How To Make Your Guitar Sing Pt 4-- Vibrato

Hi everybody! Welcome to yet another element to help you play guitar solos that can grab your listeners by their necks and demand attention. Now I will talk to you about vibrato. This is one technique that is so much neglected that even many shredders do so poorly at.

So what is a good vibrato and how do we do it on guitar. As a general guide, a good vibrato is deep and wide, in contrast to narrow and shallow ones (think of the sound a goat or a sheep makes). They also need to be in time rather than randomly going high and low in pitch. They can be heard from classical or opera singers. 

There are many ways to do it on the guitar and the following two are what I use very often and they can really help you render very rich vibratos. 

The Bent-Note Vibrato 

This is a really straight forward way of doing it. You only need to strengthen up your muscles and be constantly conscious about the changes in pitches that you make. If you remember from the previous article on bending notes, considering you are able to do it already, you can actually start from there.

So pick a note, play it using the string-bending technique and hold it. While sustaining the note (a distortion effect will help for this purpose), bend it a little bit further in such a way the pitch goes up by  a semitone or half step, and then release the bend so that the pitch goes down a half step lower than the  original bent note that you did at the beginning. Now repeat the process for your desired duration and there you go, a very reach vibrato. 

Now refine this by using a metronome so as to train yourself to do it uniformly and in time.

Steve Vai's Circular Vibrato

The inventor of this technique describes it as a combination of the 'rock style' vibrato and the 'classical' vibrato.

The former just deals with bending and releasing the string without bending it before hand to leave room for pitch lowering. So it just starts from the target note, going sharp and the back to the target note again. No flat or lowering down.

The latter deals with simply sliding your finger within a fret or position while sustaining the notes which sharpens and flattens the note to some extent.

So when the two is combined it allows you to go sharp and flat.

To sum things up, a good vibrato is a deliberate act of going sharp and flat (vice versa) around a targeted note in successions to make a note more emotional or tense.

If you combine these techniques with the other techniques that have been discussed, you will sound like a 'pro' even if you don't shred.

Twinkle, twinkle little star

Hi folks! Just wanted to share to you a good example on the applications of the things that I talked to you about regarding how to make your guitar sing. 

As you can hear and see on the video, even a very simplistic nursery rhyme melody can sound fresh, interesting and very rock music by adding nuances and variety to each note that you play. So far I have  talked about string bending, pre-bent string, and legato slide. Another thing which I have not talked to you about yet is vibrato. Stay in touch and I will post about it soon.

For the meantime, study the video and enjoy!

How to Make Your Guitar Sing Pt 3: Legato Slide

Hi folks! Welcome to this 'How to make your guitar sing' series. Previously I have talked about string bending and here is another way of putting spice into the each note that you play on the guitar. It is technically called Legato Slide or simply 'slide'.

As the name goes, you literally slide your fretting finger along a string that you are playing while fretting it. The result is a smooth and quick change in pitch.

So just like string bending, this can be used from above or below ('pitch-wise') your target note/pitch. To make things clearer, try playing a C note on the 5th fret of the 3rd string. Then as the note starts to ring out quickly slide (while still fretting) to the 7th fret (D note). 

You can even prolong the first note to make it a two-note phrase instead of having to pick them separately. You can also slide from several frets or even a single fret from above or below at varying speeds to get the necessary nuance you so desire so that your thoughts or emotions are best expressed. Very much like a singer singing!

I have discussed with you known ways of incorporating nuances to the notes you play and there's a few more that I'd like to share to you next time. All these different ways when used together in one musical context make a simple melody sound very interesting. Simple nursery rhymes can sound really killer-like with these.

So keep on experimenting and learn the ways of playing a single note as I have described here and in the previous articles. Until next time.

How To Make Your Guitar Sing Pt 2: The Pre-Bend

Hello folks! I hope you had fun and learned a lot from Part 1 of this article. Now, in this very short article I am going to show you yet another use of the string bending technique.

