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The Melodic Minor Scale Deconstructed Part 1
The melodic minor scale is known as the jazz minor scale among seasoned musicians, because of the minor major(-Maj7) sound it creates in your solos. Frequently used by jazz musicians, this notorious sound has also made its appearance in fusion and rock music. The melodic minor has been getting a lot of attention lately because of its unique sound and ability to add a new depth of colour and... -
Jazz Guitar Lick | Free Guitar Lesson
This is a III-VI-II-V-I Jazz Guitar Lick in the key of C Major. The lick utilizes all the “inside notes” of the harmony. It outlines the exact functions of the chords as played in the progression. So, in terms of modes, you will be highlighting Phrygian, Aeolian, Dorian, Mixolydian and Ionian. This would be a typical Be-Bop sounding line. It uses 8th notes throughout the line as well as... -
Guitar Love: Ibanez Hollowbody Guitar
The Ibanez hollowbody guitar and its’ various ranges has a strong grip on the Jazz community of guitar players. When I was looking into getting into jazz and getting a hollowbody, the first place I looked at was the Artcore range. The price was doable and the guitars were pretty good quality. The first model I owned was an AS 73 and I was really chuffed with it at... -
Learning Theory Through Chord Melodies
What are chord melodies? Why learn chord melodies or learn to arrange chord melodies? And how can learning chord melodies help me understand theory better? These are 3 questions that you may ask when looking at the topic of this blog. Firstly, what are chord melodies? Chord melodies, as the name suggests, are exactly that: the melody of a song mixed with its chords. The melody of the song is what the... -
Being a Well-Rounded Guitarist & Musician: Image, Attitude, Ability
Let’s look at what it is to be a well-rounded guitarist. This will also apply to any person aspiring to become the most proficient musician he or she wants to be. “You can be a rock star for five years or a musician for the rest of your life.” – Steve Lukather (Guitarist for Toto & LA Session musician) Being capable in all genres and areas of guitar-playing can... -
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... -
Improve Your Guitar Playing By Listening To Other Instruments
After a few years, when you’ve built up your technique and improvising skills, you’re bound to hit a point where you feel that you’re not improving, or at least not improving as much as you would like to. You feel that while improvising you keep using the same ideas and techniques. You know how to sweep your CAGED shapes, various patterns to use for your runs, the latest tapping... -
Touring As A Guitarist
The true essence of being a rock star… TOURING! It’s every band’s dream to tour the world. Be it a metal band, jazz band, blues trio or an electronic indie hip hop band, touring as a guitarist is an essential part of being a full-time musician. By full time, I mean full time. Tours can go on for months and that doesn’t leave you with much of an... -
Understanding Modes On Guitar
Understanding modes on guitar is a big topic when guitarists start expanding their playing. Can knowledge of modes make you more attractive to the opposite sex? Or increase the speed in your picking hand? Unfortunately not, but for those of us with a desire to expand our knowledge of music and to play more tunefully, they are a more than worthwhile topic of study. I have often been asked... -
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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