Steve Shelton – Crescendo Music Loft

Play Guitar Like a Horn Player

Steve Shelton — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 15:22:33 +0000

Learn a Harmonized Blues Scale – Easy and Fun!

My inspiration for this column is from Rich Severson, guitarist, and host of GuitarCollege.com. Rich is one of the smoothest jazz players I’ve seen on the internet – his left-hand chord playing is like butter! Check out his site for a vast number of materials for very reasonable prices.

I had never seen this simple – (I mean simple!) – “trick” to get some great sounds for playing on the blues. Technically, it is called a “harmonized blues scale.”

Here is a typical 12 bar blues in G.

G7 G7 G7 G7

C7 C7 G7 G7

D7 C7 G7 G7

Look at the G minor pentatonic blues scale from the 3rd fret – sometimes called the “box 1” position.

Now you are going to make a D minor chord shape, with the top note placed on each pentatonic note of the high E string like this:

See Video 1 below for a demonstration.

You can play this shape up and down the neck over the progression and sound hip. Think like a horn player and make some “punches” with these chords. Try soloing a bit and adding the punches in between for variation – like a horn section would.

See Video 2 below for playing demonstration.

Try Some Variations

This great trick works for blues in any key by using the corresponding minor pentatonic scale.

Ex: Bb blues progression? – no problem, use the above chord shapes based on Bb minor blues scale.

Your goal is get loose moving the shapes up and down the neck over a G blues track. Play what sounds good to you.

A quick fun way to add more variety to your playing!

I hope you enjoyed this and let me know what you think in the comments. Theory questions welcome!

A little extra: You can also transpose that D minor chord shape to the next string set (3-4-5 / D-G-B) to extend the lower range. (See my column on chord transposition). Let me know if you give that a try.

Video 1: G Blues Scale Example

Video 2: G Chord Example

The Golden Age of Guitar Instruction

Steve Shelton — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 14:58:50 +0000

YouTube and the internet could be considered the golden age for guitar and music instruction –– so much content for no cost-but where do you start?

Justin Guitar

For all levels, I can recommend justinguitar.com. There is a complete curriculum for the beginner to the intermediate level guitarist. He covers guitar basics, various styles, tunes and goes deep for jazz players (no classical curriculum that I saw). His content is thorough and free, which is fantastic. He does sell his products, but I feel his purpose is to teach you, not to hawk his merch.

www.justinguitar.com

Signals Music Studio

I also like Signals Music Studio. Jake Lizzio is a very professional host, guitarist, producer, and teacher. He covers many different aspects of playing and is excellent at explaining theory and applying examples on the guitar. You can “level up” from justinguitar with Jake and explore more in-depth knowledge.

Signals Music Studio YouTube Channel

Rick Beato

Rick Beato is something of a YouTube legend, at least according to him! I’ve been watching him from the early days of music theory lessons. I have seen the videos’ quality skyrocket with memorable song analysis, online artist interviews and studio guests, live broadcasts, daily Instagrams, and so on. Highly recommended if you want to hear a seasoned pro talk guitars, tech, theory, tunes, and give strong opinions about today’s music! There are videos with intense dives into music theory – so explore when you’re ready.

Rick Beato’s YouTube Channel

Jens Larsen

I’m really into jazz, so I watch lots of YouTubers. Jens Larsen is a Danish guitarist and educator. I am constantly watching his videos to improve my chord knowledge, rhythm playing, and improvisation skills. I often freeze the written examples because he always plays at a pretty brisk tempo, but it’s worth it. I found new chord voicings, substitutions, and good improv ideas. A little dry in presentation, but excellent content.

Jens Larsen’s YouTube Channel

Guitarversum Sandra Sherman

Staying in Europe, I visit a website called Guitarversum Sandra Sherman. Sandra is a wonderful teacher from Austria who teaches at a slower pace and plays thorough and complete examples. She has many lessons that teach an entire tune, which are my favorite. She teaches melody, chords, and rhythms a few bars at a slow tempo, then will play everything at a regular tempo at the end—one of my favorite teachers.

Guitarversum.com

TrueFire.com

TrueFire.com has a vast library of guitar and bass instruction videos that are of excellent quality. There are videos for absolutely any guitarist, at any level. I own several videos, and they are all good, especially those produced over the last few years. There are tabs, play-along tracks, tempo controls, and plenty of pdfs with the playing examples you can print out. You can buy DVDs or stream them to your PC, tablet, or phone via the Truefire app. They offer a selection of $5.00 downloads every month or so, and you cannot get better quality education for that price. Also, Truefire added artists “channels” for low monthly subscription fees. I subscribe to Frank Vignola’s channel for his incredible instruction on hundreds of jazz standards.

