Friday, March 26, 2010

Blues basic positioning

First we should know E shape Amin pentatonic scale

Now adding the Blues note to A mps i.e. D# in this case we get Blues scale

There is analogy between blues and normal english sentence we use.
Alphabets - Scales
Words - Licks
Sentences - 2 3 licks combined
Poems - Solo

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Intro: (C) (C) (C) (C)

That (C) sleepy little campfire popped and kinda crackled
We were heating up the pork and (G) beans
And Bubba said, "man, it don't get get any better
than this if ya know what I (C) mean"
We sat there for a minute - listenin' to the crickets
Thinkin' this is hard to (F) beat
'Til (G) Junior stood up - spit in the fire
Said, "Boys, I hate to disagr(C)ee...

"But, if a (F) bus load of women
Really good lookin' women
Just suddenly pulled in (C) here
And (G) ol' T. Garcia Showed up with fajitas
And a hundred gallon keg of (C) beer
And (F) Haggard dropped by
And brought Willie with him
And they started takin' re(C)quests
Now don't get me (C/B) wrong boys
(Am) This is pretty (G) good
But, it (F) could get (G) better than (C) this"

If Bill Dance and Hank Parker floated by in a boat
And volunteered to be our fishing guides
And Richard Petty pulled up in that ol' 43 car
And asked us if we wanted a ride
We'd all sit around singin' Pancho & Lefty
Playin' poker - smokin' big cigars
Now don't take offense ya'll, I'm perfectly content
Just sittin' here, under the stars

"But, if a bus load of women
Really good lookin' women
Just suddenly pulled in here
And ol' Emeril Lagassee Showed up with kielbasa
And a hundred gallon keg of beer
And Haggard dropped by
And brought Willie with him
And they started takin' requests
Now don't get me wrong boys
This is pretty good
But, it could get better than this"

Solo

"But, if a bus load of women
Really good lookin' women
Just suddenly pulled in here
And Little Jimmy Dickens showed up with fried chicken
And a hundred gallon keg of beer
And Haggard dropped by
And brought Willie with him
And they started takin' requests
Now don't get me wrong boys
This is pretty good
But, it could get better than this"

Now don't get me wrong boys
This is pretty good
But, it could get better than this"

