The GMC Guitar Theory GrimoirE
INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________________10 1
GUITAR PARTS __________________________________________________________________11 1.1 INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________11 1.1.1 Guitar Parts _____________________________________________________________________11 1.1.2 Tuning Pegs _____________________________________________________________________12 1.1.3 String Tree ______________________________________________________________________12 1.1.4 Head___________________________________________________________________________12 1.1.5 Nut 12 1.1.6 Frets 12 1.1.7 Neck 12 1.1.8 Fret board (or fingerboard) _________________________________________________________12 1.1.9 Strap Button _____________________________________________________________________13 1.1.10 Scratch Plate (Pick Guard) ________________________________________________________13 1.1.11 Pickups ________________________________________________________________________13 1.1.12 Tremolo _______________________________________________________________________13 1.1.13 Selector Switch__________________________________________________________________13 1.1.14 Volume Knob ___________________________________________________________________14 1.1.15 Tone Knobs ____________________________________________________________________14 1.1.16 Output Jack ____________________________________________________________________14 1.1.17 Bridge_________________________________________________________________________14 1.1.18 Saddles ________________________________________________________________________14 1.1.19 Intonation Adjustment ____________________________________________________________14 1.1.20 Truss Rod (not shown) ____________________________________________________________14 1.2 PICKUP TYPES____________________________________________________________________15 1.3 SOME POPULAR GUITAR TYPES ______________________________________________________16
2
THEORY BASICS FOR GUITAR ____________________________________________________18 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5
3
NOTE NAMING AND OCTAVES ________________________________________________________18 FLATS AND SHARPS, TONES AND SEMI-TONES ___________________________________________18 NOTES ON THE GUITAR _____________________________________________________________19 SCALES AND KEYS ________________________________________________________________20 CHORDS ________________________________________________________________________21 READING MUSIC TABS AND MUSIC NOTATION (BEGINNER)________________________22
3.1 PART 1: TABS ____________________________________________________________________22 3.1.1 Introduction _____________________________________________________________________22 3.1.2 Tab vs. Music ____________________________________________________________________22 3.1.3 Guitar Tabs _____________________________________________________________________23 3.1.4 Decorations and Expression ________________________________________________________25 3.1.5 Tabbing Programs ________________________________________________________________27 3.1.6 An Example Tab __________________________________________________________________27 3.2 PART 2: MUSIC NOTATION___________________________________________________________30 3.2.1 Introduction _____________________________________________________________________30 3.2.2 Stave___________________________________________________________________________32
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3.2.3 Treble Clef ______________________________________________________________________32 3.2.4 Key Signature____________________________________________________________________34 3.2.5 Time Signature ___________________________________________________________________34 3.2.6 The Notes _______________________________________________________________________35 3.2.7 Keys, Sharps and Flats ____________________________________________________________38 3.2.8 Accidentals______________________________________________________________________40 3.2.9 Timing _________________________________________________________________________41 3.2.10 Annotations ____________________________________________________________________43 3.2.11 Conclusion _____________________________________________________________________45 4
FINDING THE KEY OF A SONG ____________________________________________________46 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5
5
INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________46 SHEET MUSIC ____________________________________________________________________46 TABLATURE______________________________________________________________________47 BY EAR _________________________________________________________________________48 BY EXAMPLE_____________________________________________________________________49 INTRODUCTION TO SCALES______________________________________________________51
5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11 5.12 6
INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________51 WHAT ARE SCALES? A TECHNICAL VIEW _______________________________________________51 SCALES VS. PATTERNS _____________________________________________________________53 SCALES VS. KEYS _________________________________________________________________54 WHAT ARE SCALES? A MUSICAL VIEW ________________________________________________55 WHY ARE THEY SO IMPORTANT? _____________________________________________________55 WHAT ARE THESE "BOXES" THAT EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT? _______________________________56 BOXES AND SCALES _______________________________________________________________56 HOW SHOULD I PRACTICE SCALES? ___________________________________________________57 A NOTE ON ROOTS ________________________________________________________________57 WHAT SCALES SHOULD I LEARN? ____________________________________________________58 A FINAL WORD ___________________________________________________________________59 READING SCALE DIAGRAMS _____________________________________________________60
6.1 6.2 6.3 7
INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________60 EXAMPLE: A MINOR PENTATONIC _____________________________________________________60 MORE EXAMPLES _________________________________________________________________61 THE MINOR PENTATONIC AND BLUES SCALES ____________________________________63
7.1 INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________63 7.2 INTRODUCING THE MINOR PENTATONIC SCALE __________________________________________63 7.2.1 On the Fret board ________________________________________________________________64 7.3 THE BLUES SCALE ________________________________________________________________65 7.4 THE MINOR PENTATONIC SCALE IN ACTION _____________________________________________66 8
THE MAJOR PENTATONIC SCALE ________________________________________________67 8.1
INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________67
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8.2 8.3 9
THE MAJOR PENTATONIC SCALE______________________________________________________67 ON THE FRET BOARD_______________________________________________________________67 MAJOR SCALES 101 ______________________________________________________________69
9.1 9.2 9.3 10
INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________69 THE MAJOR SCALE ________________________________________________________________69 ON THE FRET BOARD_______________________________________________________________69 RELATIVE MINORS ______________________________________________________________71
10.1 PART 1 _________________________________________________________________________71 10.1.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________________71 10.2 PART 2 _________________________________________________________________________73 10.2.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________________73 10.2.2 The Natural Minor Scale __________________________________________________________73 10.2.3 On the Fret board _______________________________________________________________74 11
WRITING SOLOS _________________________________________________________________76 11.1
12
LESSON TO BE CREATED ____________________________________________________________76 INTERVALS, TRIADS, CHORDS AND HARMONIES (INTERMEDIATE) ________________77
12.1 PART 1: DEGREES OF THE SCALE______________________________________________________77 12.1.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________________77 12.1.2 Degrees of the Scale______________________________________________________________77 12.2 PART 2: INTERVALS ________________________________________________________________80 12.2.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________________80 12.2.2 What is an Interval?______________________________________________________________80 12.2.3 The Complete Set ________________________________________________________________81 12.2.4 Interval Modifiers _______________________________________________________________81 12.2.5 An Alternative Terminology ________________________________________________________83 12.2.6 Final Thoughts__________________________________________________________________85 12.3 PART 3: POWER CHORDS____________________________________________________________85 12.3.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________________85 12.3.2 What are they? __________________________________________________________________85 12.3.3 POWER CHORD SHAPES______________________________________________________________86 12.3.4 Smokin'________________________________________________________________________89 12.4 PART 4: TRIADS___________________________________________________________________89 12.4.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________________89 12.4.2 Major Triad ____________________________________________________________________90 12.4.3 Minor Triad ____________________________________________________________________91 12.4.4 Diminished Triad ________________________________________________________________91 12.4.5 Augmented Triad ________________________________________________________________92 12.4.6 Other Triads____________________________________________________________________93 12.4.7 Final Words ____________________________________________________________________93 12.5 SEVENTH CHORDS ________________________________________________________________93 12.5.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________________________93
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12.5.2 Triads and Relative Intervals_______________________________________________________94 12.5.3 Sevenths: What are they?__________________________________________________________94 12.5.4 Major 7ths _____________________________________________________________________95 12.5.5 Seventh Progressions _____________________________________________________________98 12.5.6 Conclusion ____________________________________________________________________100 12.6 PART 6: EXTENDED CHORDS________________________________________________________100 12.6.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________100 12.6.2 Taking it Past the Octave _________________________________________________________100 12.7 SUSPENDED AND ADDED TONE CHORDS ______________________________________________103 12.7.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________103 12.7.2 Suspended Chords ______________________________________________________________103 12.7.3 Added Tone Chords _____________________________________________________________105 12.8 PART 8: ALTERED CHORDS _________________________________________________________107 12.8.1 Lesson to be created ____________________________________________________________107 12.9 PART 9: UPPER STRUCTURE AND POLY CHORDS _________________________________________107 12.9.1 Lesson to be created ____________________________________________________________107 12.10 SIMPLE HARMONIES______________________________________________________________107 12.10.1 Introduction __________________________________________________________________107 12.10.2 What is Harmony? _____________________________________________________________107 12.10.3 Scales and Intervals ____________________________________________________________108 12.10.4 In Practice ___________________________________________________________________112 12.11 PART 11: CADENCES ______________________________________________________________112 12.11.1 Introduction __________________________________________________________________112 12.11.2 Four basic kinds of cadence______________________________________________________112 12.11.3 Cadences in action _____________________________________________________________113 13
ARPEGGIOS ____________________________________________________________________117 13.1
14
LESSON TO BE CREATED ___________________________________________________________117 CIRCLE OF FIFTHS _____________________________________________________________118
14.1 INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________________________118 14.2 THE CIRCLE_____________________________________________________________________118 14.3 THE 5THS ______________________________________________________________________119 14.4 RELATED KEYS __________________________________________________________________120 14.5 KEY SIGNATURES ________________________________________________________________121 14.6 DERIVING THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS AND ASSOCIATED SCALES _______________________________124 14.7 FINDING THE ORDER OF SHARPS AND FLATS ___________________________________________125 14.8 CHORD PROGRESSIONS ____________________________________________________________126 14.9 THE FINISHED CIRCLE_____________________________________________________________126 14.10 FINAL WORD _____________________________________________________________________127 15
CHORDS FOR SCALES___________________________________________________________129 15.1 15.2 15.3
INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________________________129 SO, WHAT CHORDS CAN I USE? ______________________________________________________129 WHY THOSE CHORDS? ____________________________________________________________129
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15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.8 15.9 16
CHORDS FOR A C MAJOR SCALE _____________________________________________________130 BACK TO THE SCALE______________________________________________________________130 MINOR SCALES __________________________________________________________________133 SCALES CHORDS AND MODES_______________________________________________________133 OTHER SCALES __________________________________________________________________134 PROGRESSIONS __________________________________________________________________135 SCALES FOR CHORDS: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW _________________________________________136 CAGED _________________________________________________________________________138
16.1 PART 1: INTRODUCTION AND THE C SHAPE _____________________________________________138 16.1.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________138 16.1.2 So what is it? __________________________________________________________________138 16.1.3 A Mystery Solved _______________________________________________________________138 16.1.4 Our First Scale: the C shape ______________________________________________________139 16.2 PART 2: THE AGED IN CAGED _____________________________________________________141 16.2.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________141 16.2.2 The A Shape ___________________________________________________________________142 16.2.3 The G Shape___________________________________________________________________143 16.2.4 The E Shape ___________________________________________________________________144 16.2.5 The D Shape___________________________________________________________________145 16.2.6 Next Steps ____________________________________________________________________146 17
TIME 101 _______________________________________________________________________147 17.1 PART 1 - NOTES__________________________________________________________________147 17.1.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________147 17.1.2 Note Lengths __________________________________________________________________147 17.1.3 Tied Notes ____________________________________________________________________148 17.1.4 Dotted Notes __________________________________________________________________149 17.1.4 Triplet’s ______________________________________________________________________149 17.1.5 Rests _________________________________________________________________________151 17.2 PART 2: TIME SIGNATURES _________________________________________________________151 17.2.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________151 17.2.2 Structure and Bars or Measures ___________________________________________________151 17.2.3 Time Signatures ________________________________________________________________152 17.2.4 Simple or Compound ____________________________________________________________153 17.2.5 So why are these times simple? ____________________________________________________153 17.2.6 Compound time signatures _______________________________________________________154 17.3 ODD TIME SIGNATURES ___________________________________________________________155 17.3.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________155 17.3.2 How does it work? ______________________________________________________________155 17.3.3 Here's how ____________________________________________________________________156 17.3.4 Seven Beats ___________________________________________________________________156 17.3.5 Final Word ____________________________________________________________________157
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EAR TRAINING (INTERMEDIATE) ________________________________________________158
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18.1 19
LESSON TO BE CREATED ___________________________________________________________158 MOVING THE BOXES: A GUIDE TO TRANSPOSITION AND SCALE SELECTION ______159
19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 20
INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________________________159 ROOT NOTES____________________________________________________________________159 SCALE SELECTION________________________________________________________________160 TRANSPOSITION _________________________________________________________________162 BREAKING OUT OF THE BOXES _________________________________________________166
20.1 21
LESSON TO BE CREATED ___________________________________________________________166 HARMONICS ___________________________________________________________________167
21.1 INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________________________167 21.2 WHAT IS A HARMONIC? ___________________________________________________________167 21.3 WHAT DOES CREATING A HARMONIC MEAN IN GUITAR PLAYING TERMS? ______________________169 21.4 HOW DO WE PERCEIVE HARMONICS? ________________________________________________171 21.5 NATURAL HARMONIC _____________________________________________________________171 21.6 ARTIFICIAL HARMONIC ____________________________________________________________172 21.7 PINCH HARMONIC________________________________________________________________172 21.8 TAP HARMONIC _________________________________________________________________173 21.9 WHAMMY BAR HARMONICS________________________________________________________173 21.10 PICKUPS, TREBLE AND GAIN _______________________________________________________173 22
MODES 101 _____________________________________________________________________175 22.1 PART 1: MODES, AN INTRODUCTION__________________________________________________175 22.1.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________175 22.1.2 A Little Bit of History____________________________________________________________175 22.1.2 So what are they?_______________________________________________________________175 22.1.3 What Use Are they? _____________________________________________________________176 22.1.4 What are they really? ____________________________________________________________176 22.1.5 Ionian Mode___________________________________________________________________177 22.1.6 Aeolian Mode __________________________________________________________________178 22.1.7 The Families __________________________________________________________________178 22.1.8 The Majors____________________________________________________________________178 22.1.9 The Minors____________________________________________________________________179 22.1.10 Phrygian ____________________________________________________________________179 22.1.11 Locrian ______________________________________________________________________179 22.1.12 Mode Comparison _____________________________________________________________180 22.2 PART2: MODES, THE THEORY_______________________________________________________181 22.2.1 INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________181 22.2.2 How Do We Generate Modes?_____________________________________________________181 22.2.3 Again, What exactly is a Mode? ___________________________________________________184 22.2.4 Is that all there is to modes? ______________________________________________________185 22.3 PART 3: IONIAN, LYDIAN, MIXOLYDIAN _______________________________________________185 22.3.1 Lesson to be created ____________________________________________________________185
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22.4 PART 4: AEOLIAN, DORIAN, PHRYGIAN, LOCRIAN _______________________________________186 22.4.1 Lesson to be created ____________________________________________________________186 23
MINOR SCALES REVISITED _____________________________________________________187 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 23.5 23.6
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INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________________________187 MINOR SCALES __________________________________________________________________187 THE NATURAL MINOR AND ITS PROBLEM ______________________________________________187 HARMONIC MINOR, AND ITS PROBLEM ________________________________________________188 FULL MELODIC MINOR ____________________________________________________________189 CONCLUSION____________________________________________________________________189 COMPLEX HARMONIES _________________________________________________________190
24.1 25
LESSON TO BE CREATED ___________________________________________________________190 THREE NOTES PER STRING _____________________________________________________191
25.1 PART 1 ________________________________________________________________________191 25.1.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________191 25.1.2 Uses _________________________________________________________________________191 25.1.2 Constructing a 3 notes per string scale ______________________________________________192 25.1.3 Second pattern and beyond! ___________________________________________________193 25.1.4 Why Seven Patterns?_________________________________________________________196 25.2 PART 2 ________________________________________________________________________197 25.2.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________197 25.2.2 Wait a minute... ________________________________________________________________199 25.2.3 Modes________________________________________________________________________201 26
EXOTIC SCALES ________________________________________________________________204 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 26.5 26.6
27
INTRODUCTION TO EXOTIC SCALES ___________________________________________________204 EXOTIC SCALES: HARMONIC MINOR _________________________________________________205 EXOTIC SCALES: MELODIC MINOR___________________________________________________205 EXOTIC SCALES: LYDIAN DOMINANT_________________________________________________207 EXOTIC SCALES: HALF WHOLE DIMINISHED ___________________________________________207 EXOTIC SCALES: PHRYGIAN DOMINANT_______________________________________________208 THEORY FEATURES _____________________________________________________________209
27.1 INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________________________209 27.2 MODAL PENTATONIC______________________________________________________________209 27.2.1 A Digression: Pentatonic Modes ___________________________________________________209 27.2.3 Back to Modal Pentatonic ________________________________________________________210 27.2.4 Pentatonic and Minor/Major Scales ________________________________________________210 27.2.5 Modal Pentatonic through Scales __________________________________________________211 27.2.6 Modal Pentatonic Through Chords _________________________________________________212 27.2.7 Modal Pentatonic In Use _________________________________________________________213 27.2.8 Pentatonic Scales for Modes ______________________________________________________216 27.2.9 What Are We Really Doing Here? __________________________________________________217
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27.3 MODAL CHORD PROGRESSIONS _____________________________________________________218 27.3.1 Introduction ___________________________________________________________________218 27.3.2 Chords for Modes ______________________________________________________________218 27.3.3 Building a Progression __________________________________________________________219 27.3.4 The Chords Themselves __________________________________________________________220 27.4 PENTATONIC SUBSTITUTIONS _______________________________________________________221 27.4.1 Lesson to be created ____________________________________________________________221 27.5 DORIAN: HARMONIC MINOR________________________________________________________221 27.5.1 Lesson to be created ____________________________________________________________221 28
RESOURCES ____________________________________________________________________222 28.1
PAGE DEDICATED TO RESOURCE LINKS ________________________________________________222
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Introduction A foreword by Chris Lound (Loundzilla) I'm sure everyone will agree with me that www.guitarmasterclass.net is the best website available for guitar lessons / theory and just about every resource available online to help melt some faces with your high voltage rock.... not to menLon a kick ass community! I for sure have learnt so much whilst discovering this site! One of the biggest things for me is learning some of the theory behind those kick ass riffs and face melLng solos that we hear every day while driving to work, siQng waiLng for the bus or just siQng at home chilling out. A few days aRer discovering this, I was due to go to a friend's party, but me being me I didn't want to go anywhere without this awesome theory secLon. So then it hit me! I needed to take all this awesome informaLon and create a theory manual out of it that I could print off and take with me where ever I went so when I had some downLme I could learn some more cool stuff about my beloved baTle axe! I think its fare to say that a lot of Lme and effort has gone into creaLng this “theory vault” on GMC and I hope you will join me in saying a massive thank you to all who have had a huge input into compiling it.
GMC Forum Name
Input
Andrew Cockburn
Creator of GMC Theories
Javari Kaneda Wheeler Tank
Fret board diagram (secLon 2) Clef illustraLons (SecLon 3) InformaLon in secLon 5 InformaLon in secLon 5, InformaLon in secLon 17, proof reading secLon 22 Cadences (secLon 12), Three notes per string(secLon 25) InformaLon in of Circle of fiRhs (secLon 14)
DeepRoots Tsuki
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1
Guitar Parts
1.1
Introduction
When you first pick up a guitar and start looking at the forums of GMC there are a bewildering variety of terms and word in use that might make liTle sense. In this lesson we are going to fix that by taking a brief tour of the various parts that make up a guitar, some different guitar types and a liTle info about adjustments you can make to your guitar.
1.1.1 Guitar Parts Let’s jump straight in and look at a typical electric guitar and figure out what all the parts are for and what they are called. This guitar is a Fender Stratocaster and has similar features to a lot of electric guitars.
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1.1.2 Tuning Pegs These are used to tune your guitar. On a properly setup guitar you would turn these clockwise to raise the pitch and anL-‐clockwise to lower it.
1.1.3 String Tree The string tree is there to prevent the strings from pulling up out of the nut. Some guitars angle the head backwards so no string trees are needed, but this is harder to build so cheaper guitars parLcularly will have string trees.
1.1.4 Head The head (or headstock) is the name for the piece of wood from the nut upwards, and exists really to locate the tuning mechanisms.
1.1.5 Nut This is a piece of plasLc or metal that has grooves for all the strings to go through. It acts as an anchor for the strings vibraLons, but allows the string to move through it to allow tuning.
1.1.6 Frets Frets are metal inserts into the neck, they are slightly raised. When you play the guitar, in order to change the pitch of the notes on a parLcular string, you would press down in between 2 frets. The string is then pressed onto the higher fret which acts as a stop for the string, shortening it and making it play a higher note.
1.1.7 Neck The neck is the name for the piece of wood that holds the frets, from the body of the guitar at one end, up to the nut at the other.
1.1.8 Fret board (or fingerboard) Is the name for the combinaLon of the top part of the neck and the frets. It is the place where all the fingering happens, and is usually laid out as 22 or 24 frets. 24 Frets is 2 complete octaves (octaves will be explained in a later lesson). The layout of the frets is according to mathemaLcal rules calculated to make the pitches between frets even -‐ for that reason, the distance between each fret is slightly less, and by the Lme you get to the higher frets, they are preTy close together. A good knowledge of the fret board, and what note each fret posiLon on each string represents is something to strive for as a guitarist.
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1.1.9 Strap Button The strap buTon is a metal protrusion that you hook your strap onto so you can play whilst standing. There are two -‐ the one shown, and another on the boTom of the guitar.
1.1.10 Scratch Plate (Pick Guard) The scratch plate is usually a piece of plasLc. It exists to cover up some of the electronics of the guitar and to protect the finish of the guitar from over enthusiasLc pick movements.
1.1.11 Pickups One of the most important parts of an electric guitar, the pickups exist to convert the vibraLons of the string into an electrical signal. There are various types of pickup of which more later. Having more than one pickup gives the guitar greater versaLlity because you get s different sound depending where exactly on the string you place the pickup. Nearer to the neck gives a fuller more bass heavy sound, nearer to the bridge gives you a more trebly and cuQng sound.
1.1.12 Tremolo The tremolo mechanism consists of a movable arm and a pivot point for the bridge. Moving the tremolo arm will raise or lower the pitch of all the strings at once, and is used to give a vibrato type of effect. In fact, the word tremolo here is a complete misnomer as tremolo refers to a change in volume, but the name has stuck. The type shown here is a simple tremolo, and these oRen have problems with tuning. A more complex locking tremolo (oRen called a Floyd Rose or FR for short, aRer the company that made them popular) is fiTed to some guitars, especially guitars intended for shredding where extreme tremolo acLon is far more common.
1.1.13 Selector Switch The selector switch changes which of the 3 pickups is acLve. Most guitars with 3 pickups have a 5 way selector switch allowing you to make two pickups acLve at a Lme to blend the tone.
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1.1.14 Volume Knob The volume knob controls the overall output level of the guitar. Some guitars have just one volume control; others might have one volume control for each pickup.
1.1.15 Tone Knobs Tone knobs control the treble and bass output of the guitar. The effecLveness of tone controls varies across guitars, some make liTle difference. Some guitars will have one overall tone control, others will have mulLple controls.
1.1.16 Output Jack This is where the electrical output of the guitar appears. Take a jack lead, plug one end in here, and the other end into your amplifier.
1.1.17 Bridge The bridge overall is the mechanism that holds the strings in place at the boTom of the guitar. A liTle more complex than the nut, it allows a couple of different types of adjustment.
1.1.18 Saddles The saddles are what stop the string vibraLng at the bridge end. Similar in funcLon to a nut, but on electric guitars, there is one saddle per string as opposed to the nut which is a single piece of plasLc for all strings. The saddles can be directly adjusted to change the height of the string over the fret board.
1.1.19 Intonation Adjustment Another job of the saddles is to allow adjustment of the intonaLon. What this really comes down to, is that for mathemaLcal reasons, each string on the guitar needs to be a different length. The intonaLon adjustment is a screw that let’s you move the saddle nearer to or further away from the nut, thus seQng the overall length of the part of the string that vibrates.
1.1.20 Truss Rod (not shown) Most electric guitars have a long metal rod built into the neck that serves two purposes. It sLffens the neck so that whilst under tension it doesn't bow, and it also allows adjustment to make the neck flat in the first place. (Actually, the correct adjustment leaves a Lny amount of curve in the neck for string clearance up and down the neck). Of all of the adjustments described in this lesson, the truss rod is the only one that has the potenLal to damage your guitar if incorrectly used so be careful -‐ this adjustment is beTer leR to a professional.
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1.2
Pickup Types
The pickups shown in the guitar above are of a parLcular type called single coil. This was the original type of pickup, and consists of a magnet with a coil of wire wrapped around it. As the string vibrates above the poles of the magnet, it induces a small current in the coil. This current is usually fed into an amplifier where it is made much larger, and drives a speaker to devastaLng sonic effect. The pickup is one on the more important sonic pieces of a guitar, and you can change the sound of a guitar radically by changing the pickups for a different type. Here is a close-‐up of a single coil pickup.
One problem with single coil pickups is that they are suscepLble to picking up electrical signals such as mains hum. This can be very annoying, so to combat this, in the 1950s Gibson invented the Humbucker pickup -‐ so called because it bucks the hum! In construcLon it is preTy simple -‐ two single coil pickups are wired together in opposite direcLons, so that any signal induced in opposite direcLons (such as the hum) will be cancelled out. The real signal is not cancelled because it is in the same direcLon in both pickups. Not only does this dramaLcally reduce the hum, but owing to the fact that this is two pickups instead of one, the pickup as a whole generates a larger signal. An unintended yet really important side effect of the way Humbucker's work, is that the tone they output is very different to a single coil. Humbucker's sound warm, fat and more bass heavy, whereas single coils sound more treble heavy, and cuQng. Humbucker's someLmes have a plate over them that hides the fact that there is a double pickup, but you can usually spot them because they are a lot wider than single coil pickups.
An important part of the sound of any guitar is the type of its pickups -‐ some guitars use a single type, but many mix and match to give more versaLlity.
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1.3
Some Popular Guitar Types
Now we have the basics, let's take a quick look at a few popular guitar types and see what they are good for. The first thing to emphasize is that any guitar can really play any type of music; the determining factor is how good the guitarist is. Having said that, various guitars are associated with parLcular music types, but there will always be excepLons. Fender Stratocaster: With it bright sounding single coil pickups, the Fender Stratocaster has been used a lot for lead work by people such as Eric Clapton, or a more fusion oriented sound by the likes of Eric Johnson. Also played by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, it is versaLle, but excels at lead or cuQng chord work
Fender Telecaster: Similar in concept to the Stratocaster, but with simpler design, the Telecaster with its single coil sound is loved by Country and Western players, yet played just as much by mainstream rock acts. It has a disLncLve twang to its sound, courtesy of its single coil pickups. The Telecaster was played at various Lmes by stars such as George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and even Elvis Presley.
Gibson Les Paul: Marketed as the signature guitar of Les Paul (the guy who invented mulL-‐track recording amongst other achievements), this Les Paul with its deep warm Humbucker sound and notable sustain due to its heavy construcLon saw a resurgence in the 60s when it was picked up by rock acts in this era. Notable Les Paul players are Jimmy Page and Zack Wylde. Les Pauls are also extremely good guitars for playing blues.
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Ibanez Jem: The Ibanez Jem is a signature model of Steve Vai, but is representaLve of Ibanez guitars in general. Featuring a Locking Tremolo, Single Coil and Humbucker pickups in various combinaLons, these guitars are designed for versaLlity and playability. Whilst they don't have as disLncLve a tone as the models menLoned above, they are versaLle instruments, and oRen held up as archetypal shred guitars, although the truth is that you can shred on any guitar if you have the skill for it.
Of course there are many other guitar types, this is just a small sample, but these are the most oRen copied models. There is a great market in cheaper versions of these instruments, for instance Squier making Stratocaster copies, and Epiphone making copies of various Gibson guitars. In addiLon, there are other designs such as the Gibson SG, or Flying V that are popular for specific genres of music, oRen as much for image reasons as parLcular sounds.
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2
Theory Basics for Guitar
Hi all, and welcome to theory basics. This lesson introduces some of the basic concepts that we will be using in other lessons on the board. There are a lot of words and concepts that the beginner needs to pick up, this is an ideal place to start if you are a beginner, and will give you an insight into some of the language and concepts you need to move onto some of the more complex lessons.
2.1
Note Naming and Octaves
Let’s start off with how the notes we all use are named. There are a total of 7 different notes in the scales that are commonly used in Western music. Some but not all notes are split into half notes (see tones and semi-‐tones later). We name the whole notes aRer leTers of the alphabet, starLng at A and moving through to G. At G we circle back around to A again. Once we have moved through 8 whole notes and got back to where we started from, the notes sound the same but higher. The notes with the same name are an Octave apart. Notes that are an octave apart are equivalent in musical funcLon; they just sound higher or lower. In fact, if two notes are an octave apart, the higher note will have twice the frequency of the lower note. It's called an octave because there are 8 notes in total, including the equivalent notes at the beginning and end of the sequence. The doubling in frequency between notes an octave apart points to something in our nervous system that finds this relaLonship sensible and pleasant to listen to, so we organise our musical scales around this concept.
2.2
Flats and Sharps, Tones and Semi-tones
I said that there 8 whole notes -‐ it turns out that we also need half notes to play any possible tune. By convenLon in western music, we place half notes between all of the whole notes except for 2 specific pairs -‐ E,F and B,C. Why do we do this? It all stems form the way that Major scales are constructed, which you can read about in later lessons, here. We construct scales from a mixture of half notes and whole notes depending on the scale and use 8 whole notes along with some half notes which give us the flexibility to do this. Remember that music notaLon has developed over many thousands of years, so doesn't necessarily make perfect sense, but it soon becomes second nature when you start working with it. The half notes are called semi-‐tones, and the whole notes are called tones. We have 2 ways to refer to the semitones. We can figure them by raising a semi-‐tone from a parLcular note, which we call a sharp, and we use the '#' sign to denote this. Or, we can figure the note by stepping down a semitone from a higher note -‐ we call this a flat, and use the 'b' to denote this. So, we can talk about the notes A and B, and the note in between them which we could call A# or Bb.
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Remember above when I said that certain pairs of notes do not have a semitone between them? Another way of saying this is that there is no such note as E#, or B#, or using the flat notaLon, Fb and Cb do not exist. (Side note: Actually there are some unusual circumstances in which we talk about E#, B#, Fb and Cb, but these are really notaLonal devices, and don't refer to addiLonal notes. We will learn about this later). So you should now see that there are actually 12 disLnct semi-‐tones in an octave (we usually say 13 because we count the octave note as well). These are: A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab and back to A again making 13. In Western music, no other notes than these exist, and every song wriTen uses a combinaLon of these in various octaves, so a tune or melody is simply a sequence of semi-‐tones A-‐G# spaced apart and with some noLon of rhythm so that they are not all equally spaced. Why 12 Semitones? Why not more or less? The simple answer is convenLon. Western music seTled on the 8 note scale a long Lme ago, and uses half notes as the fundamental basis for all music. Some cultures use quarter notes in their scales, but they sound strange to western ears. Occasionally on guitar we use quarter note bends to add emphasis and phrasing, especially in blues, but we do not construct scales out of them
2.3
Notes on the Guitar
Next, it might be a good idea to learn where all of these notes are on a guitar. Fortunately, its easy to work out with some basic knowledge. Owing to the fact that there are 6 strings on the guitar, and they are all tuned differently, and the fact that the notes repeat when you get to an octave, there are many places you can play a given note on a guitar. It all starts with knowing the notes made by the open strings. An open string is what we call a string that is played without the leR hand pressing on it anywhere to fret a note. By contrast a freTed note (we would oRen say something like "play the 3rd fret") is a note in which you leR hand presses down on the string in between the frets, forcing the string to rest against a fret and play a higher note. So, what are the open strings? StarLng from the highest (and thinnest) string and moving upwards (upwards because you are looking down at the guitar), the notes are E, B, G, D, A, E -‐ remember this! Another way of referring to the strings is by number. The thin E string is called the first string; the B string is called the second string, and so on, to the 6th E string. Now, how do we make the rest of the notes? Very simple, you just fret the string and play it. How do we figure out what the notes are? The rule is simple. Moving up a fret means you move up a semitone. Let’s play a G. How can we do that? The easiest way is to play the open G or 3rd string, but
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there are many other opLons, and you can play one or more G notes on each string. Let’s take the first string. We know that open it is an E, so at the 1st fret it is an F (no E# remember?). The 2nd fret would be F #. The 3rd fret would be ... G! That was easy, let’s try another. StarLng on the B string -‐ B, C (no B#), C#, D, D#, E, F (no E#), F#, G -‐ so that is the 8th fret. Just for completeness, here are all the notes on the fret board:
That's all there is to it! It's worthwhile memorizing all of the notes on the fret board, it will help you later on.
