Chord Play

The goal of this lesson is to find new chord sounds. The example above shows a common bass line used with G major and then shows part of the G major chord played with a completely different bass line. This can open up some interesting new sounds whether you play with separated bass notes or add them with the chord together. I like to start with part of a chord and then try different bass notes, but it can also work well if you just change your highest note. Overall the goal is to show that you can use part of what you already know to find new things on the guitar. Try playing some of your favorite chords but changing just a note or two!

Blues/Jazz + Chromatic

This lick could easily fit into a jazz or blues style, especially depending on where you add emphasis. It's a pretty basic one, but starts off with a nice chromatic run. Throwing in chromaticism can make your blues sound a bit more complex, as it gives it a little more of a jazz feel. Hope this sparks some creativity!

Open Strings + Higher Frets

The two phrases shown above incorporate open strings along with notes played on higher positions on the fretboard. This can create a really neat sound, and often works well with the notes in the 5th fret position (as the open strings are near them in pitch). Try playing around with this licks and creating your own new phrases.

Ending Lick

It can be fun to figure out little runs like above (play it and you should recognize it) as a way to work on your ear. Familiar phrases like this one help to expand your guitar vocabulary, and often will be usable when you least expect them (even if just for comedic effect).

G Dominant Lick

This dominant lick is centered around playing over a G7 chord. Many players will incorporate the major third via slides, hammer-ons or bends from the minor third, however, it can sound neat to remove the minor third entirely and just stick with the major. In this case our G minor pentatonic scale changes by just one note (replacing Bb with B), but opens up a neat new sound to play around with.

Common Jazz Lick

This is a fairly typical sounding descending jazz lick, which incorporates some passing tones and a slide as it goes down. Licks like these are a good start as you get into jazz because they can be a great way to get ideas for lines of your own.

Chromatic Idea

This is an idea that uses a chromatic run in a musical sounding way. Hope it inspires some added chromaticism to your playing!

Singing and Playing

Many guitar players, myself included, shy away from singing in general, especially while playing guitar. However, you will eventually come to a point where you have the desire, or are asked to sing while playing. For me this happened while camp counseling. I was asked to lead campfire songs, and I immediately freaked out because I don't think of myself as a singer, and I hadn't practiced playing while singing. Luckily these songs were easy, but it still took a little bit of practice getting to the point where I could comfortably do it, especially when I started trying to sing more complex songs. So the following are some tips that have helped me when learning to play and sing. 

The first thing to do is to make sure that you are playing it in a key that is comfortable for your voice. If you are having to really work to hit notes (having to go way higher or lower than your comfortable range) then you are not in the right key. If so then transpose the song to a new key. The easiest way to do this is with a capo, you will be able to play it the exact same way as before, just your open strings will be a new set of notes. This works best in first position. If you can't easily capo it you will have to transpose it the old fashioned way, which can be tedious but is great practice.

The second tip is to play it play it play it. What I usually do is sit and watch TV while I keep on playing through the song over and over again. If I am messing up at all then I slow everything down until I can play it perfectly. Then I slowly bring it back up to speed. Once you can play it perfectly at the right speed then you are halfway there.

The third thing to do is to start adding in singing. Now that you've got the guitar part down try to add singing. If you are having trouble slow it down again. Go slow enough that the singing does not mess up your playing. If you really can't add singing then hum or whistle the tune first along with your guitar playing. Then, when you can whistle or hum it while playing it perfectly, add in vocals. 

The fourth thing to watch out for is nervousness. It can be nerve racking to sing in front of people, especially if you are uncomfortable with your voice (i.e. me). One good trick is to yawn constantly before you go on. Whether this is true or not, the idea is that you are taking in a lot of oxygen which will calm you down and give you a little more mental clarity. It seems to work well for me.

Hopefully these tips will help you with singing and playing. Remember the best thing you can do besides this is to just play and sing with other people, or for other people as often as you can. The more comfortable you are playing around others the easier things will be when you actually go to perform.

Ear Training and Cohesion

One good way to practice, which will help both your ear and the quality of your playing, is to sing, hum, or whistle along with your playing. Most people can instantly sing or whistle a melody after hearing it just once, however, most of us can't instantly play things on the guitar that we have just heard. Singing along with your playing will help you develop the connection between your natural musicality (being able to hum and sing things on command) and your guitar playing. This helps your guitar playing sound more natural, and also helps when you go to figure out songs.

Funk, the 9 Chord

When playing funk one of the most common chords you will encounter, and probably spend a long time sitting on, is the 9 chord. Above is an example using an E9 chord, this shape is movable and has the lowest note as the root. This example utilizes the nine chord but then adds in a 13th to get a sound often heard in classic funk recordings. Play around with this chord by adding the 13th and also by sliding into it either from a fret above or below. It is also a good chord to sit on while you experiment with different rhythms.

Leaving Space

One of the biggest things guitarists struggle with is leaving space in their solos. In this post I'll introduce an exercise that will help you remember to leave space within your improvisations. Here's the exercise: take a breath, and exhale while playing, then take a break (stop playing) whenever you take your next breath. You can continue doing this indefinitely as you play so you are always playing while exhaling and not playing while inhaling. This exercise comes straight from horn players, but they have no choice in the matter, they must breathe in order to play. Guitarists, however, can keep going almost indefinitely, which seems like a great advantage but in reality often leads to solos that can be boring and inaccessible. Although you don't need to do this whenever you are playing it is good to do it once in a while so you remain conscious of the need for space within improvisation. Just like with talking improvising goes better when you stop every once in a while.

F Major Arpeggio Idea

This idea starts off with an F major arpeggio then continues through a hammer on pull off sequence to finally end on G. Practice creating licks that start off with arpeggios.

Descending Country/Rock Lick

When playing a descending lick it often sounds good to break it up by adding in some intervallic leaps. It can sound especially cool if you are occasionally going up the interval as the lick itself to descends. This example, which could be utilized in a country, rock or blues setting, uses bends to add some spice to these intervallic leaps. Try practicing throwing in intervallic leaps to create new sounds of your own.

Dorian Rock Lick

This is an example of a rock or blues type lick focusing around the Dorian mode of the major scale. Using hammer on/pull off sequences like this can create some cool sounds. Check out Steely Dan's "Reelin in the Years" for another good use of this type of sound/technique.

Beginning Ear Training

One thing that many guitarists struggle with when they first start, or if they learn primarily from tablature or notation is the ability to play by ear. The best way to work on your ear is to try and learn songs without the aid of written music in any form. However, this is often quite intimidating and can be frustratingly difficult when starting out. I've found a few ways that work well to start out on ear training. The first that worked well for me was to start learning TV show themes and commercial jingles. You can listen to them online or just sit with your guitar by the TV. I started off with classics like The Simpsons, Jetsons, The Munsters, Addams Family, etc. Simple melodies will get you started and you can then work on transitioning to more difficult things like guitar solos, or chords. A second way is to play a note on the guitar and then match it with a whistle or hum, then make up a quick whistling or humming melody starting on the pre-established note. After you whistle or hum this melody then try to play it on the guitar. Starting with easy methods like this will help you establish a the skill in a basic way which makes it much easier to transition to figuring out whole songs, even complex ones.

Jazzy Lick