So as the way it is called, you bend the string before you actually make it sound. It is sort of the reverse of the one we discussed in the previous article. So pick up a note, say C. Next is to bend it so that it hits the note D. Now try to remember how it feels, how hard you have to push the string upward in bending it because in the real playing situation you're not supposed to play or strike the string until you've bent it.

Once you  got this down try playing it and as soon as it sounds (still in D) quickly release the bend to revert back to C.

Just like the regular string bending this technique is very powerful in conveying different emotions. It helps you to be so expressive on the guitar that your listeners would know what it is you're trying to tell them even when there's no lyrics or nobody singing!

Now considering that we have been only dealing with a single note, how much more when we put this one bent note with many other notes? I tell you, you could virtually grab your listeners by he neck and tell them 'Listen to me!'

I'll do a video version of these techniques in the near future so that you will clearly see what I mean. But for now, try to follow, experiment, and have fun!

How to Make your Guitar sing

Hello once again everyone and welcome back!

As the title of this article goes, now we'll look into one of the ways you can make simple melodies sound cool and fresh on the guitar. The guitar really is a unique instrument as I have said in one of my earlier articles. And one of the unique advantages of the guitar is string-bending (or note-bending).

Its concept is very simple really. It is simply hitting a note from another note which is lower than itself. Did you get that? 

Well to make things even simpler let's take an example: Let's say you want to play a single prolonged note on the 7th fret of the 3rd string (which is a D note). Now actually try it right now.

It's boring right? But if you try it again but this time fretting on the 5th fret of that same string and bending the string until you hear that D note perfectly, you would have made a single boring note sound  so interesting. It's as if your guitar is begging for more!

But before you get too excited, there is a right way of doing this and you're going to need a little bit of muscle strength to do this perfectly.

To do this, use two or more fretting fingers instead of just one. In my case I am fond of using my middle finger and I put my index finger behind it (away from the body of your guitar) to help push the string upwards so that it bends and hits my target note. And also your thumb needs to be wrapped around the back of the neck so that it touches (not fretting) the low E string for a better leverage.

As an exercise dedicate maybe 5 minutes of your practice time for this: Try bending all of the six strings on any fret you like (you can try every fret). And another challenge is that you can bend it not only from two frets below but up to five. 

You might break strings more often by doing this. But that's ok, it is a cheap price to pay for very useful guitar skill isn't it?

PS Once you get comfortable with the string bending, apply it on any melodic passage that you know. Use it so you don't lose it.

Funny Video

Hi everyone, here is another video of me playing to Megadeth's Skin of My Teeth. It is holiday times and the chances of a naughty little boy running around and peeping into the camera is totally inevitable.
I do apologize peepz!

Anyway I hope you enjoy this vid:

Off Topic

Hi folks! I have been a little busy with some other things lately and that is the reason why I haven't been able to post new topics as frequent as I normally would. And yet, I am going to away for another whole week with family and friends. 

And because I am busy preparing my things, I find it hard to focus on writing useful blogs for you aspiring guitar players. However, I'd like to show a video of mine which I uploaded on YouTube a few months ago. 

By the way I'm not trying to brag about my skills here but I do hope it would serve as an inspiration for you to keep on learning and don't get your frustrations get in the way. Make it a point to practise everyday without fail. Please do not procrastinate, just do it! 

Anyway, here it is:

Enjoy!

How to Play Barre Chords

Barre chords are a very useful useful way to change from chord to chord on the guitar. They are also intuitive to use once you get the hang of it.

But one common problem particularly for first-timers is that it is also somewhat tricky to make all the strings ring out clearly and therefore get the most out of using the barre chord.

In this article, I am assuming that you are familiar with the common barre chord shapes and not be going to show you these. Rather, I am simply going to show you how to execute it.

Thumb

Unlike when you're fretting open-string chords (thumb wrapped around the neck), when playing barre chords your thumb should be well behind the neck as well as being aligned with your middle finger on the other side.  

Index Finger

This is your main barring finger. I say main because there are barre chords that also uses you ring finger. But we will leave that out for now and discuss this in another article.