2.4
Scales and Keys
Scales are the foundaLon of Western music -‐ and a scale is nothing but an arrangement of notes! To make up a scale, we take a selecLon of notes from the list I gave you earlier and arrange them in ascending order. It is the spacing of the notes in a scale that gives it a character that is imposed on the song. Once we have a scale, we use it to select notes for the tune of the song, and use it to make chords out of, so as you can see, the idea of a scale underlies everything we do musically. A lot of songs will have one scale throughout but there is nothing stopping you from using as many scales as you want in a song. Since there are so many possible combinaLons of all of the notes shown above, we tend to organize scales into families, and use a formula for each family. For instance, the formula for a major scale is actually the spacing's between the notes in the scale, and is discussed in the Major scale lesson here. Once you have a formula for a scale type, you can use it with any starLng note to get 12 variaLons. Examples of scale families are Major, Minor, Minor Pentatonic -‐ we might talk about a C major scale, a Bb Minor scale or an A minor pentatonic scale. There are literally hundreds of different scale types, but don't worry, I just menLoned the 3 most common, and its perfectly possible to be an accomplished musician if you only ever learn those 3 variaLons. However, scales are extremely
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important, and if you want to be a decent guitarist you need to put in the Lme to learn these and other scales and be able to play them quickly and cleanly without thinking about it. A key is best understood iniLally as a scale family type along with the note you are starLng the scale from. So keys could be A Major, B Minor etc. In fact, we usually only use the major and minor scale types to denote a key. A key is different from a scale in that it defines the tonal centre of a piece of music -‐ that is to say the chord that the song keeps returning to. It is possible to use different scales and chords in passing in a piece, yet remain in the original key.
2.5
Chords
Chords are simply a number of notes played together at the same Lme. They are usually strummed on the guitar (strumming means taking your pick and playing all of the notes in the chord together with a simple downward or upward sweep, so the notes sound as near to simultaneously as possible). There are many different chord types-‐ chords have their own rules for construcLon, using specific selecLons of notes from a scale. Again, like scales, chords have families, and the 2 most common are major and minor -‐ so named because their notes are selected from Major and Minor scales respecLvely. Actually that is a slight simplificaLon as we will see in later lessons, but it is enough to give you the idea for now.
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3 Reading Music Tabs and Music Notation (beginner) 3.1
Part 1: Tabs
3.1.1 Introduction Hi all. In this 2 part series we are going to look at how we write down what we play. We do this for many reasons -‐ to remember a killer riff we just wrote, to allow others to reproduce what we play, to capture the performances of our guitar heroes so that we and others can learn to play them, or just to simply illustrate a point in the forum like "I am playing this run, and I have a problem with the 3rd note ...". So all in all, being able to read and write music notaLon in some way is essenLal. There are 2 methods of wriLng down the notes. The first is guitar specific and is called tab, and is the easiest to understand. The second is more general and is called music notaLon or some variaLon thereof. Now, I know what you are thinking -‐ "I'll have a look at this tab lesson, because I know tab is easy and it makes sense -‐ I'll skip the second lesson". I'd like to explain why that might be a mistake, and how you will benefit from looking at both parts of this lesson, and I'm doing it here at the beginning while I sLll have your aTenLon :)
3.1.2 Tab vs. Music So why do we need both? Well they both perform different yet complimentary funcLons. As a well rounded guitarist you need to understand both. Tab on its own, whilst it is easy to understand has a couple of serious flaws. The first is that it doesn't contain any Lming informaLon at all. That's a fairly serious shortcoming if you think about it. If you have a sequence of 4 notes they could be anything from extremely slow and equal notes, to super fast notes, to triplets. They could even all be completely different duraLons and you wouldn't know it. The second flaw that tab has is that it doesn't contain any key informaLon. That's not quite so serious, but can be important if you want to use a tab as a basis, and maybe go on to improvise something similar. Music on its own also has a couple of flaws. Firstly it is not designed specifically for the guitar, so does not give any guidance on where to play the individual notes. On a piano this is not serious, but on a guitar, it can make a lot of difference exactly which string you play the notes on.
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Secondly, again since it is not designed for the guitar, music notaLon can't convey such things as bends, slides and other subtleLes, so if you play guitar from music, it will be very dry and will lack much of the expressiveness that we can use with a guitar vs a piano. So on it’s own, each form of music notaLon has its limitaLons. Only when they are taken together can they come somewhere near to conveying the subtleLes of a piece of music. I'm not suggesLng that you become an expert musical sight reader, but I am suggesLng that having knowledge of musical notaLon will help you when you are working on some of the more complex tabs you are likely to meet. So with that in mind, please give part two a look when you are done with part one!
3.1.3 Guitar Tabs Ok, that's enough of that, let’s get down to business! In this lesson we will look at tabs which are the easiest type of notaLon to start with as they are very intuiLve to guitarists. The basic premise is extremely simple. A tab is a representaLon of the strings of a guitar, with the lowest string on the boTom. As you read from leR to right, the tab has numbers placed on the individual strings that denote the fret you need to play the note at. Here's what it looks like:
One great thing about tab is that you can also show it in character form -‐ really great for posts: E||-------|-------|| B||-------|-------|| G||-------|-------|| D||-------|-------|| A||-------|-------|| E||-------|-------|| And heres an example of it in use -‐ a simple scale of C major:
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Or in character form: E||----------------------|----------------------|| B||----------------------|------------0----1----|| G||----------------------|--0----2--------------|| D||-------0----2----3----|----------------------|| A||--3-------------------|----------------------|| E||----------------------|----------------------|| So roughly translated, this says: Play the 5th string on the 3rd fret, then Play the 4th string open, then Play the 4th string on the 2nd fret Etc. I also noted the notes of the open strings -‐ starLng from the top line, which is the E string or 1st string, down to the boTom E string, or 6th string. You'll noLce that I also marked in the bar (or measures) as lines. The strings and frets are all spelled out for you step by step. Let’s look at a couple more tabs. SomeLmes we want to play more than one note simultaneously, either as a double stop, or a chord. To show that, we simply stack the notes on top of each other like this chord of C major:
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Or in character form: E||--0----|| B||--1----|| G||--0----|| D||--2----|| A||--3----|| E||-------|| Note that we didn't put any number on the boTom E string -‐ this means that we don't play it in this chord as you would expect. By the way, an essenLal Lp when wriLng out tabs in forum posts or emails is to use a fixed spacing font such as courier, otherwise the lines will not match up.
3.1.4 Decorations and Expression The hard part is over now; the rest is now being able to understand how we notate specific decoraLons such as bends vibrato etc. Let’s look at bends first as this crop up a lot in tab. To notate a bend, we give the starLng fret number and the number of the fret that sound like the number you are bending up to. So for instance, if we wanted to start on the 12th fret and make a 2 semitone bend, that would be equivalent to playing a note on the 14th fret, so we show notes, with a "b" in between to denote the starLng point, the fact that it is a bend, and how far the bend is. In our example we would write "12b14". SomeLmes, the 14 would be in brackets -‐ "12b(14)" and occasionally the b is missed out to give something like "12 (14)". One thing to realize about tab is that there is a variaLon in how different people write them. The opposite of a bend is a release, and you would use the same convenLon to show it, with an "r" in between the two numbers, for instance "14r12". And oRen you might string bends and releases together like this: "12b14r12". In this case it is obvious that the release will be back to 12, so that can be missed out to give "12br". Graphical tabs may use other symbols such as arrows to denote a bend. Let’s look at that tabbed out:
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Or in character form: E||-------------------|| B||--12b14--12b14r12--|| G||-------------------|| D||-------------------|| A||-------------------|| E||-------------------|| Next up are hammer-‐ons and pull-‐offs. They work the same as bends, using the leTer "h" for a hammer-‐on and "p" for a pull-‐off". Graphical tabs use an arcing line (this is called a slur and is borrowed from musical notaLon):
Or in character form: E||--------------------|| B||--12h14----14p12----|| G||--------------------|| D||--------------------|| A||--------------------|| E||--------------------|| ARer that, there is a list of different symbols that modify the way notes are played. Here are a few of them:
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These are the most common. Remember that these do vary and you may see things done differently by different authors. Most tabs include a key somewhere, and you can use this to figure out any variaLons on what I have given you. Common sense is a must when interpreLng tabs, and it usually helps to have the track to listen to as well if it is available.
3.1.5 Tabbing Programs Tabs work great as characters, but there are also programs out there that will take your tab and show it in a neat graphical format -‐ like the images I have included. There are two notable programs that do this -‐ Power Tab which is free, and the slightly more accomplished Guitar Pro, which is available for purchase online. These programs are great -‐ they let you lay down a musical idea quickly and very neatly for display to other guitarists. They will also generate musical notaLon for you (very helpful if you are just learning) and will also play back what you have entered through your computers speaker. Whilst they will never take the prize for sounding musical, they are extremely helpful for allowing you to either see if you have got your ideas down correctly or if you are working with someone else's tabs, to check you are playing it right. Tabs made by Power Tab or Guitar Pro are also exchangeable by email, or can be downloaded from various websites. For instance, ulLmateguitar.com has a large number of tabs, and a large proporLon of them are in Power Tab or Guitar Pro format.
3.1.6 An Example Tab Ok, just for fun, here is an example tab -‐ it is none other than "Curious Coincidence" by our good friend Kristofer Dahl -‐ this is a great tab as it covers a mulLtude of techniques. Here is the first page, and you'll noLce it includes music notaLon too for you to start to have a look at in preparaLon for
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the next lesson. I created this tab using Guitar Pro, using Kris' character tab as a basis, and used the video itself to work out the correct Lming (since Lming isn't included on the tab, but is required to enter a tab into a program like Guitar Pro).
Finally, for reference, here is a reasonably full list of tab abbreviaLons that you might see. Tablature Legend •
L -‐ Led note
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•
x -‐ dead note
•
g -‐ grace note
•
(n) -‐ ghost note o
-‐ accentuded note
•
NH -‐ natural harmonic
•
AH -‐ arLficial harmonic
•
TH -‐ tapped harmonic
•
SH -‐ semi harmonic
•
PH -‐ pitch harmonic
•
h -‐ hammer on
•
p -‐ pull off
•
b -‐ bend
•
br – bend release
•
pb – pre bend
•
pbr – pre bend release
•
brb – bend release bend
•
\n/ -‐ tremolo bar dip
•
\n -‐ tremolo bar dive
•
-‐/n -‐ tremolo bar Release up
•
/n\ -‐ tremolo bar inverted dip
•
/n -‐ tremolo bar return
•
-‐\n -‐ tremolo bar Release down
•
S -‐ shiR slide
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•
s -‐ legato slide
•
/ -‐ slide into from below or out of upwards
•
\ -‐ slide into from above or out of downwards
•
~ -‐ vibrato
•
W -‐ wide vibrato
•
tr -‐ trill
•
TP -‐ tremolo picking
•
T -‐ tapping
•
S -‐ slap
•
P -‐ pop
•
< -‐ fade in
•
^ -‐ brush up
•
v -‐ brush down
3.2
Part 2: Music Notation
3.2.1 Introduction As guitar players we all use tab for fingering but there is a lot more to music than the fingering of the actual notes. Today's Tab is a guitar related medium, whereas the standard music notaLon we are looking at today was designed to work with many different instruments. InteresLngly, Tab actually predates standard music notaLon and was first used over 1000 years ago predominantly for stringed instruments as you would expect but also for organ and vocal parts. It may give you a sense of history to look at this TAB daLng from 1554 -‐ sLll readable today!
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But we digress ... The things that Music NotaLon does well are convey Lming and key informaLon. It also conveys note informaLon, but since the majority of instruments can only play one note at a Lme it was never developed to handle exact fingerings for the guitar. If you have a good understanding of music, you can look at it and "hear" the song in your head -‐ that isn't possible with Tab. Even if you aren't that accomplished, you can sLll gain a lot from reading music. Many tabs come with musical notaLon aTached, and you can make use of both at once; the
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Tab will give you the fingering to use, whilst the music will give you the Lming info. Only when you take them together do you get a complete picture. The other things that music are good for (giving you the notes, and the key) are less important if you have tab, since the tab gives you the notes as well, but knowing the key at least can be important if you want to expand on the tab and add your own parts, melody, or solo. Our First Music Sheet Let’s take a look at a mystery piece of music, and break it down so that we can figure out how to extract some kind of meaning from it:
Well, it looks a liTle mysterious, and we don't know what tune it is describing yet, so let’s look at some of the individual parts.
3.2.2 Stave The stave (or staff) is the name for the series of verLcal lines that the music notaLon is based around. As you can see, there are 5 lines; resist any temptaLon to compare these to guitar strings as you would with tab -‐ there is really no relaLon at all. Remember the stave was invented before the guitar even existed and is intended to work with many different instruments.
3.2.3 Treble Clef The treble clef is a marker that tells us what range of notes is being represented on the stave. There are several different types of clef, the treble is the most common, and is probably used for the widest range of instruments. Some instruments (such as the bass guitar) work with a different range of notes, and have their own clef, which denotes that the actual pitches of the notes on the stave are read differently. We'll sLck with the treble clef for now -‐ if you see a piece of music in which the treble clef is missing, and there is another symbol instead, that means you need to study some more
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theory to learn how to read that notaLon. The treble clef is also named the "G" clef and started life as the leTers G and S (for "So" or "Sol" another name for G, as in Do, Rae, Me Fah, Sol) superimposed, and was stylized over Lme into the form we know today. As we'll see later, the start of the clef is drawn from the G line on the stave for this reason. For 6 string electric guitar we use the treble clef exclusively, bass guitars use the bass clef (or F clef), unsurprisingly. Pianos use both the treble and bass clef, stacked on top of each other, to encompass the wide range of notes a piano has. Some instruments use the alto clef (or C clef) and there are a few other less common ones.
And here is a drawing by Kaneda that illustrates how the G and F clefs might have evolved to their current shapes:
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3.2.4 Key Signature At its simplest, the key signature tells us the key that the piece is to be played in, although strictly speaking it is really just a notaLonal device to ease the wriLng of music, and doesn't actually define the key. At beginner level the disLncLon is a fine one and can be safely ignored. It is wriTen as a group of symbols at the beginning of the piece of music, lisLng either a number of sharps (#) or flats. The sharps and flats are always listed in a parLcular order, which is determined by the Circle of FiRhs, although that isn’t important for this lesson. To fully understand this we need to know how the lines on the stave work, so we will pick this up again a liTle later.
3.2.5 Time Signature The Lme signature tells us how to break up the music Lme wise. It consists of two numbers one on top of each other. The top number is the number of beats in a bar or measure. The BoTom number is the length of a beat. The most common Lme signature is 4/4 (pronounced four-‐four). The top four means there are four beats in a bar. The boTom four means that each of those beats lasts a quarter notes. So in fact, imagine that the boTom number has a 1 over the top of it, to understand the length of the note (1/4). Four-‐four Lme is also named common Lme, and someLmes denoted by a "C" instead of the Lme signature. Another example would be 12/8 Lme. This tells us that there are 12 beats to the bar, and each beat is an 8th note (remember the one on top -‐ 1/8). 12/8 is composed of shorter notes so it will sound a
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lot quicker than 4/4. There are other characterisLcs of 12/8 Lme that make it interesLng, which we discuss in more detail in the Time 101 lessons, this is just a taster. Another way to look at this is to treat it as a fracLon (some non English speaking countries actually translate it this way) -‐ 4/4 means you get one whole note to a bar, 12/8 means you get one and a half whole notes to a bar. In either case, the boTom number is telling you the units or size of note that is in use. What does it mean? Well, it is of most relevance to how you would set your metronome, but it also gives you a very concise way of understanding the feel of a piece -‐ 4/4 feels very different to 12/8, 3/4 or 5/4. They all have very disLnct rhythmic feels to them. Of course, you can figure this out by looking at the lengths of the individual notes, and how the number of notes in a bar or measure adds up -‐ the key signature is giving you a head start in understanding how the piece works. In all music, the beat is the basic unit of currency, and is of utmost importance when seQng your metronome. Fortunately, most music we as guitarists are exposed to is in 4/4 Lme, which means that a simple rule of seQng your metronome beat to be a quarter note works in most cases, but that will not always be the case, so be careful.
3.2.6 The Notes Ok, now we have looked at the stuff around the edges, let’s focus on the core of musical notaLon -‐ the notes themselves. Each note is a dot, someLmes with a tail and someLmes without -‐ the tail is the verLcal line moving upward or downward from the dot. SomeLmes the dots are filled, someLmes they are empty. Presence or absence of a tail, and whether or not the note is filled in denotes the length or duraLon of the note (of which more later), and the posiLon of the note up and down the stave denotes the pitch that it represents. The stave consists of lines and spaces, and we can place the note on a line or in a space. StarLng with the boTom line, which denotes an E, each step up from line to space or from space to line is one step of the scale higher:
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This can be a liTle confusing, so think about it. If we are in the scale of C, the notes would be C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C, and are denoted by lines and spaces on the stave, don't be tempted to see each step as a whole note, it isn't, it is a step of a scale instead. For instance, look at E/F -‐ there is only a semitone difference between them, the same for B/C, however in each case, we move the same distance up the stave as we would for any of the other notes that really are separated by a whole tone. Its as if the stave has the noLon of scales built into it -‐ remember that a scale is defined by its formula of tones and semitones (2 2 1 2 2 2 1 for major), music notaLon is a product of this also. On a guitar, the boTom E is the pitch that is played on the 2nd fret of the D string, and the top F is the F that is played on the 1st fret of the E string. Some music teachers split the stave into lines and spaces and make you memorise them separately with mnemonics -‐ I have never been a fan of this, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. In any case, the goal is that ulLmately you just know the note by its posiLon, and that comes through pracLce, it doesn't maTer how you get there. Just for fun, I'll give you the tradiLonal way of remembering the lines and space: First the lines -‐ they are remembered starLng from the boTom up with the phrase "Eat Good Bread Dear Father", to get E,G,B,D,F. The Spaces are tradiLonally remembered using the mnemonic "FACE", for F,A,C,E. I prefer to remember that the boTom line is E, and work up from there. Eventually, you will be able to memorise it whatever method you use. Now you may have noLced that the lines and spaces only give us just over an octave -‐ a preTy poor number of notes for a guitar player, we are used to many more than that. Fortunately the guys that invented this stuff thought of that. What we do is we add addiLonal lines (called ledger lines) above and below the stave, as many of them as we need to get to where we are going. That way, we can represent all of the notes on a guitar:
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The squiggle in the middle is called a rest -‐ I'll explain that in the Lming secLon later. If necessary for drop tunings, the ledger line idea can be expanded to give even lower notes, although by that stage you are well into the bass cleff. Note that the tails can go up or down from the note -‐ it makes no difference to the Lming or pitch which way the tail is drawn, it's just a space saving mechanism. The convenLon is that if the note is above the middle of the stave the tail goes down, otherwise it goes up. Here’s a tab contributed by Kaneda that shows all notes in the range of the guitar, and where you can play them -‐ this gives a good feel for the fact that music notaLon gives you the note but tab tells you exactly where to play it! The red notes correspond to open strings. (As we have been discussing in the forums, in parts of Europe, the note "B" is notated as "H", and that is the case here.
It is also possible to stack notes on top of each other just as we do in tab, to get chords, like this:
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3.2.7 Keys, Sharps and Flats Ok, now we understand the notes, let’s take another look at key signatures. First, let’s just list out 3 of the possible pitch modifiers so that you will recognize them:
Since music notaLon has the noLon of keys built in -‐ it deals with notes and relates them to the key you are in -‐ one goal of music notaLon is to avoid explicitly menLoning every sharp and flat -‐ that can become very Lring since if you know the key you are in, you also know that most instances of a
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specific note will always be sharpened or flaTened. For instance in the key of G, you will mostly be playing F# instead of F. Look at this scale in the key of B:
Very messy, with all the sharps, as these are all standard notes in the scale. Instead, why don't we just mark at the beginning of the piece which notes will be sharpened (or flaTened) and that will save us showing them every Lme. If we do that, that same scale will look like this:
There are a couple of things to noLce here. Firstly, we have dispensed with those annoying sharps, and the notaLon is a lot clearer and easier to read. Secondly, we added a bunch of sharp signs at the beginning. This is our noLce that from this point on, each of these notes will be played as a sharp, not as a regular note. The sharp signs actually occupy the line or space of the notes we are to sharpen, but they apply to all instances of that note, so a flat or sharp sign on the A space would mean that any instance of A would be sharpened or flaTened, regardless of the octave. In the music above, we can see that the sharps are located on F,C,G,D and A. From our study of major scales, we know that the scale of B has the notes B,C#,D#,E,F#,G#,A#, and as you can see, the notes we have marked as being sharpened in the key signature are also sharpened in the scale, so it all works out. Determining the Key from the Key Signature Now that we understand the sharp signs on the stave above we can very quickly determine the key using the following simple rules. 1. If there are no sharps or flats the key is C. 2. If there are sharps, look at the stave line that the last sharp symbol is placed on, and go up 1 degree of the scale. In the example above, we have 5 sharps, F#, C#, G#, D# and A# (again, these are derived using the circle of fiRhs). The last sharp is A# -‐ one degree up from that is B. Another way to put this is that this sharp sign gives you the 7th of the scale. One up from that is the 8th, or root, giving you your key. So the example above is in the key of B just as we thought.
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3. If there are flats, look at the stave line that the last symbol is on and go down 4 degrees in the scale, or to put it another way, the last flat sign gives you the 4th of the scale. This rule isn’t parLcularly helpful if you are struggling to work out the key, and there is actually also an easier trick for flats that I prefer. This comes out of the circle of fiRhs and the fact that we are going backwards (I really need to write that circle of fiRhs lesson!), Don’t worry about the details for now but believe me when I say that each flat in a key signature is separated by 4 degrees, so you can look at the flat immediately before the last one which will give you the exact key signature. This doesn’t work for one flat, so you just need to remember that one flat is the key of F. If for instance you have 4 flats, they will be Bb, Eb, Ab and Db. The last but one is Ab, making the key Ab. So, using the rules above and a sheet of music you can immediately deduce the key … apart from one subtlety. If you have read my lesson on relaLve minors, you will know that each major key has a related minor key. They are related by virtue of the fact that they share the same key signature. So you can narrow it down to 2 possibiliLes using the key signature, aRer that, you need to decide if it is major or minor. And this subtlety is itself a special case of Modes -‐ all the modes of a parLcular key will also share the same key signature since they share the motes. For instance, C# Dorian has the same key signature as B Major -‐ music writers would probably write the mode at the top to help you with this though.
3.2.8 Accidentals Once we are working in a parLcular key signature, what do we do if we want to use a note that isn't in that key? We use an accidental. An Accidental is exactly that -‐ a note that falls outside our key signature. To represent it we just put a sharp, flat or natural sign in front of the note we want to affect. (You can see what a natural sign looks like above). The rule is that if we place a sharp or flat in front of a note that is not specifically sharpened or flaTened in the key signature, then that note is sharpened or flaTened for the rest of that bar. If the note is sharpened or flaTened in the key signature, and we want it to revert to its unsharpened or un-‐flaTened pitch, we use a natural sign to cancel out the acLon of the key signature for the rest of the bar. If you want to undo the acLon of an accidental sharp or flat within the same bar, you can use a natural to cancel it. If you want to undo the acLon of a natural within the same bar you can use a sharp or flat to cancel it. Let’s see an example:
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Here we have a scale of E -‐ the notes are E,F#,G#,A,B,C#,D#. In the last bar, we want to play an F. With the key signature shown, the default acLon is to play an F# whenever a note appears in that first space, but since we precede it with a natural sign we play an F instead. The second note is an A#. Again, the key signature doesn't specifically sharpen A notes, so we would normally play it as an A, but we put a sharp in front of it to denote it as an accidental and we play A#. Let’s look at another example:
This Lme we are in the key of Ab, the notes would be Ab,Bb,C,Db,Eb,F,G. The last bar is interesLng. First, we decide that we want to play an A. From the key signature, we know that A should be flaTened, but we use a natural sign to denote that we want an A. But, the next note we want to be played as an Ab. Since we have used a natural sign, from that point to the end of the bar, the effect of the key signature has been cancelled, so we need to use a flat sign to reinstate it. Finally, we want to play a second Ab. Since we reinstated the meaning of the key signature for A the note before, we don't need to do anything special. The final note is a Gb -‐ the flat sign is required since there is no Gb in the key signature. Unlike the key signature, accidentals apply only to the note they precede, not all versions in each octave.
3.2.9 Timing Next we will look at Lming. Music would be preTy boring if every note was exactly the same length, even if the pitch did vary -‐ music notaLon has convenLons to allow us to express the different length of notes by changing the way we write the note (rather than where on the stave we put it). Timing can get complex, so we'll start with a few basics, and then look at the more complex stuff in another lesson -‐ Time 101, which you can find here. So far in the music we have seen, I have used quarter notes -‐ they are denoted by a filled in black blob with a single tail. These notes are also called crotchets -‐ that's a more classical usage, and
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although each type of note has a classical name we tend to use names like "quarter", "16th" as they are easier to understand. So what is a quarter note a quarter of? Not surprisingly, it’s a quarter of a "Whole Note". A Whole Note is preTy long, so we break notes down into smaller units like quarters, 8ths, 16ths, for all of those fast notes we want to play on the guitar. Here's a list of some of the different note types:
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SomeLmes we want the musician to not play anything at all, so instead of showing a note, we show what is called a "rest". For every type of note there is a rest of the same duraLon, and they just denote silence for that length of Lme. Here's the list:
Another thing you might see is a series of notes joined together -‐ there is nothing mysterious here, think of it as the difference between prinLng and joined up wriLng -‐ there was an example of this in our mystery tune, and we can now see that the first 4 notes in bar 2 ar joined up into 2 units. What exactly is this showing us? Well by convenLon, it is common to join up faster notes into units that last a quarter note. The notes are joined together by "beams" ( just a line between them). In each of the 2 cases in our mystery tune, we have joined 2 8th notes together. They are sLll played separately, but grouping them together makes it easier to pick out the Lming by eye. To figure out what each note is just count the number of beams between them -‐ they match up to the number of Lcks in the table above. An 8th note would normally have 1 Lck -‐ when joined up there is 1 beam. For a more detailed explanaLon of Lming have a look at my Time 101 series of lessons, here.
3.2.10 Annotations As well as giving the basic Lming and pitch informaLon, music also has a wide range of symbols to convey dynamics, arLculaLon, ornaments (like trills) and the physical structure of the music for
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instance repeats, and endings. Some of these don't apply to guitar very well, and they are not common in the type of music we usually see but can be worth learning. I'll cover these in a later lesson. Back to our Mystery Tune
Now we should know enough to figure out what is going on on our tune! Ok, firstly its in treble clef -‐ a good thing really as we don't know any other (but do check, at the very least you don't want to learn a song with all the wrong notes, and it could prompt you to do some research and learn one of the other clefs). Next, the key signature is one sharp. That means the key of G. The key signature shows us that all notes are played as naturals, except that there is an F# in the scale. We know that anyway from our study of scales, but this is a quick way of checking. The Lme signature is 4/4 -‐ that means there are Four quarter notes to a bar or measure. The tempo is set at 120 for a quarter note, meaning 120bpm. The notes for the tune are: G,G,D,D (Quarter notes, one per beat) E,F#,G,E (Eighth notes, 2 per beat) D (Half note, one per 2 beats) C,C,B,B,A,A (Quarter notes again, 1 per beat) G (Half note, one per 2 beats). Now, if you get out your metronome, set it to 120bpm and play the notes above with those duraLons, you should be able to figure out what the tune is. (No, I'm not going to tell you -‐ work it out for yourself!)
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3.2.11 Conclusion That's it for this lesson. I hope you will find the extra effort to learn standard music notaLon is worth it. Even if you just pick up a few concepts around Lming it will make reading of tabs very much easier! And a final word -‐ the music we play is a very personal and dynamic thing. Everyone plays the same tune differently, and any type of music notaLon is really an aTempt to nail music down sufficiently that someone else can learn it and interpret it in their own way. The music isn't in the notaLon; it’s actually in what you do with it and how you play it! The notaLon just pins it down for a while, so don't try and slavishly reproduce every nuance, because in a lot of places the music doesn't even capture the subtleLes of what the composer intended -‐ this is especially true when as guitarists we learn solos from our guitar heroes -‐ the music when played in a program like Guitar Pro sounds very different to how it is played by the composer, so treat it as a guide and inject your own feel and individuality into it!
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4
Finding the Key of a Song
4.1
Introduction
Ok, so you have a killer MP3 of some band you have downloaded that you want to Jam to, or you have an amazing tab that you want to develop ideas from, or maybe even a piece of music that you want to work with. Before you can do anything, you need to figure out the key that the song is in so that you can apply all of your knowledge about scales etc to figure out which notes to play. In this lesson we’ll try and figure out some ways to do this. There is no subsLtute for experience with this, and there isn’t always a failsafe formula, but a liTle knowledge can go a long way towards helping you with this. We’ll look at geQng the key from Music, tablature, and also by ear, and by example.
4.2
Sheet Music
So let’s take the easiest case first – you have some sheet music for the song you are interested in. I am calling this the easiest because in this case there is a failsafe formula you can use. Of course, if you don’t read music this may not seem easy to you … If there is any interest, maybe I will write a future series on music notaLon. If this isn’t of interest to you, just skip ahead to the next secLon on tablature. If you read music, you probably already know about key signatures. The key signature is wriTen as a group of symbols at the beginning of the piece of music, lisLng either a number of sharps ( # ) or flats ( b ). The sharps and flats are always listed in a parLcular order, which is determined by the Circle of FiRhs, although that isn’t important for this exercise (note to self -‐ write a Circle of FiRhs lesson!) Here are a couple of examples: The key of C – no sharps or flats
The key of E – four sharps
The key of B flat – 2 flats
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Now, assuming you understand the notes on the staves above you can very quickly determine the key using the following simple rules. (If you don’t know the notes why are you looking at sheet music anyway? 1. If there are no sharps or flats the key is C. 2. If there are sharps, look at the stave line that the last sharp symbol is placed on, and go up 1 degree of the scale. In the example above, we have 4 sharps, F#, C#, G# and D# (again, these are derived using the circle of fiRhs). The last sharp is D# -‐ one degree up from that is E. Another way to put this is that this sharp sign gives you the 7th of the scale. One up from that is the 8th, or root, giving you your key. So the example above is in the key of E just as we thought. 3. If there are flats, look at the stave line that the last symbol is on and go down 4 degrees in the scale, or to put it another way, the last flat sign gives you the 4th of the scale. In the example above we have Bb and Eb – 4 degrees down from Eb is Bb, which is the key (Eb-‐D-‐C-‐Bb in sequence). This rule isn’t parLcularly helpful if you are struggling to work out the key, and there is actually also an easier trick for flats that I prefer. This comes out of the circle of fiRhs and the fact that we are going backwards (I really need to write that circle of fiRhs lesson!), Don’t worry about the details for now but believe me when I say that each flat in a key signature is separated by 4 degrees, so you can look at the flat immediately before the last one which will give you the exact key signature. This doesn’t work for one flat, so you just need to remember that one flat is the key of F. In our example, the last but one flat was Bb, which is our key. So, using the rules above and a sheet of music you can immediately deduce the key … apart from one subtlety. If you have read my lesson on relaLve minors, you will know that each major key has a related minor key. They are related by virtue of the fact that they share the same key signature. So you can narrow it down to 2 possibiliLes using the key signature, aRer that, you need to decide if it is major or minor – see later in the “by example” secLon.
4.3
Tablature
So much for exact methods – it gets a liTle harder from now on. Guitar tabs are an informaLve guitar-‐friendly way of puQng riffs down, but they generally don’t include as much informaLon as sheet music. In parLcular they miss Lming and key informaLon, oRen relying on backing tracks and descripLons and analysis to support them – if you are lucky the descripLon will give you the key. Also, a lot of tabs published in magazines include the key at the top of the tab. So if you have a tab
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without the key how do you tell what key it is in? Well at least you have the notes, which is a good start. One method is to write down all of the notes in a bar or two and compare them to scales that you know. If you can pick out 8 different notes you stand a good chance of figuring it out, if you only have two you might be stuck (in that case I suggest you listen to the backing track if there is one and use the “by example” method). If you pick out 8 notes and for instance they are A,B,C,D,E,F and G that gives you some strong clues. The first 2 opLons are the key of C and the key of A minor – probably the most likely possibiliLes. I worked this out by ordering the notes and comparing them to the notes in various major scales (its useful to have a reference somewhere for this, such as the Guitar Grimoire). Other possibiliLes include the various modes of the C Major scale. In roughly diminishing order of likely hood these would be: • A Aeolian (the same as the A minor above), • F Lydian, G Mixolydian • D Dorian, E Phrygian • B Locrian If you suspect modes are in use, experience helps you to figure this out, in parLcular, check out the chord that is being played as it will likely give you a clue to the mode – for instance Em or Em7 would point towards a Phrygian scale rather than a standard major. Of course you may run into some very complex scales that aren’t easy to spot by looking at the notes, or even someone is just plain “cheaLng” in which the song is being played chromaLcally or without reference to a parLcular scale. Once again, knowing the backing chords will help you here.
4.4
By Ear
Some people are able to listen to a piece of music and instantly tell what key it is in. How do they do this? Well, there are two ways. The first is called perfect pitch. It refers to the ability to hear a note and instantly know what that note is. It is generally believed that some lucky people are born with this ability, but others argue that it is possible to acquire it through training. I am somewhere between the two schools of thought – I believe that a good ear can be trained to perfect pitch. Through experience I can usually get within a semitone of an E when tuning a guitar without a tuner, but not reliably enough to dispense with the tuner altogether!
