Introduction and a soundfile
Hi and welcome to the second part of my scale-workout.
Now, before we get into the next pile of exercises, I'd like to point out something to you... These articles focus on the modes of the major-scale mainly.
You probably know that there are way more scales... harmonic and melodic minor, hybrid and symmetrical scales, oriental scales (Asian etc.). Now, I didn't talk about those a lot, and I won't in this article either. It's up to you to apply the exercises and approaches in this scale-workout to whatever scale you would like to use and learn. The method always is the same although some scales might give you some problems (like i.e. Hirajoshi, which has some unusual intervals and it's tough to make up 3NPS-patterns for that one).
I could write books on different scales, how to apply them, how to harmonize them etc. I won't though. It's up to you. If you would like to play the harmonic minor scale all over the fretboard, in order to use it in your improvisation, well, go ahead. Make up patterns for it, use the exercises in this article and the previous one. As I said, the procedure always is the same.
Jorge wrote two cool articles about exotic scales for iBreathe, you might wanna check those out, too.
Anyway, let's continue where we stopped last time.
Then there was sound
One thing that I would like to suggest is: if you learn a scale on one string, don't quit thinking that way once you have memorized it - try using it. After working with some of those open string-exercises, why don't you improvise a bit limiting yourself to one string only? It might give you some really cool ideas if you do, it's a cool thing to try anyway, and it can be fun.
To show you what I mean, I recorded some soundfile. I took a backing track based on Jimi's version of "All Along The Watchtower" (key of C#m, in this case), and then I just improvised a bit using the E major pentatonic scale (first part) and later the "regular" E major scale. The whole improvisation was played on the high e-string. It's interesting to limit yourself to one string... you play stuff you usually wouldn't play, and you gotta think a bit.
Here is the MP3
Instead of playing the good ol' "noodling" runs on all six strings, I had to remind myself to stick to the high e-string only. I also tried to avoid using the open string too often. I wanted to avoid those metal-style "playing a scale on one string with the open string between each scale note" type thing.
So try it out. The soundfile was just thrown together. First take, not warmed up, just playing what came to mind. So I kinda put my balls on the line here, and I hope it'll motivate you to try this yourself.
Take any backing track or recorded chord progression and limit yourself to one string only. If you like that experiment, try a variation: play on a different string. Say you're jamming over a song in Emajor, and you're having fun doing so. Now, play on the G-string only for a while. You wanna avoid using the open string, because the G might sound out of place in the key of E major (E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E) so you can't resort to that.
Check it out.
Possible exercises:
Step One: Take a simple chord progression (i.e. a jam track) and improvise over it, utilizing only one string.
Step two: Same as above, but on a different string
Step three: Add a second string (adjacent) and see what happens... notice the difference in what you play.
Step 4: Add a third, fourth, fifth string until you're using all of them.
Step 5 (very optional): After improvising using only one string, instead of adding an adjacent string, add a non-adjacent string. Ex: Improvise on the high E- and G-string only.
This helped me a lot back then, and led to some very interesting results.
Now, let's move on...
Patterns again
Last time, I showed you those 7 longform patterns once more. And I showed you how to apply them to one key, linking them together, thereby covering the whole fretboard. Now, let's try it the other way: let's play each pattern starting on the same root. 1st position, starting on F, here we go:
That way, you kinda get to think more, cuz you have to visualize the 7 patterns in the same position. And you can hear the sound of each mode immediately, since you play them all starting on the same root.
Remember that you actually don't have to do ANY of these exercises. I am just suggesting this stuff to you. It helped me quite a bit, and if you think that this is still too different, or doesn't help you any on the way to being the player you wanna be, you don't have to do all this. Make up your own scale workout using some of the exercises from these articles, plus maybe some others from other sources. Customize it.
More sequences
If you get the feeling that just playing those patterns ascending and descending or using one of those good ol sequences such as "1234 2345 3456 etc." gets boring, or doesn't really help to memorize those patterns, try to come up with some new sequences.
One of my favorites is this one:
I think the idea is pretty obvious. Back when I worked on this stuff a lot, I really felt that this kinda sequence helped me tremendously to visualize and memorize the patterns. And it was fun to work with a different sequence like that.
Here's the "descending version":
One thing that's IMO quite important for your musical vocabulary is thinking in intervals. You can work on this by playing through those patterns in intervals, either playing single notes or doublestops (diads), two notes at a time.
The following exercises can and should be applied to all the patterns. Believe me, if you do so, you'll really memorize those patterns thoroughly. Also don't forget to use this stuff in your soloing.
Here is pattern 1, F Major, using fourth-intervals
As mentioned above, you can either play individual single notes or, as shown in the TAB, play two notes at a time.
