IntellectualMusician.com

Have you ever wanted to go to a music store and get a book that had the best information on how to play guitar, explained in ways that were easy to understand and made sense, and not know which book to buy? Ever go out and get that book, only to discover that it had a bunch of information that you didn’t need and didn’t make a good deal of sense after all? Ever wonder whether the “get chops quick” guitar methods so prevalent on the Internet today are really ripoffs? Well, no need for further frustration, help is here.

I’ve been playing guitar for quite some time and understand these situations because I’ve been there. I used to wonder how the great rock and jazz guitarists learned what they learned in order to play the way they play. I was curious to know: What was their secret? What is the key that unlocked all that great playing and all that musicianship, and what is the easiest and most painless way for me to begin to approach that level? It is my goal in this article to begin to provide answers to these questions. That way, you won’t have to navigate the same musical maze that I did. These answers should, in effect, help make your musical experience that much more enjoyable. Incidentally, in spite of all the struggles, I still play music fervently and haven’t quit playing even when it became difficult, a testimony to the power of music.

As many of you have, I’ve gone into music stores and on the Web looking for the BEST and MOST HELPFUL books and methods to buy for the musical arenas I wanted to pursue. This is important of course because these books and methods are expensive (especially these days) and a budding guitar player shouldn’t have to go out and buy every book on guitar that’s out there. I’ve also noticed that there are quite a few guitar books that start off by throwing tons of scales at the student without ever even explaining clearly why all these scales need to be learned in the first place, or worse, how the scales should be used or which chords to play the scales over and why the scales sound good over a particular chord or series of chord changes (as opposed to sounding terrible). In contrast, we’ll begin the subject of learning to improvise lead guitar for rock and jazz (while including concepts applicable to all guitar styles) with a very simple, step-by-step, start-to-finish, bare bones approach in 4 parts.

STEP 1: LEARNING THE NAMES OF THE INDIVIDUAL NOTES ON THE ENTIRE FRETBOARD - This is vital because in the art of improvisation, one has to know where one is on the fretboard at all times, regardless of what type of music is being played or improvised. Without knowing all the notes on the fretboard, it becomes easy to get lost and fall behind on the tune (while the chord changes the other musicians in the band are playing just roll on by). The natural shortcut, or the easy way out, is to only learn some of the notes on the fretboard. This approach will have at least two undesirable results: (A) the limited ability of only being able to improvise in certain keys (like A and E), and/or, (B) the limited ability of only being able to improvise on certain areas of the guitar neck. Jamming with other musicians and having these types of situations arise tends to lead to a good deal of embarrassment.

For beginners, there are three types of notes in music: Natural, Sharp, and Flat. So for example, the note G on the 6th string 3rd fret is also called G Natural. A note that is sharp is always one fret or one half-step higher; a note that is flat is always one fret or one half-step lower. Thus, G Sharp would be on the 6th string 4th fret; G Flat would be on the 6th string 2nd fret. Since A is the next natural note up from G, this means that G Sharp and A Flat are exactly the same note. This can be confusing at the start until an understanding of keys and key structure comes into focus later on.

I realize that the prospect of having to learn every note on the guitar neck can cause feelings of dread and uneasiness; indeed, it may take some time to accomplish this task. Learning the notes on the guitar academically is one thing, but getting that knowledge to work instantaneously under your fingers while improvising is something else. Easy and instinctive methods of learning the notes on guitar do exist, however. One method to begin with is to learn the basic open string chords common in every chord book (like A Major, E Major, and D Major) and take these movable chord forms (often called “bar chords”) up the guitar neck, simultaneously being conscious of the roots in those chord forms. Another helpful tip is to realize that any note played on the guitar twelve frets higher is going to have exactly the same name. So for example, the note on the 1st string 1st fret and the note on the 1st string 13th fret are both going to have the same name (in this case, the note F). Thus, all the guitarist has to do is to learn the notes of the open strings and the first eleven frets and then practice playing simple chords and note patterns in both the lower area (open to 11th fret) and the upper area (12th fret and above) of the guitar neck.

