Sept 16 Theory Session

PCM

Spring, Texas
IMHO, best theory session to date yesterday @Griff

Most who delve into theory equally or greater than their practical playing and practicing understand what was explained yesterday. However, the point you emphasized about knowing "instantaneously" (through experience) what appropriate scale and position lies under (or near) one's fingers when a chord change and/or scale change is appropriate, begins to separate "fluent professionals" from the group.

It was a top-tier teaching point. I'm good for more like it. Nice work!

PCM
 

PapaRaptor

Father Vyvian O'Blivion
Staff member
Sadly, I was very busy in the kitchen, canning jalapeno peppers and missed it. I'l catch the replay in the next couple of days.
 

PCM

Spring, Texas
Sadly, I was very busy in the kitchen, canning jalapeno peppers and missed it. I'l catch the replay in the next couple of days.
It was really good!

After all the practice, technique, articulation, speed, fretboard knowledge, etc., the "capstone" of near-instantaneously knowing what scale and pattern is at or near your fingers and appropriate with a chord change leaves only one thing left...your creative imagination.

It illustrated a point that all guitar people probably strive for...the point where your mind is solely focused on creation.

Excellent session.
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Thanks for mentioning / reminding me of that. I remember thinking that I need to go back and re-watch that section and think about what he said, then try to do a bunch of it.
 

Griff

Vice Assistant General Manager
Staff member
Thank you all, glad you enjoyed it.

I think it's an important point that is often overlooked. Yes, you have to work stuff out, but you also have to get it ingrained (engrained?) in your fingers so you don't have to think about it and you just have it at your disposal.

That's why we do these things, so those important nuggets can have a chance to fall out :)
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Thank you all, glad you enjoyed it.

I think it's an important point that is often overlooked. Yes, you have to work stuff out, but you also have to get it ingrained (engrained?) in your fingers so you don't have to think about it and you just have it at your disposal.

That's why we do these things, so those important nuggets can have a chance to fall out :)


Still having trouble wrapping my head around it.
I think I know what to do, but when I pick up my guitar... Bad things happen.
 

Griff

Vice Assistant General Manager
Staff member
Still having trouble wrapping my head around it.
I think I know what to do, but when I pick up my guitar... Bad things happen.
That's a sure sign that you need to put yourself in that position at home a few more times.

Really try to pinpoint where the problem is. For example, let's say you're playing "Ain't No Sunshine" on your gig, and you notice that when it goes to the v chord, you don't like your options there...

Then, let's say you work out that you want to go from box 1 (A minor) to box 4 (E minor) when that chord change happens, that's a sound you like, and you want to be better at making it.

Look at where you're probably going to make the transition on maybe the 3rd, 2nd, or even 1st strings...

Play a couple of bars before that, then the v chord into your looper, and just work over that little section, using what you decided you're going to use.

Ah, heck with it, this needs a video... I'll make one this week for the blog :)
 

Randy S

Blues Junior
Still having trouble wrapping my head around it.
I think I know what to do, but when I pick up my guitar... Bad things happen.
Griff says he is going to do a lesson and I am sure his advice will trump mine tenfold. But my two cents worth.

Practice making the scale changes just like you practiced making chord changes when you started guitar. Pick an area of the guitar- a good one is the E shape I chord (pentatonic box 2), A shaped IV chord (pentatonic box 5, which you can slide into box 1) and C shape V chord (pentatonic box 4). Put on a slow I, IV, V, I progression and practice changing the scale as the chord changes. Keep your lead lines simple and short at first and just focus on making the changes.

That should get you started on the path.
 

PCM

Spring, Texas
Griff says he is going to do a lesson and I am sure his advice will trump mine tenfold. But my two cents worth.

Practice making the scale changes just like you practiced making chord changes when you started guitar. Pick an area of the guitar- a good one is the E shape I chord (pentatonic box 2), A shaped IV chord (pentatonic box 5, which you can slide into box 1) and C shape V chord (pentatonic box 4). Put on a slow I, IV, V, I progression and practice changing the scale as the chord changes. Keep your lead lines simple and short at first and just focus on making the changes.

That should get you started on the path.

That's essentially it!

The beauty of the skill is that the concept applies to all kinds of music styles because of the standard harmony rule and pentatonics, not just the blues format (3 dom7's).

Essentially changing the "key" with a chord change and knowing instantaneously what is available at or near your fingers is a huge professional skill...gigantic.
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Griff says he is going to do a lesson and I am sure his advice will trump mine tenfold. But my two cents worth.

Practice making the scale changes just like you practiced making chord changes when you started guitar. Pick an area of the guitar- a good one is the E shape I chord (pentatonic box 2), A shaped IV chord (pentatonic box 5, which you can slide into box 1) and C shape V chord (pentatonic box 4). Put on a slow I, IV, V, I progression and practice changing the scale as the chord changes. Keep your lead lines simple and short at first and just focus on making the changes.

That should get you started on the path.
Sorry, i was talking about nonblues songs where the chord changes are not standard I IV V. Seems like the same idea should apply but my brain doesn't want to go there. As i said, i need to work on this a lot.
 