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In either case, you need a certain amount of musical experience to deduce the key even if you do have perfect pitch, and people who can do this will be unconsciously using the techniques I describe shortly in the “by example” secLon. The second way I am going to call “by character” – I don’t know if there is an official name for this, but experienced musicians can usually tell from the selecLon of notes in a chord and the parLcular resonances in a piece of music exactly what chords are being played. This works best for guitar players listening to guitar pieces. For instance, a chord of C to me sounds very different to a chord of G, even when I don’t know what it is. It gets harder when the chords move away from open strings. This technique is definitely more based on experience than having perfect pitch. Once again, when you have the chords you would apply the techniques below to figure out the key. You can train yourself to get beTer at this by playing various chords and listening what they sound like and idenLfying the root notes.
4.5
By Example
This is the method that probably most of you will be using at least to start with, especially when trying to figure out the key of your guitar hero’s solo. The key to this (pun intended!) is to figure out what chords are being played. To do this, pick up your guitar and try to idenLfy the root notes of the chords by playing notes up and down your E string unLl you find a match. Your chord listening training above will come in handy, because you are always looking for the root note of the chord, not one of the addiLonal notes. By this I mean that for instance a chord of C major has the notes C,E and G in it. C is the root here. When you are trying to pick a C chord out of a piece of music you are listening to, you need to idenLfy the C note, not either of the others or you will be off in the wrong direcLon! For each chord you idenLfy, you need to decide if it is in the Major or Minor family – again, there is no rule for this, you need to train your ear to understand the difference. A starLng point is that major chords sound happy, and minor chords sound sad, but you need to try this for yourself with chords you know. Now you have a list of chords, it gets even hazier. You next need to try and figure out what the tonic chord is. That’s a fancy way of saying the root chord or 1st of the scale. In music there is always a tension and movement between different chords in the song, such that when you get to the tonic or root chord, there is a feeling of resoluLon, or being back on home ground. Other chords lead you off in various tonal direcLons, but the end of the journey is almost always back to the tonic. The tonic may or may not be the first or last chord played, but there is usually a sense of compleLon when you get there. If you don’t know what I am talking about you need to train your ear some more to pick this up! In fact, most oRen, the chord a song ends on is the tonic which can be a good clue. But, if
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the songs ends with an uneasy feeling of something missing it could be because it isn’t ending on the tonic, so be careful! When you have idenLfied the tonic, be it major or minor, you are preTy much there – the rest of the chords may help to confirm it as there are usually families of chords played in a parLcular key that have root notes that match the scale in quesLon. For example, the key of C/Am has the following characterisLc chords: C, Dm, Em F, G, Am, Bdim These are the chords that make use of the notes in the scale they belong to. If you see that the chords in the piece you are working on include these, or variants of them, it is a good sign that you are in that key. However, these chords are really just a jumping off point, and don’t take account of the fact that there may be sudden key changes in the song, or the composer may just plain and simple ignore the rules and throw in some random chord because it sounds cool. As with all theory, this is just a framework to hang your creaLvity on, it isn’t a straitjacket that constrains you. Well that’s about it. In all of this there is no subsLtute for experience and ear training, and no guarantees you got it right (you'll figure that out when your scales sound wrong against the piece in quesLon), but pracLce a lot and soon you’ll wonder what all the fuss is about – can’t anyone tell its in that key?
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5
Introduction to Scales
5.1
Introduction
We've looked at a few basics around the guitar, and discussed what notes are, the very foundaLons of music. The next step is to start understanding scales. The problem is that when some people are presented with scales for the first Lme, and realize that they are being asked to play endless variaLons of these scales for the foreseeable future, it can become a daunLng task. In this introductory lesson we are going to explore some of the reasons that scales exist, and why we make such a big deal about them.
5.2
What are scales? A Technical View
In a previous lesson we discussed the 12 possible notes we had available for construcLng music out of. Western music has evolved such that rules have emerged over how and when you use these notes together. Although this is merely convenLon, you will be so used to hearing the various common scales that when those rules are not applied, or are applied differently you will immediately noLce that something is wrong or different. There is nothing wriTen in stone about the way these things are organised, but we are all so used to hearing music from an early age that incorporates these rules that we don't even think about the alternaLves unLl we start to study musical theory in depth. As a guitar player, you need to understand these rules if you want to play western style music at all. A fundamental part of these rules and convenLons are the musical scales we use. What is a scale? It is a restricted sequence of notes, chosen from the 12 available, that work together to give a certain desired mood or effect to the music. The best way to describe individual scales is as a list of gaps between the notes, we use the term Tone or Semitone to denote our Half notes or Whole notes, and give the formula using their iniLal leTers, T and S. Some people use Half and Whole (W, H) to denote the gaps, and another way is to list the number of semitones (1 or 2). Both way, these three are idenLcal, and all give the gaps for the major scale: 1. T T S T T T S 2. W W H W W W H 3. 2 2 1 2 2 2 1
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Let’s see how this works. For this example the G major scale is used. This iniLally tells us two things. First, our root note (or first note in the scale) is G#. Secondly, we will be using the Major scale formula to work out the notes. So, we start with our G# note, and add the first step of the formula which is a T, meaning a Tone. So starLng with G # and moving up a tone or two half notes puts us onto A#: G# + T = A# Next, we start with A#, and look at the next leTer in the formula -‐ its a Tone again, so we add 2 half notes to A#, to give us a C: A# + T = C Next, we start with a C and check the formula -‐ this Lme it is a semitone, which takes us to C#: C + S = C# If we carry on with this we get the following: C# + T = D# D# + T = F (remember there is no such thing as an E#) F + T = G G + S = G# So, we have built our scale of G# major according to our major scale formula to get the notes: G# A# C C# D# F G The majority of scales we use have 7 notes in them but that is not a hard and fast rule. For instance, the minor pentatonic scale only has 5 notes in it (its formula is 3 2 2 3 2 -‐ I used numbers here instead of T and S because it has a couple of Tone and a half leaps, which is 3 half notes, and that is more easily wriTen down as a 3 instead of something like "T + 1/2", but it all means the same thing). Some scales have more, for instance the chromaLc scale has all 12 notes in it. So that's how scales work! The formula describes them and we pick whichever root note we want to construct them around. The next step is to convert these notes into a paTern so that we can play it.
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5.3
Scales vs. Patterns
A lot of the most common quesLons posted by beginning guitarists are around how scale paTerns work and why they are important. There is a difference between "paTerns" and "scales". A "scale" is a group of notes with a specific amount of distance between them -‐ just as we described above. These distances determine what "paTerns" we need to use to produce the desired "scale". If you know one major scale "paTern", you know how to play EVERY major "scale" on a guitar in standard tuning. To play a C Major Scale, start the paTern on C. To play a D Major Scale, start the paTern on D. Etc. The same goes with minor paTerns, diminished paTerns, harmonic minor paTerns, etc.... once you know the paTern, just start it on whatever note you want, and you're playing that scale. The C Major scale consists of the notes C D E F G A B. It has consisted of these notes for a very, very long Lme. It consisted of these notes long before the 6 string guitar as we know it was invented. Musical instruments, the guitar included, are used to produce these notes. On a guitar, these notes are produced by pressing the string down at a certain point on the fret board and striking the string so that it will vibrate at the correct frequency to sound the desired note. Here is the important point: The C Major scale PATTERNS that we all struggle with as beginners were created to reproduce the notes C D E F G A B -‐ the C Major SCALE -‐ on a guitar in standard tuning. They are the paTerns that players have determined to be the most convenient to reproduce the desired notes. A paTern is NOT a scale....it is a paTern used to produce the notes of a scale. The PATTERN was created to fit the SCALE. This may sounds confusing -‐ but think of it this way: scales are part of music THEORY because a scale is just an idea -‐ a theory -‐ unLl it is actually played/sung/ whatever....and the way that we, as guitarists, put this theoreLcal SCALE into acLon is by playing a PATTERN that produces the desired notes. To demonstrate, tune your low E string down a half step, your A up a half step, and so on unLl all strings are detuned by about a half step. No need to be exact here...just make sure your guitar is out of tune. Now play the paTern that you know as "the C Major Scale". Guess what....you're no longer playing a C Major scale, because you're no longer playing the notes C D E F G A B. You are simply playing a paTern that, when applied to a guitar in standard tuning, would normally produce the notes of a C Major scale. But since the guitar is no longer tuned the way it was when that paTern was created, you need to press down the strings in different places to sound the notes you want (C D E F G A B )....so the paTern no longer works. The SCALE hasn't changed -‐ a C Major Scale is sLll C D E F G A B -‐ but since the guitar is tuned differently, you would need to create a different PATTERN to play the correct SCALE notes C D E F G A B.
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So, a SCALE is a theoreLcal grouping of notes that are recognized as producing a certain sound when played, like the C Major Scale. A PATTERN is used to produce those notes. All of the paTerns you learn are just convenient ways to play a scale. We will learn about the paTerns used to play various scales in later lessons. There are a couple of different strategies to build paTerns: 1. Start on the E string on any note of the scale. Mark that fret in your mind as the home posiLon. Move up that string playing notes from the scale unLl the next note would be more than 4 frets from home posiLon (counLng the home posiLon as fret 1), and place that next not on a higher string. Keep going unLl you run out of strings. This approach gives you regular scale boxes -‐ boxes are good because they keep your hand in the same posiLon throughout the scale. 2. Start on the E string on any note of the scale. For each string, add notes unLl you have played exactly 3 notes on that string then swap strings. This approach gives you 3 notes per string scales -‐ these are good because they have an even number of notes on each string which really helps with speed runs. These paTerns are tailor made for triplets. Change the number from 3 to 2 or 4 and you get 2 note per string scales, or even 4 note per string scales (possible, but very hard to play, a favourite of Alan Holdsworth I believe). 2 notes per string are especially suitable for pentatonic. (In fact for pentatonic it turns out that 2 notes per string and boxes are the same). 3. Whole neck approach. Treat each string in isolaLon, and play enLre scales by moving up 1 string. Understand that there will be huge overlap between strings, and figure out all the possible ways of playing an individual note or run on all strings (very hard to do in pracLce but this is how really top notch performers see things) That's all there is to paTerns really -‐ and as a point of terminology, I would call boxes a special case of paTerns that are constructed using rule 1, paTerns is a more general term that relates to all possible ways to map a scale to the guitar neck.
5.4
Scales vs. Keys
Although the two are closely related, a scale is NOT a key. Although keys seem to be named aRer scales, that is a liTle misleading. A Key is the tonal centre of a song, and denotes the chords and notes that the song keeps coming back to. It is perfectly possible to write a song in which you start of
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with a scale of C major, and then switch briefly to using a scale Ab Major for a bar or two, before moving back to C. The very fact that we moved back to C helps us see this as the tonal centre or heart of the song, the home ground that we keep returning to. The home ground is the Key, and more oRen than not, we will start with a scale that matches the key. SomeLmes we will never leave the scale that matches the key, but it is possible to change between sales without changing the key of the song. When we change the Key of a song, it is called a "modulaLon", and here we ARE changing the tonal centre of the song, and we will be using a new scale or set of scales to back that up. The song will be structured so that the new Key is the place we will keep returning to, and the old key and its associated scale or scales is history, unless we modulate back. So, think of the Key as the anchor for the song, scales as tools to construct the song from, and paTerns as the realizaLon of scales on the guitar fret board.
5.5
What Are Scales? A Musical View
OK, we have had a dry technical descripLon of what a scale is -‐ but where is the music in that? Well, in musical terms, a scale is a paleTe of notes that you can choose from to put together chords, melodies solos, accompaniments, harmonies and just about everything ... hopefully that sounds a liTle more musical. Look at it this way -‐ you need to learn English (or the language of your choice) before you can be a poet. Scales are the language of music, and don't worry, there are more than enough different ways to put them together to keep things interesLng. Not knowing scales would be a liTle like trying to write a poem without using real words -‐ in some cases it could work and be very cool, but the chances are beTer if you sLck to a commonly understood medium, which is what scales/language are. To push the metaphor a liTle further -‐ there are many types of scales -‐ minor, major, modes etc -‐ think of this as increasing your vocabulary and learning different and more original ways of expressing your ideas.
5.6
Why Are They So Important?
There's a good quote from Andreas Segovia, who was deemed the father of modern guitar playing. He maintained that learning scales covers the most amount of technical ground in the shortest space of Lme. And if you think about it, when you are learning scales you are: 1. Learning how to effecLvely play one note aRer another.
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2. Improving the dexterity of your fingers, in a useful context. 3. Teaching your ears to hear which notes go together in what sequences. i.e. What notes go into what scales. (This is of paramount importance). 4. Providing you with the muscle memory of how the regular notes and tones go from one string to the next. It's true that by learning to play in a scale, you are effecLvely restricLng the amount of notes you play. However this is what provides us with recognisable musical structure. If you learn what large ranges of scales sound like, you'll be able to quickly select something that suits the mood of the piece you are trying to write. This saves a lot of "fumbling about" looking for notes in the long run. SomeLmes as a more advanced exercise in pracLce it's interesLng to "make up a scale" by picking a set of notes out of the 12 notes available. You'll usually find though that if you research the set of notes you've chosen, that there's probably already a scale which has those notes, but by learning some licks in this new scale, you can jump from something, for instance minor pentatonic, into your new scale for a few seconds, before going back.
5.7 What are these "Boxes" That Everyone Talks About? Most systems of learning paTerns parLLon the fret board into "boxes". A box is nothing more than a group of notes in a scale that are easy to reach without moving your freQng hand about the fret board too much. Boxes are constructed by moving up the boTom E string, note by note within the scale, starLng on that note whatever it is, and playing notes out of the scale. This means that there will be a box for each note of the scale. In the case of the major scale there will be 7 boxes, whilst there are only 5 pentatonic boxes. If you have studied the CAGED system you will noLce that it only has 5 boxes for the major scale -‐ there is nothing mysterious about this. When construcLng paTerns we want to cover the most ground possible, and a couple of the possible boxes for the major scale are only separated by one fret posiLon on the neck. This doesn't really add much so we tend to drop those, and the remaining boxes are separated by either two or three frets. So, boxes are paTerns!
5.8
Boxes and Scales
There is another very important point to understand about boxes/paTerns, and that is the fact that they stay the same no maTer what key you are playing your scale in. If you are playing a scale of G
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major, using a parLcular box or paTern, and you want to play a scale of A major, all you have to do is move that paTern up the neck by 2 fret posiLons. Why is this? Well, G and A are separated by 2 semitones. If you just slide the box upwards, none of the gaps between the notes will change, so you are playing exactly the same formula, just using a different root note. This means that you need to learn each paTern once, and you can re-‐use it for each of the 12 root notes! So, when learning boxes, learn the paTerns, not what frets they are on.
5.9
How Should I Practice Scales?
When pracLcing scales, the first step is to learn one or more of the boxes for that scale. Play all of the notes in order up and down and keep repeaLng the sequence. When you can do this without mistakes, the next thing to do is to start playing it to a metronome, slowly increasing the speed over Lme. This helps to cement the notes in your mind, trains your playing abiliLes and helps with speed and technique. Start with an iniLal box, and then learn all of the other boxes so that you can play them all cleanly and fluidly at the same speed. When you have that down, start on another type of scale!
5.10 A Note on Roots A source of confusion for some people is the fact that a lot of paTerns are shown on which the lowest note is not the root note. If you think about it, this makes sense. Look at the way we construct boxes. Let’s start on a scale of G major. Our first box would be started on the lower E string, 3rd fret -‐ that is a G, and we add notes from there to make a standard scale: G A B C D E F# G A B C D E F# G To construct the next box, we would move up a tone from G to the 5th fret which is A. Now, we start to build our scale from there: A B C D E F# G A B C D E F# G A It took us 7 notes to get to our root note G! Well its no big deal -‐ you have to understand what and where the roots are, but there will more oRen than not be notes above and below the root notes that are part of the scale, and perfectly valid notes to use in playing. Root notes are important because they idenLfy the scale you are playing (along with the type, major, minor etc). You need to know where the roots are, they are your signposts to figuring out what scale you are playing, but there is no rule that says you must start a scale by playing the root note all the Lme.
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When pracLcing scales, it IS good to start on the root note. Doing this trains your ear to the sound of the scale. However, when playing, you shouldn't limit yourself to always playing on the scale you pracLced between the root notes. The idea of a scale is that it is a paleTe of notes for you to pick from in your playing, not a thing in its own right. So, when looking at it from that perspecLve, the root note is less important and you should feel free to use any of the notes marked. How do you get from one to the other? Well, when training with the scales, start by playing in between the root notes, then as you become more familiar with the scale, perhaps, go a note or two below the root note and back up to it, or a note or two above the top root note, unLl you are able to include all of the notes in your scale. That way, when you want to use the scale in your playing, you will be familiar with all the notes, not just the ones between the root notes.
5.11 What Scales Should I Learn? Whichever scales you want! Scales are an important part of your creaLvity arsenal. The more scales you know, the more ways you have of expressing yourself. If you want to take a tried and tested path that will allow you to play the music of many great musicians, I would suggest you learn scales in the following order (but it is of course enLrely up to you!) 1. Minor Pentatonic. This is the first scale a lot is people learn. It is easy because it only has 5 notes, and straight away it opens up huge possibiliLes for improvisaLon and blues/rock style playing. Some guitarists never need more than this scale. 2. Major pentatonic. This is a variaLon of the minor pentatonic and is preTy similar 3. Major Scale. This scale is the bread and buTer of western music. 4. Natural Minor scale. Along with the major scale, these form the backbone of western music. In fact, the pentatonic is actually the minor scale with just a few notes leR out, so wherever you use the minor scale you can also use the pentatonic scale. With the above collecLon of scales under your belt you are rocking, and can probably play 95% of music that you are familiar with. If you stop here you can sLll be a very competent musician. The next scales are more limited in their applicaLon, but rarer and cooler and will start to give your music a more unusual and disLncLve feel. 5. Harmonic Minor/Melodic Minor. These are two variaLons of the minor scale that give a different feel, especially the harmonic minor. 6. The major modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian). Modes are really variaLons on the major scales that are built according to special rules. Depending on which you use,
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they will give your music a different feel. Modes are great to take on when you are thoroughly experienced with the scales I have listed above. A lot of people don't make it past the major modes -‐ by the Lme you have the major modes and the other scales under your belt, you are an accomplished musician, with a large range of scales and styling to feed into your composiLon and soloing. 7. ExoLc Scales. I call any scale that I haven't listed above an "exoLc scale" -‐ that's just my label for it. There are literally hundreds of exoLc scales, many of them used in specific types of folk music or Jazz. You could spend many-‐many years learning them all, and you can get reference books on them such as the Guitar Grimoire. Its someLmes fun to browse through these for inspiraLon 8. Modes of ExoLc scales. Modes don't just exist for major scales -‐ every scale has associated modes, which give you an even wider paleTe of notes to choose from.
5.12 A Final Word Music theory and scales are a great place to start because they train you in all of the ways menLoned above, but at a certain point (aRer much pracLce) you transcend the scales and play what sounds good to you and that is where the music really is, not in the theory itself. Knowing your scales trains your musical reacLons ( just as pracLcing moves in marLal arts trains your reflexes). When your musical reacLons are well trained, you don't think in scales, you think more in musical ideas, and the scales training backs you up by allowing you to play what is in your mind without thinking about it. At the end of it all, we learn scales so that we can internalize them and then forget about them, at least when we are playing, though you should always keep some scales as part of your pracLce regimen. This lesson includes material from Wheeler and Tank, used with permission, minor edits applied -‐ thanks guys!
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6
Reading Scale diagrams
6.1
Introduction
A first look at a scale diagram can be daunLng, but don't worry, they are very easy to read and understand and also parLcularly useful for pracLcing!
6.2
Example: A minor pentatonic
Let’s dive straight in and take a look at one:
This is our old friend A minor Pentatonic. Let’s take a detailed look and see what this diagram is trying to tell us! Well, as every scale diagram does, this diagram wants to tell us which notes are in the scale and which aren't! Scale diagrams can (but rarely do) tell us all the notes possible to play in a scale over the whole neck -‐ but they most oRen focus on a specific area or box, to show us a group of notes that are easily played together without moving up and down the neck too much. First, as is usually the case, this diagram is a representaLon of the guitar fret board with the low E string at the boTom, and the high E string at the top. In this case the strings are labelled, but they aren't always. If they are not, assume that the low E string is at the boTom and you probably won't go wrong. Next, the numbers across the top tell us what frets we are looking at. Since this box of the A minor pentatonic scale is some way up the neck, the diagram doesn't show the nut as that would be a waste of space. As we can see here, the diagram, starts on the 4th fret, and the first actual notes occur on the 5th fret.
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Note also, that the standard fret marking dots are present so that we can orient ourselves on the neck -‐ these are usually always included in scale diagrams, whereas someLmes the fret numbers are not. OK, the rest is preTy simple! Each dot shows us where we place out finger to get a note from the scale we are interested in. If there isn't a dot there, then that note isn't in the scale. In this case, the notes are also marked on the dots which makes it even easier, and if we read them off in order, lowest string first moving from leR (lower pitch) to right (higher pitch) and swapping strings when we run out of dots, we get the notes from the scale: A C D E G A C D E G A C As expected, these are all notes from the A minor Pentatonic scale! Now, the final mystery is why are some of the notes different colours? In the scale above, the "A" notes are all different -‐ this is because they are the root notes of the scale so they deserve special aTenLon. If you are unfamiliar with the importance of root notes check out the “IntroducLon to Scales Lesson” The only other complicaLon is that occasionally, some of the notes in the scale are picked out in a 3rd colour -‐ this is oRen done when that note has a special significance within the context of the diagram, for instance, if we are talking about the blues scale, the blue note, as it is called, has a special significance so we might idenLfy it by making it a different colour.
6.3
More examples
This is box 2 of the A minor Pentatonic scale. NoLce that we have moved up the neck, and are reusing some of the notes from the previous diagram we saw, but there are new ones in there as well -‐ this is an example of a scale diagram just focusing on the subset of notes that can easily be played together:
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And finally, we can use a scale diagram to show all of the possible notes in a scale -‐ this is useful for reference purposes and allows us to take a larger view of the scale we are working with:
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7
The Minor Pentatonic and Blues Scales
7.1
Introduction
In this lesson we are going to look at our first scale, the Minor Pentatonic scale (more on the blues part later). In the introducLon to scales we went over a few reasons that you might want to learn scales and how important they are to you as a musician. Well parLcularly for guitar, the Pentatonic is a great scale to learn. It is usually the first scale taught with good reason. It is preTy simple, and it works really well over simple chord progressions, and is a great place to start pracLcing improvisaLon for soloing.
7.2
Introducing the Minor Pentatonic Scale
The first thing to note about the Pentatonic scale is that it only has 5 notes (hence the Penta-‐ in its name). Now since this is the first scale we have looked at in depth that might not seem like a big deal, but in fact it is interesLng because most scales you will learn in the future have 7 notes in them. Among other things, this makes the pentatonic scale easier to play and finger because it only has 2 notes on each string. The Pentatonic comes in both major and minor -‐ we will concentrate on the Minor Pentatonic scale in this lesson. In the scales introducLon we found out that any scale can be described by a simple numeric formula, and the pentatonic scale is no excepLon to this. Its formula is: 3 2 2 3 2 Let’s see how this works in an example, for instance G Minor Pentatonic. We start with G as our root note, and add each step of the formula to get the next note: G + 3 semitones is Bb Bb + 2 semitones is C C + 2 semitones is D D + 3 semitones is F F + 2 semitones is G So there you have it -‐ G minor pentatonic is the notes G, Bb, C, D, F, G. You can apply this formula with any other root note to get the exact scale that you want.
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7.2.1 On the Fret board So how does this look on the guitar? Well, since we have 5 notes, we also have 5 possible boxes or paTerns for each key of the Minor Pentatonic; here they all are for G Minor:
Remember that you can move these paTerns up and down the neck to get the exact scale you want. For instance, if you want A minor Pentatonic, then you work it out as follows:
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The root note A is 2 semitones up from G, so just move each of these paTerns up 2 frets and voila, you have paTerns for A minor pentatonic. Also, the paTerns repeat up the neck aRer the first five -‐ so if you want to go up higher, start again with the first paTern played with the G root note played on the 15th fret instead of the 3rd fret.
7.3
The Blues Scale
The blues scale is very closely related to the minor pentatonic scale, and is used unsurprisingly in blues. The blues players oRen add an addiLonal passing note to the pentatonic scale which is technically known as a flaTened 5th -‐ that means an extra note in between notes 3 and 4 of the pentatonic scale. This note is called the blue note, and when you add it to the minor pentatonic scale you get the blues scale. Since they are so closely related, I thought I'd menLon it here! Adding in that extra note changes the formula to look like this: 3 2 1 1 3 2, and our example G minor Pentatonic becomes G, Bb, C, Db, D, F, G when rewriTen as the blues scale. Let’s look at our boxes again with the blue note included (shown in green just to be awkward!)
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7.4
The Minor Pentatonic Scale in Action
Ok, now we know how to play the Minor Pentatonic and the Blues scale, let’s talk about how we can put them into acLon. Both the Pentatonic and the Blues scales are parLcularly suitable for playing Rock and 12 bar blues with. Let’s focus on 12 bar blues -‐ a very preTy simple concept that has produced some amazing music over the years. Its elements are simple -‐ a repeaLng chord sequence, and use of the pentatonic scale. The chords you use are a type of I, IV, V progression -‐ what that means isn't really important at this stage, but the chords you would use with a G minor or Pentatonic scale would be as follows (One chord represents 1 measure): G -‐ G -‐ G -‐ G -‐ C -‐ C -‐ G -‐ G -‐ D -‐ C -‐ G -‐ D With this chord sequence as a backing, you can play sequences of notes from any of the pentatonic boxes and you will get a bluesy kind of improvisaLon going. For addiLonal blues inspiraLon, take a look at the Blues secLon of the Video lessons -‐ Gabriel has out together some awesome blues lessons to get you started!
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8
The Major Pentatonic Scale
8.1
Introduction
Our next scale is the Major Pentatonic scale. Closely related to the Minor Pentatonic scale, it can be regarded as a Minor scale with a couple of notes missing.
8.2
The Major Pentatonic Scale
The Major Pentatonic scale is a 5 note scale built using the formula: 2 2 3 2 3 Let’s have a look at how we would build a scale of G Major Pentatonic. Our root note is G, and building up from the formula we get the following notes: G + 2 semitones = A A + 2 semitones = B B + 3 semitones = D D + 2 semitones = E E + 3 semitones = G Giving us the notes G, A, B, D, E, G, and as usual you can apply this formula with any other root note to get the exact scale that you want.
8.3
On the Fret board
How do we play this on the guitar? Well, sLcking with our G Major scale, we can construct 5 different boxes, one for each note of the scale. Here they are:
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I give you the Major Pentatonic scale!
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9
Major Scales 101
9.1
Introduction
In this lesson we are going to discuss what is probably the most important scale in Western music. The reason that it is so important, apart from the fact that it gets used in a huge proporLon of modern songs, is that it is also the foundaLon of our musical system. We use it as a basis for describing intervals, building chords and specifying key signatures. In most cases, the Major scale is assumed as the norm from which other scales deviate. The only other scale that approaches the prominence of the Major scale is the Minor scale, which is itself derived from the Major scale -‐ which we will look at in a later lesson. With that in mind, let’s have a look at it!
9.2
The Major Scale
The Major scale is a 7 note scale, built using the formula: 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 You should be familiar with scale formulae from the previous lessons. Let’s have a look at how we would build a scale of G major. Obviously our root note is G, and building up from the formula we get the following notes: G + 2 semitones = A A + 2 semitones = B B + 1 semitone = C C + 2 semitones = D D + 2 semitones = E E + 2 semitones = F# F# + 1 semitones = G So there you have it -‐ a scale of G major has the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, F# G, and as usual you can apply this formula with any other root note to get the exact scale that you want.
9.3
On the Fret board
How do we play this on the guitar? Well, sLcking with our G Major scale, we can construct 7 different boxes -‐ why 7? Well, if we start with our root note of G on the E string, we can play a scale by moving
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up that single string, and each place we land can be the basis of a new box. However, for Major scales, a couple of the boxes will only be separated by 1 semitone, so be convenLon we miss these out, leaving 5 boxes, separated by either 2 or 3 semitones. Here they are:
And that in a nutshell is the Major scale!
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10
Relative Minors
10.1 Part 1 10.1.1 Introduction RelaLve minors, what are they? First I'll give you a woolly descripLon and then a more technical one. A relaLve minor is a scale that is "related" to a major scale. You can regard them as being in the same family in that harmonically they work together well. Use of relaLve minors is a powerful tool in song wriLng, as they provide a great way to move from a major to a minor key without too much of a jump or use of complex chord sequences. Some examples of major keys and their relaLve minors are: C -‐> Am G -‐> Em D -‐> Bm E -‐> C#m Try playing these as pairs of chords and you will see that they fit well together. So much for woolliness, here is a more technical descripLon: The relaLve minor of a parLcular major scale is a scale that shares all of the same notes, but starts 6 intervals up. Firstly, what is an interval? That's tricky to answer exactly, and there will be a lesson on it shortly, but for now just treats an interval as a note in a scale. An example will make this a liTle easier to understand. Let's look at the scale of C -‐ a parLcular favourite of mine because it has no sharps or flats. It has the notes C-‐D-‐E-‐F-‐G-‐A-‐B-‐C An example of the scale on open strings looks like this:
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Going up 6 notes, (C-‐D-‐E-‐F-‐G-‐A), we find that A is the relaLve minor of C. So the notes we will use for A minor are A-‐B-‐C-‐D-‐E-‐F-‐G-‐A. Let's look at that scale:
As you can see, although we start on the note of A, all of the notes also exist in the C major scale. Taking it a step further, looking at the scale in terms of half and whole notes, as in the Major Scale 101 lesson, for a relaLve minor we would use the formula: W H W W H W W, or 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 You can use this formula to work out the relaLve minor scale for any major scale by starLng at the 6th note and applying it. Now, to wrap up, we will briefly menLon a couple of fascinaLng facts about RelaLve Minors. Firstly, in western music there are actually three different minor scales -‐ they differ slightly in the formula they use. The scale above is actually a "Natural Minor" or "Pure Minor" scale -‐ two names for the same thing. In case you are wondering, the other two are called "Harmonic" and "Melodic". Since these two differ in their formulae, they do not share the same notes as the associated relaLve major scale and are harmonically speaking not such a good match as the Natural Minor. And finally, the Natural Minor (or RelaLve Minor) scale of a parLcular major scale is also known as the "Aeolian Mode". Modes are a concept that we will discuss in a future lesson, but for now, you can tell everyone that you now understand RelaLve Minors, Pure Minors, Natural Minors, and the Aeolian mode -‐ not bad for one short lesson!
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10.2 Part 2 10.2.1 Introduction Second only to the Major scale, minor scales are an important part of the music we listen to. NoLce that I said "minor scales" -‐ plural. The reason for this is that although there is really only one major scale there are a number of different scales that have the term minor aTached to them. Of these the most common is the natural minor scale, which we will be learning about here. For interest, the others are the Harmonic Minor and the Melodic minor. The reason that 3 different scales are all called minor (an indeed some chords are called minor) all hinges on a very important relaLonship within the scale. In a future lesson we'll be looking at this in a liTle more detail, but the important note of the scale is the 3rd note. When comparing Major and minor scales, the minor version of the scale will always have a 3rd note one semitone below the corresponding note in the major scale (we call this a flaTened 3rd, a minor 3rd, or a b3 for short). Although the 3 scales I menLoned differ in other ways (to see how exactly check the lessons later in the series), they all share this flaTened 3rd, so they all qualify as minor scales. The natural minor is the most common, and we will focus on this, but the other two are interesLng, especially the Harmonic minor which is used a lot in neo-‐classical composiLons.
10.2.2 The Natural Minor Scale The Natural Minor scale is a 7 note scale built using the formula: 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 You should be familiar with scale formulae from the previous lessons. Let’s have a look at how we would build a scale of G natural minor (or G Minor for short). Obviously our root note is G, and building up from the formula we get the following notes: G + 2 semitones = A A + 1 semitones = Bb Bb + 2 semitone = C C + 2 semitones = D D + 1 semitones = Eb Eb + 2 semitones = F F + 2 semitones = G
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So there you have it -‐ a scale of G minor has the notes G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, and as usual you can apply this formula with any other root note to get the exact scale that you want.
