Monte here is something that you will find very useful !
Warning : PRINT THIS RESPONSE
I recommend you
practice major scale in couple of ways 1) Playing/soloing in one position
2) Soloing in 5 shapes across the neck (CAGED system)
3) Soloing using 3 notes per string system (7 positions)
4) And soloing trough your guitar neck (combination of everything)
To all this I would add backing tracks of songs that have major type harmony.
Major scale harmony
In any major scale you have following chords on following degrees (lets take C major as an example)
I (C major) II (D minor) III (E minor) IV (F major) V (G major) VI (A minor) VII (B diminished) VIII (C major)That is called 3 part, 3 note or Triadic type harmony - where we have chords that have 3 notes.
The rule is as following :
Scale degrees I, IV and V have MAJOR CHORDS on them while II, III and VI have MINOR CHORDS. VII scale degree is diminished. And this applies to any major scale! 4 Part harmonyIf you want to get "fancy" with chords and chord progression you can extend it to 4 part chords which are :
I (C major7) II (D minor7) III(E minor7) IV (F major7) V (G dominant7) VI (A minor7) VII (B minor7b5) VIII(C major7)
As you see with 4 part chords harmony looks a bit different than with triads.
Scale degrees I and IV have MAJOR 7 chords. Scale degrees II, III and VI have MINOR 7 chords. Scale degree V has Dominant 7 chord (BLUES CHORD). Scale degree 7 has MINOR7b5 chord.
Now in order to practice major scale and its mode you need to know CHORD PROGRESSION for each mode , which in music we call
CADENCE (group of chords that describe given mode!).
Major scale modes Names of modes are following :
I Ionian ( also known as MAJOR SCALE)
II Dorian
III Phrygian
IV Lydian
V Mixolydian
VI Aeolian (also known as Natural Minor scale)
VII Locryian
VIII Ionian (same as I since its the same note).
Modes in C major So in case of C major scale you would end up with following modes:
C Ionian
D Dorian
E phrygian
F Lydian
G Mixolydian
A Aeolian
B Locrian
C Ionian From all of the modes mentioned in Major scale,
Locryian mode is the only mode that is NOT USED frequently if AT ALL in Music. The reason for doing so is that Locrian sounds very unstable and any chord that goes into it won't help smooth the sound and transition ! So now I will give you Cadences (chord progression) for all of the modes that you can practice !
Modal cadences and chord progressions
C Ionian I IV V I which means C major (I) F major (IV) G major (V) back to C major (I)
II V I which means D minor (II) G major (V) and C major (I).
Here is how that should look in bars //: C major/ F major / G major / C major : //
Two dots along with double bar line (//) represent REPEAT sign.
So you can play each chord the same duration !
The second cadence should look like this - //: D minor/ G major / C major/ C major ://
So you are resting on C major chord twice as long to create sense of resting point in harmony.
D Dorian
I IV or I IImin
Which means D minor to G major or D minor to E minor. Play both chords the same duration.
E Phrygian Imin bII maj which is E min to F maj or
Imin bVIImin which is E min to D min or combination
Imin bII maj bVIImin Imin which is E min F maj D min E min
All the chords have the same duration !
F Lydian
I II which is F maj G maj or
I VIImin which is F maj E min or combination
I II VIImin I which is F maj G maj E min F maj
All the chords have the same duration !
G Mixolydian I bVII which is G maj to F maj or
I Vmin which is G maj to D min
All the chords have the same duration!
A Aeolian
Imin IVmin Vmin Imin which is Amin Dmin Emin Amin
Imin bVI bVII Imin which is Amin F G Amin
Both cadences are played with all the chords having same duration.
B locryian - not used nor applied in music (explained above in text).
I seriously recommend some Loop pedal or recording software (Boss's Loop Station RX-20L is great I have it for 2 years and is awesome for jamming , practicing, songwriting etc). Y
ou need to record somehow these chord progressions and then practice improvising (creating melodies riffs licks lines etc) using the scales.
Another thing I recommend is that you learn from early to
use SEQUENCE and REPETITION in your solos. S
equence is basically group of notes in the scale that keep repeating or moving onto another place in the scale.
So sequence in C major scale could be C D E, D E F , E F G , F G A etc. Here sequence is playing up 3 notes then going down one and again playing 3 up and so on.
Another very important thing when practicing, soloing improvising is to
vary the Rhythm when you solo. That means using combination of all rhythms possible (Whole notes, Half Notes, Quarter notes, Eight notes, Sixteen notes, 32nds even, Half note triplet, Quarter note triplet , Eight note triplet, 16th note triplet and even 32nd note triplet).
It is impossible to use all of these rhythms in REAL SOLO but hey if you practice improvising with these and restricting yourself using certain combination of rhythms mentioned, you will become very versatile player and chances are you will find original voice/sound in music sooner.
Don't forget one last and final thing and that is to
use RESTS when playing. Music without rests is just meaningless and doesn't allow listener to absorb and keep nice things in his/her ear that you just played. Moving on from one idea to another without rests causes a lot of chaos and sounds very amateur and unconnected to somebody who is listening.
There are ways how to "avoid" using rests to minimal extent and that is to use SEQUENCE and REPETITION which I mentioned earlier !
So my final suggestion is print this response, read it before going to sleep and when you wake up , and apply it in your daily practice routine. If you follow everything results should be very obvious and should happen quite soon !
Hope that helps.
Let me know if you have any questions !
Pedja
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GMC Forum > Discussion Boards > VINTAGE GMC > Community Activities and Tutorials > Ask an Instructor > More instructors > Pedja Simovic > Theory and Harmony (Pedja)
lcsdds Cadence Sep 4 2009, 07:02 AM
