Blues Comping

Applying 4-string dom7 shapes

 Posted on February 22, 2020 at 18:54  |  6 minutes  |  1249 words  |  Rex Walters

Now that I have sooooo many posts on this blog about soloing and scales, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that you’ll spend most of your time playing rhythm using chords. It’s also true that you can’t really put together a coherent solo unless you can instantly and effortlessly find the chord tones of the underlying harmony. Put simply: rhythm and chords are even more important than scales and solos. [Read More]
theory  blues 

Four String Blues

Comping and fretboard visualization

 Posted on February 21, 2020 at 16:07  |  5 minutes  |  886 words  |  Rex Walters

When soloing or playing with a band, it’s often helpful to avoid the lowest two strings. Those lower registers are where the bass player and the rest of the band (or at least the left hand of the keyboardist) tend to hang out. The blues uses dominant seventh chords (with extensions and alterations) almost exclusively. Just as with triads, it’s useful to spend a lot of time with seventh chords that only use the top four strings. [Read More]
theory  blues 

Four Groups of Three

More pentatonic drills

 Posted on January 4, 2020 at 21:25  |  12 minutes  |  2473 words  |  Rex Walters

This is a follow-on to my last post about connecting pentatonic shapes, and part of my never ending quest to really learn how to solo. As always, the goal is to play music (sounds) not memorize shapes or terminology. Specifically, we want to be able to play the five notes of the pentatonic scale, instantly and effortlessly. It’s all too easy to get so wrapped up in theory and names and the analytical, verbal, mentally straining aspects of music that you lose sight of the goal (believe me, I have this problem in spades). [Read More]
theory  scales  pentatonic 

Dominant 7 Arpeggios

 Posted on August 23, 2019 at 11:31  |  17 minutes  |  3467 words  |  Rex Walters

Arpeggios are just “broken up” chords, chords played one note at a time rather than all together. There are arpeggios for every chord type: major, minor, dominant, extended and altered.

I think it’s most useful to learn the dom7 arpeggios first before starting on other chord types, especially if you like the blues. (At least I hope so, since those are the only ones I really KNOW myself so far!)

[Read More]
theory  arpeggios 

Harmonizing Scales with Triads

 Posted on February 10, 2019 at 13:59  |  9 minutes  |  1891 words  |  Rex Walters

This is part 3 of a multipart series on triads: Triad introduction and triads on G/B/E Major triads on other strings using octave drops Harmonizing scales with triads (this page) You now know all the close-voiced major and minor triad shapes on every string set, and all the major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads on the 1st string set (G/B/E strings). Before moving onto the next session of practicing (and applying) triads across all the string sets, let’s spend some time harmonizing the major and minor scales on just the first string set. [Read More]
theory  triads 

Major Triads on Different Strings

Creating inversions by dropping octaves

 Posted on January 25, 2019 at 19:48  |  11 minutes  |  2318 words  |  Rex Walters

This is part 2 of a multipart series on triads: Triad introduction and triads on G/B/E Major triads on other strings using octave drops (this page) Harmonizing scales with triads Triads exist on more than just the top three strings, of course. The shapes change slightly on each different set of three strings because of how the guitar is tuned. An excellent way to learn these additional shapes is using what Josh at Fretboard Anatomy calls “Octave Drop Chord Building. [Read More]
theory  triads 

Triads

Three note chords

 Posted on January 25, 2019 at 16:48  |  9 minutes  |  1722 words  |  Rex Walters

This is part 1 of a multipart series on triads: Triad introduction and close-voiced triads on G/B/E (this page) Triads on other strings using octave drops Harmonizing scales with triads Chords are just any number of notes played simultaneously. Technically, you could have two-note chords (AKA dyads) but most people consider three-note chords (called “triads”) to be the simplest possible place to start making useful chords. The four triad types form the “atoms” of western harmony. [Read More]
theory  triads 

Just 12 Notes

Background material for learning the fretboard

 Posted on January 6, 2019 at 16:39  |  21 minutes  |  4307 words  |  Rex Walters

This is part 1 of 6 about learning the notes on the fretboard: Just 12 notes. (Background material — this page) Open and E strings Practicing with actual songs Fret 5 and String 5 Octave Shapes Whole Fretboard This section is purely background and doesn’t contain any exercises. If you are in a rush and just want to start learning the fretboard, skip this page for now and proceed directly to learning the notes on the open and E strings. [Read More]
fretboard  theory 

What About Major?

There is more to life than Am Pentatonic

 Posted on December 30, 2018 at 22:14  |  10 minutes  |  2045 words  |  Rex Walters

Hopefully our exploration into minor pentatonic scales wasn’t too exhaustive. We are going to speed up a bit as we delve into the major pentatonic scale. This isn’t because it’s any less important (far from it) but rather because all of the study methods we’ve already covered are equally applicable. It’s basically just rinse and repeat, but with a different set of five (or six) notes in a slightly different shape.

[Read More]
scales  pentatonic  theory