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

D

C

A

G

 

Read more...

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

Read more...

Melodic minor

It is derived from the Natural Minor Scale with a raised 6th and 7th degree but can also be thought of as a Major scale with a flattened 3rd.
In Classical music theory the melodic minor and natural minor are combined into one scale. The melodic minor is used when ascending the scale, the natural minor is used when descending the scale. This idea is not used in a jazz environment and in modern music is somewhat redundant, except in high school classical music study.

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 ^ T ^ T ^ S
(T=Tone, S= Semitone)

Comparison With Major Scale

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

And here’s a pattern for D melodic minor. Why D melodic minor? Hang tight: play first and we’ll answer questions in a bit.

|------------------|--------------------|
|--------------2-3-|-3-2----------------|
|----------2-4-----|-----4-2------------|
|----2-3-5---------|---------5-3-2------|
|--5---------------|---------------5----|
|------------------|--------------------|

Get acquainted with this pattern and play it over the G7 chord. If you already know a few major scales, this pattern is real close to one you know: the D major scale. As just mentioned, there’s just one note difference between the major and melodic minor scales.
What did you think of the sound? That gets us into answering the question: why are we using a scale whose root is D to solo over a G7 chord? Is it magic, or are we just playing scales at random?
No, we’re not just choosing any scale. Let’s look at the notes in G7 and those in the D melodic minor scale:
G7: G B D F
D melodic minor (starting with G): G A B C# D E F G.
You see that the D melodic minor scale contains the G7 chord with no conflicts. That is, every note in G7 is found in D melodic minor.
But notice something else: The D melodic minor scale has just one accidental: C#. The whole scale is extremely close to the C major scale — just one note different. This means that if you’re playing a tune that uses the C major scale and come across a G7 chord, you can play the D melodic minor scale instead of the C major scale; you will sound interestingly different, but not so different to where you would consider the sound wrong or ugly.
Next time: another way of using the melodic minor scale to play over a Dom 7 chord.

5 positions of melodic minor
E

D

C

A

G

 

Read more...

Using CAGED technique 2

In the previous chapter showed you how to find the CAGED chords from a progression without straying too far from the playing position. Getting used to this allows you to easily visualise and locate chord tones. Using these chord tones within your guitar solo will enable you to create lead breaks that always work with the chord progression. Most guitar solos are a mixture of scales, licks and chord tones. The real art is being able to mix these ideas together. The easiset way to accomplish this is to practice the playing the tones only to create a melodic solo. Being able to find these notes with ease is very important and until you can do so, it’s best not to try using them too much with scale playing until they become a natural part of your guitar playing.
The TAB below shows how you can experiment by creating a simple melodic guitar solo based on the same chord progression as that in Lesson 1. Remember, staying as close to one position as possible is the important thing. The other thing to remember is you don’t need to be using all six strings otherwise it becomes predictable. You also don’t need to play all of the notes within a chord, for example, you could just hold onto one note from a chord for an entire bar and then the next chord change you could play a few more chord tones from the next chord. Breaking it up like this steers it away from being too cheesy. The example below also sounds a bit cheesy but you need to start like this to make sure you are learning properly. As you gain experience these ideas will creep into your natural scale type of soloing and this is when the CAGED method starts being useful. Although I think “method” is the wrong word. It’s better to think of CAGED as being a kind of overlay or guide across the fretboard rather than a system or method. Eventually you won’t even think about CAGED, everything just becomes chord tones and notes.

Read more...

Using CAGEd technique 1

Playing chords in one position
Two of the biggest differences between pro and amateur guitar solos are knowing when to play the right notes at the right time and making those note transitions work smoothly. This is something that you might think would take years to accomplish but it’s not really that hard. Sure it takes some time but the biggest hurdle the beginner guitarist has overcoming this problem is most beginner and amateur guitarists just don’t know how to go about practicing this kind of stuff. Where do you start?
Learning the notes on the fretboard is definitely a big deal and helps your guitar solos massively but a lot of rock and blues use a lot of very common chord progressions. This is the best place to get started on putting the CAGED system to good use and see some real benefits in a short amount of time from the CAGED method.
Knowing the CAGED chords and being able to find them quickly is the easiest way to make use of chord tones in your guitar solos. Once you know these very well then you can use the system to make sure you land on the good sounding notes whenever the chords change in a chord progression. You know those guitar solos you hear that always sound so natural and flowing with the music, those are the ones that make sure the chord changes are reflected within the solo itself as well as the other instruments playing the backing. If a solo is self supporting then it’s always going to fit well within the rest of the band.
Once you have this kind of stuff down then you are on your way. Don’t get too excited though, there is a lot to learn yet, this is just the basics of putting the CAGED guitar system to good use. The toughest part is getting so used to it that you can move to any chord while moving your fretting hand as little as possible away from it’s current position. Why? Because this is how you get your guitar solo to sound so smooth and fit perfectly with the music. If you can manage to choose notes within your guitar solo that change between the chords with the least amount of distance, this is when you start to sound like a real pro. We can’t rush ahead this fast so for now lets just take an example chord progression and look for the CAGED chords that are closest to the position we are playing. For this example lets say we are around the fifth fret and using the following chord sequence.
Chords: A / F# minor / D / E
Here are the CAGED chords around the fifth fret.