So without fretting with the rest of your fingers, make a barre with your index finger and focus on making all the strings ring out clearly (no buzz allowed). If you notice some buzzes it could be that your thumb is not distributing equal amount of pressure across the strings. One trick you can do here is using the side of your index finger which faces your thumb to fret the strings with.

Keep on doing this until those strings ring out clearly. Don't worry if they dont't sound so musical at this point.

Other Fretting Fingers

When you got that barre sounding perfectly, keep your index finger still to maintain that nice sounding barre. Afterwards simply add on the other 2 or 3 fingers. Remember to keep them arched over the stings so that they are not in any way touching them other than the strings they are supposed to be fretting.

Another thing to remember is to use the tip and not the pad of your fingers. 

I am going to be honest with you. This may be learned so quickly by some but others may struggle. It is going to hurt your fretting hand at first. It is very normal as you are still building muscles and callouses. Think of it as going to a gym to work out. It hurts at first but if you keep on doing it, the results can be very rewarding. So please don't procrastinate, just do it. 

Another factor to consider is also your string height (a.k.a. string action). If you think you are exerting too much effort just to make those strings sound properly. Then your strings may be too far away from the finger board. This is common among most acoustic guitars and this why I advise my students to learn on electric ones. Anyway, take your guitar to a luthier (guitar tech/builder) and have your string action adjusted according to your playing comfort.

PS Do you want me to post Guitar Chord Charts so you don't have to look for them on your own? Feel free to comment, don't be shy, I'm here to help:)

How to Learn Songs by Ear

Hi folks! It's been a little while I know and I apologize. I have been a little bit busy with some other things that's why.


Anyway, if you are trying to learn songs by ear already then this article will help you. 


You need to have your guitar with you, a piece of paper and pencil, audio player, and if you have access to simple equipment or software that can slow playback without affecting the pitch  (such as Windows Media Player) then so much the better.


Another thing that will be of great help is a good knowledge in chord progression. If you don't know anything  about it yet, you can read my previous article. You can purely use your ears too but this will take you longer to figure out the chords.




Key


You need to be able to determine the key of the song and use your knowledge in chord progression to find out the rest of the chords that belong to such key.


Almost all the time, simple songs are played in one key. There are songs that involve key changes and in music theory it is termed as 'modulation'. But don't worry so much about this for now. Also almost all the time the song's key is the same as the very first chord of that song.


Try to emulate the lowest or the bass note and determine what note it is. And then determine whether the harmonies over the bass note played is major or minor. You can do this by trial and error. But as a guide, a major chord/harmony is generally happy,bright and positive-sounding. A minor chord/harmony is sad, dark and negative-sounding.


If you find it hard to locate which string and fret that bass note would be played on the guitar, at least try to hum or sing it until you can hear it correctly in your mind. And then just find where it lies on your guitar.




Trial and Error


Having determined the key of the song, write down on paper the list of chords that belong to that key. Now you have seven choices of chords to choose from and try out every time a chord changes. 


So just try each chord from the very beginning to the end and the write it down on paper as soon as you have been able to check it against the recording by ear. 


Writing the down the outline or structure of the song is also a good idea:
    What are the intro chords
    What are the stanza chords
    What are the chorus chords, etc.


By writing it on paper, there's no risk of you forgetting the chords that you have figured out. Otherwise it can be very much time-consuming and frustrating.


Mind you, it's going to take you a deal of time and effort at first but it's well worth it as far as ear-training is concerned-- a must for every guitar player!


PS - Any guitar-related problems or questions concerning this article, PM me or simply comment below

How to Play Rhythm Guitar in a very cool way.

Hi fellow guitar or should I say axe-slingers and welcome back! 


I’m pretty sure that you have learned many chords already whether from this blog or from somewhere else. But let me ask you, when you play a series of chord progression, do you find yourself playing these chords (in whatever key or songs) sounding pretty much the same? If your answer is yes then the problem lies in your knowledge of rhythm guitar playing. 


But in this article I will try to simplify it for you so that you’ll see how you can easily formulate your own rhythm and apply it to most musical situations particularly when only your guitar serves as accompaniment.

First we establish that for most musical situations we use the 8th note rhythm which is 2 notes for beat.


