He also shows the tab in the beginning.
Oh, did I mention that you will need your guitar?

by Peter Edvinsson

When you learn to improvise you have most likely come across various guitar scales. But, how do you practice guitar scales in order to use them in your playing? In this lesson you will learn how to make music of scales!

What is a pentatonic scale?

A common major scale consists of seven notes. A C-major scale for example have these seven notes:

C D E F G A B

The note after the B is a C and the scale starts over again in another octave. A pentatonic scale consists of five notes. In a pentatonic C-major scale the notes F and B are omitted. This makes for less collisions between scale notes and notes in the chords used. In other words, you can use a pentatonic scale together with more chords.

The A-minor pentatonic scale

This scale consists of the five notes A C D E G

If we play these notes in the first position on the guitar you will have the following sequence of notes:

05 35 04 24 03 23

The first number tells you which fret to press down. The second number indicates which string to play. 05 means that you play the open fifth string, that is, without pressing down a fret. The first string is the bottom string when you play.

We will now play the A-minor pentatonic scale in the first position of your guitar. The whole scale from the sixth to the first string will look like this:

06 36 05 35 04 24 03 23 12 31 01 31

In this scale sequence you will find the note A in two positions. That is, on the fifth open string and on the second fret third string.

What can you do with this scale?

1. First I suggest that you commit this scale to memory and that you practice playing it from the lowest note to the highest and then back again.

2. Use correct left hand fingerings. That means that you play the notes on the first fret with your left hand index finger, the notes on the second fret with your middle finger and the notes on the third fret with your ring finger.

3. Play small sequences using only a few of the notes in the scale. For example:

05 35 04 24 04 35 05 or:

23 12 32 01 31 12 23

4. Work on creating melodies using the scale. This will help you understand where the notes you hear in your head are on the fretboard and also make your pentatonic improvisations more musical and enjoyable for yourself and your prospective audience.

5. Improvise together with chords. As you work with the A-minor pentatonic scale you can use chords to make the guitar solo improvisations more interesting. Here are two chords that you can use together with the notes:

A-minor: 05 24 23 12 01

D-major: 04 23 32 21

As your probably remember, the first number indicates the fret and the second number the string to play. When you play the chords you can strum them from the lowest sounding string to the first string. For example, strum the A-minor chord and improvise a few notes using the pentatonic scale. Then play the D-major chord and continue to improvise. Play the A-minor chord again and continue in this way.

Improvisation is a form of composition and the musical value depends on how well we know where the notes are on the fret, how focused we are in the creative process, how well we have mastered patterns and licks that are building blocks that can be used to create music, our feelings and many more elements in the musical process.

Peter Edvinsson is a guitarist, composer and music teacher. He invites you to download your free guitar tablature sheet music at http://www.capotastomusic.com

To a beginner the world of music theory can seem a daunting one. There are a lot of terms, phrases and ideas that can seem so foreign that they may as well be a different language. Understandably this puts a lot of new players off from starting to learn music theory and apply it to their playing.

I was the same until I’d been playing for three years or so and decided start learning some theory to help take my playing up a notch. It has been many years since and I’d like to share some things that I used to get started, and to guide you through the first basic steps of learning to apply music theory to your guitar playing.

For the purposes of this article I’m going to assume you’ve taken the first step towards learning theory and learnt where all the notes are across the neck. If not, then go do that now! Knowing the notes is extremely important to start applying theory.

The first thing I did was learn scales and how they are put together starting with the major key, I used C major.

The major scale is made from seven different notes. The first note is called the root note, the note that you start the scale with. The root note is where the scale gets its name from. In this case the root note is C, and so the scale is C major. Each fret on a guitar is a half note, or a semitone. To play a major scale go up the neck in the following increments;

Root, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, and then a half back to your root one octave higher. The third note in the scale is the note that decides whether it is a major or a minor scale. In a minor scale the third note is one semitone lower in pitch than in a major scale. Try playing it to hear the difference.

The notes in a C major scale you should notice are; C, D, E, F, G, A, B. See a pattern? There are no flats or sharps in the C major scale, which is why I decided to start there when I began learning.

The next step takes a lot of time and a lot of practise. Take these notes and find them all over the neck. Try to learn the scale in as many places as you can, make sure you get really comfortable with it.