Monday, March 15, 2010

Improve Your Guitar Teaching

Although there are many different ways you can help your students become better guitar players and musicians, we can group almost everything you do into three main categories:
1. Inspiring and motivating your students – teaching guitar well is often more about inspiring your students than teaching a new scale, chord or song.
2. Teaching them ‘new things’ to play/practice – Most guitar teachers understand this basic concept, but often struggle to know exactly how much ‘new content’ is too little or too much for each student. Most teachers ‘overwhelm’ their students with simply too much material in a short amount of time.
3. Helping them to solve their playing/musical problems – The best way to improve your guitar teaching is to understand exactly how to help any student overcome any problem.
Each of these areas has its own challenges, but for most teachers it is the last category (helping students solve guitar playing/musical problems) that can be the most difficult to consistently do well.
When teaching guitar to solve problems and bad habits, the first thing to do is be clear about the process itself:
Identify the true cause of the problem. Remember that ’symptoms’ of problems and ’causes’ of problems are often totally different things. A misdiagnosed problem (just like a misdiagnosed medical problem) can make things worse than doing nothing at all.
Find proven solutions to overcome this problem. Yes, this seems like an obvious point, but often teachers ‘guess’ or use the trial and error approach to teaching guitar. Surround yourself with other experienced guitar teachers. Ask them for their advice on your specific challenge, doing so may save you and your student a lot of time and frustration.
Communicate the causes and your solution to your student’s problem. Again, this may seem like common sense, but fact is, most teachers do not fully explain the cause and solutions to the problems students have, they sort of skip this part and move directly into implementing the solution. The reason why communicating the cause and solution to your student is so important is that, without the student truly knowing what these things are, they often won’t truly practice your solution diligently at home.
Implement the solution (training). To be the most effective, you need to do more than ‘teach what to do’, you need to ‘train’ them to do it. The ‘teaching part’ can usually be done quickly, but it is the ‘training’ that takes the time. Think more like a sports trainer and less like a school teacher as you implement solutions while teaching guitar (more on this below).
Hold their hand – You do not need to treat all your students like children (unless they are children), but when teaching guitar, it is important that you monitor your students’ motivation level and help them to keep it high. A mediocre guitar teacher who keeps his/her students highly motivated will almost always get much bigger results than a great ‘technical’ teacher who does little or nothing to keep students inspired and motivated – yet this is an area most teachers don’t do consistently well in – because they underestimate its importance.
Because students typically have multiple problems in their playing (inconsistent articulation, weak sense of timing, excess body tension, inefficient hand movement, excess string noise, just to name a few common ones), and because there are typically multiple causes to each of those problems, the hardest part about teaching guitar, as it relates to solving students’ playing problems and breaking bad habits, is knowing the best order to deal with the causes of a student’s problems. Timing is critical and so is the order.
Many (well intentioned) teachers make the mistake of trying to use ‘linear logic’ to help students break bad habits and overcome challenges. There are many problems with this, the main one is we don’t teach machines, we are teaching people. Everything we do, and when we do it, has a positive or negative impact in the mind of our students. In theory it might make perfect sense for a teacher to make the student deal with the most basic problems first. That seems logical right? Well, those that follow this all the time will have a hard time keeping students long enough to help them become the guitar players they wish to be.
Contrary to what many guitar teachers believe, fixing the most fundamental problems your students have in the beginning (or trying to break too many bad habits at once) does more harm than good for most students. Yes, problems and bad habits must be dealt with in order for your students to reach their maximum potential, but too much of this at the same time may kill the will for your students to endure the natural frustration that comes with learning to play guitar.
Each student is different and you need to get a sense of how much tolerance the student sitting in front of you can handle in the present moment. If you overestimate this, the result is likely going to lead to massive amounts of frustration for your student and he/she may give up lessons and playing guitar completely.
How long does it usually take your beginning guitar students, as an example, to sit or stand with ‘perfectly correct’ posture, use perfect left and right hand positions, use the correct picking motions and articulation etc. etc. when playing and practicing? Sure you can teach this in a minute or two, but how long will it take that student to instinctively do this all the time on his/her own without you reminding them? For most students, it takes a long time.
Is it okay to let your students continue to play and practice guitar when you know many basic things are wrong and that they will form bad habits by allowing them to go on in this way?
Most guitar teachers would say, “no, it’s not okay” and then proceed to immediately try to correct all of them as soon as possible. Other guitar teachers simply don’t notice or don’t care enough to address these things. They figure as long as students keep coming back to lessons, everything is good.
The best approach for teaching guitar is neither. To be clear, your top priority should be to keep your student coming back for as many lessons as possible – not simply because you make more money that way, but because, if a student gives up lessons, you can do nothing to help him/her. Obviously, you must deal with problems and bad habits though (to not do this would be the same as only feeding kids candy and never real food).
When teaching guitar to solve a problem, avoid dealing with the entire problem and all its causes at once. Begin with the one thing you can do for your student that will be easiest for him/her to correct. This will help to build confidence that he/she can begin to overcome the problem and that doing so wasn’t extremely hard to start with. Pay attention to how much of this you think they can handle right now. If it looks good, then give them the next thing to fix.
Although some guitar playing problems and bad habits can be really big issues to deal with, try not to make the entire lesson only about solving problems. Most students need to get a sense of forward progress and even though solving problems is forward progress, they can’t always see that themselves even after you explain it to them, so give them something else that is fulfilling for them to play and practice. A little sugar with the medicine helps it go down easier .
Test your guitar teaching skills.