To start with try tapping your foot in a moderately slow and steady pulse or better still if you know how to use a metronome, set it to 70 bpm (or slower if you like). 


Now try strumming using all down strokes and lock in with the beat. For this purpose play a single chord let’s say G. So by doing this you are playing a quarter-note rhythm. But notice that your picking hand has to swing upwards before each time you do a down stroke. What if each time on its way up it also strums the strings? This gives you an 8th note rhythm feel now doesn’t it? Be mindful of the beat though. 


From doing that, we have created a pattern: 


DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP ... and so on. 


Note that ‘DOWN’ is in bold which indicates it is played simultaneously with each beat 


From this pattern we can make your rhythm guitar playing more fun and interesting by deliberately NOT HITTING the strings on either up or down stroke. 


Now let’s try


DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP DOWN UP


Make sure your picking hand motion doesn’t alter or stop. Keep it steady. Although we are missing the strings at ‘UP’, the picking hand carries on to do the same as though we were playing a steady DOWN-UP-DOWN-UP. If you do this right you will hear that it sounds like a horse galloping. 


Here’s another variation (what I call the ‘feel good’ rhythm) 


D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U


And yet another (commonly used in Reggae and Ska) 


D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U  D  U 


Now you see there are so many things that you can do with this and I’m leaving you some assignments to do:


1. Come up with more 8th-note based rhythm of your own.


2. Experiment with 8th-note triplets, 16th notes and sextuplets also.


3. Apply them to a series of chords or songs that you know. Tip: chord changes almost always occur during a down stroke. 


4. You can combine two or more rhythmic ideas in one musical context to   make it more unique-sounding-- very useful when writing your own songs! 


Write everything on paper when deriving your own rhythmic feel and practise them so that you get those feels. Really simple, isn’t it? Until next time.


PS I offer free tips and advice on whatever playing obstacles and issues you might have, just feel free to comment below.

Guitar Chords: How to Change Smoothly and Quickly

Welcome back guitar heads! Last time I showed you how to learn guitar chords quickly and easily. Granting that you have learned many three-string chords, another obstacle yet arises- how to change from one chord to the next smoothly and quickly enough.

Before going on further, I want to emphasise that we approach the guitar when practising is different from when we are playing. Why? Practising means building up your chops, slowing things down to ensure you only get the good things out of your practise and none of the bad things like bad habits and even injuries. If somewhere along your practise session you make some mistake, you simply stop what you are doing and redo again and again until you eliminate that mistake.

Playing however means playing the things you already know, particularly songs or small parts of songs. You don’t care or worry so much on how you do things (since they are being taken care of during practising) but carry on even if you make mistakes along the way. You only need to make those mistakes not so obvious to the listeners.

It’s just like boxing. The boxer undergoes every difficulty during training and tries to overcome it. He builds up strength, stamina, strategy and proper technique. But when the actual boxing match comes he doesn’t have time to think about these things nor keep on carrying weights and tire himself out from running but do his best (positive thinking plus the results of his training) to win.

In the same manner we apply this way of thinking to playing the guitar and every aspect that comes with it. So now let’s talk about changing chords.

Practice

When learning songs, take the time to look at the chords involved and make sure you are able to fret each one of them. If you are not able to, then learn it first.

Once you already know all of them learn their sequences and simulate the chord changes without having to strum the strings (so stare at your fretting fingers and ignore the picking/strumming hand for now). As usual, try to do each chord change slowly and smoothly at first and gradually build your speed up. 

You can further make the process easier by breaking them into song lines and integrate them into what comprises the entire song. Get the picture?

Playing 

So after having done the procedure above, you can now change from one chord to the next at will! The only difference this time is you actually have to strum the strings and make sure you do it every chord change.

But wait a minute... You can even make this easier! You can cheat if you still get behind chord changes. You can strum the strings even when you are not fretting any chord. And you can place this between any two chords to buy you more time to prepare for the upcoming chord. A lot of camp fire guitar players do this! 