TrueFire.com

Jake Reichbart

I have one last recommendation to inspire guitarists. I discovered Jake Reichbart’s videos years ago when I was learning to play solo guitar. You won’t believe the songs that he plays as a solo guitarist – I mean, this guy covers the whole Steely Dan repertoire of all things, and practically any other pop tune you can think of – it is incredible! Jake usually sits almost immobile and expressionless, but oh man, can this guy play.

Jake Reichbart plays Peg by Steely Dan

Jake Reichbart’s YouTube Channel

In Closing

Anyhow, I could go on, but let’s leave it there. You won’t be disappointed. I’d love to know if there are guitar and music channels you enjoy, so please share in the comments.

“I Will Follow You Into The Dark”: Learn a Strum Pattern

Steve Shelton — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 15:21:10 +0000

There’s a lot to learn from this tune by Death Cab for Cutie. A link to the video is below for reference. I’m not going to teach the song – because there are lots of free online lessons available, but I want to highlight some features to learn and practice.

“I Will Follow You Into The Dark” is played with a very steady bass pulse and rhythm.

The video has a brief shot from the guitar soundhole at 0:29, and you can see the pattern used in the right hand. You want to listen carefully and try to replicate that pattern as close as possible.

More on this later, but let’s start with the basics:

Chords

You will use basic open position chord forms of C, Am, F, Fm, G, and E. You can search Google images for these chord forms if you need to learn them.

Capo

This song is played with a capo at the fifth fret. The chord shapes remain the same, but they are renamed by moving up five semitones when played with the capo on the fifth fret. The new chord names are F, Dm, Bb, Bbm, C, and A.

Guitarists and songwriters love playing with a capo because the song can be played in a more comfortable key for singing. However, guitarists often do not know the name of chords they are playing when using a capo, so I urge you to learn the actual chord names.

For example, you should learn that a “C major chord at capo 5” is an F major chord, and so on with each chord.

Chords from the scale

Most pop songs use chords from the “home” key of the song. This song uses mainly chords from the key of F Major: F(I) – Dm(vi) – Bb (IV) and C (V). There are two pretty hip exceptions in this tune.

Songwriting tricks

1) The A chord is a substitute for Am (iii), which adds a wonderful “surprise” harmony to the tune, in my opinion. Chord substitutions like this are common and help give songs their unique feeling.

2) The IV – IV minor cadence. Hopefully, when you play the Bb to Bbm progression, you recognize this sound from lots of pop music. The Beatles quickly come to mind. This sound of this cadence gives me a sense of “falling” back into the home (I) chord. Once you play it enough times, you’ll start hearing it on lots of songs.

Practice alternating bass notes with a percussive strum

We will use the verse chords for the exercise. Set the metronome to a slow tempo in 4/4 time and only play a bass note on click 1 and 3. Click 1 root – Click 3 fifth.

At this slow tempo, add a percussive strum to the whole chord on click 2 and click 4. I can see on the video that he uses the back of his right-hand fingernails to get the sound.

Using the first 8 bars of the verse as an example: F/ F/ Dm /Dm /Bb/ Bb/ F/ C. (Note: These are the chord names with capo in fifth fret – not the chord shape names)

Practice this pattern slowly as you change chords, which is a great challenge!

(Note: I don’t hear the alternating bass on every chord, but for practice purposes, I would suggest you find the roots and fifths of every chord to develop your right thumb dexterity).

I hope you did follow me on this tune breakdown. You can develop right-hand thumb independence, chord/key recognition, identify a chord substitution, and the IV – IVm cadence. If you’re a singer, you can move the capo around to find the best key for you. It will help you and your fellow musicians to learn those chord names too.

I hope you enjoy learning the tune, and please let me know in the comments if you found these ideas helpful.

Strum Pattern at Slow Tempo

Strum Pattern at Regular Tempo

Alligators & Lizards Part 2

Steve Shelton — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 15:08:19 +0000

Let’s go to the videotape!

For this column, I made two short videos demonstrating “free playing” over a loop of GMaj7 – Dmaj7, the main Ventura Highway chord progression.

In my previous post, I suggested that you practice only in the D major scale from the 10th position and then only in the B minor pentatonic from the seventh position.

I filmed myself playing from these two positions and used some of the soloing ideas below.

Call & Response

Think of this as asking a musical question in your first line and answering it in your second line. Make up a melody of your own over the G major 7 and try to “answer” that melody with another musical statement over the D major 7 chord. Call and response lines are very common in all kinds of improvising.