You’ll find that once you’re totally at home with the C major scale it should be quite easy to move the shape and patterns around to find other scales. Try moving every note you know from C major up two frets on the guitar. You’re now playing the D major scale. Move one half step down from C major and you’re playing the B major scale. This is how I learnt my scales. I took shapes and patterns I knew and simply moved them round the neck, learning each key one at a time. Over time I learnt which notes were the fourth note, the third note, etc. As you play more you’ll get a feel of what notes are good to start and end phrases on, where you can bend to and just generally what notes will sound better over each chord.

The next thing that I did is what really made music theory click for me. I started to learn the minor keys. I started with A minor, the notes are A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Notice anything familiar? The notes of A minor are just the same as C major. In fact, if you take the 6th note of any major scale and play the notes up to the 6th one octave higher you’re playing the minor scale. So after learning the major scales I came to realise I knew all the notes for the minor scales as well. Obviously they share the same notes but of course, you need to phrase them differently when you play. The only way I can really recommend this is with experimentation. If you’re looking to learn a minor scale then the increments are;

Root note, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step and then whole again to the root note one octave higher.

There should be plenty to get you going here, it took me months to get my scales and notes to where I needed them to be. Ideally after some practise you should feel comfortable jamming in any key. If I shout that we’re playing in B flat minor then you should be able to play there! Good luck practising and remember to take everything slow to start with.

Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest is in Gatwick Parking.

The basic concept of the 12-bar blues is the I-IV-V progression, where I, IV and V represent the chords or notes that you will be using. What is I, IV, V exactly.
To be exact, for the key of A, we will be using A-D-E as our I-IV-V progression. Likewise if you count out starting with E, you will find that for the key of E we will use E-A-B as our I-IV-V progression.

Just about all of the old finger-pickers and the guitarists at Guitar Players Center made good use of this musical structure. It has a cool beat and is still used a lot. Once you get familiar with it, you will start to recognize it more and more.
The most basic form of the 12 bar blues progression / structure is to play 12 bars as follows:
Standard Twelve Bar shuffle or Progression is I I I I IV IV I I V IV I V Play it over + over, or see chart below if that makes more sense to you.

KEY OF A Notes For Progression A D E Play over+over
KEY OF B Notes for Progression B E F Play over+over
KEY OF C Notes for Progression C F G Play over+over
KEY OF D Notes for Progression D G A Play over+over
KEY OF E Notes for Progression E A B Play over+over
KEY OF F Notes for Progression F B C Play over+over
KEY OF G Notes for Progression G C D Play over+over

In the Key of A: Play AAAA – DD – AA – E – D – A – E then go back to AAAA-DD-AA-E-D-A-E , again using a metronome to get your timing down. This metronome has an accent on the first beat. It’s never to soon to start learning to play to a metronome. Believe me, timing is just as important as any other facet of playing the guitar. Seriously.

Try using this video as a general guideline to playing the 12 bar blues shuffle. I have used it ad-nauseam, meaning I have worn this video out playing it so much as a source to learn to play the twelve bar blues and learn the timing. It’s Free!
Listen to SRV play “Pride and Joy”. Stevie Ray used the twelve bar blues structure as a foundation for many of his own creations.

Briefly, not to complicate the matter, but, realistically speaking the twelve bar blues can be played using chords as well, or using a combination of notes and chords. The main thing is to use the proper notes or chords for the key you are using.
Twelve bar blues books are available at Amazon in abundance. Browse through the books available and pick one you understand. We all learn differently, so I always recommend finding instructional materials you can relate to and understand.

Tutorials are available at many of the places recommended in my online guitar lessons articles. The preferred guitar and musical education sites are top notch and on the level. I have used them and can personally endorse them.

This is a chart of chords you can play to the 12 bar blues shuffle. It’s a bit more advanced than notes only. Making this optional or the next step in playing the twelve bar blues.
Use the Chord Chart in this article on Seventh (7th) chords.

by Daniel LehrmanFor more information about Guitar Players Center or articles about Guitar Tab or Guitar Chords and anything and everything Guitars. Feel free to visit our website.

Article Source: Articles for Boomers