So remember playing and practising complement each other. Only through investing sufficient time for each will help you become a better guitar player. Have fun! :)

How to Easily and Quickly Learn Guitar Chords

Hi folks! Welcome back. Today for the benefit of the more novice guitar players reading this post, I am going to talk about learning how to play chords. 

Learning chords can be very difficult at first and it will feel awkward and some beginners (including me several years back) tend to over think on whether or not they are doing things correctly. You’ll know when you are doing a chord properly if it sounds right providing your guitar is properly tuned.

Another issue that can come up is buzzing strings that are not adequately pressed, particularly the thick ones (strings nos. 3 to 6). Don’t worry, chances are you are doing it correctly, but it does n’t ring out as you intend for it to because you haven’t got the callous on your finger tips yet. This will develop as long as you keep on practising. 

Yet, there is a better way in which you can learn chords quickly and more importantly, be able to apply them in songs right away! How? Learn mini chords first. This simply means leaving out the lower three strings and playing the higher three strings for now.

To do this, you can refer to your chord charts and follow everything it says, particularly the fingerings, EXCEPT anything about the lower three strings. And your goal for now is to be able to memorise as many guitar chords as possible, list them down on paper, be able to shift smoothly from one chord to the next and use them in songs that involve chords that you know. Then as you become comfortable with this, you can start adding on string no. 3 into your chords and repeat the process. Do the same for the remaining two strings.

If you are struggling with chords, you should definitely try this approach. Then if you are still struggling, I’d be happy to help, just leave a comment. :)

Off topic

Hi folks! I have come this far in maintaining this blog thru the already many topics that I have posted. This is only made possible because of my sheer desire and pleasure in freely giving helpful information to you my fellow guitar lovers. And I genuinely hope that I am helping you solve whatever issues you have as far as guitar playing skills are concerned.

Having said that, I propose that you leave comments or suggestions as to what issues based on your guitar playing experience, you wish for me to write articles about.

  In addition, it would be a lot better if I were able to see how you practise, improve and develop skills as though you and I were in an actual lesson setting so I can provide feedback on the way you do things on the guitar. This is important especially when you are learning new techniques so that there will never be any chance of you developing bad habits that are very hard to break and ultimately handicap your overall playing.

So how are we going to do this? Simple: Take a video of you practising or playing (preferably those that contain your problem areas), post it on YouTube and give me the links. Don't be shy!:) You don't have to show your face. I only need to see your left and right hands.:)

If you are teaching yourself using resource materials like Audio CDs, DVDs,the internet, etc., this will be very helpful. At least there is somebody who can tell you whether or not you are on the right track. Thank you very much and I hope you will help me make this blog a lot better!:)

How to Play Guitar Fast: A Simple Set of Guidelines pt 2

Hello fellow axe-slingers. Welcome back, as promised here is the continuation of the previous article How to Play Guitar Fast: A Simple Set of Guidelines pt1. First and foremost, I hope you already have established your comfortable setting and positioning. Otherwise, don’t worry and carry on figuring these things out. You’ll get it in no time.


Pick Gauge

Use the appropriate thickness of plectrum. Most of us have been used to thin picks in strumming chords early on when we were just beginning to play guitar. But at this point we are trying to learn how to play fast guitar solos which is played almost always by picking one string at a time and not 2 or more as when we play chords. The reason for this is for a better accuracy in terms of timing. If your pick is thin and floppy, more often than not your pick yields and bends a little bit before it actually plucks the string and play a note. Now think of the time it would have spent for that to occur. Not much really but the thing is you would have played out of time for a single note. Let alone if we played tens or hundreds of notes within a guitar solo section. It’s going to be a struggle! So always opt for the heavy pick gauge. Also, you might have heard about the V-pick, it’s a new product on the market. It’s made of acrylic glass and looks very nice. And the thickness is something guitar players all over the world have never seen, it’s crazy! But it’s definitely the best pick you could ever have. Search it on Google, eBay, and YouTube.


Note Divisions

This is simply determining how many notes per beat is being played, steady 16th notes (4 notes per beat), 8th note triplets (3 notes per beat), 16th note triplets or sextuplets (6 notes per beat) are the commonly used ones for fast guitar solos. To practise this, you can use the scales mentioned in the previous articles on major and minor scales and play them over a slow tempo on the metronome or drum machine. And as you get comfortable, gradually increase the tempo to a maximum 5bpm each time and repeat the process.