Here is the same pattern, this time we're playing fifths:
Let's not forget about thirds:
Now, regarding that last TAB: you could of course play doublestops here too. But since thirds are rather small intervals, you'd have to merge patterns... you'd need to add some notes from the lower or upper patterns in order to play those doublestops. Try it if you want to, I simply tried to stay within our single pattern with this exercise.
OK, now that we have learned and memorized all these patterns, how can we use all this stuff in our improvisations?
Modes
Let's say we play all the modes in 9th position, with the note E being the root every time. Let's focus on the upper three strings, and let's limit it to playing those scales in one octave, only. Here are the 7 modes: E major, E dorian etc.
Now, one way to get a better feel for the individual sound of these modes would be to use a popular exercise by Joe Satriani. Hit the low E-string and let it ring. Then, play the E Major scale shown above. Listen to the sound of that.
Hit the E-String again, let it ring, and play E-Dorian (E Phrygian etc.). That way, you can compare the sounds of those modes directly. You can even improvise over that ringing low E, which is kinda like using the "Pitch Axis" theory that Satch made popular among rock guitarists.
Try it: keep the low E-string ringing (you could also use a keyboard to give you that reference E) and solo over it in E major for four bars, using the pattern shown above. Then, after four bars, move on to E Dorian etc.
It's a good way of 'hearing' the modes, and it shouldn't be too hard either, since it should be easy now to play the scales correctly, after working on those scale patterns for a while. After all, those fragments shown above are part of these patterns.
After a while, you won't only hear the different notes, but playing them in one static position will actually help you to see and understand what makes them different from each other... you'll see that eg. To get the mixolydian mode, you only have to change one note of the major scale (Lower the D to C#) - to get the lydian mode, you only have to change a different note of the major scale (raise the A to A#) etc.
And I think that if you keep doing this, you'll eventually get away from pure "mechanical stuff" (memorizing the patterns) and get to actual music (understanding the modes and their differences). So this should be another part of your scale workout.
And here are two examples of "modal" progressions. First, E Lydian (which is derived from B major). Remember that you donīt only wanna focus on the scale you play (E Lydian) but you also wanna give the chords / background a lydian sound, which I tried to do by incorporating the open B- and E-Strings, and starting the progression on E Major.
This is a nice progression to play E Lydian over. Take a look:
And a similar progression for E Mixolydian (derived from A Major).
Check out some of the other articles at iBreathe to learn more about modal playing and applying the modes. I just incorporated these examples to give you more material for your workout.
This belongs to the "improvisation" part.
A conclusion? Not yet
Well anyway, this was my basic scale workout. Of course, you can add more exercises, delve deeper into certain aspects of playing scales etc.
However, I was trying to give you a basic idea of things that are involved in learning scales: different exercises and approaches.
You should try to always think both as a guitar-player (learning your patterns) and a MUSICIAN (learning and understanding the actual scales and their sounds).
What I mean is: it sure is a cool thing if you're able to say "OK, E major scale now" and then proceed to play that scale all over the neck. However, you wanna do more than just play scales up and down. You wanna play music. You wanna use modes in a musical context. You wanna create something.
Let me get out my old "language comparison" once more: it sure is impressive if you have a vocabulary of, say, 600 words. However, that alone isn't enough... if you don't know how to use all those words, if you don't try to actually SAY something with them, you'll just be blabbering around, babbling all these words without any sense.
However, if you know what you want to say, you can use your big vocabulary to say it nicely... people will enjoy listening to you saying it using all these cool words.
Same goes for your playing... it gets boring after a while if all you do is play some scales and patterns up and down. But if you actually wanna say something, play a great solo, phrase or melody, you can use all those patterns you learned to find that melody, play it and embellish it. You don't really have to worry about what notes to play, or whether that and that note will fit to the key you're in. You'll know.
So now, you can focus on actually saying something.
Four Notes Per String
Some people have asked about four note per string scales and patterns. This actually is an interesting subject, cuz I heard a lot of people go "What would you do with 4 note per string-scales? It's hard enough to play melodically and not fall into a "Up and down the scale" kinda rut with those 3NPS-scales anyway !?"
Well, of course you don't NEED to learn 4NPS-scales. And you should start from the beginning anyway. Maybe learn the pentatonic patterns, then move on to the 5 patterns of the major scale, and then take a look at the 7 3NPS patterns.
However, if you wanna look into 4NPS-patterns, you might find out that you can get some very interesting results there... they might inspire you to play a bit differently, maybe play some stuff you never even thought about before.
Since this section is some kind of an "encore" to my Scales-workout, I don't wanna get into this topic for too long, but maybe I can get you started here.
First, let's just look at four example-runs I made up for this. Two of them are ascending, two are descending. Note that I put in a lot of position shifts... shift slides.
There sure are some people who would actually play those kinda runs without slides... it requires some rather big hands (or good flexibility) and a lot of practice, but then you can accomplish that.