Slide guitar for Acoustic guitar

First, you’ll need the slide itself. They are usually made of metal or glass and are available in most music stores. Metal slides are louder; glass ones pro- duce a smoother sound. Alternatives to commercially manufactured slides are lipstick holders, ¾-inch spark plug sockets, Coricidin bottles, or what many slide guitarists prefer: a straight neck from a wine bottle such as Mateus, fifth size (it has to be carefully cut or broken off from the bottle, and then the cut has to be ground down until smooth). Any slide you do use should be both wide enough to fit loosely over your pinky finger and long enough to cover all six strings of the guitar.
Because slide guitar is usually played in open tunings, you’ll have to do some retuning. The most commonly used slide tunings are open E (from the sixth string to the first, the notes are E BE G# B E), D (D A D F# A D), and G (D G D G B D). The open E and open D tunings are the same except that open D is tuned a whole step lower than open E, Of these two I recommend open D; open E creates additional stress on the neck and top of an acoustic guitar because it raises three of the strings (third, fourth, and fifth) above their normal pitch.
Here’s how to tune your guitar to open D from standard tuning: Leave the fourth (D) and the fifth (A) strings as they are. Lower the sixth string (E) until its seventh fret matches the open fifth string (A). After that, lower the third string (G) until it matches the fourth fret of the fourth string. Then, lower the second string (B) until it matches the third fret of the third string. Finally, lower the first string (E) until it matches the fifth fret of the second string.

Here are diagrams for the primary chords in the key of D in D tuning: (right). I advise using medium-gauge strings with the action set no lower than 1/8- inch at the 12^th fret for playing slide. Using lighter strings or an instrument with lower action may result in rattles, missed notes, and diminished volume.
To start, put the slide over your left pinky so that both knuckles are covered.

The slide should fit loosely enough to allow you to bend your finger slightly. Then place the thumb behind the neck and position the slide on the first string directly over the 12^th fret. The slide should be both perpendicular to the string and parallel to the frets, and it should lightly rest on the string without pushing down. The index finger must also rest lightly on the string- this "damping" of the string helps pre- vent unwanted buzzes or rattles.

Some slide guitarists keep their left-hand fingers together and straight while others keep them separate and slightly curled. Which position to use is mostly a matter of individual preference, although other factors, such as the length of the slide or whether you’re playing single notes or fingerpicking with a bass line, can enter in. Experiment and see what suits you, but damp with the index finger in all cases and keep your hand relaxed.

Because slide guitar is traditionally a fingerpicking style, I recommend as a general rule that you use the right-hand thumb to pluck the fourth, fifth, and sixth strings and the other fingers for the first, second, and third strings. In the examples that appear below, right- hand fingering is indicated as follows: i for the index, m for the middle, a for the ring, and p for the thumb. Avoid resting the pinky on the soundboard-it’s easier to pick with four fingers (thumb, index, middle, and ring) if you keep the pinky up. A "floating" right hand also makes it easier to get different tone col- ors at various points along the string length-ranging from sharp and bright near the bridge to round and mellow near the left side of the soundhole.

With the slide still on the 12^th fret, try playing a few notes, making sure that the index finger is damping behind the slide. As soon as you can do this, work through the following series of riffs. When you practice them, at first play the treble only and then add the bass. The eighth notes in all these examples are to be played as swing eighths:

The following riff uses consecutive notes on the same string. As you move the slide along the string, make sure it is right over the appropriate fret bar and parallel to the fret. Alternate the index and middle fingers of the right hand as shown.

(Click here for Ex. 1)

The next riff will help you develop your ability to play staccato notes on the same string. Play each note and then lift the slide, but keep the damping finger down. The note will cut off cleanly.

(Click here for Ex. 2)

The riff below uses consecutive notes on the same frets but on different strings. Because open tunings allow the guitarist to play complete chords on the same fret, riffs built around this device are common. Make sure that the damping finger shifts correctly from string to string. Here the slide has to cover the top three strings, leaving the lower three open.

(Click here for Ex. 3)

The next riff illustrates how to change from an open note to a fretted note. The slide and the damping finger have to work together as a unit. This includes situations where you must lift the left hand to play an open string and replace it to play a closed note.

(Click here for Ex. 4.)

Guitarists often ornament notes by placing the slide anywhere from one to four frets above or below the desired note, plucking the string, and sliding up or down to the note as quickly as possible. This is called a grace note slide, and is indicated by a straight line in between the grace note and the main, or "graced," note. Learn to do it without looking-it will train your ears.

(Click here for Ex. 5)

Another basic technique is picking a closed note and then moving the slide upwards or downward to a different fret without using the right hand again, as in this example:

(Click here for Ex. 6)

You must be able to jump up or dive down a long distance on the fretboard with accuracy, by either sliding or picking the notes individually. The example below shows you the same riff played both ways-the first measure has long slides and the second short slides.