Now as for the feel of these divisions, 16th notes sounds like saying “ALLIGATOR” repeatedly in a steady rhythm and the 8th and 16th notes sound like “CROCODILE” repeatedly in a steady rhythm. For a good resource on this topic of note divisions, watch John Petrucci’s Rock Discipline DVD. You can find excerpts on YouTube too but watch out for the funny overdubs, there are so many bored and naughty up-loaders there!

String Action

This refers to the distance of the strings from the fret board. It would help a lot and increase your guitar’s playability if the action is lowered as far as possible without the risk of fret buzz each time you fret and bend a string. It is always a good idea to take your guitar to a nearest luthier (guitar tech) and have it set up.


Maintain your Guitar


Take good care of your guitar, treat it as though it were your best friend or even a lover and it will be obedient to you! Always use string cleaner before and after every use and polish it often. This is nothing mythical or fairy tale. Just do it and see what I mean.


For best practising results review How to Practise Guitar

How to Play Guitar Fast-- A Simple Set of Guidelines pt 1

Hello everyone! My previous articles was focused much on theory and I hope you learned many things (if not all) from them. And assuming that you did, now it's time to put those scale knowledge in to action.


Overall proper positioning


Your Picking Hand - make sure your arm and your wrist are relaxed and straight; maintain angle of 10 to 30 degrees between your arm and the strings; make sure you are holding the pick correctly (see Holding a Pick)


Your Fretting Hand- make sure your wrist and your fingers are relaxed; use the tip and not the pad of your fingers to fret the strings, can be achieved by placing your thumb behind the neck (a.k.a. the Classical Position) and aligned with your middle finger and by arching (instead of straightening) your fretting fingers.


These requirements for both the left and right hand can be achieved by not slinging your guitar too low. You need to find your comfortable settings by trial and error. Note that these proper positioning does not only allow you to play fast but also helps prevents serious injuries (you can say goodbye to your guitar if these happen at least for a long time if not permanently).


Holding a Pick


Make sure your thumb and your index fingers are gripping the pick neither too loose nor to tight. The pick must not be wobbly when picking a string. You can ensure this by holding the pick a distance of not more than 3mm or 1/8 in from the tip of the pick. Also make sure your thumb and your index fingers don't protrude over the opposite edge of the pick. Try to keep them in the pick area at all times as much as possible. If your pick slides within your fingers then do a quick readjustment as necessary.


Now try all the things mentioned above and see how it feels. It should feel comfortable and take very little effort to play a note. If not then readjust.


See you next time on part two of this article:)

How To Apply Scales In Actual Music

Hello once again! How was your scale practice (in case you were in real need for them)? I really hope that it helped you and that you have somehow mastered them.


So now that you know these scales, it's time that you knew how to apply them properly, that is in a given chord progression and in time with the beat or rhythm.


Chord Progression


In the previous articles called Understanding Chord Progressions pt 1 & 2, I asked you to derive the chord progression that fall under the key of C Major and hopefully you followed it and learned how to derive it from its corresponding scale which is the C Major scale.


We had
                C    Dm    Em    F    G    Am    Bdim
                I      ii       iii     IV   V    vi      vii ^O


Notice the Roman Numeral below each chord. This is frequently used in music theory and we make use of it in this context because it is actually a formula which makes it easier for guitarists like you and me to formulate all the chords in a given key and thereby making song writing a lot easier.


Now let me explain a little bit about them.


I - is the root  of the chord progression which is a major chord (uppercase)
ii - is the second of the chord progression which is a minor chord (lowercase)
iii - is the third of the chord progression which is a minor chord
IV - is the fourth of the chord progressions which is a major chord
V - is the fifth of the minor chord progression which is a major chord
vi - is the sixth of the chord progression which is a minor chord
vii o - is the seventh of the chord which is a diminished chord (lowercase with a superscript 'o') 
 
Try writing the down the Major chord progressions for all the other 11 keys (from C# to B) if you haven't done so already, when you have time.

