Guitar and Bass Tuition for Samford and The Gap, Queensland, Australa.
Here is another practice track for beginning guitarists wanting to sharpen up their E minor pentatonic scale! It is a 16 bar pattern:
|Em | | | |
|Am | | | |
|Em | | | |
|B | | | : ||
It is at a pretty slow pace, around 55bpm, so you can relax and concentrate on getting the right notes sounding good. In case you need a reminder, here is the E minor pentatonic scale in open position:
And here is the practice track – have fun!
Here is a rock practice track in the key of A. The chords are A, C, D and E – all power chords comprising the root and fifth. It is done at a slowish 100bpm, so you should have plenty of time to pick up what’s happening. See if you can work out which chords are where using your ear! The note G on the bottom string is used as a bend in between A chords and E chords – a standard rock and roll move!
Am Pentatonic Rock Practice Track
Practice your improvising using the A minor pentatonic scale, with the addition of a B on the E chords!
Enjoy,
Rob
This is a practice track for beginning to intermediate guitarists and bass players! The Waves of the Danube was also recorded as “Anniversary Song” and appears under that name in the recordings of jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. This track is at a very slow 90 bpm, so beginning and intermediate players can work the changes with plenty of time to get their arpeggios working! In Gypsy Jazz circles, it is played much more quickly, but you have to practice slow in order to play quick! Enjoy!
One of the most important scales to learn for guitarists interested in rock and blues is the minor pentatonic scale. To help you polish up your licks using the E minor pentatonic scale, here is a practice track in a rock style to help you out. Here is the scale in first position: numbers indicate the fingers to use, and the squares show where the “E’s” are.
When you have memorised the scale, fire up the following practice track and see if you can play along!
Here is a practice track for bassists interested in playing jazz. One of the fundamental building blocks of jazz is the ii-V-I progression, and practicing the ii-V-I progression in every key should be a must for every aspiring jazz musician! So here is a start for bass players, a slow (90 bpm) ii-V-I in the key of Eb, comprising a basic drum track with some rhythm guitar. Practice your walking bass lines, and then let loose with your solo ideas. First you will need to have the Eb major scale under your fingers. In the following fretboard diagram, the squares represent the tonic, or the Eb. Start with the open position scale pattern, and once you know this very well, add the 3rd position scale pattern. Once that one is known, add the next, until you have a command of all the scale patterns. If you have got that far, there is an additional scale pattern corresponding to the open position up an octave I have left you to work out for yourself! These fingerings and scale patterns are for electric bass. If you are learning double bass, use your double bass fingering patterns which are a bit different.
Once you have one (or more) of the scale patterns above under your fingers, use the practice track to explore the progression. I would suggest identifying the root note of each chord first, and then the third, fifth and seventh of each chord. Have fun!
Here is a practice track in a folk rock style, based on the chords to “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, a perennial guitar favorite – mainly because the chords are very easy:
||:G | D |C | |G |D |Am |Am : ||
To solo over these chords the best place to start is in the key of G major, as all the chords contain only notes from that key. So get the G major scale under your fingers, and make use of the following track to hone your improvising skills!
This is a practice track for beginning and intermediate bassists in a light rock style, based on a simple two chord progression in the key of F major:
||: F |F |Gm |Gm : ||
There are two rhythm guitar parts, with the guitar in the lower register playing simply on the chords F and Gm. The guitar in the upper register plays a funkier rhythm part, using the chords F6/9 and Gm9.
In the second half of the tune, a lead guitar plays a melody line based on the F major and G minor arpeggios.
To practice your bass playing, try the following approaches:
Beginners:
(1) Play the tonic (F or G) on beat one of each bar
(2) Add the fifths (C and D) to (1) above, playing special attention to the drums, trying to mirror the drum rhythms (especially the bass or kick drum) on the bass.
Intermediate :
(3) It doesn’t hurt to play through once using approaches (1) and (2) above. Then see if you can play through the F major and G minor arpeggios for each chord, for example:
(4) If you need more challenge, play through the arpeggios using 1 beat notes, for example:
(5) Once you have the arpeggios under your fingers, try a walking bass line. Start at an arpeggio note, and walk up or down the F major scale until you reach the arpeggio note of the next chord. You may have to skip a scale tone to always start beat one on an arpeggio note, as in the following:
(6) Play what you think sounds good – using combinations of the ideas above, or using your own creativity.
Here is the track – enjoy!
This is a practice track for beginning and intermediate bass players who are interested in playing jazz styles. I have taken the following four chords:
||:Am7 |D7 |Gmaj7 |Cmaj7 : ||
which are the chords ii V I IV in the key of G major.
These chords are common in many jazz style progressions, and can be found, for example, in the first four bars of Autumn Leaves. To construct a bass line over these chords, take the following steps.
(1) First have the G major scale under your fingers. You can use the open position, or any moveable scale shapes that you know.
(2) Play through the progression playing the tonic of each chord on beat one of each bar.
This very simple bass line is the foundation upon which many things can be built. To this we can add a note leading into each new chord.
(3) On beat 4 of each bar play the note of the G major scale below the note of the chord root you are about to change to. For example on beat 4 of the Am7 bar, play a C, the note below D.
(4) On beat 4 of each bar, we can also play the note above the chord root we are heading for:
(5) Once you are familiar with both of these, you can mix them up, leading into some notes from below, other notes from above.
This technique makes for a strong bass line, particularly when going around the cycle of fourths, as in the progression above. One reason is that the diatonic (i.e. from the major scale) leading note is either the fifth or the third of the current chord in the above progression. The only exception is the change from Cmaj7 to Am7 in point (4).
(6) Now try combining two leading notes on beats 3 and 4:
(7) To play a simple walking bass line, simply add scale notes in between in pitch, between the other notes, making sure that the note on beat 4 always leads into the next chord:
The above are only my examples – there are a great many variations on bass lines you can create using this simple technique – and they will all sound great over these chords and over many other jazz style progressions. Using this technique you can play something different on every run through the chords, but always strongly working the changes. That’s one way you can create interest and dynamism in the music!
This is only one “concept” for constructing bass lines, and you will need to develop a selection of such approaches. As you gain experience in listening and playing, your ear will tell you more and more what will sound good in any given situation.
And here is the practice track to try these techniques with – for best results, get completely comfortable with each step before going on to the next!
If you find that the chords are changing too fast for you, try the following track, which has the same four chords, but each chord goes for two bars:
Autumn Leaves First 4 Bars – 2 bars per chord
Enjoy!
This is a practice track for beginning or intermediate guitarists. The tune is a traditional Irish tune, “The Black Nag”. Normally it is played quite quickly, but I thought I would do a slow version so beginning players can enjoy learning the tune as well. In due course I plan to post some faster versions as well, so you can get up to normal playing speed! It isn’t a traditional arrangement – but don’t let that stop you enjoying it!
Here is the tune:
Enjoy!
Rob
Here is a practice track for beginning and intermediate guitarists – done in a light rock style. The chords are
||: G |Am |D7 |G : ||
Practice soloing over the progression using the G major scale. Some other strategies you might find interesting to play with are
Enjoy!
