Playing ‘out’ is very common in jazz and fusion circles, as it adds tension-resolution to your phrasing. In the video I show a few examples of this and of how to get ‘that’ sound. Tips: 1- always use phrases that are very recognisable, with very strong melodic content. 2- use this techinque at the end… Continue reading Playing ‘Out’
Tag: Harmony
Intervals Explained pt 2: practical application on guitar.
We have seen in this post https://www.trueguitarist.com/intervals-explained/ what intervals are in theory and how the simplest and safest way to identify an interval is by calculating the number of semitones between the two notes. Again, this is the table for you to ‘do the math’: N.of halfsteps 1 2 3 4 5 6 6 also 7… Continue reading Intervals Explained pt 2: practical application on guitar.
The Importance of Repertoire
In this short post I want to spend a few words on the importance of knowing tunes, either written by other musicians or by yourself. ‘Repertoire’ is often a fancy word we use to identify ‘all the tunes we know’. In my experience as teacher I have found to be a divide between the guitarist… Continue reading The Importance of Repertoire
A tool to improve your improvising skills.
It’s not a secret that one of my all time favourite guitar instructional books is The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrich. One the exercises explained in this great book is about creating a random sequence of chords by writing every type of chord (major, minor, all the 7th chords and, if you feel more adventurous, chords… Continue reading A tool to improve your improvising skills.
Triads Pt 2 Spread Voicings
We have seen in the previous lesson al the major triads in close (or closed) position. As already stated if these notes of the triad (or ‘voices’) are contained within an octave we call it in ‘close’ or ‘closed’ position, as opposite as ‘spread’ position (more than an octave). Just watch the video where I… Continue reading Triads Pt 2 Spread Voicings
Triads
In this lesson I go through all inversions for the most popular major triad ‘shapes’ on guitar. The theory behind triads is quite simple: a major triad is basically the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of a major scale. If analysed in intervals: from the root I will have a first note that is a… Continue reading Triads
The Guitar Kit Pro – Blank Music Templates and Guitar Templates
If you enjoyed the free version of ‘The guitar kit’, ‘THE GUITAR KIT PRO’ is an even bigger collection of music and guitar templates, that I personally use to teach, now available in a consistent and professional look. Over 70 pages of print quality templates in both JPG and PDF format, customizable and brand-able (step… Continue reading The Guitar Kit Pro – Blank Music Templates and Guitar Templates
Playing in Fourths
I really like this style of phrasing, take some great examples like McCoy Tyner, and a lot of the ‘hard bop’ jazz cats. The basic idea is this: take a scale, in this example I will use a C major scale. Now play all the diatonic fourths contained in C major: In the video I am playing… Continue reading Playing in Fourths
Guitar Great Vic Juris: A couple of great video lessons.
I was lucky enough to study with Vic Juris in the early 90’s. Today I stumbled into a couple of great lessons on youtube and I wanted to share them with you. He is a great jazz guitarist, if you don’t know about him, check out his music: http://www.myspace.com/vicjuris In this lesson he talks about… Continue reading Guitar Great Vic Juris: A couple of great video lessons.
Tips: play Giant Steps on guitar
Giant Steps has always been a challenging standard to play, in this video I give a few tips on how to approach this famous tune. The Chords (from the fake book-as far as I know it is not copyrighted material so I am posting the original): One good ‘pattern’ to start familiarising with the progression in playing… Continue reading Tips: play Giant Steps on guitar