When we first learn to improvise, it’s magic. Melodies struggle to emerge, but emerge they do, and boy, we know we’re on the way to being a Rock Star.

Now, since we’ve jammed on the exercises presented in “A beginner’s guide to soloing,” a few questions start to surface:

Where next?

There are a few things you should learn. I don’t usually say “should,” but I mean it this time. You should learn:

1. The major scale and its seven variations, called modes.
2. The pentatonic scale and its five variations.

While there are many other scales that are useful to our purposes, these are the perfect starting point. Modes often confuse even veteran players, and while their theory and application requires more than a few lines, here’s a brief explanation.

If we play a major scale starting on a note other than its root note, that resulting shape is a mode. For example, if we play C major starting on C, that’s a C major scale. But if we play the same notes in the key of C, but we start on D, the pattern would be called the second mode of C major, or D Dorian to be exact.

To help visualize this, picture a piano. Playing the white keys, starting on C, we automatically sound a C major scale. Now, instead of starting on C, we start on the next key, D. From D to D, still playing the white keys, we end up with a D Dorian mode, the second mode of C Major.

Since there are seven notes in the Major scale, there are seven possible starting places to play our variations. Hence, we end up with seven distinct patterns to play on the guitar.

Carrying this to a different application, we arrive at pentatonic scales. As the pentatonic scale contains five notes, logic has it that we have five patterns built from that scale.

5 Pentatonics +7 modes = 12 shapes.

Twelve shapes. Learn them. Now.
(See chart at the end of the article.)

Also, check out some of the other articles here at Guitar Noise, such as Scaling the Heights and A la Modal for more discussion on the topic of Pentatonic Scales and the various modes of the Major Scale.

I don’t want to sound like a classic rock band – What should I do?

Some folks want to sound jazzy, metal, or hardcore. They may be wondering if learning a scale such as the Pentatonic Minor, will inhibit their inherent “punkiness.” And perhaps major scales are too happy sounding? Well, my grandmother uses the same words that I do, but we don’t sound alike. While we both use the same words, our inflections, tone, and sentence construction are vastly different. Both Metallica and Mozart use the same notes, but style is what sets them apart. Using a certain scale will not always make you sound a certain way. Sure, some scales are bluesy by nature, but style is what truly defines genre.

This runs the other way, too. I use the same scales as Stevie Ray Vaughan, but much to my dismay, I sure don’t sound like him!

However, there are common applications. Blues musicians have generally favored the pentatonic sound, while the shredders of the 80’s made frequent use of the modes, as well as exotic scales.

The answer? There are only twelve shapes presented in this lesson. Learn them, and decide for yourself. It certainly won’t hurt you.

I’m just a rock ‘n roll rebel, I don’t need no scales

Actually, you’re right! (And that’s a great Ozzy song.)

Check this out: There’s only twelve notes in the system of Western music.

A scale is seven of those twelve notes. It’s a sonic recipe that we just happen to accept.

So, chances are, if you’re not consciously using scales as of now, you might just be stumbling into them on your own.

The last thing I want to do is to stifle your creativity, and stomp out your musical spark.

No, sir! I’m offering you a shortcut. Yep. These shapes can actually help you be more creative, free, and rocking by not having to guess! Why “reinvent the Strat” when it can be understood in a few hours?

If you want to be truly rebellious, you need to know the rules in order to break them. And the ability to solo over the entire neck is a maverick goal, indeed. You’ll surely kick butt and take names with your newfound fretboard skills…Well, maybe.

Scales are just the beginning.

They’re the rules, and musical rules should never be taken too seriously!

While it is important to internalize and digest the shapes, I think Charlie Parker put it best when he was quoted saying “Learn the changes, and then forget them.”

Our goal is to know the shapes so well that we don’t have to think when we improvise. Mental effort generally doesn’t sound good.

There’s only twelve notes, so don’t get bogged down in them. Remember, while there’s a limited number of tones, there’s an infinite way to express them. After all, we’re trying to express music, not scales.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve gotten the hang of expressing with a minor pentatonic scale, have fun learning to talk with these new shapes. The patterns below will grant you freedom over the entire guitar neck, not just a position.

