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Applying Modes Question


Music Fusion

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  • 3 weeks later...


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Hi folks

 

Just checking in. I hope everyone is well and had a good Easter.

 

I'm still plugging away at the guitar. Basically, getting my speed up by doing some metronome stuff. I can race through the major scale on all parts of the neck at 160 BPM.

 

I know it's not about speed, but this exercise is helping me get better at up and down picking.

 

I need to get back to the Japanese scales. They are interesting.

 

I think my next big challenge is to put everything I've learned in the back of my mind. What i mean by that is that I now know the pentatonic scale and the major scale throughout the entire neck quite fluidly. I also have become pretty good at deploying the modes and am know familiar with which mode to use when in terms of the feeling they bring to a piece. All this took a great deal of time and a lot of support from you folks, but I'm there and thankful for the help!

 

But now, I want to try to play with my soul. Knowing the scales and modes is great and I will always use them, but now I have to learn to play less systemically and more fluidly. All the stuff I learned will always be deployed because it works, and it will always be so. But I want to be able to call upon it in moments of need, rather than as a strategy.

 

This next challenge will be huge, but I think worth it. I'm sure Craig and D may have something to say about that ;-)

 

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I'm wondering out loud if I should now try to look at the neck horizontally rather than vertically and try to find my way horizontally, as opposed to a vertical orientation.

 

A jazz player friend of mine had a teacher who would occasionally make his students play their solos entirely on one string. Gives you a whole different perspective, & gets closer to a sort of jazz ideal of learning how to phrase like a sax player, or vocalist.

Scott Fraser
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I'm wondering out loud if I should now try to look at the neck horizontally rather than vertically and try to find my way horizontally, as opposed to a vertical orientation.

 

Or, whether I should scrap that and just play anywhere and see what happens.

 

Music Fusion, I think you are doing a great job and have really progressed. It is a lifetime journey so enjoy the ride. My answer to your question is there are two ways to play (i.e. along the neck and across the neck), so do both. You can play anywhere as long as you are in the correct key using a tonal center (i.e. found on the 1st and 6th strings) as a starting point. The modes and pentatonic scales are just a roadmap for your journey. :cool:

Take care, Larryz
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I'm wondering out loud if I should now try to look at the neck horizontally rather than vertically and try to find my way horizontally, as opposed to a vertical orientation.

 

Or, whether I should scrap that and just play anywhere and see what happens.

 

Music Fusion, I think you are doing a great job and have really progressed. It is a lifetime journey so enjoy the ride. My answer to your question is there are two ways to play (i.e. along the neck and across the neck), so do both. You can play anywhere as long as you are in the correct key using a tonal center (i.e. found on the 1st and 6th strings) as a starting point. The modes and pentatonic scales are just a roadmap for your journey. :cool:

 

+1!

Scott Fraser
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As I demonstrated, earlier; You can learn two patterns, find the notes that connect them, repeat those patterns above the 12th and have a single scale/mode that can be played virtually anywhere on the neck.

 

Another good reason to do this is, when the notes are in different locations, it provides different "Riff" opportunities. Keep at it, man. You are doing well!

 

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Thanks for all the encouragement guys. I really appreciate it.

 

I found a video I would like to share with you. I am not a fan of jazz, but in my quest to learn as much as can about guitar, and from many different perspectives, I looked into a few jazz videos.

 

The lesson in this video, I think applies to any type of improvisation. I also like the way he expresses the issue. I think it is exactly what i want to try to tackle next.

 

Have a look:

 

 

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The only thing I'd add is, he finished with how important it is to play phrases and not scales. It should be noted that in the beginning he says that the scales are like the alphabet and the phrases are like sentences. This is true. However, You need to learn your alphabet before you can build sentences. Even the world's best authors had to learn their ABCs.
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True.

 

Yesterday i began playing across the neck on a single string and then on two strings. i was playing to a country backing track.

 

This exercize did a few things for me:

 

It made me take note of the interval distance between notes using a single string. I was playing the pentatonic scale, so it was handy to see where the notes are horizontally as it makes it easier to travel across the neck.

 

I also made note of how different and perhaps more interesting solos become when you are able to slide into notes. It will be a good technique to put into the mix.

 

 

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The only thing I'd add is, he finished with how important it is to play phrases and not scales. It should be noted that in the beginning he says that the scales are like the alphabet and the phrases are like sentences. This is true. However, You need to learn your alphabet before you can build sentences. Even the world's best authors had to learn their ABCs.

As a language metaphor, I'd say it goes like this:

You grow up hearing words & build an ability to use them, then you study their component parts for their systematic use.

Communication & meaning is where it all starts.

 

That's why this is an interesting idea...

A jazz player friend of mine had a teacher who would occasionally make his students play their solos entirely on one string. Gives you a whole different perspective, & gets closer to a sort of jazz ideal of learning how to phrase like a sax player, or vocalist.
d=halfnote
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Perhaps I should also have added that, as w/lang, the development of our individual & interactive voices is a lifelong process & that there is no real right or wrong abt how we express ourselves other than whether we're effective communicators, have something to say in the 1st place...& what that is.
d=halfnote
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I think that being somewhat mindless about playing, and letting what you feel guide what you play, is a good way to unearth your feelings and convey them.

 

I know I am bouncing all around but I've also been devoting some time replicating some great guitar solos. I know replication is not original, but I think there is something to be said in trying to play what great players have, and getting a sense for why it sounds so good.

 

My latest attempt was the solo on Crazy Little Thing Called Love. I've pasted a clip below. The sound perhaps is a bit too distorted, but I wasn't focussing on getting the right preset. I was just learning the actual lick.

 

The cool thing, I recorded this using an IRIG HD2 and my iPhone, using Amplitude as the software. I am amazed on how these little apps that sit on a phone can replicate and sound like and sometimes even better than the huge amps of past. I can carry both the I[phone and the Irig in my pocket. That's how compact this technology is.

 

Here is the clip (very short)

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ai8IyQ3m9e92IaJVG6ZRYvPznIE5ie34/view?

usp=sharing

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  • 9 months later...

Well folks, it has been a long time since I have been here, so I wanted to let you know that i am still alive and practicing all that I have learned here.

 

In fact, my band played a dinner dance on Valentimnes and we were a big hit. I play rhythm guitar in the band am also the lead singer. There is part of our show where I introduce the band and ask each member of the band to do a little solo. Then, at the very end, the female singer introduces me. In the past, there is no way i could have done a solo. But with what i have leanred here, I am able to solo and did so when it was my turn in the introductions.

 

I am still learning, but now it is more about playing with feeling than worry about the shapes and modes. Since I have leanred those, i have tried very hard to park them in the back of my mind so that i am using them, but not being enslaved by them.

 

It's all working out. Still very thankful for all those on this forum who did not give up on me and answered my sometimes odd questions about lead guitar.

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