For now, let's have fun. Try recording yourself playing the chord progression above and play with that recording the corresponding scale up and down the neck and listen to how it blends into the chord progression. So what's the corresponding scale then?


Yes, it's the C major scale!

After you have done this, you might be surprised how the C major scale seem to perfectly fit into the other chords with different names. It is because  they (both notes and chords) all fall under the C major scale.

Continue doing this and just have fun. In the future we will discuss on refining this by knowing what notes of the scale are best suitable to play for any given chord on that scale.

To be continued...

The Minor Scale

The Minor Scale From my previous article I have explained to you about the Major scale and gave you some exercises to do. So I hope you’ve actually done it and learned from it. If you still need help with that just feel free to post your comment below.

Now assuming that you have gotten the hang of it let’s proceed to the Minor scale. We simply derive it from the Major Scale by lowering by a half step the 3rd, 6th, and the 7th degree notes. I also advised you in the previous topic to take note of the 6th degree note in the C Major Scale which was A. The reason behind this is that in music theory, the 6th degree of a Major Scale is the root note for its Relative Minor. So in our previous topic the A Minor Scale (A being the root note) is the relative minor of the C Major scale.

C D E F G A B C D E F G    Note that the notes here still belong to the C Major scale (or in the key of C Major) but this time we start at 'A' and treat it as the root note to turn it into the A minor scale

By observing the interval between the notes A B C D E F G we then derive the interval formula w-h-w-w-h-w. From the previous article we have established that a whole step is two frets on the guitar and a half step is one fret. On the fret board it looks like this:

Learn these two patterns first and afterwards also figure out the other five for the key of A Minor on your guitar (do the same for the key of C major).

Tip: get a paper and pencil and write down into a guitar tab or fret board diagram all the notes you figure out to be belonging into this Scale. Don't rely on your memory for now, you can do this easily later on once you got your 'idiot board' down.

Once you nail these patterns (or even just one pattern), you can apply it to all of the other 11 keys (from A# to G#). Same goes for the Major Scale (see previous post) and all the other scales/modes (more on this in the future).

Another thing to point out here is that in order for you to truly appreciate scales, you need to play it over a chord of the same name (e.g. A minor scale over an A minor chord). You can do this easily if you have a digital sampler or a recorder. Asking a friend who is also learning guitar is a great idea too and your learning process would be so much more fun that doing it on your own. So just play it over and over on your guitar and listen to it as you do. This will train your ears to be able to easily recognise scales by just hearing it and it will be a great tool when transcribing guitar solos. Good luck and have fun!

Understanding Chord Progressions Pt 2

Welcome back! How was the exercise? I hope you actually did it because there are benefits from doing so particularly knowing how chords are derived and recognising whether a chord is major or minor by just examining the interval of the root and the 3rd and how it looks on the fret board.

Anyway, here are the answers: C Dm Em F G Am Bdim (root+minor 3rd+flat 5th which is a half step below 5th)

Did you get all of most (or all) of them? If yes then congratulations. If no, don’t worry. It takes only a little practise in order to get used to it. So keep practising.

So the chords in the key of C major are as stated above. Let’s try putting it into a song (we don't have to use all of them although you can choose to). For the stanza, try C- G- Dm- G--4x; for the chorus C- G- Am- G- C- G- F- G; and for the bridge Am- G--3x – F-G-G ... and so on. The possibility is limitless. You can even put non-diatonic chords (chords that do not belong to a given key). For now just experiment by ear with any 'outsider' chords as there are many approaches to this. In music theory this is called modulation. But this is yet for a future topic. For now determine the chord progression for the other keys as an exercise to help you get used to this. Also, don’t forget to apply this knowledge—write songs of your own now!

Tip: Review the Major scale, write  down on paper the major scale for any key of your choice (other than C), then list the chord progression for this, and voila!... you now have a list of chords to choose from which will fit into your song. No trial and error approach! Well, there is still but then you would have already filtered and narrowed down the chord choices to 7 (all of which fits into your song's key).

