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Open Days at Samford and The Gap

Come along to my open days on Friday 28th January at Samford and Monday January 31st at The Gap. Book in for a trial lesson, free of charge. Say hello, and lets have a bit of a jam! All levels from beginner to veteran’s welcome! All ages welcome!

Teaching term will commence on Monday 31st January! I have openings in Samford and The Gap.

This is a piece with the help of my looper pedal. The first layer is a bass riff using the E minor pentatonic scale. Next comes some E9th chords. A third layer is 12th fre harmonics on the top three strings, which are an E minor chord. The total harmonic effect is of #9 and 9 juxtaposed – very bluesy. Then follows some soloing using the open position E minor pentatonic scale. A fourth layer is looped in with some funky Em7 chord, using a fifth fret shape. Then some more soloing up arround the 12th fret, still the E minor pentatonic scale!

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Practice Track – E minor Pentatonic

You can never have enough of the E minor pentatonic scale. So here is another practice track, built around an E boogie power chord. There is just one chord! The organ comes in over the top with an E7 #9, while the bass line features sliding or bending between minor and major third. So hit those bends in your solo, especially the minor third!

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Bass Practice Track – E Minor Pentatonic

I thought it would be cool for my bass students to play along with a track that I am working on for an album by “The Robert Bloodwood Experience”, which is the name of my blues and groove band. So I have taken out the bass and the vocals, leaving just the drums and guitars.

It is predominantly an E minor groove, occasionally changing to G and then to A. See if you can figure out where by listening. Play along using the E minor Pentatonic scale. Remember that simple with a good feel is often the best option for bass.

practicetrackversionNoBassNoVocals

 

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Practice Track – Autumn Leaves

Many jazz compositions are built up on the II-V-I progression. An example is the tune Autumn leaves, which alternates between II-V-I progressions in G major and E minor (the relative minor of G). This set of practice tracks will help you to develop your soloing over a major II-V-I and its relative minor II-V-I, such as in Autumn Leaves.

First we will develop skills in the major II-V-I, with a IV chord added at the end. With the added IV chord, we go right around the circle of fourths into the minor II-V- I. Here is a practice backing track for the major II-V-I-IV. Use the G major scale to improvise.

||:Am7      |D7         |Gmaj7      |Cmaj7     : ||

II-V-I-IV-GMajorLoop

Next we develop up our minor II-V-I. Use an E minor scale to improvise – the melodic minor scale with a (C# and D#) is suggested by the melody, however the b5 of the F#m and the b9 of the B7 are C, which indicate the harmonic minor scale. You can also experiment with the natural minor scale (same notes as G major), which gives a #9 sound over the B7. Constructing a melody using the arpeggio notes of each chord (especially 3rds, 7ths and altered tones) on beats 1 and 3, or all down beats in eighth note passages will always sound strong!

||:F#m7b5      |B7 (b9)    |Em          |                   : ||

II-V-IEMinorLoop

Now we can alternate between the major and minor, as in the tune autumn leaves:

||:Am7      |D7         |Gmaj7      |Cmaj7     |

|F#m7b5      |B7 (b9)    |Em          |                  : ||

|F#m7b5      |B7 (b9)    |Em          |                  |

|Am7      |D7         |Gmaj7      |Cmaj7     |

|F#m7b5      |B7 (b9)    |Em          |                  |

|F#m7b5      |B7 (b9)    |Em          |                  :||

autumnleavesStyleProgressionPracticeTrack

Have fun – and devote plenty of time to working with these practice tracks, as they will give you a solid foundation which will help you in your improvising on many jazz tunes. In a future note I will talk some more about strategies for soloing over these chords!

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Practice Track – E minor Pentatonic

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!

E16bar

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Practice Track: E minor Pentatonic

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!

Em pentatonic practice track

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Practice Track: E Minor Pentatonic

One of the songs I teach my beginning students is known affectionately as “Em Pentatonic on the First Two strings”. It uses only four notes, B, D, E and G, and three simple two finger chords, Em, G6 and Amin9 (really A5 add2). Here I have recorded the tune with the melody, and also without the melody so that you can (1) practice playing the melody yourself, and (2) practice making up your own tune (improvising) using the notes B,D, E and G from the E minor pentatonic scale. Of course if you know the entire E minor pentatonic scale, feel free to use it!

Here it is with the melody. Try and play along, reading the melody from your music (the music is printed in Rob’s Guitar Method, Book 1, on page 16).

Em pentatonic practice track – with melody.

When you have played along with the recorded melody above, try the next MP3, which has only the accompaniment. Try to play the melody along with the accompaniment. Then try making up your own tune using notes from the E minor pentatonic scale!

Em pentatonic practice track – no melody.

Have fun!

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Practice Track: Em Pentatonic on First Two Strings

This tune is great fun to play, and sounds good played in many different ways, from fast to slow. Most of my beginning students will spend some time on this tune, as it is a great introduction to jammimg and improvisation using the pentatonic scale, the foundation of much rock and roll, blues and jazz playing. There are only four notes in the tune, so it is perfect to learn for those in the first stages of learning. Listen to my track with the recorded melody, and try to play along as you read the music. Then try to play the melody using the track without the melody recorded. Then practice making up your own tunes, using the same four notes, or adding other notes from the E minor pentatonic scale.

Em Pentatonic on First Two Strings – with Melody

Em Pentatonic on First Two Strings – just chords