10.2.3 On the Fret board How do we play this on the guitar? Well, sLcking with our G Minor scale, as with the Major scale we can construct 7 different boxes, and by convenLon we simplify this to 5 boxes, separated by either 2 or 3 semitones. Here they are:
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11
Writing Solos
11.1
Lesson to be created
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12 Intervals, Triads, Chords and Harmonies (Intermediate) 12.1 Part 1: Degrees of the Scale 12.1.1 Introduction GreeLngs all, and welcome to the latest GMC Theory Lesson! In this mulL part lesson we are going to build on our knowledge of the major scale, and start looking at a couple of key concepts around chord and harmony construcLon. When we are done, you'll be able to understand complex relaLonships between notes, harmonize a lead line, construct a B augmented chord, and leap tall buildings in a single bound...
12.1.2 Degrees of the Scale All of the above starts simply with a concept that should already be familiar to you as the formula for a Major Scale. If you are not familiar with major scales, check out the major scale lesson here. Next, we are going to learn about degrees of the scale -‐ this is a system for talking about notes in a scale without reference to the notes themselves, or what scale they are in. This is a liTle boring for now but will help us a lot later on. You should remember that starLng at the root note of a scale, and applying the Whole/Half formula, we can generate the scale. For those of you that have forgoTen, the formula is: W W H W W W H Technically, we should be calling the whole notes tones and the half notes semi-‐tones, so I am going to rewrite the formula with different leTers, to remind you of this: T T S T T T S So far so good, but where is this leading? Well the formula above tells us about the gaps between different notes of the scale, but we need a way to refer to the notes themselves, and we do this by a system of numbers and names. We start with the root of the scale and give that the number 1, (someLmes roman numerals are used), and count up one for each note in the scale. Each of these numbers is a degree of the scale; each degree also has a name. For example, the scale of C has the notes C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C according to our formula. We would number them as in the table below. I am also showing you the formula steps, and the name of each degree.
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NoLce, that when we get back to C an octave higher, we call it the Tonic again, and call it the 1st degree, as in scale terms the two notes are equivalent. Also note that the 7th note can be called either the leading note or subtonic.
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What does this buy us? Well, let’s look at the scale of D major in the same way:
As you might expect, although the notes are completely different, the names, degrees and Gap formula all remain exactly the same. So what we have here is a way of talking about the relaLonship between different notes in a scale regardless of the actual notes themselves. If we want to talk about the 3rd note of a scale, it performs the same musical funcLon regardless of the key, and we now have a language to talk about it that is independent of the actual note or scale. In our examples above, E in the scale of C, and F# in the scale of D are both 3rd notes, and anything we want to say about 3rd notes relates to each equally. This will come in very handy later on. As a final note for this lesson, you will be pleased to know that the formal names (Dominant, Tonic etc) are rarely used. Most people refer to the numeric degrees of the scale, so if you can't remember the names don't worry!
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12.2 Part 2: Intervals 12.2.1 Introduction In part one of this series we learned about degrees of the scale. We are now ready to take the next step, and talk about intervals. Intervals are the building blocks of chords and harmonies, and we will introduce some language that let’s us describe the relaLonship between any notes, and in the next lesson we will be able to move onto chord construcLon.
12.2.2 What is an Interval? An interval is really the distance between 2 notes. Since an interval can’t exist without the note at either end, it is also usually used as a term for the relaLonship between 2 notes played simultaneously. The numbering for intervals is based on the degrees of the scale, using the major scale we know and love as a template ( just as the degrees did in the previous lesson). This will make more sense with an example. Working in the scale of C (my favourite because it has no sharps or flats) -‐ if we play a C and a G together, what interval is that? Well, the C is the 1st of the scale, and the G is the 5th. To work out the interval, we count the distance between the notes, including the note at each end. So, C,D,E,F,G -‐ 5 notes, which makes the interval a 5th. Ok, what about E and B? Again, look at their degrees. E is the 3rd, B is the 7th. Count the distance -‐ E,F,G,A,B. It’s a 5th again! So we have 2 completely different sets of notes that are a 5th apart, or that make a 5th interval. What actual use is this? Pick up your guitar and play both sets of notes together -‐ play the C and the G together, then play the E and the B together. Although the notes are different, you should be able to hear that they make a similar sound together -‐ this is the characterisLc sound of a 5th interval. Ok, that was fun, let’s look at another. Let’s try a 3rd this Lme. Start with a C, and count up 3 degrees -‐ C,D,E. So a C and an E together make a 3rd. What about if we start on a B? You know the drill -‐ B,C,D. B and D together make a 3rd. In this case we went past the end of the scale, and just started again at C. Again, try playing the 2 sets of notes together. You should hear that a 3rd interval sounds quite different in character to a 5th. A 5th sounds harsh and powerful, a 3rd sounds more pleasant and musical. In the examples above, the 2 different 5ths are enharmonic. That is to say, the intervals are idenLcal. The same is true for the 2 different 3rds.
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12.2.3 The Complete Set Ok now we know what an interval is, we can list all of them out. At this stage, we are staying within the major scale and looking at notes that occur according to our Major scale formula (T T S T T T S). Different intervals have associated names with them, which I'll list. Bear with me; the names will make sense a liTle later when we look at interval modifiers.
So what does all of this perfect and major business mean? Perfect intervals (Unison, 4th, 5th and Octave) are named because in physical terms the raLo between their frequencies is a simple one. This simple relaLonship results in a stable sounding tone that is not harsh or dissonant. The remaining intervals are regarded as dissonant, and do not qualify as Perfect intervals for this reason. Dissonance is a liTle hard to pin down as a concept -‐ it doesn't mean that the intervals necessarily sound bad. 3rds and 6ths are extremely pleasant intervals, 2nds sound awful, this is more of a concept relaLng back to the physics of the sounds, so don't waste too much energy worrying about it. You can say either 5th or perfect 5th. In common usage the terms are interchangeable. So much for perfect intervals, what about the Major intervals? Well, that gets a liTle more interesLng...
12.2.4 Interval Modifiers If we only had the intervals listed above, we could only ever construct major scales, which is a liTle limiLng. At the top of this lesson I promised you that we would be able to describe relaLonships between any notes, so now we will look at enhancing this basic framework to enable us to describe intervals in any kind of scale context. Bear in mind that although this framework is based on the
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major scale, that is just a starLng point. These intervals along with the modifiers we are about to learn will work in any scalar context -‐ we are just describing a mechanism to state the distance between any 2 notes in any scale whatsoever, it’s just convenient to use the major scale as a starLng point. We can modify the relaLonships between notes in an interval by adding or subtracLng semitones from the difference between the 2 notes (or by sharpening or flaTening the individual notes, which is the same thing). When we do this, we change the naming convenLon to reflect this. There are different names for Major and Perfect intervals that are modified in this way. Looking at Majors first, we can either raise or lower the pitch of one of the notes. So, going back to our Major 3rd interval, the notes C and E. We can make that a minor 3rd interval by flaTening the E to an Eb. Or, we could make it an augmented 3rd, by raising the sharpening the E to an F (as there is no E#). This parLcular case is interesLng, because if you were paying aTenLon you would have noLced that our augmented 3rd is exactly the same as a perfect 4th -‐ this is another example of 2 intervals being enharmonic. When we talk about modifying intervals, it’s usually best to think in terms of moving the higher note of the two. Moving the lower makes no difference to the constricLon of the interval as we are really only interested in the difference between the notes, but when looking at musical funcLon of intervals, the boTom note is oRen the anchor or reference to what we are trying to do, and moving that will completely change the funcLon of the interval in the context of the music. Looking again at our example 3rd. If we sharpen the C instead of flaTening the E, we will sLll end up with a Minor 3rd interval, C# -‐ E, but the musical context has changed. We are now looking at notes in the scale of C#, not the scale of C. This may very well be what you want to achieve, but unLl you are confident, sLck to altering the higher note of the interval, it will make more sense. In addiLon, if you lower the top note of a major interval by 2 steps, it becomes diminished. So now we know about Diminished, Minor, Major and Augmented intervals. Their relaLonship is as follows, adding a semitone to the top note each Lme: Diminished -‐> Minor -‐> Major -‐> Augmented You can do this to any of the major intervals -‐ 2nds, 3rds, 6ths, 7ths. Looking at our 3rd example again, we can count the number of tones for each of these variaLons as so:
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Perfect intervals are similar, but the rules are slightly different. Raise a Perfect interval by a semitone and it becomes augmented. Lower it by a semitone and it becomes diminished. So we have the sequence below, each differing by a semitone: Diminished -‐> Perfect -‐> Augmented. Taking a 5th interval as an example, we can write the number of tones like this:
12.2.5 An Alternative Terminology Classical music theory names intervals exactly as described above, however it is common to use a slightly different naming convenLon in musical discussion, and especially when talking about chord construcLon. The difference is in how we specify the major, minor and augmented labels. As we will see in later lessons, due to their importance the 3rd of chords and scales is oRen sLll referred to in the way described above, but for other intervals we introduce some new terminology. This terminology is not generally used for the case in which we are describing gaps between arbitrary notes, but is used extensively to describe scale degrees and notes in chords. A minor interval becomes a 'flat' interval (as it has been moved down one semitone), for instance a 'b5'. Occasionally used for a 3rd, e.g. b3
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An augmented interval becomes a 'sharp' interval (as it has been moved up one semitone), for instance ’#4' 7th intervals get special treatment, again because they are important in chord funcLon. A Major 7th keeps its name; a minor 7th can be called either a 'b7' or a 'Dominant 7th' In addiLon when puQng chords together, it is common to use numbers greater than 7 -‐ this makes sense when you consider how the chords are begin constructed. If we want to add for instance a 2nd to a chord, we will commonly do this using notes higher than the octave note (which is an 8th), so we talk about a 9th interval, which is in reality a 2nd interval moved up an octave -‐ a 2nd is the root note plus one interval, the 9th is an octave (or 8th) pus one. This falls naturally out of the way we stack notes on top of each other to actually build the chords. The rule is that for intervals above 8, just subtract 7 to find out what they are in more familiar terms. Some common ones are: A 9th is the same as a 2nd An 11th is the same as a 4th A 13th is the same as a 6th This convenLon can be combined with the previous one, so we could for instance talk about a b13 note within a chord. Looking at Intervals in Scales Ok, now we have a way of describing intervals we can start to put this to work in the language we use to describe all sorts of musical constructs -‐ we'll look at scales first as a taster, and then move onto harmonies, triads, and more complex chords in future lessons. So far we have described scales using our formulae -‐ for instance, T T S T T T S for a major scale. Each leTer in the formula represents an interval. When looking at scales, we very commonly analyse the scale in terms of intervals, counLng from the root note. Since the root note is always assumed, we can now describe a major scale as consisLng of a Major 2nd, a Major3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, and Major 7th. That may seem cumbersome, and no one would really ever do that, but it is a very common pracLce to describe how scales differ from either the Major or Minor scales -‐ that is a lot more useful. So for instance, the Natural Minor scale itself differs from a major scale by having a Minor 3rd, Minor 6th and a Minor 7th -‐ that’s a liTle more useful. How about modes? Well, for instance, Mixolydian mode is the same as a major scale with a flaTened 7th. (If you don't know what modes are, don't worry, we'll cover that in a future lesson).
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12.2.6 Final Thoughts It is very common to leave the qualifiers out when talking in intervals for harmonies and chord construcLon. When we do this, it is understood that we are referring to the variaLons present in the major scale. That is major for 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th, and perfect for 4th and 5th. Another terminology you may come across is use of the words flaTened or sharpened to describe intervals -‐ this is most common in chord construcLon. A flaTened 5th (b5) for example is commonly used to describe a 5th interval in which the top note has moved down 1 semitone, so it is really a diminished 5th. Similarly, a b3 would be a minor 3rd. We will see this alot in the lessons on chords.
12.3 Part 3: Power Chords 12.3.1 Introduction In this lesson we are going to take a look at something near and dear to all of us -‐ Power Chords. Power chords fit into this series nicely at this point, because they are more than intervals, and less than chords! If you haven't done so already, I suggest you check out the earlier parts of this lesson to understand the concepts of degrees of the scale and intervals as we'll be using those some more in this lesson.
12.3.2 What are they? As I inLmated above, a power chord does not even qualify as a chord in the tradiLonal sense of the word. In musical terms, a power chord consists of the 1st and 5th of the scale played together, so it is actually a 5th interval, not a chord. In a lot of cases we double up the root note and play 3 notes, a Root, 5th and Octave, but the root and octave are the same note so it does not qualify as a triad. Now, that rather dry descripLon doesn't really convey the ... power... of power chords. Since we are using only 1st and 5th notes, the resonance and intervals set up are extremely clean and consonant. Musically the 5th interval is a simple raLo, which tends to be easier on the ears. The result of this is that power chords are clean and very strong, providing a very powerful basis for riffs -‐ they are unlike any other chords in this regard, which are harmonically more complex, which means that they are also less pure and therefore less able to cut through to the heart of a song or riff. Power chords are also interesLng in that they are ambiguous as to funcLon. You can play a given power chord in a minor or major context because the sparseness of the notes guarantees that it will fit in. To differenLate between minor and major, in choral terms we must put in some flavour of 3rd note -‐ a minor 3rd, or a major 3rd -‐ no prizes for guessing which funcLon each has! Since it has no 3rd, the power chord fits neatly over each chord and scale type, and its perfect interval gives it a powerful balanced sound ideal for certain types of music. It is also the true that power chords work beTer than fuller chords when used with distorLon -‐ this is because, as a perfect interval, it has that simple raLo between the notes. More complex raLos such as 3rds tend to be processed by distorLon
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in a more complex way adding undesirable artefacts that muddy up the sound and make it sound much more dissonant. So even though a power chord isn't really a chord, we guitarists love them because they fit in anywhere and sound great with the gain cranked up! So, they are clean, powerful and extremely versaLle as they can be used in a Minor or Major context, but how do we play them?
12.3.3 Power Chord Shapes There are a huge number of different power chords -‐ remember, we just need an arrangement of notes that includes a 1st and a 5th, and opLonally the octave note. This gives us a large number of possibiliLes from gut-‐wrenching bass laden chords, to strident high chords. Let’s look at a few of the different opLons. In each case, I'll give you the lowest possible variaLon of the chord, and you just have to slide the chord up unLl the root note is the chord you want to play. When wriLng down chord symbols, we usually refer to a power chord as a "5" chord -‐ e.g., C5, or G5, to denote the fact that they contain a 5th interval. Although many other chords include a 5th interval without it being called out as anything special, in the power chord the 5th is the only interval so we make a fuss about it We'll start with the simplest variaLons, I'll show the 3 note versions, but in any of these apart from the last you can drop the highest note without changing the chord type at all. StarLng on the E string with the lowest of power chords, the E5 chord:
Next, we move up a string to get A5:
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These first two power chords work parLcularly well in a progression together, because in the key of E, E would be the tonic or root, and A would be the 4th -‐ this would give us a I,IV progression which is a common chord sequence, and easily played using these two power chords in one aRer the other. Sliding the A5 up 2 frets also gives us B5 which is the 5th -‐ another very common chord and in fact with I,IV and V you can play a lot of songs. The chords used so far have a fair amount of bass presence to them, and are used a lot in metal riffs at various places on the neck. If you want to go for some higher sounding power chords, there are a few more opLons. Let’s start with the D string and work up -‐ this gives us a D5:
StarLng on the G string gives is G5:
And finally, the highest power chord we can get starts on the B string, and is called B5:
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Those are the basic shapes, but we can start adding other 5th and octave notes to give an even fuller sound -‐ here are a couple of my favourites:
Drop D Tuning This is a trick used by metal players to get an even deeper sound. A regular guitar's 6th string is tuned to E. When you couple that with a B on the 5th string to make a power chord it gives you the lowest, deepest opLon you can get -‐ an E5. If you tune your 6th string down to D, and use an open A string along with it, you get a power chord that is 2 semitones deeper -‐ a D5. Some of the deepest bossiest riffs are produced this way. Also, when you do this, your low power chord shape looks like this:
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It is a very simple bar, making it easier to play more complex riffs up and down the neck.
12.3.4 Smokin' Ok, let’s take a quick look at a piece of music that uses some power chords -‐ our old favourite Smoke on the Water. I have tabbed out the first few chords. As you can see, it is in G minor, which means it starts off with a chord of G5, which in this case is played using the very first shape I showed you, moved up 3 semitones. All of the remaining chords are that same shape, moved up and down the neck, giving you an idea of what you can do with one simple chord!
12.4 Part 4: Triads 12.4.1 Introduction Hi all, if you have been following along so far, you now know about the degrees of the scale and intervals. We're now going to start puQng this to work for us in part 3 of the series -‐ triads. First of all, what is a triad? Well, its the simplest type of chord, one consisLng of 3 disLnct notes. Another way to look at it is as 2 intervals stacked on top of each other, sharing the middle note of the three. Basic chords such as C, F, G, E etc all qualify as triads, because although you may be able to play them on all 6 strings in some cases, there are only 3 disLnct notes, some of which may be
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repeated. As the simplest of chords, triads are probably among the first chords you learnt as a beginner. In fact, triads are very versaLle, and you can go a long way with them. They come in four different flavours. The first two are very common, the last two you may not have heard of before.
12.4.2 Major Triad The major triad is probably the most common chord type you will encounter. We all know major chords -‐ C,F,G,E,D,A,etc -‐ these are all triads. Using the techniques we learnt in the last lesson (which is here if you missed it), we describe triads using intervals counLng from the base note. A major triad consists of: Root note Major third Perfect 5th Using that recipe and varying root notes, you can create any major triad in the diatonic scale system -‐ 12 in total. What was that ? What is the diatonic scale system? I threw that in just to check you were listening; Diatonic is a term that refers to the types of scales almost exclusively used in western music, that consist of a mixture of half tones and whole tones -‐ exactly the type of scales we have been using unLl now, with our T and S formulae -‐ T T S T T T S for major for instance. The opposite of a diatonic scale would be a chromaLc scale which is constructed enLrely of half tones. OK, back to major triads -‐ let’s try one out! In the key of G, the notes in the major scale are G,A,B,C,D,E,F#,G. Using our major triad formula, we pick out G,B and D -‐ the notes in a G major triad. Check that against the G major chord you know -‐ you should find that each note you play is one of those three. You can finger the chord of G like this:
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12.4.3 Minor Triad Ok, next up is the minor triad -‐ just like your standard minor chords, like Am, or Dm. The minor triad differs from the major triad in that the first interval is a minor 3rd rather than a major 3rd -‐ form our interval lesson we know that this means the 3rd note is flaTened a semitone. Let’s look at the triad of A minor. If we were trying for a major triad, we would look at the scale of A major -‐ A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A, and the major triad would be A, C#, E. But for the minor triad we would flaTen the 3rd, to get A,C,E -‐ which is consistent with the scale of A minor A,B,C,D,E,F,G,A. NoLce that as we discussed in the previous lesson we can see that the minor scale is the same as the major scale with a flaTened 3rd, 6th and 7th -‐ the key of A shows this parLcularly clearly, as the notes we flaTen to go from major to minor are all sharpened in the A major scale. We can remove the sharps (which is equivalent to moving the note down a semitone) to get the notes of the minor scale. We could finger our Am triad like this:
12.4.4 Diminished Triad The first two triad types, Major and Minor have changed the 3rd interval. The next two changes the 5th interval instead of or as well as changing the 3rd. First the diminished chord. The rule for a diminished chord is that we use the root note, a minor 3rd, and a diminished 5th -‐ no prizes for guessing why we call these diminished chords! Our example for diminished chords will be Ddim. The scale of D is D,E,F#,G,A,B,C#,D. The root is D, the minor 3rd is an F, (one semitone down from F#), and our diminished 5th is Ab, or G#, again, one semitone down from our perfect 5th. You could finger it like this:
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In the guitar world at least, diminished triads are preTy uncommon -‐ players prefer to use the diminished 7th chord which adds an extra note and makes the chord sound a liTle beTer. Its quite an odd sound, but very disLncLve. Accomplished shredders very oRen will use diminished chords as the basis for arpeggios and sweeps to get a parLcular sound, very different from major or minors. They are oRen used to create tension which is resolved by a change to another chord, oRen the root.
12.4.5 Augmented Triad Finally, our last type is the augmented triad. We get an augmented triad by using the root note, a major 3rd, and an augmented 5th. In this example we'll construct a C augmented triad. Using the scale of C -‐ C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C, the root is C, the 3rd is E, and the augmented 5th would be a G# or Ab. You could finger it as below.
A very typical use for an augmented chord is as a bridge from the dominant to the tonic -‐ remember those names from the lesson on degrees of the scale? We tend to use them occasionally when we are talking about chord funcLons. The tonic in the key of C is C itself, and the dominant is G. So what I said above translated to the key of C is that we can use an augmented chord to lead us from the dominant ( G ) back to the tonic ( C ). In this case, the chord sequence we would use would be: G -‐> Gauge -‐> C Why does this work so well? Its because of the way the individual notes move within the chords. The differing notes between a G and a Gauge are that 5th -‐ it moves from a perfect 5th to an augmented
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5th. In the chord of G that means moving from a D to a D#. The chord of C that we are resolving to happens to have an E note in it (it is the major 3rd), so we get a nice liTle sub-‐melody when we play those 3 chords -‐ D, D#, E -‐ which seems to lead us very pleasantly from the G chord to the C chord. This kind of movement within chord funcLon accounts for a lot of the effects that different chord sequences have on the ear within the context of a parLcular song, and the cool thing is that in the first two lessons we covered the language and concepts to understand that kind of analysis -‐ if nothing else, you can impress your fellow band members!
12.4.6 Other Triads Now that we have covered the four types of triad you are probably wondering why there are only 4 types of triad -‐ why can't we have a C triad with a minor 3rd with an augmented 5th for example. Well, there are no rules in music; all we are trying to do is explain something that at Lmes can be preTy indefinable. The pragmaLc answer to the quesLon is that yes, of course you can do that. Its just that the results might not be too musical, and on the whole people avoid certain combinaLons of notes. However, it might well be the perfect chord to finish off your killer riff with, and if that is the case, be my guest and do it -‐ in the next lesson we'll have a look at how we might go about naming some of the more esoteric chords like that, and you can figure its name out for yourself! (OK, since you asked, a C triad with a minor 3rd and an augmented 5th might be called Cm#5, but don't quote me on that!)
12.4.7 Final Words Now that we have looked at the 4 types of triads, you have the ability to figure out the notes of any one of 48 different chords! That's 4 individual types for each of 12 keys. In the next lesson, we'll start to look at some more complex chords and preTy soon you'll be able to work out hundreds of chords just by memorizing a few simple rules!
12.5 Seventh Chords 12.5.1 Introduction In our journey towards understanding chords, we have looked at Power Chords which are combinaLons of 2 notes, and triads which are combinaLons of 3 notes. Power chords and triads are both relaLvely simple types of chords, yet they account for the majority of chords in use in popular music with one excepLon; that of the 7th chord. In this lesson we are going to look into the various types of 7th chord, and then in the next lesson move on a step to look at extended chords which are used a lot in Jazz.
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12.5.2 Triads and Relative Intervals So far, we have seen chord construcLon that consists of stacking notes separated by one tone on top of each other. For instance a major triad is a Root, 3rd and 5th interval. But we can also look at this in a slightly different way and figure out the relaLonship between the notes by looking at the interval between successive notes, rather than the interval from the root as we have been doing unLl now. So for our major triad we can describe it as a major 3rd between the first 2 notes, followed by a minor 3rd between the second 2 notes. Let’s look at an example, the chord of C Major. The notes are C, E and G. If C is the root, E is a Major 3rd and G is a perfect 5th, no surprises there. If we look at it in relaLve terms, the interval between the C and the E is sLll a Major 3rd of course, but we can now get to the next note (the G) by describing the interval between the E and the G rather than the C and the G -‐ that gives us a Minor 3rd. So, we can describe a Major triad as a Major 3rd followed by a Minor 3rd. When we do this, we are construcLng what are called "terLan chords", by starLng on a root note and stacking two 3rds on top of each other. To get the different flavours of triad (major, minor, augmented, diminished) we just need to vary the type of 3rd interval we are using, like this:
So we can build any triad type out of two 3rd intervals. One way of building more complex chords is to extend this principle and add another 3rd on top of the triad, which will end up giving us some flavour of 7th chord.
12.5.3 Sevenths: What are they? We know from our study of intervals that there are 2 types of 7th interval -‐ a Major 7th and a Minor 7th. There is no augmented 7th because that would be the same as an octave (because in the major scale there is only a semitone between the 7th and octave, meaning that if we augment the 7th we end up with an 8th. The same is true of a 3rd; an augmented 3rd is the same as a perfect 4th). A 7th is also a 3rd up from a 5th, meaning that if we take a triad and stack another 3rd on top of it we will end up with some sort of 7th chord. As you might expect, the type of 3rd we use determines the type of 7th chord we get. In addiLon, varying the absolute 3rd interval between major and minor allows us to create 4 main variaLons of a 7th chord.
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Although the most important interval in a chord is generally speaking the 3rd -‐ it governs whether the overall chord is major or minor -‐ the 7th is also preTy important when it is represented. By varying these two notes of a chord you can create a huge range of tonal colourings. Let’s take a look at all the common combinaLons of chords with a 7th and see what they are called. These are an interesLng bunch of chords. The Major 7th is a rich but sad sounding chord; it works really well on an acousLc guitar. The minor 7th makes a good and very subtle replacement for a regular minor chord. The 7th or Dominant has a triumphant kind of feel to it. Of all of them, the only one not in common usage is the minor major 7th. The minor major 7th although not common deserves some discussion, not least because of its confusing name. The key to understanding this chord is to realize that the "minor" refers to the 3rd interval (a minor 3rd, making the chord minor overall) and the "major" refers to the 7th interval -‐ a major 7th. Think of it as "C minor ... with a major 7th", then remove the "... with a" and it should make sense! The Minor Major 7th is a fairly unusual chord and not parLcularly musical, but it is dramaLc, a feature that qualifies it to be the chord that the James Bond theme fades out to!
12.5.4 Major 7ths Ok, let’s see some examples of how we would play these chords. A couple of really good open string variants are Cmaj7 and Fmaj7 -‐ together they make a great progression, and are played like this: C Major 7:
F Major 7:
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The thumb placement here is opLonal, you could remove the thumb and just not play the 6th string; however, played as shown above it is a beauLfully full and resonant chord. As bar chords, there are two main major 7th shapes (although there are others), based on an open A major 7 and an open E major 7. G Major 7:
C Major 7:
Minor 7ths Minor 7ths work well as bar chords, based on the Em7 and Am7 shapes respecLvely, for instance:
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G Minor 7:
C Minor 7:
Dominant 7ths Dominant 7ths also work well as bar chords, based again on the E7 and A7 shapes: C7:
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G7:
As usual, once you have the hang of a parLcular bar chord you can move it up and down the fret board to obtain any chord of that type that your heart desires. Finally, an example of a minor major chord, E minor major 7 -‐ an open chord that is relaLvely easy to play: E minor major 7:
Note on chord symbols: Triads are nice and simple, and everyone agrees on the symbols to use for them. For 7ths and more complex chords, there are a number of different naming schemes. In a perfect world we would all use the same one, but everyone will tend to use the one they are taught. For that reason, we need to learn various variants for chord naming. I have listed the most common ones, but there are others.
12.5.5 Seventh Progressions The various flavours of 7th chords are very important when construcLng progressions around the major modes. Several of the modes have variaLons of seventh chords as their characterisLc root chord, and understanding of the tonaliLes of these chords can help a lot when you are improvising in different modes. For example, Dorian and Phrygian both have a Minor 7th root chord. Lydian has a
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Major 7th root chord, and Mixolydian has a Dominant 7th root chord. Knowledge of these different chords and how they sound can give you a lot of insight into the flavour of the different modes. Another fun thing to do is to make up a chord progression based on a constant root chord with a varying 7th flavour. One of my favourites: C, Cmaj7, C7, F (used to great effect in "Something" by the Beatles) Looking at the notes in those chords: C -‐ C E G C Cmaj7 -‐ C E G B C7 -‐ C E G Bb F -‐ F A C You can see there is a progression through the chords in which one note changes step by step. StarLng with the top C in the C major chord, we move to a B in the C major 7, to a Bb in the C7 and finally to an A in the F chord. This thread of changing a note step by step gives a very pleasant progression and leads the ear naturally from the tonic to the sub-‐dominant chords. Another good one uses the minor major 7th: Em, Em/maj7, Em7, Em6 (I learned this as a kid in a song called "Joshua Fought the BaTle of Jherico") Em -‐ E G B E Em/maj7 -‐ E G B Eb Em7 -‐ E G B D Em6 -‐ E G B Db Again, look at the way that the top note in each chord leads us down a step -‐ E, Eb, D, Db, creaLng some interesLng harmonic movement. (We haven't come across an Em6 yet, but it is just an E minor chord plus an addiLonal 6th which is Db in this case). Even an abbreviated version of this in which an m7 moves to an m6 and back can be a very simple way of spicing up an otherwise staLc chord progression.
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12.5.6 Conclusion That's it for 7th chords -‐ the next step is to stack further thirds on top of the 7th which moves into extended chord territory!
12.6 Part 6: Extended Chords 12.6.1 Introduction So far we have looked at triads made by stacking 3rd notes on top of each other, and then we took it a step further and added a 4th note to get some flavour of 7th chord. So, what do we get if we take this noLon of adding 3rds to the next level? Well we can carry on doing this to create a family of what are called "extended chords" -‐ and some of them are beauLful sounding and quite jazzy chords. We'll have a look at these extended chords in this lesson.
12.6.2 Taking it Past the Octave One thing to noLce about our triads and seventh chords is that all of the notes are part of the same octave. When we start to move past a seventh, when adding a 3rd interval on top, we step outside of our first octave and into the second. There is nothing parLcularly scary about this but it does have naming implicaLons. Let’s look at an example. Let’s start with a chord of C7: C E G Bb If we want to move a step further and create an extended chord out of this by stacking another 3rd on top, staying within the scale we would add a D note in to get: C E G Bb D Now as you will all be aware from our earlier study on intervals, D is a 2nd interval to our root note of C, but in this case its is an octave higher than out second, so we refer to it as a 9th (that is the 2nd interval that D normally is, plus the 7 disLnct intervals in the lower octave). In fact, when we move past the octave in this way, the interval is called a compound interval. The 9th we have described here is also known as a compound 2nd. So, the chord I showed you above is in fact called C9, and you could play it like this:
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Elevenths and Thirteenths We can conLnue our process of adding 3rds and go 2 steps further -‐ adding an 11th and a 13th. By the Lme we get here though, we are playing 6 and 7 notes in our chord. The 13th is parLcularly interesLng because it contains every note in the diatonic scale in one chord. C11 would be C E G Bb D F And C13 would be C E G Bb D F A With 6 notes in an 11th, it’s just possible to arrange all of these on a guitar fret board when playing a C11 for instance:
Since we only have 6 strings, we can never play the full version of a 13th on a guitar (instruments like a piano can however). Instead it is customary for extended chords to miss out the 5th, and intervening intervals between the 7th and the highest note. For instance, you could play a 13th chord that omits the 5th, 9th and 11th. This moves us into the realm of chord voicing; which parLcular combinaLon of notes you choose to play a parLcular extended chord can have an effect on how the overall piece sounds. Here are a couple of examples of how you might voice a 13th chord on a guitar. First, we'll omit the 5th and leave in the 9th and 11th:
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As an alternaLve C13 voicing, we would put the 5th back in and omit the 9th and 11th:
Extended Majors Minors and Sevenths As you know, the major and minor characterisLc of a chord is about its most important aTribute, followed by the flavour of seventh it has. The extended chords that we have seen so far are always based on a chord that has a major 3rd and a minor or Dominant 7th. With that as a basis we can stack notes on top to get our basic extended chords, and then we can use the same variaLons of 3rd and 7th that we have previously discussed to get different flavours of extended chords. For instance, if we flaTen the 3rd of a 9th chord, we end up with a minor 9th. Here is an example of Cm9:
NoLce that we now have an Eb in there -‐ a minor 3rd.
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And finally, we can make changes to the dominant 7th and make use of a major 7th in its place and end up with a Major 7 9th -‐ for instance Cmaj79:
Our 3rd is now a Major 3rd again (E) and we have raised our major 7th (Bb) to a B. Its also possible to use for instance a minor 3rd and a major 7th (based on our friend the Minor Major 7th chord) and add the 9th to obtain a minor major 7 9 -‐ some of these more obscure chords aren't parLcularly musical but they are there if you need them.
12.7 Suspended and Added Tone Chords 12.7.1 Introduction In this lesson, we are taking our understanding of chords to the next level! We have looked at triads, sevenths and even extended chords, but there is more! Once again, we can modify the combinaLons of notes in our chords in some ways that are different again to get more cools sounds! UnLl now we have been following a simple principle of stacking notes on top of each other. That lead first to triads, then 7th chords, and finally into the world of extended chords such as 9ths, 11ths and 13ths. In this lesson, we are going to reign back the stacking a liTle and look at other ways of combining chords principally by adding and subsLtuLng notes rather than just plain stacking.