(Click here for Ex. 7)

Slide guitarists fret with the other three left-hand fingers in addition to using the slide, although rarely at the same time. The example below shows you measures 9 and 10 of a 12-bar blues (over the V and IV chords). The V chord (A) riff uses fretting; the IV (G) riff uses the slide over all six strings. Note the alternating thumb in the bass and the double notes in the treble

(Click here for Ex. 8)

In slide guitar, hammer-ons and pull-offs are done in combination with open strings only. Hammers are done by plucking an open string and lowering the damping finger and the slide onto the string (don’t use too much force or you’ll wind up fretting with the slide). Pulls can be done by plucking a closed note and pulling the slide and the tip of the damping finger laterally off the string. In other words, don’t lift the slide and the finger straight up-pull them off to the side, catching the string with the tip of the left index finger. Pulls are easiest from the first string, but they can be done from the others also. Hammers and pulls are indicated by curved lines in between the two notes and are marked H or P in the tablature.

(Click here for Ex. 9.)

The following string combinations produce octaves: sixth and fourth, fifth and second, fourth and and first. Unlike the previous exercises, you should practice this by playing the bass the treble together right away, without playing the treble alone beforehand.

(Click here for Ex.10)

Vibrato is an essential slide technique to master, and it is a big part of the eeriness that impressed W.C. Handy so long ago. Vibrato is most often done with long notes or chords to give them a singing, shimmering quality, but it’s also used with shorter notes when the slide is being held in place.

A tilde (~) placed over the note indicates vibrato. To play with vibrato, keep your thumb in place on the back of the neck and use it as an anchor; quickly shake the left hand back and forth from a point just over the fret to about halfway down the fret toward the nut. The slide should not go up over the fret bar, because the vibrato won’t sound right if the pitch goes sharp-it has to range from flat to normal. When adding vibrato, your hand must be loose and relaxed. It’s possible to vary the speed of the vibrato, but this is something you can experiment with later, after you have learned the basic movement. Try these riffs, and then return to the earlier exercises, adding vibrato on the long notes.

(Click here for Ex.11)

After you have practiced these exercises, try playing the guitar solo, "Delta Dream." This slow blues makes use of most of the techniques you’ve just learned. As before, play it with treble only; then add the bass.

(Click here for "Delta Dream")

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Songs in the Key of C

Song

Abracadabra

Angie

Animal

Another Brick In The Wall

Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You

Brown Sugar

California Dreamin'

California Girls

Coming In From The Cold

D.O.A.

Don't Fear The Reaper

Down On The Corner

Drops Of Jupiter

Dust In The Wind

Everything To Everyone

Fire And Rain

Fly Like An Eagle

Get Out

Give It Away

Great Balls Of Fire

Heart Of Stone

Homeward Bound

Hound Dog

House Of The Rising Sun

Imagine

Jump

La Bamba

Let It Be

Like A Rolling Stone

Losing My Religion

My Girl

Natural Mystic

One

Otherside

Papa Was A Rolling Stone

Piano Man

Respect

So Lonely

Space Oddity

Taylor

The Boxer

The Unforgiven

When Dove's Cry

Why Can't This Be Love

With My Own Two Hands

You Can't Always

Artist

Key

Steve Miller Band

Rolling Stones

Pearl Jam

Pink Floyd

Led Zeppelin

Rolling Stones

The Mamas and the Papas

Beach Boys

Bob Marley

Foo Fighters

Blue Oyster Cult

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Train

Kansas

Everclear

James Taylor

Steve Miller Band

Sublime

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Jerry Lee Lewis

Rolling Stones

Simon And Garfunkel

Elvis

Animals

John Lennon

Van Halen

Ritchie Valens

Beatles

Bob Dylan

R.E.M.

The Temptations

Bob Marley

Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Temptations

Billy Joel

Aretha Franklin

The Police

David Bowie

Jack Johnson

Simon And Garfunkel

Metallica

Prince

Van Halen

Ben Harper

Get What You Want Rolling Stones

Chords in the 12 bar blues sequence

The name 12 Bar Blues comes from the number of measures or bars in most blues songs - twelve.
It is, at its most basic, based on the I-IV-V chords of a key.