Being able to find those patterns quickly takes some practice and the more you know the notes on the fretboard the better. It really doesn’t take very long to do learn any of these things, here’s a fact, most beginners spend more time looking for answers and tricks on how to learn the fretboard than it actually takes to learn them with the correct practice!
Just do a few exercises everyday, it doesn’t need to be anything in particular.. Just pay attention to what you are playing and practice the above idea in all twelve keys regularly, within a month you’ll be well on your way. Within a few months you could know the entire fretboard with ease as long as you stay focused and make sure you are learning and not just going through the motions. I’ll do an in depth lesson on that another time but right now lets stick with the CAGED system!
For now, all you need to do is practice the above chords in those positions. Don’t worry if you find them difficult to finger, the point is to get to know the note positions and chord patterns. When it comes to creating our guitar solos, we want all of those notes firmly fixed in our minds without any thought required. It’s good if you can play them as full chords but for the sake of what we are learning here, you only need to play the notes. The TAB below will give you the idea. Practice regular for a few days and then you will be ready to move on to the next lesson.

Read more...

Maj 7 chords

Read more...

Minor 7 chords

Read more...

CAGED minor chords

Read more...

CAGED 7th chords

So we can see that C requires all 4 fingers, G and D require 3 fingers and A and E require only 2 fingers.

Read more...

CAGED Chords In Use

Making your guitar solos sound professional
 The Caged system isn’t just about relating chord patterns to the major scale. In fact as far as I’m concerned it’s the least important. A good guitar solo is more often centred around chord tones rather than scales. Sure, scales are an important part of it but the difference between pro and amateur guitar lead breaks mostly boil down to three things. Amateur guitar solos are most often a combination of the following three things.

1. Poor guitar technique
2. Over use of scale patterns
3. Un-awareness of the importance of the underlying chords

The first one isn’t so hard to grasp, most beginner guitarists know their technique might need some work and they usually practice harder to improve it. The other two are a bit more difficult and they are a related problem. The beginner and even some intermediate guitarists aren’t necessarily bad at playing lead guitar, they just have limited knowledge of how to practice and improve their guitar solos to sound professional. This is one of the bigger problems of self taught guitarists, the books they use don’t really help much so it’s hardly a surprise.
Many magazines and guitar methods will tell you all about scales and maybe even explain the CAGED guitar system but unfortunately not in nearly enough detail as they should. The heart of the CAGED method is about knowing how to find chords as well as chord tones anywhere on the fretboard. This is more important than just relating five chord shapes to five major scale shapes.
Another problem with they common explanations of the CAGED system is that it is always related to major chords only. This is a mistake. Yes the five common chords make are the basis of the system but shouldn’t be limited to the five major chords (triads) only. It’s just as important and not even much more difficult to use this same method to know the minor chords and all the seventh variations.
It takes time to learn them all but the good news is it gets easier as you go on. At first it can sound like to much to learn but it really isn’t that bad. Once you get going there are so many similarities between the shapes that it comes together a lot quicker than you might expect at first. A few months regular, focused practice and it’s quite possible for most guitarists to have put the CAGED system to very good use for all the chord variations and anywhere on the guitar neck.
The best way to make use of this method is to simply start using it straight away, but do so in small stages so that you build your skill slowly. Try to do it all at once and you will probably get nowhere.
One of the first things you should practice is to play the chords to a variety of chord progressions but try to stay as close to one position on the guitar neck as possible. Learn this well and you will open up a whole new world with your guitar solos. Use the practicing ideas on this website to build your CAGED knowledge and your solos will improve by a huge amount. There will be quite a lot of practice ideas coming so watch out and start improving your guitar playing now.

Read more...