12.7.2 Suspended Chords So, without further ado, let’s get at it! Suspended chords are a variaLon of our basic triads. Suspended chords focus on the 3rd interval in a major triad (which is actually formed between the first and 2nd notes in the chord. As a quick refresher, a triad of C major would be: C E G
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C is the root, E is a major 3rd, and G is a 5th -‐ this is the basic paTern for all of our chords. Now, what happens if we change the 3rd, that E note? Well, we all ready know that if we flaTen it to an Eb, we end up with a minor triad because the 3rd interval in the chord is a minor 3rd. But what if we change it such that the middle note is no longer a 3rd at all? The answer, as you have probably guessed is that we end up with a suspended chord. Before we rush into the specifics, let’s think about that name for a liTle while -‐ why suspended? Well, as we will hear, these notes, lacking as they do a 3rd interval, tend to sound unbalanced, and create a sense of suspense or unbalanced-‐ness -‐ hence the term suspended -‐ the listener is suspended by this chord waiLng for the chord to change to something more balanced -‐ and usually we resolve suspended chords by moving back to the regular major chord -‐ a very common chord progression trick. This descripLon applies much more to the sus4 than the sus2. There are 2 flavours of suspended chord -‐ the sus4 and the sus2. Sus 4 Chords So called Sus4 chords are the most common variaLon of suspended chords, so much so, that when people refer to them they usually just say "suspended" and sus4 rather than sus2 is understood. As you may have guessed by the name, in a suspended or sus4 chord, we replace the 3rd interval with a perfect 4th interval. In our example above, we would end up with the following notes to make a Csus4 chord: C F G You could play a sus 4 chord like this: E---x--B---1--G---0--D---3--A---3--E---x--Try it -‐ do you feel a sense of suspension? Now play a regular chord of C straight aRer it -‐ you should feel the tension release. Sus 2 Chords
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Much less common than a sus4, the sus2 chord is made, not surprisingly by replacing the 3rd interval with a major 2nd. In our example, the Csus2 chord would look like this: C D G And you could play it like this: E---x--B---1--G---0--D---0--A---3--E---x--Once again, play it -‐ it has a sort of incomplete feel that is resolved by moving to the regular C major triad.
12.7.3 Added Tone Chords Moving on from suspended chords, next we will look at added tone chords, or just "add" chords -‐ so called because of the way we notate them -‐ as we'll see soon. Let’s think about a 9th ... as an extended chord, we know that we name the chord for the highest of the added tones. In the case of a 9th, that we take a basic major triad and add a 7th and a 9th. In this case the 7th is implied. It’s the same for a 13th for instance -‐ in this case the 7th, 9th and 11th are all implied. (Aside: on a guitar they are oRen not all played but they are technically part of the chord -‐ on guitar we have to choose a voicing that allows us to play the most important notes of the chord, a kind of compromise that we don't make in pure theory). By contrast, if we take a triad and add a 9th to it without the intervening notes (the 7th in this case) we end up with an add9 chord. So, for instance, C9 is: C E G Bb D (remember that the 7th is flaTened unless otherwise noted) But Cadd9 is: C E G D
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An add9 can also be called a +9 chord. You could play a C+9 (Cadd9) like this: E---x--B---3--G---0--D---2--A---3--E---x--The same principle applies to +11 and +13. You can't have a +7 because that would be idenLcal to a dominant 7th chord in any case. The only remaining tone worth menLoning is a 6th -‐ this is technically an added tone chord but is notated as if it were an extended chord -‐ we would talk about C6 for instance and we would mean a C major triad with an added 6th note. C+6 would mean the same thing but is rarely if ever used. The astute amongst you might have noLced that a 6th is the same as a 13th, so is there any difference between C6 and C+13? When you add guitar voicing into the equaLon there is very liTle difference, C6 is menLoned a lot more oRen than C+13. Since a 6th is the highest note in the 4 notes anyway, there is no real difference between this and the +13 variaLon. A C6 consists of these notes: C E G A And you could play it like this: E---x--B---1--G---2--D---2--A---3--E---x--Again, this is a compromise voicing, as it doesn't include a 5th (a G), but it does include the all important 6th (A).
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12.8 Part 8: Altered Chords 12.8.1 Lesson to be created
12.9 Part 9: Upper Structure and Poly Chords 12.9.1 Lesson to be created
12.10 Simple Harmonies 12.10.1 Introduction Today we are going to look at how we can put the knowledge we have so far to good use and learn a liTle about harmonizaLon. This is a fascinaLng subject, and we are going to look at the basics in this lesson and then some more complex ideas in a later lesson.
12.10.2 What is Harmony? A lot of you probably know what harmonizaLon is when you hear it but how to explain what it actually is? Well, in simple terms it is enhancing a melody line by playing notes at the same Lme either higher or lower than the melody note itself. OK, that is a simple explanaLon and not exact by any means, but it gets us started. The next quesLon is which notes? Will any notes do? For harmonizaLon, no, we have some specific ways of picking out the notes we use -‐ they all have a very definite relaLonship to the melody we are harmonizing. If we are less careful, we could end up with counterpoint, which is different to harmony, and a useful concept in its own right but not what we are looking for. So let’s qualify what notes we are looking for. Harmonies are generally notes that are picked to be an offset within the scale from the melody note. That offset oRen remains fixed throughout the harmonized passage, and in this lesson we will make the assumpLon that they do stay fixed -‐ a future lesson will address more complex harmonic movement in which the intervals shiR throughout the passage. Now it has probably occurred to you that harmonies sound a liTle similar to chords. You'd be right -‐ harmonies are really a way of adding choral concepts to an unadorned melody line, and we will be using some chord based concepts to put this together. I bet you are also wondering which offsets we should be using -‐ the answer is that it varies depending upon the effect you are looking for, just as you would use different intervals to create different chord types.
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12.10.3 Scales and Intervals Not surprisingly, scales are the foundaLon to all of this. A melody that you are trying to harmonize will be based on a parLcular scale. Any harmonies you create will also be based on that same scale, and there will be a offset between the melody notes and harmonies, based on degrees of that parLcular scale. Different offsets have different effects -‐ the most commonly used are probably 3rds -‐ these usually give a very melodic feel to the harmony. Another common one is 6ths. Since a 6th interval is really just an inverted 3rd, we again get a melodic effect, but there is a greater sense of space between the notes giving a different feel to a 6th harmony. Also common are 5ths -‐ a more harsh type of harmony, but well suited to metal, as a 5th is also a power chord and has that same kind of feel. Dissonant intervals such as 2nds and 7ths are rarely used except as a transitory move in more complex harmonies, leaving 4ths, which can be used to great effect but are a liTle strange sounding. This all sounds a liTle dry, so it is Lme for an example!. Our First Example Ok, let’s look at a simple melody line, and harmonize it in 3rds (that’s harmony speak for using a fixed 3rd offset for the harmony). We'll pick a simple example -‐ a scale of C major. Our notes as everyone knows are: C D E F G A B C Now, to harmonize this sequence of notes in 3rds, all we have to do is move 2 degrees up the scale for each of our harmony notes. So, if we start with the first note, C, our 3rd interval is an E, which is 2 degrees up the scale. To play our harmony we would play the note of C and a note of E at the same Lme -‐ easy huh? Our second pair are D, and the note 2 steps up from D which is an F. To carry on up the scale we just use the same rule for each pair of notes, to get the following pairs (harmonies in red): C E D F E G F A G B
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A C B D C E Or in tab: E||----------------------|-----------------0----|| B||----------------------|--0----1----0----1----|| G||------------0----2----|--0----2----7---------|| D||--2----0----2----3----|----------------------|| A||--3----8--------------|----------------------|| E||----------------------|----------------------|| Now let’s look at how that works with a minor scale -‐ C minor. Our notes are: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C Again, if we use the same rule and stay in 3rds, we get the pairs as follows: C Eb D F Eb G F Ab G Bb Ab C Bb D C Eb
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Or in tab: E||----------------------|----------------------|| B||----------------------|-------1----3----1----|| G||------------0----1----|--0----1----3----8----|| D||--1----0----1----3----|--8-------------------|| A||--3----8--------------|----------------------|| E||----------------------|----------------------|| Now, let’s take a moment to think about what we have done here. Since we have followed the notes of the base scale in both cases, the real intervals between the notes have changed as we went along. In the major scale example, the first 2 notes C and E are a Major 3rd apart. However, the second 2 notes, D and F are actually a minor 3rd. In the minor scale, our first pair, C and Eb was a minor 3rd, the second pair; D and F were also a minor 3rd. This falls naturally out of the way the scales are constructed, and happen to be the exact right shiRing in the intervals to make everything sound correct. To put another way, the intervals change between each pair to accommodate the fact that both notes in each case are taken out of the same scale. What this means in pracLce is that although we talk about harmonizing in 3rds, we are not using a fixed interval; we are really talking about the offset of the notes in degrees of the scale. Let’s look at another example -‐ 6ths. At this point we can introduce another concept of harmonies -‐ it is possible to harmonize either above or below the melody line. What we did in the previous example was to harmonize a 3rd above. In this example, let’s harmonize a 6th below: C D E F G A B C C E D F E G F A G B A C B D C E
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Or in tab: E||----------------------|----------------------|| B||----------------------|------------0----1----|| G||----------------------|--0----2--------------|| D||-------0----2----3----|------------0----2----|| A||--3--------------0----|--2----3--------------|| E||--0----1----3---------|----------------------|| Hang on, that looks idenLcal to our first example! Well spoTed -‐ it is, except in this case, each harmonized note (the ones in red) would be an octave lower than the harmonized notes in the previous examples as you can see from the tab. This is because as I menLoned earlier, an inverted 6th is a 3rd, so if we go a 6th down, it gives us the same note as if we went a 3rd up -‐ that is why 6ths work well as harmonies, if they are 6ths below. That same example using a 6th above would give us: C A D B E C F D G E A F B G C A Or in tab: E||----------------------|--0----1----3----5----|| B||-------0----1----3----|------------0----1----|| G||--2-------------------|--0----2--------------|| D||-------0----2----3----|----------------------|| A||--3-------------------|----------------------|| E||----------------------|----------------------||
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This will sound a liTle less melodic as the 6th notes tend to sound unresolved when you end on a strong note on the melody. Resolved notes tend to be roots and 5ths, also 3rds. As you can see here, the last note is a root which would normally resolve well, but the harmonized note is a 6th, making the ending sound unresolved.
12.10.4 In Practice In pracLce, harmonizaLon is a great way to thicken up a vocal or guitar lead line and give the whole melody a different feel. Pick your favourite lead line and experiment with adding harmonies above and below it and see how it sounds -‐ you can make a huge difference by adding just a few harmonies in selected places!
12.11 Part 11: Cadences 12.11.1 Introduction Foreword by Andrew This is the first in a new breed of theory lesson for this board. Sadly, owing to other GMC commitments, I have been too busy for a while to write any new theory lessons. DeepRoots has very kindly agreed to help out a liTle with this. This lesson was enLrely wriTen by him, and fits neatly into the published lesson plan, and I am proud to add it to my theory board! In future we hope to bring you more collaboraLve theory lessons and keep the theory rolling in! So, over to DeepRoots... Cadences can be seen as 'musical punctuaLon'. A cadence is a formula that signifies the end of a musical phrase, like punctuaLon in wriTen language. For our purposes a cadence may be regarded as a harmonic formula, usually consisLng of a pair of chords, that also oRen has the important funcLon of defining the key of the music. Cadences give phrases a disLnct finish, which can, for example, show the listener whether the piece is to be conLnued or concluded.
12.11.2 Four basic kinds of cadence Perfect Cadence (or authenLc or standard cadence): V -‐ I
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ResoluLon consisLng of the chords V -‐ I. The strongest and most used cadence in music makes for the most decisive resoluLon at the end of any piece. This cadence sounds "finished"; it is nearly always used at the end of a piece. Imperfect Cadence (or half or open cadence): I -‐ V ResoluLon involving a movement to the dominant is the next most popular cadence, whether preceded by ii, IV, or I, or any other chord. It leaves the tonality unfinished and prepares the way for another secLon of music. Plagal Cadence: IV -‐ I ResoluLon consisLng of the chords IV -‐ I. Also informally known as the "Amen" cadence as it is used quite oRen at the end of a hymn for instance. It is somewhat rare compared to other cadences.
Interrupted Cadence: V -‐ vi Movement from chord V to any chord except the I chord (typically vi, which is the relaLve minor key chord in major key). Again, an important cadence for giving music a thirst for conLnuaLon, it really makes you want to hear resoluLon!
12.11.3 Cadences in action So that you can test out these cadences, we'll use the key of C major to illustrate their sound and purpose. First, strum out a C major chord; this will get your ear thinking in terms of C major before we start looking at the cadences it is involved with.
Perfect cadence: V-‐ I
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In the key of C major, this would give us the progression G – C
Pay aTenLon to how this sounds "finished". The C major chord resolves the piece. In a rock context, power chords may be used. It is typical for rock guitarists playing in the key of E minor to end the song with an E5 chord. Imperfect cadences: I -‐ V, ii -‐ V, IV -‐ V These imperfect cadences give us the following progressions, respecLvely. C – G.
Dm -‐ G
F -‐ G
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Though it sounds unfinished and would oRen lead into another secLon of music, this is someLmes used to end a song, which can give the listener an unexpected "surprise".
Plagal Cadence: IV -‐ I Again, in C major, this would give us the progression F – C.
Interrupted Cadence: V – vi In C major, this would be G – Am
Though it doesn't resolve like the perfect cadence and does leave you expecLng resoluLon, I do like the sound of this cadence for ending a song. It could be a sorrowful way of ending a happy and otherwise up-‐beat song.
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Okay, so now you know a liTle about cadences. Try to apply some of these cadences to your own playing and also try to listen out and spot different cadences in music that you're listening to. Remember the all important sound of the perfect cadence; recognising its characterisLc sound will help you find the key of a song!
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13
Arpeggios
13.1 Lesson to be created
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14
Circle of Fifths
14.1 Introduction The circle of fiRhs ... a lot of people ask what it is and how to use it, as if they hope it will solve all of the world’s problems. Whilst it won't do that, it is a very useful tool, and can help us in a number of ways. This lesson will describe what it is, and how we can get a lot of mileage out of this musical geometrical figure.
14.2 The Circle So what is it? The circle of fiRhs is an arrangement of musical keys in a circular format that allows you to easily understand the relaLonship between those keys, and work out the number of sharps and flats there are in each key. If you need to learn a liTle more about keys I suggest you look at my music notaLon lesson here. Each Segment of the circle has a key associated with it, and we can make inferences about the properLes of keys next to each other. Let’s have a look at a special GMC version of the circle:
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As you can see, it is fairly simple, a list of all 12 keys, laid out in a specific order (of which more later). Note that each Major key also has its relaLve minor key listed underneath. In terms of notes, the Major and its RelaLve minor are idenLcal, so they share the same slot on the circle of fiRhs. If you want to learn more about relaLve minors, check out my lesson on the subject here. Another thing to note is that this really is a circle -‐ once you have been around the circle once, the paTern repeats itself, so there is really no beginning or end, as you would expect from a circle.
14.3 The 5ths So the circle part of the name is fairly obvious, what about the 5ths part? If you move around the circle clock wise, each key is separated from the preceding key by a 5th interval. C to G is a 5th; G to D is a 5th, and so on. If you go around the circle anL-‐clockwise, the keys are related by a 4th interval. Why is this? Well a backwards 5th is a 4th -‐ let’s see why. Imagine we are starLng on the note of C. As we have seen above, a 5th interval is a G (C D E F G). But if we play that backwards, how do the notes G and C relate to each other? (G A B C) -‐ a 4th. It might seem a liTle crazy that you go around one way and its
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5ths, yet the other way is 4ths. The important point here is that we aren't traversing notes in a scale backwards and forwards, we are actually looking at the relaLonship between 2 notes as an interval, and we usually figure intervals moving upwards from the first note to the second. So to work out the interval between G and C, we don't count backwards (G F E D C), we count forwards (G A B C) and we get a 4th interval. So, move clockwise and we are switching between keys separated by a 5th interval, and anLclockwise we are switching between keys separated by a 4th interval. For this reason the circle of fiRhs is also known as the Circle of 4ths. Another way to look at it that might make a liTle more sense is that clockwise you are going up a 5th, anLclockwise you are going down a 5th. It’s just that going down a 5th is exactly the same as going up a 4th in interval terms as I described above.
14.4 Related Keys This is all very well but what does it give us? One of the important things the circle of fiRhs gives us is an easy way of finding keys that are musically related to each other. Keys next to each other differ by only one sharp or flat meaning that they actually share 7 of their 8 notes -‐ this means that they are very similar sounding, and moving from one key to a key adjacent to it on the Circle is a musically pleasing and easily understood change, consisLng of the sharpening or flaTening of just a single note. For instance, if you are in the key of G, the Circle immediately tells you that G and C are closely related keys and would be good candidates for a key change. (It can also tell us that a key and its relaLve minor are closely related since they share all the same notes). The reason for this closeness between keys separated by a 4th or 5th interval is easy to understand if you look at the formula for the major scale -‐ remember that the gaps are specified by the formula 2-‐2-‐1-‐2-‐2-‐2-‐1 If we pick a couple of representaLve keys, C and G major, we can lay them out underneath each other and examine the differences. The scale of C starts with C as the tonic; G starts with G as the tonic (of course). As you can see from the diagram below, the formulae are offset by 5 steps (because of the 5th interval) and that means that they don't match exactly. They are preTy close however, and as you can see, the only difference is that a 2 and a 1 are flipped in the G major scale, which has the effect of sharpening the F to an F#, but that is all since the next step (the G note) is pulled back in line with the C major scale because of the 1 semitone step aRer the F#:
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This shows us why there is a close match between keys separated by a 5th, which explains why they sound good together. If you tried this same exercise with keys separated by a 2nd or 3rd, you would get many more differing notes, making those keys more distantly related. The same is true for keys separated by a 4th. Let’s do the maths:
Its a similar story. In this case, again we have one different note, the Bb, all other notes are idenLcal.
14.5 Key Signatures What we just learned above leads us into interesLng territory -‐ that of key signatures. It’s worth reading my lesson on musical notaLon here to understand a bit more about them. What the circle does is allow us to understand the different flats and sharps that belong with each key. As we saw above, moving clockwise from one key to the next introduces one addiLonal sharp into the new scale. Moving anLclockwise has the effect of removing one sharp (or as we move through the key of C which has no sharps or flats, we start adding flats -‐ this comes to the same thing, we are moving a note up or down a semitone in each case, it’s just that the notaLon changes when we move through C). This allows us to deduce the order of the keys and the number of sharps or flats they have as we move around the circle as follows:
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Down at the boTom of the circle, something very interesLng happens. You'll see that I marked that slot as "F# Major or Gb Major". How can it be both? It can be both because those 2 keys are enharmonic which means they share the same distribuLon of sharps and flats. But don't just take my word for it, let’s check that out. Our first clue is that Gb and F# are actually the same note, and we would expect that applying the major formula twice to the same note would get us the same scale! Let’s work it through. We are sLll working with the major scale, so our formula is sLll 2-‐2-‐1-‐2-‐2-‐2-‐1. Let’s start with Gb, and figure out the notes:
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Now, let’s do the same with F#:
Now we can compare the notes. They are preTy similar when you work through the sharps and flats: F# = Gb G# = Ab A# = Bb B = Cb C# = Db D# = Eb Gb = F# Well that all looks ok, apart from E# and F -‐ what is this mysterious E#? In earlier lessons I told you that there was no such note as E#. That's a liTle white lie that makes things easier to start with. In actual fact, there really isn't a note of E#, but for notaLonal reasons it can be useful to use the term. If you sharpen an E you get an F, so in fact E# is really the same as F, the subtle difference is that although they are the same note, they are working differently in the context of key signatures. F on its own is an unadulterated note that hasn't been sharpened or flaTened. E# is used as notaLon to show that although we will be playing an F, we understand that it is an E that has been sharpened by the key signature. Ok, now that we know that E# is really an F, we can now see that the 2 scales are idenLcal, or enharmonic. So flats and sharps meet in the middle in our wonderful circle of fiRhs. Now, if you wanted to you could push the flats further around the circle anL clockwise, and the sharps clockwise, and up with even more sharps and flats. Although you do occasionally see pieces with 7 flats or 7 sharps, it is very unusual and a liTle pointless. As you move further round things
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start to get really out of whack, and you start to need double sharps and double flats to make things work out (a liTle like the concept of our E#).
14.6 Deriving the Circle of Fifths and Associated Scales Just in case you are ever stranded without access to the increasingly useful circle of 5ths, here is a way you can build it up from first principles with just a liTle bit of knowledge, and a couple of simple rules. Let start at C -‐ we know that C has no sharps or flats and is the start of the circle. First we want to build the circle up clockwise, and we know that the keys are 5th apart. Let’s write down a scale of C: C D E F G A B C The 5th of the scale is G, so we now know that G is the next key around the circle. We also know from our earlier key comparisons that the difference between the 2 scales is a single sharp -‐ the 7th note of our new scale (go check if you don't believe me -‐ this falls out from the formula for the scale as we saw before). Knowing these two key facts we can now write out the scale for the next key in the circle, which is G major, by starLng with our C major scale above, taking notes starLng from the 5th of the scale, and sharpening the 7th note that we get to: G A B C D E F# G We can do this again to get the next key and scale -‐ this Lme we start with our new scale of G, count 5 notes to get to the 5th and write notes from there sharpening the 7th D E F# G A B C# D Do this another 3 Lmes and you have the clockwise half of the circle. Now we need to figure out the anLclockwise half of the circle. Again, we start with the scale of C: C D E F G A B C Since we are going anL clockwise, our new scale starts on the 4th of the scale -‐ which is F. An from our key comparison above we saw that moving anL clockwise results in a flaTening of the 4th of the new scale, so we can write down our new scale like this: F G A Bb C D E F And once again, we apply the same rule to get the next key and scale -‐ the 4th is Bb, wriLng notes and flaTening the new 4th when we get to it gives us:
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Bb C D Eb F G A B And so on -‐ eventually we will get to the 6th slot and our circle will be complete! This exercise has also revealed something else of use to us -‐ the order of the sharps and flats. If you were paying aTenLon when you built the circle, and wrote down each new sharp as you came upon it you should have got F C G D A E B -‐ this is useful to know, and most theory lessons would have you remember that sequence with a some sort of mnemonic -‐ but we just figured it out from scratch using the circle of fiRhs, based on our understanding of how scales alter when they differ between 5 intervals -‐ this is the very rule that early musical theorists used when building key signatures for the first Lme. The same is true for the flats -‐ B E A D G C F.
14.7 Finding the Order of Sharps and Flats Now, another trick -‐ we know that to figure out the new sharp for each key around the circle, we just sharpen the 7th note of the new scale -‐ just as we did above. The circle can help here. If you look at a parLcular key, say G and want to figure out the 7th note, just go back 2 steps on the circle -‐ this gets us to F, which is the note we would sharpen when wriLng down the key of G, the first sharp in our list. We can extend this to each of the sharps, and you will noLce that if you start 2 segments anLclockwise from the G, the key is F. Reading clockwise from F gives us F C G D A E B -‐ the order of our sharps! This works because two 4th intervals added together in this way actually gives us a seventh. This is because when figuring intervals we always count the note we started from and the note we ended on. So, if we start at G and move through two complete 4ths it woks like this: G A B C C D E F NoLce that we had to use C twice and that in total we went from C to F, which is a seventh, not an octave as you might think. The pracLcal upshot of this is that the order of the sharps can be read off from around the circle, starLng 2 steps anLclockwise from the first key that has any sharps (G). To get the flats, the easiest way is to just reverse the order of the sharps, but you can also get that from the circle with a liTle effort.
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14.8 Chord Progressions One final trick from the ever useful circle -‐ it will also quickly show you the subdominant (IV) and dominant (V) chords for a parLcular key, oRen used to build progressions. Once again, pick a key (F say) . Look Clockwise for your dominant or V chord © and anL clockwise for your subdominant or IV chord (Bb). These are the 3 most important chords in any key, and the Circle helps us to easily locate them.
14.9 The Finished Circle Ok, now we have talked about all the things the circle can do for us; let’s put it all together in one big diagram -‐ the GMC Circle of FiRhs! View full image
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14.10 Final Word So there you have it -‐ the Circle of FiRhs. Use it to: * Build a I,IV,V chord progression * Pick a key to modulate to
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* Spot a relaLve minor * Work out the number of sharps or flats in a key * Work out the individual sharps and flats in a key Not bad for a humble liTle circle!
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15
Chords For Scales
15.1 Introduction In this lesson we're going to take a look at how we match chords to scales, to give you an instant boost when wriLng songs or solos, and help you pick out musical sounding progressions. One quesLon that surfaces a lot is something along the lines of "I am using a scale of D Major, how do I know what chords I can use with that?". Before we delve into that, it’s worth reading my lesson on degrees of the scale here, as we will be using concepts from that lesson.
15.2 So, what chords can I use? If you are aRer a quick fix, then here you go ... for our example above, D Major, the standard musical theory answer might be: D, Em7 F#m7, Gmaj7, A7, Bmin, C#dim For the key of C, you would use: C, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am, Bdim If you want a general rule based on degrees of the scale, it is as follows: I, IIm7, IIIm7, IVmaj7, V7, VIm, VIIdim But why is it that way? This is where the interesLng stuff starts
15.3 Why Those Chords? Glad you asked ... what at first might seem an arbitrary and mysterious list of chords that work with a parLcular key, is in fact very simply understood when you couple an understanding of the notes in a scale with a few basic chord construcLon rules. What we are doing, is building a series of chords out of notes taken only from the scale that we are interested in. When you think about it that makes a lot of sense, it means that not only are we selecLng all of our melody notes from the scale, but the notes making up the chords are also selected from that same scale. Now, since we need a root note for each chord, we can make one chord for each note in the scale. A standard major scale for instance as we showed above has 7 disLnct notes in it, hence we can find 7 chords that match that scale. So, our basic rule is that we take each root note in turn and figure out what chords we can make from it. From here on we'll sLck with the scale of C for illustraLon purposes, but nothing I say is
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specific to that key unless I name notes. If you think about the funcLon of each of the notes in the context of the scale you are using you can use the same rules to construct chords for any scale you can think of.
15.4 Chords for a C Major Scale OK, so the scale of C major has the following notes: C,D,E,F,G,A,B What chords can we make from that? What is a chord anyway? Well let’s start simply and talk about triads. You can learn about triads in my lesson here. A triad is composed of 3 notes, most oRen a root, 3rd and 5th. The relaLonship of the intervals controls whether the triad is major, minor, augmented or diminished. Let’s take a moment to review the degrees of the scale that make various different types of chord: Major : 1,3,5 Minor : 1,b3,5 Diminished : 1,b3,dim5 Augmented : 1,3,aug5 Minor 7th : 1,b3,5,b7 Major 7th : 1,3,5,7 Dominant 7th : 1,3,5,b7 Sixth : 1,3,5,6 Minor 9 : 1,b3,5,b7,9 Minor 11 : 1,b3,5,b7,9,11 Minor 13 : 1,b3,5,b7,9,11,13
15.5 Back to the Scale To make our triads, we will start at the root note for the chord we are looking at, skip a note, take a note, skip a note, and take a note. That means we will be building a triad based on the root 3rd and 5th, starLng from whatever your root note was. The interesLng thing here is that as you move up the
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scale in selecLng your root notes, the intervals between the notes shiR, according to the formula for the scale (T T S T T T S for a major scale), this has the effect of changing the type of the triads we construct as the relaLonships between the notes shiR slightly. Let’s look at the complete list for the key of C: StarLng with C: C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C Picking our 3 notes, we get C, E and G. The interval between C and E is a Major 3rd; C to G is a Perfect 5th. Our triad training tells us that a triad with a major 3rd and a perfect 5th is a major triad. Since our root note is C, our first chord is C major. Next, D: C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C Our 3 notes from the scale would be D, F and A. D to F is a minor 3rd, D to A is a major 5th. Minor 3rd + Major 5th = a Minor triad, so D minor is our second chord. The story is the same with E -‐ E,G and B -‐ Minor 3rd, Perfect 5th, so the chord is Em. C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C F and G are both Major 3rd + Perfect 5th, hence are major. C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C A is back to a minor 3rd and perfect 5th, so we get A minor. C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C Finally B. Our notes are B, D and F. B to D is a minor 3rd, and B to F is a a diminished 5th -‐ that relaLonship of notes makes our triad D diminished. C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C So, in triad terms, our chords for the scale of C are: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim But That's Not Right!
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You said that the 2nd chord was Dm7 not Dm, and all of the other chords are wrong too what's going on? ... Well spoTed! This is where it gets really interesLng. What we have described above is the simplest view of chords we can use to match a parLcular major scale. A triad is a simple as chords generally get (ignoring power chords), and from the basis above, we can add notes to the basic triads to get more complex chords. The only rule is that we must pick notes from the scale we are using, and when we realize this, the possibiliLes are literally endless! Let’s revisit that first list I gave you: C, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am, Bdim This selecLon of chords is quite commonly given as the list of chords for the C major scale -‐ but its not the list, its just a list, we've already seen another slightly different list above. One important thing to note is that although the chords are different, their basic triad families will always remain the same -‐ the 2nd will always be minor, the 7th will always be diminished, the 4th will always be major and so on -‐ that comes out of our basic triad construcLon, but the flavour of the chords can be altered by adding notes. Now, what we have done in the list above is add notes to a few of the chords, to get more complex and flavourful chords. In the examples above, we have added a 7th to D, E, F and G. To add a 7th, we just skip an extra note above the 5th and add the next note. So for D: C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C We add a minor 7th, to get the chord Dm7. For E: C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C Again we add a minor 7th to get the chord Em7 For F: C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C We are adding a major 7th, to get the chord FMaj7 Finally for G: C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
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We are adding a minor 7th, which when combined with our major 3rd gives us a a dominant 7th chord. Now we're just geQng started -‐ how about instead of a C major we use a C major 7th? Or a C6? Instead of a D Minor we can use a Dmin9, or even a Dmin11 or Dmin13 -‐ they all fit our scale and sLck to our rules! Using this technique we can fit hundreds of different chords to our scale -‐ but equally we can keep it simple and sLck with the basic triads.
15.6 Minor Scales Ok, how about minor scales? Well not surprisingly, the rules are exactly the same -‐ sLck to the notes in the scale, and move through the scale to generate your root notes. Let’s look at a scale of A minor -‐ I picked that for a reason, we'll see why in a minute. Our notes for the scale of A natural minor are: A,B,C,D,E,F,G Let’s kick off with A: A B C D E F G A B C A minor... Now B: A B C D E F G A B C B diminished... This is starLng to look a liTle familiar ... well yes; I picked Am because it is the relaLve minor of C, meaning it shares the same notes. This means that among other things, we will end up with exactly the same list of chords, just offset in order. If you work it through, you will find that the order of chords would be: Im, IIdim, III, IVm7, Vm7, VImaj7, VII7 The order of chord types is the same; we just start at the 6th in the list and work through -‐ why is this?
15.7 Scales Chords and Modes (You can skip this if you are unsure about modes)
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The answer lies in modes! The relaLve minor of a major key is actually the Aeolian mode -‐ which is mode 6. So although we are using exactly the same notes, we offset the root note by 6 degrees, going from C to A. This also has the effect of offseQng the characterisLc chords for each degree by 6 steps as we have seen. Modes also relate to the concept of chords for a scale in that the characterisLc chords we have seen for each degree of the scale can also be regarded as characterisLc chords for the modes for that degree. For example, you may have read that the characterisLc chord of Dorian mode is the Minor 7th. Using the scale of C, we move up 1 degree to get D Dorian. Also, using the scale of C and stepping up to the chord we idenLfied as being the chord of the second degree, we see it is Dm7 -‐ it matches the chord type for Dorian! This of course is no coincidence, it just reflects the fact that when we are construcLng chords for a scale in the way we described, since we have offset the root note we are actually in each case construcLng a chord for the specific mode that is the degree of the scale we are working with. Another couple of examples: The characterisLc chord for Mixolydian is a dominant 7th. Mixolydian is the 5th mode. Checking our list we find that the 5th chord is indeed a dominant 7th. The characterisLc chord for Locrian is diminished. Locrian is the 7th mode, and checking the list we find that the 7th chord is diminished, so we can now say that we understand why each mode has its own characterisLc chord type!
