Archive for September, 2009

An approach to Improvisation – Part 1/4

September 20th, 2009

From my own listening experience, modern pop and rock does not lean towards a lot of solo guitar work. Music that does, tends to be the exception these days. Modern music relies more on rhythmic quality. This is a good thing and obviously gives room for another discussion.

It’s a personal choice but I am usually more intrigued by players who play more selectively and seem to get a really great hook that ties everything together. This is in contrast to other players who take every opportunity to stuff notes in to every crook and cranny that comes their way. So no right or wrong way, just different!

The single most important aspect regardless on what and how you play is to stay focused on is the listener! I know sometimes we just can’t help ourselves but at the end of the day its the listener or audience that will determine the acceptability or like ability of what you play.

So which ever way you lean the journey of improvisation is obviously a big one.  So it’s really smack in the head important to get your mind around how “you” approach the guitar.

Check out the the article on this site called Dimensional Guitar which also enters this discussion.

So where to start? Its going to be slightly different for all of us so I can only share my personal approach and some of you are going to agree and others won’t  – pretty straight forward so far.

This subject is too big for one article so I will provide follow on links at the bottom of this page. But before you jump ahead here is the key for this article.

To start getting a handle on Improvisation…

No 1. Be a bloody good rhythm guitar player!

If you haven’t got your rhythm stuff even half sorted you won’t be able to play a note to save yourself. Like I said at the beginning modern pop and rock does not have a lot of solo or improvisational work. Being a good rhythm player is more likely to get you the job or the gig.

Of course accompanying the rhythm component is a good knowledge of chords. Good players can bring two or three notes to life with rhythm, timing and playing those few notes over the right chord.

You may laugh but when teaching young wanna be guitar players, a good percentage of them want to play Metallica’s One or something similarly complicated without being able to hold down 2 or 3 simple chords with some rhythmic and timing quality.

Doing the basics well builds a solid platform to advance your playing ability so get busy!

More to follow…

Regards

Steve Webb
www.justguitartalk.com




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Posted in Mind Set

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Does posing improve your playing?

September 17th, 2009

Many times as a young teenager when I would come home from school the house would empty. Mum and Dad would still be working and other siblings – well who knows what!

This would leave no-one around so one of my favorite pass times would be to crank up the stereo. Fortunately my brothers worked after school or already worked full time jobs. Our families love of music was well represented with a good record collection, of which everyone else owned leaving me to do my best negotiating to try and get one I liked on the turntable. Their warnings of “don’t touch my collection” didn’t apply in moments like these despite the warnings of severe bullying.  These were great moments and always had a sense of excitement about them. Anyway, stereo cranked and probably a David Bowie tune, more than likely the most hard out one of the album.

The next thing of course was to drag an old beaten up electric guitar from the closest. As an aside, for years I thought this guitar was broken because the bridge kept falling off. It wasn’t till further down the track that I realized it just needed strings! Homer Simpson would be proud of me.

I am sure you can imagine the scene, next thing I would present myself in front of the full length mirror in hallway. i would be truly amazed at my playing ability and how I could shred up and down the guitar so fast, man you couldn’t even see the strings! I was wicked!

One day, the next door neighbor couldn’t take it any more! He decided to come and investigate this continual noise problem from 3:30 to about 5 pm most week days.

I of course was oblivious to the neighbor observing me through the window while I strutted my stuff in front of the mirror. After all I had to concentrate otherwise the fans would be disappointed.

Now that my cover had been blown I had to face constant jokes being made at my expense, not only from my family but also a large proportion of the neighborhood.

The question though I asked myself was did all the posing pay off or contribute in anyway to my guitar playing? Well I believe it most definitely did. From my early teens I was captivated by the guitar and I used my imagination to reinforce my dream of playing it and some day being on a stage in front of people who enjoyed what I was offering.

In my mind visualization is crucial in projecting where you want to be. This can get lost along the way in the journey of life and if it does I would encourage anyone to renew their dream by starting to imagine it again.

If you have a story you would like to share please let me know by leaving a comment or contacting me at info@justguitartalk.com

Regards

Steve Webb
www.justguitartalk.com




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Posted in Guitar Stories

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Practise – Modal Chord Progressions

September 13th, 2009

Using your practise time as a musical exercise is much more valuable. A good example of this is the use of modal chord progressions.

I think every guitar player eventually seeks out information about playing modally.

This is a great topic and can do wonders for your playing, if you can apply it that is! This article is not about the modes as scales, I will write more on that later. It’s more about using this modal concept as a practical tool.

