Metal Guitar Jam Track in E Minor
An “Iron Maiden”-style metal guitar jam track today. The track is in the key of E minor (metal approved!) and follows this chord progression: |E5 - - - |C5 - D5 - |
Some cool scale choices:
Rock on!
Popularity: 8% [?]
The “Secret” Pentatonic Shapes
The Minor Pentatonic scale is one of the most widely used scales in improvisation in every musical style so it makes sense to know it well all over the guitar neck. When it comes to moving beyond the first pattern learned (see my lesson on 4 Scales You Should Know) the next step is usually to introduce five overlapping patterns, each staying strictly in position on the neck. In reality, most Blues and Rock soloists connect these patterns in very repeatable ways creating just two patterns that cover the entire neck. These are shown below in the key of A:
From the fingering you can see that you play these patterns with just two fingers, sliding every other string. I would recommend practicing these patterns descending as well, usually sliding back with the index finger.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Tip Of The Day - Practicing in Time Frames
Dividing your practice session into short time frames - two to five minutes - is beneficial on many levels. It helps clarify what you are hoping to accomplish. It focuses you on the task at hand. And it breaks up your large musical journey into small steps. Focusing on short-term successes can ward off the burnout that often comes with working on big new ideas. The sense of accomplishment this provides will make you look forward to your next practice session.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Tip Of The Day - The Speed/Accuracy Equation
Jazz guitar legend and teacher, Howard Roberts, gave one of my all-time favorite quotes when it comes to guitar technique:
“Speed is a by-product of Accuracy”.
If one rushes to play a lick, melody or song before learning how it physically should feel when played well, the parts will never sound fast or clean. Coordinate each finger and pick-stroke slowly and accurately before you concern yourself with playing it faster. This is one of the ‘universal constants’ of playing the guitar well!
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Learning Chromatic Notes on the E String
So you’ve studied our natural notes on the E string lesson and are left wondering how to name those mysterious blank spaces in between? Well, these are the ‘chromatic notes’ and we will learn how to name them in this lesson
In our natural note lesson, we learned a pattern where between most natural notes there is a two fret distance, or a ‘whole-step’. The exceptions was between natural notes ‘E to F’ and ‘B to C’ where only one fret, or a ‘half-step’, separated them.
The spaces between are the ‘chromatic’ notes and are like the ‘black-key’ on the piano. They get their names in relation to the natural notes. That’s why we learned the natural notes first! Chromatic notes have names like “A#” (read ‘A sharp’) or “Db” (read ‘D flat’). When a note is sharp it means it is one fret, or a ‘half-step’, higher in pitch than the natural note. A flat note is the opposite, one fret (or half-step) lower than its natural note counterpart.
We will repeat our exercise from last lesson of naming the notes on the E string, starting on the open string and ascending to the 12th fret octave E. This time, however, we will play every fret and use sharp names for the chromatic notes as we go up the neck.
Once you can do this, descend through the same chromatic scale from the 12th fret to the open string but now use flat names for all the chromatic notes.
Notice there are two possible names for each chromatic note. Which name is correct depends on the song’s key and the direction the melody is moving. Either way you name them you are naming the same pitch! Like our natural note lesson, once you can do the chromatic notes naming on the E string you should move to the remaining five strings and name them as well.
Here again is our chart of natural notes:
Try to mentally fill in the blanks before looking at the information overload of our chromatic note chart at the end of the lesson! Congratulations! You know every note on the neck of the guitar! Give yourself a pat on the back and buy yourself some new gear as a reward. 
Popularity: 5% [?]
Looping Reggae Guitar Jam Track
Hey, Mon! Have fun “jammin’” Jamaican-style over this Reggae Jam Track. This looping guitar jam track is in B minor, following the progression |Bm - - - |G - A - |
Some cool scale choices:
A clean, reverb-drenched guitar sound will serve this style well. Try using a touch of palm-muting for that staccato, “stucky”, sound that is so typical of Reggae single note parts. Irie, Mon!
Popularity: 6% [?]
Tip Of The Day - Practice Without Distraction
You will practice more efficiently and get more done if you keep your practice sessions distraction-free. This means no telephone calls, no visitors, and no television.
Find set times to make this happen by communicating with family and friends. Most will respect your space and you will get an invigorated commitment to your guitar practice.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Techno-Rock Guitar Jam Track
Rock music will live forever! I know this because it readily accepts other music styles and fuzes them together to create ever evolving rock hybrids. Jazz-Rock, Country-Rock, Blues-Rock, Rap-Rock. The list will keep evolving.
This looping jam track in B minor takes techno/electronic music elements and fuses them with a rock feel.
This jam track is taken off of my Jeff Beck Style lesson series. Starting with Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop, Jeff has increasing had a ‘electronica’ element to his tunes.
Some cool scale choices:
As a added bonus, here is my intro video to this lesson from the series! I think most of the licks I use are in the lesson series but, if I remember right, I just improvised this take and tried to squeeze the licks as best I could.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Tip of the Day - Know Your Notes
Knowing the notes on the neck is important on many levels. It adds a certain concreteness to what you play when you know and use note names rather than fret numbers. It helps with communication with other musicians. Try telling your keyboard or sax player “I’m playing the note on the 8th fret” and watch the troubled, quizzical looks that follow! It is also much faster to communicate. I would much rather say to my other guitarist or students “play G5″ than to say “take your first finger and place it on the 6th string at the 3rd fret, then place…” :).
Finally, any pattern on the guitar that doesn’t use open strings is moveable. If you know where the root is in that pattern and you know the other notes on the same string, it is simply a matter of relocating that pattern to the desired new root note in order to move to a new key.
Very short-sighted not to know your notes on the neck.
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Learning Note Names on the E String
I want all my students to know their note names in two ways: on the music staff and on the fretboard. This lesson deals with learning the natural notes on the neck.
Let’s start off learning the notes on just one string, the low E string. And instead of learning all the notes here, we will learn just the ‘natural notes’. Natural notes are the ‘white-key’ notes on a keyboard and have simple letter names like ‘A’ and ‘B’. For now we will skip the notes with sharp and flat names, like “A#” or “Db”. This reveals a pattern that will help us quickly learn the notes all over the neck.
Notice that the open string note name is repeated at the 12th fret, the same note name one ‘octave’ higher. The exercise is to name the notes ascending in pitch, start on the open string E and working to the octave E at the 12th fret. Then, importantly, repeat the 12th fret E note and descend in order through the notes until reaching the open low E.
Notice that there is most often two frets, or a ‘whole-step’ between each of the natural notes. But between two pairs of natural notes, from ‘E to F’ and from ‘B to C’, there is only one fret, or a ‘half-step’. This is the rule, the unbreakable pattern that is true everywhere on the guitar neck and on every instrument in the western world.
Notice this pattern holds true if viewing every note on the neck.
Any place you find a B note the C note is one fret higher. Same for E to F. If you know this pattern and the note the string is tuned to you should be able to name any note on the neck. It might take a bit of counting your way there but give it a try. Once you feel confident on the E string try naming the A string notes next.
We will look at the chromatic notes in an upcoming exercise.
Update: I’ve added a Naming Chromatic Notes lesson.
Popularity: 6% [?]
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