Don’t get stuck in the shapes, and feel free to add chromatic, or passing, tones to the scale. These are fancy words for “wrong” notes, or notes outside of the scale.

Beware: You may find that you can’t express with the Major Scale shapes as easily. That’s okay, and natural at first. They’re harder to digest, and contain several notes that aren’t as user-friendly as the pentatonic scale. Technically speaking, the fourth and seventh degrees of the Major Scale don’t sound too hot when you end a line on them. But, that’s the subject of another article. Experiment, get the sounds under your fingers, and keep at it.

Rock on! And don’t forget my blog!

The Major Scale and it’s Seven Modes

Note: These examples are written in the key of F major. Due to the layout of the guitar, I find this key easiest to visualize. Of course, all shapes are movable. To transpose to a different key, simply move the scales up or down.

The Minor Pentatonic Scale and it’s five modes, Key of A Minor

Also check out… A Beginner’s Guide to Soloing – Part 1

Step 1. The map

The map for this lesson’s quest is the A minor Pentatonic scale, outlined in Example 1. This is a handy little scale with a big name. Breaking it down, Penta means “five” and tonic refers to tones. So, we have a five-tone minor scale. Nothing too hard about that, right?

Play this scale a few times to get it under your fingers. The eventual goal is to know it so well that you can play it without conscious thought. If you can do so and carry on a conversation at the same time, good job.

Step 2 (optional.) The rhythm

To paint sonic art, we need a canvas on which to do so. This platform is the rhythm guitar’s part. The A minor Pentatonic scale, and its parent scale, A natural minor, contain the notes to build several chords. The A minor chord that is found among the scale is an ideal candidate for our foundation of future greatness in improvisation! We’ll choose this chord for our exercise. By the way, this chord is constructed of the notes A, C, and E.

Get a buddy, keyboard, or backing track to hold down a steady rhythm of just an A minor chord. The idea is to provide a backdrop for you to solo over.

Step 3. Show time

Armed with your scale, a sense of adventure and trusty friend or backing track, it’s time to conquer soloing!

A: Play your scale in order, ascending, and then descending. Listen to how it sounds against the A minor chord.
B: Play your scale in the same order, but hold some notes longer than others. Play a few fast, then some slow, and see what sounds you get.
C: Repeat step B, and this time, repeat some of the notes.
D: Start to mix up the order of the notes. Skip a few, repeat some, and jump around.Be creative! Approach the scale as a skateboarder would look at a flight of stairs – don’t just walk up and down ‘em!
E: Add seasonings. Bends, slides, pull-offs and hammer-ons are to be tried. Picture the solo as a salad, and these articulations are the bacon bits. See Example 2. for further ideas.

Breakdown

OK, so what just happened? Hopefully, you will have taken the scale, listened to it in its basic form, and then started to spin some melodies from its framework. At the end of the day, the goal is to play music, not scales. I’ll often see students playing scales very well, but not knowing what to do with them. Simple steps such as these can be very helpful. Remember, it’s not magic. You can do it, and before you know it, you’ll be soloing like an old pro.

If any of these concepts don’t click, or if you’re having trouble getting the hang of it, drop me an email! I’ll be glad to help you out.

And don’t forget there are lots of lessons here at Guitar Noise on soloing and improvising. You’ll also find many lessons of scales themselves.

Rock on! And for more ideas, don’t forget to check out my blog!

Also check out… A Beginner’s Guide to Soloing – Part 2

We close our eyes and picture the caveman dancing around the fire, beating a drum, and howling. If we’re really imaginative, we can then picture cavemen wearing berets and howling off key really really fast, and we have the precursor of bebop.

But the point is – at least for this article – is we take the idea of two original instruments. (And by the way, I’m a huge jazz fan, so don’t think I’m bopping bebop)

Fast forward to the present day, and electric guitars.