Repetition

I will repeat an improvised melody or rhythm from one chord to the next. Think about music you like, and you’ll notice lots of repetition – musicians know we love repetition. Repetition also helps you ingrain solid fingerings and strong melodic patterns to your hands and ears.

Start slow and take a breath here and there – Ah, the guitar players curse. Try to start your free play session with simple, slow musical statements. Play half notes or even whole notes to begin. Playing slowly at first not only can sound beautiful, but it will “set up” your more expressive playing later during your solos.

Up & Down

I’m not the first to say that playing ascending lines creates tension and drama, and descending lines give a sense of resolution. Like the call and response idea, you can make ascending and descending lines with any scale. Try creating an ascending line on the G Major 7 and a descending line on the D Major 7.

String Skips, Triplets, Straight & Jazz Eighths

Try these variations with the lines you create. Stringing skipping in small or wide intervals often surprises listeners with an unexpected gift because you’ve created new tensions and resolutions in your improvisations.

Bends, Slides, Hammer-Ons, Vibrato, & Trills

These are “ornamentation” skills that so many great guitarists use to add that proper sense of emotion and expression. You’ve probably heard that these are like spices, and you shouldn’t “overdo” playing ornaments, but this is your practice session, not a performance. Go ahead and overdo these ideas for several loops of the chords. Your goal is to execute these ideas accurately and to listen for the expressive qualities that you like.

Dyads & Triads

Playing two-note or even three-note groupings across strings that you can visualize in the scale and pentatonic patterns can add some modern, sophisticated sounds. Explore and create note groups and play them over the changes. You’re making mini-chords that can sound awesome after single note soloing.

I hope you’ll give these ideas a try and that they help you develop more creative soloing skills. Please let me know how it works out in the comments.

Alligator Lizards in the Air–Flying Over “Ventura Highway”

Steve Shelton — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 17:03:23 +0000

“Ventura Highway” is a classic tune from the ’70s and was just one of several big hits by the group America that I want to highlight for several reasons. The goal of this lesson is to stop thinking and play. I’ll put up a warning sign when theory crosses the road, but I want you to make music in this lesson.

The verses’ main progression is just two chords–2 bars of G Maj 7 and 2 bars of D Maj 7.

Goal 1: Relaxed strumming

Strum these chords along with verses until you are feeling the rhythm. Your aim is for a very relaxed feeling but a quick tempo–we’re cruising the Ventura Highway! Play these chords into your looper or software.

Goal 2: Bust out a D major scale

Here is the scale. The first note is D located on the low E string at fret 10.

Please turn off your head and play whatever you want from this scale over the chords. That’s right–free, loose, and musical. No thinking about “right notes” for each chord–stay in the position, shut your eyes, and play.

(If you’re not familiar or haven’t practiced this scale form, go ahead, and do that a few minutes each day). You’re working the scale form and musical ideas into your hands and your ears. Practice shutting off your thinking for this exercise. This is your “cruise control” setting, and it is where high-level musicians are at when performing.

Goal 3: Bust Out a B minor pentatonic

Here it is in the 7^th position.

Many teachers, books, and videos refer to this form as the “Box 1” form of the pentatonic scale. I want you to wail over the chords with this form. Get expressive, play with feeling, try some bends, pull-offs, hammer-ons, whatever you want.

Theory Ahead

Turn around and go back if you were just looking for kicks, but stick with me if you can.

The chords G Maj 7 and D Maj 7 can be derived from one major scale–the D major scale. That means we can also use its relative minor–B minor. It is tempting to think G major scale would be the choice because the first chord is G major–and I’ve tried it, but G major has a C natural, and that note clashes hard in both chords (at least to my ears).

If you’ve come this far, maybe you’re asking about the C# from D Major getting played over a G Major 7.

The C# is the #4 degree of G major. The #4 note is a commonly played tone over a major seven chord. So, D major scale played from G to G over G Maj is called the G Lydian scale 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 or G A B C# D E F#.

This bit of analysis is what music theory nerds do, kids. It’s useful info, but I hope you’ll take some time to just get creative with these ideas and start feeling musical.

“Blackbird”: Learning the 10th Interval

Steve Shelton — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 16:05:08 +0000

Start With a Major or Minor Third

In my last post, we looked at “Brown Eyed Girl,” a song where intervals of major or minor thirds played from the key of G are used to create the main riff.

Play it an Octave Higher

“Blackbird” by The Beatles is also in the key of G and uses an interval called a 10th, which is a major or minor third but played one octave higher.

Check out the YouTube video below if you want to learn the whole song or start at the 4:47 mark for the author’s demonstration of 10th intervals.

