Practicing Scales In Thirds, Triads Etc, What's the benefit? |
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Practicing Scales In Thirds, Triads Etc, What's the benefit? |
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Oct 6 2014, 11:04 PM |
Hey all, Recently I was talking with someone about how I hate doing scales and I'm struggling to see where all the notes lie on a fretboard in a specific key. He suggested I practice scales in thirds, fourths, triads etc. I was just wondering if you guys ever do this, and where are the benefits to doing this. I guess it will develop an intimate knowledge of the scales as opposed to just remember which notes are in a key and stuff, but apart from there are there any others? what kind/genre of music are you aiming for? -------------------- The more I practice, the more I wish I had time to practice!
My Band Forum: http://passionfly.site/chat |
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Oct 7 2014, 12:51 AM |
Hi mate! These things are just some exercises created to get familiar with a scale that you want to learn. It's not a must to do it, and it can have some disadvantages as Kris commented, but as everything, this depends on each person, on each guitarists. If you focus too much on just playing sequences, this sequences can get into your playing too much and then, every thing you play will sound like an exercise. But this workouts, combined with playing random notes, learning licks and working on variations, creating your own licks, and doing everything over different backing tracks can be very helpful.
I'm currently giving a improvisation course via Vchat sessions and if you check the first classes you will see that my recommended process for learning a new scale is always putting "making music" as the first goal, so I first recommend to play the scale up and down, and random notes over the backing, then, learn some sequences or phrases to get used to how different intervals and note combinations sound over different chords, and finally, once try creating your own phrases. The more you practice the stuff, the smoother your connection between mind and guitar will be, and your improvisations skills will get better. If you are planning to play Jazz, or Fusion, learning arpeggios and triads will become even more important, because these styles requires that you follow the chords when you improvise. However, there are many rock guitarists like Satriani, Vai and Marty Friedman, that uses the "following the chords" technique to improvise... Check out this video: -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Oct 7 2014, 03:34 PM |
You can replay all the previous week's lessons clicking HERE. There you will find all the lesson notes and a link to replay the video where I explain how to work on each thing. Besides it, if you want, I can create a thread at my personal board where I can monitor your progress with the course, you can share videos of you practicing and I can give feedback.
-------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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Oct 8 2014, 08:48 AM |
I find it's much more beneficial than just practicing scales up and down. Very rarely do we play melodies or solos like that, so using intervallic sequences and locating triads and chord tones is a very valid thing to practice. Even if you aren't 'playing the changes' like jazz guitarists do, it's nice to land on a strong chord tone at the right moment.
-------------------- My SoundCloud
Gear Tyler Burning Water 2K Burny RLG90 with BK Emeralds Fender US Tele with BK Piledrivers Epiphone 335 with Suhr Thornbuckers PRS SE Custom 24-08 Ax8 Fessenden SD10 PSG Quilter TT15 |
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Oct 9 2014, 07:36 PM |
First of all, congrats on asking a good question
Second, you must know that learning a scale should be a process that occurs in your head first of all - why do I say that? Because regardless of how many positions you know, you can only relate to your instrument and some things that you know by heart. Learning how to sing a scale and go through it in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, in groups of 2 notes, 3 notes, 4 and so on and then applying these on various combinations of strings: 2 adjacent strings, 2 strings having one between them and so on, will teach you how to REALLY master a scale. Aside recommending you a little etude I recorded as a lesson here at GMC, I want you to try the following drill: - choose as scale and a tonality - learn how to sing it in one octave, one note after the other - pick a backing track of your choice - sing that scale in that particular octave - try the same drill in two octaves and then in three - sing while playing the scale on the guitar - sing a note and play the next one When you feel comfy with this tonality try another and so on It's a lot of work, but you won't have to do it in one day. You have to be patient and see it as a way in which you will build your style, because exploring and maybe using 4ths to play a certain phrase in a certain scale will make you come closer and closer to defining a personal style, as Kris very well pointed out. Check this one out, as I think it's exactly the right one to open up some possibilities: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Intervals-Etude/ |
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Oct 14 2014, 06:51 PM
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Hey mate! Thank you for the suggestions - I will look into that Metheny book myself, as it sounds pretty interesting - I am curious if our friend here found anything interesting in the thread @ChocolateThunda - please let us know how practicing with intervals is going so far, mate, ok? No problem. You can see a nice preview of the Metheny book on Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Metheny-Guitar-Etu...rds=pat+metheny If you click on "Look inside" you can see a preview. Most of the preview is of the single line etudes, but exericse #5 is viewable and it is an interval study. |
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Oct 14 2014, 07:14 PM |
Hehe, that's exactly the one I looked at - seems interesting and it's only 12 bucks Thanks for the recommendation!
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Oct 15 2014, 06:38 PM
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Just to give you all some further info on Metheny's practice routine there is a video of him warming up before an Italian clinic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcETmST9BoY Someone transcribed some of this warmup, which is a great exercise in practicing triads and stuff like that. http://danmartinguitar.files.wordpress.com...io-youtube1.pdf Enjoy! |
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Oct 18 2014, 06:43 PM |
It's a bit mind bending at first - you have to go really slowly. Eventually I got up to speed (good technical exercise) but, I found, as was noted, I'm not really thinking about the actually INTERVALS (which type of 3rd) and I'm more just playing completely more memory/muscle memory. I can sort of see some benefit though, so I guess I'll continue to do it, but maybe instead of playing it as a technical exercise, take it a bit slower and look at it more in depth.. Who knows? Our fingers usually can go faster than our mind over the fret board. I remember the first class with my improvisation guitar teacher, he said, ok, your fingers can go really fast, now we need your mind to be closer to them. So we have to slow down things and let the mind be trained to slowly start go faster. So be patient, practice slowly but wisely. Let your mind understand which notes you are playing, and also how each one sounds over different chords and backings. Practice with both your eyes opened and closed. Enjoy the journey. And finally, if you feel that this kind of practice is not your thing, try different things. There are many approaches to be more familiar with scales and improvisation and creating your own path can be a good find to develop your own style. -------------------- My lessons
Do you need a Guitar Plan? Join Gab's Army Check my band:Cirse Check my soundcloud:Soundcloud Please subscribe to my:Youtube Channel |
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