Practice Track: A natural minor, 3/4 time.

Here is a practice track to help you get familiar with playing 3 beats to the bar. While a great deal of music commonly heard in rock and pop is in 4 beats to the bar, playing in 3 beats to the bar is important for the well rounded musician, even if it’s only so you can play the bridal waltz if you get wedding gigs!

The chord progression is

||: Am         |Am           |G              |Am          : ||

It is a slow (90 bpm) 3 beats to the bar, with each beat divided into shuffle eights, which you can hear if you listen to the drums.

Use the notes of the A natural minor scale (same as C major) to construct a melody over the progression.

Practice Track: A natural minor, 3/4 time

Enjoy!

 

Practice Track: Am D9 Funk

Here is a practice track for those wanting to polish up their soloing over a funk style A minor groove. The place to start with soloing over this groove, which alternates between Am7 and D9 is the A minor pentatonic scale. There are six fingerings of the A minor pentatonic scale which cover the entire fretboard. Practice in each of the fingerings until you know them all well, then practice going between pairs of fingerings, until you can play anywhere on the neck of the guitar!

Here are the six fingering patterns – notice that the first is identical to the sixth after making adjustment for the open strings.

The minor pentatonic approach is however just the beginning of what you can do. You can also try A natural and Dorian minor scales. Since Am and D7 are the ii and V chords of the G major scale, you can also use the G major scale.  Try working off  the A minor seventh and D7 or D9 arpeggios. You might also like to experiment with the B minor pentatonic scale and the E minor pentatonic scale, as both of these scales contain only notes from the G major scale. As always, let your ear be the judge!

Here is the practice track:

Practice track Am7-D9 funk groove

Enjoy!

Practice Track: C major I-vi-II7-V7

This practice track is done in an Indie Rock style. The rhythm section is composed of drums, bass, and rhythm guitar, with a tenor guitar line that is similar to the bass part, but an octave higher, and playing on all the beats.

The progression replaces the diatonic D minor chord which fits with the C major scale, with a dominant seventh chord, the D7. This substitution is a common one in Jazz and swing tunes, and gives the progression a stronger blues flavour than would otherwise be the case.

(1) The simplest approach to soloing is to play in C major throughout, being careful to avoid F over the D7, which would clash with its F#.

(2) A more sophisticated approach  is to play in C major, changing to D mixolydian (G major) for the D7 chord. One can then outline the chromatic decent from F# in the D7 chord, to F in the G7 chord, then E in the C major chord, to effectively emphasise the changing harmony.

(3) Another approach is to play exclusively in the A minor pentatonic scale (C major pentatonic), using bends to reach chord tones. E.g. over the D7 chord bend from E (in the A minor pentatonic scale) up one tone to F# (chord tone in D7); also bend from G up a tone to A (chord tone in D7, and also in A minor pentatonic scale). Likewise over the G7 chord, bend from A (A minor pentatonic) up a tone to B (chord tone in G7), bend from E (A minor pentatonic) up a semitone to F (chord tone in G7). There are four such bends for each of the four tones in each chord, however some of them will finish on chord tones outside the A minor pentatonic, others will  end on chord tones included in the A minor pentatonic.

It turns out that the melody for the children’s nursery rhyme “Have you seen the Muffin Man” can be played over this progression, an example of approach (1). Below are examples of the three approaches outlined above:

Lead approach (1)

Lead approach (2)

Lead approach (3)

Now, try your own:

Practice track with no lead

Have fun!

Practice Track: Blues feel – G7 and C7

Here is a practice track in a medium tempo blues feel. It is suitable for beginning and intermediate bass and guitar players to work with.  The chords are

||: G7             |                  |                    |                   |C7            |               |                |             : ||

A distinctive feature of many blues styles is the triplet feel – each beat is divided into three parts, counting 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a etc.

Free MP3 download: G7&C7 blues feel at 80bpm

There are two rhythm guitar tracks accompanying the drums. One plays a typical shuffle rhythm accompaniment:

The other plays G7 and C7 chords on the first beat of each bar and on every beat of the bar leading up to each chord change. This will help you to anticipate the chord changes, and adjust your playing accordingly!

For bass players:

(1) Start by playing a bass line using only tonics, G for the G7 chord, and C for the C7 chord

(2) Then try using tonics and fifths for each chord.

(3) Explore using the b7 for each chord. F for the G chord, and Bb for the C chord.

