Swing Guitar - Part Nine

The Soloing primer

As an additional appendix to the swing guitar workshop, I wanted to provide students with the bare bones approach to soloing so they would have a jumping off point.  That being said, the truth is sort of grim:  There is no easy method to soloing.  Every method I have ever seen or studied takes time and effort to master.  That said, when I got started in soloing (which wasn't long ago) I found a few things pushed me ahead further than others.  Here are a few of those techniques.

First and foremost, I can't recommend enough that you learn the melody (also referred to as the head) to any song you are soloing over.  The melody is full of every element that will make a solo sound good and should NOT be overlooked as a starting place.  In fact, in many styles of music (i.e.: bluegrass, swing) playing the "head" of the song perfectly is considered to be the best solo you could possibly do.

In order to get the dexterity up and muscle memory to really make learning melodies easy and then creating solos, the best place I know to start is the major scale and its modes.  Now, I'm not going to advocate that you spend hours and hours trying to remember and play each of the modes by name.  However, I do advocate learning to see the major scale in five positions on the neck.  This is how I approach it and it has done me a ton of good.

Basically, we are playing the major scale and extending it across the finger board both up and down as far as we can while staying within a given position.  Each of the positions is named for the degree of the scale which they start on.  So, for shape 5, we start on G since G is the 5th degree of the C major scale.

After you have mastered the five positions, a good next step is to work through arpeggios within those shapes.  Arpeggios are another lesson altogether so we won't get too much into it here.  But, they are incredibly useful as a soloing tool since they will basically outline the chord changes in a tune as you play!

But don't stop there!  As you go, you should look for other scales to build solos from as well.  Scales like minor and major pentatonics, harmonic minors, whole tones, and blues scales just to name a few.  With each new scale, try to play solos using only those scales and really work it up in the woodshed.

Another key part of soloing is building speed.  The best way I know to do this is to go slow and use a metronome.  Remember that guitar playing is just like any other physical activity in that we have to build up muscle memory in order to sort of automate ourselves.  By practicing things slowly and accurately, you will build up that muscle memory so that when you speed things up, you will be more accurate and sound better.

Lastly, just a couple of notes on practicing.  We live in a very fortunate age as musicians because we have access to some awesome practice tools that our predecessors didn't.  Namely, computers and all the great things they do.  I use an iPad when I practice and it has helped a lot.  That said, you don't necessarily need one.  But, assuming you have computer access since you are reading this, I would say you need to have the following:

- Tuner
   * Either a clip on or something on your computer/iPad/iPhone
- Metronome
   * I use one on my iPhone/iPad
   * Small units can be gotten fro $20 at most music shops
   * There are numerous free online metronomes
- Recording software
   * I use Soundcloud and DAW
   * You could also use a digital recorder or a micro cassette recorder
- Backing track software
   * I use iReal Pro and it is amazing for the price.
   * There is also Band in a Box, but it is pricier.
   * I have also found one or two free online backing track makers that are useful.

The biggest need on that list (outside of a tuner of course) is something that you can use as a play along.  Whether you are typing in chord changes that the computer plays back (iReal Pro, Band in a Box, etc) or recording yourself using a digital recorder (or Soundcloud, DAW, etc), having some way to play over changes (chord progressions) is a must.  Once you get a certain shape or scale memorized enough that you can play it fairly regularly, then start trying to play that scale up against a play along backing track.  This way, you can start to hear how the notes line up with the chords.

~Danny

Swing Guitar - Part Eight

My eighth installment of Beginning Swing Guitar is going to be a bit of a review and give you some good reference material to get you moving forward with chords.

So far, we have taken most of our chords from two basic families.  Knowing these two families intimately will be invaluable to you over time and make chord building very easy to do on the fly.

Before we get too far along, take a look at this reference chart.

I've blocked out the regular dominate 7 chords in solid dots and left some relevant intervals (such as b3 or b5) to give you some reference.  You can use this chart to quickly learn and find different qualities of chords.  Use it as a reference at first and then start trying to remember the chords.

