{"id":6577,"date":"2015-04-08T00:44:52","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T07:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/?p=6577"},"modified":"2015-04-08T03:19:06","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T10:19:06","slug":"how-to-sound-like-you-know-what-youre-doing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/how-to-sound-like-you-know-what-youre-doing\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Sound Like You Know What You’re Doing…"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks back I was talking about Road Maps<\/a> and I asked for your feedback on what I call the “movies you see in your head” when you think about where you’d like to be on the guitar…<\/p>\n

\"mapWell just shy of 500 comments later (wow!) I got a LOT of really interesting replies to my question. You clearly put a lot of thought into the questions so I’ve been putting a lot of thought into the answers \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

And while I can’t put all of the answers to all of the questions in one article… I do intend to spend the next few weeks working on articles and videos that will address all of the different road maps that might be needed.<\/p>\n

The first one I’ll do goes a little something like this:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been a lead player, but that\u2019s my goal. Specifically, and this sounds kind of dumb, but I want to get to the point where I can walk into a situation (band warm ups on Sunday morning before church, band gigs during the holidays, or sitting in the local Guitar Center and trying out amps), and I sound like I know what I\u2019m doing\u2026not like I\u2019m just playing the pentatonic scale. I know the scales, and I can hear the licks in my head, and I understand that they are all found in (and around) that scale\u2026but somehow the notes don\u2019t naturally make their way to my fingers. I want to learn to play what I \u201chear\u201d in my head.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I think the key is the “sound like I know what I’m doing” part.<\/p>\n

But as with most things, that’s the end, not how to get there.<\/p>\n

\"iStock_000001256830XSmall1\"So let’s break the situation down into the parts that need to be addressed. In order to sound like you know what you’re doing the first thing we have to look at is the situation…<\/p>\n

In this case, band warm ups on Sunday before church, band gigs or jam sessions, and sitting at the local GC trying out amps were all mentioned.<\/p>\n

The big thing to notice is that 2 of those are band environments, and 1 is a solo environment. You’re not going to play with friends at the local GC so you’re on your own in that environment (you’re playing solo.)<\/p>\n

So let’s handle the band environment first… here’s what you need to have down:<\/p>\n

You have to know what the chords are (and this holds true for any situation…)<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are 2 options when it comes to knowing what the chords are – someone can tell you, or you can figure it out. Having someone tell you is much easier… whether that be verbally or on a chart. It’s also much more common.<\/p>\n

No one… and I mean no one, can play over chords without knowing what they are and have a 100% success rate.<\/p>\n

Sure, I can go in and the band can play some chords and I can make a guess… and it might work out just fine… but it might not (been there, done that.) And keep in mind that if the band is playing chord changes and I don’t already know what they are, I will know what they are after they play through them once because I’ll hear them… but at this point you probably won’t and that’s ok. We’ll handle that in another article or video but it requires some theory and experience and how you put the two together.<\/p>\n

So if you don’t know the changes, find out what they are and don’t be embarrassed to ask<\/em> because it’s unlikely most people would be able to know just by listening and guessing.<\/p>\n

If it’s a blues and someone says, “it’s a blues in E.” Then you probably know what the chords in a 12 bar blues<\/a> are. But again don’t be afraid to ask.<\/p>\n

So you’ve got the chords, how do you know what scale to play?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"g7-chord-inversions\"<\/a>This has as much to do with what scales you know as anything… it also has everything<\/em> to do with the chords.<\/p>\n

If it’s a blues, you can go simple with minor pentatonic\/blues (they are effectively the same) scales. Find the root note on the 2nd string that matches the key you’re in and use the 4 Note Solo pattern or the House Pattern<\/a> or any Pentatonic Box\u00a0\u00a0you feel comfortable with.<\/p>\n

It’s when it is not a blues that things become more challenging. Once you step away from the 12 bar form, you really can’t definitely choose a scale without analyzing the chord progression and that means learning some music theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of myths about, “use the first chord as your key,” or “use the last chord as your key,” or “play the major scale that goes with the most common chord,” and you’ll always be right.<\/p>\n