(4) Explore anticipating the chord changes with chromatic or diatonic runs up to or down to the new chord root (use the mixolydian modes built on the root of each chord for diatonic runs).

(5) Use G7 and C7 arpeggios to create bass lines.

For guitar players:

(1) Use the G minor pentatonic scale over both chords

(2) Use G major pentatonic scale over G7 and C major pentatonic over C7

(3) Use G and C mixolydian modes over G7 and C7 chords respectively

(4) Use a G minor pentatonic scale but add a B (major third) over the G7 chord, and an E (major 3rd of C) over the C7 chord. These notes can be obtained by fretting, or by bending from a note in the minor pentatonic scale. Here is a diagram in third position:

The G minor pentatonic scale notes are in black, with the major thirds added in white.

Have fun!

Practice Track: F major ii-V-I

This practice track is done in a light rock style, and is great for practicing soloing using the F major scale. The chords are

||:F                |Gm               |C7                 |F            :||

Other approaches to soloing (besides the F major scale) you can use are (i) F major (D minor) pentatonic scale (ii) F major pentatonic for the F chord, followed by G minor Pentatonic for the G minor and C7 chords, (iii) A minor pentatonic for the F chord followed by G minor pentatonic for the Gm and C7, (iv) F major, G minor and C7 Arpeggios with passing notes from the F major scale. Any combination of the preceding of course will also work!

All the above approaches are really just using the F major scale, but give different selections of notes which help create different sounds. Using the pentatonic scales is cool because it allows you to make use of a well known scale, and get maximum value from fingering and scale shapes that you might already know well.

So download the practice track below, and start having some fun!

Free Mp3 Download: F major II-V-I practice track.

 

Practice Track: C major folk rock

This is a practice track for beginning and intermediate players to play along with. It is in a basic folk rock style, but can be used by people interested in country or rock as well. You can use the track in several ways.

The chords are

||: C              |                  |G                |                 : ||

Firstly, try and strum along to the rhythm guitar, and secondly, practice playing your own solos over the rhythm track. The rhythm guitar is panned a little to the left, with a second guitar strumming a chord every two bars panned just to the right. There are two basic rhythms, with occasional variations. For the first 16 bars, the strum used is predominantly:

The strum then changes to the following for 16 bars:

The two strums then alternate each 16 bars. Note that palm muting is used to stop the strings from ringing out excessively!

The second way you can use this practice track is to practice your soloing. Use the C major scale as your starting point. This will give a basic folk rock sound. Introducing a Bb over the C chord will generate a more bluesy sound (the b7). The blues sound can be further enhanced by introducing an Eb (the b3) which can be bent partly or all the way to an E. You may also like to experiment with the C and G major pentatonic scales, over the C and G chords respectively, which will give a more country sound. Then try the C minor pentatonic scale, which will give a harder rock or blues sound.

Free MP3 Download: C&G7 practice track

Have fun!

Practice Track: Old Style Country

Here is a practice track with a simple folk strum and rock drum beat. There is a guitar line somewhat in the style of Johny Cash recordings  to give it a country feel – with major pentatonic scale runs. This is suitable for beginning to intermediate players to practice their melodic invention (lead breaks). Use a D major scale.

||:D           |             |G            |              |D           |              |A7           |             : ||

Free MP3 download: Country Style D major progression

Enjoy!

Improvising against IV and V chords

In some pop and rock songs, there are passages of music where there are major chords two frets (a tone) apart, such as D and E or F and G. To improvise over these passages, one approach is to recognize that these chords are the IV and V chords of a major scale. For example D and E are the IV and V chords of the A major scale, so an A major scale will work over this passage. Likewise, F and G are the IV and V chords of a C major scale, so use a C major scale to solo over a passage of F and G chords.

Here are some practice tracks to try over passages of IV and V chords:

Example 1: D and E chords (2 bars each): Free MP3 Download

Example 2: F and G chords (2 bars each): Free MP3 Download

If you listen to Pearl Jam’s Better Man, you will hear just such sections as these! Have fun!

 

Practice Track: Country G major

Here is a practice track for practicing a basic country strumming pattern and basic country lead scale. It is just one chord, G major. The first track has a basic melody, running up and down the G major pentatonic scale, which is widely used in many forms of country music. See if you can play along. Once you have mastered the scale, use the second track with rhythm only to make up your own melodic lines using the scale. Try using some hammer ons and pull-offs to get that country picking sound. The track is quite slow, at 80 bpm, but you need to play slow before you can play fast! Enjoy!

With Lead

Rhythm Only