There’s a curious deviation from the two original instruments that the electric guitar takes.

It doesn’t have to come up for air, as the voice does.

We can shred at 302 beats per minute – all day! We guitarists literally never have to stop playing. Compared to, say, a saxophone, guitarists can play runs on their instrument that others can only imagine. This is because, again, the only thing limiting our expression is carpal tunnel syndrome, not lung capacity.

At first, we think “Cool! I can jam all day, and that ol’ saxophone will never keep up.” However, don’t we usually strive to make our guitars sing? And howl? And scream? What sings, howls, and screams, and clutters up the airwaves on American Idol? Singers!

Yes, yes, I hear you muttering something about the honor, of not howling like a monkey, and actually bringing an instrument to the gig, but read on…You’ll surely play better after applying these principles. And if you’ve always liked the breathtaking tone of a saxophone or vocalist, you’ll find some ideas to use.

Singer Stats

Singers, generally speaking, do not:

• Try to play things as fast as possible
• Try to play things extra complicated (unless we’re talking about Mary Poppins singing Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious, the vocal version of sweep picking.) But do you want to be like Julie Andrews?
• Try to cram in as many words as possible.
• Try to use the biggest word possible. (“A fuchsia nebulousness appears to be in my cranium…no! It’s “Purple haze, all in my brain!” )

Singers, generally speaking, DO:

• emphasize melody
• emphasize tone
• use dynamics (sing loud and soft.)

Keep in mind, I am not suggesting that you throw your chops out the window. Heck no! I’m saying that you try to sing with your guitar. Literally. In order to apply the principles outlined above, the best way I’ve found is to actually sing along with your guitar lines. Do your best to match the pitch, but you don’t have to be spot on. Since you’ll run out of air (unless you’re my grandmother,) stop playing when you do, breathe in, and play again. And if you hyperventilate, use some more space in your music, dude!

Fear not, non-singers! Even if you’re totally botching the notes, you’ll notice a dramatic difference in the melody and spacing of your lines. And, if you want to get really creative, try singing a line first, and then play it. Since your voice doesn’t know the patterns that trap your hand into the same stale licks, you’ll have access to an incredible array of new sounds. And best of all, they’ll be melodic!

Of course, you can play fast, you can play complicated voicings, and you can play a lot. But now, with a bit o’ luck, it will sound good! It will have purpose. And it won’t sound like random doodling!

A musician that stands out in my mind for taking this idea to an art form is the guitarist and singer, George Benson. (Now, now, metal heads, sit down and quit whining. You can use his ideas in your camp, too. Turn crooning into shrieking.)

Original Instrument #2 – The Drum

Since guitars can span the gap between melody and rhythm, we can incorporate both of the original instruments into our playing to great effect.

Playing in a funk/dance band really made me appreciate the rhythmic role of the guitar in certain settings. Muted strings, wah wah pedals, and picking dynamics can all contribute to the percussive aspect of our instrument.

Practicing with a drum machine, or at the very least, a metronome, is vital. However, thinking like a drummer is even better. For a crazy project, get a book with drum exercises or rudiments, and try to apply them to your guitar. Building a riff by assigning certain notes to the kick drum, others to the snare, and the final ones to the hi hat is another valuable technique for riff building.

The main point to remember is that guitarists can often have sub-standard senses of good timing. So from this moment on, refuse to accept that in your playing. Make a point of getting your time right. It will get you better gigs, and other musicians, namely bassists and drummers, will appreciate a good sense of rhythm. (And if they’re the ones hiring you for the gig, it’s good to impress them.)

Specific Exercises:

1. Vocals: Sing a line, and then play it. As simple as it sounds, it will dramatically help refresh your lines. Try it in the privacy of your practice room, and be silly! Sing crazy stuff, and then play it. Chances are, you’ll find something cool.
2. Drums: Play “air guitar” to a song that you find difficult rhythmically. Mute out the strings with your left hand, and strum with your right. Try this with a funk, Latin, or ethnic beat. Not only will you be thinking like a drummer, but you’ll improve right hand chops as well. It seems silly, but it has been one of the biggest helps to me. And for some of the musical situations I’ve been in, a muted, percussive sound was THE guitar part for the song. Believe it or not. This is especially helpful if you’re having a tough time getting the feel of a beat that swings, or is outside of your playing experience.

