A combination of standalone guitar lessons and backup to the one on one lessons I give to my students at the Leeds Guitar Studio. You'll find lots of useful information for guitarists of all types.
The previous exercise used rhythmic displacement to add interest. For this installment we'll be using octave displacement. Simply put this is just a chromatic scale but every note is in a different octave from the previous one. Obviously this results in some technical challenges and obscures the sound of the chromatic scale. What you end up with is actually a tone row of sorts as described by serialist music theory. Here's a link if you're interested in finding out more. To deal with the large intervallic leaps I used hybrid picking technique. I found myself using all my right hand fingers to pull it off. It makes for an excellent right hand exercise. In the spirit of serialist compositional technique you could also play it in retrograde. In other words, backwards. There many other possible configurations of this exercise so it's worth spending time working them out. It will develop your fretboard awareness and open things up when improvising. Guitarist's tend to play few wide intervals and this is a good way to start think 'bigger'. You could also apply the same concept to 7 note scale within a diatonic framework.
Here's another little finger twister for you. Not only will this get your fingers in a tangle but it'll mess with your mind a little bit too!
In this particular slice of Digital Hell you'll be playing an odd note grouping of 5 descending along a single string. The first finger must stay very low and reach back to anticipate the next position whilst the other fingers are playing.
This could be played two different ways rhymically:
As a pentuplet so you're playing the entire 5 note pattern in the space of one beat or alternatively over a 4/4 pulse.
Played at any kind of speed this becomes confusing to the ear as the mind tries to resolve a constantly shifting 1. This is a useful device for creating rhythmic interest with relatively simple figures but requires greater rhythmic control to keep in time.
Many players use this technique in their improvisation.
For ease of reading the example is notated in 5/16 but in the video I'm playing it over a 4 pulse. The tempo is 140bpm but as always build up to faster tempos slowly ensuring clarity at all times.
I always like to practice chromatic patterns. Not only are they a good way of maintaining your technique but it's also very useful to have a large repetoire of them when improvising. So to kick of the new year I'll try and post a new one each day. Some of these will be taken from my Digital Hell series whilst others will be new. As ever the golden rules are: Practice these slowly and cleanly at first Build up the speed gradually using a metronome for much of the time If you can't sing these patterns as you play them then learn to
As usual I'm playing in P4 tuning in the video but for you unfortunate souls still in standard tuning I've tabbed it that way.
A lot of people get confused when it comes to understanding to the difference between diatonic and chromatic harmony but it's actually pretty simple. Diatonic harmony is any chord that belongs to the home key - chromatic harmony is any chord that comes from elsewhere. So for instance in the key of C major an A major chord is chromatic as it contains a C# and that's a note that isn't part of C major naturally. The trick is seeing the wood for the trees so to speak. To that end we're going to experiment with a very simple melody line in the key of G major.
B - C - D - E
A simple harmonisation of that top line would be
I - IV - V - IV or
G major - C major - D major - C major
Into this we're going to introduce a chromatic note so our melody line is now:
B - C - D - D# - E
The D# is non diatonic (does not belong to the key of G major) so any chord we use to harmonise it will be chromatic. There are obviously a lot of possibilities but the chords that will work best are the ones that have connections with the chords before and after it. This is where the idea of false relations come in but first we need to be clear about.....
Diatonic chord movement
Take for instance the idea of a diatonic relationship of two chords a 3rd apart:
C major moving to A minor
C major is C E G
A minor is A C E
One sounds like an extension of the other as they share two notes and the one note that changes is only moving one scale step. Obviously they're going to sound well together - they are connected by common notes. This can be done in the opposite direction also:
C major moving to E minor
C major is C E G
E minor is E G B
The same logic applies. Two notes 'stick' - the E and the G. One note moves one scale step in this case the C moving to B.
False Relations
A false relation subverts this idea.
C major moving to Ab major
C major is C E G
Ab major is Ab C Eb
Here they share one note and the two notes that move each move a semitone (chromatically) - one up and one down nicely following the rules of counterpoint.
We hear a connection between the two chords but it's more ear catching, dramatic or 'coloured'. Have a think about the root of the word chromatic at this point and it's appropriateness in this context.
Most of the examples below use this technique. Where dominant 7ths are used this heightens the sense of tension and resolution. Note that the approach chord to the chromatic chord varies. The D can be harmonised with either a D or G major chord. The choices were made to maintain a 3rds relationship and to avoid stepwise movement.
All the examples are notated and were done of the top of my head in a lesson so are by no means exhaustive. Dissect each one and look at the individual notes as they move from chord to chord. i.e voice leading. No tab here by the way! That's for losers! To explore this concept further you could replace the D# topline note with another chromatic note elsewhere. A C# between the C & D notes would be a good choice. Note also that I've limited myself to major chords only. Minor, diminished and augmented chords can all be used successfully. The underlying factors that determine whether it'll sound good are the root movement and the voice leading.
At some point or another every guitarist will practice sequences. Usually the focus of these is the development of technique but there's a bit more to it than that. Or rather there should be... Playing with intervallic patterns can give you the raw material for improvisation. Short phrases that can be recombined in many ways to form longer musical statements that have their own internal logic and flow. At that point what started out as a dry, technical exercise becomes a creative act which is what all practice should ideally be. The genesis of this idea was hearing chromatic 3rds in the playing of Scott Henderson. He was clearly using them as a way of introducing an 'outside' kind of falling motion into his playing. I then set out to catalogue all the different chromatic 3rds patterns I could and notate them as part of my 'digital hell' series. The 3rd is a harmonically defining interval so it's good for creating 'outside' lines. Here's some of the patterns I used in the video.
Here's a summary of the concept I explain in the video.
Start any of these 3rds patterns within the chord tones. i.e. Over Bm7 you could start the pattern on D and F# (the 3rd and 5th of the chord)
Move it chromatically in either direction until you 'hook' back into the chord and resolve the tension created by the chromaticism. IN - OUT - IN again.
It's a really simple concept and not the only way of applying these by a long chalk but it is very effective. The improvisation at the end is a little more repetive than I would have liked but I was really focusing on this one concept and as such it's a little unbalanced. Enjoy!
