LEARNING TO COUNT AND TAP YOUR FOOT EXERCISES
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In private lessons I can cover my eyes so that all I can see is the student's foot. I can tell you exactly 2 seconds before they will make a mistake just by watching that foot.
There's no getting around it... it works.
Here's a good exercise to start with, and as soon as my studio is back together I'll get some videos for you all.
You have to think of the 4 beats in a measure as a series of steps. Typically there are 8 steps in a measure... we call them '1','and','2','and','3','and','4','and'. At each step through the measure, certain things must happen to be what we call "in time."
So here are some exercises that will help. In all cases do the following:
1. count out loud... count as if you are counting for someone in the next room. Make it loud. Be careful not to let you voice trail off after the first few steps.
2. Your foot hits the floor on the numbered beats only.... 1,2,3,4. I'll make notes below about when it is supposed to come up.
FIRST:
grab any chord (I use open G because I can play all strings).
step 1 - strum down, foot hits floor, count "1"
step 2 - strum up, but do not hit any strings (I will call this a skip from now on), foot comes up, say "and"
step 3 - strum down, foot hits floor, count "2"
step 4 - skip up, foot up, count "and"
step 5 - strum down, foot hits floor, count "3"
step 6 - skip up, foot up, count "and"
step 7 - strum down, foot down, count "4"
step 8 - skip up, foot up, count "and"
Do this until it's comfortable and you can do it without thought. Try and make the amount of time between each step the same after a while. At first, take all the time you need between steps. Do not execute the step until you are sure you will do everything correctly. You might feel really uncoordinated. That's to be expected and will improve.
SECOND EXERCISE:
grab any chord (I use open G because I can play all strings).
step 1 - strum down, foot hits floor, count "1"
step 2 - strum up, foot comes up, say "and"
step 3 - strum down, foot hits floor, count "2"
step 4 - strum up, foot up, count "and"
step 5 - strum down, foot hits floor, count "3"
step 6 - strum up, foot up, count "and"
step 7 - strum down, foot down, count "4"
step 8 - strum up, foot up, count "and"
THIRD EXERCISE:
now we'll do it with a blues scale, box 1 in A minor
step 1 - play the first note with a down pick, foot hits floor, count "1"
step 2 - play the 2nd note with an up pick, foot comes up, count "and"
step 3 - play the 3rd note with a down pick, foot goes down, count "2"
step 4 - play the 4th note, foot up, "and"
step 5 - play the 5th note, foot down, "3"
etc.
When you can do all of those comfortably and effortlessly, let me know and we'll continue.
Griff
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MAJOR OVER I CHORD
First, the concept:
Every minor key has a relative major key and vice versa. That means that when you are playing A minor blues, you are also playing C major blues, you just don't think of it that way. When you are playing D major blues, you are also playing B minor blues, you just don't think of it that way.
Notice that the only difference between A minor and C major is your perspective. I can't emphasize that point enough. It's all in how you look at it.
It is also true that the relative major key is always 3 frets above the relative minor key. That is why the relative major of A minor is C major. C major is 3 frets higher than A minor. For you theory geeks, in a major scale, the 6th tone is the relative minor and there is 1 1/2 steps from the root down to the 6th... hence the 3 frets.
Notice I've not talked at all about how to play this. You first have to wrap your head around the fact that no matter what box you play, and no matter where, you are playing 2 different scales depending on how you choose to look at it.
Second, how to play it:
The whole "5 box" concept doesn't care how you look at it. All of the 5 boxes connect the same way all the time. If you put box 1 on A, box2 will start on C (8) box 3 on D (10) box 4 on E (12) and box 5 on G (15 or 3). If I decide to look at that as the key of C major, nothing changes.
The reason I use the "minor is box 1, major is box 2" is because most people are comfortable finding root notes on the 6th string. So if you have all 5 boxes in front of you, box 1 will start on the note that is the minor key you are in, and box 2 will start on the note that is the major key you are in. This means that if you can put box 2 on a root note you need, you can find your major key quickly and the other 4 boxes all fall in to line just like they normally would.
So, between my explanation and the several others here, all of which combined give a great overview of this whole concept, I think it should be clear as mud. If it still doesn't make sense, let us know.
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HELP WITH COUNTING OUT THE BEATS
"try breaking out a pencil and try to write the beats underneath the music. At the very least write down where the down beats are so you have marks throughout the measure and you can make your foot hit the ground on those beats."
Griff