15.8 Other Scales We can apply the same rules to any scale -‐ depending on the scale it can become harder to figure out valid chords but it is possible. Let’s look at the harmonic minor as another example. The harmonic minor scale is characterized by the following intervals: 1,2,b3,4,5,b6,7 Or in formula terms: T S T T S T+1/2 S We'll work in A, so the notes would be: A,B,C,D,E,F,G# Now that tone and a half step between the 6th and 7th degrees is going to change the chords we are able to use against this scale -‐ let’s see how it works out. The first 2 chords will be idenLcal to the natural minor scale, Am and Bdim. When we hit the 3rd root note, C, we are faced with these notes:
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A B C D E F G# A B C D E F G# A A major 3rd and an augmented 5th is an augmented chord. Looking at D: A B C D E F G# A B C D E F G# A A minor 3rd and a perfect 5th gives is a regular minor chord. Moving to E: A B C D E F G# A B C D E F G# A A major 3rd and a perfect 5th making a major chord. Next, F: A B C D E F G# A B C D E F G# A Another major 3rd and perfect 5th making a major. And finally G#: A B C D E F G# A B C D E F G# A A minor 3rd and a diminished 5th making a diminished chord. So our sequence for A harmonic minor is: Am, Bdim, Caug, Dmin, E, F,G#dim Or in generic terms for the harmonic minor scale: Im, IIdim, IIIaug, IVmin, V, VI, VIIdim By now I hope you see where we are going with this, and the next Lme you encounter a strange scale, with a liTle work you should be able to come up with a list of chords to fit it!
15.8 Progressions Now that we have the chords for the scale, what shall we do with them? Let’s build some progressions! Progressions are the building blocks of western music. There are very many combinaLons, but a few are so effecLve that they crop up Lme and again. I'll list a few here for you
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to try out, it is also possible to buy books that list endless chord progressions as an aid to song wriLng. A lot of progressions start on the root or I, and involve the 5th or oRen the 4th, as in: I,IV,I I,V,I The 12 bar blues puts this together in a standard combinaLon to get: I,I,IV,I,IV,IV,I,I,V,IV,I,V A lot of "doo wop" groups in the 50s added the 6th to get the standard sequence: I, VIm, IIm, V or I, VIm, IV, V
Various pop songs use a I, IIIm, IV, V progression such as "True Love Ways" to menLon Buddy Holly again, and "Take my Breath Away" by Berlin. Im, III, IV is used to good effect by Dire Straits in "Money for Nothing" A few notable songs like "Peggy Sue" by Buddy Holly and "It won't be long" by the Beatles use a flaTened 6th as in: bVI, I, bVI, I. But the flat 6th isn't in the major scale, so what is going on here? I'm glad you asked, because we've just uncovered a very important point related to song wriLng.
15.9 Scales for Chords: An Alternative View Although the techniques we have discussed above are a very powerful way of picking chords to match a scale, a word of cauLon ... I tend to think that the iniLal quesLon "what chords can I use for a scale?" actually misses the point slightly. If everyone who ever wrote a song asked the same quesLon, some of the greatest songs in history would never have been wriTen. The reason for this is that many songs don't sLck to a specific scale, even between subsequent chords. Imagine a chord sequence that goes C, Ab, C, Ab -‐ (using the flaTened 6th as menLoned above) -‐ a very powerful
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sounding riff, but those chords do not fit well into any usual scale. If you play the first chord, C, then say, "OK, I'm in the key of C major, what can I use next?" -‐ Ab definitely wouldn't figure. So I am a fan of picking the chords first, then figuring out scales that work over them. In the case I gave, you would probably change scales from C major to Ab major and back, using the appropriate scale for each chord. With a liTle thought, you might be able to find a couple of scales and modes that would minimize the changes, but the point is that whilst fiQng chords to a scale is a useful thing to know how to do, I would suggest that you think more in terms of what chords sound good together when wriLng riffs and solos.
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16
Caged
16.1 Part 1: Introduction and the C shape 16.1.1 Introduction So what is CAGED, I hear you ask. In this first lesson we will answer that quesLon, and more importantly start to understand what the CAGED system does for us and how we can use it to be beTer players at both rhythm and lead guitar. We will also explore the first of the CAGED paTerns. The second part of the lesson will look at the remaining CAGED shapes. Before we go any further, I suggest you review my lesson on Major Scales if you are not familiar with this subject. This lesson is really a follow up to that earlier lesson, in which we learnt how major scales were made up and that there are several different places up and down the neck that they can be played.
16.1.2 So what is it? Simply stated the CAGED system is a framework to hang your understanding of the different major scales and associated chords on. There are 2 main parts -‐ first, a selecLon of scales, and second some associated chord shapes that work in the same posiLon as the scales. Knowing the scales will leave you able to play lead melodies up and down the neck, knowing associated chords will vastly broaden the opLons you have for voicing chords -‐ you will no longer be stuck with just a couple of power chords and the standard open shapes!
16.1.3 A Mystery Solved So why is it called CAGED? Well for a couple of reasons. Firstly, musical theorists like to give mysterious names to things so that something that is really very simple sounds more complex and technical! A beTer reason is that CAGED is an acronym for the associated chord shapes that we are basing the scales around as we move up the neck of the guitar -‐ the chord of C, the chord of A etc. At this point, it is important to point out that there is a difference between the scale shape we use, and the actual scale that this makes. As a quick example, if we play a scale of C based around the C shape (which we will see shortly), then move it up 2 frets, it becomes a scale of D, but the scale shape remains the same (it is sLll the C shape). We would say that we are playing a scale of D, using the C shape. Think about that for a liTle while if you are confused -‐ this is the key to CAGED. Throughout this lesson and the next we will be working with a scale of D Major. There is nothing special about this but we have to start somewhere, and D works nicely as an example for our first scale. An important part of the CAGED system is that you understand and can work out the easiest
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way of playing a given scale. So, if for instance you wanted to play a scale of E, you could use any of the scales covered here, but just move them up 2 frets. The key is to locate the base note of the scale, which is marked in all of the diagrams, then move it up or down the neck so that it becomes the note of the scale you want, then use the shape as your scale. CAGED gives you many different opLons to find a scale that suits where you are playing on the neck.
16.1.4 Our First Scale: the C shape Ok, enough talk, let's see some acLon. Our first scale is based on the C shape. What do we mean by this? Well, a standard open C chord looks like this:
If we build a scale around that C chord, using the notes in the chord and interspersing the correct notes according the major formula we learnt about in the Major scale lesson, we end up with a scale that looks like this (you should recognize this shape as one of the major scales covered in the previous lesson):
From now on, we are going to refer to this as our C scale shape for reasons which I hope are now obvious! As you can see, the notes we had in the C chord itself are all there, and we have added the addiLonal notes in between the notes in the chord to make up a full major scale. Now, suppose we want to play the scale of D that we menLoned earlier -‐ and sLll use this shape. Well, D is 2 semitones or frets up from C, so we would use a scale that looked like this:
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You can see that this is exactly the same shape of notes (except that the open strings are now no longer open, they are played at the 2nd fret). We can now play a scale of D using the C shape! But there is more -‐ remember CAGED is also going to help us to find chords. We can use the same trick of sliding up a couple of frets with our chord as well. We can take our open C chord, and play it like this:
It then becomes a chord of D, played as the C shape. To actually play this, you would bar the 2nd fret with your index finger -‐ check out Kris' lesson on Barre chords if you aren't familiar with this technique. Technically, the F# on the boTom E string is part of the scale and can be played, but it sounds beTer if you don't, allowing the D played on the 5th string to be the root of the chord. But that's not all -‐ it would be preTy boring playing a song using just the chord of D, so how can we add to this? Well, let's look at a few common chords in the key of C, since we are sLll looking at the C in the CAGED system. I'm thinking of F and G -‐ these are important chords in the key of C, closely related to the chord of C itself, and you can play a heck of a lot of songs using just these three chords. We can apply exactly the same principles to F and G when we start using the CAGED system, to give us some extra chord opLons. Basic F and G chords look like this:
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In our key of D (2 frets up remember), the associated chords would be G and A. Using the C shape of CAGED, working with the key of D, which we now understand means moving up 2 frets, means that we can play G and A using exactly the same chord shapes, just moved up a couple of frets, like this:
This last one is a liTle tough to play; once again, we would use a bar on the 2nd fret with our index finger, and use the index middle and pinkie to play the 3 addiLonal notes. The same is also true for any other chords in the key of C -‐ we can move them up 2 frets to get the equivalent chords in the key of D -‐ this is a very powerful way of enriching our chord vocabulary. Moving Up It doesn't stop there -‐ in the 2nd part of this series we will be looking at the rest of the scales -‐ the AGED in CAGED! We will see that not only are there more ways of playing the same scale, but also a corresponding plethora of new chord shapes we can use.
16.2 Part 2: The AGED in CAGED 16.2.1 Introduction This lesson is part 2 of the CAGED series. If you haven't already, I suggest you check here for part 1. In part 1 we learnt what CAGED stood for, and a liTle about what it can do for us. In this lesson we will complete the CAGED system with a tour through the remainder of the scales and chords.
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16.2.2 The A Shape In part one; we were looking at the C shape, the first shape in the CAGED series. We saw that the C shape gives us a major scale, and a selecLon of chords that can be played in the same posiLon as the scale. Next, we are moving on to the A shape, the second CAGED shape -‐ the A in CAGED in fact. What will we see? Well, now we are basing our scales and chords around the open chord of A. To get the scale and chords that we desire, we need to move the A shape up 5 frets, to look like this:
Now, when we fill in the scale notes around the A shape, we find that we now have the opLon of playing our D major scale in a different posiLon on the neck, like this:
This is exactly the same scale as we played before, except that since we have moved up the neck slightly, some of the lower notes are inaccessible, and we have a few higher notes. However, musically it is an idenLcal scale of D major. So now, we know 2 places on the neck we can play this same scale. Now, remember from the previous lesson, we are looking at how to play 3 chords in each of our scale posiLons: the D chord which is the root and the associated G and A chords. Since we are working with the A shape, when we are playing an open chord of A, the chords we would use to make up our 3 chord example set are D and E, and as you might expect, we can make use of these chords in our D scale, using the CAGED A posiLon to get those same G and A chords. We need to move those open chords up 5 frets to make up our set, like this:
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The hard part is over now. Hopefully by now you can see that we are systemaLcally working our way up the neck, and for each posiLon we have a scale, and a set of chords that we can use in that posiLon. The next 3 shapes are just more of the same!
16.2.3 The G Shape Since we're geQng so good at this now, I can introduce the scale straight away:
As you can see, it's a liTle further up the neck, but sLll musically the same scale. Our 3 example chords are based on the G shape, and are G, C and D, played up 7 frets, to look like this:
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Once again, you can see that all of the chord shapes are made up of notes from our scale.
16.2.4 The E Shape Moving right along, we hit the E shape next. The scale looks like this:
And our 3 example chords will be based on the E, A and B shapes, moved up 10 frets:
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The A major chord is a liTle tricky since there is no natural open chord of B to use, so we will re-‐use the A shape and move it up 2 frets like this:
The observant amongst you will noLce that we are playing an A shape 1 octave up here, to get an A.
16.2.5 The D Shape And finally we arrive at the last shape -‐ the D shape. The scale looks like this:
And the chords are based on D,G and A, but an octave up.
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Now this seems a liTle strange -‐ we are playing open chords an octave up -‐ isn't that a liTle weird? Well not really. It is just a coincidence because we picked the scale of D which matches one of the CAGED shapes. This could happen with any of the shapes depending on the scale we are playing, or none of them if we pick a scale that isn't C,A,G,E or D -‐ for instance a scale of C flat, so don't read anything significant into this.
16.2.6 Next Steps Now we have had a tour of the CAGED system, what should you do with it? Well obviously, pracLce, pracLce, pracLce -‐ but what should you actually pracLce? Here are a couple of ideas: Firstly, as with any scale system you should pracLce all of the boxes unLl you are comfortable. The next step is moving between boxes. The way you do this is explained very well in Kris' pentatonic series -‐ the same principles apply about moving horizontally, verLcally and diagonally. The ulLmate aim is that you move beyond the boxes and become comfortable playing runs of notes anywhere on the fret board -‐ this comes through a lot of pracLce, and iniLally knowing the boxes. Another point to look into is use of chords. I gave 3 example chords for each posiLon, but there is nothing magic about those chords, they were just examples. I hope you understood the principles well enough to apply them to any chord you are interested in. For instance, the chord of E minor can be played in any of the CAGED posiLons, can you use the principles we have discussed to find all 5 of them? If you pracLce this enough with many different chords, you will open up the fret board to many different chord voicing and enrich your rhythm playing. Also, bear in mind that although I showed a lot of these chords with bars, you are free to play them in any way you please -‐ maybe using just a few notes of the chord here and there as passing adornments to a lead line -‐ the important thing is that you know where to find the notes and the chords.
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17
Time 101
17.1 Part 1 - Notes 17.1.1 Introduction In this 3 part lesson we are going to explore something dear to all of our hearts – Lming! The good news is that it’s all about counLng, and we can all do that right? We will learn first about individual notes, and in the second part of the lesson we will learn about how the Lming of a song fits together and also about how to understand Lme signatures. Finally in part 3 we will look at odd Lme signatures, The guitar tabs we are all familiar with, whilst great for understanding fingering and technique are lacking in Lming informaLon. Whilst this is not usually a problem because you will have a reference track that will give you the Lming, in isolaLon a Tab doesn’t contain enough informaLon to recreate a song. On the other hand, standard music notaLon does contain this informaLon, but does not give guitar specific technique, so it is important to have an appreciaLon for both methods of represenLng music. Those of you that have concentrated on tabs may not have formed a full appreciaLon for the subtleLes of Lming, and this lesson aims to help with that.
17.1.2 Note Lengths Timing in music begins and ends with the length of the individual notes that we play. A lot of you will be familiar with 16ths and 16th triplet’s from your metronome pracLce, but what does this actually mean? The basic unit of Lming is called, not surprisingly, a note. We can then take a note and divide it into halves, quarters etc. to make shorter notes. It turns out that a whole note is quite long, and it is far more common to make use of quarter and eighth notes in music. Of course in speed picking circles we want to go even faster and talk about 16th notes a lot. Let’s look at the individual lengths of notes and check out the technical names for them all. You don’t need to call them by these names, but it wouldn’t be much of a theory lesson if I didn’t at least list them! Each note length has a fancy name used in classical music, but more commonly we name them by the subdivision of the basic note that we are using. I’ll also give you the musical notaLon for the notes – this may be helpful if you are trying to figure out the Lming of a parLcular riff someLme and you have the music and the tab.
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In the symbols above, for notaLon purposes you can show the individual notes with tails going up or down depending on their posiLon of the stave – it makes no difference to the duraLon of the note. There are a couple of other note types but they are not in common use so we will ignore them for in this lesson. Next, we’ll look at a couple of ways we can modify these basic notes to get different duraLons
17.1.3 Tied Notes Our first modifier is called a Le. Tied notes are individual notes that are played as one note, for a duraLon which is the sum of their individual duraLons. For example, suppose you wanted a note that lasts for five 16ths of a whole note – there is no single note that can do that for you. But you could Le a quarter note (which is four 16ths) to a 16th note, and together they would last for five 16ths, like this:
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The arc between the notes is the Le.
17.1.4 Dotted Notes A doTed note is a second way to modify note duraLon. Very simply, placing a dot or period aRer any note makes it half as long again. So, a quarter note with a dot aRer it lasts for 3/8ths of a note (this is where you start to actually use the fracLons you learnt at school!), because 1/8 is half of 1/4 (the original note length), and: 1/4 + 1/8 = 3/8 WriTen down, it looks like this:
The astute among you will have realized that we could get the same effect by tying a quarter note to an eighth note like this:
You can put a dot aRer any of the notes I listed above to extend it by half of its duraLon again. DoTed notes are used a lot in swing Lmings in Jazz, to give a parLcular kind of groove.
17.1.4 Triplet’s Of more interest than Led or doTed notes are triplets. We use these lots in speed picking but what exactly are they? In general, a triplet is an example of a borrowed division. This name refers to the fact that triplet’s and other borrowed divisions add a different quality to the Lming of a piece that makes it sound like the notes and Lming is “borrowed” from some other piece. If you have played 16th triplets at all you will know that when you go into a 16th triplet run the song temporarily takes on a different groove. On its own, that descripLon probably doesn’t help much, so let’s look at an example. In the Lming we have learnt so far, we are able to subdivide notes in halves quarters etc. But what if we want to use say a 5th or a 3rd subdivision? This is where borrowed divisions come in. Of these, by far the most common is the triplet. 5ths and 7ths are possible, but extremely difficult to play and are not commonly used. To make this a bit easier to understand, let’s look at an example -‐ our much loved 16th triplet.
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In a regular 16th sequence, we play a run of notes that are each 1/16 in duraLon. In 4/4 Lme, we get 4 quarter notes to the bar, and each quarter note is a single beat (we’ll be looking at beats and Lme signatures in more detail in part 2). Each quarter note is divided further into four to give us 16 16ths per bar. Here are a couple:
In music notaLon terms, when you have mulLple 8th, 16th or 32nd notes, you usually join them together into units up to a quarter notes long. For 16th triplet’s, we are going to replace each two of these 16th notes by three evenly spaced triplet notes. If you do the math, you will see that for 16th triplet’s you will end up with 24 notes in a bar, grouped 6 per beat. So not only will the notes be played more quickly, there will also be more of them to compensate, so overall we are playing for the same length of Lme. In musical notaLon, we show 16th triplets like this:
For comparison, here is a bar of 16ths and a bar of 16th triplet’s:
In each case, the phrase, or bar is the same length Lme wise – we are just playing a higher number of shorter notes in the same Lme period when we use 16th triplets. (If you are interested, the notes I am using here are all G – the same as an open G string – the line on the music stave that you put the note on denotes its pitch). Of course it is possible to have 8th triplets, quarter triplets and any other type of triplet. Just remember that you are replacing two of the target notes with 3 triplet notes of the appropriate duraLon each case.
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17.1.5 Rests Rests are places in the music where no note is played. Rests have a similar system of lengths as notes and work in preTy much the same way except that they have their own symbols. For completeness, here they are:
17.2 Part 2: Time Signatures 17.2.1 Introduction Hello again! In the first lesson of this series we focused on individual notes and the different lengths they could be Lme-‐wise. Now we can use this knowledge to take a step back and understand how Lming for a whole song works, based on the concepts we discussed. If you are reading this part of the lesson first, I suggest you go back and review part 1, which is here.
17.2.2 Structure and Bars or Measures The basic unit of Lme from the point of view of a song is the bar or measure (two terms for the same thing). A bar is a regular collecLon of notes, each of the same duraLon in terms of the number of notes it contains. The duraLon of a bar in note terms is defined at the beginning of the song in the
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Lme signature (more of which later) and each bar is assumed to contain the same number of notes unless the Lme signature is explicitly changed. Generally speaking, significant things happen at the beginning of bars such as chord changes, bass drum hits and many other things. That’s not to say that these things don’t happen in many other places, rather, the bar structure is designed so that it reflects the overall rhythmic layout of the song, and a lot of these events naturally fall on the beginning and end of bars. Given that we can write down the Lming of individual notes why do we actually need bars? Well, I guess technically we don’t – you could write an enLre song without bars but it would be very confusing. So among other things, breaking a song down into bars gives you an easy way of figuring out where in the song you are – it’s a lot easier to go to bar 15 than to note 127 … Another reason for bars is that as menLoned above, the bar is the basic unit of a Lme signature. So if your song demands a quick (even 1 bar) change in Lme signature, you need to break those notes into a separate bar with its own Lme signature, and then have a new Lme signature when you want to revert back. If you didn’t do this, the feel of the song would get out of step. So a bar is also the minimal unit of Lme signatures. So now we understand note duraLons, and that we break down songs into bars to keep things manageable – let’s look at Lme signatures.
17.2.3 Time Signatures So what is a Lme signature? It is a way of describing to someone reading the music how the overall rhythm of the song fits together. If you compare say a Straussian Waltz to the average Metallica song, they sound very different. Leaving aside the obvious differences in instrumentaLon, the rhythmic feel of the song is also very different. This is because a waltz is in 3/4 Lme, and the average Metallica song is in 4/4. 3/4 and 4/4 are both examples of Lme signatures and they describe exactly when beats are emphasized in a song, and how long we go between down beats (or main beats). Changing a Lme signature can make a huge change to the mood and feel of a song. Okay, now let’s take a look at one:
The Lme signature is the two numbers (both the number 4) stacked one on top of the other. This may look a bit like a fracLon, but in this case, both numbers mean a different thing. When we say 4/4 or 3/4 they are pronounced as two numbers – “Four four”, or “ Three four”. The top number refers to
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the number of beats in a bar. The boTom number tells us the type of beats that represent the Lming. (It is important, that you remain aware that the type of note is just a representaLon; when you go on to learn topics like the speed (velocity) of music. Time signatures do not tell you how fast a piece of music should be played). Right, so the Lme signature above, the 4 on top tells us that there are 4 beats in a bar. The boTom 4 (If we look at the list from the note tree, tells us that those notes are crotchets, or quarter notes. So there are 4 quarter notes in a bar. In most songs in 4/4, you can expect to find a bass drum kick on beats 1 and 3, and a snare hit on beats 2 and 4 – different Lme signatures would capture the feel differently and you would get corresponding drum hits on different beats of the bar. If the Lme signature showed 3/4 Lme, you would have 3 beats in the bar, all crotchets. It would look like this:
If the Lme signature showed 2/4 Lme, you would have 2 beats in the bar, all crotchets, and it would look like bar this:
Okay so far? Theory is not so difficult really
17.2.4 Simple or Compound Right, now it's Lme to get into the interesLng stuff. There was a specific reason why I've shown you the three bars I have, as these are the basic building blocks of music. The 4/4 bar is also known as simple quadruple (quadruple meaning that there are 4 beats in the bar. The 3/4 bar is also known as simple triple Lme, (triple meaning.. well I think you can guess what triple means ).
17.2.5 So why are these times simple? It's all about how we split the notes up. Here is a musical score with a selecLon of Lme signatures – don’t try an play this, you’ll go blind
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Bars 1 -‐ 3 show us the Lme signatures we have already discussed in acLon. Now, look at bar 4. It actually has the same note duraLons as bar 2, adding up to a total of 3 quarter notes, but now instead of playing 1 quarter note on each beat, we are now trying to cram two eighth notes into every beat. (Two notes, 3 beats, that's six notes altogether by my reckoning.) NoLce how they are grouped in pairs. If the beats are to be divided rhythmically by spliQng into halves, it's called simple Lme. The simple Lme signatures are ones like 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4.
17.2.6 Compound time signatures So we've now got a bar of music, with 6 eighth notes in it. The rhythm would be “1 and 2 and 3 and”... There is however, a Lme signature, called 6/8. So isn't this the same thing? Indeed wouldn't this be a beTer choice? Look at bar 5. There are sLll 6 eighth notes, but they are grouped in threes. Brilliant for those 3 notes per string scales eh? So that's it. If the beats are divided rhythmically by spliQng into thirds, it's called compound Lme. I've provided the equivalent compound Lmes to the ones in the first secLon. They are 6/8. 9/8, and 12/8. You will note that we are using doTed crotchets here – refer back to part one if you have forgoTen what the dot means! That’s it for part 2 of the lesson. In part 3 we are going to look at Odd Lme signatures!
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17.3 Odd Time Signatures 17.3.1 Introduction In an earlier lesson (here) we discussed Lming and Lme signatures (here) and how to understand them. The vast majority of songs are wriTen in even simple and complex Lmes such as the ever popular 4/4. 6/8 and 12/8 are used a lot for slower ballad types of songs, and 3/4 is the Lme signature used for grandiose Strausian waltzes. But there is a darker side to Lme signatures – odd Lme. An odd Lme signature is simply a Lme signature in which the top number (number of beats in the bar) is odd. Examples of this would be 5/4 – made famous by Dave Brubeck in “ Take 5”, or Pink Floyds “Money” which is mostly in 7/4 (although Dave Gilmour cheats in his solo as the song switches to an easier to play over 4/4 Lming). 3/4 Lming, although technically odd, is so common and easy to play that it doesn’t really qualify as odd in the same sense that 5/4 or 7/4 would. In general, odd Lme signatures are harder to play than even; you always seem to be brought up short by the sudden transiLon to a new bar, but it is this oddness that make riffs based on odd Lme signatures really jump out at you and provide a sense of drive and urgency to the song. I think it’s fair to say that it takes a reasonably accomplished band to play a track in an odd Lme well, and most bands probably never aTempt it, but there are many excellent exponents of this technique, parLcularly in Jazz, and also in the upper echelons of guitar players. Composing a song in an odd Lme signature is a great way to create something different.
17.3.2 How does it work? Okay, so how does this stuff actually work? To understand that, we need to understand a bit more about how Lme signatures give a sense of rhythm. It is good pracLce to start to think of beats grouped in 2s, or in 3s. They are grouped by emphasizing one of the beats, so you get a strong beat followed by a weak beat. So the beats in: 4/4 Lme are -‐ 1 Strongest, 2 weak, 3 strong, 4 weak. 3/4 Lme are -‐ 1 Strong, 2 weak, 3 weak. 2/4 Lme are -‐ 1 Strong, 2 weak. It's important in music to get a feeling of how rhythmical accents like this sound, and what you can do with them. Then you can begin to understand how rhythms with irregular numbers of beats, like 5, 7, and 11 work.
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17.3.3 Here's how Let's look at 5 beats per bar – probably the most common odd Lme signature. Remember that beats are generally grouped by 2s and 3s. So 5 beats per bar works in either of two ways. 2 beats, followed by 3, or 3 beats followed by 2. Here is a score in 5/8 Lme:
A couple of things to note here: Firstly, since we are in 5/8 we are expecLng to see five 8th notes in each bar, and that is indeed what we see. Also noLce that every other bar has five 8th notes worth of rests to make that bar completely silent (made up of a half note rest and an addiLonal 8th note rest. The half note rest is equivalent to four 8th notes of course). If you concentrate on the higher C note, you start to get a feeling of the "off beat" feeling, of short long, short long. You should be able to feel that rhythmically in this piece we are building our 5/8 Lming out of a group of 2 beats, followed by a group of 3 beats.
17.3.4 Seven Beats If the Lme signature is 7 beats, we would have two groups of 2, and one of 3. So 7 beats per bar can work in 3 ways: 2 beats, 2 beats, 3 beats 2 beats, 3 beats, 2 beats 3 beats, 2 beats, 2 beats. Let’s look at an example of 7/8 Lming:
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We are showing all 3 variaLons in order here. As you can see, music like this needs a strong sense of melody to clearly show which variaLon it is. In this case we are clearly marking the divisions with repeaLng notes. In a more complex melody it becomes harder to figure out. The good news is that with pracLce you will just feel the groove of the beat and you won’t be forever counLng to 3 and 4. So what about 11 beats? Well if you have goTen this far, I'll leave for you to figure out how many simple variaLons there are on that.
17.3.5 Final Word For a more concrete example of Odd Lme signatures, check out Gabriel’s amazing John Petrucci Style Lesson here. The riff is in 7/4 Lme, meaning that there are seven quarter beats to the bar. I count this as 1-‐2-‐1-‐2-‐1-‐2-‐3 as this seems to fit in best with the accenLng of the main bass riff, but the goal here is when you have understood the Lming just to feel the music and flow with it – pracLce is essenLal here to get used to the qualiLes of the odd Lming.
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18
Ear Training (Intermediate)
18.1 Lesson to be created
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19 Moving the Boxes: A Guide to Transposition and Scale Selection 19.1 Introduction So you know all the boxes in a C major scale because that's what was in your theory book, but you need to write a solo in A. What do you do? How do you apply all of your scale knowledge to wriLng in a parLcular key? How do you take something wriTen by someone else and change its key? In this lesson we will look at how to do all of the above. For the record, transposing means changing the key of a sequence of notes without affecLng their harmonic relaLonship -‐ we will look into that as it is closely related to scale selecLon and moving boxes around the neck to get the scale you want.
19.2 Root Notes The most important concept to grasp in all of this is that of the root notes of a scale. When we talk about a scale of D major, or A minor Pentatonic, the scale is named for the root note -‐ D, or A in the two examples I just gave. The root note is always the first note played in a scale when pracLcing it, and it is the note that gives a scale its basic idenLty. In this lesson I talk a lot about scales and keys -‐ they are really preTy much the same thing. Playing in a parLcular key means using the notes from the scale associated with (and named for) that key. Of course this isn't a hard and fast rule, but it is a good starLng guideline. Moving back to D Major -‐ here are a couple of examples of different fingerings for it. You may recall from reading about CAGED, that there are five different major scale variaLons in total, and the same number for the pentatonic scales. (If CAGED is new to you, check out my lessons here).
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Although these scales are equivalent, they use a different selecLon of notes -‐ always the notes in the scale, but moving to higher versions as we move up the fret board. How do we match these scales together and understand how to use different boxes to get the scales we need? We use the root notes. The root notes in both of these scales are picked out in green. As you can see, these two scales overlap a few of the notes as they are preTy close together on the neck. When we are playing within a scale, we always play relaLve to the root notes. So, if you have a tune in mind, and it starts on the 3rd of the scale, you can play it in a couple of places in each of the 2 scales shown above, giving you four choices of where to start. Just start at one of the root notes, and count up to the 3rd (that's 2 steps up from the root). To make it easier I have picked the 3rds out in red. The important point here is that you use the root note as your signpost to understand how the boxes fit together, and to locate yourself within the scale. A couple of the choices above will be an octave (8 notes) higher than the others -‐ being an octave higher makes no difference to the musical relaLonship of the notes, but will make the melody sound in a higher register -‐ this may or may not be the effect you are looking for, but this gives you extra opLons. What else can root notes do for us? They are essenLal for correct scale selecLon.
19.3 Scale Selection By Scale selecLon I mean two complementary things. The first is ensuring that you are in the right key for the piece of music that you are playing. The second is picking the right scale from your selecLon of 5 shapes to get the musical effect you are looking for. Firstly, picking the right key -‐ this is extremely important, and root notes are essenLal for this. In order to pick the right family of scales, you first need to know what key you are in. I'll use major scales as an example. If your band is playing a song in the key of A major, and are currently looking at you expecLng you to rip into a solo, the first thing you need to do is figure out where each of the A major scales is. Root notes are your signpost here, but you must also have a good knowledge of the notes on the guitar to help you conduct your search. Using your knowledge of notes on the guitar, locate one or more of the root notes -‐ using the bass strings is best for this. OK, I'm thinking of the A on fret 5 of the low E string. If you have studied your CAGED scales, you will know that both the E and G shapes feature root notes on the 6th string. Now, if you pick one of those shapes, say the E shape, and align the root note of the E shape scale with the A note you have idenLfied, you have now figured out how to play your scale of A major. Next, you need to select which of the 5 scales you want to actually play in. When you have located the CAGED E shape, you can use the rules of the CAGED system to go up and down the neck, picking
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equivalent scales unLl you find one you like. Its up to you -‐ do you want a low solo, or a high solo? If you have pracLced CAGED a lot, you should be able to move between the boxes without thinking about it -‐ maybe starLng low, and moving up to a crescendo on the higher notes -‐ at this stage it’s up to you! Of course, you may want to go about this backwards, and write a tune then figure out the key. In that case, you have already selected the scale -‐ you just need to figure out what your root note is, what the type of scale is then you have your key! Learn Boxes Not Fret PosiLons As guitar players, we're preTy fortunate. Not only do we play the most amazingly expressive instrument there is (what other instrument can go from Segovia to George Benson to BB King to Rusty Cooley?), but we also have it easy when it comes to key changes. If you play the piano, or clarinet, you have to learn exact and different fingerings for each scale in each key. For the guitar, you need to learn a box, and the slide it up and down to get different keys -‐ then you can add boxes to get more flexibility. A mistake that some beginners make, when learning their first scale, is to learn the fret numbers instead of the relaLonship between the notes. For instance, A minor Pentatonic is: 6th string 5th fret, 6th string 8th fret, 5th string 5th fret, 5th string 7th fret... That works to learn that parLcular scale but can lead to confusion when later trying to play for instance a G minor pentatonic -‐ you need to learn a completely new set of fret numbers -‐ just like our piano player did. The trick here is to remember the root note and the relaLonship between the notes, not the actual frets they are played on. A good Lp when you start learning scales is to always start on the root note. Most scales played on the guitar have a few notes leR over below the root note on the lower strings and above the root note on the higher strings. I have picked these notes out in blue in the 2 diagrams above. To start, you can ignore these, and learn scales starLng from the root note, ending at the next, memorising the relaLonship between the notes, not their actual fret posiLons. For some scales (for instance the CAGED G shape shown above) you can do 2 full octaves and end up on a root note. If you memorise the shape rather then the fret posiLons, when it becomes Lme to move from an Am to Gm, you just slide everything down 2 frets, and play the same paTern -‐ much easier! So think of your pentatonic scale like this: Root note on the E string, 3 notes up on the E string
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Same fret as the root note on the A string, 2 frets up on the E string...
