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Sunday 4th November 2007
Lesson 1
Hi folks.
As a guitar player and teacher I always stressed the importance of knowing ‘all the scales’ in the book! And in a way it’s true and very beneficial to have. But that’s not all you need to have so you pull out a great solo. Today I’m going to share something very important for you to add to your already acquired knowledge of scales, arpeggios etc. Instead of using a blurry of notes we’re going to focus all our attention on one single note! Yes you understood well, one single note for all the solo.
It might seem funny to you but hang in there because this can be the best advice you’ve ever taken on playing with more feel and intensity. Let’s imagine you’re playing on a blues shuffle in A. Now you well know that the chord progression would go something like this A7 to D7 to E7 using the usual 12 bar shuffle plus some extra stuff you might have and a turnaround. But the point is that you’re playing on some kind of blues in A. Usually the scale that would fit all three chords would be the A minor pentatonic ( ACDEG ) and is used nearly in all cases. But for this exercise we’re going to choose one note out of those five and solo all the way through with it only. Let’s say we chose E. That’s a great note as it’s the fifth of the scale and the root of the fifth chord too so its very consonant. Now you need to remember that for the sake of this exercise any other note you use is a mistake so pay attention not to. Now you have to focus on playing that note with intensity, with grace, with accents, with passion etc.
The importance of this exercise is to train yourself bringing out everything you can imagine out of one single note. You can slide to it from higher or lower registers or you can bend towards it. But only one note. Not two! Without even noticing you will start doing your best not to sound boring and your time feel will surely enter in action as only with it you can create interest. After doing this for sometime change the note. Maybe you choose C now but it’s up to you. Do this with all five minor pentatonic notes and then start soloing using only two notes. Now bending can come in more tasteful here as you can choose two notes a tone or tone and half apart and bend between them. Do this until you can really sound playing with lots and lots of feel. Then add another until you have all the five notes at your disposal. If done properly this exercise can really take your playing to incredible heights. Try it for two three days and you’ll be astonished. I was and still am with it.
And by the way the most important technique to use in all of this is vibrato! Slow, fast, laid back, in your face, do try them all!!
See ya soon.
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