It’s best to read the article to the end to get an understanding of how to apply this practically.

When I discuss this topic with other guitar players most know and understand about modes as scale patterns but have not really given much thought about using them along with a modal based chord progression. This approach makes really good music and is such an excellent practise tool.

O.K what do I mean when I am talking about a Modal Chord progression? You probably have seen these all the time, but may have not switched on to what the composer/writer of the music is trying to achieve. These sorts of chord progressions are most commonly seen as slash chords i.e C/G

Here is an example, if I wanted to create a modal chord progression based on a 1,4,5 progression in the key of “C”. A one, four, five being the major triads or C, F and G.

Yes these are all in the key of C, no surprises there but if you were to play them as a straight chord progression the tonality changes with each chord change. Yes you could play “C” major through the whole chord progression but listen to what happens though if you keep the tonality of “C” as the root or pedal tone with the same chord progression.

To do this we make a small alteration to the progression and it now becomes C/C, F/C and G/C. We now have a ‘C” tonality through the chord changes. A quick note, I have put the C/C just to reinforce that “C” is the root and to make the chord progression look consistent.

So why do we want to do this? Well let your ears be the judge, firstly its a great chord progression and anything played in “C” major over this chord progression fits like a glove. This sort of progression allows you to play “C” major extensively without going too far wrong. In technical terms this would an “C” Ionian chord progression.

The whole point of what I am trying to get across is, to strengthen your knowledge of the “C” major scale (or any other scale) play it against a modal chord progression, either a backing track or with a friend. What you are then doing is applying and practising your scale knowledge against something musical. This is so much more effective than just practising scales for the sake of practising scales. I can’t stress this enough. I personally wasted so much practise time by just running scales up and down and got little return on the hours I put in.

Using your practise time as a musical exercise is much more valuable!

If you want to get in to this in more detail there is a DVD byFrank Gambale on the subject Modes No More Mystery, Frank Gambale The DVD shows Frank in his former 80′s glory but the subject material most definitely still applies. In general there is a lack of consolidated information of this nature so its definitely worth checking out.

I hope this helps someone, and of course I would love have your feedback. Not amp feedback but comment feedback.

Thanks

Steve Webb
www.justguitartalk.com




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Posted in Pratical Skills

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Dimensional Guitar

September 3rd, 2009

For me the guitar is very three dimensional. I tell my guitar students this all the time (yes some people are silly enough to take lessons from me!) However the more I think about this the more it rings true. This might be one of the reasons people find it hard to become really good at playing this instrument. Although you wouldn’t know with so many talented players out there.

What helped about seeing the guitar like this was it also opened my playing up and how taking one the aspects can create a genre or style of music.

First let me explain what I mean by three dimensional. This might not fit your description and I am not a professor in the subject nor do I attempt to try and understand quantum physics, rocket science or brain surgery! This is how I view it, hope I just didn’t build up a whole lotof false expectation then. Basically and its very basic you can view the guitar these ways:

1. Horizontally
2. Vertically
3. Diagonally

O.K this may not qualify as being three dimensions but for me it does because you also need to consider how playing each way impacts the sound and the music it produces. Try it out. Focus your playing in one direction and then another!

In my opinion and very generally speaking Jazz players play very Vertically i.e top to bottom. Depending on skill level rock players are a bit of both vertical and horizontal. Heavy Metal, Neo Classical are very much diagonal and horizontal.

Anyway something to think about!

Steve Webb
www.justguitartalk.com




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Posted in Mind Set

Welcome!

September 3rd, 2009

Thanks for your interest in Just Guitar Talk. The idea behind the site is to create an interesting forum focused on the art of guitar playing and what it takes to be a good musician. Everyone wants to be a better player, right!

Its my belief that this is not all theory and practise, although this obviously contributes. To a large proportion how we think (and how we hear) has to do with how we approach the instrument. For instance look at how the attribute of confidence effects how well you play. Its not in the theory books or something you can work on in the practise room. However there are things you can do that can help develop your confidence.

As for technical aspects some are relevant to discussion such as practise routines and harmony but the site is definitely not how to play Stairway to Heaven. My job is to make sure that doesn’t happen so give me a kick if it does. So therefore I do list some resources to guide you that way if that’s what you are looking for! and yes I agree that stuff is great fun.

The good part about a blog orientated site is feedback and participation so I hope you will embark with me on this project.

Thanks

Steve Webb
www.justguitartalk.com




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