STEP 2: LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING THE FIVE PATTERNS ON THE GUITAR - In my previous article on Intellectual Musician “The Mandatory Scale To Know For Rock Guitar Lead Playing”, I introduced the concept of the five patterns, in the key of C. A review of that article will help facilitate for readers of this article a further understanding of the five patterns and how they work, along with a few additional concepts. Now to describe the five patterns in the keys of A and E, the keys most utilized by rock guitarists:

KEY OF A

Pattern 2 - Open 5th string to 2nd fret 3rd string

Pattern 3 - 2nd fret 3rd string to 5th fret 1st & 6th strings

Pattern 4 - 5th fret 1st & 6th strings to 7th fret 4th string

Pattern 5 - 7th fret 4th string to 10th fret 2nd string

Pattern 1 - 10th fret 2nd string to 12th fret 5th string

KEY OF E

Pattern 4 - Open 1st and 6th strings to 2nd fret 4th string

Pattern 5 - 2nd fret 4th string to 5th fret 2nd string

Pattern 1 - 5th fret 2nd string to 7th fret 5th string

Pattern 2 - 7th fret 5th string to 9th fret 3rd string

Pattern 3 - 9th fret 3rd string to 12th fret 1st & 6th strings

Incredibly, I’ve seen books on lead guitar improvisation that diagram scores of scales yet make no mention of these patterns at all. I do realize that the guitar book methods published by most authors that do mention these patterns tend to number them differently. For example, what I call Pattern 4 is numbered by other books as Pattern 2, and so on. However, guitar instruction books published by faculty members of Musician’s Institute in Hollywood number the patterns as they are listed here. Even though I am tempted to be biased since I did go to school there myself, I do agree with the MI numbering system. MI numbers the patterns 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 based on the key of C, the starting point for all the other keys in music. It is the key of C that has no sharps and no flats; it is the key of C that appears at the very top of the Circle of Fifths and Fourths (more about this circle later on). The sharps and flats found for every other key has its basis around the key of C, so it would appear that the MI approach seems to make the most sense.

The way I prefer to practice these patterns is to play them classical style; that is, to pluck the notes in the pattern simultaneously by using the thumb and other fingers of my right hand instead of using a guitar pick. For example, I would begin practicing in the key of A by plucking the open A string with my thumb and the A on the 2nd fret 3rd string with my index finger, both at the same time. Then I proceed to go up the neck, playing each of the patterns using the classical fingerings for the right hand (i.e. the thumb covering the 4th, 5th & 6th strings, the index on the 3rd, the middle on the 2nd, and the ring on the 1st), plucking the strings in the same manner. After completing one key, I’ll begin to go through the same exercise in every other key. For those who play with a guitar pick, this exercise will still work and be effective, only you’ll have to play the strings and the notes on those strings one at a time. One thing is sure, though: increased familiarity with these patterns (in all the keys) will lead to increased speed with the patterns to the point where playing them will require very little effort at all.

One final point about Step 2 is that it helps to facilitate Step 1; in learning the patterns in every key, the student will also learn all the individual notes on the guitar by default. Thus, the pattern method and the movable chord method become fairly easy and instinctive methods of learning the notes on the guitar. Using these two methods (or any other methods that will work) is definitely better than the academic method of learning the notes one at a time, a method that would seem less effective as well as being unnecessarily tedious and boring.

STEP 3: LEARNING THE VITAL AND NECESSARY SCALES AND ARPEGGIOS IN THE FIVE PATTERNS - In the article “The Mandatory Scale To Know For Rock Guitar Lead Playing”, I also discussed the Minor Pentatonic scale in Pattern 4 and the reasons for its popularity among the rock guitar greats. At this point, it becomes important to learn this scale in all 5 patterns, thereby producing the ability to play the scale in all areas of the guitar neck instead of just one. Rather than diagram the scales here, there is a good free online resource that diagrams this scale well, at http://www.cyberfret.com/scales/minor-pentatonic/index.php. The website presents the diagrams in G Minor Pentatonic with Pattern 4, on the third fret, at the top of the page on the left side, with the other four patterns following (5, 1, 2, & 3, in the proper order). The website also has the roots for each pattern circled in red, a helpful and very important tip. After learning the five patterns of this scale in G Minor Pentatonic from the website, it becomes possible then to improvise lead anywhere on the neck over any rock tunes in the key of G Minor (such as the famous riff from “Smoke On The Water” by Deep Purple). The Minor Pentatonic scale is the first and most vital scale to learn, particularly for blues and rock n’ roll. This scale is indeed used by jazz guitar players as well, though far less frequently compared to rock and blues players.

