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Using Minor Pentatonic Over Major Chords
The Minor Pentatonic scale is the all-so-famous scale most guitar players start with. It is almost evident everywhere in music. It is in the main riff of Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple and in Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. ‘Pent’ is the Greek word for ‘five’. So how is it that we have stumbled on a 5-note scale that has so many possibilities? I will talk about... -
Songwriting With Chords
It could be said that songs consist of only three things and they are namely melody, lyric and chords. Let’s have a look at how to focus on the use of guitar chord changes in the songwriting process and, how you can use them to make your songs communicate more powerfully. Let’s Add Some Chords When you’re adding chords to a new song you get to decide on the... -
Dorian Mode | Theory Lesson
The Dorian mode leans towards the minor family because of its b3 interval. So all that we have to do is take our minor pentatonic scale and add the intervals that make up our Dorian mode. They are the major 2nd interval and the major 6th interval. Instead of adding the b6 we add to the natural minor scale, we now add a natural or raised 6th interval. Remember... -
Playing Guitar In The Zone
Often while trolling the interweb for choice guitar morsels I’ll see something that aligns with how I feel about guitar. Of course I love to share this with all the GE Blog subscribers. Here’s another page out of another guitar teacher’s book. This time it’s Richard Rossicone: “We’ve all seen it. Quarterbacks completing pass after pass. Basketball players making shot after shot. Goalies making save after save. We often say to... -
Rethink your Approach to Blues Guitar
The internet is such a valuable resource for modern guitarists all over the world. I recently came across this interesting post about music philosophy and his approach to blues guitar by guitar teacher John W. Tuggle on his website http://www.learningguitarnow.com, great site for learning slide blues guitar and thought I’d share it with you: “Am I crazy! A little, but who isn’t? There comes a time when you’ve learned... -
Blues Modal Harmony
The name blues modal harmony may confuse you at first but, have patience and let me explain a few things to help your guitar playing. You will have a greater appreciation for guitar music in general after reading this. When discussing which chords go together in which keys with students, I often have questions about why there are chords in some of their favourite songs (such as Major bVII... -
How to Approach Improvisation as a Beginner
When dealing with improvisation with my students, I use a systematic method that begins with the basic concepts of improvisation and moves through the styles to the more advanced forms of jazz improvisation. I will give a brief overview of how to approach improvisation as a beginner in this blog, there are many ways and this is only one approach, but I have found some success with it. A... -
How To Unleash Your Creativity On The Guitar
Most guitar players are content to learn the classics on guitar as well as testing their strings mettle on the songs of their favourite contemporary acts. The amount of requests I’ve had from my students to learn Hotel California, Stairway to Heaven and Nothing Else Matters is a testament to the fact that there are certain essential songs one should include in their repertoire to get a better melodic... -
The Importance of Studying Blues
The importance of studying blues and its most common 12 bar progression as part of their fundamental studies as guitarists, cannot be emphasized enough! No matter what style you want specialize, in the importance of knowing and being able to handle Blues and its harmony and improvisation within it should never be overlooked. It is the root of most of contemporary music such as Rock, Funk, Soul, Jazz and... -
How To Accelerate Your Guitar Playing
The first thing to do when deciding to accelerate your guitar playing in a certain period of time is to set short-term reachable goals within a long term goal. The long term goal here would be to advance your playing in a period of six months. In order to do this you must break up the long term goal into segments of short term goals and also, very importantly,...
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