Jazz Guitar Lesson #3 How to practice modes on the guitar

Here is an exercise for you guitarists who are trying to get better at playing modes.This post could have been titled "the problem of trying to learn scales on the guitar" or something like that. As I'm sure you have noticed there are some advantages as well as disadvantages with our instrument. We can learn one shape for a major scale and then we can move the exact same shape to play in another key. Think about any other (non string) instrument. Suppose they are playing a C major scale for example and want to move it a half-step up to Db major; they have to learn a whole new fingering! At first this might seem like a problem for them but in my opinion they are in a better position to learn the notes they are playing.

When I started to learn the modes and scales and all that I had a book that showed all the scales as fretboard diagrams. So I learned the scales and jammed along with jam-tracks and thought everything was great. The problem occurred later on when I tried to learn how to play over changes. To do that you need to know what notes you are playing. You should actually always know what notes you are playing even if you are just playing over a static chord situation. We guitar players have a tendency to mindlessly let our fingers move around the neck. A trumpet player for example has to think about the note and hear it in his head before he plays it. We should approach our instrument the same way. So learning the scales/modes on another instrument is a great idea.

So here is an exercise that hopefully will help you with this problem (if you don't have the time to learn how to play the trombone) :p

Play a C major scale starting on the sixth string. Play three notes per string and play two octaves.

Here is the trick: when you go to Db major, you should stay in the same position or area of the guitar neck. This way you don't move the shape but instead you have to think about what you are doing.

So play a Db major scale also starting on the sixth string but this time START WITH TWO NOTES on the sixth string. This was you get a different fingering, right?

By now you have probably figured it out; when it's time to play D major you start with one note on the sixth string. Very good Sherlock! :p

Now to keep going you play Eb major starting on the fifth string and you go through the same procedure. When you start on the fifth string you have to adjust the higher notes since you're gonna get more that three notes on the highest string. If this is confusing check my YouTube video how I solved this problem.

Now some of you say -wait a minute, we are only learning six keys?!  My answer: Start the exercise on any other note then C, then!

After you've done all this you start over this time with Dorian, then Phrygian etc etc. For the more advanced student: do the melodic minor scales and modes as well. Actually any seven note scale that you know. For scales with more or less than seven notes you have a modify the exercise a bit. Please let me know if any of you out there do that I would love to get feedback on this.

What happened to me when I started practicing this way was that I had to really think about the notes and the relationship between the notes and the scales. Do the exercise slowly and I recommend singing the notes with there actual note names. Good luck and let me know if this helped. :)

Practicing modes PDF 

Jazz Guitar Lesson #2 The diminshed scale (how to hear it)

This is a lesson on the diminished scale. I think that a lot of jazz guitarists (and other instrumentalists) are struggling with this scale( I know I do) It's hard to "hear" this sound and if you can't hear it then you are less likely to play it. When you are improvising you want to follow your ears rather than having to think about what scale or system you are using. Here is a little tip how you can hear it more easily. I recommend practicing singing the scale. Divide the scale in two: D minor which is D E F G  and Ab minor which is Ab Bb Cb Db. Or if you wanna think of the Cb as an B nautural which is what I tend to do.

So this lesson is not really explaining how to construct the diminished scale, there are a lot of resources online on that. This is simply a way to practice internalizing the sound.

Diminished Scale Lesson PDF click here

The Augmented Scale

Sooooo It's been ages since my last blog. I don't do a lot of transcribing these days unfortunately but hey...I'm starting a "Jazz theory for guitarists" channel om YouTube.

First topic is the augmented scale. This scale is not so often mentioned in Jazz method-books but you can hear a lot of players use it. The best example I can think of is Oliver Nelsons solo on his tune Stolen Moments. The lick was shown to me by Jazz saxophonist Pat Labarbera. You can also hear Freddie Hubbard play this exact lick in his solo on Survival of the Fittest from the Herbie Hancock album Maiden Voyage.

You can also hear this kind of sound in the composition Ambleside by pianist John Taylor.

One has to be careful when using scale so that it doesn't sound contrived. Just like with any symmetrical scale it can easily sound like you are playing patterns. I guess the trick is to be able to hear the sound so that it becomes part of your vocabulary, just like with any new concept you learn.

This scale works over Maj7(#5) chords but like any symmetrical scale you can pretty much use it over any chord if you know how to resolve it.

Don't confuse this scale with the Lydian Augmented Scale, that's the third mode of a Melodic Minor scale.


The Augmented Scale Pdf




The Augmented Scale PDF




Survival of the fittest



Ambleside

TheAugmented.mus by mikkohilden

Coquette Stochelo Rosenberg solo

This is my transcription of the fantastic Gypsy Jazz guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg's solo on Coquette. From  Bireli Lagrene's album Gypsy Project.

Coquette Rosenberg Solo

The Best Things In Life Are Free Jesse Van Ruller Solo

Hi again!

It's been a while. I have transcribed a lot of stuff but been to lazy to write it down. Or sometimes it's just too hard to try and notate what I have lifted.
But here is another transcription of a solo by the wonderful Dutch guitarist Jesse Van Ruller. If you haven't checked him out?....
The solo is from The Best Things In Life Are Free from the 2002 album Here And There.
A not so often played standard form the 1956 movie with the same name, I think.

The Best Things in Life Are Free Jesse Van Ruller solo

Enrico Pieranunzi's solo on Five Plus Five

Here is a trancsription of Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi's solo over Five Plus Five from the album Dream Dance with Joey Baron with Marc Johnson. Great ECM Album! As usual when lifting piano players I have only lifted the 'right hand'. Not the voicings, that's way too hard for me to do. The form is a blues and I just wrote out the chords of a regular 'Jazz-blues' even though Enrico is playing a bunch of crazy stuff. There is a lot of 'half-step up' stuff going on, I'm gonna try to make an analysis of the solo later, right now its summer and lots of gigs, less time for transcriptions.  

Enrico Pieranunzi Solo 

Mike Stern 'Autumn Leaves'

Hi y'all.

Here is my latest transcription. Mike Stern's solo over Autumn Leaves form Bob Berg's album In The Shadows. Autumn Leaves is a classic jazz-standard that every Jazz student has to play and it can be a good idea to check out what the masters play over these changes. In this case the master in Mr Stern. Some interesting stuff here; bebop-scales and surrounds, side-slipping and 'Lenny Breu'-ish guidetones.
I hope you like it.

Mike Stern Solo Autumn Leaves
check it out on Youtube