What are the I, IV, and V Chords?

The I, IV, and V chords are the three most used chords in each major key. Aloud you would call them, “The one, four, and five chords.” The I chord is built on the first note of the key. The IV chord is built on the fourth note of the key. And, the V chord is built on the fifth note of the key.

For example, the key of C major is spelled C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The first note is C, the fourth note is F, and the fifth is G. The I, IV, and V chords in the key of C are a C major triad, an F major triad, and a G major triad. We’d simply say, “The chords are C, F, and G.”

I IV V

One Four Five

C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8

From the above table we can see that the 1st note in a C major scale is C, the 4th note of the scale is F, and the 5th note of the scale is G. Let's look at the selected 1, 4, and 5 in a different table:

C major chord	F major chord	G major chord
ONE of the scale	FOUR of the scale	FIVE of the scale

You should notice the notes of each triad fit within the key. Remember, that’s what diatonic means – within the key. C major is made up of the notes C, E, and G. F major is F, A, and C. And, G major is G, B, and D. The key is what binds the chords together into a small family.

I, IV, and V Chords in Each Key

Here is a table of the I, IV, and V chords in all 15 major keys. Don’t kill yourself trying to memorize these all in one shot. With time and experience you will eventually memorize these groups of chords. You're going to encounter them so much that you’ll come to see and hear them as a small family.

Major Key	I	IV	V
C	C	F	G
G	G	C	D
D	D	G	A
A	A	D	E
E	E	A	B
B	B	E	F#
Cb	Cb	Fb	Gb
F#	F#	B	C#
Gb	Gb	Cb	Db
C#	C#	F#	G#
Db	Db	Gb	Ab
Ab	Ab	Db	Eb
Eb	Eb	Ab	Bb
Bb	Bb	Eb	F
F	F	Bb	C

Scales and Keys:

Let's bring you up to speed on the basics. Look at your piano keyboard. Notice the black keys are in groups of two's and three's. Find a group of two. The white key to the left of the first black key in any group of two is a C. Good Now, notice that if you start with C and count up 12 keys, you'll be at C again. There are really only 12 unique notes in Western musical notation. Easy right?

Right. Now, most every piece of music you hear will be in a "key". This means that the composer decided that one of the 12 notes would be more important than the rest. For the purposes of this column, we're going to be in the key of C Major. If you start with a C and play (up the keyboard) all the white keys until you get to the next C, you will hear what C Major sounds like. It should sound very familiar to you.

Now, let's talk about ways to identify the notes in the C Major scale (and other major scales). C is the first note in the scale also called Scale Degree One, and also called Tonic. Next we have D, scale degree 2, Supertonic. E, scale degree 3, Mediant. F, scale degree 4, Subdominant. G, scale degree 5, Dominant. A, scale degree 6, Sub-mediant. B, scale degree 7, Leading Tone. And then we're back to the C that's one octave above our original tonic. Your first step in becoming a theory wiz, is to memorize the names of the notes in the major scale. (Note: These names apply to any major scale. Not just C Major.) Here they are again:

C - Scale Degree 1 - Tonic
D - Scale Degree 2 - Supertonic
E - Scale Degree 3 - Mediant
F - Scale Degree 4 - Subdominant
G - Scale Degree 5 - Dominant
A - Scale Degree 6 - Sub-mediant
B - Scale Degree 7 - Leading Tone

The 12-Bar Blues Form

The most common form of the blues is a 12-bar pattern of chord changes. That is, a repeated twelve-bar chord progression. This is called “12-Bar Blues”.
You should remember a bar is the same as a measure. Most often in blues you will count 4 beats to each bar – 4/4 time.
In a blues song this 12-bar cycle gets repeated over and over through the course of the tune. A blues song might play through it 20 times. It will depend on the specific song.
The blues can be played in any key. In whatever key you are in, 12-bar blues uses the same basic sequence of I, IV, and V chords. It is most easily thought of as three 4-bar sections – the first 4, the middle 4, and the last 4 bars.
The first 4 bars just use the I chord - I, I, I, I.
The middle 4 bars go IV, IV, I, I.
And the last 4 bars go V, IV, I, V. Then you repeat the whole thing again.
So, the basic 12-bar sequence looks like this:

Monday, March 8, 2010

Major pentatonic scale

Minor pentatonic scale

The Minor Pentatonic scale is often the first scale that people learn. This is because it is easy to play, very very useful and is the basis of much blues and rock improvisation.