Have fun singing and grooving!

Special thanks to my colleague and teacher, Mr. Mike Stacey for the conversation leading to this article.

For further craziness, be sure to check out my blog.

Sound familiar? Read on…

Enter the split personality of your hands. Your left hand, who we’ll call Sam, is your classic musician, easy going, no sweat, “I’ll get there when I get there” personality. But he’s also a perfectionist, and he won’t go on until he’s got it right.

Joe, on the other hand (pun intended), is your uptight right hand. Joe believes that you’ve got to beat the crowds, or they’ll beat you. He needs stuff now, and forget about those pills for hypertension, because he hears that drowsiness is a side effect. And the key to remember about Joe is this: He doesn’t care if things are done right, just as long as they’re done.

A curious contrast: Sam, the left hand, relaxed, but a perfectionist, and Joe, the right, blustering full speed ahead, and who cares about those torpedoes?

As a lot of you play guitar for a hobby, you might try to avoid this “Joe syndrome.” Hey, music should be relaxing, right? But check this out: When we’re trying to learn a piece involving chords, if we let Sam (the left hand from the sixties) have his way, we’ll end up fretting the chord when Saturn is in conjunction with Pluto, and when the tides of the moon cycle are in harmony with the wolves. And due to his perfectionist nature, we won’t strum the chord until every finger is in place. And most of the time, this will be too late. The song will have moved on by the time everything’s right.

We’ll let Joe, our over achieving right hand, take over for a minute. We’ll set out strumming the strings with our right hand to the beat of the song (or whatever is keeping time at the moment.) For example, if we set a metronome at 120 beats per minute, we will strum strict quarter notes to this tempo. We’ll then add the left hand, and hence, the chords.

We’ll do our best to finger the correct chord at the correct time, but we’ll hit the strings no matter what. Even if we don’t have all of our fingers in the proper position for the chord. Hit those strings when the metronome dictates, even if your left hand isn’t even in the same room.

At first, some cacophonous noises may result. Missed notes, dead strings, and perhaps a few nasty looks from the other members of your household. But at least you’ll be in beat.

Keep this up, and pretty soon Sam, the left hand that’s stuck in the 60’s, will be on board, too. I’ve found that your left hand will develop faster this way, forced into moving outside its comfort zone.

I’ve shown this method to many of my students, and noticed an almost instantaneous improvement in their ability to fret, and play, chords in beat, and to keep up with the song.

A brief recap:

• Your left hand is a hippie.
• Your right hand is a stock broker.
• Strum the strings to the beat of the song, and force the hippie to meet the “deadline” of the rhythm. Don’t worry if the chord is incomplete. Strum it anyway.
• Even if it doesn’t sound to snazzy, it’ll be in beat.
• You’ll get better after a few times of doing this.
• Far out, bro.

Enjoy learning about the duality of your hands. This is just the beginning.

A chef can taste a soup, and know that someone put rosemary in it. A mechanic can listen to a car engine, and tell if the valve train needs work. But can a typical rock guitarist listen to the song he or she is playing, and identify the chord voicing the keyboard player is using? Does this same six-string player pay attention to the chemistry between the kick drum pattern and the bass line?

Listening – it’s probably the most overlooked facet of musicianship.

A lot of guitarists hone their skills in the isolation of their practice room, and then take this sense of separateness with them to the bandstand. But as we know, a band is a living, breathing, very organic entity. For a musician in a band to fully understand the situation he or she is in, listening is essential.

As listening is such a broad term, I’ve broken it down into several different categories.

Harmonic listening would refer to hearing the chords, intervals, and tonalities of the moment. Harmonic listening is vital to surviving sitting in on a gig, and especially to acing auditions. In plain English, being able to tell what chord the bass player is implying is very helpful if you’d care to play in the same key as the rest of the band. And bandleaders prefer people to play in at least a similar key!

