Improve Your Improvising, Step out of 'em old routines... Options

[ztevie]

Hi!

I am Ztevie... Well, my real name is Stefan and I live in the north of Sweden.
I've been a member at GMC about a month now, but have been playing guitar on a hobby basis a bit longer, ok, many many years. I am completely self-taught, and haven't been playing much the last years, but found new inspiration here at GMC. If GMC would have existed 10 years ago, I'd might be a rockstar now!?
Anyway, I decided to try to make a lesson, because I'm such a nice guy and want to help the whole world to become better guitar players. (Eeeh... Also, there are only 2 entries so far, so I might have a shot winning some nice gear, haha! )

The lesson:
I thought to myself, what should the lesson be about. My first thought was: Play as fast as you can and try to impress with splendid technique and lightning-speed Yngwie licks.
Well, since I couldn't do neither, I decided to show you another thing I've had problems with before...

Have you ever feel as if you are stucked while improvising? That is, everything you improvise sound the same and the same licks pop out over and over again?
I have. As a mainly hard rock/metal player, I was stuck in the minor Aeolian mode, and whatever I played I was stuck in the Aeolian sound of things.
So what did I do? I forced myself to not play Aeolian for a while, I started playing very awkward notes and scales that didn't seem to fit very well with different backing tracks. On occasion though, some lick would really shine through and I got that WOW-feeling when something really sounded different, AND nice...
That's when I discovered Phrygian Major. I didn't know this was the scale at the time, cause I am really no theory-magician in any way. However, these notes sounded "exotic", if that is the word?
At an internet chords/scale site they described what I played as Phrygian Major and also Spanish Gypsy scale and Jewish (Ahaba Rabba) scale.
However, I don't think anyone playing the 2 above music styles would consider me a style-collegue, I am still hard-rockin, but with a different tool-set...
So, my recipe for getting out of old routines are: Try other scales, choose something completely different, you'll be surprised of what you'll be hearing from your guitar.
I hope my short little tune here will help and inspire someone to break out of their routines.
It is a very simple 45 second backing-track with no chord changes and other fancy stuff, but it works well with the B Phrygian Major.
I would urge anyone interested to play the backing and improvising the scale over it, very soon you will get a feel for the scale. Where you stop, bend and fly away in speed, and I think you, like me, will find it to be a very "exotic" scale indeed once you get the hang of it...
If you'd like to learn the licks I play here, go ahead. They are probably on an intermediate level as far as I can judge. No long stretching or ultra speed things, but some 1-string skipping, 3-string arpeggios and a few places where the speed accelerate a notch.

Since this is my first attempt doing a lesson, or even video-record guitar playing and editing video, I apologize for the amateurish feel of the videos. Also, the backing track is not mixed or mastered, just recorded with guitars over EZdrummer loops clean.
Please consider the tab images as guidance to placement of fingers only, the time signature of notes on tabs are not accurate...

OK, let's go!!!

The Main Video:  ztevie_main.wmv ( 8.39MB ) Number of downloads: 1586


The Backing Track:  ztevie_backing.mp3 ( 1.14MB ) Number of downloads: 401

Backing Track Slower:  ztevie_backing_slow.mp3 ( 1.44MB ) Number of downloads: 278

Backing track goes roughly as this all the way:



B Major Phrygian Scale: (also known as B Spanish Gypsy and B Jewish (Ahaba Rabba)):



Lick 1:  ztevie_lick1.wmv ( 3.37MB ) Number of downloads: 430

No strange things here, but you can already hear the "exoticism" shine through...


Lick 2:  ztevie_lick2.wmv ( 4.87MB ) Number of downloads: 333

Here I go a little faster in the box at 14th fret, starting at 5th string working my way up to 3rd, and finish it off with some arpeggios...



Lick 3:  ztevie_lick3.wmv ( 4.67MB ) Number of downloads: 275

Some string skipping and bending, but fear not, it's simple and not too fast.


Lick 4:  ztevie_lick4.wmv ( 6.35MB ) Number of downloads: 279

OK, the speediest part of the whole thing, and in the end, some "exotic" stuff which I really like! Note the very wide and slow vibrato(bending) at the end.



Lick 5:  ztevie_lick5.wmv ( 5.72MB ) Number of downloads: 290

Some 3-string arpeggios followed by 2 very short speed-licks with tap harmonics.(That don't sound through so nice on main video?)


Lick 6:  ztevie_lick6.wmv ( 4.86MB ) Number of downloads: 292

Speed at the end, but still not Yngwie-fast...




GOOD LUCK!!