19.4 Transposition OK, our next challenge as guitar players -‐ your band is really happy with your ripping guitar solo in A major, but the singer is complaining that he can't sing the song that high. Is it OK if we change the key to G major? That's great for the singer but now we have to figure out a couple of important things. First, how do we change the chords to match, second how do we change our solo to match? Let’s look at a liTle theory first. What the singer has done is ask us to transpose the song down by two semitones which is the difference between the notes of A and G. The only real rule here, and its a simple one, is that to transpose a piece of music, you just move every note in the piece down by exactly the same amount, in this case 2 semitones. For those of you who have read my lesson on intervals, here, we are transposing down a Major Second. As long as we move everything by the same amount, the relaLonship between all of the notes, including all of the notes in the chords remains idenLcal. We will be playing in a different key, but that is all that will change. If we were in a major key before we will sLll be in a major key. the chords although based different notes will stay major or minor or whatever they originally were. So the first trick is to work out the number of semitones up or down we need to move to hit the key we want. Another trick to note is that you can go up as well as down to reach the new key. Moving 2 semitones down is the same as moving 10 semitones up in terms of the key you will be playing with. Why is this? Well there are 12 semitones in an octave, and in the example I just gave, 10 semitones up, is an octave higher than 2 semitones down -‐ (10 + 2 = 12) -‐ and musically, different octaves are idenLcal in terms of the funcLons of the notes. Now obviously one of those opLons will sound beTer than the other for the song you are playing so you have to be sensiLve to the effect you are trying to get. Sounds simple enough, but how do we put this into pracLce? First, let’s look at the chords. Since we were originally playing in A major, its a safe bet that we were using the chord of A somewhere. Let’s assume we are also using the chords of D and E, as they are commonly used in the key of A, being the 4th and 5th of the scale. To transpose to the key of G, we just change the chords so that they are down 2 semitones. So, A becomes G (why is that? Well, there are 8 notes in a major scale, and when naming them we use A through G then go back to A again -‐ so the note below A is G!). Also, D becomes C, and E becomes D. Just subsLtute the new chords for the old and bingo, you are playing in a different key. If you are having trouble with this, it is also worth looking at a couple of other lessons, Major Scales 101 here, and Degrees of the scale here. OK, now for the notes. Well again, this is as simple as just adding or subtracLng semitones from the note you were originally playing. If you were playing the note of A, you change it to the note of G,
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and do this for each individual note throughout the song subtracLng the same number of tones. Now, that is usually fairly easy, and you can mostly do this just by moving each note down 2 frets, but if you end up with open strings and you want to subtract tones, you have to compensate by moving to a lower string. At this stage you need to think about switching to a different scale shape that has some higher notes in it -‐ you need to jump up an octave. At this point you can use your knowledge of root notes to move to an equivalent scale in a different posiLon that works beTer. ConLnue doing the subtracLon, but subsLtute the note that you have figured out for the same note in your new scale posiLon. Let’s look at an example. It turns out that the song you were playing originally in A was happy birthday, and it looked like this on a tab:
Now we have transposed it to G it looks like this:
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Note that the chords have been subsLtuted as we discussed, and if you check the notes on the tab, you'll see that they have all moved down 2 semitones, but the fingering has been adjusted to make this work out OK. Spend some Lme and compare the 2 tabs to understand how the notes differ and you will be well on the way to understanding transposiLon. We have also changed the key signature to compensate (if you don’t know about key signatures, you could check my lesson on finding the key of a song here, and we'll do a more in depth lesson on key signatures in the future. Now, if plodding through the whole song subtracLng a couple of semitones from each note sounds long winded, that is because it is. I wanted you to understand the principles first, but there is an easier way to approach this. It depends on knowing all your scales, and takes a lot of pracLce. The trick that more experienced guitarists use is not to learn specific notes, but to learn a tune or solo as a collecLon of notes within the context of the scale boxes. Once you do that, you are freed from the context of a parLcular key, and to make your 2 semitone shiR all you have to do is move your whole box down 2 semitones and play the same paTern. Using this technique a pracLced musician can transpose a whole tune with liTle thought as he goes along. He will be able to tell you the notes if you ask him, but he is not doing that subtracLon in his head as he goes along, he is thinking in terms of paTerns and shiRing down the neck. This works preTy well most of the Lme, but you can run into trouble if you need to switch your solo too low, and you end up moving below open strings. An even more flexible technique is to start
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thinking of the song in terms of intervals relaLng to the root note. If you do that, not only do you have the flexibility to move boxes up and down the neck, but as and when required, you can move to a completely different scale shape, and play the same notes just by working with the same intervals. Again, good guitarists can do this without thinking about it as they go along, and once again, root notes are very important here. As usual, the key to all of this is pracLce. You need to know your scales inside out, and all of the notes within them. Know all the variaLons of the scales so you have the maximum number of opLons for transposing, and pracLce changing keys of songs iniLally by hand unLl you understand the principles well enough to start doing it as you play.
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20 Breaking out of the boxes 20.1 Lesson to be created
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21
Harmonics
21.1 Introduction Natural harmonics, pinch harmonics, arLficial harmonics, tapped harmonics -‐ what are they? What is a harmonic anyway? Let’s see...
21.2 What is a Harmonic? First, what is a harmonic? Well a mathemaLcally perfect string on a guitar would vibrate all the way from the nut or whichever fret you have chosen to the bridge, all as a single unit, meaning that if you slowed it down, you would see the middle of the string moving the most and bowing out and back in hundreds of Lmes a second, like this:
This is an illustraLon of a string vibraLng at its fundamental frequency and the string has non moving parts or nodes at each end. The fundamental frequency is the frequency that we usually associate with that open string -‐ for instance, E for the 1st string. But guitar strings are preTy complex things. In addiLon to the fundamental, it is possible for the string to vibrate in a more complex way, such that you get a situaLon where the string is separated into 2 or more parts which vibrate separately, with addiLonal nodes -‐ in this case, if you slowed the string down, you would see nodes at various points on the string, and the string vibraLng from those sLll points up to the nut or fret, and down to the bridge, like this:
In the picture above, we have an extra node and 2 separate porLons of the string are vibraLng -‐ this is an example of the 2nd harmonic, so called because there are 2 separate parts to the string. In this case, the 2 parts of the string each are half the length, so vibrate at twice the frequency, and a string vibraLng in the manner shown above would sound an octave higher than the string in the first diagram.
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We can take this several steps further and talk about 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and higher harmonics. As we divide the string into ever smaller units, we get higher frequencies that conform to the raLos in which the string is divided. The higher harmonics are oRen called parLals or overtones -‐ a parLal is generally related to the fundamental frequency in some fixed way, whereas an overtone needn't be. In order for a harmonic to be present on a string, it has to be divided into exact fracLons of the length of the whole string. You can't have two and a half nodes for example -‐ that just isn't stable and wouldn't happen on a string in real life, so we are restricted to the exact fracLons we have described. The harmonics and some of their musical aTributes look like this:
Owing to construcLon of the guitar and the way it is tuned, some of the higher order harmonics aren't exact matches for the notes I have stated, but they are a reasonably close match -‐ the ones with asterisks are significantly adriR from the stated pitches.
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So far we have been talking about mathemaLcally pure harmonics -‐ the situaLon on a real guitar is a liTle more complicated. What actually happens in real life is that a plucked string will be a complex mixture of the fundamental and mulLple harmonics all playing at the same Lme. The fundamental will be loudest but depending on various features of the instrument, various harmonics will also play. This is actually true of any instrument, including other stringed instruments, woodwind and brass instruments. In fact it is the mixture of overtones and they way they are reinforced that gives each instrument its characterisLc tone. If you played just the fundamental from an oboe next to a fundamental from a guitar of the same frequency, they would sound preTy similar, because both are basically a single sine wave. Of course there are many other things that make an instrument sound unique such as the various resonances it possesses, the way the note is driven be it through plucking or blowing, and addiLonal noises such as breath or pick noise, but the basic musical signals are similar. So our string is a mixture of the fundamental and various ever higher harmonics -‐ in theory they go on forever, but in pracLcal terms as they become higher they also become quieter and tail off quickly. This means the waveform the guitar string creates is actually incredibly complex.
21.3 What does creating a harmonic mean in guitar playing terms? In playing terms, as we menLoned above, there are many different types of harmonic techniques, and they are used to get different sounds or effects from the guitar. I'll explain the different types and techniques for playing them a liTle later, but first I'd like to take some Lme to explain what we are doing when playing a harmonic. At this stage I want to point out that there is a difference between the technique of "harmonics” and the individual harmonics themselves -‐ the first is a generic term to describe guitar techniques that manipulate the harmonic content of a note, the second refers to the actual harmonics that make up that mix. We tend to use them interchangeably, but be aware that they are talking about different things. From this point, I'll put quotaLon marks around the word harmonic when I am referring to technique rather than the harmonics themselves. Actually a beTer term for "harmonics" would be something like "harmonic selecLon" -‐ let’s see why. In fact, it all comes down to the nodes. When you are plucking an open string, there are only 2 nodes that are unmovable -‐ the bridge and the nut. This means that all possible combinaLons of harmonics -‐ 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc are free to sound out, because there is nothing prevenLng them from forming their characterisLc nodes anywhere on the string. The various techniques to create a "harmonic" involve forcing nodes to be in a specific place along the string. Now, think about that -‐ if we force a node in the middle of the string, at the 12th fret we are immediately prevenLng or filtering out any
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of the other harmonics that do not have a node there. So, for instance, the fundamental can no longer exist, as it does not have a node at the 12th fret. The 2nd harmonic does, so it will be alive and well. The 3rd harmonic? No, it only has nodes at the 7th and 19th frets. What about the 4th harmonic? In the table above I gave the 5th and 24th frets, but it also has a node at the 12th fret, so it can exist. Carry on working through, and you will find that all of the even harmonics have nodes at the 12th fret. So, forcing a node at the 12th fret will give us a note that has a 2nd harmonic, 4th harmonic, 6th harmonic, 8th harmonic and so on -‐ all the even harmonics in fact. So that note will sound very different to an open string because its harmonic structure is different -‐ it is harmonically a much purer note than a regular open string. In fact, checking the table above, we can see that the strongest note will be the 2nd harmonic, which is an octave above the fundamental, but there will also be a flavour of the 4th harmonic which is an octave above that, and the 6th harmonic which is an octave and a 5th above the fundamental. Let’s take another example, and play a "harmonic" at the 7th fret. This will of course give us a 3rd harmonic which sounds out at an octave plus a 5th above the fundamental. What other harmonics are compaLble? The answer is, at least for the lower harmonics, anything that is a mulLple of 3, so the 6th harmonic will also figure (the 6th harmonic is 2 octaves and almost a minor 3rd above the fundamental). So the sound we get will be mostly the 3rd harmonic, which is an octave and a 5th above the fundamental, with a smaller amount of the 6th harmonic (Octave + minor 3rd) added. When you start to look at the mixture of notes we are geQng it starts to become clear why we get higher notes, and strange mixtures of sounds. So another way to look at this is that when we play a "harmonic", we are using a technique that forces the string to vibrate in a way that includes certain harmonics and forbids others. It is this different mix of harmonics that causes the someLmes weird effects that "harmonics" give us. Another thing to note about "harmonics" is that to a large extent it doesn't maTer where you set the node up -‐ you will get the same effect. For a 2nd harmonic there is just one possibility -‐ the 12th fret, but in general, the number of posiLons you can get a parLcular harmonic effect is the same as the number of nodes on the string, and they should all sound the same, as long as you are careful that the node you pick doesn't also allow a lower harmonic. For instance, we can play 4th harmonics at frets 5 and 24. The 12th fret is also a valid node for the 4th harmonic, but it also allows the 2nd harmonic which dominates. As we'll see later, whammy bar harmonics use nodes clustered up near the nut, whereas pinch harmonics work near the bridge -‐ in fact both techniques are generaLng a very similar harmonic series, they are just using different techniques and different nodes to set them up.
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21.4 How Do We Perceive Harmonics? Our ears fool us -‐ this happens in music more than anywhere else. Our brain is equipped to figure out single notes preTy well, but play more than a couple, and the brain starts to perceive them as a whole, merging the individual notes into an overall sound or Lmbre. This is especially true of musical tones such as guitar string notes. Remember all of those harmonics? With the right analysis, a computer can listen to a note and figure out all of the harmonics in it, but we can't do that -‐ we just hear a single note, and in pitch terms we perceive it as being idenLcal to the fundamental. This is a liTle more than the fact that the fundamental is loudest; we sLll perceive that note even if it isn't present in the signal -‐ this is a psychoacousLc consequence of the way our brains are wired, and is something that music producers use to good effect to make us believe we are hearing bass notes that are not present because small speakers cannot reproduce them -‐ they just use an effects unit to add in the appropriate harmonics (which are higher so the speakers can reproduce them) and our brain is fooled into thinking there is some low bass in there that really isn't present. OK, enough theory, let’s look at some actual harmonic techniques.
21.5 Natural Harmonic All of the techniques I menLoned in the introducLon achieve the same thing -‐ they create a modified harmonic series, but they differ in the way you create it. In all of these, some knowledge of what you are trying to achieve in terms of the different harmonics you are seQng up is helpful. You can't create a "harmonic" anywhere on the string, it has to be at a node for a parLcular harmonic series, and the exact mixture of harmonics you select by this choice controls the effect you get. "Natural Harmonics" are probably the easiest to create; the technique is used with an open string. With the right hand you would pluck the string with your pick as usual, and at the same Lme gently touch your leR finger to the string at the appropriate point then immediately remove it. Your leR finger forces the string to stay sLll in that place, creaLng a node, whilst the rest of it vibrates. The quicker you remove your finger, the clearer the "harmonic” would be. Where you place your leR finger is of course all important for "natural harmonics" -‐ it has to match the exact placement of the node of the harmonic series you want to create. There are strong "natural harmonics" on the following frets:
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In most cases your finger needs to be above the fret, not the gap in between them as you can see in the diagram. The 9th fret "harmonic" is preTy hard to get, the others should be easy with a liTle pracLce, with the 12th fret being the absolute easiest and best place to start.
21.6 Artificial Harmonic "Natural harmonics" are created on open strings, which limit the notes we can easily get. "ArLficial harmonics" take this a step further and open up a lot more possibiliLes, although they are a lot harder to play. The principle is simple however -‐ we are just shortening the string by freQng it somewhere. This means that for instance a 2nd harmonic although sLll consisLng of 2 equal notes split in the middle would sound higher because we have shortened the string by freQng it. It also means that we have to move the point that we create the node up by half the distance we have moved up the fret board (so that we are sLll hiQng the exact centre of the part of the string that is free to move). Since we figure the posiLoning of the nodes as a division of the part of the string that is able to vibrate, all of the nodes will be closer together, and will move on the string slightly. To actually execute the "harmonic", since your leR hand is busy freQng the string, you must place a finger from your right hand on the appropriate spot, and use another finger on the same hand to actually pluck the string -‐ this is fairly hard to do and requires a lot of pracLce. When pracLcing "arLficial harmonics", the exact same rules apply, just remember that you have to adjust for the amount you have moved up the neck. Using arLficial harmonics it is possible to play enLre complex melodies, but if you are moving your fret hand up the string even to play successive notes, you also need to change the place you are creaLng the "harmonic" to match. The 2 techniques menLoned above are equally at home on a classical or electric guitar, but now we get to the really good stuff -‐ the rest are really only usable on an electric guitar.
21.7 Pinch Harmonic The "pinch harmonic" is the archetypal guitar scream -‐ you know the one where the lead guitarist is ripping into the solo and suddenly plays one or more notes that just scream and sound amazing. What he is doing is playing "pinch harmonics". The principles remain the same but this Lme all of the acLon is at the pick hand. What the guitarist is doing here is picking a note as normal, but also leQng his thumb brush up against the note just aRer he picks it. The thumb is seQng up the node of the "harmonic" and forcing the strings to vibrate with the desired harmonic series. If you crank the gain and treble up, when you have the technique right you will almost always get a screaming harmonic of some sort. As with other harmonics you need to fine tune the exact posiLon you are using to hit the sweet spot, and you can even switch between different harmonic types in between notes (an old ZZ Top trick). Since Pinch Harmonics are executed near the bridge, we are selecLng from the higher harmonics, so we get high notes -‐ some of the higher harmonics include dissonant components, contribuLng to the scream. There are many other possibiliLes within a small space -‐ we get more
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because the guitar is arLficially sensiLve to the higher order harmonics as be have upped the gain a lot. As I said earlier, these harmonics are present in the note anyway but at such low volumes that hey are not normally heard.
21.8 Tap Harmonic A "Tap Harmonic" is similar to an "ArLficial Harmonic", the difference is that instead of separately touching and plucking the string, the "tap harmonic" uses a single acLon -‐ a tap, to do both. To do this you need to tap the string lightly so that it very briefly hits the fret underneath it and very quickly remove your finger. The tap sets the string vibraLng and at the same Lme creates the node in the correct place -‐ so of course you need to actually tap the string at the exact place required to set up the "harmonic" you want.
21.9 Whammy Bar Harmonics Finally, the "Whammy Bar Harmonic" is similar to the "tap harmonic", the difference being that usually when playing these you are selecLng very high order harmonics, and there is no fret beneath the exact spot you need to hit, so you need to use a whipping acLon to set the string vibraLng and deaden it in the exact spot to set up the desired node. For this reason, "whammy harmonics" are about the most difficult "harmonic" technique I am aware of. A good place to do this is on the G string between the 2nd and 3rd frets -‐ there are 3 or 4 different harmonic series there depending on the exact posiLon you whip. Before you whip, push your whammy bar down, and aRer the tap release it and add some vibrato -‐ with this technique you can get some crazy screams.
21.10 Pickups, Treble and Gain A final word on some of the electric guitar related "harmonic" techniques. There is a myth that some guitars are good for "harmonics" others aren't ... well in terms of actually creaLng "harmonics", all guitars are exactly equal. If you turn off your amp and play your electric without any volume, you can actually hear natural harmonics. If you are good a pinch harmonics you will hear those too. Where guitar and amp combos differ is in how good a job they do of picking up and amplifying the harmonics. Since a lot of harmonics are low in volume, hot pickups and a lot of gain on the amp improve the loudness of the signal, making the "harmonics" clearer. Since a lot of harmonics are quite high frequencies, your pickups need a good treble response -‐ and this varies between guitars. Finally, your pickup is looking at one very narrow porLon of the string, and if you had the ability to move it whilst playing a "harmonic" you would pick up different proporLons of the different harmonics in the signal. This means that different harmonics will sound different on different guitars depending on the exact pickup placement -‐ you can check this by changing which pickup you use whilst playing harmonics -‐ you may find that one is beTer than the other.
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So, crank up the gain and treble, play with your pickups, but don't blame the guitar if you can't play harmonics!
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22 Modes 101 22.1 Part 1: Modes, An Introduction 22.1.1 Introduction Modes are a subject that comes up a lot on the forums, and in various lessons. The first quesLon most people ask is "What is a mode?" followed by, "What are they good for?" We'll take a look at both quesLons in some detail in this mulL part lesson. In this series of lessons lesson we'll take a look at modes at a high level before diving into detail on each mode (there are 7 of them!)
22.1.2 A Little Bit of History You can skip this secLon if you want, but I thought it might be interesLng to give you a liTle bit of history around modes. Modes were first referred to by the Greeks. Each mode was named aRer groups of people such as the Ionians, Dorians and Aeolians, or places around Greece such as Locris, Lydia and Phrygia. Greek philosophers believed that not only was the music characterisLc of the people or region, but in fact, the very nature of the music affected peoples outlook in those regions. They ascribed emoLons such as Sadness to parLcular modes such as the Mixolydian. The Greek modes and the modes we use today are not comparable. Over thousands of years musical theory and translaLon errors have shiRed meanings such that even comparably named modes are now completely different. Modes were used a lot in church music in the Middle Ages, although they were by then already very different from the modes the Greeks used. In parLcular, the Church modes developed along with Gregorian chants, which use 8 different modes. The modes used in this way work well to give the chants an ethereal quality to our ears as they are different from the major and minor scales we are so used to. In church modes as well, the actual root scale notes in use were restricted, unlike in modern usage.
22.1.2 So what are they? I'll put you out of your misery now -‐ a mode is a variaLon of a scale. As we have learned each scale be it major, or minor, is characterised by a parLcular paTern of tones and semi-‐tones. For instance, our old friend the major scale is built from the formula 2 2 1 2 2 2 1, which describes the gaps between each of the 8 notes (if you are unfamiliar with this formula, check out my Major Scale lesson here before you go any further). A mode of a scale is simply a variaLon of that scale in which the paTern of Tones and Semitones in its formula is changed. For instance, we might construct a scale like this: 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 (this actually gives us the Dorian Mode of which more lately). There are
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specific rules used to generate the modes of a scale which we'll look at later, but the descripLon above is the essence of what modes are.
22.1.3 What Use Are they? Just as we use the major and minor scales to create different effects within a song, we can also use modes to change the enLre feel of a song. Some modes are very slightly different to scales we are already familiar with, others are quite strange sounding, but all can be used to great effect to alter the underlying way a song sounds, just by using notes from a parLcular mode to compose your melody from. A song composed using the Dorian, or Phrygian modes will sound very different. Each mode has a characterisLc feel and lends a different character to the song. Now, the good news is that you have definitely used a couple of modes already, and there is a very good chance that you have used a couple of others without really thinking about it. That's the thing about musical theory -‐ a good percentage of it is devoted to describing stuff that you actually do already.
22.1.4 What are they really? In this lesson we are going to describe modes as variaLons of the Major and Minor scales, and understand that the minor scale is itself a mode of a major scale and can be described as a variaLon of it. Using this approach, we can group Modes into two main families and think about them in a more pracLcal and accessible way than in the purely theoreLcal approach presented in the next lesson. As we know, all scales can be described by a formula -‐ for instance 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 for the major scale. To get the modes of a scale we simply alter the formula in a predefined way to generate a different sounding scale, whilst keeping the root notes the same. Each mode has its own disLncLve sound and feel, because of the different selecLon of notes. In order to understand this approach you will need to be familiar with how the major scale is put together (here), and also with how we name intervals, described here. There are seven modes of the major scale, and they are called: Ionian Dorian Phrygian Lydian
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Mixolydian Aeolian Locrian Since we are talking about the Major modes in this lesson, we will first focus on the Major scale which is the foundaLon of the family of scales that we are talking about. Since you all know the Major scale by now, this one is easy, and is in fact our first mode, and is called the 'Ionian' mode (they are the same thing).
22.1.5 Ionian Mode What we are going to do for each mode is look at how it varies from the Major scale it is derived from. In interval terms, the Major scale or Ionan mode is: Root Major 2nd Major 3rd Perfect 4th Perfect 5th Major 6th Major 7th Octave Or more simply: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The formula for a Major scale as you should know is 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 For each mode we will give an example scale in the key of C. So for Ionian, the scale of C Major or C Ionian is: C D E F G A B C
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22.1.6 Aeolian Mode The Aeolian mode is also known as the Natural minor scale and has the following intervals: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7 As you can see, there are 3 notes different between the major and minor scale -‐ the b3, b6 and b7. Formula for the Aeolian Mode is 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 Our C Minor or Aeolian scale is: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
22.1.7 The Families Now we have 2 modes, Ionian and Aeolian otherwise known as the Major and Minor scales. The defining feature of Major vs. Minor scales is the 3rd note of the scale. The other notes are important but not as important as the 3rd. This means that we can characterize the rest of the modes as being Major or minor in character, based on whether they have a regular 3rd or a flat 3rd. This is extremely useful -‐ moving from a Major or Minor mode to a mode in the same family is not such a big leap in musical terms and can add interest to a composiLon. Now we are in a posiLon to look at the rest of the modes, and we will describe them in terms of how they vary from either the minor or the Major scale using those scales as a basis.
22.1.8 The Majors Let’s take a look at the Major family first. Lydian The Lydian mode is a Major scale with a sharpened 4th. In interval terms it is: 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 Formula for the Lydian mode is 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 Our C Lydian scale is: C D E F# G A B C Mixolydian The Mixolydian mode is a Major scale with a flaTened or dominant 7th. In interval terms it is:
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1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 Formula for the Mixolydian Mode is 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 Our C Mixolydian scale is: C D E F G A Bb C
22.1.9 The Minors Next, let’s look at the minor family. Dorian Dorian mode is a minor scale with a major 6th instead of a minor 6th. In interval terms it is: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7 Formula for the Dorian Mode is 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 Our C Dorian scale is: C D Eb F G A Bb C
22.1.10 Phrygian Phrygian mode is a minor scale with a flaTened 2nd. In interval terms it is: 1, b2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7 Formula for the Phrygian Mode is 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 Our C Phrygian scale is: C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C
22.1.11 Locrian Finally we have Locrian. Although the Locrian has a minor 3rd, it also has a flaTened 5th, which makes it a diminished scale. So although we will put it in with the minors, it isn't a perfect fit. It is a Minor scale with a flat 2nd and a flat 5th. In interval terms it is: 1, b2, b3, 4, b5, b6, b7 Formula for the Locrian Mode is 1 2 2 1 2 2 2
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Our C Locrian scale is: C Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C
22.1.12 Mode Comparison Now that we have listed all of the modes and seen how we can get to them from a closely related Major or Minor scale, it should become obvious how they compare. To make the point clearer, let’s look at our example scale all the modes together in one place:
The reason I have laid all the scales out in this way is to illustrate how the modes compare. As you can see, they all have the same root notes, but differ in the intervening notes. It is a source of confusion to many people how the modes are actually different, and this is usually down to the fact that when learning modes in the first place they were introduced to relaLve modes before they fully understood what modes are. RelaLve modes do in fact share the same notes, but this is a realizaLon that is best leR unLl aRer modes are fully understood. As you can see in the table above, there is no mistaking the fact that modes that share the same root notes are very different scales. It is a feature of the way that modes are constructed that if you start your scale a note higher, and at the same Lme shiR along one in the list of modes, you will end up with an idenLcal list of notes. For instance, C Major has the same notes as D Dorian. However, C Major and C Dorian are very different as can be seen. Comparison of modes to understand their musical properLes and flavour should always be done with idenLcal root notes to avoid confusion. The concept of relaLve modes whilst extremely important is very oRen misunderstood and should be put to one side unLl you fully understand modes. Oh, and just for fun, since this came up on the forum one Lme., the Spanish names for the modes are as follows: In Spanish the names of the modes are: Modos:
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1 Jonico (mayor) 2 Dorico 3 Frigio 4 Lidio 5 Mixolidio 6 Eólico (menor) 7 Locrio
22.2 Part2: Modes, The Theory 22.2.1 Introduction In the previous modes lesson we described what modes are, and a pracLcal way of diving into them. However, modes are a complex subject, and the theoreLcal underpinnings are fascinaLng. Once you thoroughly understand the previous lesson, spending some Lme here can really help you with concepts all across music. So now we know what modes are, let’s see what they mean in theory terms and how they were generated in the first place.
22.2.2 How Do We Generate Modes? We're going to start out by lisLng all of the modes of the Major scale, along with their formulae -‐ look closely, there may be quesLons...
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I have also included a column called "scale degree" -‐ this will become clear soon. The first thing I hope you spoTed was that the Ionian mode has an idenLcal formula to the Major scale. (See, I told you were already using modes!). Yes, that's right; the Ionian mode is another name for the Major scale. Next, although we haven't had a lesson on minor scales yet, you may have spoTed that the Aeolian mode has the same formula as the Natural minor scale ... yes, that's right, you already know the Aeolian mode because it is idenLcal to the Natural minor scale! So we've learnt 2 modes already without trying. InteresLng though that is, the real lesson here is that there is a paTern in each of the successive modes (I have listed them in this order deliberately). With a liTle more examinaLon you will see that for each successive mode's formula, we take off the first leTer, move the rest of the leTers along and put the first leTer on the end. This gives us a pracLcal way to generate the modes of a scale, based on techniques of moving through the notes of a scale. The rule is this:
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Pick a major scale. To generate each mode, you move through the notes of the scale, up to the degree listed above for that mode, then play through the scale, starLng on that note, but playing notes from the original scale. What this does is two things. First, it shiRs the root note from the Major scale root note, to the note that is the degree of the scale to which we have moved. Secondly, since we are starLng some of the way through the scale it also shiRs the spacing of tones and semi-‐ tones (T & S) into a different relaLonship, as reflected by the formulae for each mode that I gave you above. That's a bit of a mouthful, so let’s look at an example -‐ the modes of the C Major scale. Notes in C major are C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C -‐ here is one of the CAGED shapes for C Major:
Our first mode is the Ionian, which is the Major scale itself, let’s ignore that for now, no explanaLons should be necessary. Instead, let’s look at the Dorian mode. The Dorian mode is mode 2, so we generate the unique formula for Dorian by moving up a degree to D, and playing the notes out of the C Major scale, which would be D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D -‐ it would look like this:
Since we started on D, we would call this "D Dorian", and you'll noLce that although we are using the scale of C Major to select our notes, we have ended up with a scale with a root note of D, which you should take into account when wriLng songs around this mode. If you want to turn this around and for instance find the notes in a specific key such as "C Dorian" you need to work backwards. What scale has the note C as its second degree? The answer is Bb, here:
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So to figure out a C Dorian scale you would look at the notes in the key of Bb, which are Bb,C,D,Eb,F,G,A,Bb. Applying our rule and starLng on the second degree ( C ) we get our C Dorian scale as C,D,Eb,F,G,A,Bb,C
When doing it this way around, you must also take account of the fact that different modes have different characterisLc chords that fit with them. So for instance, Dorian mode has a Minor 7th feel to it -‐ if you move from C Major to C Dorian, you are also moving from Major to Minor. Modes are characterised ad Major or Minor based on the interval between the 1st and 3rd notes. Not surprisingly, if the interval is a minor 3rd, the mode is characterised as minor, if it’s a major 3rd, it is characterised as major. So you see we can work it both ways, going from a scale to a mode, or from a mode to a scale, and of course with pracLce you won't need to figure the notes out at all, you will just think "Dorian" and your fingers will play it -‐ but that's a LOT of pracLce by the way! You can use the same principle above to figure out the notes for any of the modes listed. It’s also important to point out that for every mode; we are using the notes out of a major scale, just with a displaced root note, so learning modes is simply a case of re-‐using the major scale shapes you already know, and altering where you place the root note of that scale in the paTern. This means that you from the CAGED system you have 5 opLons for playing each of the modes.
22.2.3 Again, What exactly is a Mode? So when all is said and done, is a Mode a specific paTern of notes or just a scale played up a few notes? People disagree on this -‐ my answer to that quesLon is that they are both. The essence of what a mode is is the Tone/Semi-‐tone formula you use to construct it -‐ Dorian is Dorian no maTer what key
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it is played in, it’s the relaLonship of the notes that counts. But the selecLon and structuring of modes is done by an orderly progression through the scale you are generaLng the modes from. You'll noLce that we have picked only 7 of the possible combinaLons of tones and semi-‐tones -‐ others are possible, but that moves us into the realms of new scales. Modes of scales are strictly generated in the way I have described using movement through the degrees of the scale to generate the formulae for each.
22.2.4 Is that all there is to modes? Well we have really just scratched the surface of modes here, but by the Lme we have covered all of the modes listed above in more detail you will have learnt preTy much everything that most people mean when they talk about modes. To be accurate, what we have discussed here are the Major Modes, meaning the modes generated from a Major scale. It is actually possible to generate modes from any scale at all though. So for instance, there are modes of the pentatonic scale, Harmonic Minor scale, Melodic Minor scale and so on. NoLce I didn't menLon the Natural Minor scale here -‐ although we use it a lot and call it a scale, a more accurate way of looking at the natural minor scale is as a mode of the Major scale (the Aeolian). If you want to look at other modes (and there are some preTy obscure ones!) I suggest you buy a reference book such as The Guitar Grimoire: A compendium of Formulas for Guitar Scales and Modes. The techniques for mode construcLon remain the same no maTer what scale you use, but someLmes its easier to look them up than to figure them out yourself. That's it for this lesson. In the following lessons we are going to take a tour through the modes, look at example scales and discus chord voicing. If you have any quesLons you know where I am! Once again, thanks to Tank for proofreading!
22.3 Part 3: Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian 22.3.1 Lesson to be created
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22.4 Part 4: Aeolian, Dorian, Phrygian, Locrian 22.4.1 Lesson to be created
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23 Minor Scales Revisited 23.1 Introduction In the natural minor scale lesson, we briefly touched on the fact that there were a number of different scales. The reasons for this are fascinaLng, and we now have enough theory to understand a bit more about why this might be. In addiLon, we have also spoken about various modes of the major scale being minor in nature. Let’s pull all of this together and look a liTle more into minor scales.
23.2 Minor scales A minor scale is defined as: "a diatonic scale where the third note ("scale degree") is a minor third" (rather than a major third). (Diatonic means that the scale is constructed using some variaLon of all 7 whole notes available -‐ A B C D E F G). To begin with, of the major modes, four are minor by this definiLon: Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian and (to some) Locrian. Locrian is such a special mode (because it's the only mode of major that doesn't have a perfect fiRh), so we rarely count it as minor (or major for that maTer). There's more about that in my "Modes an alternaLve view", here. Mostly, however, when we speak of minor, we mean Aeolian mode, and two (or three) variaLons on it. We'll take a tour of these now, looking specifically at variaLons of the C minor scale.