Finger Independence

This beautiful McCartney composition makes heavy use of this interval, and it is well worth taking the time to learn. To play correctly, you’ll be working on your right-hand thumb and finger independence – often called fingerstyle technique – to sound out the bass and melody notes cleanly without playing the open strings. If this is new for you, follow the tried-and-true way to learn – play very slowly and deliberately, taking one or two measures at a time.

Contrary Motion

Besides the challenging chord shapes and right-hand technique, “Blackbird” has great examples of contrary motion. This is when a bass line and melody line move simultaneously but in opposite directions. The opening phrases, both the bass and melody are ascending, but the next phrase has a passage of descending bass played against an ascending melody (“take these broken wings…”). Very cool.

The melody is originating from a chord progression. Within each chord, Sir Paul chose mostly 10th intervals to compose the beautiful melody. So, if you have a chord progression you’ve written, or one that you like, try to play the 10th interval of the chords, and make up a melody too. You might create a beautiful new song trying this technique.

More Songs With the 10th Interval

There are lots of songs with thirds and 10th intervals – and contrary motion, such as “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, “Can’t Find My Way Home,” Blind Faith, “Tears in Heaven,” Eric Clapton, “I Will Wait,” Mumford and Sons, and many others. Each tune is worth learning to get your fingerstyle chops happening and to wow the crowd around the campfire (or these days maybe the propane heat lamp).

Keep practicing and have fun!

“Brown Eyed Girl”: The Classic Riff Explained

Steve Shelton — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 13:24:03 +0000

Expand your soloing by learning the concept behind this classic riff.

You’ve heard lots of songs with guitars playing melodies or solos not just on single strings, but in two note groupings, called dyads, or intervals. In guitar language, they are sometimes called “double stops.”

Dyads made up of thirds are played as the main riff for the intro of “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison.

(Link to a full lesson on the tune:

Go to 2:07 to see a good demonstration).

Start by learning and internalizing the main chord progression:

G / C / G / D

Over the G chord play:

Dyads

G - B

A - C

B - D

A - C

G - B

Over the C chord play:

Dyads

C - E

D - F

E - G

D - F

C - E

Repeat the G chord dyads again and then end on the D chord.

You can memorize this melody and stop there, but I’d like to demonstrate what is happening harmonically over the G and C chords.

The dyads played over the G chord are derived out the first three chord qualities of the G major scale i.e., G Maj, A min, and B min, but using just the root – 3rd intervals, not the full chords. The G-B dyad is the major third interval of G Maj, the A-C dyad is the minor third interval of A min, and the B-D dyad is the minor third interval of B min.

Similarly, the same form of the melody (motif) repeats itself over the C chord, using C Maj, D min, and E min, where C-E is a major third, D-F is a minor third, and E-G is a minor third.

Why go into this depth? Well, it never hurts to learn a bit more about harmony. Using dyads, or intervals, can add some “weight” to compliment your single string soloing. Try out this idea starting in a different key or try moving the idea across to a different string pair. (These same fingerings work on string set 4-3 (D-G) and sound good.

Next time, we’ll look at “Blackbird” by the Beatles and see this concept again, but with a different and wider interval.

Another Hendrix Chord?

Steve Shelton — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 16:13:58 +0000

The Hendrix Chord: E7#9

Lots of guitarists call the 7#9 chord – the “Hendrix” chord, after the legendary Jimi Hendrix who employed it often, but you can really hear it loud and clear on “Foxy Lady”.

Another Useful Hendrix Chord: Eb/G

But there’s another chord that I associate with Jimi, and you can hear this all over “The Wind Cries Mary” – especially the intro. It is a major chord that replaces the root note with the major 3^rd on the bass string.

To see how to make this chord form, first play a 5thstring rooted power chord (Fig 1).

Replace the root with the major third of the chord (Fig 2). This chord is named Eb/G – indicating to play an Eb major chord, but to play a G in the bass.

Fig. 1 root on 5th string

Fig. 2 – 3rd on 5th string

Fig. 3

The chord in Fig. 2 sounds great – your bass player will love it as you’ve given up the root note, and the chord quality has not changed, it’s still a major chord.

You can check out this YouTube video on how play the whole intro.

the Eb/G chord from Fig. 2 is explained at 1:07.

But what I love in this chord shape is that the related major pentatonic box is laying right under your fingers to add tasty fills over the chord. Figure 3 shows the perfect pentatonic box shape that is there for the playing. Check out the 2:00 mark on the above video to see how Hendrix accessed that pentatonic form to play a fill, which leads into the first verse.