The second scale to learn and take command of is the Major Pentatonic scale. The difference between the use of the two scales simply is that guitar players generally tend to play Minor Pentatonic when the tune is in a minor key, and Major Pentatonic when the tune is in a major key. In explaining this scale, I am going to attempt to clarify by introducing a music theory subject, specifically the subject of minor and relative major, in a manner understandable to most anyone. To begin, let’s start with A Minor Pentatonic; in essence, taking the G Minor Pentatonic scale patterns diagrammed on the Cyberfret website and moving each pattern two frets up. In spelling out the notes of the A Minor Pentatonic scale, we have:

A C D E G

By learning the Minor Pentatonic scale, in reality we also learn the Major Pentatonic scale as well. This is because the Minor Pentatonic scale and the Major Pentatonic scale have the same notes when separated by a minor third (i.e. three frets), with the major higher by a minor third in relation to its minor. So for example, A Minor Pentatonic and C Major Pentatonic (the relative major, up a minor third from A Minor) have the same notes, only different roots. The notes for C Major Pentatonic then are:

C D E G A

Thus, A Minor Pentatonic in Pattern 4 is going to have the exact same fingering as C Major Pentatonic in Pattern 3; this duplication occurs with respect to the other patterns as well.

Lastly with regard to the Pentatonic scales, rock guitar players on occasion will use these two scales interchangeably: that is, they will play both the Major and Minor Pentatonic scales with the song remaining in the same key throughout the solo section. An example is Jimmy Page’s solo on “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”, where he begins the solo in E Minor Pentatonic, switches to E Major Pentatonic, back to E Minor Pentatonic, and concludes the solo in E Major Pentatonic. The use of the two pentatonic scales interchangeably is another good rock guitar lead technique to know and be aware of.

The next scale of importance to learn is the MAJOR SCALE. Of all the scales in existence that a guitar player should have comfortably in hand(s), this is THE ONE. True, the Minor and Major Pentatonic scales come first with respect to rock n’ roll, but the Major scale is used in all types of Western music: rock, jazz, country, classical, just about everything in between. In fact, the Major scale is the foundation for our entire system of Western music: chords, scales, keys, modes, all of these derive their basis from the Major scale. Knowing this scale on the guitar in the five patterns is indispensable. Incidentally, the web site http://www.theguitarfiles.com/scale.php is another good (and free) online source for building both the Major and the Major Pentatonic scales (and many other scales as well).

The Major scale is the same as the Major Pentatonic scale, with two extra notes. Thus, in the key of C we have:

C D E F G A B

This scale can make any rock guitar solo more interesting. Let’s say we have a simple rock power chord progression that’s in the key of A Minor, going from A to C to D to C then back to A. Of course, we could play A Minor Pentatonic over this progression and it would sound fine. However, playing only one scale over a rock progression becomes dull and boring in a hurry. Fortunately, there are other options. The best option that will work and sound good every time over a minor chord progression that isn’t too exotic is to play the major scale relative to the song’s minor key. So, over the above chord progression, we would play A Minor Pentatonic (with bends) and also add in notes from its relative major, the C Major scale. To backtrack slightly, if we wanted to make our solo for “Smoke On The Water” more interesting, we would play B Flat Major. Again, Jimmy Page provides another good solo example, this time with reference to the major scale. On “Achilles Last Stand”, even though the underlying bass riff during the solo section is in E Minor, every note that Page plays in the solo is a note found in the G Major scale, the relative major of E Minor. In short, knowing and being able to improvise using this scale opens up a much wider range of possibilities in rock n’ roll than just using the Major and Minor Pentatonic scales alone.

I like to contrast the differences between rock and jazz guitar lead playing when introducing the subject of arpeggios because playing arpeggios is generally more difficult than playing scales, just as jazz is generally more difficult to improvise than rock n’ roll (a point that could potentially stir some debate). Lead guitar for rock and jazz is fundamentally different from each other in three aspects that come to mind offhand:

(1) Jazz guitar players rarely bend strings on the guitar when playing lead, whereas rock guitar players bend strings frequently:

(2) Jazz guitar lead is more “straight-ahead”; that is, it tends to consist of eighth notes, sixteenth notes and triplets that fall on the beat; rock and blues guitar lead, on the other hand, is much more syncopated, with triplets and eighth and sixteenth notes falling on the off beat or sustaining over the beat, which makes writing the lead out on tablature and/or notation quite a bit more difficult, and:

(3) Jazz guitarists make frequent use of chromatic ideas and octaves in their lead playing; rock guitarists typically do not.

Simply defined, arpeggios are chords, played one note at a time. The reason arpeggios are more difficult to play on the guitar (perhaps more so than on any other instrument) when compared to scales is because string skipping and sweep picking techniques need to be used to play them effectively. Arpeggios that are played cleanly, however, sound very melodic and add dimension and power to any given solo. In my view, it is definitely worthwhile to learn arpeggios and eventually be able to play them well.

