty Anderson a lot in the last few years I pretty much play the double stop style all the time now. I also use a thumb pick most of the time, but like the bare thumb sound on some songs.
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#23
10-31-2002, 07:54 AM
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hmm..i played bass by ear for years and years and got a few "patterens" down for major and minor runs...i translate that to the guitar and i do understand theory to a point..like relative major/minor stuff...
i can hear the subtle differences between the different scale-types, but when i'm playing i never think about it..i just hear when i want a half-step or chromatic move...or what note i want to start on..it's not always the root of the progression either..it's wierd. I'm much more rhythmic than melodic...i'm working on melody though.. learning some jazzier stuff now...just listening and working on the melodies.. example: the other night i jammed with a long time friend and we hadn't seen each other in years..we were playing and he noted that while we were playing over a c7 progression, i was soloing in a b-minor penatonic/d major...not starting on the "b" root though, starting on the "c".....i had no idea why that's interesting to him... he turned me on to some john scofield.. whoa..time for some wood-shedding...
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#24
11-03-2002, 08:09 PM
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Years ago while studying theory and composition in college I decided I'd had enough with "common" theory and the way it was taught.
I've always been heavy into mathmatics and numbers, so I thought to myself "there's only 7 tones to a standard major/min/harm min/melodic min/etc scale (8 is the octave) so it's got to repeat somewhere". I quickly figured out that it did! I devised a simple set of 6-7 patterns (depending on how you want to use it) that gives me every key, mode, flat, sharp scale there is with the distances between the patterns never changing. Now granted this doesn't have a ton of musical value, but it's not for that. It's for giving yourself a visual roadmap of where you can/can't go without it sounding funny (and if it does sound funny, you'll at least know what kind of funny before it happens). This approaches the whole right brain/left brain thing. I have a lot of goofy exercises too that don't have a lot of musical value, but are great for overall playing ability. For me what it boils down to is pretty simple: get my hands technically adept enough to be able to play whatever I want so my mind can just take over and I can float along with out thinking. I've been really close to this for a long time. Maybe I'm there, maybe I'm not. I dunno. It's hard to tell sometimes. The good thing is, I still feel like I'm learning.
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#29
11-11-2002, 07:00 PM
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Great thread. I have been playing many years, handicapped by a clunky left hand (yes, that IS the technical term). For most of those years, I was a chord player, learning some nifty chops without straying too far from chord positions. Taylor guitars have helped my lead playing a lot. I have been learning blues and ragtime leads and getting more comfortable playing notes and two-note chords all over the fret board.
As to process, I gues it's like a hunt and peck typist who's been typing for many years. Not elegant, but effective.
__________________
GSnyde Guitars improve with age. The older I get, the more I like them. ---------------- I gots me .... some Martins some Santa Cruzes some Goodalls some T*****s Some other stuff
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#30
11-15-2002, 07:02 PM
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when i solo...i just play whatever comes out of me...i dont even think about it...i just close my eyes and let it go...never really thought about the theory behind it...i dont know any scales and cant read music...i just go by ear...i guess this comes from having no life except music and just sitting around learning songs off the radio and playing along with srv albums (cant play anything he wrote, but who can...i just play off him)
matt
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