Building Extensions

To build extended chords we need to understand what we are meaning by that.  Basically, an extended chord is one beyond a simple 7th chord.  You may have seen these are 9ths, 11ths, or 13ths.  To create one of those chords, we need to understand what the 9th, 11th, and 13th interval is.  Basically, just keep counting.
 

C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15

So, if we wanted to add a 9 to a chord to get a nice swingy sound, we would simply find the 9th degree of the scale and put that in the chord.  Since the 9 is the same as the two, we will often replace the root chord with a 9 by going up from the root two frets.  We used that in the previous lesson where a 5-4-3-2 shape with the 3rd in the base became a 9 chord.

Try playing around with the chord shapes, their qualities, and some extensions and putting them into your rhythm playing.

Swing Guitar: Part Seven

This is part five of my Swing Guitar Workshop which I will be teaching at the Folk Alliance Winter Music Camp this coming February.  Make sure to visit their website and get signed up for the camp.  There will be tons of great classes from local and national musicians on all types of music.

That Extra Something

When playing either solo or as an accompanist to another instrument it is sometimes a good idea to really try to take a song a long way to really bring out some of the chord movements.  This is particularly true with swing guitar.  To illustrate, let's take one last look at "Six Foot One" and see what else can be done.

A great move that I learned early on is one that moves from one chord to another that is a fourth away.  This particular move is designed around a moving bass note that is traveling up the scale from the starting chord to its fourth.  In "Six Foot One", we have two measures of A7 that eventually goes to a D7.  This is a perfect spot for this move.



Another move that we can use in this tune which is equally useful when moving a fourth is one that utilizes a 9 chord.  Check out this example:



Now, let's put that all together:



Here is a video to explain what is going on here.

Djangoloy with Robin Nolan and Howard Alden

This week I'm a little overwhelmed with lots of busy work.  To hold you over until the next Swing Guitar lesson, here is a video of Robin Nolan and Howard Alden talking soloing and playing the hell out of Djangology!

Swing Guitar: Part Six

Simple Moving Bass Notes

Six Foot One is a good example of a tune that we can use the simple concept of alternating bass notes.  As in many forms of music, bass lines can be very simple in Swing (they can also be very complicated walking bass styles). 

Alternating bass usually refers to alternating between the root (or tonic) note of a chord and the fifth as the bass of the chord.  To create the alternating bass style we are going to use a couple of chord shapes that we have already seen together.

If you don't remember the chords to Six Foot One, here is a refresher.

Now, let's look at how we alternate those bass lines.




And the video...

Notice how the alternating bass line moves the rhythm of the song.  This is really useful technique for adding that sort of moving or driving sound to your playing.

A word of caution, though...  When playing with a bass player, this sort of movement can really get in the way of the overall sound.  It's important to let the bass player be a bass player.  Just like it is important for them to let you be a guitar player!

That said, in ensembles where there is not a bass player, and especially when you are playing solo or accompanying a soloist, this method is really useful.  Just to play around with it, try not using a pick and just using your fingers!!!

~Danny

Swing Guitar: Part Five

This is part five of my Swing Guitar Workshop which I will be teaching at the Folk Alliance Winter Music Camp this coming February.  Make sure to visit their website and get signed up for the camp.  There will be tons of great classes from local and national musicians on all types of music.

Six Foot One, Tons of Fun

Again, we need to change names around.  I'm betting you know the tune. It's FIVE times as fun as a FOOTball game played by TWO leprechauns.

Hehe...

This tune makes a great teaching platform from the Circle of Fifths because it basically follows the circle in a dominant cycle.  Plus, after we learn the regular tune, we will come back to this and look at it with some fun bass note stuff in another lesson.

made with iRealb

 Just in case you didn't know, the symbol "N.C." in the last two measures of the B section mean "No Chord".  Basically, after you play the G7, there is a break there.  When I play solo, sometimes I will mute all the strings and strum (or scratch as I call it) to the bit to keep time.