23.3 The Natural minor and its problem C natural minor: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C Formula: 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 Intervals: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7 ARer early musicians started to work on variaLons of the Aeolian mode, we started to speak of Aeolian mode as natural minor, since it was "naturally" derived from the major scale (in other words, it was a mode of major).
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The "problem" with the natural minor scale is its 7th scale degree (note) (the red in the first formula above shows this "problem"). Western composers were used to the fact that the 7th note in the scale was one semitone below the root note, as it is in the major scale: C major: C D E F G A B C Formula: 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 As you can see, there is only 1 semitone from B to C. This 1 semitone interval has an important harmonic funcLon in a major scale -‐ B really wants to resolve to C. If we play the C major scale from C up to B and stop there, the B really "wants" to lead us on to C, to give a sense of closure. This is why we call the 7th note in major scales “the leading tone”. This has all kinds of implicaLons for harmony, choice of chords etc. It's rather important in (especially classical period) western music. But we don't have one semitone at the end of our natural minor scale: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C Rather we have two semitones -‐ from Bb to C in our C natural minor example. This doesn't have the same effect. And since that one semitone was so important in western harmony, they decided to "fix" it, by raising the 7th scale degree. In C minor, that means changing the Bb to B, which gives us the harmonic minor scale.
23.4 Harmonic minor, and its problem C Harmonic minor: C D Eb F G Ab B C Formula: 2 1 2 2 1 3 1 Intervals: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, 7 Now we have Aeolian mode, but with a major 7th. We call that harmonic minor, because of the leading tone's important harmonic funcLon. But in return, we also got a 3 semitone step -‐ unusual in the scales and modes we have dealt with so far, apart from the pentatonic. From the 6th scale degree to the 7th scale degree -‐ Ab to B. Many composers (but not all) felt an interval of 3 semitones was unmelodic. It was hard to sing, and it sounded "oriental". What to do about that, then? Simple, they also raised the 6th scale degree, to get the Melodic Minor scale. (Ascending) melodic minor -‐ and its problem
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C Melodic Minor : C D Eb F G A B C Formula : 2 1 2 2 2 2 1 Intervals : 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, 7 IniLally, this was called melodic minor, as compared to the "unmelodic" harmonic minor. But now we're almost playing major, except for the flat (minor) 3rd scale degree. So minor doesn't really sound so different from major anymore. What to do?
23.5 Full melodic minor This problem was solved by using two scales in combinaLon. When a melody is going upwards, we use the melodic minor, because we need that leading tone -‐ going from B to C. When going downwards, however, we have no use for the leading tone -‐ it's not as important harmonically whether we go from C to B or from C to Bb. So, going downwards, we use natural minor (Aeolian mode): Up -‐> Down -‐> C D Eb F G A B C Bb Ab G F Eb D C That's the full melodic minor scale. Upwards, we use what was eventually called the ascending melodic minor; downwards we use the descending melodic minor -‐ which is exactly the same as Aeolian mode. That way, we keep the feeling of the Aeolian scale, but get our beloved leading tone, and avoid sounding oriental. (This is not enLrely consistent, when you actually look at works of various composers -‐ they may use ascending melodic minor when going downwards, and descending when going upwards... It all depends on how well they could accept the various pros and cons of the different minor scales). The end result is that oRen you can freely use natural, harmonic or melodic minor in a piece in a minor key.
23.6 Conclusion So, to summarize, when we talk about a minor scale, we're mostly talking about natural (Aeolian), harmonic or melodic minor, although we may also include the Dorian and Phrygian modes. When we say the minor scale, all bets are off. Most people would probably mean natural minor, while a music professor would refuse to even use such a term, and others might tell you melodic minor is the minor scale.
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24 Complex Harmonies 24.1 Lesson to be created
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25 THREE NOTES PER STRING 25.1 PART 1 25.1.1 Introduction Once you've dived into the world of scales and become familiar with the 5 pentatonic paTerns or the CAGED major paTerns you will know how these paTerns are great for navigaLng your way around the fret board. In this lesson we will look at more paTerns that can be used to map out the major or minor scale, or indeed any of the modes over the fret board.
25.1.2 Uses You first quesLon may be: "Why?" and that just so happens to be a great place to start. As you may be aware by now in your quest for theory experLse, there are many different ways to play any note, lick or sequence on the guitar due how the notes are laid out on the neck. By learning to play these licks or sequences in different areas of the neck we vastly increase our knowledge and understanding of the fret board and can help us to break out of the "stuck in the box" situaLons. This goes the same for learning scale paTerns. If you can play the same scale up and down in different places or even combine the paTerns then you’re soloing and improvisaLons will be far less limited. Three notes per string paTerns also make learning a scale over the enLre fret board very easy. Three notes per string scale paTerns are especially useful to players who wish to hone their techniques such as alternate or economy picking or even legato. The consistent number of notes on each string really facilitates the use of these techniques and is why these paTerns are the choice of so many great players, especially shredders such as Paul Gilbert. Think about it -‐ if each string has 3 notes, its a lot easier to get into a rhythm of playing a constant number of notes then moving to a new string, than it would be with any of the CAGED shapes with their mix of 2 and 3 notes per string. Three notes per string scales are great to use when playing triplet’s as you will be playing all the notes on any one string for each triplet which helps a lot with the Lming. In fact, the CAGED shapes are constructed specifically to keep things easy to play without changing posiLon, whereas, 3 note per string scales, as we will see, involve posiLon shiRing throughout. This
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posiLon shiRing is a liTle harder for a beginner to master, which is why CAGED shapes are oRen taught first.
25.1.2 Constructing a 3 notes per string scale To construct a 3 notes per string scale, you must first consider the notes in the scale, for this example we'll use the C major scale. C D E F G A B We'll start at the C note, on the 8th fret on the low E string.
From here, we can proceed by adding the next notes in the scale; these being D E then F.
However, once at the F note on the low E string we now have 4 notes on this string. To keep to the 3 note per string concept we must move this note to the adjacent string like so.
So when building this scale paTern, we must move a note across to the adjacent string to keep to the 3 notes per string rule.
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Now, note here that we moved posiLon -‐ up one fret is all but it is worth noLng. All three notes per string scales will involve 2 or 3 posiLon shiRs throughout the scale. This is not a big deal, but means a liTle pracLce is needed when playing to smoothly move up the neck at the same Lme as you are changing strings. Eventually we end up with a completed octave of this paTern.
However this is not enough for us, as one of the main benefits of a 3 notes per string is to be able to play a scale over the enLre fret board. So we will conLnue to build this paTern unLl we have used all 6 strings and have 3 notes on each.
25.1.3 Second pattern and beyond! Now that you have constructed this first major scale paTern you are able to play the major scale starLng from any note on the low E string as the root. However, using this one paTern can be limiLng so we will conLnue to build more paTerns. To do this, we will start from the second note in the C major scale, D. Applying what we know about construcLng a 3 notes per string scale will look like this.
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..and eventually..
Your next guess was correct; we'll build a 3 note per string scale off every degree of the scale starLng on the low E string. Here they all are laid out for comparison and as you know; the first paTern starts from the first degree of the scale, the second paTern starts from the second degree of the scale and so on. PaTern 1
PaTern 2
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PaTern 3
PaTern 4
PaTern 5
PaTern 6
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PaTern 7
(You’ll noLce that we ran out of room on the neck there so this paTern is shown starLng at a note an octave lower on the E string) And so that you can see how it all fits together...
You can see that a paTern can be used at the other end of the fret board whether it being an octave lower or higher as it contains the same notes, in the same order, so we can use the same paTern.
25.1.4 Why Seven Patterns? Our regular CAGED boxes only give us 5 paTerns, so why do 3 notes per string scales have 7 paTerns? The answer is simple; every scale will have the exact number of paTerns that there are notes in the scale. Pentatonic for instance has 5 paTerns, whereas Major, Minor and the modes will all have 7 -‐ as we have seen above. The trick here is that for the CAGED system, we are simplifying things to make it easier for a learner to pick up, whereas 3 notes per string scales are more advanced. For this reason, in the CAGED system we miss out a couple of the boxes that are separated
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from the previous boxes by only one semitone to avoid cluTering things up (these would be boxes 4 and 7 of the major scale).
25.2 Part 2 25.2.1 Introduction Instead of going over exactly the same process again, which you should be familiar with at this point of the lesson, here I will list the seven 3 notes per string paTerns for a minor scale. I'll keep these as general paTerns, as you know how to apply them to a scale and also how they fit together. PaTern 1
PaTern 2
PaTern 3
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PaTern 4
PaTern 5
PaTern 6
PaTern 7
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25.2.2 Wait a minute... You may have noLced that our major and minor scales share the same 7 paTerns for 3 notes per string scales paTerns. Here it is laid out for comparison:
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25.2.3 Modes (For this secLon you will have to have first read through Andrew's mode lessons) So let's recap a few things we've picked up about three notes per string scales; we build paTerns starLng from each note of a scale -‐ also that the minor scale (Aeolian mode) shares the same paTerns as the major scale (Ionian mode). This screams out for us to use the modes to help us remember these paTerns! Instead of confusing ourselves with a paTern 1-‐ 7 for each scale, we can instead name each paTern by the name of the mode built of the corresponding degree of the scale. For example, the third mode of the major scale is Phrygian, so we can name the third three notes per string paTern of the major scale the Phrygian shape. If we now move to Aeolian mode, the paTerns are offset by 6 posiLons, so the fiRh paTern of the Aeolian mode would also be the Phrygian shape -‐ 5 + 6 = 11, we subtract 8 (since we went into a second octave) and we get 3, meaning the Phrygian shape, since Phrygian is the 3rd mode. Similarly, we can use the Phrygian shape as the second paTern of the Dorian mode (The offset is 2 for Dorian, we are moving up 1 paTern, making 3 (2 + 1), in this case we don't go above the octave so don't need to subtract 8. Now, you see that a liTle understanding of the modes has allowed us to use just 7 shapes to be able to cover the enLre fret board with all the modes of the major scale. Now we've covered a fair bit of ground in this lesson, so to conclude here is each of the 7 three notes per string paTerns named by their corresponding modes. Ionian shape
Dorian shape
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Phrygian shape
Lydian shape
Mixolydian shape
Aeolian shape
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Locrian shape
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26 Exotic Scales 26.1 Introduction to exotic scales In this series of brief lessons, we are going to explore scales outside of the familiar. By this stage you should all be comfortable with the most commonly used scales: Pentatonic Blues Scale Major Natural Minor Major Modes Ionian Dorian Phrygian Lydian Mixolydian Aeolian Locrian Now its Lme to start looking at some more interesLng sounding scales. Use this secLon as a reference, or dip in occasionally when you need some inspiraLon. Use of exoLc scales (and by exoLc I mean anything that isn't in the list above) will add interest and range to your playing. You will be playing intervals and sequences of notes that are out of the ordinary and use of these can really spice up your playing. Since we have progressed through boxes and 3 notes per string scales by now, the emphasis in these lessons will be on describing the scale and its sound, rather than providing exhausLve fingering -‐ you should be capable of working that out for yourself now. I will provide a reference scale diagram, but this should really just get you started. Remember we are not thinking in boxes anymore, so you should use the diagram as a basis to explore the whole fret board when you have the sound of the scale in your mind.
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26.2 Exotic Scales: Harmonic Minor The Harmonic minor scale is a variaLon of the minor scale in which the 7th degree is sharpened compared to the natural minor (which make is a major 7th instead of a flaTened 7th). This makes the interval between the 6th and 7th notes of the scale an augmented second. The Harmonic minor scale was originally conceived to produce a minor scale that preserved the leading tone of the major scale, which has an important harmonic funcLon but is not present in the natural minor (Aeolian) scale. For more informaLon see my lesson on Minor Scales Revisited. The resulLng scale sounds a liTle odd and exoLc, since the introducLon of the major 7th leaves a 3 semitone gap which is a liTle unusual in western music. In contemporary music, this scale is beloved of neoclassical guitarists and is an important weapon in any one's arsenal. It is a very defined sound and can be overused, but used sparingly it can lend a very exoLc feel to an otherwise normal piece. Number of tones: 7 Intervals: 2-‐1-‐2-‐2-‐1-‐3-‐1 Formula: 1,2,b3,4,5,b6,7 CharacterisLc Chords: Minor Major 7, Minor b6
26.3 Exotic Scales: Melodic Minor The Melodic minor scale was an aTempt to "fix" the problem caused by the large 3 step interval in the harmonic minor without sacrificing the leading tone (for more details on this see my lesson on Minor Scales Revisited). The resulLng scale is a harmonic minor with a sharpened 6th (meaning it reverts back to a major 6th). This means we end up with what is basically a major scale but with a flaTened 3rd. Since the 3rd is the truly important indicator of major vs minor, this works out reasonably well in pracLce, and is beTer suited to melody than the harmonic minor, at least in classical terms.
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Once the Melodic minor was established, it was tweaked slightly since the leading note is very much less important when descending a scale than when ascending the scale. For this reason, the melodic scale is played differently if you are moving upwards than if you are moving downwards in pitch. Downwards in pitch, the melodic minor scale is idenLcal to the natural minor scale -‐ playing scales differently in different direcLons though is a rarity. In modern music, the Melodic minor scale does not tend to be very well represented, since musicians are somewhat less concerned about classical convenLons (and even in classical Lme the melodic minor was not used consistently). As a result, the natural minor is used in the majority of cases, and the harmonic minor is used for effect. Number of tones: 7 Intervals (Ascending): 2-‐1-‐2-‐2-‐2-‐2-‐1 Intervals (Descending): 1,2,b3,4,5,6,7 Formula (Ascending): 2-‐1-‐2-‐2-‐1-‐2-‐2 Formula (Descending): 1,2,b3,4,5,b6,b7
CharacterisLc Chords (Ascending): MinorMajor7 CharacterisLc Chords (Descending): m7
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26.4 Exotic Scales: Lydian Dominant The Lydian Dominant is mode IV of the Melodic minor scale. It is so named because it looks like a regular Lydian mode scale with a flaTened 7th (flaTened 7th makes a scale or chord Dominant). Another Jazz scale, and according to our own Ben Howell, its main use is over an un-‐resolving dominant chord i.e. a vamp or similar. Number of tones: 7 Intervals: 2,2,2,1,2,1,2 Formula: 1,2,3,#4,5,6,b7 CharacterisLc Chords: 7,7b5
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26.5 Exotic Scales: Half Whole Diminished The Half-‐Whole diminished scale is one of a larger class of 8 tone scales known generically as BeBop scales. It is actually a mode of the Diminished scale, and owing to its construcLon and the fact that it has 8 tones, it actually repeats its paTern every 2 steps, meaning that it can serve as mulLple modes for the parent scale. In this case it is modes II, IV, VI and VIII, whilst the parent scale (The Whole-‐Half diminished) serves as the other modes. This scale is used a lot in Jazz, and plays well over a range of diminished chords. The Half-‐whole scale is commonly used over a Dominant chord too, and while this seems like a strange choice (m7b5 chords should suit it beTer) it yields some altered tones that jazzes like. Number of tones: 8 Intervals: 1,b2,b3,3,#4,5,6,b7 Formula: 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2
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CharacterisLc Chords: Half Diminished, Diminished, Minor 7, Diminished 7
26.6 Exotic Scales: Phrygian Dominant Also called the Phrygian Natural 3rd, The Phrygian Dominant is mode V of the Harmonic minor scale. It is so named because it looks like a regular Phrygian mode scale with a raised or natural 3rd (Since the Phrygian actually has a flaTened 3rd). The term dominant is used because like Phrygian mode, this scale has a flaTened 7th. The Phrygian dominant is used occasionally by Jimmy Page, and is purportedly Joe Satriani's favourite scale, the large 3 semitone interval between the 2nd and 3rd giving an unusual sound. Number of tones: 7 Intervals: 1,3,1,2,1,2,2 Formula: 1,b2,3,4,5,b6,b7 CharacterisLc Chords: Augmented, 7, Augmented 7, 7b9 Also Known As: Major Phrygian, Jewish Scale, Gypsy Scale
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27 Theory Features 27.1 Introduction This is the secLon where it finally all comes together. We have learnt a lot of scales, modes intervals harmonies and plenty of other useful stuff -‐ let’s put it to some use! The following lessons will be studies on various chord progressions, scale, key changes that allow us to put all of our theory tools to work to figure out what is going on -‐ they are also some great ideas for adding interest to your composiLons and improvisaLon.
27.2 Modal Pentatonic Following David's awesome lesson of the same name (here), I thought it would be fun to delve into the theory behind Modal Pentatonic a liTle more, and look at a few in depth examples to help you figure them out. Modal Pentatonic are a very different way of recycling and re-‐using your old pentatonic paTerns in a new context to get a fresh sound without learning a lot of new scales. Although the theory behind them is a liTle complex if you aren't familiar with the major modes, by the end of the lesson we will have a list of rules for the use of Modal Pentatonic, so that you can work out which scales work in which context. I recommend that you read my modes 101 lesson before tackling this -‐ you can find it here.
27.2.1 A Digression: Pentatonic Modes Modal Pentatonic, Pentatonic Modes -‐ what's the difference? As we have previously discussed, what people usually mean by "modes" are the modes of the major scale -‐ a list of scale variaLons that are derived from the major scale by moving through each degree of the scale and making it the root note. You know, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. Some people don't appreciate that this is just the beginning of the story of modes. In fact, any scale you care to menLon (or indeed invent) has modes associated with it. They are generated in exactly the same way as with Major scales; start with the root note and call that mode 1, then cycle through generaLng different scales. Since the Pentatonic scale has 5 notes, it also only has 5 modes, and they don't have such fancy names as the major modes do. As with the Major modes, in the pentatonic scale, what we call the Major and Minor Pentatonic scales are in fact just modes. For the record, the pentatonic modes are:
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As you can see, pentatonic work with some preTy strange chords because they have a sparse set of notes to choose from (The Quartal is a very strange sounding chord that has 2 4th intervals stacked on top of each other). Now, interesLng as that liTle digression was, it doesn't move us any closer to understanding what Modal Pentatonic are, but it may have removed a potenLal source of confusion!
27.2.3 Back to Modal Pentatonic Ok, so what is Modal Pentatonic really? Very simply, with the correct analysis, you can figure out that it is possible to play various pentatonic scales over the different major modes to get a different take on the modes themselves, and the pentatonic scales you are using. Sounds complex? Let’s look at a quick example, and then delve into how we can figure this out. Say you have a piece of music that is using a scale of G Dorian. You could solo over it using the G Dorian scale of course, but that's what they are expecLng you to do! How cool would it be if you could play G, A and D pentatonic scales to give your solo a really modal feel? Well you can! Let’s see how it works.
27.2.4 Pentatonic and Minor/Major Scales First of all, what exactly is a pentatonic scale? As you all should know, it is a 5 note scale based on a Minor scale with notes leR out. In interval terms it is: I, bIII, IV, V, b7
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or root, minor 3rd, 4th, 5th and minor 7th. Since it is based on a minor scale, it fits with no fuss over the top of one -‐ all of the notes are compaLble since the pentatonic is really a minor scale with missing notes. In a rock context, pentatonic are oRen played over power chords, which lack a 3rd and hence are ambiguous as to whether they are major or minor. In this case the pentatonic scale works well, lending a minor air to the music through its flaTened 3rd. More interesLngly, the pentatonic is the mainstay of blues, and is very oRen played over a Major progression which gives a very dissonant sound, since in a standard blues progression 2 of the 3 chords used (the I and V chords) set up a clash between the major 3rds of the chords and the minor 3rd notes in the pentatonic scale -‐ this is part of the effect that makes blues so fascinaLng. So ignoring blues, we have so far figured out that we can play a minor pentatonic over a minor scale -‐ no surprise really, and since the minor scale is the Aeolian mode we know that we can play a pentatonic minor in the Aeolian mode.
27.2.5 Modal Pentatonic through Scales What about some of the other modes? Well, the quickest way is to do this by eliminaLon -‐ for each mode we only have to find one conflicLng note and we can move on. Let’s work in the basic key of C, and look at its associated modes, and compare it against a C minor pentatonic. We are looking for modes in which all the notes in the pentatonic are represented in the mode.
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So we can see that our pentatonic scale will work over 3 of the 7 major modes -‐ Dorian, Phrygian and Aeolian.
27.2.6 Modal Pentatonic Through Chords Let’s look at it another way, by analysis of the chord families for the minor pentatonic and the major modes. Before you look at this, it is worth reading my lesson on chords for scales, here. First, playing a minor pentatonic, a good fit for the notes would be the Minor 7th chord. The formula for a m7 chord is I,bIII,V,b7. Checking back to the notes in the scale above we see that all of the notes in a m7 chord are present in the pentatonic scale. In the same way we can figure out characterisLc chords for all of the modes as follows. I'll add the pentatonic in for comparison, and pick out the notes from the scale that are used to make up the chords.
So we can see that the major modes split into 4 different chord families:
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Since the pentatonic has a characterisLc minor 7th chord, that tells us straight away that we can play pentatonic with Dorian, Phrygian and Locrian, and that other modes will conflict with one or more notes in the pentatonic scale.
27.2.7 Modal Pentatonic In Use Now we have figured out that pentatonic fit over 3 of our 7 modes. What can we do with this? Well this is where the fun starts. Let’s start with a piece in the key of G minor -‐ or G Aeolian since Minor is the same thing as Aeolian. Of course we can, (and oRen do) improvise over a song in G minor using the G minor pentatonic scale, nothing too new here. But suppose we wanted to change the feel of the music a liTle and move to a Phrygian mode. Aeolian and Phrygian are similar, both minor scales, but they have a different feel to them. We can do this whilst staying with the same chord progression providing we observe 2 rules: 1. All of the chords in our original progression were chords derived from the original scale itself in the first place -‐ this means that all the chords in the progression must be made up from notes in our original scale (in this case G minor) -‐ if this doesn't make sense to you, you can check out my "chords for a scale" lesson. If we don't have this restricLon, all modal bets are off, and we stand just as much chance of making a horrible clash of notes as we do creaLng an interesLng pentatonic modal journey. 2. We move to the relaLve Phrygian scale for our current key -‐ what does that mean? Let’s see... One opLon to move to Phrygian is to go and learn the scale of G Phrygian and use that for your solo. But you would have to change your chord progression to work with that. We have a beTer and more unusual opLon if we use our Modal Pentatonic, since we already know that we can use pentatonic over Phrygian mode. Our next task is to figure out which pentatonic scale we can use -‐ we need to figure out what the relaLve Phrygian to G minor is, not just move to G Phrygian. If we use the relaLve Phrygian, we are sLll using the same notes in our scale, they will work over the same chords, and everything will drop into place. To do this, we need to look at our list of modes and their associated mode numbers. We started with G Aeolian, which is mode VI. Phrygian is mode 3. We now need to idenLfy the scale for which G is the 6th degree, then figure out what the 3rd degree is. One way to do this would be as follows ... Remember our formula for the major scale? (TTSTTTS) Locate the 6th degree. It is in between 2 of the leTers -‐ remember the formula is really the gaps between the degrees: Degree-‐-‐:1-‐2-‐3-‐4-‐5-‐6-‐7-‐8
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Interval:-‐T-‐T-‐S-‐T-‐T-‐T-‐S-‐ Now, move backwards through the scale, one step of the formula at a Lme, unLl you get to the end. Remember that our 6th degree is G: 6 = G -‐-‐T-‐-‐ 5 = F -‐-‐T-‐-‐ 4 = Eb -‐-‐S-‐-‐ 3 = D -‐-‐T-‐-‐ 2 = C -‐-‐T-‐-‐ 1 = Bb So, our base scale in modal terms is Bb, and we can now see that the 3rd degree that we need for Phrygian would be a D. This means that if we play a D minor pentatonic over our G Aeolian based progression, we will be playing in Phrygian mode -‐ a scale of D Phrygian in fact (although with a couple of missing notes since we are basing this on a pentatonic). Don't believe me? Ok, let’s check it out D minor pentatonic as the following notes: D F G A C D Phrygian has the notes: D,Eb,F,G,A,Bb,C What about Dorian? Easy! Dorian is the second degree, so looking at the example above, we can see that we should be using a C minor pentatonic to put us into Dorian mode.
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So, we play a backing progression based on G minor, use the G, C and D minor pentatonic scales interchangeably within the solo and we will be swapping between Aeolian, Phrygian and Dorian in a very interesLng way! We can extend this to any of the other major modes, for instance, let’s start playing in G Dorian. We know that G is the 2nd degree, giving our base scale as: 2 = G -‐-‐T-‐-‐ 1 = F Looking at the scale of F, we get the notes: F G A Bb C D E We want to locate the base notes for Phrygian and Aeolian -‐ these are A and D respecLvely, meaning we can use G, A and D minor pentatonic with G Dorian progressions. And finally let’s look at a mode that doesn't have any pentatonic associated with it -‐ Locrian. It doesn't maTer that we said Modal pentatonic don't work over Locrian, because we are working modally here. Even a Locrian based progression can have Dorian, Phrygian and Aeolian modal playing, and that is what we would do with our modal pentatonic. So for G Locrian: 7 = G -‐-‐T-‐-‐ 6 = F -‐-‐T-‐-‐ 5 = Eb -‐-‐T-‐-‐ 4 = Db -‐-‐S-‐-‐ 3 = C -‐-‐T-‐-‐
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2 = Bb -‐-‐T-‐-‐ 1 = Ab So Dorian (II) is Bb, Phrygian (III) is C and Aeolian (VI) is F.
27.2.8 Pentatonic Scales for Modes For the sake of completeness, here is a list of each mode in the key of G, and the 3 pentatonic scales you can use over them -‐ reproduced from David's lesson: G Ionian • A minor pentatonic (A Dorian) • B minor pentatonic (B Phrygian) • E minor pentatonic (E Aeolian) G Dorian • G minor pentatonic (G Dorian) • A minor pentatonic (A Phrygian) • D minor pentatonic (D Aeolian) G Phrygian • G minor pentatonic (G Phrygian) • C minor pentatonic (C Aeolian) • F minor pentatonic (F Dorian) G Lydian • B minor pentatonic (B Aeolian) • E minor pentatonic (E Dorian) • F# minor pentatonic (F# Phrygian)
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G Mixolydian • A minor pentatonic (A Aeolian) • D minor pentatonic (D Dorian) • E minor pentatonic (E Phrygian) G Aeolian • G minor pentatonic (G Aeolian) • C minor pentatonic (C Dorian) • D minor pentatonic (D Phrygian) G Locrian • Bb minor pentatonic (Bb Dorian) • C minor pentatonic (C Phrygian) • F minor pentatonic (F Aeolian) The good news is that you now have the tools and concepts to figure this same list out for any key you choose!
27.2.9 What Are We Really Doing Here? ARer all is said and done, what we are really doing here is using a familiar and easy to play scale in a different context that alters its musical funcLon. When we play for instance an A minor pentatonic over a G Dorian chord progression, we are shiRing the melody into Phrygian mode. When we play a D minor pentatonic over that same Dorian progression, we are shiRing the melody into Aeolian mode. The really cool thing here is that not only are we using our familiar pentatonic scales to do this, hence we don't need to learn the paTerns for all of the modes we are using, but in addiLon, although we are playing Dorian, Phrygian and Aeolian, we are doing so in a slightly different way and using a different paleTe of notes because we are using the pentatonic scale, so although we are playing the modes, they will have a fresh and different feel. This works because as we have seen, the sparseness of the pentatonic scale allows us to accommodate the different variaLons in the major modes because intervals that change between modes are not represented in the scale.
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27.3 Modal Chord Progressions 27.3.1 Introduction In this lesson, we are going to us a liTle bit of theory to explore building chord sequences around the major modes. The inspiraLon for this theory lesson came from Dave Wallimans lesson on modal chord progressions. We are going to analyse the chord sequences in use and understand where they came from, and why they work so well as modal progressions.
27.3.2 Chords for Modes To start the analysis, we are going to use a couple of pieces of theory -‐ how to work out the various modes explained here and here, and how to build chords for a parLcular scale, here. When we put those two pieces of knowledge together, we can figure out the characterisLc chords for each of the major modes. Remember that the Major scale (or Ionian mode) has the following sequence of chords associated with it: I major, II minor 7, III minor 7, IV major 7, V Dominant 7, VI minor 7, VII diminished We figure this out by building the scale and then creaLng triads starLng at each degree of the scale. In this case, we also stacked an addiLonal note on top to get a 7th in some cases. If we do the same again with each mode in turn, we get the following list of characterisLc chords:
You probably noLced that the chords moved over 1 slot for each mode, not surprising when you think about how chords are constructed and how the modes relate to each other. This is a preTy useful table as it allows you to very quickly figure out the chords available in any mode to build a modal chord progression. We are going to build our chord progressions in the key of A, so the next step is to figure out the degrees of the scale for each mode based on a tonic of A. You should know how to do this from the previous lessons, so for the record they are as follows:
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If we couple that with the chord types above, we can figure out the potenLal chords for each mode:
One thing to bear in mind here is that the list I gave above is only one possible list -‐ you can pick and choose the number of notes you use, and that allows a couple of simple subsLtuLons. The most important thing is that you keep the minor/major type the same. Majors can be interchanged with Major 7ths; minors can be interchanged with minor 7ths, and in a scale that has a b7 for the degree in quesLon, a major can be replaced with a 7th. Ok, now we know the possible chords, let’s go and figure out how to build a progression.
27.3.3 Building a Progression One of the challenges of building a modal chord progression is to really bring out the different feel of the various modes. Without care in chord selecLon, this character can become obscured. As an example, let’s look at Dorian and Phrygian. They are both minor modes because they have flaTened 3rds. Both will use a Minor 7th as the tonic chord. If we added for instance a III chord into the mix, but played it as a simple triad, we would use the chord of C Major in both cases. So, although we have 2 different modes, we have an idenLcal chord progression. We can fix this up a liTle by adding another note on top of our III chord, giving us a major 7 for Dorian and a Dominant 7 for Phrygian (B vs. Bb) -‐ that somewhat redresses the balance but it is a fairly subtle change.
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A beTer way of going about this is to carefully select chords that are characterisLc to the mode in quesLon. For example, let’s look at a Lydian progression; we will start with a major 7 as our tonic. To cement the Lydian we want to emphasize what is different in that mode as compared with others. Lydian is a major mode so it runs the risk of being confused with Ionian and Mixolydian. If we look at the table above, we can see that of these three modes, only Lydian has a major chord in the second degree -‐ Mixolydian and Ionian are both minor in the 2nd degree, so this would be a great chord to use. This makes sense, because we know that Lydian has a sharpened 4th. This same sharpened 4th forms the 3rd of the chord derived from the second degree of the scale. Since this chord would normally be minor in a regular major scale, sharpening its 3rd would make it major. So another way to look at picking disLncLve chords is to base them on notes within the scale that are disLncLve -‐ it preTy much comes to the same thing. Another trick we can use to really focus on the modality of the progression is to keep the bass note sounding on the tonic. This complicates the chords a liTle as they will all become slash chords, but it really draws aTenLon to where in the scale the chord is rooted, and allows you to concentrate on the tonality of the mode you are working with. As you become more advanced, this trick is less important but is a great way to start out.
27.3.4 The Chords Themselves Ok, so much for theory -‐ let’s look at the exact chords Dave used in his progression, and see what we have. In this secLon I will be using terminology for the degrees of the scale that is described here. Ionian Chords: A, D/A, Amaj7, D/A “A Major” and” A Major 7th” for the tonic, D for the sub-‐dominant. Similar to the Mixolydian chords, but you could use a Dominant 7 as the tonic in Mixolydian, making this an Ionian progression. Dorian Chords: Am7, D7/A, Am7, D7/A In this progression, the combinaLon of a Minor 7 in the tonic and a D7 in the sub-‐dominant makes this a uniquely Dorian progression. Phrygian Chords: Am, Bb/A, Am, Bb/A
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The combinaLon of a Minor tonic and a major Supertonic (or 2nd) is uniquely Phrygian. Also, the distance of one semitone between the Tonic and Supertonic cements this as Phrygian -‐ although this relaLonship is shared with the Locrian, the chord types are very different. Lydian Chords: Amaj7, B, Amaj7, B A Major Tonic and Supertonic is uniquely Lydian. Mixolydian Chords: A7, G, A7, G A Major Tonic and a major Subtonic/Leading note is uniquely Mixolydian. Aeolian Chords: Am, F, Am, F A minor Tonic coupled with a Major Sub-‐Mediant is a liTle ambiguous and could be confused with Phrygian, but there are few if any disLnguishing combinaLons for Aeolian, apart from use of the diminished Super-‐Tonic which makes for a fairly unpleasant chord progression. Locrian Chords: Adim, Bbmaj, Dm. Adim Finally, locrian has a diminished tonic which in itself is unique. The reaming chords serve to cement that relaLonship.
27.4 Pentatonic Substitutions 27.4.1 Lesson to be created
27.5 Dorian: Harmonic Minor 27.5.1 Lesson to be created
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28 Resources 28.1 Page dedicated to resource links
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