Randy S

Blues Junior
Sorry, i was talking about nonblues songs where the chord changes are not standard I IV V. Seems like the same idea should apply but my brain doesn't want to go there. As i said, i need to work on this a lot.
Mike
As PCM points out above this works on all types of music- not just blues.

Also works with minor chords. Each of the 3 minor chords in a key share a pentatonic box with it's relative major. So in the example I gave you the I chord and it's relative minor, the vi chord, share pentatonic box 2- with different roots. Likewise the IV chord and the ii chord share box 5, sliding to box 1, and the V chord and the iii chord share box 4. And when you combine all the notes in those three pentatonic boxes you have the Major scale.

True, Griff's AAP session discussed dealing with chords that are out of key. Starting by practicing the concept with chords that are in key though will help you get started with getting the concept under you fingers and the idea of changing the scale with the chord in your brain. That will then make it easier to move to chords that are out of key.

Also helps with associating chord shapes with Pentatonic scales so when you get a chord that is out of key you can where and what pentatonic box to play.

BTW- this is all covered in Griff's CAGED course.
 
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Paleo

Student Of The Blues
Think about having the option of playing either Major or minor pentatonic over the I chord in a blues.

For example, Major Box 2 or minor Box 1 over the A7 chord (E-shape) in a "Blues in A."

Now we are specifically saying play the Major pentatonic over a Major chord and the minor pentatonic over a minor chord for each CAGED chord shape in any progression.

Until I can come up with a better way to present this info, here's an attempt to present how things fall out.

Before I get told this is too much information all at once, it is mostly for reference.

I realize, None of this will sink in until checking it out and practicing it on the guitar over some jam tracks or a looper.


CAGED--------------------Finger &
--Shape------String ----Direction-----Box

-----E------------6-----------2 R-----------2

-----Em---------6-----------1 R-----------1


-----A------------5-----------2 R-----------5

----Am-----------5-----------1 R-----------4


-----C------------5------------4 L-----------4

----Cm(?)-------5------------3 L-----------3


-----G------------6------------4 L-----------1

----Gm(?)-------6------------3 L-----------5


-----D-------------4------------1 R-----------3

----Dm------------4------------1 R-----------2



For example:

Over E Major Bar chord shape = place 2nd finger on 6th string root, play Box 2 to the Right

Over Em Bar chord shape = place 1st finger on 6th string root, play Box 1 to the Right


You could also continue the chart from roots on the other 3 strings.

And if you find yourself in the middle of a scale when the chord changes, all I can say is good luck. I'd be just as lost myself.

(But "Chord By Chording" Soloing might help.)
 
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Paleo

Student Of The Blues
Just some more "spit-balling" that may or may not be related.o_O


I think that we sometimes have trouble with "new" concepts because we tend to think of them in "isolation" from other things we already know.

Griff has recently had several lessons using the Major scale.

From the Major scale we "extract" arpeggios. (Chord By Chord Soloing)

Playing those notes at the same time gives us chord shapes. (CAGED Unleashed).

Playing 5 of the 7 notes gives us pentatonic Boxes. (Just about every course and lesson.)

Playing the 7 notes from different tonal centers gives us modes. (Modes Unleashed).

(And they all fall into the same 5 basic "shapes", + or - a note or two.:whistle:)

Building chords upon each note leads to the SHR. (Guitar Theory Made Useful).

Everything in every lesson is related to everything else in every other lesson.

You can solo over a chord using notes in the chord or other notes of the scale it came from. Or even notes "outside" of the scale.

But the bottom line here is that playing the corresponding pentatonic scale over a Major or minor chord will always work.

That pretty much ties it all together.;)
 
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PCM

Spring, Texas
Just saw the new video this early morning in Texas @Griff....that's the concept exactly!

Hope all get a look at it. Very nice work again.

PCM
 

Griff

Vice Assistant General Manager
Staff member
First, here's the video I did in case anyone missed it in my emails:
https://bluesguitarunleashed.com/blog/how-to-ingrain-moves/

For doing this in the specific case of Major and Minor blues sounds look to the MMBS course and do it! Every single pair of shapes actually walks you through that exercise of changing from one to the other, every few beats, to get comfortable making the change anywhere.

Those exercises are GOLD for this stuff and WILL get you better at it.

Want to do that with modes (dorian vs. aeolian?) Same exercise...

Want to do it with arpeggios? (A7 to D7?) Same exercise....

Want to do it with Pentatonic scales (Amin to Dmin, for example?) Same exercise...

Try to see the purpose of the exercise and the impetus behind it, then you'll see it would work for ANY two sounds, scales, patterns, etc.
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
For doing this in the specific case of Major and Minor blues sounds look to the MMBS course and do it! Every single pair of shapes actually walks you through that exercise of changing from one to the other, every few beats, to get comfortable making the change anywhere.
That exercise is Lesson 4 "Mixing The Sounds" in "Slow Blues Supplement".:)
 
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