Guitar Noise

This is much more accurately entitled, “the seven-note pattern.” We showed such a pattern in the last issue, toward making scale-playing more interesting.
Let’s go over some comments about this 7-note pattern. First, describing it without notation, it goes like this:
Play 4 notes of an ascending major scale(*). Descend two notes, then ascend again for one [...]

Okay, that title is a bit of over kill. We’re not going to revolutionize scale practice with this tip…probably. But we may shed some light on your scale practice. To start with, practicing scale does not have to involve monotonously long strings of ascents and descents; it does not have to put your ear to [...]

Here’s a quick lick to play over these chords: Em, Am, Dm, G7 in C major. In other words, this is a turnaround: the last two bars before returning to the start of the first phrase. You can strum each chord once or twice; record that accompaniment and play this over it:
E E [...]

This tip is for players with small hands (or those who think they have small hands). We start off with a letter and then my response follows. I hope you get something from this.
Hello Darrin,
My name is C. and I am just beginning to play the guitar. I know some beginner chords but would like [...]

Last time we looked at some basic melodic patterns used in soloing. We called them the 1 2 3 1 and 1 3 2 1 patterns. Please see the newsletter archives for the tablature. Let’s now look at ways of practicing these patterns.
Main ideas in practicing include covering all the basic major scale forms and [...]

Here are two pretty common patterns to solo with. There are some more complicated things we can build with these patterns but let’s start with the basics for now. We can call these patterns 1 2 3 1 and 1 3 2 1. These refer to the degrees of the major scale. F is 1, [...]

We’ve been exploring the uses of the min7b5 chord, a chord that doesn’t seem to get a whole lot of play. And that’s a shame, because it’s got a sound all its own. This time out we’ll use the min7b5 in a ii V I going toward a minor key center.
Time for a little background [...]

We’re looking again at the often over-looked min7b5 chord. Last time we saw how it can replace a dom 7 chord. This time we’ll see how it replaces a tonic minor chord.
The point of doing this substitution is to give ourselves some fresh-sounding options to play, rather than trudging through the same old sounds.
What is [...]

This chord doesn’t get a lot of press, but it’s pretty useful. We’re going to look at the min7b5 chord. First, a pattern for it:
|——|
|-6—-|
|-5—-|
|-6—-|
|-5—-|
|——|
That’s the D min7b5. And here’s an arpeggio pattern for the same chord. Use this to solo:
|————-4-8-|
|———–6—–|
|——-5-7——-|
|—–6———–|
|-5-8————-|
|—————–|
Where can we use the min7b5? Let’s look at three different uses: 1) replacing the [...]

We covered the major chord with a sharp 5 last time, and this time we’ll cover its “sister” chord, the #11. Where does the term #11 (pronounced “sharp eleven”) come from? Look at the notes in the G major scale. Yes, that’s not a typo: the G major, not the C major scale:
C D E [...]

In a previous post we tinkered with a chord’s 9. This time we take a look at a major chord’s 5.
Five, Nine? What are these? Quick refresher. Let’s see the notes of a chord and the numbers we refer to them with:
C, E, G
One, Three, Five
Take a look at the bigger picture: ONE of the [...]

Last time we took a major chord shape and transferred it from strings 2 to 5, to strings 1 through 4. The purpose of doing that is to expand your knowledge of the fretboard. When you learn one shape, whether a scale, chord or something else, you increase your fretboard navigation skills if you translate [...]

This tip will have us exploring that funky difference in tuning that you find between the B string and the G string. Sometimes it seems like the guitar would be so much easier to play if all strings were tuned a fourth apart.
Specifically we’re going to learn how to transfer patterns — including chords, scales, [...]

Have you heard this sound before?
|——|
|-6—-|
|-5—-|
|-4—-|
|-5—-|
|——|
You probably have if you’ve done any listening to rock or blues. It’s the dom 7 #9. Consider it a kind of sister chord to the dangerous dom 7 b9 we covered in recent issues. All “sister” means here is that this is another alteration to the natural nine of [...]

Hello, again. We’re back looking at the “Dangerous” dominant 7, flat 9. This is a chord you see a lot of before going to a minor key, and that’s one of the reasons it sounds dangerous when we hear it. The flat 9 of the dom 7 b9 chord turns into the b6 of the [...]

Here’s a dangerous sound for us to try out. Get our your guitar, and play this with open position chords.
Dm, G7, C, Dm, E7b9, Am
Play the E7b9 like this:
|-1—-|
|-0—-|
|-1—-|
|-0—-|
|-2—-|
|-0—-|
That’s the dangerous sound of the dominant seven, flat 9. We used an E7b9 specifically. Here are the notes: E, G#, B, D, F. The b9 is [...]

We’ve been adding some tasty new flavors to our usual major, minor and dominant 7 chords. We started with the major 9 in a previous installment, and now we’re going to look at the dominant 9.
Here’s a common shape for the dominant 9 sound to get us started:
-5-
-5-
-5-
-4-
-5-
—
It’s a pretty sound. Used a lot in [...]

We’ve been exploring a special “addition” to the plain major chord: the Major 9. In the scale of C major, you can have two different major nines:
C major 9: C, E, G, B, D — listed in order of ascending pitch. And F major 9: F, A, C, E, G
(You can also have a [...]

This tip is about the major 9, major add 9, and 6/9 chords. We’re going into this because it’s nice to know there’s other stuff you can do with a major chord to keep it from sounding like the same old 3-note sound.
Just what does this 9 refer to, in C major 9? First, take [...]

We continue exploring approach notes in this tip. In the previous installments we worked out with notes that were below the note we really wanted to hit, and we did this for dominant 7ths and major arpeggios. Now we’re going to use notes that approach the target note from above. We could attempt to go [...]