This post has been edited by ztevie: Apr 24 2008, 07:14 PM

[Jad Diab]

that's a cool lesson
by the way i love how your guitar looks

ps: can you add the guitar pro file ?

This post has been edited by Zizi Top: Apr 23 2008, 10:16 PM

[superize]

Cool lesson and very nice playing.....

btw were in northen sweden do you live

[ztevie]

Thanks guys!

This guitar IS cool... But in the video it turned out very dark, it's real colors are see-thru blue with a black burst, it looked almost black to me?

I didn't use Guitar Pro... I used EZ-drummer in Cubase, then some rhytm guitar and solo guitar recorded with my POD XT into Cubase. The tabbing I did in PowerTab.

I live in the metropolitan city of Gellivare, just north of Glommerstrask...

[axelsson]

very nice indeed! Bra jobbat

[Bogdan Radovic]

Very cool lesson man !

[superize]

Thanks guys!

This guitar IS cool... But in the video it turned out very dark, it's real colors are see-thru blue with a black burst, it looked almost black to me?

I didn't use Guitar Pro... I used EZ-drummer in Cubase, then some rhytm guitar and solo guitar recorded with my POD XT into Cubase. The tabbing I did in PowerTab.

I live in the metropolitan city of Gellivare, just north of Glommerstrask...

OK....thats cool

[Jeff]

Very cool man! I like this lesson. Thanks for making it.

[ztevie]

Thanks!
Hope someone out there have some use and benefit from the lesson.
1 person is enough, 2 is overwhelming, 3? Well, then I will probably get power mad and start thinking I'm Muris2 or something...

No, but seriously, using a scale that is completely different and is totally "wrong" for your music style can lead to some unexpected, and very rewarding results...
Check out more scales at http://all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.php
Why don't you try e.g. Prometheus Neopolitan, Japanese (Taishikicho) or Chinese Mongolian, to name a few...
There are tons of information there on both scales and chords and how they fit together.

[Juan M. Valero]

hey mate, excelent lesson !! and your guitar is realy beautiful
Thanks for your great work !!

[Ivan Milenkovic]

Very interesting! Great effort man!

[Vinod Saranga]

Very weldone
great lesson

[superize]

Vrong post

This post has been edited by superize: May 6 2008, 11:44 AM

[Canis]

Seem like a great lesson. Gonna give this a go when I get home ^^
Hope I'll learn that scale during this lesson as well, if I play it enough =)

[ztevie]

Thanks for the kind words, all!

Canis: Yeah, it's a cool scale to use, in my opinion... Start with learning the boxes at 2nd and 7th frets and improvise, try some stuff at the 14th too, then move out of the boxes gradually and pretty soon you'll be flying around the fretboard. It's easy to get a feel for the scale, if some time is spent improvising...

This post has been edited by ztevie: May 6 2008, 01:38 PM

[Canis]

Thanks for the kind words, all!

Canis: Yeah, it's a cool scale to use, in my opinion... Start with learning the boxes at 2nd and 7th frets and improvise, try some stuff at the 14th too, then move out of the boxes gradually and pretty soon you'll be flying around the fretboard. It's easy to get a feel for the scale, if some time is spent improvising...

Thanks for the tip, I'll get started right away

[OrganisedConfusi...]

This is a great lesson ztevie. Well thought out and a great important topic. I think a lot of people struggle with this area but again it's just practice. Jamming with a band is a sure way to improve in this area and learning more theory and scales is also a great way to back this up.

Thanks for your time on this lesson

[Vurpa]

I think that this is excellent stuff! I totaly love tihs piece ! Great job!

[ztevie]

Appreciate it!
I hope you guys who try it out not only learn my licks, but more important, improvise and make up your own... I think this will give you more development wise.
Actually, the whole piece was improvised into the form it ended with, of course with some improvments and small changes added...
As you can see, the technique or licks in themselves are not particularly difficult or anything new in the world of hard rock/metal, but hopefully will give you some new ideas to incorporate in your own playing.
If you find the faster passages to be too speedy, feel free to hammer on/pull off as you like. Myself, I like to pick almost every note because of clarity, but speed can improve with a hammer on/pull off now and then, for many people it's often the picking hand that is slowing things down.

[wrk]

Hi ztevie,

great topic .. i always have problems to integrate those scales in my playing and to make them sound like music
I will try it out, maybe this time it will work... it definitely sounds interesting.

Beside the topic ... damn, i would like to have your right hand picking skills.
The inlays of your guitar are exceptional beautiful.

Thank you and good luck !!