However, since we're talking about the basic idea, I decided to include the slides. This is a good way of executing those kinda runs. The rule of thumb should be: when ascending, the slide is being done with the pinkie, going from the 3rd to the 4th note on the string. When descending, the slide is done with the first finger.
In the first example, we shift positions on every other string. The key is G major. (This goes for all the other examples of this section as well)
As you can see, this is a nice way of breaking out of the 3NPS-rut, and you get a pretty cool ascending run that way, covering a pretty big area of the fretboard.
Here's a descending version:
The idea is simple. Think diatonically, key of G major. Play 3 notes of that scale on the 6th string, move on to the 5th string, play the next three notes of that scale, then shift up one note... you're not skipping or repeating any of the notes. At the end, you have a long run through the G major scale, and with the final slide (I decided to skip the F# and slide to the G instead) we have covered 3 whole octaves.
Now, let's take this a step further: let's shift positions on each string!
Here's an ascending run based on that concept:
With the same amount of notes as in the previous examples, we now cover even more ground: 3 octaves plus a major third (from the low G to the high B)
I know that at first, it might seem awkward to memorize this stuff, or apply it to different keys and scales. However, if you have worked through the scale workout (or your own, customized scale-workout) for a while, and if you're therefore used to thinking along a string, in vertically AND diagonally, it should be a bit easier.
Here's a descending version:
4NPS continued
Now lemme introduce you (emphasis is on "introduce you" - this is not gonna be thorough coverage of the concept) to MY way of thinking.
As you might know, I am very much influenced by the amazing Greg Howe. And one thing I picked up from him is the idea of throwing in tapped notes in your runs - think of it as extending your left hand by using one or more r.h. fingers to tap extra notes.
You don't wanna isolate your tapping parts, you wanna throw in some extra notes into runs, thereby making it hard for the listener to pick out which notes are tapped and which aren't. That way, you can create some very interesting runs and patterns.
So what I like to do is play 3 notes with the left hand and tapping the fourth on each string with the right hand. Look at the next example - it kinda demonstrates the basic idea:
The scale is still the G major scale. We play the first 3 notes (you can either pick the first note on each string, or, like me, play it by executing a "hammer-on from nowhere") with the left hand, legato-style, then we tap the next note ("next" as in "diatonically next" with the right hand). This also gives us a note repetition, which we'll get rid off in the next examples.
This requires us to think a bit... you have to kinda imagine two different patterns on the fretboard in order to know where to tap. Or you have to 'think along the string'.
Ok, why tap those extra notes instead of playing them with the left hand (either by stretching that hand or by sliding)? Because you can get some very interesting licks if you play different intervals. You can have huge intervals between the 3rd and 4th note on each string, because you tap the fourth note with the right hand. This allows you to get some wacky sounds. Check out the next example:
With the left hand, we play the same pattern as before. But with the right hand, we tap at the 12th fret on each string - all notes at the 12th fret fit into the key of G major. It would be kinda tough to play this kinda run with the left hand only, especially if you stick to four notes per string.
Instead of thinking in two different patterns when doing this stuff (imagining one pattern for the left hand AND one for the right hand), I often prefer to have the left hand play a regular 3NPS-pattern while having the right hand tap an ARPEGGIO SHAPE. That's pretty easy to visualize on the fretboard.
Imagine a Dmajor (5th chord of G maj) bar chord in the 10th position. Now, while you play the same old pattern with the left hand, you tap that arp shape (one note per string) with your right hand, which will result in four notes per string. Here's how that looks in TAB:
Hope this makes sense to you. As I said, this is not supposed to be a thorough analysis of everything you can do with 4NPS-patterns. Instead, I am just trying to introduce the basic idea to you and show you my wacky way of doing it.
Talking of wacky stuff, let's play a different arp shape (with the right hand) on top of the same l.h. run. How about Em (12th position):
And eventually, how about some really huge intervals? It's easy to do, simply use your right hand to play an G major arp (15th position) this time. That way, you get some big intervals, and a pretty interesting-sounding run (at least IMHO)
Here ya go:
Check out the video-clip of me jamming that I recently posted at the forums. HERE is a link to the wmv-version (Windows Media Player) and HERE is the rm-version (real media format)
In that vid, I actually used some those 4NPS patterns with tapped notes...
OK, I hope I got you started on the 4NPS stuff with this short detour. At least if you're interested in that stuff. As mentioned before, you don't necessarily NEED this kinda stuff, especially if you aren't used to 3NPS-scales yet.
However, if you're interested in checking out some of those ideas, feel free to do so. Experiment, and try to come up with your own ideas.
Most important of all, think as a musician and HAVE FUN, too!
See ya next time
As always, here are the Powertab-files that belong to this article:
HERE is the first one with all the patterns, modal stuff and the modal progressions
and HERE are the TABs for the 4NPS-section of this article
HERE is the first one with all the patterns, modal stuff and the modal progressions
and HERE are the TABs for the 4NPS-section of this article