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Guest
So as I’ve said before I’ve been on and off the site for a while. I found that I’ve been quite unhappy with my playing and how I approach practice. So I took some time away from practice in general, cleared my mind and then started to re-learn some basic foundations.
One of the things I’ve learnt is something I felt I should have learnt a long long time ago, in a galaxy far away. And thats a different perspective on how I see music as a whole. To be specific I felt I couldnt progress any more, which was wrong because you shouldn’t feel like you cant progress as you are always learning. But I suppose I felt a bit burnt out with ideas. There was only so many ways I could play a minor pentatonic scale or any of the modes, so fresh ideas were difficult to come by.
I started to read things I studied a while ago (things that I totally forgot about) such as pentatonic substitution. I couldn’t believe I neglected this concept. So this has changed the way I’ve been viewing the fretboard, and has been helping me explore things that may/may not work, but its helping me get a few extra miles out of improv and general playing. Basically its helping me understand what sounds right and where. This has been said many times everywhere that soloing is about playing the right note at the right time, but I obviously didn’t quite understand the true meaning behind this.
This is how a simple idea has changed the way I see music (apologies if this is stating many obvious facts);
Let’s take an Amin7 backing track, and to make things easier, we are going to vamp on this Amin7 chord throughout so no changes whatsoever. The first thing I will consider is the chords most basic foundation. The most basic foundation of Amin7 is A C E G (Or 1 3 5 b7). Over this min7 chord, we can work out that we can play an Amin7 chord over this Amin7 chord and it would sound fine. We could play an Amin7 1st inversion and this would work also. We could go through all the inversions of a min7 chord and it would fit perfectly over that initial Amin7 chord in your backing track. You would discover harmonic interest as you work through the inversions. The same rule will apply for arpeggios.
So we have found that an Amin7 1st inversion would work over an Amin7 vamp’d backing track (whether as a chord or arpeggio). But lets take this Amin7 1st inversion which would be C E G A (Or 3 5 b7 1) and see what can be done with it to create further interest. Lets take that C E G A and class the C as the new root (So the formula would be 1 3 5 6 and not 3 5 b7 1) for example. Simply changing the intervals means we have created a variation of a 6th chord, but we are still using the same notes from that initial Amin7 chord. Its about changing that perspective on what you see. So we have a C maj 6 chord built from an Amin7 chord, how could this chord go further? We could change that A note to a B. Why? because this will create a nice bit of harmonic interest against the initial Amin7. What could this create? an overall minor 9 atmosphere. We have an Amin7 in the back, but over the front we are coating the chord with a B instead of an A. All together we have A C E G (From the backing) and and we cover this with C E G B (in the improv). Put the 2 together we have; A C E G B (Or 1 3 5 b7 9).
The perspective may change depending on how you prefer to view your fretboard. If the Amin7 vamp is in the back, you may choose to improv with the mindset you are playing an Amin7 arpeggio but you’re just adding a B, or (How I would view it) to play the Cmaj7 arpeggio on top. I prefer the second idea because it excludes the A and helps me emphasise the B.
I have lots of ideas to refresh and view the fretboard in different ways. So message me if you would like to hear more!
One of the things I’ve learnt is something I felt I should have learnt a long long time ago, in a galaxy far away. And thats a different perspective on how I see music as a whole. To be specific I felt I couldnt progress any more, which was wrong because you shouldn’t feel like you cant progress as you are always learning. But I suppose I felt a bit burnt out with ideas. There was only so many ways I could play a minor pentatonic scale or any of the modes, so fresh ideas were difficult to come by.
I started to read things I studied a while ago (things that I totally forgot about) such as pentatonic substitution. I couldn’t believe I neglected this concept. So this has changed the way I’ve been viewing the fretboard, and has been helping me explore things that may/may not work, but its helping me get a few extra miles out of improv and general playing. Basically its helping me understand what sounds right and where. This has been said many times everywhere that soloing is about playing the right note at the right time, but I obviously didn’t quite understand the true meaning behind this.
This is how a simple idea has changed the way I see music (apologies if this is stating many obvious facts);
Let’s take an Amin7 backing track, and to make things easier, we are going to vamp on this Amin7 chord throughout so no changes whatsoever. The first thing I will consider is the chords most basic foundation. The most basic foundation of Amin7 is A C E G (Or 1 3 5 b7). Over this min7 chord, we can work out that we can play an Amin7 chord over this Amin7 chord and it would sound fine. We could play an Amin7 1st inversion and this would work also. We could go through all the inversions of a min7 chord and it would fit perfectly over that initial Amin7 chord in your backing track. You would discover harmonic interest as you work through the inversions. The same rule will apply for arpeggios.
So we have found that an Amin7 1st inversion would work over an Amin7 vamp’d backing track (whether as a chord or arpeggio). But lets take this Amin7 1st inversion which would be C E G A (Or 3 5 b7 1) and see what can be done with it to create further interest. Lets take that C E G A and class the C as the new root (So the formula would be 1 3 5 6 and not 3 5 b7 1) for example. Simply changing the intervals means we have created a variation of a 6th chord, but we are still using the same notes from that initial Amin7 chord. Its about changing that perspective on what you see. So we have a C maj 6 chord built from an Amin7 chord, how could this chord go further? We could change that A note to a B. Why? because this will create a nice bit of harmonic interest against the initial Amin7. What could this create? an overall minor 9 atmosphere. We have an Amin7 in the back, but over the front we are coating the chord with a B instead of an A. All together we have A C E G (From the backing) and and we cover this with C E G B (in the improv). Put the 2 together we have; A C E G B (Or 1 3 5 b7 9).
The perspective may change depending on how you prefer to view your fretboard. If the Amin7 vamp is in the back, you may choose to improv with the mindset you are playing an Amin7 arpeggio but you’re just adding a B, or (How I would view it) to play the Cmaj7 arpeggio on top. I prefer the second idea because it excludes the A and helps me emphasise the B.
I have lots of ideas to refresh and view the fretboard in different ways. So message me if you would like to hear more!