Dynamic listening refers to listening to the song as a whole. How does your volume level fit in? Is it too loud, or too soft? And are you listening to the actual tone emanating from your guitar? Remember that the goal of a musician is to play cleanly, and musically.

Objective listening, or “playing for the song” can be a tough pill to swallow. It’s the act of determining what the song needs. Does it really need those swept arpeggios and furious tapping? If you can step back, listen to the song as a whole, and honestly answer yes, than go for it! And if the answer is no, be a selfless musician and leave it out. As a side note, playing for the song doesn’t mean throwing technique out the window. I hear musicians who couldn’t improvise to save their backwards-mullets-emo-haircuts use that excuse all the time. “I just play for the song, man.” But sometimes a burst of fire is exactly what is missing in an arrangement. So, if the song in question needs shredding, add it. If it doesn’t, then don’t. You must first objectively determine that by employing objective listening.

Communicative listening is where things get fun. It’s the process of communicating with the other musicians. For example, how the rhythm section is grooving? How is the conga player approaching the sixteenth notes? A good communicative listener can turn a mediocre gig into something stellar. In addition, if one wants to lock in with the rhythm section (and that’s a given), communicative listening is essential.

Now that we’ve got a better grasp on the different skills of a good ear, how do we develop them? Some of the topics outlined above can be practiced at home. Others are best learned on the bandstand, as terrifying as that might seem.

Harmonic listening can be developed in the practice room, via diligent practice with books, recordings, computer programs, etc. The good news is that learning to recognize intervals, scales, and chords can be accomplished at home, and often with free software and web sites. I have several such sites linked on my webpage, www.poodleman.com.

I suggest that you start with learning to recognize different intervals. Move on to scales, and then, chords. After all, a scale is a series of intervals, and a chord is those same intervals played simultaneously. Ricci Adams has an excellent web site at www.musictheory.net with plenty of free ear trainers on just these very subjects.

Dynamic listening is the process of awareness. The next time you sit down to practice, pay special attention to your sound. Is it too thin? Thick? Are you a shredder who likes to sound like a pack of mosquitoes? Maybe that’s why you’re not getting the gigs you want. Fiddle with that gear, and dial it in just right.

Remember, your sound will change when your volume does, and especially when there’s a drummer involved. You’d be surprised at how few musicians pay serious attention to their tone when they’re playing. Start listening to your own sound, and you’ll have a significant edge in the field.

Objective listening is a skill that can be developed many ways. One of the best is to listen to skillfully arranged music. Pop tunes are great here, but if you’re looking for something with a more sinister edge, I suggest listening to an Ozzy Osbourne album. Ok, ok, I’m forcing my personal music tastes on you here. However, in my opinion, Ozzy’s songs present a great blend of dazzling guitar pyrotechnics and solid riffs while still remembering the guitarists’ role of supporting the vocalist when he or she is singing. Other genres outside of rock also present a great learning opportunity, as the guitar parts in these songs are usually a bit more “slick” and subtle – witty one liner jokes of the musical world.

On a philosophical note, objective listening insight can also be gained from everyday interactions and conversations. Do you really consider your latest complaint a valuable addition to the conversation you’re having with a friend? If it does, then say it. And if it doesn’t – leave it out.

Communicative listening is best practiced with at least one other musician. Trading licks in a non-threatening fashion is an ideal way to get better, especially if you jam with a more advanced musician. I’ve learned volumes in this way.

And of course, the best way to do business here is to jump in way over your head, and join a band that you can barely hang with. Your ear will develop, or you’ll lose the gig. It’s a great way to learn! I call it “The All Terrain Vehicle Gymnastic Educational Method.” Put simply, either you succeed at doing a back flip on an ATV, or you don’t! And the same goes with joining a band that’s above your skill level.

So next time you’re around other musicians, start to listen with a vengeance. Don’t “zone out” – Listen up!