Application of things is the only true way to mastery. If you don’t use it, you lose it.

Understanding Scales and Chord Progressions Pt 1

Almost every aspiring guitar player, as he or she progresses and develops into a more highly skilled one eventually appreciates the need or at least becomes interested in learning scales. We all should be! Why? Because it is through understanding and familiarity of it that one can also understand chord progression—a very useful tool when writing your own songs. If you are new to guitar scales, check out my previous post The Major scale.

Writing your own songs

We all know that without any chords, there can be hardly any song or melody that makes sense. A chord is the harmony that results from combining at least three basic pitches. This group of three pitches in harmony is called a triad or chord consisting three notes. But in the context of song- writing, granting that you already know many chords, does this necessarily mean that you know how to organise them in to a flowing music or background music? Not necessarily. Or do you know what gives a chord its name (major, minor, dominant 7^th, major 7^th minor 7^th, etc.)? Not necessarily. Well you can still write a song even without understanding chord progression. The problem is you are only going to go through the painful process of trial and error and it will take a ridiculously long time before you can complete even the simplest song.

In this article, we will learn how to determine the diatonic chords (chords that belong to a particular key) to the C Major key/scale.

From my previous article we have come to know that the C Major scale is C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C. To determine the chords, we just pick every other note in the scale.

So let start by picking C, being the root of the whole scale. Skip the D, pick the E, skip the F, and then pick the G

We have:    C    E   G – C is the root note and we have E as the Major third (2 whole steps from C or simply count 1, 2, 3 from C)  and G as the fifth (count 5 from C taking into account the half step between the 3^rd and 4^th, E and F). In music theory, root +major 3^rd+5^th= Major chord. Therefore the first chord is C major.

Next we have:   D   F   G – D is the root note and we have F as a minor 3^rd (1 ½ steps from root note D) and we have G as the 5^th. This time it is root+minor3rd+5^th= minor chord. Therefore the second chord is D minor.  

Do you see the process now? Do yourself a favour, STOP reading and derive the remaining chords yourself and then get back to compare your answer.

The Major Scale

It is simply the succession of notes in half (semitones) or whole (whole tones) steps within a given key. For example, the C Major scale: C D E F G A B (or the do re mi fa so la ti) with C being the first-degree note, D the second-degree note and so on. For now also take notice that the 6th degree is A (you will later see why). Now notice the distances or intervals between each note. From C to D, it is a whole step as well as the rest except from E to F and B back to C (high).

 

If you find it difficult to understand this, take a look at the keyboard picture below.

As you can see it is composed of black and white keys. Now note that there are no black keys (flat or sharp) in between E and F, and B and C. This explains why it is only a half step between E and F, and B and C. From that analysis we can set the formula for the C Major scale (and all Major scales) which goes: w-w-h-w-w-w-h (w- whole step; h- half step).

               C          D          E          F          G          A          B          c

                 \       /   \       /  \       /   \      /   \       /   \      /   \      /

                    w            w        h          w          w         w          h

On the guitar a whole step is equivalent to two frets and a half step, to one. So if we lay it down on the guitar neck it looks like this:

The C is the root note in the key of C Major

Anything in between the notes are the flats and the sharps. For instance the fret between C and D is called C sharp or D flat. And as you would notice, there is nothing in between E and F, and B and C.

As an alternative to memorising the interval formula, as guitarists we have the benefit of shape or pattern recognition at our disposal. Take note of the peculiar fingering shape as this will help you to easily transpose this to other keys other than C Major so long as they are also ‘Major' keys (C sharp Major, D Major, D sharp Major, and so on) which works exactly like barre chords. This is one advantage that the guitar has above most other instruments. This is the reason why most guitar players and teachers refer to the guitar as a symmetrical instrument. For the mean time, try to familiarise yourself with the Major scale fingering shape/pattern in all keys and get the feel for it so that you can almost immediately play it when the situation calls for it (don't be afraid to use your pinkie). If you are having problems doing this, feel free to leave a comment and I'd be glad to help you.

Watch out for my upcoming post—The Minor scale.