After the previous article I was wondering if there were any improvements on Neil Young’s one note guitar solo on Cinnamon Girl?
Just as a catch up! here are links back to the previous two articles and the topics we covered:
No 1. Be a bloody good rhythm guitar player!
No 2. Play single notes along a single string (observing intervals)
So if you had the chance to experiment with playing some single notes along one string and observing the intervals (spaces between the notes) well done.
The next concept I want to explore is building scales and exploring interval formulas in a bit more depth.
In regards to scales, anyone can get access to scales patterns from books or online sources, there is wealth of that sort of information out there! if you feel the need go for it! If you are partly along the path of memorizing scale patterns or are already well versed then of course this effort is not wasted. However from my own experience after endless hours of practising scales and patterns I discovered a change in my thinking and my playing approach which may help others at an earlier stage, or you never know more experienced players may find something useful in me sharing this. Bye the way I am by no means a university professor or anything, I am just an aspiring guitar player like yourself.
What cemented a change for me was watching a video, Robben Ford Back to the Blues
So lets explore this a bit more. As most of our harmony comes from the major scale this would be an appropriate place to start. The interval formula for a major scale is whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step, or WWHWWWH for short. This can also be related to as 2 frets, 2 frets, 1 fret, 2 frets, 2 frets, 2 frets, 1 fret. This is not break through news for most of you and this can be found in any basic theory books and other sources. However I do think that the simplicity of this is overlooked and most players are “whatever” about it.
The strength of this is that beginner players with little knowledge, that possibly doesn’t know any names of the notes can chose a starting point anywhere along any single string and play a major scale. That’s pretty cool. More experienced players can switch off from pattern playing and be more focused on selective notes. The subtle difference is that you are memorizing the formula rather than the finger pattern.
In my mind this is a far better approach. Remembering the formula is easier than trying to take on the big task of learning numerous patterns from a book and these patterns will emerge as you develop this interval knowledge. It also makes your playing a lot more dynamic and changes your focus towards not only the intervals but also what the individual notes are. Best of all is that you can apply this straight away. For instance if you can remember the interval formula, changing from D major to E major should be an easy exercise. This is of course assuming that you know where D and E are along any given string. Also so I am making this clear, this works on any individual given string and across strings but at this stage we are just keeping it simple.
If you don’t have note names under your belt here is a link to Lick Library where Mathew Van Doran does a great series on Fretboard Mastery. You might have to search for “Mathew Van Doran” once on the site.
So in summary;
No 1. Be a bloody good rhythm guitar player!
No 2. Play single notes along a single string (observing intervals)
No 3. Memorize the interval formula for the major scale.
Knowing these intervals will allow you to build simple solo’s along individual strings in any key. In the next article we will continue to expand our knowledge of this formula.
Until then…
Regards
Steve Webb