Take a look at this handout I'm using for the class for an explanation of the chord shapes that I will be using.

Now, here is the example via SoundCloud:



Take a look at this and play around with it. We will get some variations into the tune in a future lesson.  In the mean time, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

~Danny

Swing Guitar: Part Four

This is the fourth installment of my series on Swing Guitar comping.  As I've mentioned before, this is my prep work for an upcoming workshop that I will be teaching for the Folk Alliance's winter conference.  Check them out for more information. I hope to see you there!

This lesson will focus on a tool that musicians of every level and genre use: The Circle of Fifths.

I talked a little in previous lessons about how this was used in terms of dominant cycles.  This will be just a brief explanation of how to use the Circle of Fifths as a comping tool and as a reference tool.  There are so many different uses of the Circle that I won't be able to cover all of them here, but I do hope to give you a good working explanation as well as how to use it in Swing Guitar.

What's a Fifth

When we say a fifth, we are talking about an interval between two notes.  In this case, a root (or tonic) note and the fifth degree (or note) on a scale.

To find that fifth, we count the root as one and work our way up the scale.  In the key of C, the fifth note is G.  To build our circle, we keep doing this until we come back to C natural.  In all, there are twelve notes (just like there are twelve positions on a clock; weird!).


The Circle

As a cool little mathematical (read: magic) result, by moving through the twelve notes around in fifths, when we reverse it, we are working in fourths!  Notice that "F" is the fourth degree of the C major scale.

Minor chords

As a reference, many people who use the Circle tend to group the relative minors of each key/chord with the majors already listed.  To find a relative minor, we simply count up six notes on the major scale.  Notice that would be "A" on the C major scale so we use Am.

Below is the circle with the relative minors written in for you.

Dominant Cycle Exercises


Learning to use the Circle as a practice tool can making learning new chords shapes, progressions, scales, arpeggios, licks, or any other melodic or rhythmic device a lot more fun.   Here are some ideas on how to use dominant cycles for practice:

Scales
- Choose a scale such as a mode of the major scale
- Use one fingering to play the scale in C
- Move a fifth to play the scale in G
- Keep moving in fifths around the circle
- Do the same as above moving in fourths

Chord Progressions
- Pick a progression in C keeping chords within two or three frets
- Move a fifth to G and play it again
- Keep moving until you have gone around the circle
- Do this again moving in fourths

Chord Shapes
- Pick a chord shape you are trying to master
- Play the C version of the shape
- Move a fifth to G and play it again
- Keep moving until you have gone around the circle
- Do this again moving in fourths

Again, working in dominant cycles in a great way to learn the relationships of different chords and notes.  And by playing though exercises using the circle, you will inevitably learn the fretboard as well.

Backcycling

Last but not least, I wanted to share something that makes the circle really useful in jazz.  Backcycling is  method of following the chords of a particular key backwards.  Let's look at the C major scale notes again and then harmonize them.

C - D - E - F - G - A - B

Now Harmonized (make them chords)

Cmaj7 - Dm7 - Em7 - Fmaj7 - G7 - Am7 - Bm7b5

Now, let's put them in order with the circle.  Note that the if we look at C and move around the circle in fifths until we run out of notes on the C major scale, we end with B.  So, that is where we will start.

Bm7b5 - Em7 - Am7 - Dm7 - G7 - Cmaj7 - Fmaj7

Now let's look at the numbers for those chords:

vii - iii - vi - ii - V - I - IV

Here is a look at it with all that on the circle.

 

Notice the ii - V - I in there???  In fact, some tunes you will see this cycle work through from start to finish!  This means that if you can master this harmonization of the circle in all keys you have the bare bones to learn a lot of the jazz and swing repertoire that is out there!

Take a look at all this and have fun with it.  If you have any questions, feel free to post them and I'll do my best to help explain!

~Danny