There are five types of arpeggios that are commonly considered the basic arpeggios; the major, minor, major seventh, minor seventh, and dominant seventh. The major and minor arpeggios (also called “triads” because they are composed of three notes) are important to know primarily for rock guitar lead playing. The major seventh and minor seventh arpeggios are indispensable for jazz guitar improvisation, mainly because it’s difficult, if not impossible, to find a jazz standard that doesn’t have a major seventh or minor seventh chord in it. The dominant seventh arpeggio is important to know for jazz and particularly blues because the twelve bar blues is composed entirely of dominant seventh chords.

Diminished arpeggios should also be considered among the basic arpeggios but are somewhat tricky and require more attention. There is the diminished triad, the diminished seventh arpeggio, and the half diminished seventh arpeggio. The diminished triad is the same as the other two, only without the seventh; the diminished seventh arpeggio is symmetrical because it ascends in minor thirds ad infinitum; the half diminished seventh arpeggio is built from the seventh degree of the major scale (commonly known as the “minor seventh flat five” among jazz musicians) and has a minor seventh rather than a diminished seventh. The diminished seventh arpeggio is popular among many rock guitarists (probably because it can be played extremely fast with practice); the half diminished seventh arpeggio (along with the jazz melodic minor scale) tends to be popular with jazz players; the diminished triad is used by both rock and jazz guitarists, but to a lesser degree than their diminished and half diminished seventh counterparts.

STEP 4: LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING MUSIC THEORY - This ultimately is the secret that unlocks great lead playing, great songwriting, and great musicianship in general. In my previous article, I cited techniques used by rock guitarists Kirk Hammett and Zakk Wylde, but a point I wanted to make in that context is that ALL great guitarists (and great musicians, for that matter) KNOW music theory; guitarists who can play at that level know what they’re doing, in other words. Now, some folks might say, “Well, yeah, but guys like Eddie Van Halen and Alex Lifeson are self-taught players and have never had a formal guitar lesson or formal guitar teacher”. That would be true, but rest assured, these guys definitely know and understand their music theory; it would be impossible for them to play the way they play if they didn’t.

What seems to be the popular belief in the music world is that it takes some esoteric, mysterious, not-of-this-earth ability to understand music and music theory when really it doesn’t. For example, lead guitar playing is generally going to sound good so long as the notes that are being played are the same as, or similar to, the notes in the underlying chords of the tune itself. Simple concept, isn’t it? However, it takes a good combination of chops on an instrument and knowledge of music theory in order to execute that concept in practice. Knowing music theory, in my opinion, is so important that I’m reluctant to take on a guitarist as a student if the student is unwilling or perhaps too lazy to learn it, for whatever reason. What ultimately happens is that these students may get to the point of being able to play many pieces of music but never come to understand why a piece of music sounds good or how chords, scales, and keys all fit together to create whatever sounds they’re hearing or playing. In the end, the musician who doesn’t know music theory is only going to get so far.

In discussing essential music theory, what comes to mind is, first of all, a thorough knowledge of the major scale and its seven degrees, the stacking of the major scale in thirds to create chords and major keys, the relationship of other scales to the major scale and how those scales are spelled out, the study of intervals (very important), and an understanding of modes and modal structure (which isn’t as tough as it appears, given the right information). The absolute key to understanding music theory, in my opinion, is to understand the Circle of Fifths (Fourths); the reason it has this name is because the circle ascends in perfect fifths when going clockwise around the circle and in perfect fourths when going counterclockwise. Once a musician understands this circle and how it works, that musician has finally arrived.

A short note on the “get-chops-quick” methods on the Internet today: I’d have to say that, based on the ones I’ve seen, that I am skeptical with regard to their claims. They lavishly promise all these lightning speed results without even knowing if the guitarist who is considering buying their method can play even a simple bar chord! Now, unless the beginning guitarist is descended from Superman and has hands of steel, playing a bar chord for the first time (such as F Major) is going to hurt; it is going to be painful. Matter of fact, I’ve had students give up and quit right in front of me because they felt that playing guitar hurt their hands too much. Therefore, is someone who is still adjusting their hands to the guitar going to be able to play like Jimi Hendrix in one week? I don’t think so.

The four step approach outlined here is conceptually simple, but not easy. Good things sometimes take time. This article turned out to be a bit longer than I expected, but it takes a few more words and a bit more effort to explain concepts clearly. My hope is that the information in this article will help make your musical experience less mysterious and more enjoyable, and that the next time you go into a music store or on the Web looking for guitar books and methods, you’ll know exactly what to look for.

more articles by Tony Emanuele

• The Mandatory Scale To Know For Rock Guitar Lead Playing