The Major pentatonic scales have the same fingerings, only the root note is different, usually I just teach the Minor Pentatonic and then just use them in a different way to get the Major variety, but certainly get these ones down first.

Scale Formula

The scale forumula for the major scale must be memorised, as you will use it often to work out chord tones. The formula describes the interval distances between each note of the scale.

TS ^ T ^ T ^ TS ^ T
(T=Tone, TS= Tone+Semitone, or 1.5 Tones, or min 3rd interval)

Comparison With Major Scale

C Major = C D E F G A B C (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1)
C Minor Pentatonic = C Eb F G Bb C (1 b3 4 5 b7 1)

5 shapes

E

The Harmonic Minor Scale

It is derived from the Natural Minor Scale with a raised 7th degree but can also be thought of as a Major scale with a flattened 3rd and flattened 6th.
The Harmonic minor was derived by the need for a Dominant chord on the 5th degree (V) of the minor scale - enabling a Perfect Cadence (a Dominant 7th V chord resolving to a I minor chord). In the Natural minor scale the V (5) chord is a minor chord (Gmin7, G Bb D F, in the key of C). By changing the note Bb in the scale to the note B it changes the V chord to a Dominant 7th chord (G7, G B D F, in the key of C). This enables a correct V-I resolution. More on this in a different lesson - not for here...

Scale Formula

The scale forumula for the major scale must be memorised, as you will use it often to work out chord tones. The formula describes the interval distances between each note of the scale.

T ^ S ^ T ^ T ^ S ^ ST ^ S
(T= Tone, S= Semitone, ST= 1.5 Tones)

Comparison With Major Scale

C Major = C D E F G A B C (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1)
C Harmonic Minor = C D Eb F G Ab B C (1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7 1)
Harmonic Minor Shapes
E form

D form

C form

A form

G form

Guitar Songs

Followers

Misc

HIndi Songs

English

Friday, March 26, 2010

Blues basic positioning

Saturday, March 20, 2010

15 essential scales

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Brad Paisley - Then

Monday, March 15, 2010

Improve Your Guitar Teaching

Slide guitar for Acoustic guitar

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Songs in the Key of C

Chords in the 12 bar blues sequence

What are the I, IV, and V Chords?

I, IV, and V Chords in Each Key

Scales and Keys:

The 12-Bar Blues Form

Monday, March 8, 2010

Major pentatonic scale

Minor pentatonic scale

The Harmonic Minor Scale

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Major Key	I	IV	V
C	C	F	G
G	G	C	D
D	D	G	A
A	A	D	E
E	E	A	B
B	B	E	F#
Cb	Cb	Fb	Gb
F#	F#	B	C#
Gb	Gb	Cb	Db
C#	C#	F#	G#
Db	Db	Gb	Ab
Ab	Ab	Db	Eb
Eb	Eb	Ab	Bb
Bb	Bb	Eb	F
F	F	Bb	C

Major Key	I	IV	V
C	C	F	G
G	G	C	D
D	D	G	A
A	A	D	E
E	E	A	B
B	B	E	F#
Cb	Cb	Fb	Gb
F#	F#	B	C#
Gb	Gb	Cb	Db
C#	C#	F#	G#
Db	Db	Gb	Ab
Ab	Ab	Db	Eb
Eb	Eb	Ab	Bb
Bb	Bb	Eb	F
F	F	Bb	C

Major Key	I	IV	V
C	C	F	G
G	G	C	D
D	D	G	A
A	A	D	E
E	E	A	B
B	B	E	F#
Cb	Cb	Fb	Gb
F#	F#	B	C#
Gb	Gb	Cb	Db
C#	C#	F#	G#
Db	Db	Gb	Ab
Ab	Ab	Db	Eb
Eb	Eb	Ab	Bb
Bb	Bb	Eb	F
F	F	Bb	C