Baloney! Totally false and responsible for more jam session crash-and-burns than any other advice I’ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

When you analyze a chord progression, you determine each chord’s function within the progression as a whole, and therefore you know what I is. Once you know what I is, you know what major scale you can play… and from there you can determine what other scales are likely good candidates.<\/p>\n

If you stick to pentatonic scales, there is an option of following the chord and playing a different pentatonic scale to match each chord<\/a>. So for a G chord you play G major pentatonic but for a Bminor chord you play B minor pentatonic and so on.<\/p>\n

That too will always work and really can’t fail unless you get into more complex chords… and it doesn’t require any theory but it’s fairly challenging for some\u00a0people.<\/p>\n

Being able to analyze a chord progression is also half of the “be able to play the chord progression by ear” equation so there’ s a lot of value there.<\/p>\n

But I want to bring it back to the blues a little bit (after all, it is Blues Guitar Unleashed…)<\/p>\n

So you know the chords (and it’s a blues) and you know what scale to use (the minor pentatonic,) what are you actually going to play?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"madWell let me put it this way… let’s say you’re at a party for your best friend and someone asks you to say a few quick words about your friend to the guests at the party…<\/p>\n

As you turn and face the guests, do you use words and phrases that you make up on the spot?<\/p>\n

Of course not! They’d think you were out of your mind speaking gibberish.<\/p>\n

So then why would you get up to take a guitar solo, where you’re going to speak through your instrument, and try to make up something brand new on the spot?<\/p>\n

The common myth is that improvisation means you make it up right there on the spot when in fact nothing could be further from the truth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just like when you give a speech about your friend you use words and phrases that are comfortable and that you have used for years, your guitar playing should be natural and filled with things you can play easily… and plenty of licks or stock phrases<\/a> that you’ve used time and time again.<\/p>\n

And just like a child learns vocabulary through memorizing and repeating words and phrases, guitar players learn to solo by… learning solos!<\/p>\n

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that there are 2 very different types of people when it comes to improvising, so you need to know which one you are.<\/p>\n

Some are very comfortable with memorizing a handful of licks and then re-arranging them and twisting them and changing them around until the cows come home… these people however are the exception (and pretty lucky if you ask me.)<\/p>\n

Most people I run across need more of a step-by-step approach to something that, let’s be honest, isn’t really a step-by-step process. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. You just have to remember that the rules you are given at this stage of the game are there to help you and keep you on the path… not to stifle you. Down the road when you’re more comfortable you can break those rules more and more.<\/p>\n

\"lesSo for most people, the best way to learn how to put solos together is to learn several of them and get a feel for how they go together. Starting with some fairly easy solos<\/a> goes a long way because you can learn more of them in a shorter amount of time.<\/p>\n

Now like I said, all of this assumes you are playing in a band context…<\/p>\n

But the good news is, nothing really changes if you’re playing solo… except you have to do more.<\/p>\n

Not only do you have to carry melody, but you have to carry rhythm as well. Acoustic players tend to have to do this more which is why I recommend my Acoustic Blues Guitar Unleashed<\/a> course for it… but it’s also good for electric players as is the Little Wing Lesson<\/a> if you’re into that style of playing.<\/p>\n

You still have to have a chord progression in mind first, and you still have to know what it is and how it works. That doesn’t change. The only thing that changes is that you have to give some rhythmic elements to your playing as you go so it doesn’t sound random.<\/p>\n

But if you keep in time while you play, and you keep chord progressions in mind, you should find that you don’t have to work that hard to keep it going even by yourself.<\/p>\n

Either way you can see that a lot of it comes down to the knowing the chords you are playing over and being able to analyze what they are and how they function, (unless you’re doing the Little Wing<\/a> style of playing where you follow the chords,) and having some vocabulary by learning some solos and stealing the licks and stock phrases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks back I was talking about Road Maps and I asked for your feedback on what I call the “movies you see in your head” when you think about where you’d like to be on the guitar… Well just shy of 500 comments later (wow!) I got a LOT of really interesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6577"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6588,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6577\/revisions\/6588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}