Take the major scale as a starting point.
C major gives us the notes C D E F G A B
If you take that same note collection and make it sound like some kind of D scale, you get the D Dorian mode.
If you take that same note collection and make it sound like some…
The first step is to figure out what types of chords can be generated from the scale. Learning to harmonize scales in triads and 7th chords is a typical approach to this.
Once you know what types of chords can be generated from the scale, try stringing two or three of them together and see if…
Keys are a concept based on the idea of setting up a specific tone (tonic) as the point of final rest in a piece of music. Once Harmony was introduced and became the most important tool for setting up and supporting a tonic. this idea developed into two keys – major and minor. Within the…
The diminished 7th arpeggio is most commonly associated with the minor key. If you build a chord off the 7th degree of A harmonic minor, you get G# B D F.
In A minor it usually functions as a leading tone chord that resolves one fret higher into the tonic chord (Amin).
Once you understand how it…
Here are some things you can try with Pentatonics:
* Spend more time playing up and down the strings rather than across the strings.
* Pick every note instead of typical hammer pull licks.
* Avoid bends. Use slides instead.
* Avoid triplet patterns. Instead think in groups of 4, 5 and 6
* Think…
The first step is to practice locating and playing the inversions of each triad type up and down each set of three adjacent strings – CEG then EGC then GCE etc. Do the same for minor, diminished and augmented
Work the triads through major scale harmony on each set of 3 adjacent strings using the…
Playing modes over a pedal tone is going to nail the sound of each mode down, but it can also be misleading in that you can wander around aimlessly within the mode and think you’re really “doing it”.
What you need, though, is to develop a sense of the strong and weak notes in each mode,…
There are five interlocking patterns that are usually taught for the pentatonic scale. Each of those 5 patterns line up along side each other to cover the entire fingerboard with one scale.
A minor pentatonic = A C D E G
Anywhere you find those notes on the fingerboard, it’s the A minor pentatonic scale. If…
Notes all over the fingerboard (learning to read standard notation would be a good idea)
Major scale in all keys all over the fingerboard (key signatures, Circle of Fifths)
Intervals
Triad construction (major, minor, diminished)
Triad Inversions all over the fingerboard
Major key diatonic intervals
Major key triad harmony
7th chords and inversions
Major key 7th chord harmony
Relative major and minor (revisit key…
Scale harmony is breaking a scale up into various chords that all use notes from the scale.
Most progressions will be based on this breakdown of chords with an occasional variation here and there.
Then you have to learn all those chords up and down the fingerboard so you can…