This major/3rd bass chord shape from Fig 2 also works well on country-flavored tunes. Finish a verse or chorus with the shape and try playing a fill from the pentatonic box to finish it up.

Try substituting this major/3rd bass chord for your traditional power chord, or open-voiced major chord. Open up your ears and see if this sound is something you like!

Try Some of Our Fine Arpeggios

Steve Shelton — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 15:51:12 +0000

Lots of students learn scales and can get them running up and down in short order. Arpeggios are key notes from scales that are used to play the harmony of a chord. The arpeggio also serves as a framework to use in creating melodies and solos.

The goal is for you to know where physically these key notes are located on the fretboard.

The reference chord, arpeggio notes, and scale degrees of C Major and F Major are shown below in BOLD as examples. “R” stands for “root” which has the same letter name as the letter name of the chord. So, the root note in a Cmaj7 chord is a “C.”

Let’s review the notes in a C major scale:

Let’s review the notes in a C Major 7 Arpeggio:

Here’s how you could play those notes as a chord on the guitar in first position:

But if you explore the fretboard further, you can find lots of notes within the C Major 7 arpeggio close by:

Now let’s explore the possibilities within an F major scale. For review, here is the scale:

And here are the notes in an F Major 7 Arpeggio:

Here’s how you could play an F Major 7 chord in first position:

Once again, if you explore the fretboard, you will find other notes close by within the F Major 7 chord:

To learn these thoroughly I’d suggest you play through each arpeggio diagram saying out loud the note name and the scale degree. Give yourself 5–10 minutes a day on this exercise.

Put Your Practice Into Some Playing

With a looper, recorder, or a friend lay down a nice relaxed, repetitive chord progression of C Maj 7 and F Maj 7.

On the CM7 chord, play only the notes of the C Major 7 arpeggio, (even if you know scales, resist the urge, and stick to playing only notes from the arpeggio). Try to make melodies, or try string skipping, or try starting a phrase from the third, or create your own variation. Do the same when then chord changes to FM7 using the FM7 arpeggio.

This practice exercise is to learn the locations of the important chord tones in each chord, training your ear to hearing the harmony of each chord.

You can also make some nice lines by “voice leading” your single lines from one chord to the next.

Two Examples of Voice Leading Using These Chords

On the C chord, make your last note an E, and on the F chord play and F as your first note. On the F chord, make you last note a C, and on the C chord play B as your first note.

This is an example of half-step or semitone voice leading. You can also voice lead with whole tones too, ascending or descending.

This voice leading concept for line playing can be used with chords too, and I’ll explore that with you in another column.

Hear the progression! Listen to “I Can’t Tell You Why” by the Eagles and you’ll hear this chord progression in the verses, a whole step up, D Maj 7 – G Maj 7.

Plays Well With Others

Steve Shelton — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 19:40:01 +0000

Let’s take a break from all that chord chemistry and talk about something practical (and musical) when playing with another guitarist or keyboard player.

I’ve found that if guitarists each play the same chord, unless they are both carefully tuned and locked into each other’s rhythm playing, tuning and rhythmic differences can clash. When playing rhythms with another guitar player, try playing your chords in a different position.

Look at the E major chords below. The first open position shape is one of the first chords you learn, but the others you may not have played yet. If one guitarist is playing the open position chord, play one of the other forms simultaneously. You’ll get E major chord tones in the higher range, which can make rhythm parts bright and fuller sounding

Try the same experiment with the A chord forms. If you’ve got a looper or multi-track recorder, you can experiment with chords that sound best.

Here’s an extra credit challenge–take one of the higher voiced E chords and replace the third (G#) with the ninth (F#) or replace a fifth (B) with a sixth (C#)–you’ll start to hear some richer harmonies, and hopefully you’ll recognize some of these sounds in your favorite tunes.

Playing with a keyboardist can present some additional challenges. If the keyboardist is playing full with the left and right hand, and you’re strumming big 5- or 6-string voiced chords, the music can sound very cluttered. You’re playing both in the same “sonic space” and overlapping lots of notes. Also, the keyboardist is likely comping differently from the guitarist, resulting in very uneven sounding rhythms.

Your best bet is to listen and learn from your keyboard player how they play on your tunes and try to strike a balance if you want to play simultaneously. My own experience is if the keyboardist is not experienced playing with another guitarist (and vice versa), that you both agree to play smaller chords and in a different tonal range–the “sonic spaces.” When it’s time for one of you to solo, make your comps even smaller to let the soloist shine in the full range of their instrument.

Your bass player will have something to say too . . . the low notes belong to them and you both need to stay out of the way!

Listening carefully and communicating thoughtfully is the key if you want to play well with others!